Pirelli has commenced testing of its next-generation rain tires for the 2026 F1 season. The first day of testing took place at Paul Ricard and was run in conjunction with the McLaren F1 team.
In the first half of the session, Oscar Piastri piloted the MCL60 shod in the new compound. However, he was unable to complete the planned number of laps due to the extremely cold conditions, with some parts of the track surface reaching -2°C. He made up for this in the afternoon and completed the day’s planned schedule of 120 laps of the 3.463km track, with a best time of 1’07”008. On the second day of testing, Lando Norris completed 123 laps, with a best time of 1’07”956. A total of 840km was covered, all on a wet track.
The track was dry on the first day, with intermittent rain on Day 2. The surface was irrigated with water tankers and sprinklers to ensure the conditions were as uniform as possible and allow the most effective evaluation of the test data.
Mario Isola, Pirelli‘s director of motorsport, said, “It’s going to be a very busy start to the season for those of our engineers working on development: after this test at Paul Ricard, we have a further two test sessions in the coming two weeks. Both of them are in Spain and will focus on dry-weather tires. On February 4 and 5, McLaren and Ferrari will be on track at the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit. Then, on 12 and 13, at Jerez de la Frontera, Alpine will be working with us on both days, while McLaren and Mercedes will do one day each.”
For the 2026 season, regulations mean the rim diameter will remain at 18 inches but with a slightly smaller width and external diameter on the front and rear axles.
