The track is a popular venue for testing, with the P Zero tires having seen action there four times in the past: once last year in private testing, twice this year during the official test ‘season’, and once more as part of Pirelli’s on-going private test campaign last month.
Both Pirelli and all the teams have accumulated quite a lot of data about Barcelona, which is typically chosen for testing as it contains a challenging mixture of corners and speeds – highlighting every aspect of a car’s performance – and generally good weather conditions all year round.
However, during one of Pirelli’s most recent appearances at Barcelona in March for the final official test, the weather was unseasonably bad with cool temperatures and even torrential rain. This time temperatures should be a lot warmer, providing the perfect backdrop for the race debut of Pirelli’s latest evolution of the P Zero Silver (hard compound) tire. This compound was tested by the teams during Friday’s free practice in Turkey and prior to that during private sessions in Barcelona and Turkey, using Pirelli’s Toyota TF109 test car.
The new tire offers a little more durability over a race distance and provides a wider gap between the soft and the hard compound, which gives the teams an opportunity to run more aggressive strategies. The P Zero Yellow (soft) tire, which has been used at every race so far this year alongside the P Zero Silver (hard) tire, will also be provided to the teams in Barcelona.
