The 2024 System 1 season delivered its closing verdicts within the championship’s concluding act, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix on the 5.281-kilometre Yas Marina Circuit on Yas Island, however there are nonetheless many extremely fascinating insights to be drawn from the vehicles that characterised this championship, beginning with the truth that their performances exceeded expectations.
This theme was highlighted by the qualifying occasions at among the closing races of the 2024 System 1 marketing campaign, the place, due to sure elements, a larger-than-expected leap ahead in lap occasions was noticed, stunning not solely the groups but additionally Pirelli.
Talking through the 12 months’s closing race weekend, the Italian producer defined how the speeds and enhancements achieved by the 2024 vehicles, each in lap occasions and cargo peaks, turned out to be larger than the simulations had predicted.
Yearly, Pirelli receives efficiency and improvement simulations from the groups for the upcoming season to ascertain a reference for the potential masses on the tires. Along with its inside simulations, the producer makes use of crew information for comparability, together with long-distance simulations and extra detailed reviews shared simply weeks earlier than a Grand Prix.
It’s from evaluating the anticipated information in these simulations with the occasions and cargo peaks recorded on observe that significantly fascinating insights emerged. “Within the final races, we witnessed a greater-than-expected efficiency enhance and noticed very excessive masses, particularly from two or three groups,” defined Simone Berra, Pirelli’s chief engineer, who intently analyzes this information to grasp the load ranges appearing on every tire through the Grands Prix.
“From the simulations, we often have one for the top of the season and one for mid-year, and nobody anticipated we might see this degree of load. These load ranges are virtually past expectations.”
Even in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the step ahead was evident, with an enchancment of virtually a second in comparison with the pole place time in 2023. This hole turns into much more pronounced when evaluating Lando Norris‘s 2024 pole time to the place McLaren was 12 months earlier, exceeding a full second. Observing the record of enhancements all through the season clearly highlights the developments, significantly on sure tracks.
By late November, Pirelli had already obtained simulations for the subsequent season, that are at the moment beneath analysis and evaluation. For the 2025 System 1 vehicles, nevertheless, the Italian producer has already taken steps in current months so as to handle additional will increase in load, modifying tire building to raised reply to the anticipated load values from the groups, which is able to undoubtedly proceed to rise.
Because of this, it isn’t anticipated that building will have to be modified mid-season because it was in 2023, a really explicit case the place Pirelli nonetheless reacted shortly. “We don’t need to change the development through the season as a result of we imagine it isn’t proper. We offer a specification, and this could stay the identical for the remainder of the season,” Simone Berra defined.
“For Silverstone final 12 months, the explanation was that the rise in stress on the tire was fairly important, and we proposed this modification to enhance tire integrity. However we don’t anticipate to come across an identical scenario subsequent 12 months [in 2025], as the brand new construction has improved resistance to tire stress.”
Within the case of unexpected points and masses even larger than anticipated, one possibility might be to reply by growing tire pressures, a facet that would successfully be evaluated on a race-by-race foundation relying on the circumstances. Nevertheless, Pirelli would like to not enhance pressures an excessive amount of, as this might have unwanted effects.
“We might react by adjusting the strain, however we would like to not elevate it an excessive amount of, and I feel the groups agree. It is because growing strain can result in overheating and graining. So, we need to maintain strain as little as doable,” added Simone Berra. It also needs to be famous that the brand new 2025 compounds had been designed and developed particularly to scale back graining, which in some circumstances this 12 months was barely above expectations.
Waiting for the 2025 System 1 championship, there is a crucial consideration: the event curve of the groups won’t observe the identical trajectory seen this 12 months. That is partly as a result of the technical cycle is nearing its finish and partly as a result of the 2026 System 1 season will deliver a serious technical revolution. Many groups are already working to find out one of the best window to shift focus from the 2025 vehicles to the brand new technical laws. Because of this, not like 2024, when groups launched important aerodynamic updates even till the ultimate Grands Prix, improvement in 2025 might be extra restrained.
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