Lewis Hamilton returns to drive a Ferrari, and for the primary time, he does so aboard the SF-24. Not like the latest TPC assessments, which concerned the usage of vehicles a minimum of two years outdated, the continuing assessments in Barcelona are a part of Pirelli’s improvement program for the 2026 tires, with McLaren additionally collaborating. The vehicles on monitor are 2024 fashions, however in a particular configuration designed to copy, as a lot as potential, the traits of subsequent 12 months’s vehicles.
The 2026 updates
The aims of the check require important modifications to the vehicles, limiting references to the earlier season, and, in Lewis Hamilton’s case, the familiarization with the most recent Ferrari. Essentially the most important distinction considerations the tires, which have been revised in development and compound, being very totally different from the present ones. For 2026, Pirelli has chosen to proceed with the 18-inch diameter wheels, narrowing the entrance tires by 25 mm and the rear ones by 30 mm. Regardless of this discount, nevertheless, the vehicles in Barcelona don’t function any modifications to the braking system.
The 2026 tires are designed to work underneath totally different hundreds than the present ones. Particularly, the next-generation vehicles will use energetic wings at each the entrance and rear, considerably lowering aerodynamic load in straights. Nevertheless, Pirelli’s focus is on the stresses skilled in corners when the vehicles shut the wings, transitioning to a configuration with larger aerodynamic load. “We’ve got targeted our evaluation on the high-load mode, which at the moment exhibits values about 15% decrease than the present ones,” defined Mario Isola. Therefore, the necessity to conduct the event assessments on the 2024 vehicles in a particular low-downforce setup.
Larger and lighter vehicles
The distinction in aerodynamic load between the intermediate configuration and the low-downforce one sometimes utilized in Monza is about 10%. In Barcelona, Ferrari and McLaren are working with an much more aggressive setup, lowering the wing profiles as a lot as potential, however not solely that. By elevating the experience peak by only a few millimeters, they lose some load, approaching the anticipated values for 2026.
Elevating the present vehicles can be purposeful to a different purpose of the Pirelli assessments. The upcoming laws might encourage groups to make use of floor impact much less aggressively, elevating the ground to work farther from the bottom. “There are totally different opinions about it; work is being finished in sure instructions, however it’s nonetheless not utterly clear,” mentioned Haas Technical Director Andrea de Zordo in a latest interview for the Italian media. “They most likely received’t be as little as they’re now, however maybe not as excessive as they as soon as had been.”
The 2026 vehicles may very well be taller and fewer inflexible than the present ones, which, working very near the bottom, require robust stabilizing motion from the suspension system. Due to this fact, Pirelli has each curiosity in elevating the 2024 vehicles within the assessments and softening their suspension changes, elements that enormously have an effect on how forces are transmitted to the tires. One other necessary distinction between the Ferrari and McLaren that fought for the title in Abu Dhabi and people at the moment testing in Barcelona.
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