The 2024 Formulation 1 season delivered its last 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 attention-grabbing 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 instances at a few of the last races of the 2024 Formulation 1 marketing campaign, the place, because of sure elements, a larger-than-expected leap ahead in lap instances was noticed, shocking not solely the groups but in addition Pirelli.
Talking throughout the yr’s last race weekend, the Italian producer defined how the speeds and enhancements achieved by the 2024 vehicles, each in lap instances and cargo peaks, turned out to be larger than the simulations had predicted.
Yearly, Pirelli receives efficiency and growth simulations from the groups for the upcoming season to ascertain a reference for the potential hundreds on the tires. Along with its inner simulations, the producer makes use of group information for comparability, together with long-distance simulations and extra detailed experiences shared simply weeks earlier than a Grand Prix.
It’s from evaluating the anticipated information in these simulations with the instances and cargo peaks recorded on monitor that significantly attention-grabbing insights emerged. “Within the final races, we witnessed a greater-than-expected efficiency improve and noticed very excessive hundreds, 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 throughout the Grands Prix.
“From the simulations, we normally have one for the tip of the season and one for mid-year, and nobody anticipated we’d 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 listing of enhancements all through the season clearly highlights the developments, significantly on sure tracks.
By late November, Pirelli had already acquired simulations for the subsequent season, that are at the moment underneath analysis and evaluation. For the 2025 Formulation 1 vehicles, nonetheless, the Italian producer has already taken steps in current months in an effort to tackle additional will increase in load, modifying tire development to higher reply to the anticipated load values from the groups, which can undoubtedly proceed to rise.
Because of this, it’s not anticipated that development will have to be modified mid-season because it was in 2023, a really specific case the place Pirelli nonetheless reacted shortly. “We don’t need to change the development throughout the season as a result of we consider it’s not proper. We offer a specification, and this could stay the identical for the remainder of the season,” Simone Berra defined.
“For Silverstone final yr, the rationale was that the rise in stress on the tire was fairly vital, and we proposed this modification to enhance tire integrity. However we don’t anticipate to come across an identical state of affairs subsequent yr [in 2025], as the brand new construction has improved resistance to tire stress.”
Within the case of unexpected points and hundreds even larger than anticipated, one possibility could possibly be to reply by growing tire pressures, a facet that might successfully be evaluated on a race-by-race foundation relying on the circumstances. Nonetheless, Pirelli would like to not improve pressures an excessive amount of, as this might have negative effects.
“We might react by adjusting the strain, however we would like to not increase it an excessive amount of, and I believe the groups agree. It is because growing strain can result in overheating and graining. So, we need to preserve strain as little as potential,” added Simone Berra. It must also be famous that the brand new 2025 compounds have been designed and developed particularly to scale back graining, which in some circumstances this yr was barely above expectations.
Waiting for the 2025 Formulation 1 championship, there is a crucial consideration: the event curve of the groups is not going to observe the identical trajectory seen this yr. That is partly as a result of the technical cycle is nearing its finish and partly as a result of the 2026 Formulation 1 season will convey 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 rules. Because of this, not like 2024, when groups launched vital aerodynamic updates even till the ultimate Grands Prix, growth in 2025 could possibly be extra restrained.
— see video above —
Purchase official Ferrari F1 merchandise!
Let different Scuderia Followers find out about us
