Following the prototype 2021 tyre test in FP2 for the Portuguese Grand Prix, all F1 teams will get to sample the real thing in Bahrain or Abu Dhabi.
Tyre manufacturer Pirelli had until November 1 to decide which version of next year’s tyres they had decided upon, and the deadline has been met thanks to the info produced by the 30 minutes of running in Portugal.
Various different prototypes were tried out across the 10 teams at the Algarve International Circuit, but everyone will have access to the definitive 2021 tyres for the first half-hour of FP2 at one of the closing three races of the season.
This will allow the opportunity to gather extra data before the roll-out of the new tyres next year.
The new construction is intended to improve durability in the wake of the issues seen at Silverstone earlier this season when Lewis Hamilton, Valtteri Bottas and Carlos Sainz all suffered tyre failures towards the end of the British Grand Prix.
The opening 30 mins of #FP2 will be run using @pirellisport prototype tires for 2021.
All 10 teams will take part in the ‘blind’ test, featuring 8-10 tire variations, with all teams’ feedback helping to shape the final tires that Pirelli will provide for next season.#HaasF1 pic.twitter.com/L3m4AXtH5c
— Haas F1 Team (@HaasF1Team) October 23, 2020
Pirelli’s F1 boss Mario Isola told Motorsport.com: “We tested the new prototypes in Portimao and made an analysis of the result of the test, collecting all the feedback from drivers and all the telemetry data.
“It was a good validation, in difficult conditions with a new track and so on. But we had a good result.
“We identified a prototype that is an improvement, in our opinion, compared to the current specification.
“All the prototypes we took to Portimao had a higher level of integrity. What we were missing was the driveability and the performance of the tyres on track.
“We supplied different tyres to the teams and identified a combination of a new front and a new rear that are an improvement, and we sent a request to the FIA for the homologation of the new prototypes.”
Regarding the plan for FP2 testing of the final choice, Isola said: “This was the first time we supplied different prototypes to different teams. In general in the past, when we supplied prototypes it was two sets of the same one across all the teams and drivers.
“That means not all the drivers and teams tested the prototype that we decided to nominate for 2021.
“So we are in discussion with the FIA and the teams to test again the selected prototype in one of the next races.”
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