De la Rosa concludes successful Pirelli test

Pedro de la Rosa has concluded a two-day test for Pirelli at Barcelona’s Circuit de Catalunya. It was De la Rosa's second appearance as a test driver for the Italian company, who will become Formula One racing’s official tyre supplier from next season, following his debut in the role at Valencia just over two weeks ago.

The 39-year-old Spaniard tried out Pirelli's intermediate and wet tyres in Valencia, but for the Barcelona test he concentrated on their medium and hard compound slick tyres for the first time, refining the package that had already been formulated from previous tests.
"It's been an excellent couple of days; I've been very impressed because I have to say that the tyres were at an even higher level than I imagined,” he said. “If you look at what Pirelli has done, it's hard to believe that all this work has been carried out in such a short space of time. These Pirelli tyres have their own quite different characteristics to the current supplier that the drivers will appreciate next year and I'm confident that they will form a very competitive package. Pirelli's arrival is great news for Formula One."

De la Rosa's work included validating the conclusions drawn from past tests in Mugello and Jerez, as well as looking at different ways to make the medium and hard tyres even more effective. By the end of the two days, Pirelli was close to defining the rubber that will be taken to Abu Dhabi for the Formula One teams to try out at next month's post-season test.

In total De la Rosa completed 262 laps of running over the two days, equivalent to around 1218 kilometres. Pirelli carried out a number of endurance runs in Barcelona, running for around 35 laps at a time, in order to verify the new tyre's consistent performance and reliability in the long term.

Conditions were unusually cold for Catalunya at this time of the year, with temperatures of seven degrees Celsius in the morning. The weather warmed up to 21 degrees during the afternoon, allowing Pirelli's engineers to see how the tyres operated within a wide window of track conditions.

"Once again, Pedro has shown what a valuable asset he is to us through his hard work and detailed feedback,” said Pirelli's motorsport director Paul Hembery. “He's carrying out a crucial role and the information that he has provided to us has helped us to further define the tyres that we will take to Abu Dhabi."

Pirelli's next Formula One tests will take place at France's Paul Ricard circuit in early November, where De la Rosa will concentrate on further development of their soft and super-soft tyres - two of the four compounds (along with the hard and the medium) that will be offered to all of the Formula One teams next year.
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