Hamilton back in action as Ferrari and McLaren com...

Lewis Hamilton was again on monitor with Ferrari for the Pirelli Formulation 1 tyre check that passed off this week at Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, with Charles Leclerc quickest general.

As the brand new technical rules for 2026 make F1 vehicles smaller and lighter, the tyres will even be narrower – by 25mm on the entrance and 30mm on the rear – and have a barely smaller diameter, although wheel dimension will not be altering.

As a consequence, Pirelli has been testing prototypes forward of subsequent 12 months, with a two-day check accomplished with McLaren at Circuit Paul Ricard final week for moist and intermediate tyres, and additional two-day operating was simply accomplished in Spain.

Ferrari drivers Hamilton and Leclerc shared an SF-24, whereas on Tuesday Lando Norris was driving the MCL60 from the 2023 season, with each vehicles that includes technical diversifications making them nearer to the 2026 technical necessities.

This was the first time the seven-time world champion was back on track after his crash on the same track last week, which was detrimental to Ferrari’s and Leclerc’s mileage.

“This time the programme centred round growth of the slicks,” a press launch from Pirelli acknowledged. “Particularly being examined have been varied combos of building and compound, the latter from the toughest finish of the vary, from the C1 to the C3, as they’re nicely suited to the Spanish monitor which is especially demanding on tyres.”

The three drivers accomplished no fewer than 332 laps general on Tuesday, with Norris racking up 159 laps whereas Leclerc and Hamilton lined 86 and 87 respectively. Norris was quickest, setting a 1m15.215s as his quickest lap time, adopted by Hamilton in 1m15.930s and Leclerc in 1m16.060s.

Oscar Piastri took over on the wheel of the McLaren automotive on Wednesday and accomplished 152 laps, whereas Leclerc and Hamilton managed 74 every. This amounted to 300 extra laps, that means Pirelli’s engineers now have a whopping 2,943km’s price of information to look into from the two-day check.

Leclerc was quickest general because of a 1m14.971s marker, with Piastri and Hamilton lapping in 1m15.815s and 1m16.759s respectively on Wednesday. The Pirelli press launch did level out that these lap occasions “don’t have any actual significance given the completely different work programmes”.

“It was a really helpful session, significantly when it got here to offering a comparability between the varied completely different constructions for subsequent season, in addition to experimenting with some compounds from the tougher finish of the vary,” Pirelli motorsport director Mario Isola acknowledged following the two-day check.

“The Barcelona circuit is named probably the most demanding for the tyres by way of the vitality exerted and degradation, subsequently the data we have now gathered over these two busy days will likely be essential for the longer term growth of this era of tyres.”

Pirelli’s 2026-spec tyre testing will resume on 13-14 February in Jerez with Alpine (two days), McLaren and Mercedes (in the future every). Bahrain will then host one other session on 2-3 March, simply after pre-season testing, with Alpine and Williams in attendance on each days.