The 2024 System 1 season delivered its ultimate 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 among the ultimate races of the 2024 System 1 marketing campaign, the place, due to sure components, a larger-than-expected leap ahead in lap instances was noticed, shocking not solely the groups but additionally Pirelli.
Talking through the yr’s ultimate 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 greater 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 inside simulations, the producer makes use of group information for comparability, together with long-distance simulations and extra detailed stories 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 notably attention-grabbing insights emerged. “Within the final races, we witnessed a greater-than-expected efficiency enhance and noticed very excessive hundreds, particularly from two or three groups,” defined Simone Berra, Pirelli’s chief engineer, who carefully analyzes this information to know the load ranges appearing on every tire through the Grands Prix.
“From the simulations, we often have one for the tip of the season and one for mid-year, and nobody anticipated we might 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 just about 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, notably on sure tracks.
By late November, Pirelli had already acquired simulations for the subsequent season, that are at present beneath analysis and evaluation. For the 2025 System 1 vehicles, nonetheless, the Italian producer has already taken steps in latest months in an effort to deal with additional will increase in load, modifying tire building to higher reply to the anticipated load values from the groups, which can undoubtedly proceed to rise.
Because of this, it isn’t anticipated that building will must be modified mid-season because it was in 2023, a really explicit case the place Pirelli nonetheless reacted shortly. “We don’t wish to change the development through the season as a result of we imagine it isn’t 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 explanation was that the rise in stress on the tire was fairly vital, and we proposed this variation to enhance tire integrity. However we don’t anticipate to come across an analogous 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 greater than anticipated, one choice might be to reply by rising tire pressures, a facet that might successfully be evaluated on a race-by-race foundation relying on the circumstances. Nonetheless, Pirelli would favor to not enhance pressures an excessive amount of, as this might have unintended effects.
“We’d react by adjusting the strain, however we would favor to not elevate it an excessive amount of, and I feel the groups agree. It is because rising strain can result in overheating and graining. So, we wish to hold strain as little as doable,” added Simone Berra. It must also be famous that the brand new 2025 compounds had been designed and developed particularly to cut back graining, which in some circumstances this yr was barely above expectations.
Looking forward to the 2025 System 1 championship, there is a crucial consideration: the event curve of the groups is not going to comply with 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 System 1 season will deliver a significant technical revolution. Many groups are already working to find out the perfect window to shift focus from the 2025 vehicles to the brand new technical laws. Because of this, not like 2024, when groups launched vital aerodynamic updates even till the ultimate Grands Prix, growth in 2025 might be extra restrained.
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