Back on track for Mercedes and McLaren

McLaren, like Ferrari at Fiorano last week, want to use these tests – of their older cars – to give their drivers and mechanics the opportunity to get used to the racing rhythm again.

The tests by Paul Ricard in southern France are much more important: Pirelli wants to collect the necessary data for each dry run of its new tires for 2023. Teams can participate in these tests with the 2022 car, but are prohibited from using new parts from their new cars that year.

This means, as confirmed by Pirelli race director Mario Isola, that an FIA observer will be present at these tire tests to ensure that the participating teams do not e.g. new wings they didn’t have in 2022, or not experimenting with their car setups.

From a racing point of view, the Pirelli tests therefore do not offer any participating teams an advantage. The first two days started yesterday (1/02) with Mercedes. George Russell sat in the cockpit of the W13 giving way to Lewis Hamilton today (2/02).

For the next two days, Friday and Saturday 03-04/02, Alpha Tauri will continue tire testing, while the third and final day available to Pirelli is scheduled for 07-08/02. February is scheduled in Jerez, southern Spain, where Mercedes and Aston are Martin will attend.

Following the reveal of the Haas livery for 2023, the unveiling of the F1 teams’ new cars begins tomorrow (2/3) with Red Bull and ends on 2/16. The new Formula 1 season begins on February 23 with three days of winter testing in Bahrain and March 3-5 with the first three days of racing in the same country.