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 fascinating insights to be drawn from the automobiles 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, because of sure elements, a larger-than-expected leap ahead in lap instances was noticed, stunning not solely the groups but in addition Pirelli.
Talking through the 12 months’s ultimate race weekend, the Italian producer defined how the speeds and enhancements achieved by the 2024 automobiles, each in lap instances and cargo peaks, turned out to be larger than the simulations had predicted.
Yearly, Pirelli receives efficiency and improvement simulations from the groups for the upcoming season to ascertain a reference for the potential masses on the tires. Along with its inner simulations, the producer makes use of workforce information for comparability, together with long-distance simulations and extra detailed reviews 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 observe that notably fascinating insights emerged. “Within the final races, we witnessed a greater-than-expected efficiency enhance and noticed very excessive masses, particularly from two or three groups,” defined Simone Berra, Pirelli’s chief engineer, who carefully analyzes this information to grasp the load ranges appearing on every tire through the Grands Prix.
“From the simulations, we often have one for the top 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 checklist 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 the moment below analysis and evaluation. For the 2025 System 1 automobiles, nonetheless, the Italian producer has already taken steps in latest months in an effort to tackle additional will increase in load, modifying tire building to raised reply to the anticipated load values from the groups, which is able to undoubtedly proceed to rise.
Because of this, it’s not anticipated that building will should be modified mid-season because it was in 2023, a really specific case the place Pirelli nonetheless reacted shortly. “We don’t need to change the development through the season as a result of we imagine it’s not proper. We offer a specification, and this could stay the identical for the remainder of the season,” Simone Berra defined.
“For Silverstone final 12 months, the rationale was that the rise in stress on the tire was fairly important, and we proposed this modification to enhance tire integrity. However we don’t count on to come across an analogous scenario subsequent 12 months [in 2025], as the brand new construction has improved resistance to tire stress.”
Within the case of unexpected points and masses even larger than anticipated, one choice could possibly be to reply by rising tire pressures, a facet that would successfully be evaluated on a race-by-race foundation relying on the circumstances. Nonetheless, Pirelli would like to not enhance pressures an excessive amount of, as this might have unintended effects.
“We might react by adjusting the strain, however we would like 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 need to hold strain as little as doable,” added Simone Berra. It also needs to be famous that the brand new 2025 compounds have been designed and developed particularly to scale back graining, which in some circumstances this 12 months was barely above expectations.
Waiting for the 2025 System 1 championship, there is a crucial consideration: the event curve of the groups won’t observe the identical trajectory seen this 12 months. 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 convey a significant technical revolution. Many groups are already working to find out the perfect window to shift focus from the 2025 automobiles to the brand new technical rules. Because of this, not like 2024, when groups launched important aerodynamic updates even till the ultimate Grands Prix, improvement in 2025 could possibly be extra restrained.
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