All 10 Formula 1 teams will supply a mule car for tyre supplier Pirelli through 2020 in order to assist the company with development of the 18-inch rubber that will debut in 2021.
Formula 1 will switch from the current 13-inch rims to larger 18-inch versions next year, as part of a wide range of sporting, technical and financial regulation changes.
Pirelli is allocated 25 days of private running per season in order to hone its product for the following campaign, with all 2020 action to take place on the prototype 18-inch rubber.
Pirelli chief Mario Isola has now confirmed that each team on the grid will provide a mule car at various stages this season, ahead of the traditional end-of-year Abu Dhabi test, which has been expanded from two to three days.
“They gave us confirmation at the end of last year that they were going to make a mule car for testing,” Isola confirmed to MotorsportWeek.com.
“It was an important confirmation because obviously with all 10 teams able to provide a mule car it means that at the Abu Dhabi 2020 test it is possible to run all three days with the mule cars on 18-inch tyres.
“That is good validation in view of the following season [2021].
“You can imagine if we had one or two teams not able to provide a mule car it would have been a problem, while [with] all the 10 teams providing a mule car it’s much better for the final validation.
“It’s good to have them all onboard as we can develop the tyres with all the 10 teams. It’s much better in terms of sporting equity obviously.”
Pirelli began initial 18-inch tyre testing with Renault and McLaren through the closing months of 2019, and its 2020 development programme will begin in association with Ferrari at Jerez on February 8th.
All teams will then be in action at various stages through October – the exact schedule is set to be released in the coming days – prior to the group three-day test following the season-ending Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
Pirelli is also in the final stages of determining the exact requirements of its 2021 tyres in terms of levels of degradation and wear.
“We are finalising the new version of the target letter,” confirmed Isola.
“In the next few days we probably have the final version that was agreed with everybody.
“It is quite important we have the final version very soon as we need to address our development according to the targets that are defined in the target letter.
“We want to develop a product for 2021 that is in line with expectations of all the stakeholders.”
Formula 2 will be the first category on the Formula 1 pyramid to switch to 18-inch tyres, with Pirelli publicly unveiling the new-look 2020 rubber on Thursday.
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