The Pirelli 2023 slick tire tests cancelled due to rain at Suzuka
The teams and drivers had agreed with the FIA and Pirelli to schedule two extended testing sessions this season in order to try out the 2023 tires. Due to the rain, the first tire testing session scheduled in Suzuka was canceled.
Pirelli asked F1 to plan for an increase in the time spent testing the tires developed for 2023. The teams and drivers agreed to extend Free Practice 2 by half an hour during the Japanese and United States Grand Prix, in Austin.
Unfortunately, the rain disrupted the scheduled session this Friday in Suzuka. None of the 2023 tires were able to be tested, even though the session was extended as planned.
Due to the weather conditions and the declaration of the track as wet in Suzuka, the scheduled Pirelli tire tests for 2023 will not take place for slick tires, states the FIA press release.
The drivers were able to drive in the rain for an additional 30 minutes with blue rain tires, but they did not test the 2023 tire compounds. This weather incident questions the performance of the hardest slick tires for next year. Although the testing session will be postponed to Mexico, as originally planned in case of a delay in Suzuka, it turns out that the hard compounds could only be tested here, in Japan.
The test session will be postponed in Mexico.
In Mexico, the drivers will have an additional 30 minutes to test the hardest tires (C1), but this is not really ideal. Indeed, in Mexico, Pirelli plans to bring the 2022 compounds C2, C3, and C4. Therefore, the hardest tire used in Mexico will be the 2022 C2, which is supposed to react differently from the 2023 C1 compound. As a result, the comparisons cannot be made as Mario Isola would have liked.
“I am not happy today,” explained Mario Isola in a press conference, Pirelli Motorsport’s manager. “The tires we brought here, the C1 2023, can really only be tested here at the Suzuka track. In Mexico, the track’s characteristics do not match these tires.”
Mario Isola is frustrated because teams don’t have any other means to try out the hard tires. The teams don’t want to stay two or three more days in Suzuka because the schedule is very tight at the end of the year. We spent a lot of time planning this session and if we don’t test the C1 2023 tires, we won’t be able to propose a more performing one.
The teams and drivers want the 2023 tires, particularly the front ones, to be improved to provide better grip and reduce understeer (loss of front-end grip).
