The McLaren team faced difficulties on the first day of testing Pirelli tires in preparation for the resumption of Formula 1 racing after two weeks, due to a technical malfunction that stopped the program of Australian driver Oscar Piastri.
The Italian company Pirelli continues to develop its new tires after previous tests it conducted at Suzuka with the Red Bull team, and in Fiorano with the Ferrari team. With the suspension of the championship competitions as a result of the cancellation of the Bahrain Grand Prix and the Saudi Grand Prix, Pirelli chose the Nürburgring Circuit to take advantage of this pause.
McLaren and Mercedes took part in the test this week, with Piastri and George Russell selected for the task.
After a rainy morning start, the two drivers got to work on the Eifel Mountain Circuit, with the main focus on what Pirelli described as adjustments to the C3 tire compound. But during the afternoon, Piastri experienced an unspecified technical issue, which led to his participation being ended after he set his best time of 1:35.096 minutes.
Pirelli explained that the options that looked promising were evaluated over longer distances in the late afternoon, in order to verify their performance over a distance more representative of race conditions, but the technical problem kept Piastri’s car in the pits after the lunch break and until almost the end of the session.
On the other hand, Russell completed his schedule in a “W17” car, and was able to record a time of 1:33.899 minutes.
