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Norris completes Pirelli's first 2026 rain tyre test in France
After Oscar Piastri sit in the McLaren on Wednesday, today it was Lando Norris' turn as Pirelli conducted the first test of the season at the Paul Ricard circuit in France. Pirelli's Director of Motorsport classified the test 'useful', and talked about what's next for the Italian brand this season.
On Thursday, Lando Norris tested Pirelli's '26 intermediate and wet tyres in France. These tyres will also have the 18'' diametre rim, however, they also have slightly smaller width and external diameter on both axles. The Briton completed 123 laps in total on the 2A version of the circuit, three more than Oscar Piastri the day before. Norris' fastest lap time was a 1:07.956. In intermitted rain, the track's surface was also made wetter with the water tankers and sprinklers present in order to get as much useful data as possible.
Following the test, Mario Isola shared their verdict in Pirelli's press release. "The first test session of 2025 proved very useful. When testing wet weather tyres it’s not easy to consistently reproduce the same track conditions to get reliable data, but over these past two days we were able to acquire plenty of information that will be vital when it comes to defining the new intermediate and extreme wet tyres," the Italian explained.
Isola then shared what's next for Pirelli in detail. "It’s going to be a very busy start to the season for those of our engineers working on development: after this test at Paul Ricard, we have a further two test sessions in the coming two weeks. Both of them are in Spain and will focus on dry weather tyres. On 4 and 5 February, McLaren and Ferrari will be on track at the Barcelona-Catalunya circuit and then, on 12 and 13 at Jerez de la Frontera, Alpine will be working with us on both days, while McLaren and Mercedes will do one day each."
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