F1 teams set for wet tyre test in Barcelona as Pirelli reveals plans

All 10 teams will be in action from Wednesday as pre-season testing officially gets underway in Spain.

The test will last for three days with each day split up into two sessions.

For this year, F1 has introduced entirely new technical regulations in a bid to improve overtaking and even the playing field.

As part of the new rules, there’s been a move from 13-inch to 18-inch tyres, giving teams another headache as they prepare for the new season which gets underway in Bahrain next month.

Pirelli has revealed that the final half-day of testing will be a wet tyre test with the track being artificially dampened to ensure there’s wet running.

Should it rain beforehand, the wet test will be scrapped.

The teams will be given three sets of green-marked intermediates and the same amount of blue-marked wets.

In terms of dry, slick tyres, they will have 30 sets of tyres to use across the three days in Barcelona from an allocation of 35.

All of Pirelli’s slick tyres - the C1 to the C5 - will be available to use throughout.

So don’t be surprised to see some teams go quickly on the C5 tyres despite historically, Pirelli never bringing the softest tyre in its range to Barcelona due to the high-speed corners and thus high degradation.

The full range of 18-inch tyre compounds will be at the first @F1 pre-season test at @Circuitcat_cat!

Here’s how to tell them apart. #F1 #Formula1 #Fit4F1 #Turning18 #Pirelli #Pirelli150 pic.twitter.com/2uAZY5tllq

— Pirelli Motorsport (@pirellisport) February 22, 2022