Last season, all teams should have been testing individually for the new 18-inch 2021 tyres. However, due to the coronavirus, many of those tests were cancelled and so they are now scheduled for 2021. However, the regulations stated that you could only test with a 2018, 2019, or 2020 car, but that creates problems.
McLaren will be driving a Mercedes power unit in 2021 and all the older cars have Renault’s power unit, which they cannot use. Next season Pirelli gets 25 test days from the FIA to test the 18-inch tyres. At the moment they are still using 13-inch tyres in Formula 1, but that is to change next year with the arrival of the 18-inch tyres.
For Pirelli, it is a huge amount of adjustment work and that is why the Italian tyre manufacturer also gets the test days to test the tyres. They divide the 25 days across all the teams so that everyone gets a chance to test with the new tyres and give feedback. This year, they get to do that in a modified version of the 2021 car, reports Motorsport.com.
All F1 teams will be allowed to use a modified 2021 car after the start of the F1 season in Bahrain and this will not only benefit McLaren, as every team will test with a modified car from the 2021 season. For Pirelli, this will also provide more representative data, as they get to test with the latest cars.
