As part of the shake-up of Formula One’s technical regulations next year, Pirelli, the sport’s sole tyre supplier, will be introducing new 18-inch tyres.
Pirelli has already started its testing programme for the new tyres – and Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz recently got some laps under his belt with the manufactruer’s 2022 prototype.
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It was recently reported that the Spaniard, who joined the Scuderia from McLaren at the end of 2020, crashed during the test.
But, when quizzed on these reports by RaceFans, Sainz refused to comment.
“Obviously Pirelli testing is completely private, so answering questions that are coming from somewhere else is difficult for me because I don’t know how much we can tell contractually about what happened in the test,” he said.
“But if something happened, that I’m not going to tell you, it was very minor,” the Spaniard added.
In the same media event, Sainz said his first impression of the new tyres was “relatively positive”, though he stressed it’s important to see how they work on next year’s car instead of just the mule car used for the test.
“The first signs for me are, at least personally the first impression, positive actually. It has been relatively positive, still taking into account how young the project of the 18-inch is and how little testing we’ve done so far,” he explained.
“You can definitely start feeling some differences. There’s definitely some things still to keep developing, but the first signs and the first feeling has been relatively positive.
“We need to wait until you fit those tyres onto next year’s car, which is going to be quite a completely different animal. But the first impressions with the ‘mule’ car have been positive,” Sainz added.
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