Four teams were on track today at Monza for the first of two days of testing organised by Pirelli to work on 2026 tyre development. Having won the Italian Grand Prix here on Sunday, Max Verstappen was back in action along with Red Bull Racing team-mate Yuki Tsunoda, Aston Martin’s reserve driver Felipe Drugovich, Williams’ Carlos Sainz and Racing Bulls’ Isack Hadjar.
The original plan for today was that Red Bull would be on track with Verstappen in the morning and Tsunoda in the afternoon, joined by Drugovich in the Aston Martin. However, with storms and heavy rain forecast for tomorrow morning, the schedule was changed.
After the morning session, Williams and Racing Bulls were ready to get through part of their programme ahead of schedule, running Sainz and Hadjar this afternoon. Aston Martin and Williams ran modified versions of their current cars, the AMR25 and FW47 respectively, adapted to accept the prototype tyres. Red Bull used a mule car based on the 2023 RB19 and Racing Bulls did the same with a VCARB01 from 2024.
The overall programme for this test is focussed on finalising what slick compounds to use for next season. In fact, the tyre construction was homologated on 1st September, as per the regulations. The test in Monza is the seventh session organised by Pirelli so far this year to develop the new tyres which, while sticking with an 18 inch diameter are slightly narrower, by 25 mm at the front and 30 mm at the rear.
In the morning, the reigning world champion got through his programme, doing 59 laps before handing over to Tsunoda, who did 63 in the afternoon. Verstappen’s best time was a 1’24”117, set on his 25th lap, while the Japanese driver posted a 1’23’’826 on his 30th lap. In the Aston Martin, Drugovich completed 118 laps over the course of the day, with a best time of 1’23”792 set on lap 37.
Carlos Sainz did 49 laps in the Williams with a best time of 1’22’’388 set on lap 30. Isack Hadjar completed 65 laps, his best being a 1’23’’951 set on lap 41. The times have no comparative value as they are linked to the specific programme assigned to each driver.
All teams tried the softest compounds in the range. Racing Bulls and Williams ran the C4, C5 and C6, while Red Bull Racing and Aston Martin also tried the C3. The programme began with quick lap runs to see the pure performance levels of the various compounds, before switching to longer runs to check the level of degradation. Ambient temperature ranged from 22°C and 27°C while the track varied between 24°C and 40°C.
Inevitably, tomorrow’s programme will depend on the weather. If it only rains in the morning then the slick tyre testing will resume in the afternoon, with just Racing Bulls and Williams on track. If the rain continues into the afternoon, but not too heavily, then Pirelli might take the opportunity to also test the Cinturato Full Wet and Intermediate tyres. That would produce some useful data relating to the crossover point between the different compounds.
