Pirelli has once again raised worries about the potential for Barcelona’s winter weather to disrupt Formula 1 pre-season testing.
An argument that is now had pretty much every year, memories of the cold temperatures which even saw snow 12 months ago remain fresh.
However, after talks to consider moving venue to Bahrain failed, the Spanish circuit was again chosen for 2019 and the tyre supplier is following the forecast closely.
“Until [early] January it was like it was spring [in Barcelona], but now it is much colder there and we know what happened last year,” Pirelli motorsport boss Mario Isola told Motorsport.com’s German edition.
“We have some worries because we are one week earlier this year than 2018. But you never know – we’ve had excellent weather at the beginning of February, but sometimes even the deepest winter.”
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The main issue when temperatures are low is that conditions are far less representative to what is seen at the majority of F1 races and certainly much below what the tyres are designed to work best in.
However, the cheaper costs and greater logistical flexibility of testing in Europe make accepting the risk of poor weather more palatable.
“Temperatures are close to freezing, but at lunchtime, it’s usually comfortably warm, and I’m confident the teams will use this window of opportunity to devote to tyre work,” Isola noted.
“We need representative weather [but] for the teams, the starting point is a bit different because they have to develop their new cars, with the priority of putting in as many kilometres as possible, as close as possible to the respective team headquarters.
“So if you need new parts then you can send them to Barcelona pretty easily.”
