The Ferrari Formula 1 team today completed a series of Pirelli tyre tests at the Mugello racetrack with the Monegasque Charles Leclerc and Spaniard Carlos Sainz, both World Drivers’ Championship frontrunners and in direct competition with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez. It’s a secretive test behind closed doors at the Ferrari owned circuit, it is understood teams will have been spying on the results, keen to understand the Pirelli rubber further.

The Italian marque put on track the F1-75 model, driven by the two main drivers, where they tested tyres for the 2023 season. The Maranello-based team worked with 18-inch compounds to continue a “period of evolution, following the new generation cars and ground effect”, as described by the Motorsport.com website.

Both Leclerc and Sainz were able to exercise tyres with a “rounder” profile than the current ones, with engineers set to increase downforce as teams improve the consequences of “car bouncing off the ground” or the so-called “porpoising” effect.

Ferrari concluded these tests at the Mugello track ahead of the British Grand Prix, scheduled for Sunday 3 July at Silverstone, as part of the tenth round of the category’s World Championship.

The next team tyre tests will take place at the Red Bull Ring in Austria with McLaren, Williams, Red Bull and Alpine on Tuesday 12 and Wednesday 13 July.