Pirelli 2026 tyre testing closes out Formula 1 season at Yas Marina
F1 NewsTuesday, 09 December 2025 at 19:13
Formula 1 signed off the 2025 campaign with a full day of post-season running in Abu Dhabi, giving teams their final chance to evaluate Pirelli’s definitive 2026 tyre range and to hand valuable mileage to 10 young drivers.
The mixed testing programme ran from 09:00 to 18:00 local time, with 20 cars completing 2,648 laps of the Yas Marina Circuit under strict speed-limited mule-car conditions designed to simulate next year’s technical regulations.
The highlight of the day was Mercedes rookie Kimi Antonelli topping the mule-car classification with a 1:25.170 on the C5, ahead of Oscar Piastri on 1:26.099 and Lewis Hamilton on 1:26.138. Young driver running produced the overall fastest time as Jak Crawford set a 1:23.766 on the C5 for Aston Martin.
Pirelli presented its new 2026 tyre branding in the paddock before track running began, previewing narrower constructions mounted on the same 18-inch rims. The day unified the year’s fragmented development work into one final comparison session.
Mario Isola said: “This test day was an excellent opportunity for all the teams to try out the definitive 2026 tyres, with the compounds set to be formally confirmed on Monday. Today was the first time that they had the entire range at their disposal on track, which gave them the chance to more fully understand the characteristics of the new tyres."
Formula 1 teams gather early 2026 insight
The Pirelli chief continued: “For our engineers, this test was fundamental to confirm the performance gaps between the compounds and the degradation levels. Analysing the new tyres, which have a smaller footprint against the surface, has also allowed us to check their exposure to graining and overheating.
"Now we have to wait until the end of January to see these latest tyres in action at the Barcelona test on the new generation of cars,” explained the Pirelli Motorsport Director.
McLaren split its programme between race drivers and young talent. Lando Norris completed 71 laps and said: “It was great to get back out in our Championship-winning car for one last time this year. We worked through the Pirelli testing programme well, giving them valuable feedback.”
Oscar Piastri logged 85 laps and said: “It’s always good to support Pirelli and give feedback on the tyres, as well as getting a good feel for them.”
Pato O’Ward ran 127 laps in the young driver role. He said: “It’s always a great day when you get to drive a Formula 1 car. We worked through our plan well, making good progress.”
Learning a lot about the Pirelli 2026 tyre
Racing Director Randy Singh said the team “learnt a lot about the 2026 Pirelli tyres” and confirmed preparations for 2026 are already well underway.
Ferrari concluded its year with 270 laps. Charles Leclerc said: “It was a very positive test day. It was fundamental to work on the tyres to start understanding them.”
Hamilton added: “We tested the new tyres today to help us gain a better understanding of how they will perform. We made some good findings.”
Dino Beganovic completed the rookie running and said he was “really happy with how everything went.”
Mercedes covered more than 1,600km across Antonelli and Frederik Vesti. Antonelli said: “It all went very smoothly and we were able to complete nearly 160 laps. That is valuable data that we have gathered about the 2026 tyres.”
Vesti said: “At 145 laps, it is the most running I’ve ever done in an F1 car in one day.” Andrew Shovlin said the team “completed several tests to understand how the tyres respond to setup changes” while also simulating lower-downforce 2026 conditions.
Teams close out heavy programmes
Red Bull’s Isack Hadjar sampled the mule car for the first time as an official race driver. He said: “It was great to get my first laps in as an official Oracle Red Bull Racing driver.”
Ayumu Iwasa handled young driver duties and said: “It has been a very long season for everyone, but everyone was really focussed on gathering important data heading into a crucial year.”
Ben Waterhouse praised both drivers for delivering “detailed feedback” as Red Bull prepares for January.
Racing Bulls gathered early 2026 impressions through Liam Lawson and new signing Arvid Lindblad. Lawson said: “We tried to get some advances for 2026. It’s a very different feeling compared to what we’ve been driving this season.”
Lindblad said: “It was a productive day. It was very beneficial to have done this day of testing ahead of the 2026 season.”
Aston Martin completed 227 laps. Stoffel Vandoorne evaluated multiple compounds and said: “The tyres behave differently to the current compounds, so getting an early read on them is important.”
Crawford fastest at the end of the day
Crawford topped the young driver times and said: “Every time I get in the AMR25, I feel myself taking another step forward.”
Alpine split duties between Pierre Gasly in the mule car and Kush Maini in the young driver role. Gasly said: “We did a lot of laps today with the 2026 tyres which is definitely important to do and gives us plenty of things to look at over the winter.”
Maini said: “Everyone at the team has been super to work with, so professional and I have learned a lot today.” Dave Greenwood said the team now shifts fully to preparing the 2026 car.
The final day of running offered teams a unified reference point before the next-generation cars appear at the Barcelona test at the end of January.
The early performance gaps between compounds, the behaviour of the narrower constructions and the impact of reduced-downforce mule-car simulations will feed directly into each team’s winter development cycle.
Formula 1 now enters a short off-season before the new era begins to take shape on track in January.
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