McLaren’s Lando Norris set the fastest time while George Russell made his debut for Mercedes in two days of testing next season’s bigger Pirelli tires in Abu Dhabi.
Norris drove 103 laps on Tuesday and Wednesday, including a best time of 1 minute 25,809 seconds on the softest of the five available compounds.
The Briton Russell drove 214 laps on the Yas Marina racetracks and was fourth fastest.
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Daniel Ricciardo was second fastest in the other McLaren, Sebastian Vettel third in his Aston Martin.
McLaren unveiled a redesigned wheel cover with 14 double rows of LEDs that presents an exciting glimpse into the future of F1 technology.
“If you install that [LED light] Device and it works, it can do what it wants, ”Pirelli F1 boss Mario Isola told Motorsport.com.
“It can show the position, it can show logos, it can show the lap time in qualifying or something. There are many opportunities. It’s technology, so it’s easy to program what you want to show. “
The newly crowned world champion Max Verstappen drove for Red Bull on Tuesday. With his best time, he only finished 16th among the 19 drivers taking part.
His British rival Lewis Hamilton from Mercedes, who is not particularly fond of such tests, was absent. He went to Windsor Castle, near London, on Wednesday to be knighted.
Verstappen was also in England on Wednesday and returned to the Red Bull team base in Milton Keynes for a team celebration.
Finn Valtteri Bottas, who is replacing Russell at Mercedes, competed for his new Alfa Romeo team for the first time.
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Daniel Ricciardo drives the (3) McLaren F1 Team MCL35M Mercedes during Formula 1 tests. (Photo by Clive Rose / Getty Images)Source: Getty Images
Bottas passed his future teammate Guanyu Zhou, who will be the first Chinese driver to start a Grand Prix next year.
The Brazilian Pietro Fittipaldi, the grandson of the former master Emerson Fittipaldi, drove for Haas instead of the Russian driver Nikita Mazepin, who tested positive for Covid-19 last weekend.
The only team that didn’t participate was Williams.
The tests, which were supposed to provide the teams with data for the off-season, were carried out on cars that were adapted to the enlarged diameter of the wheels from 13 “to 18”.
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However, the cars were not yet the ones that will hit the track next year after a major change in technical regulations.
“We are satisfied with the tires as they are. We are not planning any changes. We know that we have to refine / adapt some details when we use the new cars, ”said Mario Isola, Pirelli’s race director, at a virtual press conference on Wednesday.
Further test days are planned for next year, which will enable “fine-tuning”.
Pirelli said in a statement that their simulations suggest “the new cars will be about five tenths of a second slower than the current cars”.
But Isola said he believes this will be quickly undone due to the “great development potential” for the cars of 2022.
In addition to next season’s tire tests, the traditional post-season tests for young drivers were driven in this year’s cars and dominated by the Dutchman Nyck de Vries, substitute driver for Mercedes and Formula E world champion.
