Abu Dhabi 2017 tyre test in pictures

2017 F1 season

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Three teams tested Pirelli’s prototype 2017 tyres at the Yas Marina circuit in Abu Dhabi today.

Lewis Hamilton and Pascal Wehrlein drove for Mercedes, Red Bull’s two race drivers were in action and Kimi Raikkonen drove the Ferrari.

“Now the hard work begins as we collate and analyse the results of our 24 days and approximately 12,000 kilometres of testing in order to define the tyres with which we will go racing next year,” said Pirelli motorsport director Paul Hembery.

“These will then be run on the actual 2017 cars for the first time during the official group tests next February.”

Here are pictures from the test.

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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39 comments on “Abu Dhabi 2017 tyre test in pictures”

  1. They look cool. Is there any driver interviews on the test?

  2. It’s a shame the front wings are getting extended to the full length of the tyres. I think they look cool as they are.

    1. Good news: they won’t be!

      The front wings will become 1,800mm wide which is the same width as the current cars, but next year’s car’s will be 2,000mm wide so the front wings won’t extend to the full width. See here:

      https://www.racefans.net/2016/05/10/side-side-compare-f1-cars-2016-2017/

      1. @keithcollantine – that’s interesting, because from the look of it any frontal contact with the wing will push the endplate right into the tyre, possibly increasing the chances of a puncture for the car behind.

        1. Oh, just realized from your article that even today, the front wings’ endplates are not aligned to the edges of the car. So no real change in risk of punctures for this reason.

      2. I must have mis-read the new rules for care design as I thought the manufactures had managed to force through the fully extended wings after throwing out the original small, simple front wings.

      3. Not quite, the 2017 front wrings will actually be wider, but the gap between the end plates and edge of the front tyres will be larger.

        The total width of the front wing will be 1800mm, up from 1650mm. Despite some of this coming from a larger neutral central section, the area allowed for actual wing elements is also increasing by a not insignificant margin (at least in F1 terms).

        They didn’t really have a choice, given how much extra scope for downforce they’re been given at the rear…

  3. What’s with Ferrari’s super wing? Looks good, but the other teams don’t have a wider rear wing…

    1. that’s to simulate next year’s aero to some extent

  4. They look pretty nice overall, just the wings seem kinda narrow. To be honest, I don’t quite like anymore the wide wings used until 2009, but I’m not a fan of these wings either. Ferrari looks best in my opinion, hope it works well too. Would be cool to have all teams with wings that wide.

    1. @corrado-dub

      The rear wings [em]will[/em] all be as wide as the Ferrari’s (and a similar shape too, just not as high)!

      These are 2015 cars with a few modifications to simulate 2017 downforce levels and Ferrari seem to be the only team who felt it necessary to design and manufacture such a rear wing.

  5. now these just look ridiculous (especially with the ultra narrow rear wings.
    Might be a minority, buti think they actually could have been a bit slimmer, maybe halve the width increase?

    1. Minority maybe, but certainly not alone. ;)

      I agree that the tyres could’ve easily done with 20 or even 30 mm less increase in width.

  6. Any laptimes Keith, out of curiosity?

    1. Pedro Lopes Garcia
      30th November 2016, 20:09

      I’ve seen then on the track and they are running at least 3 seconds faster than the qualy

      1. Nice one, thanks

  7. Are we seeing the overall width that the cars will be here?

    1. skynet83 – I believe they are the correct width, yes.

      I took a crude measurement of the width of the rear tyres and cars (using the outer edge of the tyres) in pixels from the images above, and knowing the width of the tyre in mm, was able to extrapolate the width of the car as being pretty much 2 metres wide.

      However, I’m not sure that the floors are all the correct width. Keith’s article ( https://www.racefans.net/2016/05/10/side-side-compare-f1-cars-2016-2017/ ) shows the floor to be roughly as wide as the centre of the rear tyres. The Ferrari in picture 6 seems to have a floor of pretty much this width, but the Red Bull in picture 5 doesn’t seem to have a floor that wide.

      1. @phylyp that is regarding only to the floor am I right.

        The bodywork will be wider next year, otherwise the tyres won’t look very good.

  8. Why do some of the photos show a shiny band at the inner and outer edge on the rear tyres? It’s particularly noticeable on the Ferrari’s right rear tyre (6th photo) and Mercedes’ left rear (7th photo). Almost like they’re running higher tyre pressures.

    1. @phylyp It just seems to me that that part of the tyre hasn’t been worn yet at that point.

      1. @toiago – thank you.

  9. Super excited, these tyres look glorious. The cars are going to be seriously pretty next year.

    1. Wait for the dork halo..

      1. :( We’ll get one year at least.

  10. Great look, at last…

  11. Can’t see an article here yet, but BBC have reported that Lewis has pulled out of the tyre test. I wonder if it’s simply him feeling unwell, or some type of protest.

    1. spafrancorchamps
      29th November 2016, 17:17

      In the light of earlier reports, that stated Hamilton was refusing to do this test, it is remarkable he left sick today. I have a feeling things are not going well within Mercedes.

  12. They could had tested with the 2016 cars anyway since the season ended…

    1. Adjusting the 2016 cars would have taken a lot of time and money.

      1. Yes matey I know that but it’s far more important to get the tyres right since well… I don’t really trusth Pirelli on this. Also it’s not like they need the 2016 cars for some months unless some don’t finish the 2017 version and have to test with the 2016 one. But what’s done is done, also I pretty curious to see the data of this testing but hell… we don’t have access to that :P

  13. Considering the weights of the tires have increased too, I wonder how FIA will consider safety in the pit lane especially we have seen incidents in the past with the runaway wheels hitting the pit crews.

    Anyone know if there is a change to the wheel tether structure in 2017?

    1. I suppose that if a wheel isn’t fastened properly during a pitstop there’s no tether that’ll hold the wheel to the hub. So if there is anything to be done in that regard I don’t expect it to be related to the wheel tethers.

  14. They look awesome.

  15. These fat tyres look really cool!

  16. Brilliant, it will be refreshing to see the back of the vacuum cleaner era. Now, if only they can make the cars shorter and hopefully these Pirellis will not be designed-to-degrade.

  17. They look amazing. Hope it will be a good year :)

  18. And the brat took the opportunity to throw another tantrum…

    1. Jorge Olivier

      I am guessing you are referring to Lewis hamilton here? If so, we don’t know what happened yet. So your comment says nothing about Hamilton but a lot about you.

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