Formula 1 News: Leclerc buries Hamilton on final Pirelli test day
The final day of Pirelli 2026 tire testing in Barcelona is done and as expected, Charles Leclerc finally showed this new teammate who will be boss at Ferrari by lapping almost 2 seconds faster than Lewis Hamilton.
Many believe Hamilton is now too old and washed up. Time will tell, but he won all his races and titles when Mercedes had a 50 to 100hp advantage.
Wednesday Pirelli Barcelona Test Times
1. Charles Lecerc 1m14.971s (74 laps)
2. Oscar Piastri 1m15.815s (152 laps)
3. Lewis Hamilton 1m16.759 (74 laps)
The same three drivers were working with the Pirelli engineers today on development of the 2026 tires, with Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton sharing a Ferrari SF-24, while Oscar Piastri was at the wheel of a McLaren MCL60. Both cars had been adapted to suit the prototype tires designed around the new technical regulations that will come into force next year, being narrower than the current ones by 25 millimeters at the front and 30 at the rear.
A total of 300 laps was completed today, 74 by the Monegasque driver, 74 for his British teammate and 152 for the Australian.
“It was a very useful session, particularly when it came to providing a comparison between the various different constructions for next season, as well as experimenting with some compounds from the harder end of the range,” commented Pirelli Motorsport Director, Mario Isola. “The Barcelona circuit is known as one of the most demanding for the tires in terms of the energy exerted and degradation, therefore the information we have gathered over these two busy days will be very important for the future development of this generation of tires. It’s a really demanding start to the year with four test sessions even before the season begins and I want to thank all the teams that are working with us because we know how busy they are at the moment.”
Following on from last week’s test in Paul Ricard and this one in Barcelona, the team of Pirelli engineers are heading further south next week, for two days of testing at the Jerez de la Frontera circuit, in Andalusia on 13 and 14 February. Alpine will be taking part on both days, while McLaren and Mercedes will do one day each. The final pre-season test will take place at Bahrain’s Sakhir circuit on 2 and 3 March with Alpine and Williams running both days. This same venue will then host the only three day test when all teams will run their 2025 cars prior to the opening round, the Australian Grand Prix.