Mercedes, McLaren and Renault will provide a mule for 18" Pirelli tires

Mario Isola, head of Pirelli Motorsport F1, indicated at a press conference this Friday that Mercedes, McLaren et Renault will all three provide a “mule” car for the development of the 18″ tires that the Italian manufacturer will introduce in 2021 in F1, a year after the adoption by the F2.

“For Formula 1, the intention is to organize three sessions – September, October and November – and three teams will provide the mule car, namely Mercedes, McLaren and Renault, Isola comments.

And we will offer the possibility of providing a mule car again by 2020 to all teams. It's their choice whether they want to do it or not. This is the same system and procedure we have used over the past few years.

We offer it to everyone, teams can accept or not, and then we make a plan based on how many teams accept it. We have 25 days of testing for next year, as has been the case in recent years. So we have a short-term development plan for 2020 in the first half of the season and then we will switch to 18-inch tires from September. »

Toro Rosso et Haas F1 Team offered their views on the matter, Günther Steiner not lacking in humor. “We are working hard on the 2019 tires (in reference to the VF19's problems with the rubbers, Editor's note) and we don't have time for 2021 tires."

“At Toro Rosso we cannot afford to do this test because we simply do not have the human and financial resources. » explains Franz Tost, boss of the Faenza team.

More surprisingly, Mattia Binotto, team principal and technical director of Ferrari, explained that the Scuderia had also declined the option to concentrate its resources on other priority projects. Maranello will still have the opportunity to provide a mule in 2020 to work on 2021, which is already causing some evil tongues to say that Ferrari is letting its rivals clear the path before entering the tire dance.