Hot on the heels of last Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix, Pirelli completed a two-day test outing at the Hungaroring with the aim of developing their 2026 Formula One tyres.

Day 1 of the 2026 tyre test

Just two days after the Hungarian Grand Prix, Pirelli was back on track on Tuesday with McLaren, Racing Bulls and Alpine at the Hungaroring to carry out a test session, centred on development of the 2026 tyres.

Commenting on the aim of the running, Pirelli revealed that: "in the morning, the drivers carried out short runs to check the performance level of each of these, before switching to longer runs in the afternoon to observe their behaviour over longer distances."

The three teams all ran mule cars, adapted to fit the dimensions of the 2026 tyres which, while retaining the 18” diameter, are 25 mm narrower at the front and 30 at the rear. McLaren and Alpine’s cars were based on their 2023 model, while Racing Bulls used one from last season.

All three drivers on track today had also been at the wheel over the Hungarian Grand Prix weekend: McLaren fielded race winner Lando Norris, in the Racing Bulls was Liam Lawson, while Paul Aron, who had driven in the first free practice session last Friday for Sauber, was behind the wheel of the Alpine.

As for lap times and distances completed, Paul Aron was quickest in 1’18’’789, followed by Lando Norris (1’19’’272) and Liam Lawson (1’19’’510) completing 159, 144 and 143 laps respectively.

Day 2 of 2026 tyre testing

Testing continued on Wednesday, with Alpine’s current line-up of Franco Colapinto and Pierre Gasly and Hungarian GP pole-sitter Charles Leclerc having been scheduled to get behind the wheel of the modified A525 and SF-25, respectively.

However, during Wednesday's running at the Hungaroring, Colapinto suffered a crash at Turn 11. The Argentinean driver was taken to the circuit medical centre after the accident and Alpine confirmed in a statement the Argentine driver was "OK."

"During day two of Pirelli tyre testing at the Hungaroring this morning, Franco Colapinto had an incident at Turn 11," Alpine said in a statement. "Franco was assessed on site at the medical centre and is OK."

As for the conditions onWednesday, it was again hot – between 21 and 29 °C air temperatures, 31 and 53 °C track temperatures – with a similar programme of testing to Tuesday.

Colapinto and Leclerc had a morning plan including short distance comparisons of different prototypes of compounds from C3 to C5 to check their level of overall performance. Then the afternoon was due to focus on long runs to check their performance over longer distances; at this stage, a version of the C2 was also tested over a long run.

The two teams both took to the track with mule cars – which had been adapted to fit the tyres with the 2026 measurements (still with an 18” diameter but 25 mm narrower at the front and 30 mm narrower at the rear) – and both using cars based on the chassis that they are using this season.

The programme was only partially completed because of Colapinto's incident that forced Alpine to interrupt the test. The car suffered damage which meant that he was unable to return to the track before the end of the session. Up to that moment the Argentine driver had completed 25 laps, with a fastest time of 1’20”270.

By contrast, Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc was able to complete a full programme, ending the day with a total of 144 laps and a fastest time of 1’19’’407.

“These have been two useful days for making progress with the development of our compounds for next season, given that we are now entering the home straight,” said Mario Isola, the head of Pirelli Motorsport.

“The Hungaroring is a demanding track due to its many slow curves and the amount of energy that goes into the tyres on a lap that is rather short. This makes it a challenging place to test tyres, in particular for the compounds that will be central to the 2026 range – which will go from C1 to C6 like this year.

"We have collected a lot of data, although it was a pity that we lost some of our potential mileage today when Colapinto went off the track, even though this was not in any way linked to the tyres. As for construction, we have verified our final solutions as far as homologation is concerned, ahead of the regulations coming on September 1.

"By contrast we now have three further test sessions – in Monza, Mugello and Mexico City – to conclude the development of the compounds, whose homologation is due on December 15," concluded Isola.