Doohan helps Pirelli 'make up for lost time' ahead of rules revamp

Jack Doohan helped Pirelli 'make up for lost time' after a technical problem with his Alpine on Wednesday restricted track action.

In the final two-day test of this season for Pirelli in building towards the finalisation of its tyres for 2026, Doohan only managed 47 laps on the opening day, running dry, intermediate and extreme compounds on an artificially watered Magny Cours circuit.

Using a modified version of last year's Alpine, adapted to accept the new size of wheel rim for '26, Pirelli completed a full day of wet-weather running on Thursday with Doohan behind the wheel, the Australian racking up 106 laps.

With the rims possessing a slightly smaller width and external diameter on both the front and rear axles, it is a small part of a major revamp of the regulations for 2026 when new power units and chassis will be introduced.

Doohan's leading lap on slicks was 1:16.641s, whilst on the inters, it was 1:27.352s.

Pirelli confirmed that the work "partially made up for time lost yesterday". It added that "the programme focused mainly on assessing prototype extreme wet tyres, with a few runs on intermediates".

For the Italian manufacturer, it was the third and final test of this year, all lasting two days. The previous tests were at Barcelona and Mugello, running dry weather tyres. The tests will resume next year.

Before then, on December 10, two days after the final grand prix of the season in Abu Dhabi, Pirelli will conduct one final test that will allow all teams to assess for the first time the final version of the dry weather tyres for 2025.