Four teams took to the track today at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza for the first day of testing organized by Pirelli for the development of 2026 tires. Max Verstappen returned to the track where he won the Formula 1 Pirelli Italian Grand Prix 2025 on Sunday, along with Red Bull teammate Yuki Tsunoda, Aston Martin third driver Felipe Drugovich and Williams and Racing Bulls starters Carlos Sainz and Isack Hadjar.

The schedule initially called for today to include only Red Bull, with Verstappen in the morning and Tsunoda in the afternoon, and Aston Martin with Drugovich. Testing was to continue tomorrow with the pair of Racing Bulls and Williams drivers. However, the weather forecast for Wednesday (thunderstorms and heavy rain in the morning) forced the plans to be revised.

With the morning session over, Williams and Racing Bulls agreed to advance part of their schedule to today, bringing Sainz and Hadjar to the track as early as this afternoon. To assemble the prototypes, Aston Martin and Williams adapted current AMR25 and FW47 single-seaters, while Red Bull used a mule car derived from the 2023 RB19 and Racing Bulls from the 2024 VCARB01.

The reigning world champion completed his program in the morning with a total of 59 laps, then left the wheel to Tsunoda, who authored 63 laps in the afternoon. The best times for the two Red Bull drivers were 1’24”117 on lap 25 for Verstappen and 1’23”826 on lap 30 for the Japanese driver. Drugovich (Aston Martin), on the other hand, covered 118 laps over the entire day, with a best time of 1’23”792 on lap 37.

Carlos Sainz (Williams) completed 49 laps, posting his best time of 1’22”388 on lap 30. Isack Hadjar, on lap 41 of the 65 runs, stopped the clock at 1’23”951, his best time of the day.

Tomorrow’s program will inevitably be affected by the weather.

(Source, Pirelli Press Release)