Piastri and Lawson Endure Heat in Mugello Tyre Test for 2027
Oscar Piastri and Liam Lawson split duties on the opening day of a two-day Pirelli tyre test at Mugello, pounding around the Tuscan circuit in brutal heat as Formula 1’s 2027 rubber took its first serious steps.
This was no headline-chasing outing. It was a day for engineers and endurance, not glory runs.
Piastri grinds through McLaren programme
Piastri logged 93 laps – 488 kilometres – in the McLaren, his best effort a 1m21.358s as the team cycled through Pirelli’s three hardest compounds: C1, C2 and C3.
The Australian’s day built steadily. Early on, McLaren focused on shorter stints, probing how the tyres behaved over limited mileage. The work then stretched out, the run plan culminating in a pair of 14-lap outings that pushed the hardest compounds into the kind of window they will need to survive in 2027.
On a day when the stopwatch sat firmly in the back seat, the lap time was little more than a reference point. What mattered was consistency, degradation, and how the tyres coped with Mugello’s relentless load.
They had to cope with the heat first. Track temperature climbed to a punishing 55 degrees Celsius, turning the fast, flowing circuit into a full-scale torture test for Pirelli’s prototypes.
Lawson racks up the mileage for Red Bull
If Piastri’s day was solid, Lawson’s was relentless.
Back in Red Bull colours only days after his Dutch Grand Prix cameo, the New Zealander racked up 116 laps and 608 kilometres, the bulk of them on the C2 compound. He began with repeated eight-lap runs, methodically ticking through the programme as Pirelli searched for comparative data. As the afternoon wore on, the runs lengthened, mirroring the race-style demands the 2027 tyres will have to withstand.
Lawson’s quickest time, a 1m22.297s, underlined again that outright pace simply was not the brief. The job was to generate information: how the tyre warms up, how it hangs on, how it drops away, and how it reacts when the track temperature is closer to oven conditions than ideal racing trim.
Even so, the sight of Lawson back in a Red Bull so soon after Zandvoort was hard to ignore.
From Zandvoort points to Mugello graft
Lawson’s Mugello mileage came on the heels of a sharp, opportunistic weekend in the Netherlands. Drafted in at short notice when Isack Hadjar was sidelined with a wrist injury, the Kiwi qualified eighth at Zandvoort and converted that into seventh place on Sunday.
Those were his first points as a Red Bull race driver, following a brief two-race spell with the team at the start of 2025. This time, he looked more settled, more ready – and his immediate reward has been more time in the car, even if only in a test environment.
Red Bull still hopes Hadjar will be fit to return for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza next weekend. For now, there is no confirmation either way. The question lingers in the paddock: does Hadjar reclaim the seat as planned, or has Lawson’s recent form earned him another competitive outing?
Norris, Iwasa and Audi to take over
The Mugello test rolls on into Thursday with a fresh cast.
Lando Norris will step in for McLaren, taking over from Piastri as the team continues to feed Pirelli’s data banks. On the Red Bull side, Ayumu Iwasa replaces Lawson, adding another reference point to the tyre manufacturer’s 2027 programme.
There is another intriguing addition. Audi will join the running on day two, with Nico Hulkenberg scheduled to drive as the future entrant keeps quietly building towards its full-time arrival on the grid.
For Pirelli, Mugello has delivered exactly what it promised: heat, high-speed corners and unforgiving loads. For the drivers, it has been a reminder that the sport’s future is already being built – one long, gruelling run at a time.
