The reason for that location was that Pirelli conducted their maiden test on the next year's F1 compound with a GP2 car. We don't know who the tester was, but it seems the running went on great, as the Italian company's officials were very pleased with the preliminary results.
“We've started some initial testing on the GP2 car, we had the first runs at Paul Ricard. It was very successful, we're very happy with the performance of the product for the first test,” Pirelli's motorsport director Paul Hembery was quoted as saying to Manipe F1.
Additionally, the Pirelli official hinted that his company may ask for permission to use the Toyota F1 car from last year for the second phase of testing, as the TF110 – Toyota's unran car for 2010, rumored to be used by Pirelli for their test programme – has not been ran a single time since its construction.
“The 2010 Toyota didn't do its pre-season (testing) but the 2009 car is a possibility. We will know next week which car we're going to use for the testing up until the Abu Dhabi official test with teams,” added Hembery.
Pirelli was confirmed to replace Bridgestone as the sole supplier of tires for the Formula One championship starting next season, and will have to end their testing programme in time for the F1 off-season next winter.
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