Everything came to a sudden halt at the Hungaroring, when Franco Colapinto’s crash brought the private testing session of Pirelli to an abrupt stop.
Franco Colapinto was behind the wheel of the Alpine A524 during a private test session when he violently went off track. A hard impact, a red flag, and a badly damaged car followed. Were the tires to blame? Pirelli was quick to share its side of the story regarding Colapinto’s crash during testing.
Pirelli says Colapinto’s crash wasn’t tire-related
The test session was part of a Pirelli tire development program in Budapest, held right after the Hungarian Grand Prix. The goal was to evaluate the upcoming 2026 tire range, testing a broad selection of experimental compounds, from C1 to C6. Before the crash, Colapinto had already completed 25 laps. He then suddenly lost control at Turn 11.
But according to Mario Isola, Head of Pirelli Motorsport, the incident had « nothing to do with the tires. » He stated that the team had reviewed all the available data and found no irregularities. The crash was likely due to a mechanical issue or driver error, and not related to the experimental compounds fitted to the car.
A positive test day despite that incident
Colapinto’s day came to an early end after the crash, but Charles Leclerc helped salvage the test program. According to data reported by Nextgen-Auto, the Ferrari driver completed 144 laps without any issues. That gave Pirelli enough data to move forward with tire structure validation for 2026.
Despite the dramatic incident, Pirelli confirms that the development and approval process for its 2026 tires remains on track. The company has more testing lined up, even after Colapinto’s crash, with sessions scheduled at Monza, Mugello, and Mexico City before the end of the season.
In short, it was a scary crash, but just a brief scare. And according to Pirelli, it has no impact on tire reliability.
