McLaren trialled an LED light system on its rear wheel covers during post-season testing in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, offering a sign of future Formula 1 technology.
During the opening run of Wednesday’s test session at the Yas Marina Circuit, wheel covers were fitted to the rear wheels of Lando Norris’s McLaren car that featured LED lights.
Norris completed only one flying lap using the LED light wheel covers before returning to the pits, after which they were removed for his subsequent running.
It nevertheless served as a taste of future technology that could be introduced to the series in the future. The lights could potentially be used either for team marketing purposes or to provide information such as car position.
“There was an idea to put some LEDs into the wheel covers, to use these wheel covers also for marketing purposes, that means you can display any kind of message,” Pirelli F1 chief Mario Isola told Motorsport.com in Abu Dhabi.
