After a Japanese Grand Prix in which all the drivers and teams had problems with water on the track and tire conditions, one of the hot topics in the paddock was the usefulness of extreme rain tyres. For the Suzuka race there was a first start with intermediates before the red flag waved, and then it only took a few laps to ride the mixed compound after the safety car restart.
Some like Sebastian Vettel explained that the reason for the red flag was because the members of the grid had a lot of difficulty staying on track with the intermediates, and those in extreme rain were useless.
“I apologize for saying it like that, but extreme wet tires are crap. We were forced to go to the pits, everyone was on the wrong tyres,” said the four-time world champion, referring to the fact that the FIA forced to start again with the extreme rain compound.
Something similar said Max Verstappen, who expressed that it was also necessary to create more efficient wet tires: “Everyone has seen what cars were capable of in these wet conditions in the 90s or early 2000s.”
However, from Pirelli, through its head in Formula 1, Mario Isola , they defended themselves, and put the lack of training and testing as the reason why the rain tires do not work as they should.
“All we have is one extreme rain compound and one intermediate compound. They have to work everywhere, on 22 different circuits, so we have to find the best balance,” explained the Italian.
“To be honest, we don’t have many opportunities to test those tyres. We are working with the FIA and the teams, but if we don’t have the option to study those compounds, we won’t be able to develop them,” Isola continued. “If you remember, in the pre-season tests in Barcelona, the track was wet for half a day, but the teams did not use the extreme wet tyres, instead they focused on the intermediate ones.
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