Pirelli has directed the team to complaints from drivers about the quality of F1’s rain tyres.
After the rainy Japanese Grand Prix at Suzuka Circuit, fans once again questioned why Formula 1 seems so reluctant to race in very wet conditions in modern times.
Sebastian Vettel has directly criticized Pirelli, claiming the red flags at Suzuka were caused by drivers struggling to deal with intermediate tires.
“Rain tires are junk, so we have to put on intermediates. Sorry, not very good. So we push ourselves from one emergency to another.”
“The whole field was running on the wrong tyre.”
“We are all responsible for that, but we have intermediates that are much faster than wet tyres. The conditions are better in the wet, but they are so slow that we have to put on the next tyre. I don’t get it.”
“It needs to improve”
Two-time F1 world champion Max Verstappen agrees.
“I don’t want to be disrespectful, but I think we need better rain tires,” said Verstappen.
“In the 1990s or early 2000s we saw what we could do with the amount of water on the track.”
“I’ll be happy to try different types of tires over the next few days of testing, but the Extreme is just slow and doesn’t really spit out much water, so we need a better rain tire.”
“Twenty years ago it was perfectly fine in the wet. So there must be a solution, but like I said, this is not a criticism.”
But Pirelli’s F1 boss Mario Isola said the main problem was that wet-weather tests had become very rare in F1.
“There is only one compound for rain tires and one compound for intermediates,” said Mario Isola.
“And it has to work everywhere on 22 different tracks, so we have to find the best compromise.”
“Honestly, I don’t have many opportunities to test rain tires and intermediate tires.
“We are working with the FIA and the teams, but if there is no opportunity to test the tires, there is no opportunity to develop the tyres.”
And even when wet weather tests take place, Mario Isola says F1 teams are more focused on performance.
“If you remember pre-season testing in Barcelona, we had the track wet for half a day, but very little extreme wetness was used,” said Mario Isola.
“They were focused on Inter”
