Pirelli responds to Hamilton’s ‘complaints’ about Formula 1’s rain tires

Pirelli has responded to Lewis Hamilton’s request to provide better rain tires after qualifying for Formula One’s Brazilian Grand Prix had to be postponed due to adverse weather conditions.

Qualifying in Sao Paulo was initially postponed and ultimately rescheduled for Sunday morning after heavy rain showers and thunderstorms led to standing water on various parts of the circuit.

Despite the marshals’ best efforts, further rain prevented race management from completing qualifying before sunset at 6:20 p.m. local time. Instead, qualifying took place on Sunday morning at 7:30 a.m. local time. Since more rain was expected, the race time was brought forward to 12:30 p.m. to give the race organizers the best chance of winning the race.

Rain delay explanation

Wet weather

Photo by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images

Formula One boss Stefano Domenicali apologized to fans for the delay and hoped they would understand that “a race in these conditions is impossible”.

While speaking to F1 TV, Domenicali was interrupted by seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton, who urged the F1 boss to ensure Pirelli supplies better wet-weather tires and reintroduce the use of tire blankets for its bluewall compound, which were only removed last year.

“You should have sent us out, that’s ridiculous, we should go out!” Hamilton said kindly and jokingly to Domenicali. “If you gave us better rain tires or blankets, we could ride them. I’m embarrassing you now.”

The functionality of Pirelli’s rain tires has long been a point of criticism among F1 drivers. Because the intermediate compound is much more powerful, Pirelli’s full rain tires have limited use as the conditions in which they are preferred over intermediates are usually too extreme for F1 cars to run on them anyway.

Improvements on the horizon?

Mario Isola, Pirelli’s motorsport boss, admitted that the manufacturer needs to increase the performance of its wet tires and development is underway for next year. However, he explained that there is a lack of wet tire testing data from the most demanding circuits to make major progress and that wet tire testing is much more difficult to organize.

“It is true that we need to improve the performance of the rain tire to make a proper transition to the intermediate tire,” said Isola.

“That is our goal. Next year we will have a new rain tire with some small modifications, because unfortunately we didn’t have the opportunity to carry out a proper test with the rain tire on a demanding race track. That’s exactly what we miss.”

“We changed the tread pattern a little, worked on the construction and a new compound. We have seen an improvement. I can’t tell you if it’s enough or not.”

Isola also pointed out that while he could not speak for FIA race director Niels Wittich and his decision to cancel qualifying on Saturday, there were likely several other safety factors behind the postponement of qualifying and not the performance of the Pirelli tires.

The safety car on the track in wet conditions

Photo by: Sam Bloxham / Motorsport Images

“I don’t know why Niels decided not to give the meeting a green light. I don’t know if it’s visibility, standing water, the risk of aquaplaning or some other element. I haven’t spoken to him.” Niels, so I don’t have any information about it.

“If it’s just about performance (on the wet tire) it means they go slower, that’s all. So the fastest of the slow cars drives the best time.”

“We are fully aware that we need to improve the performance of the rain tire. But you can walk on these rain tires, that doesn’t mean you can’t run.”

As part of Pirelli’s wet tire development program, Mercedes took part in a test at Magny-Cours last month. The test was carried out by Mick Schumacher and George Russell, Hamilton did not take part.

On the first day of testing, Schumacher was only allowed to drive 29 laps as a reserve driver because the track was too wet for meaningful driving, further highlighting Formula 1’s long-standing problems with wet weather.

Pirelli’s other options for testing its rain mixtures are to head to Fiorano or Paul Ricard, two circuits where sprinklers are installed to moisten the track surface.