Pirelli hits back at latest wet F1 tyre criticism by drivers
Oct.12 - Pirelli has deflected driver complaints about the quality of Formula 1's rain tyres back onto the teams.
After Suzuka, fans were once again wondering why the sport seems so averse in the modern era to racing in very wet conditions.
The finger was pointed straight at Pirelli, with Sebastian Vettel insisting that the red flag was waved at Suzuka because drivers struggled to cope with the intermediate tyres.
Sebastian Vettel of Aston Martin, with his engineer
"We are forced to go on the intermediates because the rain tyres are junk - sorry, not so good. So we push ourselves from one emergency to another. The whole field was driving on the wrong tyres," the quadruple world champion added.
"We are all responsible for that, but we have an intermediate that is so much faster than the wet tyre. The wet is better for the conditions but so slow that you're forced to be on the next tyre. That needs to be improved."
Current back-to-back world champion Max Verstappen agrees.
"I didn't want to take a dig but I think we need better rain tyres," said the Red Bull driver. "You saw what we could do in the 90s or the early 2000s with the amount of water on the track.
"I'm very happy to do a few test days to try all different kinds of tyres because we need better rain tyres. The extremes are just slow and they don't really carry a lot of water away.
"If you compare to 20 years ago, it was perfectly fine in the wet. So there must be a solution. But like I said, this is not criticism because I'm very happy to help out."
Pirelli's F1 boss Mario Isola, however, says the main problem is that wet-weather testing is now so rare in Formula 1.
"We only have one compound for the rain tyres and one for the intermediates," he said. "And they have to work everywhere - on 22 different tracks. So we have to find the best compromise.
"Honestly we don't have many opportunities to test the rain and intermediate tyres," he insists. "We work with the FIA and the teams, but if we don't have the opportunity to test the tyres then we don't have the opportunity to develop them either."
And even when there is wet-weather testing, Isola says the teams remain more focused on performance.
"If you remember the pre-season tests in Barcelona, we wet the track for half a day but the extreme wet was used very little," said the Italian.
"They were focusing on the intermediate."
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So, Pirelli actually admits their F1 full wet tire is bad!? Hahaha
I have a very cheap and environment friendly solution that solves everything...wait for it...ban the intermediates!
Do you really want to make F1 even more dangerous than it already is?
Stupid shite comment
Nothing new. Drivers have bitched about tires since the beginning of time. I do question that we need a total of seven different compounds. Soft, hard and one wet should be sufficient.
Whinging bumholes
Tyres are the same for all
Performance depends on the individual cars
You can't compare the tyres of today to the tyres of yesterday year, but I would say their a dam site safer than yesteryear and as you say, all tyres are the same but the cars are all different
Lack of competition produces complacency
Why are teams paying for tyre production that Pirelli admit are not good?
Who is making money from the multi year deal?
There are many great tyre manufacturers out there, give them a chance
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