Among the many insights offered by the chaotic Brazilian Grand Prix, the issue of wet-weather tires was undeniably critical. The race at Interlagos took place under shifting weather conditions, impacted by the varying intensity of rain and the recent resurfacing of the entire São Paulo circuit. Pirelli’s intermediate compounds once again proved to be an excellent choice on wet and damp tracks; however, at certain points, the rain intensity surpassed the working range of the green-banded tires.
Visa Cash App drivers tried to gain an advantage by switching to extreme wet tires, which were certainly the best option before the race was neutralized following Colapinto’s heavy crash under the Safety Car. For a while now, when rain falls heavily, teams avoid using the full wet tires, waiting for conditions to improve, knowing that poor visibility often leads race control to deploy Bernd Maylander’s Safety Car rather than suspending the race.
This naturally raises the question: what purpose do full wet tires serve? According to current thinking, the FIA rightly prioritizes driver safety, sometimes even excessively so. F1 teams, in turn, hardly consider blue-banded tires as they are effective only when the track is nearly flooded. The performance gap between intermediate and extreme wet tires is too significant when rain intensity drops.
While the FIA aims to protect driver safety, F1 teams focus on performance, keeping their drivers on less suitable tires. Last Sunday, before the Safety Car was deployed, drivers were lapping close to two minutes per lap. Nonetheless, all the drivers in the top ten, aside from Yuki Tsunoda, were running on intermediates.
At a time when F1 embraces economic and environmental sustainability, it seems almost outdated to continue investing in research, development, and production of a tire that is rarely used by teams. Moreover, full wet tires pose visibility issues due to the sheer amount of water they displace. It’s important to note that an F1 car on full wets at 300 km/h can expel 340 liters of water per second. This impressive volume of water is channeled away by the tread to prevent aquaplaning.
However, this also creates a water plume that drastically reduces visibility for drivers following close behind. The FIA is working to address this issue by adopting kits aimed at reducing tire spray. So far, the tests have not produced the desired results, partly because the current generation of ground-effect cars raises a significant amount of mist in the central part of the vehicle, where the Venturi tunnels are located. Meanwhile, Pirelli continues to develop wet tires.
The tire supplier will use the break following the exhausting triple-header to test new wet-weather tires on November 13 and 14 at the Magny-Cours track in France, aiming to gather as much data as possible for next season’s wet-weather prototypes. It’s worth noting that, for some time now, various drivers have raised concerns about Pirelli’s current offerings, yet at the same time, many are reluctant to participate in the tire development tests the Italian company organizes so diligently.
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