While waiting in the pit lane for a weather improvement to start the qualifying session, Stefano Domenicali walked along the pit lane informing team principals that everything would be postponed to Sunday. The Liberty Media CEO was approached by F1TV, and while answering some questions, he was joined by Lewis Hamilton. In a friendly manner with a handshake, the seven-time world champion (likely the driver most skilled in using the media) took the opportunity to send a message to Domenicali in front of the cameras. Smiling as always, but the message was clear.
“You should have sent us on track,” Lewis Hamilton said. “It’s ridiculous, we should have gone out. If you give us better wet tires or tire warmers, we could race even in these conditions.” Then, with a hug, he left. Hamilton’s message obviously reached Pirelli and was discussed at a press conference held in the evening with manager Mario Isola.
“We’re aware that we can improve the performance of extreme wet tires,” explained Mario Isola. “We aim to find a good crossover with the intermediate tire; it’s one of our objectives. Next season, we’ll have a new wet tire with some minor changes; unfortunately, we haven’t been able to complete a proper test of this type of tire on a high-severity circuit. We modified the tread pattern and worked on both the construction and a new compound, noticing some improvement. But today, I can’t say whether it will be sufficient or not.”
Regarding Lewis Hamilton’s subtle accusation that, with a different tire, drivers would have been able to go on track yesterday, Mario Isola was very clear. “I don’t know specifically why Niels (Wittich, the race director) decided not to start the session; it could have been due to poor visibility, puddles, aquaplaning risk, or other factors. I haven’t spoken with Niels, so I have no information on that.”
“But I can say that if the concern is tire performance, you just need to hold back a little; the pace can be slower, but there will still be a driver setting the fastest time. As I said, we’re fully aware of the need to improve wet tire performance, but that doesn’t mean we can’t go on track.”
From what was seen yesterday, the reason why the qualifying session didn’t start had little to do with the wet tires. During the laps completed by the safety car, Bernd Maylander’s struggle to keep the Aston Martin on track was clear in the section between Turns 3 and 4 on the climb to the main straight. Moreover, in the last half-hour, visibility dropped significantly, creating a general situation that led to the only possible decision.
Complaints about tires have decreased over the years; the Pirelli product has achieved stability, resolving issues that arose with the drastic increase in performance and aerodynamic load of the cars. Some points remain unresolved (such as full-wet tires), and there’s still the inability to test tires on current cars. Pirelli’s challenge is to capture potential issues with very limited real data (one exception was the hour of testing completed last week in the FP2 session in Mexico) or with ‘Frankenstein’ cars, or mule cars that simulate the loads and characteristics of next-generation cars. Without real data, simulations become the only resource, undoubtedly improved over the years but certainly not as good as a test on a track.
Current Formula 1 seems averse to going on track outside of race weekends, and when it comes to wet tires, the issue becomes even more complex, as no artificial irrigation can ever replicate the conditions seen yesterday at Interlagos. There’s also another, equally important aspect: the limited availability of top drivers to go on track for tire development test days. There are exceptions, but generally, top drivers (and Lewis Hamilton is among them) are not very inclined towards these tests, leaving the task to young drivers whose technical feedback cannot match that of more experienced drivers.
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