{"id":274997,"date":"2025-07-19T15:03:12","date_gmt":"2025-07-19T15:03:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/274997\/"},"modified":"2025-07-19T15:03:12","modified_gmt":"2025-07-19T15:03:12","slug":"why-f1-drivers-dont-like-pirellis-wet-tyres-and-how-it-plans-to-fix-them","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/274997\/","title":{"rendered":"Why F1 drivers don’t like Pirelli\u2019s wet tyres, and how it plans to fix them"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seeing full wets in action during a race weekend<\/a> has become a rare sight in Formula 1. The main reason for that is visibility, as when there\u2019s significantly more water than \u2013 let’s say \u2013 was seen during the British GP<\/a> at Silverstone, high levels of spray greatly hinder visibility on track. \u00a0<\/p>\n

The FIA hoped to reduce spray with the current generation of cars, but little progress has been made. Visibility remains a\u00a0limiting factor in the wet \u2013 a problem that won\u2019t go away quickly, given the failed tests with wheel covers<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another key issue is the tyre itself. Multiple drivers \u2013 including reigning world champion Max Verstappen<\/a> \u2013 have indicated that they prefer to stay on intermediates for as long as possible, even when conditions call for full wets.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To address this, Pirelli is working on improving the so-called crossover point between both tyres. One of the goals for 2025 was to set the crossover point for full wets at around 115-116% of dry lap times. In reality, however, that threshold has been closer to 118%, according to Pirelli\u2019s head of motorsport, Mario Isola.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Complex complaints from drivers\u00a0<\/p>\n

But there\u2019s more at play than just the amount of water or the crossover point. During an exclusive interview with Motorsport.com, Pirelli outlines another, perhaps even more important issue with the full wets in recent years.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Pirelli <\/p>\n

Pirelli wet tyre<\/p>\n

Photo by: Erik Junius<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ve slightly changed the development direction for the full wets,\u201d Isola said. \u201cSo, instead of looking at aquaplaning as we did in recent years, as that was a comment coming from drivers, we’ve now made a better analysis of what those comments actually mean. And we realised that it was more related to a loss of grip in cornering than to actual aquaplaning.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

That loss of grip, Isola explained, is mainly linked to the tread blocks: \u201cWhen you develop in the direction to fight aquaplaning, you put\u00a0more and more grooves into the tyres.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cBut that means you have smaller tread blocks and that those blocks will move more. If those blocks move, you generate heat and that means that we had overheating of the wet tyre. It seems a joke, but it’s true! That overheating problem caused a loss of grip, and that\u2019s what drivers were actually referring to.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Bigger changes coming for 2026?\u00a0<\/p>\n

This insight has already been applied to some extent to this year\u2019s wet tyres: \u201cWe\u2019ve decided to modify the tread pattern slightly to reduce overheating with the current construction and compound,\u201d Isola said. \u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThat should help to have less movement of the blocks and less overheating on tracks with a higher intensity than Fiorano and Paul Ricard, the two tracks where we can test.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Charles <\/p>\n

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari, Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari<\/p>\n

Photo by: Lubomir Asenov \/ Motorsport Images<\/p>\n

The complete overhaul in regulations for 2026 includes all-new tyres, and therefore Pirelli has a chance to work on improving the compounds even further.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cFor 2026, our first target is to improve the crossover point between the intermediates and the full wets, so teams can choose one or the other without losing performance,\u201d Isola added.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd yes, we are also considering a completely different tread pattern to try and go even more into the direction that we just discussed.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

A recurring topic in talks about F1\u2019s wet tyres is the lack of testing opportunities. Teams and drivers often complain about the full wets, but Pirelli insists that developing them is inherently difficult under the current limitations.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWe still have the issue that we cannot test on high severity tracks under wet conditions,\u201d Isola said. \u00a0<\/p>\n

Read Also:<\/p>\n

\u201cBut what we are doing now is that at any circuit where we are going to test \u2013\u00a0Barcelona, Jerez and so on\u00a0\u2013\u00a0we always have a backup plan with wet tyres available.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cSo, if it rains, instead of throwing one day of testing in the bin, we switch the programme and try to test the wets. Obviously, that’s not in a controlled environment, and you don’t have the sprinklers for a controlled level of water, but you still have water and that\u2019s similar to what you encounter during a race weekend.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

In this article<\/p>\n

Be the first to know and subscribe for real-time news email updates on these topics<\/p>\n

Subscribe to news alerts<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Seeing full wets in action during a race weekend has become a rare sight in Formula 1. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[4199,707,4200,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-274997","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-f1","9":"tag-formula-1","10":"tag-formula1","11":"tag-sports","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114880512404818960","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}