Verstappen wants F1 new rule not to go through: 'Expect lots of crashes'

Electric tyre warmers from 2024 a thing of the past

Since 2019, Formula 1 has been on a downward trajectory with regard to tyre warm-ups. This season, electric tyre warmers may be used to heat up Pirelli rubber to a maximum of seventy degrees Celsius. During FP2 of the United States GP, testing was already underway for next year with heating the tyres to fifty degrees. From 2024, tyre warmers will be a thing of the past and that is a strange decision, according to two-time world champion Verstappen.

Verstappen expects many crashes

The tyres at 50 degrees in Austin during FP2 were like not nice to use, according to the Dutchman. Verstappen does not understand why the tyre warmers cannot just be used, saying to The-Race.com: "We have them anyway, why can't we use them to the maximum? We either use them or we don't use them. Why do we only use them half? “Then I think we’re going to have a lot of crashes. It’s tough. I already know that now. There will be considerably more than now."

Besides the dangerous situation that could arise from cool tyres, Verstappen also thinks tyre wear will be significantly faster: "Your tyre pressures are going to go through the roof, so your tyres are going to deg a lot more. At the moment I don’t really enjoy it, but a lot of drivers say the same." That the situation is serious is shown by the fact that it was still relatively easy to get heat into the tyres at the Circuit of the Americas. Verstappen: "But if you go to a track like a street circuit, like Monaco, can you imagine half-and-half conditions, I think it’s going to take like half the race before you have temperature in your tyres.”