Verstappen wants to keep racing in the rain: 'Otherwise it's like NASCAR'
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Max Verstappen has been critical (not for the first time) of the way full-wets are used (or rather not used) in Formula 1. Nobody wants to race on the blue-coloured rubber, as the performance of that tyre is considerably inferior to intermediates. Verstappen also addresses the problem of spray coming from behind F1 cars.
The first laps of the sprint race were driven behind the safety car, a decision Verstappen understands. When all signals were green and Verstappen got the field going, half of all drivers immediately went inside to swap the (mandatory) full-wets for intermediates. Oscar Piastri did an undercut on the Dutchman that way.
"The problem is that those rain tyres are just not good," Verstappen informed to GPblog and others from Spa-Francorchamps. "Behind the safety car they were already getting too hot and the difference with the inters is just way too big, Actually the problem is that you want those inters right, because it's just faster, but sometimes you can't take them because there's too much water on the track. But those full-wets you really just have to drive like you're going around the track on a boat, but then that's actually another red flag," he alludes to track conditions being too dangerous in that scenario.
Wet tyres are not the only problem for Formula 1. So is the spray. If you drive in midfield or in the rear, you can see virtually nothing because of the water spraying up from behind the cars ahead of him on the track.
Spray in Formula 1
"The track conditions were absolutely fine, but you can't see anything and that's why I think a few drivers will always say we can't go (read: start racing) yet. I understand that too, because if someone spins in front of you, you can't see where he's going," said Verstappen, who thinks it's hard to do anything about it.
"It's always been like that, even before in Formula 1. If you look at it that way, you can never drive in the rain, because you will always have problems with visibility. Spray will always bother you," he says. Not driving in the rain again is not really an option for the two-time world champion."That's a shame, then it's like NASCAR, they don't drive in the rain there either." However, he does have a tip for his fellow competitors who are bothered by the spray. "Then you should just qualify first, then you'll just have good visibility," Verstappen joked.