Pirelli respond to Hamilton's wet tyre complaint after qualifying delay
F1 News
- Nicole Mulder
After it was announced that qualifying was postponed, Lewis Hamilton interrupted an interview with Formula One CEO Stefano Domenicali. The Mercedes driver said that if there were better rain tyres, the drivers would've been able to complete qualifying. Pirelli admits the current wet tyres are not optimal, but claims this isn't the main reason for the postponed qualifying.
Pirelli responds to Hamilton's complaints about wet tyres
According to Isola, race director Niels Wittich's decision not to allow qualifying to go ahead on Saturday was not directly related to the tyres. "I don't know why Niels decided not to give it the green light to the session," he is quoted by Autosport.com. According to Isola, it could be because of poor visibility, standing water, the risk of aquaplaning or some other element.
"If it's just performance [on the wet tyre], it means that they go slower, that's all. So the fastest of the slow cars is setting the best time," he added. "We are fully aware we have to improve the performance of the wet tyre. But you can run on these wet tyres, it's not that you cannot run."
Isola admits that wet tyre performance needs to be improved and points out that a new type of wet tyre is coming next year. However, the Pirelli boss also stresses that there has been no opportunity to conduct a proper test of the new wet tyres on a track that demands a lot from the tyres.
This article has been created in collaboration with Matt Gretton