Yesterday at 09:15
F1 has almost certainly seen the last of the extreme wet tyre that
has proven so problematic and been berated by the drivers over its
lifespan. Since the introduction of the ground-effect cars at the
start of 2022, the extreme wet tyre has been used sparingly. The
occasions when it has made an appearance, have only added to the
issues faced by the drivers in such conditions. The main concern
has been the fact that the current cars create a wall of spray that
makes visibility almost negligible, adding to the danger
experienced by those on track. Although the extreme wet naturally
displaces considerably more water than the intermediate through its
deeper grooved pattern, due to the ground-effect of the cars,
however, it has never been enough to make it a tyre on which the
drivers feel they can safely compete. Case in point was at the
recent Belgian Grand Prix where heavy rainfall prior to the race
suggested the extreme wet could be used. All the teams had the
blue-striped tyre ready to go. Race control, however, waited until
the conditions were suitable for the intermediates only, and even
then, four formation laps were conducted behind the safety car
before a rolling start was implemented. Asked, in an exclusive
interview with RacingNews365, as to the future of the extreme wet
tyre after what unfolded at the Spa Francorchamps circuit, Pirelli
motorsport director Mario Isola said: "In Spa, we knew it [the use
of the extreme wet] was not going to happen. "That's because it's a
track where you have some sections that are high speed and quite,
let me say, dangerous. Nobody wants to take any risk for the
drivers. "The problem is, if I look back [at the previous race] at
Silverstone, in the wet conditions with intermediate tyres that
were working well, the visibility was not enough. "It's impossible
to change the situation this year because the cars have these
characteristics, where they are spraying a lot of water from the
floor, from the diffuser, and you cannot change it now." Looking
ahead to next season, with the major change in the regulations,
Isola added: "Next year, the cars will be different. "First of all,
we will need to understand how much spray will come from the car;
how much spray will come from the tyres. The tyres will be slightly
smaller, so maybe there will also be a little less spray. "But I'm
not 100 percent sure that we're going to use the X wet again [this
season], because clearly, the level of spray from the X wet is
very, very high, and this is compromising the visibility. "In
general, what we can see, is that you reach a certain point of
water on the track that is just over the crossover between the
intermediate and the wet, and it's the time for red flagging the
session."
