George Russell Doubles Down On F1 Ditching “Waste Of Time” Wet Tyre

Posted on August 28, 2023 | by Charley Williams Every single race weekend since the Azerbaijan GP has been plagued by rain. Not necessarily in the race itself, but there has been at least one rainy session over the last nine race weekends. Crazy. And there’s been a common denominator throughout these weekends – the relative absence of running with the extreme wet tyre.  We all joke about the full wet tyre, how useless it is, how we never see it, or that it’s a waste of rubber – but the thing is, it’s not really a joke anymore. The Dutch GP was the latest race to fall victim to the rainy conditions, with Sunday’s race being red-flagged after heavy rain sent Zhou aquaplaning into the barriers at Turn 1. After soaking everyone in the grandstands, the rain stopped, and we waited until it was safe to go back out and race. This had many F1 fans questioning – why don’t we just use the extreme wet tyre? That’s what it’s for, right? Recently, race control has been much more hesitant about letting drivers race in completely wet conditions, and on various occasions, we find ourselves waiting for the track to dry before drivers head out on inters. Or – like in Spa – send the drivers out on the blue-walled wet tyres to try and clear the standing water on track before everyone dives into the pits for the much faster intermediate tyre. Back in Belgium, George Russell called the extreme wets a “pointless tyre” and called for work to be done on the tyre so they could race in wet conditions. After the Dutch GP, he doubled down on those thoughts. He told the media, including The Race: “That extreme tyre is a complete waste of time at the moment. And I think it should just be parked. And if the conditions are too wet for intermediates, I think, unfortunately, we’re just going to have to wait until conditions get better.” Many would agree – and Pirelli themselves know the product is flawed, and are currently working on two major issues, one being the tyre’s performance and the other being visibility. The FIA tested the first bolt-on prototype of ‘Spray Guards’, but the results didn’t achieve their desired outcome. So, we may have to wait a little longer until we can race in actual wet conditions again. Would you like to see F1 cars race in the rain again? Let us know in the comments!