F1 News: Fernando Alonso Insists Pirelli Must Improve Wet Tires - 'Always Accidents'

Saajan Jogia | Nov 8, 2024

Oct 20, 2024; Austin, Texas, USA; Aston Martin Aramco F1 Team driver Fernando Alonso (14) of Team Spain walks through the track entrance before the 2024 Formula One US Grand Prix at Circuit of the Americas. Mandatory Credit: Jerome Miron-Imagn Images / Jerome Miron-Imagn Images

Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso has followed seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton in calling out Formula 1 tire supplier Pirelli for wet weather tires that cause "accidents." The Spaniard endured a challenging and painful Sao Paulo Grand Prix last weekend that saw several yellow flags and one red flag during the wet race.

The race weekend also made news after the sport decided to reschedule the Saturday qualifying session to Sunday due to heavy rain, thereby leaving a gap of a few hours between qualifying and the Grand Prix. That was when Hamilton complained to the F1 CEO on live TV, saying that the qualifying session would have been good to go if the sport had given them better tires. He said on F1TV:

“You should have sent us out. This is ridiculous, we should go out. I want to go out.

“Give us better wet tires with blankets, we would be able to run in this.”

He jokingly added:

“I’m putting you on the spot!”

Alonso reckoned that Pirelli's wet tires don't meet the requirements of the "top class" category, pointing out that they are prone to aquaplaning and causing accidents. Speaking to DAZN, as reported by PlanetF1, the 43-year-old driver said:

“It wasn’t ideal conditions, but we also don’t have the [right] tires for the top class category of the sport.

“When it rains a little bit we always have aquaplaning, there are always accidents…. I think Franco [Colapinto] even behind the safety car… sometimes you can’t even follow the safety car. We have to improve that.”

Fortunately, Pirelli has acknowledged the poor performance of the wet tires and has been working on an improved version for the 2025 season. Pirelli's Head of Motorsport, Mario Isola told Autosport, as reported by PlanetF1:

“It is true that we need to improve the performance of the wet tire to generate a proper crossover with the intermediate.

“That’s our target.

“Next year we will have a new wet tire with some small modifications, because unfortunately we didn’t have the possibility to have a proper test with the wet tire on a high-severity circuit. That is exactly what we miss.

“We changed a little bit the tread pattern, worked on the construction and on a new compound. We found an improvement. I cannot tell you if it is enough or not.”

Isola, however, explained that FIA race director Niels Wittich postponed qualifying due to other factors, as current tires could still handle wet conditions. He added:

“I don’t know why Niels decided not to give it the green light to the session, I don’t know if it is because of visibility, standing water, risk of aquaplaning, or any other element. I didn’t speak to Niels, so I have no information on that.

“If it’s just performance [on the wet tire], it means that they go slower, that’s all. So the fastest of the slow cars is setting the best time.

“We are fully aware we have to improve the performance of the wet tire. But you can run on these wet tires, it’s not that you cannot run.”