Pirelli make F1 tyre confession after Lewis Hamilton gatecrashes TV interview

Lewis Hamilton complained about Pirelli's wet at Interlagos

Pirelli concede they need to improve the wet weather tyre, Mario Isola revealing “small modifications” are coming next season.

Not for the first time, Pirelli faced criticism over the quality of the wet weather rubber after qualifying for the Brazilian Grand Prix was postponed as a deluge hit the circuit.

Announcing the decision, the FIA said in a statement: “Following the conditions in São Paulo today the decision was taken not to proceed with qualifying due to poor visibility, standing water on the track and fading light.

“Safety is always the paramount consideration in such circumstances and while as much time as possible was given to allow conditions to improve they sadly did not.”

But if you ask Lewis Hamilton, it wasn’t unsafe, it was more a case of the wet Pirellis not being up to the task of running in the rain.

He interrupted F1 chief Stefano Domenicali’s interview with F1TV, telling the Italian: “You should have sent us out. This is ridiculous, we should go out. I want to go out.

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

“I’m putting you on the spot!” he added with a laugh.

Pirelli, F1’s sole tyre supplier, agree with Hamilton that better tyres are needed.

“It is true that we need to improve the performance of the wet tyre to generate a proper crossover with the intermediate,” Pirelli’s motorsports chief Isola said as per Autosport. “That’s our target.

“Next year we will have a new wet tyre with some small modifications, because unfortunately we didn’t have the possibility to have a proper test with the wet tyre 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.”

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But while Isola agrees Pirelli need to give the drivers better tyres, he says Saturday’s decision by FIA race director Niels Wittich to postpone qualifying, wasn’t entirely because of Pirelli’s tyres.

“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 tyre], 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 tyre. But you can run on these wet tyres, it’s not that you cannot run.”

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