Pirelli responds to Lewis Hamilton's complaint of not having a good wet tire that led to a postponed F1 Brazilian GP

Pirelli boss Mario Isola has responded to Lewis Hamilton's complaints of the non-availability of proper wet tires in the F1. The Brazilian GP qualifying was postponed to Sunday because a heavy shower flooded the track and there were visibility issues.

The new generation of cars has been found vulnerable to wet weather, and the race director has often been reluctant to let the sessions commence in such conditions. The F1 Brazilian GP qualifying was one such moment. Before the session, a heavy thunderstorm flooded the track and the conditions were just not suitable for the racing to commence.

In the end, after multiple delays, it was decided that the session would be postponed to Sunday morning. Soon after the announcement, Lewis Hamilton was recorded talking to F1 president Stefano Domenicali, complaining about the lack of good wet tires that would have helped the cars go out on track.

Talking to Motorsport, Pirelli boss Mario Isola said that the wet tire alone was not the reason behind the delay as lack of visibility and aquaplaning fears also played a role. He said:

"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."

He added:

"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."

Pirelli agrees with Lewis Hamilton on wet tire performance

Pirelli boss Mario Isola did however agree with Lewis Hamilton's claims that the wet tire needed improvement. But the Italian pointed to the lack of testing time, which has proved to be a hindrance. He also shared that the manufacturer will be introducing a new wet tire, which would be an improvement on the current one. He said:

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

He added:

"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."

Lewis Hamilton is not the only one to have called out the poor wet weather tire, as it has been a running theme in F1 in general. The sport needs better quality from the tire manufacturer because every time there's rain, the issue gets highlighted.