Lewis Hamilton reveals F1 demand after 'painful' experience

Lewis Hamilton has revealed how he requested Pirelli to experiment with tyre blankets on the full wet tyres during a "painful" tyre test at Fiorano.

In April, Hamilton spent two days at Ferrari's home track testing wet-weather tyres for Pirelli, as part of the manufacturers' allocated test days in which they essentially hire a team, who cannot test upgrades and must complete run plans assigned by Pirelli. 

During one of the days, Hamilton explained that he had requested that the full wet tyres be fitted with the blankets - which had been banned in 2023 on sustainability and environmental grounds.

"Fiorano was painful because it was 300 laps over two days," Hamilton explained when asked by RacingNews365 for his thoughts on the wet-weather learning he had made from the outing.

"They've made a change to the blankets for the intermediates, and that's something I suggested and pushed for it and it was amazing. 

"It was great to see them take a step, and I've also said that they have to put the blankets back on the extreme [wet] tyres when it is the slipperiest of conditions.

"I had them put them back on, and it was much better."