Pirelli Formula 1 boss Mario Isola says he agrees with George Russell's suggestion that the full Wet tyre is now 'pointless'. Throughout the recent Belgian Grand Prix weekend, some of the sessions, including the Sprint race took place in wet conditions, with a shower delaying the start of the Saturday afternoon race. Multiple formation laps then took place to clear the track of standing water and reduce spray, with visibility or a lack thereof, the overriding factor during a recent period of seeming reluctance for cars to be on-track in green flag conditions when it is raining. At Spa-Francorchamps, the field all pitted within two laps of the Safety Car coming in for a switch to Intermediates with the track being ready for the green-walled rubber. It led to the blue-marked full Wets being dubbed a 'Safety Car tyre', for use only when the race is neutralised. And Isola agreed that the full Wet tyre has essentially become "useless."
Wet tyres are "useless"
"We have to divide two problems," Isola told media including RacingNews365. "One is the visibility and one is the performance of the Wet [tyre]. "When we tested this Wet tyre without blankets, we found performance at Fiorano and Paul Ricard of five or six seconds better than the old Wet tyre, and warm-up was not an issue. "That is why I sent the request [to change tyres] and all the teams voted to introduce the new Wet during the season because they had the reports from the tests. "They agreed that it was a good step to introduce the new Wets, but maybe that performance is still not enough to generate the right cross-over with the Intermediate. "Are the [full Wets] Safety Car [only] tyres? "We have discussed many times about visibility, which is an issue, and the FIA and all the teams are working on some devices that can improve visibility by reducing spray that is coming not only from the tyres but also the diffuser. "But if the full Wet tyre is only being used behind the Safety Car, I agree with the drivers that at the moment, it is a useless tyre. "We have to decide what is the direction that we want to take for the future in order to develop the product that is needed for F1."
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