Fernando Alonso criticizes Pirelli's rain tires

Aston Martin Formula 1 team driver Fernando Alonso has joined Lewis Hamilton in criticizing Pirelli's wet weather tires, also blaming the company for their wet-weather tires being "accident-prone". Earlier, the Spaniard had a extremely tough race in Sao Paulo, where due to rain, the yellow flag was waved several times and the red flag once, reports si.com.

In Brazil, the organizers also decided to postpone the Saturday qualifying to Sunday due to rain, which left only a few hours between the qualifying races and the Grand Prix. It was then that Hamilton complained live on F1TV that teams needed more effective wet weather tires.

"We should have been let out. It's just ridiculous," he said. "Give us better tires that we can drive on."

Alonso noted that Pirelli's wet weather tires "do not meet the requirements of top-level motorsport" as they are prone to aquaplaning and create a risk of accidents. In an interview with DAZN, he said that "the conditions were not ideal, but we also don't have the right tires". "When it rains, we always have aquaplaning, we always have accidents... Sometimes it's even impossible to follow the safety car. This needs to be fixed," the Spaniard said.

Pirelli acknowledged the insufficient effectiveness of their wet weather tires and announced that they would be modified for the 2025 season. In a conversation with Autosport, the director of the company's motorsport division, Mario Isola, noted that "next year we will have a new wet tire, but only with minor modifications, since, unfortunately, we did not have the opportunity to conduct the necessary tests on tracks with high tire loads. This is exactly what we are missing."

According to Isola, the engineers slightly changed the tread pattern of the tires, as well as worked on the construction and new compound. "We were able to improve some things, but I don't know if it will be enough," he admitted.

The Pirelli representative also added that the FIA's racing director, Niels Wittich, postponed the qualifying not because of the tires, but due to other factors. "I don't know why Niels decided not to give the green light, and I don't know if it was due to visibility, standing water, aquaplaning risk or something else," he said. "I haven't spoken to Niels, so I don't have any information on that. If we talk about the tires, the cars just drive slower, that's all [...] We are fully aware that we need to improve the characteristics of the wet tires, but the current tires are quite usable."

Photo: Aston Martin.