Formula 1 drivers’ greatest concern ahead of a potentially wet Canadian Grand Prix is not their power units but their tyres.
After two days of largely warm and dry weather, persistent light rain is forecast throughout Sunday at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve. Drivers have little experience of how F1’s new generation of cars will behave in wet conditions,
Every official track session has been dry this year – a brief, light shower fell during the Miami Grand Prix but all drivers remained on slick tyres. Some drivers have tested the new cars in wet conditions.
As Max Verstappen and Charles Leclerc’s spins in Miami showed, the new power units can be a handful in low-grip conditions. However drivers say they are concerned less by the power delivery and more about the familiar problem of wet weather tyre performance.
“I think it could be an insanely tricky race,” said Lando Norris. “It’s difficult enough to get temperature into a soft tyre, let alone when it’s 10 degrees colder tomorrow and we’re going to have inter[mediates] and wets on the car.”
Pole-winner George Russell said the FIA’s change to F1’s engine power delivery restrictions, announced last month, should make the cars less challenging to control in low-grip conditions. He also believes the tyres will be the biggest problem on Sunday, when ambient temperatures may be no higher than 13C.
“Because there have been no wet races as yet, with the FIA it was decided that they would reduce the power from 350 kilowatts to 250 kilowatts of battery,” he said. “So, it’s still hundreds and hundreds of horsepower under our right foot.
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“But I think what everybody is alluding to is just the tyres. That’s going to be the biggest challenge. These tyres only seem to work when they have [sufficient] temperature within them and with only 12, 13 degrees [Celsius] ambient tomorrow, it’s going to be really challenging to get that rubber softened to give us the grip.
“But the truth is, it’s the same for everyone. It’s going to be risky. It’s going to be challenging. It probably isn’t going to be very pleasant, but it’s part of the game and I’m excited for that challenge.”
Andrea Kimi Antonelli pointed out the Montreal track is already one of the more difficult circuits for drivers to maintain tyre temperatures.
“We tried the tyre last year and it was not the nicest,” he said. “There were a few aquaplaning moments, so it’s tricky.
“This is already a track where it’s hard to put temperature on the tyres in the dry. Tomorrow is going to be cold and wet and it’s going to be hard to build temperature, which is the main thing for us, because once you get temperature, it’s actually not too bad.
“But it’s those first few laps where you’re just sliding around and the tyre is not really working. It’s not easy, it’s going to be tricky, but let’s see first what the weather is going to be like, because also in Miami it was meant to rain and it didn’t.”
If the track is wet, drivers will only be allowed to lower their cars’ wings at three points on the track instead of four. The Straight Mode zone approaching the turn four hairpin will be deactivated while the other three zones will be shortened.
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