At racing speeds, one of Pirelli’s blue-sidewalled ‘wet’ tyres can displace a remarkable 85 litres of water per second. The problem is that you’re more likely to see a blue moon than witness an F1 wet tyre operating at racing speeds.
That amount of water being displaced at all four corners of an F1 car adds up to a lot of spray, so the kind of circumstances that play to the wet tyre’s particular set of skills usually result in a red flag. It’s a situation that has played out on several occasions in recent years, most absurdly in Belgium in 2021 and most recently in Sao Paulo last year. At the Brazilian race, drivers trickled around on intermediates, preferring to wait for the inevitable stoppage rather than sacrificing track position by pitting for wets.
