Sainz Calls for Better Pirelli Wet Tyres After Brazil Struggles

Williams driver Carlos Sainz has voiced his dissatisfaction with Pirelli's wet and intermediate tyres after a tough time at the São Paulo Grand Prix. The Brazilian race saw all drivers start on intermediate tyres, and the performance left much to be desired.

Pirelli's tyres have been a hot topic for nearly two decades, ever since they started offering high-degradation options. While teams have largely figured out how to handle dry tyres, it's the wet and intermediate tyres that garnered criticism in Brazil. Grand Prix Drivers’ Association director Sainz was at the forefront of these complaints.

"Not good enough," Sainz remarked bluntly. "I think the level of the wet and the inter is not good enough, and we need to work with Pirelli on finding a better tyre because in the mixed conditions, the inter is still a very weak tyre at the rear. By the time it warms up, the front is gone. And the extreme, honestly, yesterday we had so much aquaplaning and a big lack of rear grip. So still missing a bit of development on these two tyres. I don’t know."

Despite the potential advantages of a wet weekend, Sainz and his teammate Albon couldn't turn it into points. Albon made it to Q3 on Saturday but finished 15th on Sunday, while Sainz ended up 19th. This continued Williams' run of 14 races with just a single point and none in the last five races.

Reflecting on his performance, Sainz admitted, "I didn’t get it right on the first stint on inter with the setup and the tools. And then on the last, I learned a lot throughout that race and the last six laps on inter, I was actually back to being competitive, which is something I will learn from."

He added, "Having said that, it was nothing to do with our car really. We are just simply too slow in the wet, in the dry, on the slicks, in the mixed conditions, in the full wet. There’s nothing really to do. I don’t think we could have scrapped any result. But yeah, today we had a difficult day."