Pirelli has told F1 drivers to consider using the full wet tyres in the Canadian Grand Prix if the expected rainstorms hit Montreal.
Current forecasts have heavy rain hitting the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Sunday afternoon, with the race planned for a 16:00 local start.
In recent years, drivers have favoured using the intermediate tyres in wet conditions, with the full wet only used sparingly in grands prix, which are usually red-flagged if the conditions are too bad.
However, due to a combination of a “perfect storm”, Pirelli’s Simone Berra has told the field to use the full wet rubber at the start, following an example of Haas at the start of the 2024 race in Canada, where Kevin Magnussen and Nico Hulkenberg fitted the blue-walled tyre in the early stages and made up considerable places.
“I think it is the perfect storm,” Berra told media, including ApexF1News, of the anticipated forecast and what this would mean for the grand prix.
“Because we have cold temperatures and it is a low-energy circuit, if it rains, it will be complicated because, looking at the forecast, we expect to have 11 or 12 degrees of air temperature, and the track, if it rains, will be pretty similar.
“We’ve never had these conditions, we never designed the tyres for these conditions, it will be very cold, and I think it could be more tricky on the intermediates than the full wets, as that compound has a lower working range, so the wet will struggle less.
“It is a possibility that for one time in the last few years, the wet is faster than the intermediate.
‘It is not just a matter of warm-up, because the point is that if we’re speaking about the warm-up, it takes five laps and you reach a stabilised condition, it is good for a working window, but you just need to wait for the right window.
“If you start losing temperature, and you never find a way to generate temperature to regain it, then it becomes a problem because you start to struggle and have no grip, so basically, you cannot run with these low temperatures, so that’s why, in my opinion, the wet tyre here, it is a good circuit for it to work properly.
“We have already seen two years ago when it was a wet race, Haas decided to use the wet at the start, they did eight laps, and they were quite fast.
“So if it rains on Sunday, we will be in a pretty similar position, and I would personally use the wet tyres.”
