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F1 Brazilian GP: Raikkonen: 10 years ago tyres could cope with rain

Kimi Raikkonen has bemoaned the quality of the Pirelli wet weather tyres, suggesting tyres were better ten years ago because they could cope with aquaplaning.

Raikkonen crashed out moments after a safety car restart on lap 18 of the Brazilian Grand Prix as he entered the home straight, the Finn aquaplaning into the outside wall whilst running fourth.

Fortunate to avoid being collected by the oncoming field as he slid across to rest at the inside of the circuit, the Ferrari driver was unhurt but frustrated to suffer his second DNF in three races.

"The uphill section was, at least for me [too wet for racing]. "There was a lot of aquaplaning, even on the turn before. I got aquaplaning and spun off. I almost got it back but then went off in a pretty bad place, I couldn't do anything about it. I didn't expect to get aquaplaning there and went off..."

On a day that drew criticism for the extreme wet tyres in the persistently wet conditions, Raikkonen was left unimpressed with what he feels are worse tyres than what he was using '10 or 12 years ago'.

"Doing many laps behind the Safety Car is always going to cool the tyres down and it gets more difficult. It was tricky and unfortunately that's what happened, we got aquaplaning and couldn't do anything.

"The tyres are very easy to aquaplane with, it's not like it's raining a lot. We've said that many times, but it obviously also depends on the circuit and many things. If I compare to ten-twelve years ago those tyres could cope with this kind of rain with no issues, no aquaplaning. The aquaplaning is the biggest issue, if we have a bit of standing water we get zero grip. That's it." 

Zdroj: crash.net