Formula 1’s 2026 cars got through a wet Brazilian Grand Prix weekend without catastrophe, but drivers are already warning that certain circuits could still pose serious problems.
Interlagos delivered the first genuine examination of how this season’s machinery handles genuinely wet conditions, with rain hitting both qualifying and race day at Sao Paulo.
Until now, the Bahrain Grand Prix in Malaysia had been the only other rain-affected event, though that track dried rapidly once racing resumed, limiting what engineers could actually learn.
Liam Lawson delivered perhaps the most sobering assessment of what the weekend exposed, noting that lower ambient temperatures on Sunday made the intermediates almost impossible to manage thermally.
“So, if we’re on a track like Vegas and it rains, honestly, I think we’re in trouble. But overall, obviously we got through a weekend for the first time with these tyres,” Lawson said.
The fundamental problem with the intermediates is one of thermal consistency: the compounds struggle to generate heat but simultaneously shed tread at a rate that leaves drivers with nothing useful beneath them.
Alex Albon, who finished 15th in Brazil, described a tyre that never truly woke up across his entire stint on the wet-weather rubber.
“It was difficult to fire them up but they also wore quite quickly. So, you never feel good at any point in the race; it never feels like it comes alive,” Albon said.
This thermal failure produced some counterintuitive strategic dynamics during the opening laps, with drivers nearer the front of the grid actually disadvantaged by having to wait longer for lights-out.
Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton charged from 20th and 21st on the grid into the top ten, though Hamilton subsequently dropped back as his car developed severe oversteer snaps once conditions shifted.
Carlos Sainz added his voice to the chorus of criticism, pointing specifically to rear instability on the intermediates and a lack of development on both wet compounds.
Ferrari team principal Fred Vasseur offered a more measured verdict on the weekend, acknowledging that the extreme wet tyre at least showed improvement over previous specifications this season.
“I think what is good is that we can use the ‘big wet’ much more than in the past,” Vasseur said, though he conceded that grip levels on the formation lap left drivers fighting for control.
Qualifying had been red-flagged for 80 minutes after a heavy downpour struck right at the start of the session, forcing the FIA to suspend running immediately.
The paddock broadly agreed the stewards handled the situation correctly, identifying a safe window before resuming Q1 with great care and rigour.
Kimi Antonelli highlighted the residual difficulty even after conditions improved, sliding off at Turn 12 during his lap to the grid before the race had even begun.
The FIA has reportedly been working on managing power delivery in wet conditions since the season opened, which appears to have softened some of the more alarming predictions about the 2026 cars becoming undriveable in rain.
Pirelli has acknowledged that the narrower wheel specification mandated for this season constrained their development testing, leaving the intermediates unable to reach operating temperature at the rate that previous generations could.
The tyre manufacturer’s stated objective for 2027 is to close the performance gap between the two wet compounds, making the intermediate faster to warm and the extreme wet more durable as the track dries.
That work cannot come quickly enough, given that the data gathered at Interlagos may have limited transferability to venues with colder ambient temperatures or fundamentally different track surfaces.
F1 cleared its first serious wet-weather hurdle of the 2026 season, but the margin for comfort remains narrow, and the conversations with Pirelli are far from finished.