Max Verstappen insists he’s ‘not trying to be negative’ as he raises Pirelli complaint

The use of the extreme wet tyre compound has reduced significantly in recent years.

Wet weather racing in Formula 1 is slowly becoming less and less common, with the extreme wet tyre compound not often being seen at race weekends in recent seasons.

The 2021 Belgian Grand Prix was stopped after a couple of laps behind the safety car, while the Japanese Grand Prix last year was red flagged by race control until it was safe to go out on the intermediate tyres.

The drop off in pace between the wets and the intermediates has made the blue-striped tyres an unusable option in a Grand Prix, as they are significantly slower than any other compound.

Two-time world champion Max Verstappen has now revealed that he is aiming to have a conversation with Pirelli in order to help them improve wet weather racing, which he believes needs improving.

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“I’m pretty sure it is possible, but I guess we just need more discussions with them,” he said to Viaplay.

“I’m not trying to be negative because I’m very happy to work with them to just find better tyres and I think that will really create even better wet weather racing.

“I might talk to them very soon, who knows? I just want to help out because they are around for a long time and that’s great as they have invested a lot into [F1] and they are a great brand, but we can do better.

“The aim is there, so I always want to do better. The teams want to do better and I hope they also want to.”

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The FIA have also recognised that the quality of wet weather racing needs to improve and they are set to trial a number of new inventions next year in order to do so.

Spray guards are set to be introduced in the near future, something that can be applied to the cars prior to a wet race to reduce the amount of spray that fires up behind the cars, almost blinding the drivers behind them.

While the drivers’ safety is always the number on priority, the chance to see drivers put their skill to the test in the rain is one that motorsport fans dream of.