Aston Martin driver Fernando Alonso followed the seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton by calling out Formula 1 tire supplier Pirelli for rain tires causing “accidents”. The Spaniard endured a difficult and painful Sao Paulo Grand Prix last weekend, which saw several yellow flags and one red flag during the wet race.

The race weekend was also in the news after the sport decided to postpone the qualifying session from Saturday to Sunday due to heavy rain, leaving a gap of a few hours between qualifying and the Grand Prix. That’s when Hamilton complained to the F1 CEO on live television, saying the qualifying session would have been good if the sport had given them better tires. He said on F1TV:

“You should have sent us out. This is ridiculous, we should get out. I want to go out.

“Give us better rain tires with covers, we would be able to ride in them.”

He jokingly added:

“I’m embarrassing you!”

Alonso considered that Pirelli’s rain tires do not meet the requirements of the “higher class” category, emphasizing that they are prone to aquaplaning and cause accidents. Speaking to DAZN, as reported by PlanetF1the 43-year-old driver said:

“The conditions weren’t ideal, but we also don’t have the (right) tires for the top category of this sport.

“When it rains a little, we always have aquaplaning, there are always accidents…. I think of Franco (Colapinto), even behind the safety car… sometimes you can’t even follow the safety car. We need to improve this.

Fortunately, Pirelli has recognized the poor performance of wet tires and is working on an improved version for the 2025 season. Mario Isola, Pirelli’s head of motorsport, told Autosport, as reported PlanetF1:

“It is true that we must improve the performance of the rain tire to generate a real crossover with the intermediate.

“That’s our goal.

“Next year we will have a new rain tire with some small modifications, because unfortunately we did not have the opportunity to do a proper test with the rain tire on a very severe circuit. This is exactly what we are missing.

“We modified the sculpture a bit, worked on the construction and a new compound. We have seen an improvement. I can’t tell you if it’s enough or not.

Isola, however, explained that FIA race director Niels Wittich postponed qualifying due to other factors, as the current tires could still handle wet conditions. He added:

“I don’t know why Niels decided not to give the green light to the session, I don’t know if it’s because of the visibility, the standing water, the risk of aquaplaning or anything else . I haven’t spoken to Niels, so I don’t have any information on this.

“If it’s just performance (on wet tires), it means they go slower, that’s all. Thus, the fastest of the slow cars achieves the best time.

“We are fully aware that we need to improve the performance of rain tires. But you can ride with these rain tires, it’s not that you can’t race.