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George Russell has urged F1 bosses to scrap the extreme wet tyres after branding them a ‘complete waste of time’ at last weekend’s Dutch Grand Prix. The race at Zandvoort was delayed for around 40 minutes after a torrential downpour flooded the circuit before Max Verstappen registered his ninth straight victory.
All drivers were ordered to run the intermediate tyres when the race was restarted despite the extreme wet tyre being available for use. Russell has since called for the little-used compound to be ditched in favour of simply waiting for the conditions to improve if it is too dangerous to run intermediates.
“The intermediate choice was the right one,” said Russell, who failed to finish the race after picking up a late puncture. “That was purely done because the pit lane’s too narrow and they knew that everybody would be peeling in from extreme to the inters.
“That extreme tyre is a complete waste of time at the moment and I think it should just be parked. If the conditions are too wet for intermediates, they [should] enforce that we just have to wait until the conditions get better.”
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Pirelli have often been criticised for failing to produce a satisfactory wet tyre, with the issue being thrust into the spotlight at Zandvoort last weekend. They are significantly better than intermediates at shifting water from the track but are nowhere near as quick, even in very heavy rain.
Russell’s view on the topic was later echoed by Verstappen, who insisted that most drivers would always prefer to use intermediates over extreme wets, no matter how dangerous the conditions may be.
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“We pit for inters and within a lap it almost becomes undriveable on an inter and we opted to go to an extreme,” explained the Red Bull driver.
“The problem we have at the moment is that the intermediate is basically too good compared to the extreme, so even when there’s a downpour like that you still actually want to be on an inter because it’s faster, but at one point there were so many rivers on the track it just becomes incredibly dangerous.
“So at the time, I was a bit, well, not upset, but disappointed with the red flag. But I guess in hindsight, with so many people on intermediates it was probably the right thing to do.”
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