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Grosjean: F1 needs to improve “poor” wet tyres

Romain Grosjean has hit out at the abilities of Pirelli’s wet-weather Formula 1 tyres after he crashed out before the Brazilian Grand Prix had even started.

Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari SF16-H crash

Kimi Raikkonen, Ferrari SF16-H crash

Motorsport Images

Romain Grosjean, Haas F1 Team VF-16
Romain Grosjean, Haas F1 Team
Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes AMG F1 W07 Hybrid at the start of the race
Romain Grosjean, Haas F1 Team VF-16 locks up under braking
Marcus Ericsson, Sauber F1 Team
Marcus Ericsson, Sauber C35 spins

Grosjean, who qualified seventh, failed to start after spinning his car into the barriers on the drag out of the final corner on to the way to the grid.

Crashes from Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson and Ferrari’s Kimi Raikkonen then followed in the race itself, leading to Grosjean questioning the ability of the tyres in the conditions for which they were designed.

“Honestly, I don’t know what happened,” said Grosjean. “I saw two other cars having the same issue – so we need to improve the wet tyres. In my case I was not even pushing.

“It shows that the extreme tyre is a very poor tyre and there is no grip. You have to take a huge amount of risk, you can't control the car in a straight line.

“From hero to zero in less than 24 hours. We had a good starting position but I was just doing laps to the grid, going uphill and not even flat out. I picked up a lot of wheelspin on the rear tyres and just spun the car.

“It was an on/off switch, there was nothing I could control.”

Ericsson - who, unlike Grosjean, crashed on intermediate tyres rather than full wets - said standing water was to blame, and that neither tyre can cope with that.

“In the corners it’s all fine, but then you come to Turn 12 and the run to the start/finish line and there’s a lot of standing water," said the Swede. "We’ve seen three cars lose it now, more or less in a straight line.

“Both inters or extreme wets, I don't know if it makes a difference, as we’ve seen cars on both compounds losing it.”

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