Kimi Raikkonen used the approaching typhoon to slam Pirelli’s wet tyres, comparing them to those used under previous suppliers.
On Friday, it was confirmed that final practice and qualifying would not take place at the Japanese Grand Prix on Saturday with Hagibis swiping Suzuka as it tracked just east.
However, while the decision not to cause any unnecessary risk for those attending was widely welcomed, the 2007 world champion claims, in general, F1 running in the wet has become more difficult.
“Obviously we know how limited we are with the tyres, unfortunately,” he said to RaceFans. “It doesn’t need much rain then we have aquaplaning, that’s the issue, then obviously you have zero control.
“[In] the early days when I started it could rain really heavy and we never had an issue,” he noted. “So for sure the tyres are not best when there’s standing water but that’s how it is, unfortunately.”
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F1 has only had a handful of really wet races since Pirelli became F1’s tyre supplier with Canada 2011, Malaysia 2012, Japan 2014, Brazil and Monaco in 2016 and Germany 2019 the most notable that spring to mind.
All of those were known for Safety Car starts, red flags and very conservative approaches from F1 officials often resuming races shortly before drivers could switch to the intermediates.
“It doesn’t look like there’s a lot of water, it looks really ridiculous sometimes that we cannot run, but that’s just how it is,” Raikkonen continued.
“When there’s a river you lose absolutely control of the cars. We’ll see, if it rains like it supposed to rain I think it’s a very clear no-go.”
The big question now, as the storm has largely bypassed Suzuka, is how long it will take to dry with qualifying scheduled for 10am local time on Sunday.