Vettel surprised track dried so quickly after stoppage

2013 Brazilian Grand Prix

Posted on

| Written by

Sebastian Vettel said he was surprised to be able to use intermediate tyres in the final part of qualifying despite a lengthy delay due to rain.

Vettel said it “took a long time for us to get out” in Q3, which was postponed by 40 minutes due to the amount of water on the track.

“There was a lot of rain after Q2, already at the end of Q2 and then we needed to wait,” said Vettel. “If there’s too much water on the track it’s a shame for the people who wait for us to come out but it’s too much water and the risk of aquaplaning is too high. And it took a long time.”

“And then got out, I was surprised by how much of the water had gone. Went straight on intermediates, was able to get a very, very good lap in straight away.”

Both of Vettel’s lap times on intermediate tyres at the end of the session were quicker than his rivals could manage.

“Tried to get in a second to try to beat that, it was very close, so with both my laps I was very happy,” Vettel continued. “Surprised by the margin, and when I was told I was very happy.”

“Great in these conditions to get it all right,” he added. “We had very little practice and still got the car where we wanted it to be in the end, so very happy.”

2013 Brazilian Grand Prix

Browse all 2013 Brazilian Grand Prix articles

Image © Red Bull/Getty

Author information

Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

Got a potential story, tip or enquiry? Find out more about RaceFans and contact us here.

19 comments on “Vettel surprised track dried so quickly after stoppage”

  1. There was no need for any type of delay. They should have gone out in wets and figure it out in those 10 minutes, the better man winning. It wasn’t really coming down at all, just some normal rain… that was quite disappointing.

    1. Fully agree. If average rain is too dangerous, then why do F drivers need full wet tyres? They could only have intermediates and if it’s too wet for intermediates, then stop the session.

      1. Has been quite some time I don’t understand why they keep full wet tyres. There is not point to use them anymore, race will always be red flag or SC anyway … And they don’t run quali … Would be nice to drop them and bring more inter and it’s a win for everyone : more running for the fans on friday and appropriate tyres to race and if it gets dangerous, as you said, stop it (they would stop anyway on full wet as there is no visibility)

    2. 100% agree. I was getting so annoyed, thinking how it wasn’t so bad at all. If that happens in the race tomorrow will they stop it? I hope not. @osvaldas31 hit the nail on the head. This is exactly what I thought

      If average rain is too dangerous, then why do F drivers need full wet tyres? They could only have intermediates and if it’s too wet for intermediates, then stop the session.

      Seriously. What is the point in having wet tyres at all?????? The moment they get anything near to using them we see a red flag.

  2. Sebastian Vettel said he was surprised to be able to use intermediate tyres in the final part of qualifying despite a lengthy delay due to rain.

    In other words, full wet tyres are basically useless in Formula 1 today.

    1. OmarR-Pepper (@)
      23rd November 2013, 19:33

      +2 FIA and Pirelli maybe fear the full wet tyres can degrade / don’t work / explode and when weather is totally rainy it’s dangerous by default, so why to add weird Pirellis to the equation?

    2. +3

      The moment it gets anywhere near full wets it is too wet and we get a red flag

  3. This has been a trend in recent seasons and since they moved the malaysian & chinese to later in the day. Martin Brundle summed it up, no one wants to see messy pileups in the wet but the drivers have the tires and it’s down to them to drive to the conditions.

    Look at Silverstone 2008, Hamilton pretty much lapped the field and Massa couldn’t keep his car in a straight line. FIA should let them get on with it and they can always red flag it if cars can’t stay on the track.

    1. Massa couldn’t keep his car in a straight line.

      Neither could Kimi.
      Both Ferrari’s spun 4 times that race & both drivers said the car wasn’t that drivable in the wet, Hence why Kimi lost so much time to Lewis when the rain started at Spa a few races later.

  4. I also don’t buy into this “lets blame Pirelli”. They were given a directive and have supplied tyres accordingly. If they had the testing they have been crying out for we probably would have avoided the Silverstone Exploding Tyre fiasco and they having to change back to 2012 construction and handing Finger Boy & co an unbeatable advantage

    1. @bobby-balboa They should have said to the FIA ” allow testing or no butter tyres ” Instead they choose to play with fire and got hurt .

  5. Watching 2003 Brazil gp on sky right now. If conditions were like these today the race would be red flagged for a long time. And I agree that safety should come first but this is just too much, they are ruining wet races which used to be the most entertaining

  6. “If there’s too much water on the track it’s a shame for the people who wait for us to come out but it’s too much water and the risk of aquaplaning is too high.”

    I’m sorry, I disagree Mr Vettel. The full wets are perfectly capable tyres as Martin Brundle testified, so the aquaplaning risk would only be too high when 60l/s is not enough to displace the water around the track: the conditions looked perfectly acceptable to me today.

    1. Yes, I agree. The race or session should only be stopped if the heavy rain tyres are not capable of displacing the amounts of water..

      What was even the trigger for taking such overly careful decisions from 2008/2009 on?

      1. It might be the new cars I think @xenomorph91 – apparently they kick up the spray much more and hence impede visibility more than the pre-2009 cars.

        Personally I don’t think it can be that bad though that by the time they are allowed out they are straight on intermediates!

    2. Vettel disagrees with himself ! We have reached a tipping point , history is made ;-) @vettel1

  7. Drivers back Brazil qualifying delay
    From the article Webber, Button and Rosberg all agree with the decision.

  8. If the people who always complain about the Delays/Safety Cars & Red Flags during the wet spent just a few laps in these conditions in an open wheel car they would fully understand the reason for them.

    Its fine to say ‘they have wets’ & ‘There meant to be the best drivers in the world’, However when you have standing water full wets don’t help & you can be the best driver in the world ever in the wet & your still going off.

    Martin Brundle spoke on sky about how the wets were fine when he drove them at Silverstone, However Silverstone’s been repaved recently & the new tarmac gives a lot of grip in the wet.
    Plus he only drove on the short south circuit & the bottom half of the track has traditionally featured less standing water than the top half.

    Interlagos has always been worse in the wet than a lot of other circuits because the water runs down the grass banks & across the circuit, They cut grooves into the track in places but its still an issue. Also Interlagos has an older track surface which gives less grip in the rain.

    Something else to consider is that the track cameras often make conditions look better than they actually are as they don’t always pick up how hard the rain is falling, How dark is really is & its sometimes difficult for them to pick up all the puddles & especially how deep they are.

Comments are closed.