Pirelli F1 boss Mario Isola says a wet German Grand Prix would be a first for the tyre manufacturer this season as no team has yet run in the rain with its wet or intermediate tyres.
The heavens opened up over Hockenheim with just a few hours to lights out, with weather radars predicting more shower in the afternoon and thus a chance of witnessing the firs wet race of the year.
Apart from a dedicated Pirelli wet weather test enjoyed by Red Bull and Ferrari at Paul Ricard back in May, the supplier's compounds have not been put through their paces, making them an unknown quantity for most drivers.
"It will be interesting if we have a wet track, because nobody tested the wet and intermediate before," Isola said ahead of Sunday's event, quoted by Motorsport.com.
"We just have data coming from the tyre tests, but nothing coming from a race weekend. We had a few laps on intermediates, but nothing representative of proper wet conditions.
"They are different form 2018 because last year we had two compounds for intermediates, and two compounds for wets.
"One was for cold conditions and low severity circuits, the other one was for higher roughness and more severe circuits. This year we have just one.
"With the new product the wet is with a new compound, and also a different profile, and the intermediate is a different compound. Both are suitable for different conditions.
"This is the to make the life for the teams easier, because with two compounds and not a lot of testing, it was really difficult to understand the performance of the two compounds.
"But it's also true that they have not tested them before. So there is a bit of unknown going into the wet conditions."
Haas' Romain Grosjean hopes Pirelli's wet rubber is similar to the product that was used last year in wet conditions.
"We hope they're not too dissimilar to last year," said the Frenchman.
"We hope we know where the kind of window is, or the lower part of the window, and we hope we get there. There's not much you can do about the weather, so let's see."
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