Pirelli needs to work on aquaplaning problem - Ericsson

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Marcus Ericsson says Pirelli needs to work on preventing aquaplaning with its wet tyres after a number of incidents during the Brazilian Grand Prix.

The Swede was one of a number of drivers to crash on the high speed run to the finish line, following Romain Grosjean in hitting the wall, with the Haas driver doing so on his way to the grid. After Ericsson’s crash, Felipe Massa hit the wall in the same place, while Nico Rosberg, Max Verstappen, Fernando Alonso, Sebastian Vettel and Sergio Perez all suffered spins in the same part of the track.

Kimi Raikkonen also crashed on the start finish line at the restart following Ericsson’s accident, and the Sauber driver - who was on intermediates at the time - believes the tyres need to be improved in such situations.

“Aquaplaning, white line, combination of both,” Ericsson told F1i when asked what caused his crash. “Up the hill was just so difficult. The rest of the track I think was very drivable but just that part from Turn 12 to the start finish line for some reason these last couple of years that’s the most difficult part.

“When we go high speed and there’s water, for some reason these tyres that we use at the moment you can’t go through standing water without having a big risk of losing the car. I was not the only one.

“For me if you look back ten years ago it was very drivable in these conditions and I think the rest of the track was very drivable but for some reason I think we need to work on being able to go through these pools of standing water without having this aquaplaning problem.

“The thing is, for a driver you cannot catch aquaplaning like that. You can if you're lucky and you get it right, but nine times out of ten you are in the wall. The tenth time you get like Max and just miss the wall by just half a metre. For me that is a difficult one.”

And Ericsson said the situation showed how difficult a call race director Charlie Whiting faced, with one section of track seeing so many incidents.

“For me I wouldn’t want to be in his shoes because it must have been really difficult. Like I said, 9/10 of the track was 100% drivable probably all afternoon, whereas apart from that Turn 12 to the start finish line which was probably not really drivable all the race. We want to be out and give a show to everyone and we want to race, that’s what we’re here for, but then it’s really difficult to know what’s right or wrong. So I wouldn't want to be in their shoes.”

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.