One hour, 23 minutes. You could’ve squeezed most of a football match into the rain delay during Formula 1 qualifying for the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, and it looked for all the world like the session wouldn’t actually get going again.
A repeat of 2024, where qualifying was squeezed onto Sunday morning, looked likely. Yet, a saviour arrived when a break in the clouds emerged, and the circuit had dried just enough for safety car specialist Bernd Maylander to give his approval of the conditions. It scarcely stopped a handful of drivers from having a moan about the visibility, but they soon accepted that they needed to lock in and focus up on getting around the track.
This meant the use of the lesser-spotted full-wet tyre, or the “x-wet” per the F1 lexicon. Often derided as a tyre only fit for bumbling around on behind the safety car, the blue-walled Pirelli was actually holding up pretty well and proved perfect for the level of standing water around the circuit. Aquaplaning, where the tyre struggles to break the surface tension of the water on-track, was nonetheless prevalent – but water dispersal as the rain held off soon brought the track to a more driveable state.
The downside of using the extreme wet tyre lies in the greater water dispersal (according to Pirelli, around 85 litres of water per second) which drastically cuts visibility as the spray rooster-tails out the back of the car. Yet, the dispersal is a necessary evil: without it, the circuit would just remain wetter for longer.
Although the rain lights ensure that the driver behind has at least some level of visibility, selecting your braking zone remains tricky; poor visibility means the driver must find a reference point in their immediate circle of vision. Stopping distances are also considerably longer, so a driver needs a different marker to their usual point of pedal application in the dry.
Considering all these climatic challenges, it’s small wonder why race control takes a more tentative approach to wet conditions. Hence, it was a welcome surprise to see the session reopened – even if the circuit was still sodden with the afternoon downpour. Carlos Sainz reckoned that it was a “punchy” call from the FIA – but it only took a couple of laps to ensure the cars were more stable.
“It felt a bit punchy when we left on the x-wet because we were aquaplaning in sixth and seventh gear down the straights. And if you lose the car at those speeds, it’s always going to be a big one,” Sainz concluded after the session.
Carlos Sainz, Williams
Photo by: James Sutton / Formula 1 / Formula Motorsport Ltd via Getty Images
“Also, very little visibility when you were running close to a car, but we were not forced to run close to cars in quali, so you can create a bit of a buffer to see. But it was very sketchy for two laps.
“Then we managed to create that little bit of dry line and the tyres started working, the aquaplaning started to go away. Everyone managed to keep the car on track until the end of Q1, which was a bit of a surprise, to be honest.”
Liam Lawson agreed with Sainz’s view of the session, stating that “when we started, it was extremely sketchy – I think we were definitely pushing it. But I like the fact that we were out there and not in the garage; I think obviously it is risky, but there weren’t that many incidents.”
As expected, the wet conditions delivered chances to those usually not accustomed to fighting at the top; the free practice performance-chasing was effectively rendered obsolete and the power units had slightly more parity as the effects of top-end performance and acceleration were mitigated by the low-grip track conditions.
This put a bit more of a premium on low-speed downforce and, crucially, keeping the tyres warm across Q1 – although Fernando Alonso nonetheless noted that “the engine is very important in terms of drivability and the way it behaves in the corners, and we still have a little bit of an issue there”.
The approach through Q1 was, initially, simply about trying to set clean laps and hope that the progression of the circuit and the tyres would yield a lap-on-lap improvement.
Of course, each driver was tested on their reaction times in the event aquaplaning occurred, and the 2026 power units and the control over the rear brakes added another hurdle to overcome. But each driver (largely) became increasingly dialled in, watched as the laptimes improved, and then started to push the braking zones a little bit more as the circuit dried up.
There was a transition point in Q2, however, as the intermediates soon became the tyre to be on. With less standing water, the full wet was starting to overheat and was giving up performance in the middle part of the lap, initially enough to perhaps offset the dampness through the first and final sectors, before all three became much more suitable for the intermediate overall.
George Russell, Mercedes
Photo by: Alastair Staley / LAT Images via Getty Images
This meant that they could chase the track grip more, and it was evident that the times had begun to peak at the end of Q2 as the circuit approached its best conditions under the downpour. Getting the intermediate timing right, which Lawson reckoned he and his Racing Bulls team had nailed, was key to getting a couple of quicker laps in without risking the threat of falling off the circuit.
A few drivers struggled at this crossover, particularly with harvesting and braking into Turn 12 – Sainz and Ollie Bearman both had offs here, as newcomer Rafael Camara couldn’t get the car to slow down enough before he careened into the barrier at the close of Q2.
With more rain impending during Q3, it was more about a mad dash to get a clean lap in, rather than watching the progression. That’s perhaps when it felt most like ‘normal’ qualifying, as the tyres were effectively good enough for one lap with the expected downpour setting something of a timer.
It appeared that the majority of the drivers genuinely enjoyed the rare chance to tackle properly wet conditions, although some had a few qualms about the session restarting. George Russell surmised that “I love driving in the rain – but at some point, if that was a race, that was no way we should be driving in it – the chances of seeing a really, really horrific incident is very, very high.”
Perhaps there’s a bit of a split of opinion between the younger and older drivers; both Lewis Hamilton and Nico Hulkenberg expressed their enjoyment of wet conditions, while new champion Kimi Antonelli labelled them “the wettest conditions I’ve ever driven [in]. So it was not the nicest of experiences”; both he and Bearman said that the circuit was over the limit at the Q1 restart, although the latter conceded that the early running did at least contribute to the circuit improving.
Regardless, it was valuable data for each of the drivers ahead of Sunday’s race – where inclement weather is expected to play a role once again. And so begins the overnight discussions: does anyone risk a pit-lane start for a set-up change?
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