Formula One drivers have voiced severe concerns over tyre warming performance ahead of a potentially wet Canadian Grand Prix at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve on Sunday, May 24, 2026.
Persistent light rain is threatening the Montreal track.
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Every official track session this year has been completely dry, except for a brief shower in Miami where drivers remained on slick tyres.
This leaves competitors with little experience regarding how the new generation of cars behaves in wet conditions.
Drivers Highlight Temperature Challenges
Lando Norris, McLaren driver, stated that the temperature issues would make the race highly unpredictable under the forecasted weather conditions.
"I think it could be an insanely tricky race," he said.
"It's difficult enough to get temperature into a soft tyre, let alone when it's 10 degrees colder tomorrow and we're going to have intermediates and wets on the car," Norris added.
The FIA previously reduced battery power delivery regulations from 350 kilowatts to 250 kilowatts for low-grip conditions to make the vehicles less challenging to control.
George Russell, Mercedes driver, noted that this still leaves hundreds of horsepower under the driver's right foot.
"I think what everybody is alluding to is just the tyres," Russell said. "That's going to be the biggest challenge.
These tyres only seem to work when they have sufficient temperature within them and with only 12, 13 degrees Celsius ambient tomorrow, it's going to be really challenging to get that rubber softened to give us the grip."
