Four names at the front of the grid landed on the same verdict after Interlagos. The intermediate and the full wet, the drivers told reporters, are not safe enough, and the problem could follow the sport to Nevada even in the dry.

Carlos Sainz, the Grand Prix Drivers’ Association director who moved to Williams last year, was the bluntest.

“The intermediate and rain tyres aren’t good enough,” Sainz told reporters after Sunday’s race.

He also said the intermediate loses its rear in mixed conditions, and that by the time it is up to temperature the front is already worn out.

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Hadjar flags Q1 aquaplaning

Isack Hadjar, promoted to Red Bull Racing alongside Max Verstappen for the 2026 season, aimed his complaint at Saturday’s qualifying session at Interlagos.

“I didn’t think there was a crazy amount of water on the track, and yet to me it felt like there was too much aquaplaning,” Hadjar told f1-fansite.

He described the opening three laps of Q1 as “quite dangerous”, and said drivers had to wait before the intermediate came alive at all.

Verstappen wants a wider operating window

Verstappen, who finished second in Brazil after starting from the pit lane, framed it as a working-range problem rather than a compound problem.

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“When they’re hot, it’s okay, but when they’re cold, they’re really like a rock,” the Dutchman told reporters.

He called for a wider operating window on both the Extreme Wet and the intermediate.

Norris’s warning is aimed at Vegas

Norris, who won at Interlagos on Sunday, was not describing Brazilian rain. The McLaren driver was thinking about a dry Las Vegas, where a late-November night start on street tarmac makes heat generation hard enough on slicks before any rain appears.

“I think the scary times are if you go to Vegas and you can’t get any tyre temperature. You need a much better tyre than what we have here because that’s going to be horrible,” Norris told f1-fansite.

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The Las Vegas Grand Prix weekend starts Thursday 19 November at the Las Vegas Strip Circuit, with the race on Saturday 21 November, according to Formula 1’s own timetable.

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