De la Rosa Calls for Tyre Regulations Change

Jaguar driver Pedro de la Rosa has called for the FIA to change the regulations concerning the numbers of allowed tyres during a Grand Prix weekend following a wet Friday practice for the San Marino Grand Prix.

The current regulations allow a total of seven wet weather set of tyres during the three days of a Grand Prix, that including the intermediates that were used by most of the teams during the second session today, when the Imola circuit began to dry up.

Spaniard de la Rosa, who today set the 16th quickest time, claimed seven sets will not be enough if the weather, as predicted, stays the same during the rest of the Grand Prix weekend.

"In horrendous weather conditions like this, it highlights the need to re-address the regulations on the numbers of tyre sets we are permitted to use," said de la Rosa. "If the whole weekend proves to be wet, we will not have enough wet tyres to get through our job list before race day.

"The grooved tyre regulation of having three sets available on a Friday should also be applied to the wets. Today, for example, we have been hanging around for fear of not wanting to waste a set of tyres. A total of seven wet sets also includes the intermediates and this isn't enough.

"If we had used three sets today, for example, that would leave us with a total of four to cover tomorrow's warm-up, qualifying and the race. The fans deserve to see more cars on the track and this regulation isn't conducive to achieving maximum mileage in wet conditions."