OPINION | It's goodbye to F1's full-wet tyre and hello red-flags and race stoppages

During the 2022 Japanese Grand Prix, viewers and fans in attendance were treated to two hours of on-track inactivity.

Of course, this was brought about by the rain and adverse weather conditions, with social media users vehemently joking that the full-wet tyre is just about the most useless thing in Formula 1.

And why wouldn't fans feel that way? Is the tyre not supposed to be there for such conditions? To make racing possible when it otherwise would not have been possible? These are pertinent and relevant questions, yet Race Control opted to suspend the race and not allow for any running to occur.

The funny thing is, though, the rain fizzled down about 30 minutes before the race resumed with 40 minutes remaining. And when it resumed, a dry line formed almost immediately, with everyone switching to the Intermediate tyre. And again, fans asked: Why did the race not resume earlier? Why delay if a dry line had formed so quickly in subsiding rain?

Though Race Control put the safety of the 20 F1 drivers above everything else, both the drivers and fans feel robbed of a decent race.

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When K-Mag sees a gap he doesn't hold back ??#JapaneseGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/Kzlf66U1z2

Where is the logic?

In F1's earlier years, it would have been no problem to go racing in treacherous conditions. Both teams and drivers would relish the opportunity to go racing and testing their mettle, so why not this past Sunday?

Remember Spa 1998, when more than half the field was involved in a massive pile-up? Yet, racing resumed. Remember Monza 2008 when Sebastian Vettel took the victory for Toro Rosso in trying conditions? Remember Japan 2014 when Jules Bianchi's