Why F1's 2026 cars should be better suited to racing in the rain · RaceFans

When System 1 deserted efforts to carry qualifying for its grand prix on Saturday afternoon at Sao Paulo, Lewis Hamilton determined to make some extent to the sequence’ CEO, Stefano Domenicali.

“You must have despatched us out,” the seven-times world champion chided the Liberty Media chief. “It’s ridiculous, we must always exit. I wish to exit. When you give us higher moist tyres and [tyre] blankets, we’ll have the ability to run on this.”

F1 drivers have criticised the efficiency of the sequence’ moist climate tyres for years, particularly the total moist climate tyre used when situations are at their worst. However Hamilton’s criticism solely addressed a part of the explanation why the session needed to be delayed till the next day.

“The choice was taken to not proceed with qualifying attributable to poor visibility, standing water on the monitor and fading gentle,” mentioned the FIA and F1 in a joint assertion on Saturday afternoon. Visibility – not tyre efficiency – was the overriding concern.

Together with the postponement of qualifying, the FIA and FOM took a choice which is just about unprecedented in fashionable F1: They moved the beginning time of the race ahead. We’ve got seen races delayed for rain many instances, however proactively bringing a begin ahead to keep away from an anticipated downpour was a uncommon transfer, and the proper one. It confirmed a lesson was discovered from the farcical 2021 Belgian Grand Prix.

However the important thing drawback stays that present F1 vehicles don’t race nicely within the rain. Aquaplaning in deep water is a part of the issue, however so is the plumes of spray thrown up by every passing automobile which make visibility progressively worse for every that passes by. This has all the time been an issue, nevertheless it has worsened in recent times, for 2 causes.

First, F1 launched wider tyres in 2017. This was a big change: The entrance and rear wheels turned nearly 25% wider. The whole tyre width for a single F1 automobile rose from 1,140mm to 1,420mm. With extra treaded rubber on the monitor’s floor, the quantity of water being lifted into every automobile subsequently elevated.

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The second vital change got here in 2022, when F1 overhauled its technical laws giving groups better freedom to make use of the stream of air beneath their vehicles to generate downforce. However a consequence of that is the bigger ‘tunnels’ and diffusers draw up much more water from the monitor floor and fling it into the air behind as they go.

That is partly why the FIA’s try to deal with F1’s moist climate visibility drawback utilizing wheel covers – dubbed ‘mudguards’ by some on account of their look’ – proved unsuccessful in real-world exams.

Nevertheless F1’s subsequent revision of its technical laws guarantees to make a step ahead in each respects. Tyre widths will probably be lowered, albeit to not 2016 widths, and the vehicles’ ground will probably be simplified.

Pirelli motorsport director Mario Isola expects the modifications to the ground could have a big impression. “The brand new vehicles will probably be fully completely different [on] the ground,” he advised RaceFans earlier this yr.

“For the time being, it’s true that a variety of water spray is coming from the tyres. However it’s additionally true that a variety of water spray is coming from the diffuser. Once they examined these ‘mudguards’ on the tyres it was clear that a variety of water and subsequently lack of visibility is coming from the water spray coming from the diffuser.

“So we are going to take into account the spray coming from the narrower tyre. I can’t think about that [will be] fully completely different to what we now have now, however the ground and the mechanism to generate downforce for the brand new 2026 tyres will probably be completely different.”

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How a lot of a distinction every change will make stays to be seen. F1’s 2026 tyres will nonetheless be wider than these used 10 years earlier. And the downforce lower initially envisaged underneath the subsequent technology of guidelines has been scaled again.

However nevertheless modest the change proves to be, if it helps keep away from the sort of disruption that occured final weekend, it will likely be welcome.