Formula 1 now researching wet weather racing solutions

Formula 1 and the FIA have initiated a research program into finding solutions to improve wet weather racing in the future.

This year's Belgian Grand Prix, which was undermined by adverse conditions and halted after the field had completed a handful of laps behind the safety car, revealed once again how F1's current generation of cars are ill-suited for wet weather racing.

The truncated event led to a call from FIA president Jean Todt for F1 to conduct research into how design changes could potentially help mitigate the effects of the rain, in terms of track grip but also more importantly regarding visibility as F1 cars throw up a massive amount of spray.

In an online conference with the media on Monday, F1's managing director of motorsport Ross Brawn said that a research program dedicated to wet weather racing is now underway.

"In terms of rain there's been some quite interesting work starting to be done now on the spray and the visibility," said Brawn.

"Pat Symonds and some of the FIA people spoke to some of the drivers in the last couple of races about their experiences at Spa, and their general experiences, particularly drivers who have raced other cars.

"Fernando [Alonso] was quite interesting because he said the ability to race in the rain is much better in a sportscar than it is in an F1 car.

"And in some aspects you'd think it might be quite challenging, with a windscreen and the wipers and all the rest of it, but he said the way the spray comes off the car is different."

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Brawn suggested that next year's all-new F1 designs should reduce the amount of spray generated by a car on a wet track.

"We're going to study the spray of the new cars," he added. We have some thoughts that it might be a little bit improved. But it's definitely something we're going to look, to see how we change things.

"The two big issues in wet racing are visibility and aquaplaning. The aquaplaning is a challenge for tyres, and beyond a certain point you can't resolve it.

"But the visibility is maybe something we can improve, and has now entered into our list of things that we're we're looking at, and seeing if we can have an influence on and make an improvement."

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