What is the point of "Wet" tires

[rmassart]

Ignoring for a second the safety implications of racing in the wet, I do not understand why the race didn't simply continue despite several drivers crashing out in the opening lap. This was a poor decision by the race control, on a day of terrible decisions.

Racing was difficult and visibility almost zero, but these things get better with time as the field spreads out.  If some drivers couldn't keep their cars on the track, then they should have been on full wets. Maybe it should have been mandated. But if the race then has to be stopped because of the poor visibility from the spray, the question I have is: what on earth are the full wets for, if when they are used the spray is so bad the race is stopped.

I realise they had to clear Sainz's car, but we then waited an hour and a half for the conditions to NOT improve significantly before finally going racing again, this time on full wets. They could have done this immediately after clearing the car... 

If racing in the wet has been become such a safety issue then

1) stop scheduling races in the wet season
2) cancel the race if it is raining and reimburse the poor fans who will stumped up hundreds or thousands of dollars to attend.

The second point can be dealt with through appropriate insurance against the weather. This might also help them with the scheduling - no insurer will insure against heavy rain, a race scheduled in the Japanese typhoon season...

[Jericoke]

I can't really blame the FIA for being safety conscious, and not running in weather where the full wets are the right choice.  Seems like a waste of money to design/manufacture/transport useless tires.

I agree, it shouldn't be hard to schedule races for when monsoon rain is unlikely (though it's not possible entirely), so the FIA needs to take the blame for not asking a meteorologist when a good time to race is.

[cosworth151]

I think a good bit of the problems with a very wet start could be eased if the did them as a rolling start rather than a standing start. Let them do a lap or two behind the Safety Car then let'em go. They would all be at the same speed so the cars that fail to get traction in the wet surface won't turn into a slalom course for the cars that do get traction.

[Willy]

Great point about Monsoon Season. It is not a surprise (at least not to the locals) that monsoons occur every year around the same time. Just as the eastern North American continent gets hurricanes at the same time (thereabouts) each year, monsoons are a yearly event.
The FIA or Liberty (whomever actually does the race schedule) can easily work around weather events that they know have a window.
I understand moving teams around the planet can be expensive and they try to set up races in countries that are close together but they still jet into Canada for one and then back to Europe easily so it can be done.

They should have a mandate for wet tires that require full wets if there is X amount of water on track and inters for a Y amount.

[Dare]

I thought why race in the monsoon season but found this


Does Japan Get monsoons?
Image result for when is monsoon season in japan
Generally, the monsoon in Japan falls in the beginning of June and lasts upto the mid of July. Though some parts of Japan including Okinawa Islands start experiencing rainy season a month earlier itself.

[rmassart]

I think early October is the tail end of the typhoon season in Japan. So still a risk of heavy rain.

[cosworth151]

I remember back in 2019 on the weekend of the Japanese GP, the Suzuka area was brushed by Typhoon Hagibis. Free Practice 3 was cancelled and Quali moved to Sunday morning before the race. There was talk at the time of moving the race to Monday but the FIA said no way.

[Alianora La Canta]

Ignoring for a second the safety implications of racing in the wet, I do not understand why the race didn't simply continue despite several drivers crashing out in the opening lap. This was a poor decision by the race control, on a day of terrible decisions.

The drivers couldn't see (several went past the crane at point-blank range and didn't know until the post-race interviews) and it's not clear the marshals could see each other's flags either. The latter is the decades-old regulation that requires the FIA to stop a race (at any level), and continuing when the drivers cannot obey the necessary flag signals due to visibility problems is futile at best.

You can blame the displacement of the tyres for this - there has never been a tyre so good at disposing of water on a raceable compound, but because it ends up hanging in the air and getting in the way of everyone else's visibility, it means the extreme is only usable at slow speed (so good for Monaco and Hungary, less good for anywhere that has a strong sense of flow or long straights followed by medium-speed corners) and as we saw on Sunday, even the intermediate has limits.

If the drivers could see where they were going, it would have been easily raceable. They couldn't, so it was completely unraceable. Yes, a couple of people have practised driving blindfolded in the simulator. No, it doesn't help with seeing flags.

I would therefore go for 3) tell Pirelli to make an intermediate tyre that displaces less water but tends to do so more sideways instead of straight upwards and backwards. This would make a minimally raceable tyre even on fast circuits, at the expense of some of the lower-grip window that visibility prevents F1 from using in any case. (The extreme can stay as is, for slow tracks and helping to clear tracks behind the Safety Car).

The problem with trying to avoid the wet season in Japan is that the typhoon season (which is usually what bothers F1) runs from May to the end of September - with August and September being the most typhoon-filled. Monsoon season is a different pattern peaking at the end of June. It would arguably be better to run Japan in either April or November, but April's taken with other events and November runs a risk of frost.

[Alianora La Canta]

They should have a mandate for wet tires that require full wets if there is X amount of water on track and inters for a Y amount.

Sadly the FIA didn't accept a recommendation to stop the race if there was Z amount of water (or light), preferring to depend on Race Control opinion and marshal visibility of each other respectively. No chance of convincing them to set thresholds on the basis of less water

[Scott]

Fenders...detachable fenders mandated for wet races.  Clip on clip off, so if things brighten up or suddenly get wet, the FIA can call a 5 min race stop or mandatory pit stop to equip or un-equip the cars with small standardized rain guards to keep the water on the track.

If they've got wet tires, they need to be able to use them.  And if wet specialists arent able to show off their skills, we will miss the next Vettel.

[John S]

Fenders...detachable fenders mandated for wet races.  Clip on clip off, so if things brighten up or suddenly get wet, the FIA can call a 5 min race stop or mandatory pit stop to equip or un-equip the cars with small standardized rain guards to keep the water on the track.

For us poor old Brits Scott does Fender translate to Mudguard, or were you thinking of something else? 

Also wouldn't mudguards/fenders/rain guards keep the track wet for longer. Most of the commentators who are ex drivers regularly tell us that open wheel cars, especially F1 cars, can dry out tracks much, much faster than hot blowers.

[cosworth151]

I think you Brits would call it a wing. What you call a mudguard we would call a mud flap (and put a chrome silhouette of a reclining woman on it.)

[John S]

We got mud flaps too Cossie, not as artistic as yorn though.   
They can be added to the bottom of wheel arches on wings or on mudguards.

For us wings are joined to the body work over the wheels, F1 cars would look like open cockpit Le Mans racers with those. 

I reckon Mudguards like on pedal bikes or M/cycles is what Scotty is thinking of. Sort of summat that clips over them funny wheel brows that exist at the mo, not sure how they'd fix on rear wheels. 

[cosworth151]

I was thinking something like what was on the previous generation of IndyCars. I can't imagine the teams not screaming about any addition would ruin their carefully developed aero.