Well, they couldn’t be worse than the full wet…
The year is 2032, pirelli introduces the new “Super-semi-inter-softs” as part of an effort to smooth the performance gap between the C16 and C17 compounds.
In all seriousness though, it seems like an issue definitely in need of a solution. The wet racing is plagued by many things and it seems both pirelli and F1 are scrambling to fix some of them, but the general vibe i got from this article is that perhaps they aren’t communicating enough what the goals are. Is the main problem the spray? Or how about the speed? Certainly an interesting problem, the best wet tire in the world means nothing if the teams just switch to a faster tire the moment they think they can get a way with it. Great read, thanks!
The problem is the spray not the tyre itself. At the wetness level at which the wets are relevant, the spray is so much that we can’t race. By the time we can get back to racing, it is no longer wet enough for wets
I think this nails the issue perfectly. It’s a tough call on the right solution.
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How about just not making the full wets absolutely useless?
While the new Full Wets still seem to leave a lot to be desired, this is more to do with visibility and spray.
During conditions that would call for Full Wets, the spray produced by current cars makes visibility so bad that FIA will always choose to red flag. This means the tire is functionally useless regardless of its actual performance.
I actually agree with Mario Isola here; if this is the case we might as well toss out Wets/Inters and just make one super-inter with a wider window.
I would of course love to have real wet races again, but the massive rooster-tail spray of these ground effect cars makes it a dangerous proposition. FIA is not going to want to take any risks, especially in the wake of a recent fatality due to weather.
Who was the recent fatality due to weather?
I think the next rule set needs to seriously incorporate the back spray into the designs to mitigate it. With climate change we’re only going to be racing in the wet more and more.
Realistically we’ll see Spa and Interlagos dropped for 2 more street courses in the middle of a desert. My expectations for Domenicalli and his buddies are pretty low.
With climate change happening, it could be a good idea. But still can’t see it addressing spray problems. Radar on the cars? AR HUDs?
