Hoffman900 wrote: ↑09 Oct 2022, 17:51
I’m requoting myself as I don’t think people have a grasp on that the issues with wet tires are 1) open wheel cars 2) the current aero concept to lift the wake up high 3) the better a wet tire works, the more water it displaces. F1 is going to always have these problems going forward.
Exactly so. The better the tyre is at moving water, the more water is off the surface and in the air. The more the cars are designed to lift the air behind them upwards, the more the water will likewise be lifted.
Some of that can be reduced by the use of wheel covers (mud guards) but they would need to extend quite close to the tarmac to catch and deflect the water back down on to the ground. Those guards would have to be FIA mandated parts or the teams will use them to create outwash. Any such guard will change the airflow going to the rest of the car so would probably need to be fitted in dry and wet conditions to ensure the cars weren't totally different in different conditions.
Or we just accept that driving an pen wheeled car in the rain is bloody difficult and visibility is always going to be atrocious and decide to either:
1. not run in the wet, or
2. just get on with it like they used to.
Drivers and teams say the wet tyre isn't good enough and that there isn't an overlap between the wet and inter. Well, that can be dealt with by Pirelli but the sport needs to accept it will create more spray in the process.
Ultimately, the issue isn't the tyres
per se, it's the politics and attitudes to running in the wet from the FIA, teams and drivers.
Today:
1994:
One might even say that the spray today was worse than in 1994, but if it is, it's because the tyres and the aero are lifting more water in to the air.
If you are more fortunate than others, build a larger table not a taller fence.