Quote:
Originally Posted by Richard Casto
If this "problem" (and I view the problem as "inability to race at all in heavy rain") was to become more frequent then maybe options should be examined. But right now, this is the very definition of a "corner case". This stuff is pretty rare. There are any number of other potential issues that might cause problems. It makes little or no sense to try to prevent relatively rare situations that don't have significant lasting impact. Especially if the solutions are baggage (physical and financial) that have to be carried all of the time (wet, dry or otherwise)
I believe the cost to solve these problems is not worth the benefit. I am very curious about your thoughts on this being a corner case and why you think it needs to be solved?
Richard
|
Well, we have had some more races now.
Let's take the last two:
- Singapore:
They postponed the race a whole hour so they could skip the full wets. That made the race less interesting because by allowing the track to become dry enough for inters, the racing line became dry much sooner obviously and overtaking off line was close to impossible.
- Japan:
The problem with spray/visibility from the combination of the wide tires and the ground effect was so severe that they could not even safely race from a standing start on inters. Let alone wets.
Now we know Pirelli's wets aren't as good as their inters, however I think it's hard to reason there is not a problem if inters or wets have plenty of grip and there is no problem with aquaplaning, but the drivers indicate the main problem is the visibility because of the spray. If you can't even start the race on inters because these wide tires cast up too much water and we are faced with delayed races, laps behind the safety car, inability to start on full wets and being deprived of more laps in wet conditions (which I and I suppose many find the most interesting), I don't think you can reasonably argue it's only a corner case problem any more and it's actually a systematic problem caused by the combination of the width of the tires and the ground effect of the current regulations.