Why are F1 cars so bad in the wet?

Question

is it because they rely on aerodynamics for grip as they weigh so little so they have little grip at low speeds?

Answer 1

you have nearly got it but another reason is that because of the way that the grip is as soon as the wheel spins the it will not stop spinning and it will have to go back to the pits to change the wheel to get better grip

Answer 2

The rain doesn't affect the aerodynamics. It's the tyres, they have so little grip because of the water.

EDIT: 3utkarsh3 the CFD programs show that the rain does not affect the aerodynamics, but I guess they can be wrong.

Answer 3

no roof, no tc, power to weight ratio, shortish wheelbase

Answer 4

I think that its the GRIP in the Tyre's which matters than the Driver or the car it self, Even in a road car. In a Formula one Car, If the Tyre's are not warm enough they are absolutely waste.

I think you are in this doubt about this since the British GP. To tell you, the Silverstone circuit is a very fast circuit which requires no down-force or some thing like that. The cars earlier as we saw in the practice as well as in qualifying were not set to the Rainy conditions, ins-ted they were setup for a normal Dry race at the silverstone circuit. But with the invasion of rain on the track, The conditions are a bit tricky as there is involvement of Downforce and Aero updates, We saw this with Every car which came in the pits, I mean the Wing adjustments and stuff, So a Fast track+Rain makes a F1 car look Horrible!..........But intresting for the Viewers!!....By rain I mean allot of it!!

Answer 5

F1 cars are designed to run at their absolute limits.  They know exactly how much grip their tires can give them and add the proper amount of downforce for maximum speeds.  When it rains they basically lose all of their grip.  The same thing would happen if they ran with out a rear wing.

Also since they can not accelerate as fast as usual they are severely lacking downforce for cornering.

Answer 6

I would guess its the fact that they move at extreme rates of speed, and have racing slick tires. No grip plus the wetness of the track  would prove to be a challange in high spee rates of speed.

A heavy car can spin out in the water, so its not so much the weight as the tires.

Answer 7

actually f-1 cars have very low(and some times no) ground clearance...so when the tracks are wet there is sometimes water collecting upto 3mm thick at that point of times when cars arrive at that place(where the water is more) its like they are on a bump suddenly and the car skids off...so you can say its due to their reliance on aerodynamics causes it....

Answer 8

NO TRACTION CONTROL!!!

Answer 9

You're point of view is completely off. An F1 car is still very quick in the wet, but the speeds are much slower anyway. The pace car is not quicker at all. Even at 40 or 50 miles per hour F1 cars still generate a bunch of downforce. How well the car works depends on what the team does to the suspension. A car set up for a dry track is not as good in the wet as a car set up for the conditions.

Answer 10

they are not bad, just the drivers sucks

Answer 11

its because they have too much power and its very difficult to get that power down on the track when its wet and slippery. we all saw what happened with massa on sunday didn't we he just floored as soon as he got out of the corner and spun

Answer 12

The pace car certainly could not drive round a wet circuit faster than an F1 car. The full wet tyres that are used in F1 are capable of shifting 30 litres of water per second at 300km/ph.

The reason they do struggle behind the pace car in the wet is that F1 cars simply aren't designed to be driven slowly. The tyres cool down which adversely affects the grip, as they cool they lose pressure which affects the grip. As you pointed out, at low speeds the aerodynamic effects are all but redundant which means they are more prone to aquaplaning. Simply put, when an F1 car is up to speed with fully warmed tyres then in the wet they're practically untouchable.

Answer 13

They are fast witlh the rite tyres, and allot quiker than the saftey car.

Answer 14

One word: Aquaplane.

Answer 15

This year there is no traction control so the cars are going to be difficult to drive in the wet.

Answer 16

There's a certain power/grip ratio past which a car becomes very difficult to drive.

A car that weighs 600 kilos and outputs almost 800 horsepower may be just about tolerable in the dry but in the wet there's even less grip so it becomes undriveable.

Also, at very high speeds on wide tires, aquaplanning becomes a real concern, and you just have to hit a paddle of water and suddenly you're a passenger.

If it rains very heavily the cars may bottom out, not enough ride height to clear standing water.

Let's not forget that the track conditions constantly change as we saw in Silverstone, there's different tires for rain and heavy rain, we saw how much difference it makes to be on the wrong one.

When the heavy rain came , those on intermediates couldn't keep it on the road no matter what, not enough grooves to clear the standing water, not soft enough to keep any heat in them and grip.

It's possible for a driver of their talent to easily keep it together in those conditions, but the car has to be set up to match the conditions exactly.

They're purpose built racing machines, extremely sensitive to set up, so if it's not right for the conditions it's undrivable.

EDIT:MarkS25, no matter how slow they appeared to be going when the skies opened, even struggling on the wrong tire, the pace car just doesn't have the pace (hmmm) to keep up.

Answer 17

Any car is bad in the rain conditions, have no grip in the wet.

Indy-Racing-League don't race in the rain.

Answer 18

It is the tyres and the drivers. Not the cars.

Answer 19

the cars are great in the rain its just the driver wat drives it off the track