After a meeting of the governing body’s Formula 1 Commission in Abu Dhabi chaired by president Mohammed Ben Sulayem, the FIA has provided details about plans concerning the safety of Formula 1 single-seaters. One of the issues that emerged was that of visibility for drivers in the wet. The idea that has been discussed is to equip the cars with removable standard body kits, likely to be in the form of “wheel arches” to be used only when the weather forecast indicates a race that could be heavily affected by the rain.
The Pirelli full wet tires are capable of extracting 150 liters of water per second, creating a cloud that reduces visibility for the drivers and leads to safety risks on the track, forcing the race direction not to start the Grand Prix or to interrupt it with the red flag until conditions improve.
The International Federation wants to go further, looking for solutions that can allow Formula 1 to race safely in the rain, without unacceptable outcomes such as that of the 2021 Belgian GP at Spa-Francorchamps, a race which was interrupted after a few laps behind the safety car following a four-hour wait, with half of the points being awarded.
This is a problem that drags on over time and has never been resolved: in 1969 at the Geneva Motor Show, Pinanfarina presented a single-seater derived from the Ferrari 312 equipped with a V12 engine. It was the Sigma Gran Prix that introduced new safety requirements and among these it adopted shapes that would have prevented the formation of water clouds in case of wet weather.
In 1986 Jean Pierre Jabouille, the French driver who had led Renault to its first victory in Formula 1 with the turbo engine in the 1979 French GP (which is remembered for the challenge between Gilles Villeneuve and René Arnoux) had studied the wheel arches with Motorsport expert Giorgio Piola: here is the proposal that emerged after seeing the McLaren flow diverter from the previous year. The concept was very interesting for the time, but nothing came of it.
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Now it’s a bit of a surprise that the idea is back on the table: the FIA is always very focused on improving safety and the F1 Commission has brought back in discussion a topic that is very important for drivers: visibility in the rain.
Nikolas Tombazis, FIA technical manager of the single-seater area, provided some more indications to Motorsport Italy after the issue was discussed in Abu Dhabi:
“The wheel arches we believe will only be fitted a couple of times a year, maybe three. Just to be clear, we don’t want it to happen every time there is a drop of rain, but we are concerned that the races on the calendar can be held regularly and episodes like the one in Spa in 2021 should not happened again. It was a moment which in any case left deep scars” – Nikolas Tombazis explained.
“It would have been ten times worse, I think, if we had gone all the way to Japan and had to pack up to go home if the GP hadn’t been held due to the typhoon. We have to protect ourselves from canceling a race given how many people watch Formula 1 on TV and how many spectators buy tickets, and teams would travel the world to a blocked event – that would almost be irresponsible. In those cases we have to protect ourselves from surprises and for what I’m saying the wheel arches could be seen in two or three races at the most, when you need to use the full wet tyres, not the intermediate tyres”.
The wheel arches will have to be removable but will they have an effect on the aerodynamics of the cars when they are fitted?
“We did a lot of CFD simulations because we want to make sure that the effect of these devices is relatively small on the overall dynamics. There’s still an influence, but it’s not big.”
“We are simulating rain droplets and studying how they generate splashes. What is more difficult to understand is the proportion of water that is evacuated from the rear diffuser compared to that of the tyres. Once we have all the data and a solution, we will build some prototypes and test them on some single-seaters to find validation from the track”.
What is your goal?
“I would expect to halve the effect of the sprays, for the same amount of water…”.
Will the wheel arches eventually be removed at a pit stop if the rain stops or conditions improve?
“No, no action will be done in a hurry. The assembly or removal of the wheel arches should be done when the race is stopped, before the start or after the red flag. And if conditions improve, the devices will remain on the car”.
What is the implementation idea?
“We would like to be ready with a kit in the second half of next year’s season, which means in time for the races where there is more chance of heavy rain. But as it is clear to everyone by now, it is a challenge that we must all overcome together and there are various aspects to take into account that must be addressed and resolved. We haven’t given ourselves a date, but I’d like us to be ready for the 2024 championship.”
If they were to become irrelevant on aerodynamics, the wheel arches could also become fixed elements of Formula 1 cars in the future.
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