2025 Belgian Grand Prix - Spa-Francorchamps, July 25 - 27

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The problem is mainly the floor, which creates too much spray, not so much the tires.

[CjC]

How/Why have Pirelli not been replaced after failing to deliver wet weather tyres for an entire regulation set.

They don’t race in the wet due to the lack of viability.
My understanding is that a wet tyre creates grip by displacing water which creates the spray which is the sole factor to the poor viability.

Can any tyre manufacturer make a tyre that grips in the wet with out making spray?

Possible options to reduce spray are:
to fit mug/ spray guards to the cars- which some will complain about.
Reduce the speed of the cars- could potentially use the pit limiter.
Or actually run the tyre they already have which produces little spray- the slicks they use in the dry

[CjC]

The problem is mainly the floor, which creates too much spray, not so much the tires.

You’ve got in before I posted with another point.

Does the spray get sucked into the floor and thrown out the back?

I guess it does, remembering back to the ‘good ol’ days’ when we saw huge rooster tails coming out of the back of the cars

[chrisc90]

Race control and some drivers are an absolute joke for how this race was run and the comments made.

Just goes to show something when you have 2 drivers with 11x WDC’s between them calling for the race to have started a good hour earlier.

[CjC]

So yea most of the wet races in the past 4 seasons have been sanitised by race control.

Whether that’s a good or bad thing is down to your own opinion and that will be decided by your own agendas I guess.

At least acknowledging that it's a thing is a step forward for the discussion. You seemed to be denying it was a thing at first.

I can understand some extra level of caution in certain situations, but I think we've very much stepped way too much into overcautious territory where proper wet running is almost not allowed anymore as a rule. I feel like that's a very big loss to the sport and to the spectacle of seeing these drivers being able to showcase their talents in such tough conditions. It also makes it a joke that full wet tires even exist when you'd be a fool to use them since race direction will almost certainly punish you for doing so, even if it's the right choice at the time.

No I wasn’t denying anything, just asking for some input from your end to remind me of wet races which have or haven’t been sanitised before or during the race.

Honestly I can’t think of many which weren’t sanitised over the past 25 years maybe Turkey ‘20? Monaco ‘07, Fuji ‘07, Silverstone ‘08, Brazil 02

Brazil ‘03 and the epic Canada ‘11 were both red flagged. Malaysia ‘09 too

Honestly off the top of my head I’m struggling to remember many un sanitised wet races which you may have enjoyed- that’s not to say there wasn’t any.

A pattern I am seeing is the introduction of the Pirelli tyres- maybe GrizzeBoy is right are Pirelli not doing a good enough job or was their introduction to the sport coincided with faster and faster cars with better aerodynamics which are giving Pirelli a hiding to nothing?

[CjC]

Race control and some drivers are an absolute joke for how this race was run and the comments made.

Just goes to show something when you have 2 drivers with 11x WDC’s between them calling for the race to have started a good hour earlier.

Hmmmm the 2 drivers who altered their cars the most for a wet race and who had the most to gain.

[chrisc90]

Race control and some drivers are an absolute joke for how this race was run and the comments made.

Just goes to show something when you have 2 drivers with 11x WDC’s between them calling for the race to have started a good hour earlier.

Hmmmm the 2 drivers who altered their cars the most for a wet race and who had the most to gain.

Not forgetting the others who changed setup from the sprint to the race

[ismail1991]

Race control and some drivers are an absolute joke for how this race was run and the comments made.

Just goes to show something when you have 2 drivers with 11x WDC’s between them calling for the race to have started a good hour earlier.

Hmmmm the 2 drivers who altered their cars the most for a wet race and who had the most to gain.

Why shouldnt have they done it? The officials said race will start in wet conditions and they made their plans according to that. If they knew f1 was a dry weather sport now, they wouldnt have done so

[SiLo]

Max saying they could have started at hour earlier tell you all you need to know. Once the cars do a few laps the spray reduces quite a lot. Visibility is up to the driver to deal with, really they should just be worried about cars aquaplaning and that's it. If you can't see much, drive slower.

[hollus]

Drive slower in the fastest straight? That will increase safety, 120% for sure!

[Seerix]

Interesting point of view, I see "Max said, Lewis said", what did other 18/20 drivers say? The opinion of 18/20 field is relevant as well, isn't it?
Max saying anything is definitely NOT all you need to know when he is the guy betting on higher downforce.

[ismail1991]

Most of the epic races we all have seen were mostly in wet. Most people say we want to see the talent of the drives. We want cars close to each other and may the best guy to win. It is only possible in the wet races. If we will not have wet races, what is the point of intermediate and wet tyres. So drivers who don't want to race in wet or want more laps to get fully dry like some individual who made many mistakes and lost the race once again yesterday, maybe they shouldn't occupy that seat and someone deserving has their place.

[Juzh]

Interesting point of view, I see "Max said, Lewis said", what did other 18/20 drivers say? The opinion of 18/20 field is relevant as well, isn't it?
Max saying anything is definitely NOT all you need to know when he is the guy betting on higher downforce.

Max didnt cry on radio in silverstone with a toothpick wing when it was pouring it down.

[basti313]

Most of the epic races we all have seen were mostly in wet.

You mean epic driver performances?
I do not know about really epic races...mostly there was one dominating driver and many things that were rather painful to watch in the last years. Thinking about the Merc mayhem in 2019 and Vettel the year before...that were not better races than the Mercs crashing in Spain. Same for Oz this year, where we had a perfect spray...it just mixed the field, but not really better or worse than a usual dry race.

[Seerix]

Interesting point of view, I see "Max said, Lewis said", what did other 18/20 drivers say? The opinion of 18/20 field is relevant as well, isn't it?
Max saying anything is definitely NOT all you need to know when he is the guy betting on higher downforce.

Max didnt cry on radio in silverstone with a toothpick wing when it was pouring it down.

What does that have to do with anything? I asked about the opinion of OTHER drivers and you come right back to Max?
What Max says or does is not holy bible whether he is right or wrong. Him being in line with someone's opinion of forum does not make it correct.
I am not saying he is wrong, I am just asking what did other drivers think out of curiosity. I did not hear all drivers reactions, all I saw was a top3 press conference after the race where they all said it was mostly ok (perhaps the SC could have done 1-2 laps less) considering SPA being dangerous track.