No more racing in the rain? FIA makes startling admission
The Belgian Grand Prix once again showed Formula 1’s vulnerability: rainfall, and by the looks of it, it won't get any better any time soon.
At Spa-Francorchamps, the race was delayed by around 80 minutes due to visibility concerns, with Red Bull Senior Race Strategy Engineer Stephen Knowles calling it a 'real problem.'
"We have a real problem with visibility and I don't think that you could have changed it massively.
"We might have got going a bit earlier, but I don't think it would have been a totally different story.”
The large and heavy cars of this era generate huge amounts of downforce through the underfloor, which sucks water up and kicks it high up into the air, creating a cloud of blinding spray.
The FIA has spent years working on solutions, including wheel covers designed to divert water, but the results have been underwhelming.
“They do have a bit of an effect, they don't have a significant enough effect to say that that's the solution. Therefore we are back to square one," admitted FIA single-seater boss Nikolas Tombazis, to Motorspor.com.
Until the 2026 regulations arrive, which will bring about smaller diffusers, narrower tyres and lighter cars, little is expected to change.
F1's yet to solve the rain puzzle
Rain races at Spa have long been viewed as risky, particularly after the fatal accidents of Anthoine Hubert in 2019 and Dilano van ’t Hoff in 2023.
The 2025 Belgian GP only reinforced those fears, as drivers including Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton criticised the lengthy delay, while others like George Russell, Fernando Alonso and Charles Leclerc defended the race director’s caution.
For now, the FIA concedes there is no short-term fix, as their tests and investigations into the matter have yielded very little in terms of results.
The underlying danger remains: one car spinning on a soaked track could lead to others crashing blindly into it.
As Knowles put it, "I don't envy race control in that situation." Until next year's rule change, at the very least, wet-weather racing is set to remain Formula 1’s unsolved puzzle.
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