F1 drivers and teams are braced for a wet race in China on Sunday – which could make for an exciting afternoon.
Firstly, this could be a chance for the FIA to make use of the new rule which means we can have a standing start on the grid after the cars run behind the safety car for a while in order to dry the track.
In recent years, cars have started line astern behind the safety car in wet conditions, creating an anti-climax for spectators and TV viewers.
Secondly, the teams have very little experience of the latest wet and intermediate tires. There was some running on an artificially soaked track in Barcelona last month, but since then Pirelli has introduced a new wet, with a softer compound. Teams did very little running with it on Friday, with Red Bull, Force India and Sauber not trying the wet at all. Most drivers did just one installation lap on the new wet.
Drivers have no real knowledge about the crossover points from wets to intermediates to slicks, or how falling out of the right tire temperature will impact performance.
Rain will clearly create an opportunity for the likes of Max Verstappen – who starts 17th – to come through the field.
“I heard it’s going to be wet potentially, to start off the race,” said Lewis Hamilton. “I’ve not driven the wet tire this season, so that’s going to be fun, to experience the bigger car, wider tires for the first time. I mean I did an out lap yesterday on the extreme, but it was a very slow lap, so I’ve not actually experienced it. So tomorrow will be a new lesson for me to learn if it is wet.”
“We don’t know what the conditions are going to be like,” said Sebastian Vettel. “We’ll see. I think it should be an exciting race nevertheless. Obviously very limited running yesterday, hardly any for me. I think I did two laps [in the wet] but nobody really did a lot of laps, so we’ll see. The car is good, the car is fine, so I’m confident, no matter the conditions that the car is working, and then we try to do the fastest race.”
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