About F1

Racing in the wet

F1 races go ahead in the rain. The teams have two kinds of grooved tyre for wet conditions, and plenty of drivers have made their names on wet days. What stops a race isn't the water on the track so much as the spray: at full speed, an F1 car throws up a cloud that leaves the driver behind almost blind.

The rules give race control several tools to deal with that, from starting the race behind the safety car to stopping it with a red flag.

Wet tyres

Pirelli brings two kinds of tyre for the wet:

  • Intermediates, with a green sidewall, for a damp track or light rain.
  • Full wets, with a blue sidewall, for heavy rain and standing water.

Before practice, intermediates and wets can only be used once the race director has declared the track wet.

In a dry race, every driver must use at least two different dry tyre compounds. Once a driver uses intermediates or wets during the race, that rule no longer applies to them. You can read more about the compounds in intermediate and wet tyres, and about choosing the right moment to switch in tyre rules.

All cars have a red light on the back. It must be switched on whenever a car is running on intermediates or wets, so drivers following through the spray can see it.

Warnings before the race

If the official forecast gives more than a 40% chance of rain during the race, the race director can declare a Rain Hazard. For a Grand Prix, it has to be declared at least 2 hours before qualifying starts. While a Rain Hazard is in force, teams are allowed to make some extra changes to cars in parc fermé, so they aren't stuck with a dry set-up for a wet race.

Starting in the wet

If the track is too wet for a normal start, the race begins behind the safety car. The race director can also make wet tyres compulsory. When that happens, every driver must stay on full wets until the safety car comes in, and changing to anything else in that time earns a stop-and-go penalty.

When the race director judges that conditions are good enough, the safety car pulls in at the end of a lap and the race gets going in one of two ways:

  • A standing start: the cars return to the grid and start from the lights as normal. This is now the usual choice. Races that began behind the safety car used to get going with a rolling start, which drivers felt gave the cars at the front too much of an advantage.
  • A rolling start: if the race director thinks a standing start isn't safe, the safety car pulls in and racing starts when the leader crosses the control line.

Every lap the safety car leads, minus one, is taken off the race distance. See the race start for the full procedure.

Low grip conditions in 2026

The 2026 cars have active aerodynamics: on straights, drivers can switch the front and rear wings to a low-drag "straight mode". In the wet, losing that much downforce on a straight could be dangerous.

So the race director can declare Low Grip Conditions. When that happens:

  • Only the front wing can move to its straight mode setting, and only in specific, shorter low-grip activation zones. The rear wing stays in corner mode.
  • Overtake mode is switched off.
  • The amount of electric power drivers can use is reduced on some parts of the track.

The race director can switch back to Normal Grip Conditions once the track dries.

Spray and visibility

Behind the safety car, cars normally have to stay within 10 car lengths of the one in front. In poor visibility the race director can stretch that to 20, so drivers aren't right in each other's spray.

The FIA has spent several years looking at ways to cut spray, including covers over the wheels, but rain is still the main reason races are delayed or stopped. Standing water causes aquaplaning, where the tyres ride on a layer of water and the car stops responding to the steering, and that's especially dangerous at high speed.

When it's too wet to race

If conditions get worse, the race can be stopped with a red flag. The cars wait in the pit lane, and the race restarts behind the safety car once the rain eases. The time spent waiting counts towards the 3-hour cap on the total race length. See race distance and time limits.

The 2021 Belgian Grand Prix is the most famous wet washout. Heavy rain at Spa meant the cars did only a few laps behind the safety car, with no green-flag racing at all, before the race was abandoned. Half points were given out, which caused an uproar and led to new rules on how many points a shortened race is worth. See points for shortened races.

Why wet races are often dramatic

Rain mixes up the order. Grip changes from lap to lap and corner to corner, set-ups that work in the dry may not work in the wet, and the call on when to switch between dry tyres, intermediates and wets can make or break a race. A team that comes in a lap too early or too late can lose a lot of time.

Drivers who are especially good in the rain have often scored their best results that way. Lewis Hamilton's win at Silverstone in 2008, by more than a minute, and Max Verstappen's win from 17th on the grid at Interlagos in 2024 are two of the best-remembered.