Soon no more rainy races ?: & # 34; Prayed at every restart & # 34;

T he stories sound like war reports . The rain battle in Brazil is still on the mind of many drivers. Because the Brazilian GP was one of the most dangerous races in recent years. With a near collision between Kimi Räikkönen and Esteban Ocon. Two drivers had death before their eyes.

Kimi Räikkönen dismissed the incident by saying that he didn't want to worry about things that didn't happen. Still, he admitted that it was one of the more dangerous moments of his career. Ocon went into more detail: “That was really tight and incredibly dangerous. I only saw the Ferrari at the last moment. I think that if you look the danger in the eye, you will react better. ”

“ I heard about the accident on the radio. But do you want to brake there? ”

Nico Hülkenberg admitted that he hadn't seen anything. “I vaguely recognized that a car was standing across in front of me. Then I drove over debris. That was a real blind flight. I tried to stay as close to the car in front as possible so that I could maybe see his taillight. But even that wasn't possible. It was a real ride on the razor blade, and at every restart I prayed that nobody would fly in front of me. '

Felipe Massa says the same thing:' You drove into a white wall. I only knew about Kimi's accident because my race engineer yelled 'Accident, Accident' over the radio. I'm off the accelerator for a moment, but I'm back on it because I was afraid someone would hum on me in the back. Kimi's car? I didn't see it at all. ”

The view of things doesn't just apply to the front. Hülkenberg says that he didn't see anything from behind either. “I pushed Ocon off the track at Turn 3. Honestly, I only noticed him when he was lying next to me. '

Ex-driver Martin Brundle gives a good comparison of how one should imagine driving in the rain in a modern Formula 1 car:' It's like overtaking a truck in heavy rain on the freeway and getting a gush of water on the windshield when you're next to it. Drivers in Sao Paulo told me that they couldn't even see their own steering wheel. Because the visor is your windshield. '

' On intermediates? Hey boy, drive the car yourself “

The drivers had to deal with 2 problems in Brazil. Fernando Alonso sums up: “Aquaplaning andbad sight. That has always been a problem in the rain, but it has never been so bad. ”

Hülkenberg says:“ With the 2010 Bridgestone tires, we would have had no problem in the rain. ”The Force India driver can therefore also do not understand that some drivers went on intermediates. 'If my racing engineer had suggested that, I would have said: Hey boy, drive the car yourself. The number was already an egg dance on the rain tires.'

Does that mean we have to forego rain races in the future? Not necessarily, says Hülkenberg: “We just need better tires that displace more water.” Alonso also holds Pirelli responsible.

On the other hand, the problem with visibility is more difficult. Because the spray blown up by the rear tires is drawn upwards by the flow behind the diffuser, right into the field of vision of the next driver. “Maybe we should try a cover behind the rear tires or with modern technology that tells the driver where there are obstacles,” says Alonso. There is already something like this in road cars. Sensors that warn of objects on the road or pedestrians on the roadside.