Jul.30 (GMM) Formula 1 hopes its all-new 2026 cars will finally offer a solution to the growing spray problem that has crippled wet-weather racing in recent years – including last weekend’s heavily delayed Belgian GP.
The next-generation technical rules feature smaller diffusers and reduced ground effect, which FIA officials believe will drastically cut the spray clouds that currently make visibility almost impossible in the wet. Narrower tyres are also expected to help.
“The main problem is the underbody and the large diffuser,” explained Racing Bulls CEO Peter Bayer, reflecting on failed FIA tests with rain wheel covers. “This causes the water to literally shoot out the back.”
F1 ran multiple tests with wheel arches in 2023 and 2024, but they had little impact. “Whether with or without mudguards, it made little difference,” concluded Auto Motor und Sport, after trials with Ferrari at Fiorano and Mercedes at Silverstone.
Until 2026 arrives, though, pressure on the FIA is only growing. Former F1 driver Christijan Albers was furious about the Spa delay, telling De Telegraaf: “You’re simply depriving those teams of everything,” referring to teams like Red Bull that ran wet setups in anticipation of a Sunday storm. “If you look at Leclerc, for example, he was able to reap the benefits.”
“Yeah, I just didn’t think it was fair,” Albers added. “The FIA just needs to focus on these kinds of things, because this is a blunder and inexcusable.”
Red Bull’s new boss Laurent Mekies agreed. “We not only waited for the rain to stop, but then we also waited for the sun to come out, and after that, we still had many laps behind the Safety Car.”
But others backed the caution. Journalist Michael Schmidt noted: “We have to realize that if something does happen, race control will get all the flak.”
Ferrari’s Frederic Vasseur supported that view. “We can’t blame them because we would have been the first to dismantle them if something happened.”
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