F1 News

FIA wants cars that can also be driven in the rain from 2025

FIA wants cars that can also be driven in the rain from 2025

21-09-2021 16:50 Last update: 17:29
5

GPblog.com

It was the anticlimax of the season, the race at Spa-Francorchamps that never became a race. After hours of waiting in the pouring rain, the drivers completed three laps behind the safety car, only to have the race flagged and half points awarded. The FIA wants to prevent this in the future.

New rules in 2025

The conditions at Spa were so bad that it was simply not possible to race. Due to the high level of downforce and the wider tyres there is a lot of spray and therefore very poor visibility on the track. FIA president Jean Todt wants to address this in the future, probably at the same time as the new engine rules in 2025.

However, Todt still stands by the decision to cancel the Belgian Grand Prix, he said at Autosport. "There were many people who criticised what had been decided at Spa [by not racing], but what would have happened if, after the start, we had had a ten-car accident with injuries or worse? We would have been slaughtered. And even without injuries we would have been criticised."

Still, Todt would prefer to avoid situations like this in the future. "For the 2025 regulations, we need to think about cars that can also be driven in the rain," he said. Do you remember [Niki] Lauda in Fuji in '76? He was the only one of the drivers who gave up racing in the rain. Today, every driver thinks like Lauda did then."