Driving under wet / changeable conditions

Hey guys,

somehow races under wet or changeable conditions become more and more en vogue. I fear I am a bad driver under these conditions.

Any hints? Especially 'changeable', how to you appear to the race, prepared for wet or dry conditions? How do you change your driving style?

Thanks!
 
  • Eric Soeters

In general depending on FWD/RWD I suggest you shift earlier, increase wing, wet tyres :p. In basic a total new setup.... This night I had my first wet practice... OMG.. it was a hell!
 
The first things to do is increase wing if possible, fit wet tyres and reduce brake pressure to around 70% so that you lock up less easily. You can also soften the suspension and increase the tyre pressures. Increased pressures increase your tyres ability to move the water away (more defined treads) and increase the core temperature of the tyres which will have dropped due to the water.

And yes, try to short shift (although not too early). Reduces wheelspin. Just drive neat tidy lines and you'll be fine. In wet conditions it is sooo easy to lock up and slide off the track. Don't do it - sacrifice that tenth of a second you will gain by braking later and reduce the risk of losing ten seconds through sliding off.

Watch this video - was pole positon, but the point is that I drove neat tidy lines and shifted slightly earlier to avoid wheelspin in 1st and 2nd gears. http://blip.tv/file/1495262
 
You can set the brake bias a bit more to the rear also.
Trying to keep 4 wheels on the tarmac is important aswell,
avoid the curbs.
It´s better if you soft a bit the suspension, stiffness will make
your car slide and slip more in wet conditions.
Also reduce camber, this allow more rubber in contact with the tarmac,
what we need on a wet track.
 
When it comes to driving style, I reckon it's best to be as smooth as possible. Apply the throttle and brakes at a medium speed, brake earlier and accelerate later. Most of the time, you should wait for the car to catch up with you when you are steering. To sum it up, there was once a person looking for tips on how to drive on Puebla. I told him "Go slow, and you will find you are actually going fast." This can apply to wet driving as well.
 
well Rhys says it right....it depends on driving style

for me i never increased the wing....never :)
i changed the brake pressure to 80% and and change the brake bias by sending more to pressure the rear.
i lower the tire pressure and sometimes change the camber to a little less
and also drop the slow bump & rebound a bit
last but not least i break earlier...maybe at least 50 meters earlier and a use also less brake on my brake pedal...
 
My basic wet setup trick is:

Raise the car by 0.5-1 cm
Lower de power diff by 1 or 2 clicks (you will notice less wheel spin at the exit of a corner while accelerating)
Lower the brake pressure to 60-80 depending on the amount of rain (more gentle control of the braking)
Switch to wet tires above a certain amount of rain, depending on the car/track/rain-amount (obvious)
Brake bias 1-2 clicks to the front helps me to have a more stable car under braking (in rain bias to the rear could make the car's rear tricky; more to the front will increase the braking distance but at least the car is not braking out)
Soften the whole car a bit (springs/anti-rollbar) (better grip overall in rain)
Raise the differential pre-load with 1 click if possible (weight transfer delayed which is helpful in the rain)
If needed change the gear ratios to be able to have optimum torque in rain conditions. This needs muchos time, if in a hurry the short-shift is a good alternative.
A bit more wing depending on conditions/track (more grip in medium/high speed corners)

If you are in a hurry:
wet tires
lower power diff
lower brake pressure
(brake bias can be done within the car; [ and ] default)
raise wing.
 
OK - chaps, the above is very valuable info, and any such information is always appreciated by me.

One thing that I notice is that everything seems to address a pure "wet" setup - again, appreciated - but its the "change" part of changeable that interests me the most.

If the weather is changeable does the panel:-
a) have a dry setup to start with, and change to a wet setup with a long pitstop if it starts raining (obviously reverse the 2 if the race starts wet and dries up or whatever)
b) run a compromise setup that might be a touch slower in the dry, and a touch trickier in the wet, but is do-able with merely a tyre change
c) run effectively a "wet" setup, sticking slicks on when it's dry and taking the slowness on the chin, but ready for whatever wetness occurs with just a tyre change.

Any thoughts?
 
Best guess unfortunately.

I've done a changeable race where it started dry but predicted rain, so I lowered the brake pressure and had to wait for 5 laps with weaker than normal brakes until it rained, which was fun. But it still didn't rain enough for wets.
That was a nice setup though worked fine otherwise in the dry and hardly affected by the rain.
 
  • Matt Crouch

If the weather is changeable does the panel:-
a) have a dry setup to start with, and change to a wet setup with a long pitstop if it starts raining (obviously reverse the 2 if the race starts wet and dries up or whatever)

Can you actually change anything in a pit stop other than dry / wet tyres and of course brake bias? :question:
 
I've done a changeable race where it started dry but predicted rain, so I lowered the brake pressure and had to wait for 5 laps with weaker than normal brakes until it rained, which was fun. But it still didn't rain enough for wets...

The race started dry and later rained (in the same session)? Was this with the latest patch? Or was it with the old one? (With the old patch I saw this too, but with this one I'm yet to experience it).

Thanks in advance
 
Thanks all so far for the valuable information will give it a try!

Stuart raised an important point about the 'change' strategie, need to try as well, as I think you can not change the setup during pit stop.

Though you can change the brake bias during the race (you can map keys for it).
 
The race started dry and later rained (in the same session)? Was this with the latest patch? Or was it with the old one? (With the old patch I saw this too, but with this one I'm yet to experience it).

Thanks in advance

That race was an older patch. The same thing has happened in some warmup sessions in the latest patch. But it would be nice to have the chance of rain increased.
 
changeable weather in a short race i tend to go with the wet setup only if its acutually raining at the start, otherwise with a full grid a dry line appears very quickly, a tactic that served me very well in the donnington events the other month.

in a long race id usually run a comprimise setup how far to wet or dry depends on how happy i am at a particular curcuit. if im not too hot i tend to vere further towards wet than dry as its the wet laps that will cost me most.
 

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