Slipstreaming in wet condition

[siskue2005]

Noticed last race how Lewis slipstreamed Nico to overtake, all I could see was huge amounts of water thrown at him behind Nico but he still kept slipstreaming
What I ask is does it help in wet condition or not? I think it doesn't but still lots of drivers where doing it

[ian_s]

the effect will still work the same. it might be slightly less efficient, but its still worth doing. the other thing that may be happening is the car in front clearing some of the water off the track and allowing the 2nd car to get to full throttle earlier out of a corner.

[siskue2005]

But all I remember hearing Martin brundle saying how it feels to follow someone in rain, he said it is like someone throwing a bucket full of water at your face
That surely got to disrupt the aero benefit, doesn't it?

[NoDivergence]

But all I remember hearing Martin brundle saying how it feels to follow someone in rain, he said it is like someone throwing a bucket full of water at your face
That surely got to disrupt the aero benefit, doesn't it?

Note that there is additional benefit. Guy in front can't see where you are

[PlatinumZealot]

But all I remember hearing Martin brundle saying how it feels to follow someone in rain, he said it is like someone throwing a bucket full of water at your face
That surely got to disrupt the aero benefit, doesn't it?

The windage drag from the tyres is much less for the car behind since it does not have to clear away as much water from the road.

[Andres125sx]

This make me wonder.....

Does the rain increase the drag?

Drag depend on air density, and if it´s full of rain density should increase some way...

Thinking about it from my ignorant point of view (aerodynamics are not my field) slipstream should be more noticeable with rain than without. The only problem is driver visibility, what is a huge problem

[Cold Fussion]

100% saturated air is less dense than dry air, and I imagine the liquid water component of the air is small compared to over-all air density. I would say the drop in temperature has a much larger effect on air density than the presence of rain.

[SectorOne]

I wonder how much more an F1 car weighs when its raining..
Think i read somewhere a long time ago that when you turn your shower off you have something like 5 liters of water on the body.

[i70q7m7ghw]

I think with that particular move it was more to do with the fact Hamilton got better drive off the last corner combined with the DRS. On previous laps he was struggling to get close enough to make the move.

[turbof1]

Throwing some info:
-http://www.theweatherprediction.com/habyhints/216/
-http://www.windows2universe.org/earth/W ... nsity.html

So normal water has a density of 1000kg/m^3; air at sea level, relative comparable to Suzuka since it's pretty close to sea level I believe, has only 1.275kg/m^3. Density of water increases slightly when talking about ocean water.

Of course, the cars didn't actually run in an aquarium, so the overall density, air plus rain, is a lot lower, but local density should be quite high near the track surface (that's where you'll get closest to an aquarium). The main thing thing to note is that tyre drag increases by quite a margin due water displacement. A driver slipstreaming isn't facing that issue, so has a lot less drag then the guy in front.

Call it a natural DIS: Drag Increasing System. For the guy in front.