The rain annoyed everyone in Free Practice 1 of the Canadian F1 GP

It is an incredible irony. A competition that carries the highest technology and the quest for maximum performance in all aspects as its banner, continues to establish itself when heavy rain pours down on a circuit. Water continues to be a problem for now Formula 1 and the FIA He is still looking for a solution (very hard) after discarding the idea of ​​​covers that were recently tried to reduce the ‘spray’ released by the current water wheels and which makes the visibility in the race minimal. But apart from that, what the FIA ​​and F1 can’t afford is to put more spin on the wheels with controllable aspects. And one of them is the layout, as seen this Friday in Free Practice 1 which will not go down in history for its times or for what happened on the track. Again, the water caused very little running, something F1 needs to correct.

If it rains during qualifying or the race…

Canada embraced F1 after resurgence. And the new asphalt is very thin, there is no roughness, and that makes it difficult for the water to drain. So, after a heavy downpour an hour before the start of Free Practice 1 and the rain holding off until a few minutes before the start, the session had to start with the pit lane closed and many operators, vans and trucks on the way out. tracks. water from large puddles formed in many areas of the track.

And while the pit lane was still closed, it rained again. Finally, the cars They managed to get out on track with 38 minutes left in the first practice session. But on the wet track, there is no grip at all, it is very complicated and where it is impossible to learn anything.

Pedro De la Rosa, ambassador of Aston Martin, clearly explained the situation to ‘DAZN F1’: “The asphalt is very good and greatly improved in potholes, but it is so new that the roughness is so low that water does not penetrate. So when we rain there will be problems as we see: problem because the forecast is bad for the whole weekend, from 45% to 70% chance of rain during all sessions. We’re going to have a wet GP on this new tarmac, be careful because it’s going to cause a lot of headaches.”

That means the problem could be even bigger.. It can only be a big warning for what to see this weekend if it rains heavily in any session. If puddles form like this, in these conditions it will not be able to ride and we will again see the typical waiting of drivers in the pits, not knowing when they will be able to get in their cars to compete in the classification or race. That is if the rain allows the competition to take place, of course, because of the puddles that formed in Free Practice 1, it should not be taken lightly if it rains heavily on Sunday.

Very few were shot

Here we must add tire limit. Riding on rain tires is not justified because if the conditions for their use are met, in F1 it is difficult for a race not to stop due to the lack of visibility due to the enormous amount of water that evacuated by these wheels. And the tires that make sense to go out on the track, the intermediate ones, are very limited: Pirelli gives so few intermediate tires to the teams that they all prefer to ride a little to protect at least two or three set of tires for qualifying and two more for Sunday’s race.

Furthermore, when the track started to dry out in the final stretch and a dry line formed between the wet asphalt, There is no point in riding the intermediate tire because in that dry lane it destroys the intermediate tire..

And the track wasn’t there to put dry tires until the last 5 minutes because the asphalt outside that lane was wet. Most drivers tried to start on soft tires in the last minutes, but there were many outings on wet grass like by Verstappen, Ricciardo or Bottas and very slow weather.

Results are not representative

The final result of Free Practice 1 of the Canadian F1 GP was little or not at all representative. Norris took the lead with Sainz in 2nd at 0.328 and Leclerc in 3rd at 8 tenths. Verstappen was 5th by 2 seconds and Alonso, 15th by 8 seconds. The numbers say it all. The time table is useless.

Free Practice 1 served little purpose and the teams face an FP2 that could be a mess without having learned anything from the Gilles-Villeneuve Circuit. All teams will need to put in more work in Free Practice 2, where rain is expected again. There, it is expected that more rolling will be done with an intermediate set of wheels. to prepare for a possible wet ‘qualy’. F1 should show a lot. You can’t drown in a glass of water.