F1 Yet To Solve Wet Weather Visibility Problem

Formula 1 is still yet to find a technical solution to improve driver visibility in wet weather.

Last year, the first prototypes of wheel covers or ‘mudguards’ designed to reduce the plumes of spray behind the cars were tested, but they did not prove successful.

In collaboration with the FIA, improved fenders were tested by Ferrari on the artificially-watered Fiorano track last week.

“Several variants were tested, both on the front and rear axles,” reported Auto Motor und Sport.

“However, the pictures taken by paparazzi at the side of the track do not indicate that a significant improvement has been achieved,” added correspondent Tobias Gruner.

“The fear is that it’s not only the large wheels, but also the huge diffuser of the modern ground effect cars that sucks the water from the asphalt and whirls it into the air.

“And the rear end of the underbody cannot be covered as easily as the wheels,” he said.

“The FIA will probably have to carry out a few more tests before a satisfactory solution is found. Until then, we must hope that the rain gods will be kind to Formula 1.”

F1 not ready to regulate use of AI – Domenicali

Meanwhile, Formula 1 has confirmed they cannot yet intervene to regulate the teams’ increasingly-powerful use of artificial intelligence technologies.

As the exploding and rapidly-improving power of AI sweeps the planet, top F1 teams have not been slow to begin to use it to improve their performance.

AI and machine learning are now helping the teams design their cars, develop race strategies, and make deep sense of the reams of sensor data collected while the cars are on track.

Teams are even believed to be using AI to analyse onboard footage of rival cars, according to Luca Bortolotti, a machine learning engineer at Ferrari.

“If our competitor does the same corner at the same speed on the same line with slightly less of a steering angle, that tells us they probably have a more aggressive balance than us,” he said, providing just one example.

Corriere dello Sport newspaper asked F1 CEO Stefano Domenicali if the sport needs to clamp down on AI so that the teams already deploying it are not getting a huge advantage over their rivals.

“We already use artificial intelligence in our graphics, and the FIA uses it in active and passive safety systems,” the Italian answered.

“Now we have promised to understand how much it can influence performance, because we still don’t know enough to intervene,” Domenicali added.