F1 to test rain guards at Silverstone

The FIA will carry out a test of a proposed solution to reduce spray from Formula 1 cars and improve the chances of racing in heavily wet conditions following the British Grand Prix.

As Pirelli is carrying out a tire test with Red Bull, Haas and Williams for two days at Silverstone, the wet weather test will take place on Thursday after the British race, with Mercedes and McLaren taking part. FIA’s aerodynamic team has put together a design for bolt-on wheel covering designed to prevent spray being thrown into the air and creating visibility issues that regularly leads to races being red-flagged.

More Formula 1

Brown says Horner F1 return would be a positive, more A-B teams not so much

What the revised Formula 1 regulations are predicted to achieve in Miami

Piastri says Verstappen departure would be ‘not a great look’ but Norris thinks he’ll stay

After a meeting of the F1 Commission in November last year led to studies into wheel arches that could be added to cars to try and reduce spray, the FIA offered the initial design to teams to play around with and provide feedback. It is an iteration designed Mercedes that will be tested next week at Silverstone.

The preliminary test of the initial concept of the mudguard-style devices is to gauge if the FIA is heading in the right direction with the idea, and Mercedes will run them while the McLaren provides a comparable reference of a current generation car without the devices in the same conditions. Alongside the effectiveness of the wheel arches, any impact on changing tires in a pit stop scenario is also set to be assessed.

While not included in this first version, the governing body is also exploring the potential to add lights to the front and rear of the wet weather package to aid visibility both for a following driver and a lead driver looking in their mirrors.

The intention is for a solution that addresses severely wet conditions – such as those seen in Suzuka last season, or at the infamous two-lap race at Spa in 2021 – and would allow racing to take place. With the FIA targeting a standard design that all teams would have to run, the concept is designed to address conditions that are so wet that teams would fit the package before the race and never remove them until afterwards. Or, if the weather deteriorated, race control would red flag a race for the guards to be fitted.