The chemicals, emotions and designs that explain F1’s rain problem

There seems little doubt that some of F1’s previous great wet weather drives – think Ayrton Senna at Portugal in 1985, Michael Schumacher at Barcelona in 1996 and Damon Hill at Suzuka in 1994  – would not have happened these days because the races would never have been allowed to start.

This has led to inevitable criticisms that F1 these days is too risk adverse. With car safety standards being so high, plenty of people argue that surely the best drivers in…