Formula One

Formula One is one of those sports which relies a lot on the preparation and technical skill of the car, driver, and his support team. Decisions about what features to include on a car in a particular race can make a big difference to the end positions and how successful a team is.

Varying conditions
The Formula One season sees races take place all over the World on a range of circuits - from Silverstone in Britain to Montreal in Canada, Kuala Lumpar in Malaysia, and Suzuka in Japan.

Tyres
For the support teams it can be a bit of a guessing game before the race to decide which kind of tyres to put on the cars. If there's rain around, wet tyres, which have grooves in them (similar to normal car tyres), are probably the best because they allow water to run off them.

In dryer conditions, the race will be run a lot faster and more overtaking will be possible (depending on the circuit, of course). Choosing the wrong tyres can make a big difference on the race positions. For example, this season's Grand Prix at Spa in Belgium saw really wet conditions at the start of the race, as the track dried up teams started to switch from wet to dry tyres. Race positions changed dramatically according to which lap the teams decided to enter the pit though. Driving just one extra lap on a dry surface with wet tyres, saw several cars fall behind.

Other problems associated with the wet
During the race, the wet weather is likely to have the biggest effect. If there's water on the track it effects how the drivers race. As well as considering what tyres to use, the wet means the drivers have to use a lot more skill to handle the increasing demands the water can put on them.

In wetter weather, the speed the drivers go at will be reduced. It will, therefore have an effect on where they overtake and the distance they can make between themselves and the driver behind.

Wet weather on the track also means visibility will be dramatically reduced. Spray coming off the car in front will affect how far drivers can see. Not only will it have an impact on how well they can see the driver ahead, it will also reduce their ability to see the drivers behind, and this could be a disadvantage if they're not expecting someone to be as close as they are.

If there is a lot of water on the track, the team may decide to lift the front of the car higher off the ground, which will slow the car down because the aerodynamics will be reduced, but it will keep the car above the level of the surface water.