In Montreal as in Miami: the rain arrives (maybe) and the FIA ​​imposes the Rain Hazard protocol

Danger of rain also in the Canadian GP Who knows if it is almost a way to exorcise the arrival of the rain and avoid a wet race, but the FIA ​​has once again made official on the eve of qualifying the establishment of the “Rain Hazard” regulatory protocol (literally translated as “rain danger”). Thus, three weeks later, what already happened in Miami after the Sprint Race was repeated, with the Race Direction formalizing the risk of having a wet Canadian GP – even if the rain never arrived in Florida, also thanks to the choice to bring forward the start – thus allowing the engineers to possibly intervene on (or, rather, on part of) the settings of the single-seaters after the establishment of the parc fermé regime imposed by the official qualifications. Click here to add Formula Passion as your favorite source on Google Discover: you will find our content more easily! Rain Hazard: what changes compared to a “normal” GP Even if it’s starting to happen with a certain frequency – it’s already the second consecutive GP – it’s still worth remembering what it is since it’s something new for this season. When declared, at the discretion of the race director but provided there is a risk of at least 40% of having a wet race based on the forecasts of the official Meteo France service, the Rain Hazard protocol provides for the possibility for teams to partially derogate from the parc fermé regime. However, this is not a true “free for all”: even if it is not possible to know precisely which interventions are permitted because they are explained in a document reserved for the teams, it should be possible to change the height from the ground and the incidence of the mobile front wing, which in the wet can still be opened in a straight line, unlike the rear one which must remain closed. According to what was reported in recent weeks by the specialized newspaper The Race, the choice to derogate from the parc fermé regime with the Rain Hazard protocol was taken more than anything else to avoid too many disqualifications in the event of a wet race after a dry qualifying: the fact that the mobile wings remain partly closed for safety reasons means that the cars are subjected to greater vertical loads on the straight which could lead to anomalous wear of the floor and therefore trigger many disqualifications at the end of the race. Precisely for this reason, the possibility of opening the mobile wing only on the front even on a wet track was initially envisaged, and then also the Rain Hazard mode to change the height from the ground (and little else). Montreal, evolving weather forecast In any case, even if the drivers said they were worried about having to race in the wet with lighter cars, with less load, but with a lot more electric power to be released on the straights and when exiting corners, the risk of rain is still expected to be lessened compared to recent days, even if the forecasts are by definition constantly evolving. It is not yet clear whether, to avoid further risks, the Race Direction is not thinking – as it did profitably in Miami – of bringing forward the start of the Canadian GP, ​​which was originally postponed to 4.00pm local time, 10.00pm in Italy, to avoid conflict with the Indianapolis 500 (whose start is scheduled for 6.45pm Italian time).

Automobile Magazine – F1 English News , 2026-05-24 04:35:00