How Lewis Hamilton Dominates In The Wet

lewis hamilton is incredible in wet conditions in fact until last year's german grand prix hamilton was unbeaten and reign affected races since 2014. that's five years of winning in wet conditions and even in last year's crazy race at hockenheim where another rainmaster went on to win he was leading until he ran wide into everyone's favorite place to crush that day granted in recent years he's mostly probably always been in the best car but reign does level the playing field somewhat reducing the advantages of a dominant car and shifting more responsibility onto the driver's skill the stakes are higher in the wet with every input from the driver needing absolute precision a mistake in the drive might only cost you a few tenths of a second but in the wet could send you into the barrier it's in these incredibly difficult races where conditions are mixed up that can make the difference in a championship bid if hamilton gets it right he's closer to another championship and further confirmation he's one of the greats or get it wrong and a potential championship win might slip by so what is hamilton doing differently inside the cockpit and what are his secrets to maintaining such pace in the wet i'm scott mansell pro driver and coach at driver 61 where we look at all things interesting in f1 and other motorsports after watching hours of hamilton's footage there are three areas that stand out his remarkable skill on the brakes his precise feel and connection with the truck's surface and his intelligent decisions with the racing line first up he is incredible on the brakes this is something that we see in the style of michael schumacher 2. in fact both drivers general style are very similar it's simple to say break later and harder and you'll reduce lap time it's much harder to do that in an f1 car and even more difficult in the wet where grip levels are dramatically reduced i remember when i first drove an f1 car at the age of 17. in all honesty i wasn't aware of how big a moment that was but the thing that sticks in my mind about that day was how far i could push the car on the brakes for the first laps i was underestimating where to brake but over the next laps i pushed that braking point closer and closer to each corner but the car kept slowing down it almost seemed as if i was never going to be able to brake too late of course that moment comes and i reached the limit with a little lockup but it happened much much later than i'd expected the difficulty with braking in an f1 car is due to the massive downforce they create for example imagine you're on a circuit on a track day in a mazda mx-5 as the car has no wings and no aerodynamic downforce the grip you have 120 miles an hour is the same that you have at 30. therefore when you brake at the end of a long straight the pressure you put on the pedal can remain constant until you turn into the corner as the grip is also consistent the mazda is what we call a mechanically gripped car however in an f1 car the grip you have at 200 miles an hour is dramatically more than you have at 40. at 200 miles an hour the air is moving over the car faster and so the wings and floor are creating huge amounts of downforce and in turn pushing the tyres into the truck's surface harder meaning more grip so think about what's happening when the driver breaks from 200 miles an hour to 40. the downforce and grip level is reducing within the braking zone the driver needs to reduce the braking pressure as the car slowed which is a complex thing to do as the driver has multiple things changing throughout the braking zone if the driver keeps the same braking pressure the tyres would simply lock up once some of the downforce had dropped off hamilton is able to understand how the grip falls away better than most and follow this grip down with excellent precision this means he can use more almost all of the tyres potential grip when braking and so reduce his braking distance due to the changing conditions in the wet maximizing the braking zones is much more difficult than in the dry not to mention balancing taking risks with gaining lap time in these wet conditions hamilton is both quick and consistent rarely making mistakes part of the reason hamilton is so very good on the brakes is that he has an unbelievable feel for the grip of the circuit and in wet conditions but what does it mean when a driver has good feel well being fast is all about driving the car to its limit using each of the tyres grip to its maximum at all times when the driver has great feel it becomes more apparent in challenging conditions as the grip levels are changing lap by lap and even corner by corner and the driver needs to adapt their driving appropriately imagine you're driving on the road and you need to make an emergency stop you stamp on the brake pedal and you quickly slow down it's likely that you'll hear and feel the car's abs system working it typically feels crunchy under the pedal the abs system is modulating the brake pressure for you allowing the tyres to reach its peak grip and go a little beyond into under rotation before releasing the pressure slightly this is a computerized way modern cars use all of the tyres grip in a braking situation and this is what hamilton does so well using almost all of the tires potential almost all of the time what's important here is the ability to assess conditions and predict the amount of grip that's available for this hamilton is referring to previous laps and combining that information with how the track is generally evolving for example imagine it's wet but the rain has stopped the circuit is drying up and offering more grip each lap with 20 high downforce f1 cars running on the track sucking up the water and allowing the wind to take it away from the circuit things change rather quickly from personal experience it's really incredible how quickly the circuit script can change with lap times sometimes reducing by seconds each lap so in this example when approaching turn one on your next lap you're going to be able to enter with more speed than the previous lap but how much more well it's always going to be an estimate but you have the previous corners and the comparison to the previous lap to help your decision hamilton has the mental capacity to absorb all of this information process it and predict grip levels incredibly well much like jensen button used to another driver who was quick in the wet especially when conditions were changing however having great feel is worthless if you're driving on the slippery parts of the track in the wet the normal racing line is almost always slippier than off it this is because in dry conditions drivers are more or less using the same parts of the track for braking turning and exiting each corner little pieces of the tyre's rubber get sheared off and stick to the track's surface over a race weekend the circuit evolves as the layer of rubber gets thicker and thicker rubber on rubber is a very sticky combination and results in lap times dropping and tyre wear decreasing in the dry i've often walked race tracks after the race weekends and your shoes literally stick to the racing line however in the rain this smooth rubber surface is incredibly slippery and so drivers normally use the wet racing line the wet racing line is basically doing everything you can to stay away from the rubber this usually means not being on the most efficient line in terms of your arc through the corner but it's worthwhile going the long way round as you'll have more grip you'll see hamilton and to be fair others breaking in the middle of the circuit then moving to the outside in the middle of the corner before exiting away from the outside of the track the point is to stay away from the slippery rubber and even though you're certainly not on the most efficient racing line and you're adding meters to your lap length the extra grip more than makes up for it where hamilton is different from others except perhaps verstappen is that he squares or v's the corner off more squaring a corner means driving straighter on the entry and the exit of a bend but turning more in the middle this means hamilton can brake later and accelerate earlier as the tyre's grip isn't being used as much for turning and so can be used more for slowing and accelerating the car the downside to this line is a slower apex but the overall line is faster for hamilton the car having less turning work to do on the exit has an additional benefit too imagine an invisible ribbon of rubber on the dry racing line you break in the middle of the track off the rubber you've driven around the outside of it in the middle of the corner but at some point on the exit you're going to have to rejoin the difference in grip level on and off the rubber is massive and in a thousand brake horsepower f1 car the sudden reduction in grip can very easily spin the rear tyres sending you to the scene of the accident taking a square erasing line doing more of the turning away from the rubber means the car is sitting flatter with less steering when the driver hits the rubber and has the sudden loss of grip this is not only faster for hamilton but it also protects him from making a mistake as the car is easier to control it's possible to see this risk mitigation everywhere in hamilton's driving style racecraft and general racing attitude where he balances absolute speed with being fast over a race it's this balance of risk and reward both in wet and dry conditions combined with the almighty mercedes that makes him seemingly unstoppable as a driver hamilton is well-rounded and much more technical and deep thinking than i think a lot of people give him credit for and it's these qualities that have led to him more often than not beating his teammates and winning all those world championships if you enjoyed this check out our short playlist where i examine other f1 driving styles such as alonzo's weird steering technique in his run of days or this other video i think you'll love don't forget to subscribe to driver 61 which helps us sweet talk sponsors and in turn create better content for you thanks and i'll see you next time

Channel: Driver61

Views: 791,085

Rating: 4.9176435 out of 5

Keywords: Formula 1, Driving, Coaching, Motorsport, Engineering, F1, Racing, Incredible Motorsport, Driver61

Id: VypB0RPQbYc

Length: 9min 39sec (579 seconds)

Published: Sat Oct 17 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/ChulungusDay]

He gets that nana drippin like a waterfall, thats for sure

(Pretty obscure but I hope a few people here will get it)

[u/jogaboi19]

lmfao look at these downvotes. Best wet weather driver of all time alongside Senna, regardless of the hate.

[u/SubcooledBoiling]

He good ...

[u/IIIIIJIIIII]

I think the haters are going to respect his stats after the retirement even some F1 drivers don't recognize his true success it's actually sad.

[u/andrewjaekim]

Hamilton already controversial in this thread. How about I genuinely believe Stroll to be a great wet driver too. Not Hamilton or Versteppan level but certainly better than half the grid.

[u/CollegeIsPay2Win]

Quickly show this to the other drivers so they can git gud

[u/EGaruccio]

This video is more generally about racing in the wet. The title is just a hook to get more views. That's the YouTube game, so fair play to the creator - but this isn't really an analysis of Hamilton's record when it comes to wet weather driving, which aside from recognizing his wins (some of which are rightly lauded as being great) would also have to include some of the less stellar outings and the differences between full wet and changing conditions, where others were frequently stronger.

[u/Retsko1]

How Lewis Hamilton makes me wet

[u/the__distance]

Because like elite drivers he has an excellent sense of balance and can find grip and feel where that grip limit is in unfamiliar conditions, and consistently drive at a level just under that limit.

Saved you all nine minutes