How Does Racecraft Change When Racing in the Wet?

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1. How To Adjust Racecraft in the Wet

Thanks to Graham for the great question this week! If you have a question you want me to cover, simply send us an email at [email protected] with your question so we can feature that in a future newsletter.

Trying to give general coaching points, like those we can cover in an email, about anything related to rain is exceptionally challenging. Some of the variables we have to consider include:

How much grip the track has in the wet
How hard is it raining
How is the drainage at this track
Ambient temperatures
How much grip the rain tires you're running on have

I'm calling this out because while I want to give some general pointers about racecraft in the wet, it is often something that is very situational. Okay, now that we have that covered let's get into the good stuff!

Here are a few things I think about when I'm racing in the wet:

Conservative
Overall, I am much more conservative in every situation in rain races. The grip is lower and mistakes are more prevalent, often just making it to the end of the race without going off the track will equal a good result. This includes everything from speed to overtaking and defending, etc.

Overtaking
Overtaking in the wet is all about corner exits and not brake zones. There is usually a big drop-off in grip when we have to move off the ideal grippy line in the wet and that's usually what we have to do to out-brake and overtake someone.

This is why in the wet my focus is all about getting a drive off a corner. I want to maximize the exit and try to overtake someone down the straight before we even arrive at the braking zone.

Defending
Once again I'm totally focused on corner exits here! Very rarely does someone overtake us mid-corner by rolling in more entry speed.

I turn my style of driving into more of a "point and shoot" style. If I simply get good exits it becomes 10x harder to overtake me. So, even if my overall lap times get slightly slower because I reduced my mid-corner speed I don't care about that, I care about being harder to overtake and I do that by maximizing corner exits.

Want more details on how to become a better overtaking driver? Check out the 4-keys to a good defensive move here!