Wet-weather wizardry: why Max Verstappen’s mastery in the rain is a point of difference

One of the innate charms of watching professional outdoor sport is recognising how highly skilled athletes perform in a wide range of conditions, handling the vagaries of nature.

In cricket or tennis, overcast weather can affect how the ball moves through the air, requiring players to tinker with their technique. It can sometimes throw even the best off their game.

Extreme adaptation

When football, hockey and rugby are played in the rain, the challenge is not markedly dissimilar to normal conditions. However, nothing comes close to motorsport in terms of the extreme adaptation required of an athlete when racing on a wet track.

Over the years, some of the most iconic races or drives in Formula One have occurred in wet/mixed conditions, where the chance of peril is far higher than on regular weekends in the dry.

More often than not, a driver’s most memorable race win or podium finish will invariably be the one achieved in such challenging conditions. These conditions often separate the elite from the merely good or very good.

In 2024, F1 saw a fairly intense title battle between Max Verstappen and Lando Norris before the former prevailed. A pivotal race in which Verstappen snuffed out a late challenge from Norris came at the Sao Paulo GP, which played out in treacherous conditions.

Starting 17th, the Dutchman charged from the back of the grid to take his eighth win of the year even as Norris went from first to sixth.

It was a masterclass in wet-weather driving that saw Verstappen climb 11 places in the first 12 laps. Granted, the fortunate timing of the red flag allowed him to jump a few cars, but once racing resumed, he quickly picked off Esteban Ocon’s Alpine. Verstappen then rapidly built an almost-20-second gap to Ocon in second place, lapping at nearly a second faster than anyone.

Not only did Verstappen increase his gap in the standings, ending Norris’ challenge for all practical purposes, but the performance also reinforced his reputation as the best driver of his generation, putting him on the pathway to becoming an all-time great.

A good drive in damp conditions outshines one in the dry because the conditions can sometimes reduce the gap between a perfect car and a good one since the grip available becomes a limiting factor. In these situations, the driver’s role becomes all the more crucial.

“Someone very important to all of us said a long time ago that in the rain, the cars are almost equal. And that phrase didn’t age at all,” said Ocon after the race in Brazil.

In normal dry conditions, most racers follow a similar line around the circuit known as the racing line. It is the fastest way around, and the fact that almost every car uses it means a lot of tyre rubber is laid on that section, increasing the grip as the event unfolds. But in the wet, the racing line isn’t always the fastest way. Sometimes, going off the standard line could be a better option. This is because the laid-down rubber becomes slippery when rain falls on it.

Instead of following the racing line, drivers will try different lines to find the most ideal way around. It is where good drivers who have an intuitive feel for the changing grip level excel.

Handling unpredictability

Some of the most iconic drives in F1 have come in such conditions, contributing to the legend of some of the greats. The aura of people like Ayrton Senna and Michael Schumacher was built to an extent on their wet-weather prowess and ability to do things that not many of their peers could do on the racetrack.

Race engineer Mark Slade, who has worked with Mika Hakkinen, Kimi Raikkonen, and Schumacher, offered an insight into how much difference a driver can make in such conditions. “Driver gets more responsibility in this situation. He is experiencing the conditions first-hand. It is far less predictable than a dry race. He has all the cards and has to play. We can help him but can’t help him as much as we can in a dry race because we don’t know what will happen,” said Slade in an F1 Explains podcast episode in 2023.

One of Senna’s iconic victories came in Donington (European GP) 1993, when he breezed past four cars, including the all-conquering Williams, on the opening lap on a damp track in his inferior McLaren. The lap is now fondly termed a lap of the gods. He then won the race by lapping everyone but the second-placed driver (Damon Hill in a Williams) with a staggering margin of 83 seconds.

Flawless: Lewis Hamilton hardly put a foot wrong at the 2008 British GP, winning a wet race by a margin of 68 seconds. | Photo credit: Getty Images

In 2008, Lewis Hamilton’s first British GP win came in a wet-weather race, where he lapped a few seconds per lap faster than everyone, including his teammate Heikki Kovalainen. Hamilton finished 68 seconds ahead of second-place Nick Heidfeld, lapped everyone from fourth downwards and did not put a foot wrong.

For Schumacher, nicknamed the Regenmeister (or Rainmaster), arguably the best drive of his career came in atrocious conditions at the 1996 Spanish GP. On a soaking wet tarmac, Schumacher dropped to sixth on the opening lap before taking the lead on lap 13 and finishing 45 seconds ahead of the field in a woefully uncompetitive Ferrari.

“In dry conditions, you can overcome things with bravery,” Slade said. “In the wet, it is a different sort of bravery. You can’t throw the car in hard and try to get away with it like on a dry track. You have to have a much more sensitive feel for what the car is doing because the grip level is so much lower, and must have fast reflexes. [It requires] a very instinctive way of driving. 

“Some people are used to dealing with a car on a low-grip surface, the way it moves and how they have to react. You can’t be aggressive in wet conditions. You must have a careful finesse to your driving.”

Tricky debate

This brings us to the debate on whether a driver must be remarkable in such conditions to be considered elite. While it is a tricky topic and hugely subjective depending on varying factors, a case could be made for weighting performances in such conditions.

Nico Rosberg won the 2016 drivers’ title, but that year, in wet conditions, in races like Monaco and Brazil, the gap to his teammate Hamilton showed why the latter is considered an all-time great.

At the highest level, the difference between the top drivers is marginal at best. But Verstappen showed in Interlagos — piercing through the field despite being put on the back foot and thriving in adverse conditions when forced to be more innovative — why he, like the greats before him, is considered the creme de la creme.