Speed Secrets: How to Be a Rain Meister
Gilles, technique, mindset & squaring corners in the rain.
I don’t need to be a meteorologist to be able to predict that it’s going to rain in the not-too-distant future, in some places more than others (and if I did, would I be as accurate as the local weather reporter?!) So, it’s time to prepare to drive on a wet track. After all, the answer to the question, "When should I start preparing?" is just about always, "Now."
What’s the best way to get ready to drive in the rain? Well, in this piece I’m going to share some stories and tips that will help you prepare, and develop a deeper understanding of what you should do when you’re next on a wet track.
You’ve probably heard this from me before, but I love driving in the rain. So, get ready; this is one of the longest articles I’ve published here on Driving Directions.
It was early on in my pro racing journey that a fellow Canadian was at the peak of his Formula One career. His name? Gilles Villeneuve (yes, father of the 1997 World Champion, Jacques Villeneuve, for those of you who don’t know). I was in my first season of racing a Formula Ford, with my eyes on the goal of becoming a professional race driver, ideally winning the Indy 500, the Formula One World Championship, and Le Mans. That’s all.
I may be weird (actually, I am) but I’ve never had a hero. Even the very best at something, to me is just another human. Sure, they have accomplished more than almost anyone else, and they’re special because of that, but I only ever see people as fellow people. Still, if there was ever anyone who would be close to being a hero to me, it would be Gilles. Here’s one reason why.
In 1979, at the U.S. Grand Prix held at Watkins Glen, Gilles put his stamp on the very-wet sessions, driving his Ferrari. He produced lap times that were unbelievable to his competitors, to the point where some of them walked down to Turn 1 to watch. Can you imagine Max Verstappen or Lando Norris or Charles Leclerc or any F1 driver being so blown away by the speed of a fellow driver that they went to a corner to watch? Not a chance, right?
In practice, in the pouring rain, Gilles Villeneuve was nine (or eleven, depending who you listen to) seconds faster than every other driver on track! This included his teammate, Jody Scheckter, who won the World Championship that year, and was driving an equal car. And before you think it was because his car was superior, or the spread across the field was much bigger than it is today, the rest of his competitors were all within a second or so of each other, and again, they were all more than nine seconds behind Gilles! Then, in the wet-drying-wet-drying changing conditions of the race, Villeneuve won by forty-eight seconds.
Did Villeneuve know a special line around the Glen in the rain? Did he know of a different technique? Did he possess more skill or talent? Or was there something else going on in his mind?
I wasn’t there that day, but there are things I’ve learned through my experience driving and coaching in the rain that’ll make you more Gilles-like. And by the way, I did watch Villeneuve in person more than once, including the time in the teaming rain at my local track, Westwood Motorsport Park (now a housing development…), when he dominated the Formula Atlantic race against future champion drivers such as Keke Rosberg (F1 World Champion), Bobby Rahal (Indy 500 winner), Danny Sullivan (Indy 500 winner), and others who went on to win major races.
Unsurprisingly, most of what I learned about racing in the rain did not come from my friend Garth Stein’s book, The Art of Racing in the Rain (which became a Hollywood movie). What I learned came mostly from racing in the rain at Wetwood… err, Westwood. Due to its location on the side of a mountain outside Vancouver, the clouds would blow in off the ocean and pile up against the elevated terrain and dump its moisture, leading to the circuit’s nickname.
Let’s dig into some things that will make you a faster rain driver. Of course, the first thing is you need to actually go on track and drive in the rain, and I’ll come back to this in a bit.
The Wet Cornering Line
The typical advice for driving in the rain is to drive the “wet line,” off the usual "dry line". The thinking is that the track surface on the dry line is highly-polished and embedded with rubber, and therefore has less grip when it’s wet. This is true and accurate — until it’s not. You have to consider the age of the track surface, and even the type of asphalt used; if the surface is relatively new, it hasn’t had time to be polished and smoothed-out, and therefore the wet line may still be on the dry line. You have to test the surface to see where the grip is (more on this later).
Sometimes, the grippy wet line is a “rim shot” around the very outside of the corners. Yes, there is less margin for error when you’re just a few feet or meters from the edge of the track, but often there is so much additional grip out there that it will feel as though there's a berm that your tires hit and run along — it may feel as though you could never slide beyond them and off the track.
With most tires, you lose more lateral grip than you do longitudinal grip on a wet track. That means that your outright cornering grip will be lower than your braking and acceleration grip, and that’s why you want to "make" as many straights as possible.
Approaching corners, brake off-line to the inside of the usual dry braking line — where there will be more grip. Then, cross the cornering line so you can run at least a car’s width wide of the apex, and finally, turn the car so you can drive as straight as possible exiting the corner. Essentially, drive a road course like it’s a series of drag strips: accelerate as fast as you can in as straight a line as possible down the straightaways, brake, spend as little time as you can turning the car, and accelerate again as straight as you can.
When thinking about making the track a series of drag strips, you’ll hear me (and others) say, “Square the corner.” Imagine looking down on your car from above as you drive through a corner on a dry track: You follow a large, curved arc. From the moment you turn in until you reach the exit/track-out point, you’re cornering. Now on a wet track, imagine going deeper into the corner, in a straight line, slowing down… and then turning sharper than when on that dry track, aiming back towards a later apex and exit/track-out point. The radius at the point you turned in would be tighter, and more “square.” Yes, your minimum speed would be slower, but you will have your car pointed straight — or near straight — more. You’re using the longitudinal grip more than the lateral grip.
As an example of this “squaring off of the corners,” click on the video below that I created after driving in a WRL race at COTA a few years ago. I added the narration afterward, by replaying what I had in my head during this race. In it, you’ll see me going deeper into the corners than some of the other cars, allowing me to get better exits.
Curbs can be your friend or enemy in the rain, and the only way to know is to test them. But do so gently and smoothly. Some painted surfaces, like curbs, are very slippery; other curbs have a material like sand embedded in the paint, and it has the grip of sandpaper. Your job is to find out.
Ultimately, the wet line is all about driving where there is more grip, and avoiding where there isn’t grip. For example, prior to being resurfaced, Turn 4 at the end of the backstraight at Mid-Ohio was one of the most challenging bits of track you’d ever face in the rain (like most of Mid-Ohio when it’s wet!). To be fast, it was best to brake to the inside (to the right) of the dry line, but as you began to turn in, you’d have to cross a section of track that had the grip level of ice. But that was okay because on the other side of that section had a different grip level (it was like finding the berm to lean a dirt bike into around a tight corner), and the car would grip up and turn. Of course, you had to trust that it was there, and be okay with your car sliding across that section of ultra-slippery track before you got to the grippy stuff. Now that Mid-Ohio has been resurfaced and the pavement is fresh, the wet line is not much different from the dry line.
That’s what I mean about using the track where it has grip, and minimizing where there isn’t grip.
Rain Driving Technique
The number one technique to put into play in the rain is to make the car "do something" — ideally, understeer from the very instant you turn into a corner. That way, you know what it’s going to do. What many drivers do in the rain is turn into corners expecting the car to begin to slide, but waiting until it does to react to it. They’re reactionary. The best rain drivers proactively make the car do something the instant they turn in, and that way they’re not surprised by it. In fact, because they made the car do it, they’re ready to use what they did and what the car does.