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Just Add Water: 1985 Portuguese Grand Prix

Exactly 30 years years ago today Ayrton Senna, driving for Lotus, took his first pole position and his first win in formula 1 racing in exceptionally wet conditions. Except for second place Michele Alboreto, Senna was at least one lap ahead of every other car.

The Portugese Grand Prix is held 9km from the town of Estoril near to the capital, Lisbon, and about 5km from the Atlantic coast. The circuit was built on a rocky plateau, which, combined with its proximity to the coast leaves it vulnerable to strong crosswinds and Atlantic storms. The Lisbon area is classified as a subtropical Mediterranean climate, with an average temperature of 16°C in April.

The heavy rain on 21st April 1985 arrived just before the start of the race, and came from a cyclonic weather system, which means the weather system was spinning anticlockwise (because Lisbon is in the northern hemisphere). This type of weather system is responsible for most of the rainfall in the UK. In Portuagal, as at home, this system would have moved across the Atlantic ocean, picking up moisture which lead to rain as soon as it made landfall. The air and track temperatures were also below average (there are no exact figures) and the cloud base was very low, reducing the light levels considerably.

Weather like this today would almost certainly have led to the race being called off, for the safety of mechanics, drivers and track staff, but 30 years ago the approach to safety was very different. The weather was so bad that experienced driver Alain Prost (who went on to win the championship) lost control of his McLaren. Senna, by contrast, led from start to finish in a master class of wet weather driving. Behind him mayhem ensued, with spins, crashes, jammed brakes, and repeated pit stops. It seemed that the heavier it rained, the further Senna could pull ahead; by halfway through the race water had started to pool on the track and he was starting to lap his competitors.

Here’s what Senna himself had to say:

The big danger was that the conditions changed all the time. Sometimes the rain was very heavy, sometimes not.

I couldn’t see anything behind me. It was difficult even to keep the car in a straight line sometimes, and for sure the race should have been stopped.

Once I nearly spun in front of the pits, like Prost, and I was lucky to stay on the road. People think I made no mistakes but that’s not true – I’ve no idea how many times I went off! Once I had all four wheels on the grass, totally out of control, but the car came back onto the circuit.

People later said that my win in the wet at Donington in ’93 was my greatest performance. No way! I had traction control OK, I didn’t make any real mistakes, but the car was so much easier to drive. It was a good win, sure, but compared with Estoril ’85 it was nothing, really.

Thanks for reading! Please leave your feedback in the comments below, including one thing I could improve about this post. 🙂

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Links:

http://www.f1fanatic.co.uk/2010/04/21/25-years-since-ayrton-sennas-first-f1-win-1985-portuguese-gp-flashback/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lisbon

http://www.formula1.com/content/fom-website/en/latest/features/2015/4/_he-obliterated-the-opposition—remembering-sennas-first-f1-win.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1985_Portuguese_Grand_Prix

http://www.f1-grandprix.com/?p=38407

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alain_Prost

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aut%C3%B3dromo_do_Estoril

https://www.google.com/maps/place/Circuito+Estoril/@38.7541667,-9.4371969,7636m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m3!3m2!1s0x0000000000000000:0x14d4480f330ca6f8!4b1?hl=en

Climatology, Meteorology, Motorsport, On this day..., Sport

Rain in the Doha desert: the 2009 Qatar MotoGP

On this day in 2009, the first round of the Motorcycle Grand Prix season had to be suspended. Racing became impossible after after a rare and dramatic rain event at the 5.38km Losail Circuit, north of Doha, the capital of Quatar. The track was purpose-built and only five years old, but races were held during the night under floodlights. This was intended to counter sweltering daytime temperatures and to cater for the European audience, but wet races under lights face the extra safety issue of glare off the track.

The 125cc race began, but only three laps in, heavy rain began to fall, and in lap four the race was called off completely. The rain had stopped and the track had begun to dry out in time for the 250cc race, which continued as normal although shorter, so when the time came for the main MotoGP race track conditions were greatly improved.

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Unfortunately, just as the formation lap was about to start, more rain fell. This time the rainfall was intense, with dramatic thunder and lightening. After negotiations, it was decided that the race would have to be called off and re-run the following day in hopes of better weather. The Monday race went without a hitch, and 1st place went to Casey Stoner (Ducati), who led by a comfortable margin from start to finish.

The city of Doha has a hot desert climate, with exceptionally high temperatures all year round. Average daily temperature peaks at 34.7°C in July, and there is no record of the city ever seeing temperatures below zero during the day. The rainiest month is January with 13.2 mm in total (on average), compared with Birmingham’s 66.2mm. In the average April, there are just 1.4 days of rain.

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Officially, a thunderstorm is simply a storm which contains lightening and thunder, which is the accoustic effect of the lightening on the atmosphere. These are often accompanied by strong winds and heavy rain, although no rain at all is also possible. The key ingredients for thunderstorms are rapid uplift and warm, moist air, both of which can be found in abundance in Qatar.

On the day of the motoGP, incoming solar radiation had been heating the surface air, with a relative humidity of around 50% (which means that the air has about half as much water vapour as it could possibly hold). As we all know, warm air rises, but as it increases in altitude it is cooled. This means that the amount of moisture one “parcel” of air could hold reduces and some of the liquid condenses out to form cumulonimbus clouds, which can be up to 20km from top to bottom.

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Because the cloud is so deep, there is lots of potential for turbulence as the water droplets move up and down inside the cloud, until they eventually become too big and gravity pulls them down. The droplets in thunderstorms are some of the biggest produced, which is why they can cause flash flooding.

Since it only rains an average of nine days a year at the track, the teams and drivers were very unlucky to see two races affected by rain.

Have you ever been caught in a thunderstorm?

Here’s a good video to get a feel for the intensity of rainfall: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rbvmj_9Cu_4

My thanks to Darren Hale for the suggestion of this topic.

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References:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2009_Qatar_motorcycle_Grand_Prix

http://blog.axisofoversteer.com/2009/04/rain-in-desert.html

http://www.weatheronline.co.uk/reports/climate/Qatar.htm

http://flappypaddle-heads.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/just-add-water.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Losail_International_Circuit#2009_MotoGP_of_Qatar

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Birmingham#Climate

ftp://ftp.atdd.noaa.gov/pub/GCOS/WMO-Normals/RA-II/QR/41170.TXT

http://www.coolgeography.co.uk/GCSE/Year11/Managing%20Hazards/Tropical%20storms/tropical_storms.htm

http://www.webcitation.org/5ixoKFUe1

http://www.weatherwizkids.com/weather-thunderstorms.htm

http://web.archive.org/web/20090413011920/http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/motorsport/motorbikes/7996183.stm

Meteorology, Motorsport, On this day..., Sport

On this day… Rain Stops Play at the Brazilian Grand Prix

On this day in 2003 something unheard of happened in the world of Formula 1 racing: 11 of the 20 cars that started the race did not make it to the end, giving the win to the rooky driver of an almost bankrupt team.

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It all started with the series of storm fronts which swept across São Paulo’s 4.3km Autódromo José Carlos Pace racetrack, known to fans as Interlagos. They dumped rain onto the track before and during the race, creating track conditions where drivers were more worried about aquaplaning than overtaking.

Sao Paulo sits on the Tropic of Capricorn, but its elevation means it enjoys a more temperate climate, even the occasional frost in July, the coolest month. Rainfall is abundant in Sao Paulo, averaging 142cm per year, compared with London’s 59cm. Sao Paulo is also well known for its rapidly-changing weather, and in April, the average humidity is about 80%.

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The heavy rain before the race delayed the start, and the cars struggled for grip because the tyres that had been chosen were not able to cope with such wet conditions. Drivers started to spin out, including the then-reigning world champion Michael Schumacher, his first non-finish since the German Grand Prix in 2001. At some point during the race, a water main burst at turn 3 adding to the water on the track.

The safety car was called onto the track a total of five times to slow cars while the debris from crashes was cleared from the track. The race was finally called off in lap 55 (76% of the way through) because the track was blocked by car debris from two consecutive crashes involving Mark Webber’s Jaguar and Fernando Alonso’s Renault.

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In the immediate aftermath of the race, confusion reigned as the stewards tried to work out who should be crowned the victor. To add to the confusion, one of the few cars that had made it to the end of the race caught fire, and Alonso, who qualified third, was rushed to hospital after his crash. The trophy presentation ceremony was held in his absence, only to be overturned a few days later, when a data error came to light. So Kimi Raikkonen and Giancarlo Fisichella exchanged the first and second place trophies at the next scheduled race.

The 2003 Brazilian podium ceremony remains the only one in Formula One history where no step on the rostrum was occupied by the correct driver. Fisichella’s win, thanks to a bold decision to make a pit-stop under the first safety car, was his first of three race wins in Formula One. The win catapulted his struggling team, Jordan Grand Prix, up the constructor’s ranking to ninth.

Here’s a video showing the highlights of the race:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/motorsport/formula_one/9150406.stm

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