Rain danger also in the Canadian GP
Who knows if it is almost a way to exorcise the arrival of rain and avoid a wet race, but the FIA has again officially established on the eve of qualifying the implementation of the regulatory protocol “Rain Hazard” (literally translated as “rain danger”). This repeats, three weeks later, what already happened in Miami after the Sprint Race, with the Race Direction formalizing the risk of having a wet Canadian GP – even though in Florida the rain never arrived, also thanks to the choice to bring forward the start – thus allowing engineers to possibly intervene on (or, better, on part of) the car settings after the parc fermé regime imposed by official qualifying.
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Rain Hazard: what changes compared to a “normal” GP
Even if it is starting to happen quite frequently – this is already the second consecutive GP – it is still worth remembering what it is about since it is a novelty related to this season. When declared, at the discretion of the race director but provided there is at least a 40% risk of having a wet race based on the forecasts of the official Meteo France service, the Rain Hazard protocol allows teams to partially derogate from the parc fermé regime. However, it is not a real “free for all”: even if it is not possible to know precisely which interventions are allowed because they are specified in a document reserved for the teams, it should be possible to change the ride height and the angle of the front movable wing, which on wet can still be opened on the straight unlike the rear one which must remain closed.
Read more GP Canada 2026, Qualifying: Q1 starts at 22:00 – LIVE
According to what was reported in recent weeks by the specialized outlet The Race, the choice to derogate from the parc fermé regime with the Rain Hazard protocol was made mainly to avoid too many disqualifications in case of a wet race after a dry qualifying: the fact that the movable wings remain partly closed for safety reasons means that the cars are subjected to greater vertical loads on the straight which could lead to abnormal wear of the floor and thus trigger many disqualifications at the end of the race. For this very reason, the possibility to open the movable wing only on the front even on a wet track was initially foreseen, and then also the Rain Hazard mode to modify the ride height (and little else).
Montreal, evolving weather forecasts
In any case, even if the drivers have expressed concern about having to race on the wet with lighter cars, with less downforce, but with much more electric power to unleash on the straight and out of corners, the rain risk is still given as decreasing compared to previous days, even if forecasts are by definition constantly evolving. It is not yet clear whether, to avoid further risks, the Race Direction is considering – as was profitably done in Miami – bringing forward the start of the Canadian GP, which was originally postponed to 16:00 local time, 22:00 in Italy, to avoid conflict with the Indianapolis 500 (whose start is scheduled for 18:45 Italian time).
