F12 - tracking in the rain | FerrariChat

F12 - tracking in the rain

Discussion in 'F12/812' started by VladimirB, Sep 5, 2016.

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, Skimlinks, and others.

  1. VladimirB

    VladimirB Rookie

    May 16, 2016
    26
    Moscow, Russia
    Yesterday I had an interesting experience of driving my F12 on a wet track for a couple of hours or so under heavy rain. As I am a relative F12 newbie and so far was rather afraid of driving it in rainy conditions (2wd, 740hp and all that) this turned out to be a rather eye-opening experience.

    My friend took an MB S-Coupe for a long test drive and invited me to join for a few sessions on a raceway track near Moscow which he rented for us. We arrived around 6 pm and it started raining - first lightly, then heavier and heavier. By the time we got our helmets and got to the paddock the track was already pretty wet and was getting even more so by the minute.

    Rather obviously, I put the car in Wet mode. At first, it was really limiting the throttle response almost instantenously - engine was running up to 5-6k rpms but the car was not really moving at all from slow corner exits. It was rather disappointing as I was expecting a bit more drama and was not getting any of it.

    So I put the manettino in Sport. That resulted in very snappy wheel slip corrections - the car was moving now but the traction system very agressively handled her behaviour - I'd say some quite limited tail-wagging was now allowed - maybe 10-15 degrees - but that was it - any more and you were put back on the straight - and with a very firm hand.

    Can't say that was fun - it felt like you struggling with the car - not driving it smoothly like you should in such conditions.

    Still, our race instructor advised against turning CT off to get more freedom as in my inexperienced hands this would have quite likely resulted in just going sideways from the track at the first corner or with too much gas on the fast straight.

    As the rain continued more and more water covered the track, some standing pools and small torrents began to form, and I turned the manettino back to Wet.

    Somehow either the system or me now performed much better - the very hard throttle cut-off disappeared/or I stopped pushing the gas pedal to the floor too fast - the gear stayed mostly in 4th, and the car started to just somehow flow through the water at pretty high speeds as if in a constant but very controllable drift. The feeling of ever-present slippage was there but it did not feel dangerous or uncontrollable. I stopped struggling with the car, it stopped struggling with me or the track.

    The tyres (PZeros) and the brakes were excellent - I got to around 170 km/h at some straight sections (when dry, you can get to c.220-230 km/h at that part of the track), the brake point is usually 150 m from the corner - now braking from 200 m point left quite a bit of safety margin. Also very limited hydroplaning action - whether that is the result of the E-diff/car's brains' work or the tyres itself I do not really know but the resulting feeling of being in control of the situation is very inspiring.

    The overall composure/state of the car after 2 hours of tracking was very Porsche-like - no warning lights, no unusual sounds, everything working like a Swiss clock - very-very impressive for a GT car.

    It continued to rain while I was driving home from the track - but now I felt very comfortable and with much more trust in the car's abilities in such weather, accelerating, braking, keeping composure in fast corners.

    So - if you have a chance to do a track session on a wet track/in rain - do not be afraid or reluctant - take it with both hands, you'll come enlightened.
     
  2. Garretto

    Garretto F1 Rookie

    Sep 3, 2003
    4,922
    Bilbao, Spain
    Full Name:
    Rodolfo Di Pietro
    Interesting! Thanks for sharing.
     
  3. lafluth

    lafluth Karting

    Jul 2, 2013
    61
    Indeed very interesting to read, thank you
     
  4. F12JAJ

    F12JAJ Formula Junior

    Apr 24, 2016
    517
    California
    Full Name:
    Jerry
    I would not have though that the F12 would've handled so nimbly in the rain with all that power. Spasibo.


    Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
     

Share This Page