Extreme weather is nothing new to Formula 1. But it seems more recently, it is becoming an issue for the cars.

Seven sessions up to the 2022 mid-season break required wet or intermediate tyres: the events in Imola, Monaco, Montreal and Budapest. Since then, add Singapore and Suzuka.

We hear a lot about how rain levels the performance, how it throws the form book out of the window, how it shakes up the grid. According to F1 legend Pat Symonds, the opposite is the case.

We’re going to look at two things today. Firstly, Pat’s argument that Formula 1’s recent adventures in the rain show that far from levelling the performance, it’s the best who do better. And then we’ll look at specifically this generation of cars and wet weather tyres.

Today we ask:

·      Do downpours really level the playing field?

·      Why do the best teams and drivers always rise to the top?

·      And why we can’t think of the rain as having an equal effect on machine vs driver.

Let's get up to speed with GP Racing magazine editor Stuart Codling.