Motorsport Rain Maps
Anybody who’s watched the F1 or MotoGP will know that the weather plays a significant role in determining the strategy (and the outcome) of the race. This is also the case for all forms of motorsport, except perhaps indoor karting 🙂
If you pay attention you’ll have noticed that most professional teams have some sort of weather tracking software, as pictured below.
F1 weather maps
This set me wondering whether or not it’d be possible to build some kind of equivalent motorsport weather tracking tool using data I could find on the internet.
Turns out I could, the completely free to use RichyRichRacing Rain Map uses rain radar data (like the F1 teams) to show exactly where localised precipitation is, how heavy it is and which direction it’s moving. There’s also some more general meteo data available such as wind speed/direction and humidity.
RichyRichRacing Circuit Rain Map
The coloured blocks are rain that’s been detected by radar, not cloud coverage. In theory, if it’s not raining the map shows clear regardless of how miserable the skies may look.
It’s designed to work on a laptop or a mobile and will self-update every few minutes, so it is ideal for checking out what the weather is doing around a circuit whilst you’re in the paddock. Hopefully it’ll bring professional level strategy choices such as ‘wellies or trainers’ to the smaller racing team.
It’s all based on free APIs, so I can only claim credit for cobbling it all together. If you’d like me to add any tracks, let me know at richy@richyrichracing.com
