F1: Absolute Car Feel

Chapter 155 Winter Testing
After visiting Bianchi, Wu Shi returned to England, where his life consisted only of training. He ate healthy but not very tasty food every day and always needed to drink all sorts of strange-tasting beverages.

On December 5th, the FIA ​​year-end awards ceremony was held in Doha, Qatar. Wu Shi also changed into a suit, dressed up as an adult, to attend and receive his award.

Standing in the front row were F1 drivers and podium finishers from other top motorsports events; he was in the third row, barely managing to show his head.

After the awards ceremony, Wu Shi quickly participated in the FIA's Super License test, and had no problem with either driving a stable 300 km/h F1 car or physical training.

His neck is already as thick as his head, and it's still getting thicker.

According to Ken Ruiz, he has basically met the requirements and only needs to worry about his stamina in the very late stages of the main event.

By the end of the year, the F1 driver lineup for next year will be basically finalized.

Vettel left Red Bull Racing to join Ferrari as their lead driver.

Kvyat left Toro Rosso and was promoted to Red Bull Racing as their lead driver.

Alonso left Ferrari to join McLaren.

Bottas joins Lotus team, Maldonado temporarily leaves F1 racing.

Five new drivers have joined the team, including Wu Shi and Verstappen, who were promoted from Formula 3.
Felipe Nasr and Alexander Rossi were promoted from GP2;
And Sainz Jr., who was promoted from Formula Renault 3.5 to Toro Rosso and partnered with Verstappen.

Some interesting things happened during the driver changes for various teams.

For example, Sauber driver Guido van der Gard sued the team after Sauber gave his race seat to Felipe Nasr this year, and he won the case!
However, Sauber is still not prepared to return the seat to him.

Besides the driver changes, one team also underwent a major transformation: Ferrari.

As soon as the 2014 season ended, a brutal internal purge officially began, with team manager Marco Mattiasi, technical director Pat Fry, chief designer Nicolas Tombasis, and tire performance manager Hirohide Hamashima all leaving the company.

It basically purged the middle and upper management, causing a major internal earthquake.

This purge was already inevitable when Montezemolo left office.

As 2015 approached and preseason testing drew closer, teams had to keep a close eye on the progress of their research and development adjustments.

In the new season, the FIA ​​introduced new technical regulations. First, the width of the car was increased from 1.8 meters to 2 meters, which undoubtedly made driving more difficult and also made narrow tracks such as Monaco more boring.

The car's minimum weight has increased from 691 kg to 702 kg, while the engine remains a 1.6-liter V6 turbocharged engine.

Williams' car this year is codenamed FW37 and still uses the Mercedes PU106B Hybrid as its engine.

In the 2014 season, the Westbrook team, with this cutting-edge engine, beat Ferrari to take third place in the constructors' championship.

On February 19, 2015, preseason testing for the new season officially began at the Circuit de Catalunya in Spain.

测试分为两个阶段，第一阶段是19号到22号，第二阶段是2月26号到3月1号，都是四天时间。

Throughout the preseason testing period, the average air temperature was only 10-15 degrees Celsius, and the ground temperature fluctuated greatly, which was very unfavorable for tire testing. There was also rain during the period, which actually improved the test data for the second half of the rain tires.

During the test, Wu Shi clearly felt that the car struggled a lot when cornering, which was a weakness of Williams as a private team, as their aerodynamic development was very poor! In addition, with the improvements made by other engine developers, the FW37 began to lose its advantage in top speed at the end of the straight.

In the fastest lap, Westbrook is about 1.5 seconds slower than Mercedes. While this data may not be entirely accurate, it is enough to show that Westbrook's car has become less competitive this year.

Perhaps the only good news during the winter test was that Wu Shi and Massa ran more than 450 laps together, ranking third overall, without any stability issues.

If I had to give a rating, it's a car that's not very fast, but very stable.

"It seems this year's car performance isn't ideal," Massa said to Wu Shi after the test.

He wasn't initially impressed with the kid who was 17 years younger than him, but after completing the entire test, he came to approve of the youngest F1 driver.

“I feel that we can’t be good at everything in terms of tuning direction, so we should focus on one direction,” Wu Shi said.

“Oh? Kid, what are your thoughts?” asked Rod Nelson, the chief engineer still in charge of the competition and testing.

“Unleash the potential of the straightaways,” Wu Shi said. In the test, Westbrook’s top speed ranked only fourth, a significant gap from Mercedes, which has the same engine.

“We need to consider the balance,” said Pat Symonds, the technical director who is directly responsible for the aerodynamics design, an area of ​​research and development that is undoubtedly difficult.

“I understand the importance of balance, but sometimes we should sacrifice some balance for higher speeds and then rely on the driver’s skill to make up for the lack of balance.”

Wu Shi's point of view is simple: actual speed is slow, and no matter who drives it, it won't make a difference; but balance can be controlled by the driver.

Pat Symonds frowned; he was actually quite troubled.

As Mercedes' engine advantage in the paddock gradually diminishes, the FW37 is no longer among the top three fastest cars.

The tests conducted by Massa and Wu Shi also show that FW37 was roughly in the lead among mid-table teams at this point, and it would be difficult for them to challenge the three strong contenders: Mercedes, Red Bull, and Ferrari.

Having just secured third place in the annual standings, the entire team was still reminiscing about last season's glory, only to have their winter testing results deliver a harsh slap in the face.

"I think Wu Shi is right. Trying a more aggressive adjustment will help us compete for a better ranking."

Performance Director Rob Smedley, a track engineer who joined the team from Ferrari alongside Massa, said he has always been quite aggressive.

“I think this is a direction worth exploring,” said Andrew Murdoch, chief engineer of the performance division.

Massa broke his silence. He had just said that to elicit a response from everyone. He said, "I also think we need to be more aggressive. I hope we can achieve excellent results after replacing the new parts."

A brief discussion confirmed the direction for the future development and tuning of the FW37.

Time passed day by day. Track testing ended on March 1st, and all car tests ended on March 10th.

On March 13, the practice sessions for the 2015 season opener, the Australian Grand Prix, began.

(End of this chapter)