F1: Absolute Car Feel

Chapter 171 It's going to rain at Sepang Circuit

The video of the press conference quickly circulated back in China, but the hype surrounding the Australian Grand Prix had already died down, and only racing fans were paying attention to the race again.

On Friday, March 27th, there will be one practice match in the morning and one in the afternoon.

Williams has so many ideas to put in the car, so the importance of the three practice sessions is undeniable.

At the Sepang circuit, due to the extreme heat, Pirelli prepared two of its hardest tires – a white medium tire and an orange hard tire.

Starting in FP1 in the morning, both Wu Shi and Massa were fitted with hard tires to conduct a basic lap time comparison.

After just ten laps, Wu Shi drove back.

He got out of the car and spoke with Jonathan: "The hard tires need about two or three laps to get into working condition. I think the front suspension angle needs to be adjusted."

Sepang Circuit is a very high-speed track, with two huge straights that allow cars to fully demonstrate their top speed performance.

The first few corners of this track are remarkably similar to those of the Shanghai International Circuit, after all, they were designed by the same designer, Hermann Tilke.

Twenty minutes later, the car was adjusted, and Wu Shi switched to medium tires and drove back onto the track to compare the lap times of the two types of tires.

He used a similar running method and returned to the pit area near the end of the first training session.

Jonathan gestured for him to remain silent.

Once Massa returned, a team meeting was immediately convened, and Jonathan gestured for Wu Shi to speak.

"Yes, the average lap time difference between hard tires and medium tires is 0.8 to 1 second. The lap time reduction on hard tires is 0.2 seconds per lap, and on medium tires it is 0.5 seconds per lap. That's my situation."

"Hard tires will wear down in about 20 laps, while medium tires will probably wear down in five to six laps less."

Massa nodded and said, "Mine is about the same. Hard tires reduce the time by about 0.3 seconds per lap, while medium tires might reduce the time by up to 1 second per lap."

Everyone felt a chill run down their spines after hearing this. The Sepang circuit is notoriously hot, which is very detrimental to tire life.

"Let's test the difference between the two again in a long-distance run."

The track conditions are worse in the afternoon, and the race time is closer, so the data will be relatively more accurate.

In fact, the first practice session is also to check whether the race car has any faults. Long-distance tests are mainly carried out in FP2.

Jonathan sat in his seat, watching Massa's speed as he lapped the track. The problem with the medium tires didn't seem as serious as they had been said that morning.

Hard tires are indeed not a good option; they are not only slow, but they also degrade faster than expected.

After the second practice session, the Williams team held a meeting and tentatively agreed on two strategies.

"First, the white tires are the first stop, and the first stint (the race between two tire changes) is on the old white tires, about 15 laps."
"The second Stint, new white tires, ran about 18 laps; the third Stint, new orange tires, ran about 23 laps."

Jonathan introduced the first strategy, which is based on the assumption that everyone can make it into Q3. If they cannot make it into Q3, then they will start on hard tires.

"The three-stop strategy is: white orange, white orange. If we don't enter Q3, then it's white orange, white white."

If they enter Q3, then Wu Shi and Massa will only have one old white set and one new white set left, with the old white set limited to the starting lineup.

If they don't enter Q3, the other set of white tires that were originally only used in Q3 can be used in the main race.

This is a tentative strategy because we need to wait for the results of tomorrow's third training session.

The third training session begins at 2 PM on Saturday.

All the teams unanimously used medium tires for qualifying performance testing, yet their lap times remained surprisingly consistent.

FP1的最快圈是1分40秒124，由罗斯伯格跑出，FP2的最快圈是1分39秒790，由汉密尔顿跑出。

In the third training session, the fastest lap time was 1 minute 39.690 seconds, achieved by Rosberg.

Apart from the two Mercedes drivers, no one else managed to break the 1 minute 40 second mark.

并且在三练中，吴轼以1分40秒243，胜过维特尔千分之2秒排在了第三，马萨则以1分40秒391排在了第六。

The two men surrounded two Ferraris.

After the third training session, the plans for the main competition were finalized. Jonathan specifically sought out Wu Shi and said:
"Remember, if you have any ideas, you must speak up. Have you written down all the code words?" Wu Shi nodded. The so-called code words were things like Plan A and Plan B, mainly to prevent other teams from targeting him.

The qualifying race officially started at 5 p.m.

Q1 shouldn't be a problem. Wu Shi achieved a time of 1 minute 40.122 seconds using hard tires. Based on the practice session and the performance of the other cars on the track, he should be able to easily advance to Q2.

Therefore, Wu Shi was recalled early.

The Mercedes duo still possessed considerable strength, setting a time of 1 minute and 39 seconds on a flying lap before returning to the pit area.

Vettel set a time of 1 minute 39.813 seconds, placing third. Surprisingly, Toro Rosso's Sainz also set a time of 1 minute 39.813 seconds on his second flying lap.

This prompted the commentators to remark that this year's rookies are all quite extraordinary.

Q1 stopped, and both Marussia drivers were eliminated because their speed was less than 107% of the fastest lap.

McLaren and Honda are at the bottom of the standings, with Button and Alonso becoming unfortunate partners, both eliminated in Q1.

Another player eliminated was Nasr of the Sauber team.

However, the players who entered Q2 did not breathe a sigh of relief. When the countdown for Q1 began, lightning and thunder were already flashing in the distance.

So Q2 has just begun, and all the cars are eager to get going. Two Lotus cars even tried to cut in line. They got impatient. F1 drivers are far more road rage-prone than ordinary people.

Having just arrived at the track, Wu Shi is in eleventh place.

He didn't care about warming up the tires anymore. He wouldn't drive if it wasn't raining. He'd wait until it rained and then compare the performance of the wet tires to the dry tires!

Susu!

The slightly slippery neutral tires became a tamed monster in Wu Shi's hands. He overtook seven riders in a row and came behind Kimi.

At this moment, Kimi was still talking about Hamilton's overtaking in the TR, and then Wu Shi's car overtook him.

"Hey! Has the match already started?!" Kimi shouted in TR.

As soon as the lap ended, Wu Shi immediately accelerated, not too fast, just faster than Q1!

The conditions on the track were quite poor. By the second timed segment, raindrops were already falling, and Wu Shi felt the coolness on the tires, which was very uncomfortable.

Fortunately, the rain didn't fall heavily before the finish line, and the heat accumulated on the road surface meant that the light rain didn't reduce the grip too much.

Swish!

Wu Shi crossed the finish line with a time of 1 minute 40.111 seconds, second only to Rosberg and Vettel.

The drivers behind him weren't so lucky.

By the time many people reached the third time segment, the rain had intensified, and the slick tires and slippery ground offered almost no grip.

Therefore, the times of the drivers after him have generally reached 1 minute and 41 seconds.

Kimi, who complained in TR before, only managed a time of 1 minute 42.173 seconds. He was blocked by the people in front of him and became the only driver in the first tier who did not make it into Q3.

Q2 ended with the elimination of five players: Eriksen, Kimi, Hulkenberg, Perez, and Sainz.

Sure enough, once the ground was wet from the rain, the difference between Sainz and Verstappen became apparent.

Q3 was postponed due to heavy rain.

While waiting, Wu Shi got out of the car and stood under the eaves of the repair area, watching the raindrops patter down and the lightning flash and thunder roar.

"The weather changes so quickly."

“It’s like this almost every year,” Massa nodded.

"Now we can only wait. They're not going to skip Q3, are they?" Wu Shi rubbed his hands together. After all, he was third in Q2, so not skipping Q3 would be pretty good.

"Probably not, the rain comes and goes quickly." Jonathan looked at the weather map on the screen.

(End of this chapter)