F1: Absolute Car Feel

Chapter 175 First Encounter with Healing Power
"Everyone had a very steady start today! Wu Shi maintained his lead very well! Hamilton gave up the attack immediately after failing to overtake at Turn 1."

"It seems that his teammate's experience in the last stop made him realize that attacking Wu Shi at this time is meaningless. It would be better to wait for DRS to be activated and then rely on the vehicle's performance to make a decisive overtake," the soldier said.

Fei Ge immediately chimed in, "Is it possible that Hamilton isn't in a hurry to launch an attack because Rosberg is behind him, and he doesn't need to clash with Wu Shi?"

The soldier paused for a moment, then laughed: "Haha, thinking about it that way, it's really hard to say. If Rosberg were put in front, Hamilton's attack would definitely not be so gentle."

Their deductions were fairly accurate; Hamilton knew very well what he wanted.

Wearing out tires to overtake Wu Shi is not very meaningful to him; he needs to be more wary of the drivers behind him.

No one believed that Williams had the ability to compete for WDC, so Wu Shi's threat level was naturally set very low.

Indeed, Hamilton was able to easily keep the gap within one second. If Wu Shi was a little faster, he would catch up quickly. If Wu Shi was a little slower, he would have to worry about Vettel's sudden attack.

In the third lap, Wu Shi maintained his steady performance.

At this point, Kimi, who had run a whole lap with a flat tire, was finally able to pit again to change the tire, and unsurprisingly, he fell to the back of the line.

"It's such a pity for Kimi. He'll probably just have to wait for the safety car now."

"Yes, but... but the probability of a safe car in Malaysia..."

"The probability is not high."

"Too low."

"Then let's wait for it to rain! Haha."

"Hehehe!"

Bingge and Feige chatted back and forth, laughing as they talked.

"Alright, Kimi is now number eighteen."

"Then he'll be surpassing Alonso soon."

"Hahaha."

It's certainly interesting to see two top drivers competing in the lower group.

Entering the fourth lap, Wu Shi received a message from the team that he was still less than a second behind Hamilton.

It is foreseeable that once DRS is activated, a crisis will soon be faced.

"Hey! Hey!"

Suddenly, the soldier let out a surprised shout.

"How could this happen!"

In the broadcast footage, number 9, Sauber-Eriksen, was seen to have spun out at Turn 1 and gone into the gravel area.

"what's the situation?!"

"This is so amateurish!"

The comedians were puzzled and sighed, while Eriksen's rear wheel was firmly stuck in the gravel area, and the tire kept slipping.

Jonathan TR: "At Turn 1, Ericsson is stuck in the gravel, his rear wheel is spinning and he can't move. The safety car has been deployed and the tow truck is on the track. Be careful!"

On the lap that DRS was about to open, Wu Shi heard the most beautiful words of the entire race.

In a good mood, he couldn't help but laugh in the TR, "So off-roading still requires a four-wheel drive vehicle."

When his TR was played, F1 commentator David couldn't help but laugh and said, "You can see that Wu Shi is under a lot of pressure, but he has adjusted his mindset very well."

Wu Shi was relaxed at this moment; the safety car meant that he wouldn't have to face Hamilton's terrifying attack for the next few laps.

But the atmosphere in the team was electric. Rodrigo stared intently at the calculations on the screen, having less than half a minute to make a decision—whether to pit while the safety car was in position.

After extensive calculations, the fastest speed for entering the station and stopping three times is naturally achieved at this point.

However, the strategy of not changing the tire at this point and staying off the field for a second stop is also very tempting.

The safety car will run at least three laps, which means that the lifespan of the old medium tires on this Q2 that have run three laps will be extended to the fifteenth lap.

After hesitating for about ten seconds, he immediately chose the former. Williams' medium tires only last for about fifteen laps, meaning that the two-stop strategy would result in a full 26 laps on the final hard tires, which was not a good decision.

Most importantly, if Mercedes chooses to pit with three stops, it's as if Mercedes is always using new tires to compete against Wu Shi, which will undoubtedly make it even harder to maintain its ranking.

Rodrigo informed Jonathan of the strategic decision.

"BOX, BOX!"

"Copy".

Wu Shi had no objections; it was a free safety vehicle, so why not take it?

Because Wu Shi and Massa were significantly outmatched at this point, the team opted for a two-car pit stop.

When the Six Stars crosstalk group saw the safety vehicle come out, they couldn't help but burst out laughing.

"I just said that it would be difficult for safety vehicles to be deployed in Malaysia, but I didn't expect them to be deployed so quickly."

"This is definitely a good thing for Kimi!"

What would the safety car mean for Wu Shi?

“I think it’s pretty good, a free tire change opportunity. Williams’ tire wear during free practice was not as good as Mercedes and Ferrari’s.”

"What kind of tire will he change to when he goes to the pit?"

"I remember he should have had two sets of new neutral tires and two sets of new hard tires left at this point, right?"

"Then we have a choice. Whether it's orange-orange-white, white-orange, or white-orange, they all seem pretty good," the soldier asked.

"Are you just doing permutations and combinations?!"

"Hahaha!"

Bingfei and his companion were providing commentary and could easily crack jokes, while the other teams on site had to be on high alert.

Medium tires degrade too quickly, while hard tires result in too slow lap times.

Ultimately, Westbrook's strategy leaned towards conservatism, deciding to try hard tires first. If the lap times were acceptable, they would adopt an orange-orange-white strategy; if the lap times were not good, they would stick with orange-white-white.

Fortunately, Wu Shi kept two sets of new white and new orange outfits for the main competition, otherwise the choices would have become very limited.

Massa's strategy was the opposite of Wu Shi's; he planned to switch to new neutral tires and continue running.

Wu Shi pulled into the station, lifted the car, changed the tire, released the jack, and landed with a "thump".

2.98 seconds.

A moderate speed.

"Vettel did not enter the station."

Jonathan's voice rang out as Wu Shi drove out of the repair area.

"What? Is he planning to suspend operations again?" Wu Shi asked.

“It seems so,” Jonathan said.

At this moment, Vettel's TR is playing:

"OK, it seems like everything is going smoothly. Whether it's Williams or Mercedes, they will be slowed down by drivers who haven't pitted. I can create a ten-second buffer before pitting."

After listening, Jonathan fell into thought, and then said to Rodrigo, "Did we just consider this strategy?"

“Our speed on medium tires drops significantly after fifteen laps, even for Wu Shi,” Rodrigo said.

Jonathan nodded. Strategies are inherently tailored to the specific vehicle, especially strategies that require consideration of tire management.

Moreover, Mercedes' strategy was the same as theirs, which is enough to show that they did not make the wrong choice.

The Ferraris left outside will likely lose time due to subsequent pit stops for tire changes, eventually giving up their spots.

　The predictions from this Five-Star Sports website are hilarious! Last lap, they lamented that Kimi was forced to run a full lap with a flat tire, and that the gap was predictably too large to close, leaving only the safety car as a last resort—and Malaysia rarely has a safety car. Then, on lap four, Eriksson headed straight for the gravel pits. Seriously? That prediction was pretty unbelievable.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)