F1: Absolute Car Feel

Chapter 176 Restart
The pit lane was bustling with activity. Apart from the five drivers who remained on the track, all the other drivers had gone to the pits to change tires.

Wu Shi entered the station first and was not affected by the other trains. After exiting the station, he was in sixth place, with Hamilton following closely behind.

Rosberg, who was supposed to be following Hamilton, was left motionless on the inner lane after Hamilton changed the tire.

Because new race cars are constantly whizzing past in the fast lane (the lane closest to the pit lane wall), it's impossible to park there.

By the time he was finally able to be released safely, his ranking had already been affected.

When he came out, he fell behind Massa and was ranked tenth.

By the fifth lap, all the cars had changed tires, and the landscape of the game was instantly reshuffled.

维特尔位于第一，其身后是2霍肯伯格、3格罗斯让、4赛恩斯、5佩雷兹、6吴轼、7汉密尔顿、8里卡多、9马萨、10罗斯伯格。

11梅尔希、12科维亚特、13维斯塔潘、14博塔斯、15阿隆索、16巴顿、17纳斯尔、18Kimi。

With the safety car in place the whole time, many drivers complained that it was too slow after Vettel compressed the car line.

Wu Shi also felt that the tires were not warming up, so he kept swaying from side to side.

On lap six, the safety car went in; on lap seven, the race restarted.

Vettel took the lead and quickly sped across the starting grid.

Wu Shi reacted extremely quickly and began to accelerate, but Perez in front was a bit slow and slightly blocked the route.

But it doesn't matter, there's no chance to overtake on this straight road anyway, and the hard tires on the car are like ordinary tires, offering no decent grip at all.

He glanced in the rearview mirror and saw that Hamilton was trying to overtake him, but unfortunately, Mercedes' tires hadn't warmed up enough to launch an effective attack.

Hamilton was only able to pull away just before Turn 1, and he was about to make a direct cut inside.

Wu Shi did not expect the old man to be so impatient, launching an attack even when the timing was not right.

He naturally wouldn't indulge the old man, and squeezed towards the inside, leaving only about four-fifths of the asphalt road surface wide enough for the race car.

Visually, there seems to be enough space for cars to pass, but they will definitely hit the curb and be slowed down by the not-so-low curb.

Hamilton was very perceptive to this and could only slow down slightly, choosing not to use his front wing to hit Wu Shi's rear wheel.

Now that the car has been damaged, no one can afford the cost.

However, since they had given up on attacking, they were bound to say something. Hamilton said in TR: "He closed the door too hard and didn't leave any space."

This complaint only received a brief reply from the team: "He's still a novice, you need to consider the distance between your vehicle and his, but I suggest you pass him as soon as possible, otherwise you'll be slowed down too much."

At the same time, Wu Shi also complained in TR: "He shouldn't have attacked me. Our goal is the same now, to overtake the vehicles in front and get back to the front row as soon as possible."

Jonathan paused for a moment after hearing this, feeling as if Wu Shi and Hamilton were exchanging barbs from afar.
However, he quickly replied, "He's faster than us, but overtaking outside the racing line is more difficult, giving you a few more laps of space."

"And please pass the car in front as soon as possible, as they will significantly slow you down."

The Westbrook team's strategy group has calculated that if the four slower cars ahead cannot pass quickly, they will be slowed down by nearly 0.9 points per lap.

"Copy".

Swish!

As the race car sped along, Wu Shi spotted an opportunity just after passing Turn 4.

Perez's Indian Power's straight-line speed wasn't very promising, and Williams used the slipstream to follow, gaining enough speed to pull ahead before Turn 5.

Wu Shi knew that Hamilton was watching closely from behind, so he chose to pull back from the outside.

Perez was defending in the middle, but then he noticed another Mercedes coming up, seemingly trying to overtake him inside.

He was suddenly caught in a pincer movement.

When Wu Shi was overtaking Perez, he kept a close eye on Hamilton's actions. When he saw that Hamilton was also attacking Perez, he did not hesitate to forcefully close the door on the inside and squeeze Perez.

However, Hamilton pushed Pepper to the perimeter earlier!
Just as a Mercedes and a Williams were about to crush the Force India, Master Pei hesitated, tapped the brakes, and quickly let the two reckless drivers go. He then shouted in the radio, "What are they doing?! Trying to crush me like a piece of bacon in the middle?"

Whoosh! Swish!
The moment the space on the left opened up, Wu Shi immediately increased the steering angle, and in the blink of an eye, he was almost stuck to the Mercedes-Benz.

The old man's plan was brilliant; the outside shots would eventually be slower than the inside shots, and he was preparing to score two goals in one.

But Wu Shi had anticipated this. The reason he chose to overtake Pedro on the outside was that Turn 6 was a reverse turn, and he went directly from the outside to the inside.

In addition, Turn 6 is narrower, so Wu Shi immediately seized the initiative and completed a significant overtake in the time it takes to cross the apex of the turn.

Susu!

Entering the straight at Turn 6, Wu Shi maintained a firm advantage, forcing Hamilton to give up.

As the two men passed Perez, Ricciardo and Massa followed behind, passing the surprisingly slow Force India two corners later.

Next up were Rosberg, Verstappen, and Kvyat.

Perez's fifth place lasted only two safety car laps before plummeting to 12th.

Massa TR: "The Mercedes behind me was going too fast! I felt a lot of pressure."

Suddenly, Massa and the team reacted.

The Westbrook team, however, didn't know how to guide the team. Although they were driving the same car, Wu Shi was able to stop Hamilton, but Massa was finding it extremely difficult to stop Rosberg.

The team immediately issued the order: "You need to delay him. Wu Shi is entangled with Hamilton, and he needs your help."

After a brief silence on the radio, Massa said, "Copy."

Immediately, this veteran driver, who wasn't particularly adept at offensive and defensive maneuvers, began creating opportunities for his teammates at the cost of faster tire wear.

Ahead, Wu Shi noticed that Hamilton wasn't attacking him aggressively, as if he was hesitating about something.

Wu Shi (TR): "I feel he's hesitant to act for fear of inadvertently."

"what?"

"He's not too afraid to attack me."

“Yes, Ricciardo is behind you, you slowed him down, he has to find a better opportunity, and the hard tires don’t seem to be working very well,” Jonathan said.

Upon hearing this, Wu Shi hesitated. If he could suppress Hamilton, could he take advantage of Ricciardo's threat to gain a few more laps in the lead?

However, he quickly abandoned this idea, thinking that once DRS was activated, even the slowest Mercedes on hard tires would be faster than him!

He immediately changed his driving style, and the race car suddenly became sharp, like a drawn blade.

Before Turn 9, he slammed on the brakes late, sending a plume of white smoke into Sainz's inside lane, and then forced him into Turn 10.

Although Sainz is a rookie, he is no pushover. He closes the gate very aggressively, constantly encroaching on the track space and making it difficult for the cars behind to overtake him.

Wu Shi had no choice but to abandon the attack and retreat back behind Sainz.

Judging from the practice and qualifying sessions, Toro Rosso's car is considered quite good in the Earth group, and it will be difficult to beat it by relying on superior performance.

Wu Shi remained behind Sainz until the end of the seventh lap.

Hamilton also failed to find an opportunity to surpass Wu Shi and was also blocked.

“You’re now 5.88 seconds behind Vettel,” Jonathan told Wu Shi.

“You’re now 6.231 seconds behind Vettel,” Mercedes told Hamilton.

“I feel it’s very difficult to overtake. What’s the situation now?” Rosberg asked the team.

“You’re using hard tires, everyone else is using medium tires,” the team replied.

(End of this chapter)