F1: Absolute Car Feel

Chapter 180 Blue Flag~
As soon as Hamilton left the station, he couldn't help but complain in the TR: "This tire is no good, man."

"The other available tires have already been worn out. Just be careful to protect them when encountering slower vehicles," the team replied, somewhat downplaying the issue.

"Wu Shi? I mean, is he in front of me or behind me? Who's in front of me now?" Hamilton asked.

"Wu Shi has also entered the pits. He is behind you, 6.350 seconds behind; Vettel is still in the lead, you are 11.062 seconds behind him, and Rosberg is also ahead of you, 7.565 seconds behind."

The convoy relayed the information to the old man, who, somewhat displeased, became impatient and asked, "What kind of tires did Wu Shi change to? Why didn't you tell me?"

"Uh, he switched to medium tires; he saved a set of medium tires during practice," the team replied.

"So his set of neutral tires is brand new?"

"Yes."

What lap are we on now?

"You pitted on lap 39, and you're coming out on lap 40 now."

"16 laps left."

"Yes."

After finishing his conversation with the team, Hamilton realized something was wrong. Vettel changed to new tires on lap 37, and at this point, the tire difference between the two was only two laps, but the difference was more than 10 seconds!

Trying to catch up with Vettel in the remaining games is simply wishful thinking!

Vettel's two-stop strategy, which he had prepared from the beginning, finally revealed the outcome.

While tires do degrade significantly over time, the extra 25 seconds gained from skipping a pit stop can turn a lead into a victory.

Barring any unforeseen circumstances, no one on the field can threaten Vettel's lead.

Therefore, Hamilton's sense of unease came from behind him; he was fully aware of the difference between medium and hard tires.

"How much faster am I than Rosberg?"

A while later, at Turn 13, Hamilton asked again in the TR, his heavy breathing interspersed with the crackling of the electrical current in his headset.

"You're faster than him; his tires are wearing out badly." The team didn't disclose the exact difference.

Hamilton understood the team's meaning: Rosberg was to pit again to give him his spot and avoid a fight on the track.

But is this what he wanted? No!
Hamilton said, "After I caught up with him, we switched places, and Wu Shi was behind us."

"Yes, I know. For Rosberg, whether he pits or not, he'll finish fourth." The team was quite direct.

You're both fourth place, so given your current relationship with Rosberg, why would he help you?
If team instructions were effective, Hamilton would listen to all of them!

As the two continued their conversation, the race entered lap 41, at which point Hamilton was 6.781 seconds behind Rosberg, having closed the gap by nearly a second in one lap.

On the other side, Jonathan also said to Wu Shi in TR:

"You've narrowed the gap between yourself and Hamilton. Last lap you were 0.6 seconds faster than him, 1.38 seconds faster than Rosberg, and 0.8 seconds faster than Vettel."

"The people in front of me all have hard tires, right?"

Wu Shi's breathing was also very heavy. The hot weather, coupled with more than forty laps of high-intensity driving, had severely depleted his physical strength. Sometimes he even felt dizzy, which may be a sign of heatstroke.

There's nothing that can be done about it. He's too young, and his physical fitness hasn't caught up quickly enough. That's always been his weakness. It's just that lower-level sports don't require as much physical strength as F1.

“Yes, they’re all using hard tires. You have a speed advantage, and your tires are brand new. But you need to be careful to protect the tires when you’re using them on a slower bike,” Jonathan said.

“OK,” Wu Shi replied.

The race has entered lap 42.

The gap between the top four was exactly the same as the trend in the previous lap. After Hamilton's hard tires reached operating temperature, he cut Rosberg's 1.2-second advantage in one lap, which means that he is also closing in on Vettel.

Jonathan had expected to see Hamilton and Rosberg battle it out, allowing Wu Shi to catch up. However, the Mercedes team acted decisively, immediately giving Rosberg the instruction: "Lace car ahead, BOX, BOX!"

Rosberg, who was recalled for tire replacement, had anticipated this and was somewhat dissatisfied.

The team equipped him with white and orange tires specifically to make him make a second pit stop, right? Now that he's pitting again, all those two hard tires he used before were for nothing!

However, if it's a yielding order, he can at least pretend to comply, but no driver can disobey a pit stop order.

After turning 14, the Mercedes drove straight to the end, and the No. 6 Mercedes plunged into the pit lane, where the team changed it into the neutral tires that hadn't been used before.

"This is too funny! Rosberg has been really screwed over by the team!" the soldier clapped his hands and laughed.

"What is Mercedes' strategy team doing?!" Fei Ge shook his head as well.

Ultimately, this stems from Mercedes' misunderstanding of the performance of hard tires. They assumed that the safety car's double pit stop on lap four would allow for two different strategies.

Hamilton stopped for the third time, Rosberg stopped for the second time.

As a result, Rosberg was first blocked due to a safe release, and after leaving the pits, not only did his ranking drop, but he also got caught in a pack of cars that had changed to new medium tires.

His hard tires prevented him from overtaking quickly, further slowing him down.

This loss made the team even more determined to prepare a two-stop strategy for him, at least when he and Vettel met on the track.

As for the current strategic shift, it's simply what the team just said.

At this point, Rosberg was already in fourth place regardless of whether he pitted for tires or not, so he might as well pit and let Hamilton pass, thus avoiding a close encounter between the two on the track.

Hamilton could see that the familiar Mercedes was missing from the track ahead at the hairpin bend, and he knew that his teammate had already pitted.

What lay before him was a complicated ring toss situation.

At the same time, McLaren's Button told the team, "My engine has no power, no."

"Please bring the vehicle back safely," McLaren responded.

With this, both McLarens have retired from the race. The reliability of Honda engines this year has indeed been terrible.

With Vettel crossing the checkered line again, the race reached lap 43.

Mercedes suddenly said, "Your current lap time is 1 minute 45.121 seconds. The gap between you and Vettel has widened to 12 seconds. Please overtake the slower cars ahead as soon as possible."

“Don’t talk to me when I’m coming out of the corner! I’m about to slide out!” Hamilton yelled.

Clearly, the old man's emotions were not stable at this moment.

“Vettel’s lap time last time was 1 minute 43.689 seconds. You need to find an opportunity to get past the cars in front of you as soon as possible. At the same time, you need to pay attention to the condition of your tires and not be too impatient. Vettel is also in the slow car group.”

Jonathan said to Wu Shi.

"it is good."

Wu Shi gave a simple reply. He was in a slightly better mood than the old man, but his condition was definitely not as good.

A blue flag was waved on the sidelines, signaling the lapped cars in front to move aside as soon as possible. Most drivers would follow this instruction. All Wu Shi had to do was find the right opportunity to quickly and accurately overtake them.

The next 44th lap was also a lap with slower cars.

Vettel, in the lead, was the most relaxed, even singing in the TR: "Blue flag~ Blue flag~"

Hamilton closed the gap to Vettel by 1 second on this lap, but the difference remained around 12 seconds.

Wu Shi made no further progress, and the gap between him and Hamilton remained at less than 6 seconds.

"The line of cars ahead is thinning out. You are now 5.86 seconds behind Hamilton and 17.921 seconds behind Vettel, with 12 laps remaining," Jonathan said in the TR.

(End of this chapter)