F1: Absolute Car Feel

Chapter 190 What's wrong with my race car?!
Fortunately, there were no attacking opportunities for a long stretch after turn 6.

In the giant "S" bend formed by the 7th and 8th bends, Wu Shi firmly held his position.

He frequently checked Vettel's movements through the rearview mirror. The four-time defending champion was still ambitious and would never be willing to be second to him.

Vettel naturally thought the same thing, but since he didn't seize the opportunity at the start, he changed his strategy and chose to lie low for the time being.

No rider who has watched the replays of Wu Shi's wheel-to-wheel battles with Rosberg and Hamilton would think that this underage rookie rider is an easy target.

Furthermore, Wu Shi's outstanding performance in the qualifying rounds proves that he and Williams have sufficient speed when paired together.

In this situation, the little guy won't easily abandon his position; he'll fight tooth and nail regardless of tire wear.

Vettel didn't want to waste tires, especially since his teammates were still behind him!

Wu Shi was unaware that the persona he had cultivated on the racetrack had given him a temporary respite.

All he knows is that Vettel didn't choose to attack, so what he needs to do now is to preserve the lead as much as possible!
Acceleration, braking, and turning—with the aid of perception and absolute control, everything is just right, achieving tire management far exceeding theoretical values.

Jonathan looked at the data on the screen, and Wu Shi's strange driving ability, which could defy theoretical values, was on full display again.

He made a record, and the data collected after today's competition should be enough to derive the theoretical values ​​for Wu Shi's extraordinary driving performance.

'It's unclear whether Wu Shi's extraordinary driving skills were intentionally controlled or simply a result of getting into the zone.'

Jonathan thought that Wu Shi wasn't always able to demonstrate such abilities.

However, once this capability is demonstrated, all formula parameters for calculating theoretical values ​​will need to be changed.

He suddenly thought that if Wu Shi participated in the tire test, it might cause Pirelli to misjudge the tire performance, resulting in Wu Shi being the only one in the entire paddock who could drive the tire the following year.
He shook his head; he was overthinking it.

The front row positions are completely stable; clearly, there won't be much of a reaction before DRS is activated.

On lap 2, Sainz spun out of control at the snail-like turns 1-4, went off the track, and fell to the back of the pack.

Apart from that, nothing much happened on this lap, and everyone basically secured their positions. Overtaking will probably require looking for another opportunity.

On the third lap, the situation began to change.

"Rosberg set the fastest lap time, 1 minute 44.518 seconds," Jonathan informed Wu Shi in the TR.

"How far away am I from Vettel?" Wu Shi asked.

"0.73 seconds."

What's ahead?

"Hamilton is in the lead, Rosberg is 1.1 seconds slower than him, you are 1.3 seconds slower than Rosberg, that's 1.3 seconds."

Jonathan repeated the gap between himself and Rosberg at the end.

Upon hearing this, Wu Shi resumed his focused driving.

The front row positions are stable, but the battle in the back row is fierce, with Bottas and Eriksen vying for the 9th and 10th positions.

Verstappen was lurking outside the points zone, only 0.9 seconds behind tenth-placed Eriksen.

Further down the list, from 13th-placed Kvyat to 16th-placed Ricciardo, the difference was less than one second, yet four cars were squeezed together.

The broadcast cameras were constantly pointed at them, ready to capture any overtaking maneuvers.

Towards the end of lap 3, Mercedes said to Rosberg:
"Pay attention to your front tires. The wear on the front tires is increasing. Please reduce the pressure on the front tires and control the temperature. As the tires wear down, the understeer will become more severe."

Mercedes said something that many teams would like to say to their drivers. If there's anyone who wouldn't want to say that, it's Jonathan.

Compared to other tracks, Wu Shi's tire consumption was indeed higher, but compared to his teammates, it was incredibly economical!
The reason for this is quite simple: the #59 Williams tires made almost no adjustments on the track, which means the tires were put in place the first time.

Secondly, he turned very smoothly, which did affect his lap time, but it was within an acceptable range. After all, Vettel's speed wasn't particularly fast at that time, and the difference between the two was still around 0.8 seconds.

Finally, except when he needed to turn the steering wheel hard and couldn't take his hands off to adjust the car's parameters, Wu Shi was constantly making adjustments.

Jonathan was dumbfounded. In a normal race, it is usually the engineers who advise the drivers on how to adjust the car parameters. It is unheard of for a driver to take the initiative to adjust them himself.

The problem is that Wu Shi, by adjusting the tires in this way, actually achieved better tire wear.

“Wu Shi, your adjustments are very useful. We think we can communicate with Massa.” Jonathan asked tentatively. “Yep, go ahead.”

Wu Shi took a moment to reply. Massa had been good to him enough, so he naturally wouldn't be stingy with such a small gesture.

Besides, just because someone tells Massa how to play doesn't mean he'll improve.

Jonathan conducted a basic analysis of the adjusted parameters before handing them over to Massa's track engineer, Dave.

"You could try changing some parameters before and after entering a corner on the track; that should be more effective."

"Do we need to adjust in the middle of the curve?"

“If Massa has the time, that’s fine; it would be a great help in protecting the tires,” Jonathan nodded.

Lap 4.

Hamilton remains in the lead, followed by Rosberg, Wu Shi, Vettel, Kimi, Massa, Grosjean, Nasr, Bottas, and Eriksen.

Verstappen is in 11th place and still desperately wants points. Behind him are Hulkenberg, Perez, Kvyat, Riccardo, Alonso, and Button.

Ricciardo lost too much position at the start, and there were minor lock-ups and scrapes later on; the position slipped terribly.

Sainz, after catching up, quickly overtook the two Manor cars that were completely uncompetitive, starting from the back of the pack.

Overall, only the two Red Bulls and one Toro Rosso dropped a lot of positions in these few laps, while the rest of the drivers remained largely unchanged.

The fastest lap of the third lap still belongs to Rosberg, with a time of 1 minute 44.297 seconds.

It seems this German player realized that DRS was about to be activated, so he was desperately trying to catch up with his teammates.

The team's reminder must have been telling him that he was pushing too hard.

This is actually a reflection of ability. With the same car conditions, some drivers can achieve more balanced results by driving better.

This applies to Hamilton, who is in the lead, and also to Wu Shi, who is in third place.

After Dave saw Massa enter the main straight, he said to Massa in the TR:

"If possible, adjust the toe angle immediately, twist the three points, and turn back in the corner while adjusting the brake balance."

"WHAT?!" Massa shouted, sounding somewhat frightened. "Is there something wrong with my car?!"

"No, don't panic. Taking a few more steps will save more tires. If you can, you should try it. It might give you a chance to catch up with Kimi."

Massa, who had originally intended to criticize Dave for what he was up to, immediately fell silent upon hearing that they could catch up with Kimi and replied:

"I'll try."

These dialogue segments were selected and broadcast.

Commentators from various regions were mostly confused after watching it, and could only make inferences based on their years of experience watching F1 races.

"This should be a better running configuration from the simulation data," the soldier guessed.

“Masa is already 1.5 seconds behind Kimi, how can he catch up? You can’t just change a few settings and catch up, it’s not that simple.” Fei shook his head.

"So, this is a code word used within the team?" the soldier asked.

"It's possible. They might have changed their strategy and will activate DRS next lap."

The two from Six Star Sports were not clear about the situation.

Even the official commentator David wasn't entirely clear on the details, since Jonathan and Dave's conversation was a live, offline exchange, and no one knew about the preceding dialogue.

"I think Williams should be confident in this better setup, so why didn't they use it before? Only they themselves probably know the answer to that question."

"However, this team radio message may have other meanings, which we do not know for the time being. We will be able to find out after another lap."

David then shared his speculation.

(End of this chapter)