F1: Absolute Car Feel

Chapter 193 The Struggle Vanishes Without a Trace

Jonathan's words were like blood poured into a shark tank.

Even Westbrook noticed this problem, so how could Ferrari not have noticed it?

Could Rosberg's strategy team have missed it?
Everyone noticed that, of course!
Rosberg's crew had been reminding the driver for some time, and now, seeing Westbrook's reminder, they reminded him again:

"Wu Shi has closed the gap to you by 1.1 seconds. As the tires reach operating temperature, his speed will increase."

Rosberg was breathing heavily, feeling immense pressure, and the scene at the Melbourne circuit flashed through his mind.

He immediately told himself to stay alert, then looked straight ahead and kept a close eye on his teammates.

Wu Shi's situation was also not good at this time. The Ferrari on the new soft tires was very fast, and he was increasing his speed to keep up with Vettel's pace, which was not good for his tire management!
However, after the experience with the soft tires, he knew that the Ferrari soft tires would slow down considerably in the latter half of their lifespan.

On several straightaways, he couldn't help but calculate the relevant data in his mind, but after calculating for a whole lap, even after chasing Rosberg's DRS zone, he still hadn't come to a result.

He was getting a little frustrated because he couldn't multitask, and he said in TR:
"Is Vettel following me? He seems incredibly fast! I don't remember him being this fast last time!"

Having worked with Wu Shi for so long, Jonathan understood the underlying meaning and began to compare Vettel's previous stint with Wu Shi's situation.

He told Rodrigo offline that he needed to calculate the degradation of the Vettel soft tires.

On the field, before entering the DRS zone, Rosberg sped up a bit, leaving Wu Shi a second behind.

"Your left front tire is a bit overheated, you need to be careful. You are currently 1.501 seconds behind Hamilton, 1.501 seconds."

Upon hearing this, Rosberg felt agitated but had to suppress his emotions.

He gritted his teeth. If it didn't work, he'd just keep chasing his teammates! Anyway, his tires were a full lap new, which was an advantage, right?
Wu Shi kept hearing Jonathan's reports on the gap between himself and Vettel, and he also tried his best to leave Ferrari within a one-second range.

Once the opponent gains DRS, the stint has essentially lost.

With the four drivers in the front row vying for dominance, the competition in the front row has become quite interesting again.

It seems everyone's new soft tires are in slightly different condition!

The only one who is the same is Wu Shi, whose speed fluctuations are based on Vettel.

Lap 25.

Sainz slowed down and moved into the outer lane.

“There’s a problem with the transmission and intercooler. Please take the vehicle back safely,” Little Red Bull told Sainz.

"Copy".

Sainz was also helpless. He had just driven past the entrance to the pit lane when the car broke down, which meant he would have to crawl back to the pit lane at this snail's pace.

Even if it can be repaired, the only remaining significance of the race is for him to accumulate more driving mileage and experience.

On lap 26, about twelve or thirteen laps since the last tire change, the speed of the four cars ahead had widened again, and the previous tension had been eliminated by the steady gap lap by lap.

Even professional commentators don't know the exact pressure the drivers were under during the process; they can only offer summary comments after the data shows a significant gap.

"It seems unlikely that there will be any changes in the front-row lineup for this match," Fei Ge said.

"Everyone is controlling their lap times and protecting their tires. The situation at the front is too stable. The pressure on the front wheels at the Shanghai International Circuit is enormous. Both of the snail-like corners will result in continuous understeer. The more understeer there is, the greater the wear on the tires. They have no choice but to be cautious."

The soldier analyzed the situation on the field as if they were having a chat. At this moment, the field was indeed a bit boring, with only Ricardo and Eriksen competing for the ranking.

Several times he was about to overtake, but Eriksen overtook him again on the cross line.

At this moment, Jonathan spoke up: "Vettel's lap times have slowed down."

"You're calculating a bit too slowly," Wu Shi said, somewhat speechless.

“Vettel just told the team that he has been pushing very, very hard, but he can’t keep up the pace,” Jonathan said.

By lap 30, Rosberg suddenly said, "I feel like there's something wrong with my front left wheel." He was indeed slowing down, but Wu Shi was also slowing down, and Vettel was slowing down quite a bit.

The time difference between the top four has dropped from about one second to nearly two seconds.

"Give it a full lap, get ready to pit," Ferrari told Vettel.

Vettel pitted on lap 31.

He had no other tire options and had to switch to harder white medium tires.

Another tire change in 2.5 seconds; the LaFerrari is all online today.

"Vettel pitted so early, can he finish the remaining twenty-five laps on white tires?" the soldier asked, clicking his tongue.

"I think it's a bit difficult to keep going, or Ferrari thinks the white tires are faster and can do an overcut?" Fei Ge was also unsure.

"I wonder what Wu Shi's strategy will be."

As soon as the soldier finished speaking, a music player started playing, and Mercedes said to Rosberg, "BOX, BOX."

"Huh?! Rosberg is going to get on board first too?!" the soldier exclaimed.

“It’s indeed time to pit. Rosberg just said on the team radio that the front left tire has developed wavy lines and is almost totaled,” Fei Ge added.

At that moment, Hamilton set a new record for the fastest lap with a time of 1 minute 43.008 seconds.

The scene made the duo laugh. The soldier spoke first, saying, "Rosberg's tires are worn out, and Hamilton has set the fastest lap."

"That means Hamilton is also going to the station, but the gap between the two stations is indeed quite large," Fei said.

"In the standings, Hamilton leads Rosberg by a full 13 points, but even so, we saw Hamilton's car angled at the start, clearly to block Rosberg."

"How's Wu Shi's tire situation? I haven't seen any activity from Williams."

On the track, Wu Shi continued. He used tires more efficiently than others because his brain was working overtime, precisely adhering to the standardized pace.

The first person to discover his ability was Max Verstappen. The more than 400 laps he spent with Verstappen at the Renault Formula test track left a deep impression on the former F1 driver.

Now, all the engineers in the team know that Wu Shi's cruise control is so abnormal, almost like a robot's, that no one can be more stable than him.

The team leader was observing the lap times at this moment.

Vettel's start lap was mediocre, and he still couldn't outpace Wu Shi on the second lap, a situation similar to Rosberg's.

However, when Jonathan was about to have Wu Shi run a few more laps, Wu Shi used the knob on the steering wheel to indicate that the tires had degraded to the point where they could no longer maintain speed.

Indeed, this was the case. When entering and exiting corners, Wu Shi made more and more unnecessary maneuvers. In order to maintain speed, he was already doing his best to drive the car, which was no easier than the qualifying laps.

"Next lap, stop at the station."

On lap 33, Wu Shi pitted, and as expected, he switched to white medium tires. The tire change took 2.8 seconds, which was quite standard.

Ferrari was about to call Kimi in to change the tires, but Kimi said he could run a few more laps and wanted to push himself a bit longer so that the white tires could comfortably finish the remaining laps.

This is actually a fairly normal strategy, but Vettel wanted to change things up, so he went into the pit.

Rosberg had no choice but to go into the station.

Hamilton pitted on lap 34.

On lap 35, Massa and Kimi pitted.

With the second stint over, the situation on the field became clear, and the front row positions remained unchanged.

The battle in the rear is in complete disarray, and barring any unforeseen circumstances, the only remaining point of interest will be the midstream groups.

(End of this chapter)