F1: Absolute Car Feel

Chapter 200 Why are you thinking so much?

“Vettel’s second difference with you is 0.12 seconds, while Rosberg’s second difference with Vettel is 0.784 seconds,” Jonathan’s voice rang out at the opportune moment.

Wu Shi glanced in the rearview mirror; Vettel wasn't following behind him and getting caught in the tail current.

Between Turn 13 and Turn 14 is an extremely long straight, second only to the starting straight, but it is not equipped with DRS.

However, given the current second difference between the two, Vettel only needs to exploit the slipstream to easily overtake.

It should be noted that Wu Shi's battery was almost depleted during the previous defensive plays, so this round was basically a death sentence.

Vettel didn't do that, and the reason is simple: there's a DRS checkpoint before Turn 14.

Vettel didn't want to get entangled with Wu Shi any longer; he wanted to finish the job in one fell swoop and use the DRS on the starting straight to widen the gap completely.

Wu Shi naturally understood Vettel's idea, so he always walked on the outermost left side of the track, while Vettel, who was at the same speed as him, was on the inside.

Before reaching the braking point at Turn 14, Wu Shi quickly downshifted, and the "clattering" sound was particularly noticeable.

Vettel naturally noticed this anomaly. He studied Wu Shi's first three games and knew that the kid really liked to use the method of slowing down and braking before the detection line to steal DRS. Rosberg had been tricked in the same way before.

Therefore, he did not hesitate to slam on the brakes, thus saving his slightly lagging position.

Braking at this position completely disrupts the cornering rhythm.

Wu Shi, who kept turning his head, saw the white smoke coming from the front of Vettel's car and realized that Uncle Waitou had been tricked by him, just like how Lock & Lock tricked Pan Zi later.

Because he had planned it in advance, his downshifting and deceleration were all within a controllable range. His entry into the corner was very smooth, and he instantly widened the gap.

Vettel, however, needs to get back into rhythm.

This back-and-forth has created a significant gap.

"Oh! Wu Shi slowed down and fooled Vettel, Vettel's front tires started smoking! Oh, he slammed on the brakes and Wu Shi accelerated away! Their gap was immediately reduced to 0.4 seconds!"

David exclaimed! "How can this little guy have so many thoughts? No wonder this is a country with 'The Art of War'; their scheming is truly something else."

Having gained a second advantage, Wu Shi drove smoothly onto the main straight, while Vettel behind him adjusted his car before catching up.

At this point, the gap between the two players widened to 0.5 seconds, and then DRS was activated!

Williams, number 59, ran alone ahead, sparks occasionally flashing beneath the floor.

Behind him, the Mercedes and Ferraris, with their rear wings deployed, rapidly increased their speed and quickly brought the cars to the ground, with fireworks trailing behind them.

Just by looking at the sparks behind the three cars, you can tell who's faster and who's slower.

Three different racing teams sped along the main straight, vying for position, much to the thrill of the spectators!
At the three-quarter mark of the straight, Vettel overtook Wu Shi on the right inside, outmaneuvering him who had no DRS (Driving Responsibility System).

Rosberg quickly closed the distance, but in the blink of an eye, the braking zone was almost there, and Rosberg was still some distance behind him.

Once Wu Shi turned into the center line, it was clear that Rosberg would not be able to overtake him there.

“You have received DRS,” Jonathan reminded him.

Although Wu Shi had already seen that the lights representing DRS were lit up, this reminder was still necessary.

After passing the three combination corners (1, 2, and 3), Vettel, free from Wu Shi's obstruction, sped up, willing to wear down his tires to create enough distance to avoid being overtaken by Wu Shi using the DRS after corner 3.

Wu Shi's strategy was different from the original, so he did not stick to Vettel, but instead blocked Rosberg, causing the princess's tires to wear out a bit more.

He remembered Jonathan telling him that Mercedes had warned Princess about overheating brakes after just one lap.

After Turn 3, Wu Shi turned on DRS, and Rosberg also turned on DRS.

In this relatively short stretch, Mercedes unleashed their full power, completely overwhelming Williams.

Of course, this is also related to the battery level.

Before entering Turn 4, Rosberg had already secured a favorable inside position and entered the turn almost instantly.

As Wu Shi, who was entering the corner from the center line, was overtaken, he turned his head and happened to see the white smoke from the front tires of the Mercedes.

"Rosberg is working too hard," Wu Shi said in TR.

Jonathan had no idea what Wu Shi meant by his frequent trash talk.

He could only glance at the data and say, "Yes, his tires are wearing out very badly."

After being overtaken by two cars in succession, Wu Shi dropped from second place to fourth place.

"The vehicle is still not working!" the soldier clapped his hands and sighed in regret.

"Compared to Hamilton's speed ahead, Wu Shi is indeed too slow, but he made it to the seventh lap, which is already quite good," Fei Ge said.

On the track, Vettel, no longer hindered by Wu Shi, began to accelerate rapidly in an attempt to catch up with Hamilton, who was already two seconds ahead.

Rosberg also worked very hard to catch up with Vettel.

Only Wu Shi did not try at all.

"Tire grip is still very poor, and it is difficult to maintain a stable temperature."

Wu Shi's voice rang out again in the TR. As he spoke, he secretly turned a knob at the bottom of the steering wheel. The abbreviations on the knob were completely unintelligible.

“OK, keep it up. Kimi is now 1.5 seconds behind you, and your lap times are about the same, around 1 minute and 40 seconds,” Jonathan replied.

After saying that, he and Rodrigo took off their headsets and he said, "He said the tires are doing quite well, and the expected lifespan is likely to be longer."

“Okay, we’ll let him enter the pits as late as possible.” Rodrigo nodded, keeping a close eye on the lap times.

The idea of ​​entering the pit as late as possible is not about deliberately dragging out the time, but about running a few more laps while still meeting the required lap times.

If the lap time drops significantly, no matter what you say, you'll pit to change tires immediately; otherwise, you'd be making a complete blunder.

The front row stabilized again, and the broadcast cameras mainly focused on the mid-to-lower-end groups.

Massa attracted a lot of attention, after all, although Williams is not as good as Mercedes or Ferrari, he is still the top of the Earth group. He is invincible under the Mars rover!

So even when he was trapped in a traffic jam, he kept pushing forward and overtaking other cars.

The team also told Massa, "You've been performing very well in the last few laps, so feel free to push."

On lap 9, Vettel made a mistake on the 4th, going too far. Rosberg, who was 0.3 seconds behind him, immediately seized the opportunity and launched an attack.

Fortunately, Vettel managed to pull the car back in time and stabilize his position.

Wu Shi, who was behind, witnessed the entire situation. The wind direction and the sand on the ground were all affecting the drivers, and he warned everyone to be extremely cautious.

Wu Shi stayed steadily 0.7 seconds behind Rosberg. He wasn't in a hurry to attack; he just wanted to follow along. Sometimes, following along was comfortable enough.

On lap 10, at Turn 1, Rosberg used DRS to climb ahead of the corner, entered the apex first, squeezed past Vettel, and completed the overtake.

The struggle between the two brought Wu Shi and them closer together.

"Why do I get the feeling that Wu Shi is just sitting on the sidelines watching the tigers fight?" Fei Ge said strangely.

"Hey! I really feel that way. Given Wu Shi's personality, he would definitely try to seize such a good opportunity." The soldier agreed.

Unfortunately, they didn't delve into Westbrook's strategy; after all, they were mostly focused on having fun, and they were more interested in Vettel's recent mistake.

When Rosberg overtook and returned to second place, everyone in the Mercedes pit lane applauded, except for the track engineer who reminded Rosberg:

"Watch your tires, they're wearing out more than you expect."

Jonathan relayed this message to Wu Shi:
"Rosberg's tires wore out more than expected, and he was now 5 seconds behind Hamilton."

"Also, Kimi has caught up with you. Within your DSR range, you need to keep up with Vettel. This is very important."

Jonathan reminded him that there was nothing that could be done about it; Rosberg and Vettel were locked in a fierce battle, slowing down Wu Shi's speed, and it was only a matter of time before Kimi caught up.

“Yeah, I understand.” Wu Shi drove the car, his head turning in the direction the car was turning.

To be honest, he was a little nervous about implementing the team's strategy today.

After all, you can fight to your heart's content without worrying about anything. At this moment, he not only has to manage the tires and speed, but also pray that the pre-race predictions are correct.

This is undoubtedly a test of one's mindset.

Wu Shi and Kimi activated DRS at the same time, and the gap between them did not change much, but Wu Shi closed the gap on Vettel by 0.2 seconds.

"Massa is pitting, and his tires are losing a lot of speed; Hulkenberg, Nasr, and Bottas are also pitting on the same lap as him."

Jonathan was providing live updates on the game.

At this point, Hamilton's speed remained at 1 minute and 40 seconds, while Rosberg squeezed the tires to keep up.

Vettel, however, was not up to par, with a time of around 1 minute and 41 seconds. Wu Shi and Kimi, who were behind him, were naturally even slower.

On lap 11, Eriksen and Sainz pitted.

Clearly, the window for entry is approaching.

Jonathan grew increasingly nervous; the key to Wu Shi's entire strategy lay at the end of this stint.

Before the competition, everyone had considered letting Wu Shi maintain his second place.

However, all the previous races have proven one thing: no matter how excellent Wu Shi's ability is, he cannot keep Williams ahead of Mercedes and Ferrari through conventional means.

Without any strategy, it's only a matter of time before Rosberg overtakes Wu Shi using the power of his racing car.

Rosberg might not be stopped by Panzi again at this stop; luck always runs out.

On lap 12, Kimi had just crossed the starting straight when he said to the team, "Maybe we should think about when I pit."

This remark caught the attention of Jonathan and Rodrigo. After exchanging glances, they realized that Kimi must have some unknown knob on the steering wheel that was telling the team the meaning behind his words.

"Is Lakenin also going to delay his arrival?" Jonathan asked.

“That’s possible. Raikkonen’s strategy was the same in the previous few matches,” Rodrigo nodded.

Although Kimi didn't start the races normally in the first few races, it's undeniable that compared to Lao Han, Wu Shi, Wai Tou, and Gong Zhu, he was almost always struggling with strategy rather than competing wheel-to-wheel with the other riders on the track.

“We should keep an eye on him,” Jonathan said.

"clear."

Rodrigo nodded and assigned the task to an engineer in the strategy group.

On lap 13, Vettel suddenly pitted.

Faced with the sudden opening of track space, Jonathan immediately said, "Push."

Wu Shi naturally knew what this was about; once Vettel entered the station, he would no longer have free DRS!
I wonder if Ferrari took this into consideration, which is why they rushed to recall Vettel.

His DRS is gone, but Kimi's is still here!

Ferrari TR: "Kimi, Williams told Wu Shi Push, you need to keep it up."

This statement is ambiguous. Does it mean maintaining the current speed, or maintaining the second difference with Wu Shi?
Outsiders could only wait a few laps to see how things went, but Kimi and his crew's seamless teamwork allowed him to reply:
"Copy".

At this point, Bottas, now on new soft tires, set the fastest lap time of 1 minute 38.195 seconds.

Rodrigo saw the data and started calculating again.

At this point, only Hamilton and Rosberg maintained a lap time of around 1 minute and 40 seconds among the front row drivers.

Rosberg, in particular, had a faster lap time than the old man.

Wu Shi's lap time has dropped to around 1 minute 41 seconds, but he sped up on this lap and is expected to get to around 1 minute 40 seconds.

Rodrigo had the data engineers calculate how much time would be lost if they continued using the old tires, and how much time Vettel would catch up with once he switched to the new tires.

Meanwhile, he was also analyzing the entry window. If Wu Shi's lap time could not be kept stable and he ended up leaving the station with slower cars, it would also waste a lot of time.

The engineers in the strategy team became extremely busy instantly. After a massive amount of data came out, they had to verify it one by one before finally letting Jonathan inform Wu Shi.

The broadcast camera focused on Ferrari.

Vettel entered the pits and was substituted in 2.4 seconds.

"Wow, Ferrari's tire-changing speed is incredible," the soldier remarked.

"If we change Kimi's tires slowly, does that mean we're being treated differently?" Fei joked.

At that moment, Alonso also entered the pit.

"Alonso has switched to white tires!" Fei Ge said.

After speeding up, Wu Shi found that Kimi was not keeping up with him, so he stabilized his speed as Jonathan had asked.

At the end of lap 14, Rosberg turned into the pit lane.

“Rosberg has arrived,” Jonathan said.

Wu Shi watched as the Mercedes No. 6 turned into the pit lane. He squinted slightly. So far, the team's strategy has been proceeding steadily.

He glanced at Kimi in the rearview mirror again. He had already been left behind for a second and had no DRS to use. It seemed that Kimi's strategy was the same as his, and he was even reluctant to waste tires to catch up with him.

So, on which lap is Kimi going to pit?

This question didn't linger in his mind for long, because it was something the team should consider.

"Rosberg also switched to yellow tires, and the change took 3.2 seconds," Jonathan said.

Wu Shi continued driving, inwardly complaining, "How come Ferrari has the fastest tire-changing speed in the Mercedes Dynasty?"

Ricciardo also pitted on the same lap as Rosberg. When the broadcast camera panned to him, it was clear that there was already a lot of sand on the track, and there would be haze after the cars passed by.

“Vettel ran ahead of Rosberg,” Jonathan said.

On the track, Rosberg, who had just left the pit lane, could only watch helplessly as the red Prancing Horse galloped away.

These words made Wu Shi pause. Were the new soft tires really that effective? He began to worry about his own strategy.

"Are we all okay?" he couldn't help but ask in TR.

"Yes, everything is OK. Keep up your current lap time, we can give you enough."

After Jonathan replied, he asked Rodrigo, "How does the situation look now?"

"The new soft tires are fast, but if Wu Shi is like Rosberg and Vettel, he will inevitably get caught up in the same kind of grueling battle. In any case, our strategy is not wrong."

After Rodrigo finished speaking, he asked with some concern, "The ideal lap time on the new soft tires is 1 minute and 37 seconds. How many laps can Wu Shi maintain that?"

“At least seven laps,” Jonathan said.

“Terrifying,” Rodrigo commented, then continued:

"Then our strategy is fine. Wu Shi's greatest strength lies in tire management; he can manage his tires better than anyone else."

"He likes to engage in prolonged battles, but prolonged battles only result in mutual destruction. We need to find the widest possible space for him and make him squeeze every last drop of time out of him!!"

Jonathan nodded in deep agreement, and as Wu Shi participated in more and more main competitions, the situation became increasingly clear.

After all, whether it's preseason testing or other tests, they are for testing vehicles, not drivers. A driver's true abilities can only be fully revealed on the track!

(End of this chapter)