F1: Absolute Car Feel

Chapter 210 Why was Wu Shi so fast?
As an F1 driver, no matter the circumstances, whether it's a fantasy or an ideal, you've always thought about winning the world championship.

However, most people eventually come to terms with reality in the paddock and either try to run it for a few more years or switch to other events early on.

Wu Shi pondered for a moment before speaking:

"Because of some unexpected events on the field today, I'm leading the standings. If this season ends here, I think winning WDC will be quite easy."

Upon hearing this, the reporters chuckled in agreement, then continued watching Wu Shi.

"However, as you can see, we still have 14 games to go, each with its own challenges, and maintaining our lead in points will be very difficult."

"All I can say is that as a driver, I will do my best in the race. There is a saying in my country: 'Do your best and leave the rest to fate.'"

Wu Shi pursed his lips and nodded, indicating that he had answered.

The annoying thing about this issue is that if he says he's considering taking over WDC, it will put Williams and himself in the spotlight, because it's highly unlikely.

If he easily says he hasn't considered this issue, then journalism scholars will still criticize him for lacking fighting spirit.

When facing media interviews, F1 drivers cannot answer questions directly, objectively, and rationally; they can only keep arguing and deflecting.

After dealing with numerous media outlets, Wu Shi returned to the motorcade.

"Jazz and Claire are still entangled, but I didn't expect you to escape this predicament first."

Massa smiled, a smile tinged with a peculiar emotion.

“They always want a big news story, and dealing with them all the time is really annoying,” Wu Shi shrugged.

“They don’t need to deal with it like you do. The reporters are letting Jazz and Claire express their feelings.” Massa continued to smile, pointing to the P room TV that was still broadcasting live.

Wu Shi looked over and saw Claire kneeling on one knee next to Sir Williams' wheelchair in the camera's view, while the reporters also half-knelt down to conduct the interview.

The questions asked were not sharp at all; instead, they asked Sir Williams to comment on the victory and to talk about the difficulties he faced on the court.

Wu Shi nodded, "Well, it seems he's getting special treatment as a driver."

The day after the Spanish Grand Prix officially concluded, CCTV broadcast the news as usual.

Wu Shi has brought a lot of attention to F1 this year. Many bloggers on various platforms have started to dig into his past achievements, and bloggers specializing in F1 popular science have also started to release some introductory series.

Aside from popular mass sports like basketball and football, other sports need celebrity endorsements to become popular in China.

At that time, F1 sport in China was promoted by the influence of Wu Shi, a famous figure.

State media also published a special article titled "A Young Hero Emerges: Wu Shi's Strong Rise in Top-Tier Formula One Racing!"

This report is highly professional. It first briefly introduces the status of F1 in international racing, and then begins a detailed report on Wu Shi's career.

Many of these details are appearing in the public eye for the first time, such as why Wu Shi embarked on a professional racing career, the family situation he was in at the Tully boarding school, and how much money he spent to go from a karting driver to an F1 driver.

It can be said that there is a great deal of popular science content in it.

Following the article published by the official media, a blogger named "Sunset Trio" uploaded a popular science video titled "Why was Wu Shi so fast?"

Among them are video footage of him running laps in the domestic karting championship.

"As you can see in this frame where I paused, Wu Shi's rear wheel is almost parallel to the curb. He used almost every inch of the track to ensure his cornering speed."

"Some people will definitely ask, then why not completely drive over the shoulder, so that there would be more space?"
"This is because when you drive over the bulge on this section of the road shoulder, it causes the vehicle to briefly lift off the ground, and then you have to make a sharp turn immediately afterward, leaving the vehicle with insufficient time and distance to complete the turn."

The video content is very professional and detailed, and it also explains the concepts of tracking braking, oversteering, and understeering.

Overall, thanks to Wu Shi's emergence, F1 is gradually being brought into the view of more Chinese people.

In England, Wu Shi received a video from Ling Kang and replied after watching it: "Pretty impressive? I heard you're not planning to run F3 anymore?"

This racing driver, who came to Europe to make it, also dreamed of entering F1, but the fierce competition made it difficult for him to stand out, and he was mostly ranked outside the top fifteen.

"What the hell are you running for! Remember Antonio, the guy you raced in F3 with last year? He was insane!"

"After I finished running in Yinshi, he came over and said something like, 'I thought you were as good as Wu Shi, but you're so slow.'"

"Damn! I've been mocked to death!"

Ling Kang's defenses have been breached.

“You can retort by asking him why he’s been running F3 for two years? Doesn’t he want to run GP2?” Wu Shi replied.

"Hahaha! I didn't even need to say anything, Leclerc came over and spoke up for me. He won a championship and a runner-up at Silverstone! That's amazing! Why is there such a big difference between people who all drive Van Amersford cars!"

"By the way, I also met a driver named Zhou Guanyu. He seems to have good results in karting. He's racing F4 this year and has joined Ferrari's driver academy. I feel like he has a chance."

Upon seeing Ling Kang's message, Wu Shi was taken aback. He hadn't seen Guan Yu in a long time, mainly because he had been in F1 and hadn't had any time to get away.

Otherwise, the FIA ​​wouldn't have agreed to the entire summer break.

"Now that you're not running the equations anymore, what are your plans?" Wu Shi asked.

"Let's get ready to go back to China and drive some RVs. Formula racing is too expensive. If it weren't for your connections, I wouldn't have been able to get into F3 so easily," Ling Kang texted.

"It is indeed a money-burning activity. Motorsports are all about burning money; it's just a matter of how much or how little," Wu Shi sent a message.

“Damn it! You have no idea when my family went to China to look for sponsors, they didn’t even look at them, saying that all the foreign sponsors had already voted for you.” Ling Kang sent a message indignantly.

Wu Shi laughed out loud. There was nothing he could do about it; his fame was too high, and his international influence was growing day by day. Most foreign-related companies would definitely only want to work with him.

The two chatted for a few more words.

After leaving the chat, Wu Shi sighed.

It's incredibly difficult for Chinese people to follow the path of equation-based programming.

In Europe, children in racing families start touching cars as early as age 3. In China, however, 3-year-olds probably need their parents to hold them while riding rocking horses.

That's the difference in racing culture.

When F3 was mentioned, he took another look at the current situation.

They had just finished two rounds of six races: Silverstone and Hogheimlin.

Antonio has one win, two seasons, and three runner-up finishes, ranking first.

Leclerc finished second with two titles, two seasons, and one runner-up finish. If Silverstone hadn't failed to score points in their first match, they would definitely be in first place.

Third is Rosenqvist, the Swede is quite strong, but he's a bit older, born in 1991. Even if he performs well in F3, it's unlikely he'll have a chance to enter F1. After that are some familiar faces: Stroll, Russell, and Albon, whose achievements aren't particularly outstanding.

Drivers born in the 95s are gradually rising in popularity, and in a few years, they will all be coming to F1.

Wu Shi browsed through the recent news and found that most of the reports on racing included information about him.

He casually read a few articles, commented "Wu Shi is nothing special," and then happily waited for his private messages to be exposed.

Time to get back to work and get back to my usual routine.

The Spanish Grand Prix is ​​followed by the Monaco Grand Prix, with only a two-week window in between, which is quite generous.

However, Williams' previous optimizations may be implemented earlier in the Monaco Grand Prix, or later in the Canadian Grand Prix.

The team's aerodynamic design still faces many problems, and due to the complexity of aerodynamics, improvements are often made through exhaustive exploration.

However, even brute force has its advantages and disadvantages. Just like a three-digit password, going from 000 to 999 is brute force, as is going from 555 to 999 and then to 000.

If engineers can narrow down the password range in advance, it will greatly improve research and development efficiency.

However, if we focus on the aerodynamic design of F1 circuits, the problems multiply exponentially.

The fore wing, tail wing, floor, side cases—everywhere is a potential area for modification.

Wu Shi had seen the Mercedes-Benz W06 up close; the complex, irregularly curved panels on both sides of the floor made it difficult to see directly how the wind actually passed through them.

Fortunately, although the research and development direction of the team is not very sensitive, the test results are very reliable.

Wu Shi's feedback was direct and accurate. He was able to figure out the situation by trying out a design, whether it was good or bad.

This may be a major reason why Westbrook's car continues to get faster after being tuned this year.

At least now, competing against Ferrari no longer requires the same level of risk as at the beginning of the season.

However, Mercedes' progress is more remarkable, completely widening the gap with the other teams, which is the foundation of a big team.

Yes, Ferrari has used all its resources to maintain its top-three competitiveness while fighting internal battles.

During the intense research and development process, Wu Shi also needed to participate in sponsored activities with Williams, such as seminars and exchanges with some brands, and appearing on specific occasions wearing a certain watch.

If Williams hadn't been weakened at this time, there would have been even more of these kinds of events.

While Wu Shi and his team of engineers were constantly optimizing the race car, other matters related to F1 were also in full swing.

On May 14, the FIA ​​held a strategic development meeting in the UK to discuss the future of Formula 1.

FIA President Jean Todt and F1 Commissioner Bernie Ecclestone both attended the meeting.

They want to change the current situation of F1's difficulty in making a profit and revitalize the F1 series.

Ultimately, it's because F1 is becoming too boring, and its commercial value is declining.

Mercedes' victory in 2014 briefly changed this situation, as audiences were curious to see what kind of strength this prestigious brand, which had only recently returned to F1, could demonstrate.

However, by 2015, Mercedes still held an overwhelming advantage, and some people were saying that F1 was no longer exciting.

However, this isn't being said much now, because Ferrari seems to be doing well this year, and there's also a disruptor – Wu Shi.

The FIA ​​president even made a special mention of it:

"The emergence of young driver Wu Shi has shown us the enormous potential value of the Chinese market. We should further expand our market in various countries and regions around the world with a focus on this."

This didn't surprise many people, as they were already used to it; Wu Shi's popularity in F1 this year was even higher than Hamilton's.

However, after the Spanish Grand Prix, Hamilton and Rosberg returned to the top!
Indeed, the fierce competition on the field is exciting, the car crashes are even more exciting, and the car crashes between teammates are even more exciting.

“Since we banned the reintroduction of refueling in races in 2010, team strategies have become more streamlined, so we should give teams more strategic flexibility.”

Jean Todt then mentioned another point.

The elimination of refueling in F1 is for safety reasons, but it does significantly reduce the strategic appeal and entertainment value of F1.

Schumacher's versatility in strategic choices is what made him a legend. For example, in the 2004 French Grand Prix, Schumacher defeated Alonso, who had only taken three stops, with a four-stop strategy.

Back then, the combination of tire strategy and fuel-carrying strategy was incredibly versatile.

And now?

The upcoming Monaco Grand Prix will speak volumes.

Both the FIA ​​and F1 hope to change the current situation in 2017, but among the many proposals, the suggestion to upgrade engine horsepower from 750 to 1000 was rejected.

There's no other reason, it's just too expensive! Small fleets can't afford it!
In addition, F1 wanted to reintroduce two tire suppliers, but unfortunately Michelin, the selected supplier, was not interested.

Because F1 tire suppliers need to develop tires with different formulations according to the requirements of the FIA.

Some of these have poor abrasion resistance and grip, while others have good grip but are not abrasion resistant.

Michelin believes this damages their corporate image; they simply want to develop a tire that can run the entire course, is durable enough, and has sufficient grip.

Clearly, the FIA ​​is still considering that F1's current strategy is not very appealing, so how could they possibly agree to allow cars to not pit for tire changes?
Michelin naturally has no intention of returning to F1.

Pirelli was very cooperative, stating that six formulas for 2016 were already under development.

A week before the match, the Monaco royal family baptized a new member, a moment that naturally drew even more attention.

Wu Shi also went to the scene. His property in Monaco has not yet been finalized, which is something he needs to consider.

However, even if he buys property here this year, it won't be of any use, as he estimates he won't have the chance to live here for a full six months, and therefore he still won't be able to get tax breaks.

After attending the baptism ceremony of the Monaco royal family, Wu Shi returned to England and began to focus on the development of racing cars specifically for the Monaco Grand Prix.

"Without a doubt, what we need for the Monaco Grand Prix is ​​absolute qualifying setup."

The fact that Wu Shi and Massa share such similar opinions is enough to explain what everyone wants to do in Monaco.

However, the reality is harsh: the FW37 performs terribly in low-speed corners, and its performance in medium- and high-speed corners is also not good. In the end, it is just a straight-line muscle car.

The calibration work was once in trouble.

　Holy crap, Hulkenberg is awesome!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)