F1: Absolute Car Feel

Chapter 245 Wu Shi's Miracle Start

The qualifying session is over, but things aren't going smoothly for the Mercedes team.

Rosberg and his crew are reviewing the qualifying session.

He was down by nearly 5 points again, a gap that was almost hopeless.

Liu Yiquan's nickname was earned through surpassing his teammates in ranked matches time and time again.

“Our data simulations are never as accurate as his,” Rosberg commented.

"Yes, Lewis has an innate talent for understanding the track and for precise control of the car," the engineer couldn't help but remark.

Rosberg is a data-driven driver; before each race, he first uses data theory to deduce the best way to drive.

Then you can fit the data yourself.

In other words, Hamilton himself couldn't predict his lap time before he set pole position.

Rosberg was undoubtedly in pain; his extensive analysis was no match for someone else's flash of inspiration.

"Relax, at least Vettel's qualifying results aren't ideal; he's currently second," the engineer reassured him.

Rosberg nodded, though such comfort was actually of no use.

Does he need to fight for second place?
Of course they need it. The team really hopes that both drivers will bring home one or two championships by the end of the season.

If the old man comes in first, it doesn't matter if he comes in second.

But for him personally, he's already been the second son, so what's the point of being the second son again?

WDC is his ultimate goal.

This is not only his pursuit, but also his father's pursuit.

It is a shared wish of two generations!
In addition, the pressure of competing with Hamilton since childhood also motivated him to prove himself.

Winning the WDC has become an obsession for him.

Click.

At that moment, Toto walked in.

"Nico, you did well at this station."

Toto pursed his lips and said "not bad," but without smiling.

"Thank you," Rosberg smiled.

He was still somewhat intimidated by this boss.

After the previous defeats, Toto had spoken with him privately.

It's okay to be slower than your teammates in ranked matches, but you can't be too much slower!

If he doesn't reach his limit and leaves some gaps, Wu Shi will take the opportunity to squeeze in.

When a Williams is sandwiched between two Mercedes cars, the entire game will be anything but peaceful.

"."

Toto patted Rosberg on the shoulder and left the room.

Rosberg shrugged and said, "It seems he's not satisfied with my results, although I'm not satisfied myself either."

"No, no, no, you should learn to bear these things. In the end, everyone still wants you to win the championship," the engineer shook his head and comforted him.

Williams' post-match meeting was no easier than Mercedes'.

Mercedes' speed advantage is unmatched, and the data from the first and second training sessions is also worrying.

Massa's qualifying failure was initially thought to be due to the research and development team's fault.

He then said, "I've found some speed and feel, but unfortunately I still need to adapt. Many of Wu's suggestions are correct."

This is surprising, but whether it's a white lie to maintain team harmony or if Massa actually thinks that way, remains to be seen.

The oppressive atmosphere within the team since the summer break has indeed been somewhat alleviated as a result.

Jonathan remained seated, unmoved by those words.

Regardless of Massa's opinion or considerations, he wanted the team to allocate resources accordingly.

Wu Shi's potential has not been fully realized.

This guy has an extremely keen sense for cars; he can figure out how to make them go faster.

There were various concerns in the past, but the team did not take them into consideration.

Only by starting to unconditionally try and learn from mistakes and adopting the results can we make the car faster!

The fact that others cannot drive this car faster only proves that they cannot adapt to this car, not that there is anything wrong with Wu Shi's opinion.

Wu Shi naturally had no idea what Jonathan was thinking; in fact, he was quite fair in offering his opinions.

There's no need for it; nobody wants to compromise the vehicle's stability.

A race car cannot become incredibly powerful simply because of a few extreme ideas that are biased towards personal habits.

For everyone at Williams, the best news is that management has decided to go all in this season.

This allowed research and development to continue even in the second half of the season.

Some teams, for example, will probably announce soon that they have stopped development and will focus their efforts on the next season.

After briefly reviewing the situation in the qualifying rounds and having collected the data, the focus of the discussion shifted to tomorrow's main competition.

Spa is a pure high-speed track, which puts a high level of wear on tires.

The expected strategy for a 44-lap race is one stop and two stops.

However, given Spa's characteristics and the situation in practice, a two-stop strategy is a higher priority.

Rosberg suffered a tire blowout during practice. Although Pirelli claimed the tire was damaged by a sharp object, everyone realized that they needed to be more conservative in this race.

It cannot be said that all team drivers are conservative; at least Wu Shi and Massa both believe that tire management needs to be cautious.

Since Wu Shi and Massa were both in the top ten, they could only start using the soft tires that Q2 had used.

Therefore, the choices made after stopping are worth considering.

Generally speaking, if the speed advantage of soft tires is more obvious, then it is better to switch to soft tires in order to secure the second stint.

However, you can also use a medium tire for the second super long stint, in exchange for a final soft tire sprint.

Because Spa has fewer laps, the opposite is also possible.

First, use medium tires to sprint, then use soft tires to sprint. Basically, just go for it!

Of course, if Wu Shi, who started third, doesn't see any changes in his ranking at the start of the race, he can definitely keep an eye on the two drivers ahead of him.

The only problem is that Williams' tire wear is greater than Mercedes', and that can't be changed.

The weather was nice in Belgium the following day.

Verstappen was penalized ten places for changing the power unit, and should have started from the back.

However, more parts were replaced on both McLaren cars.

Together with Barton, a total of 105 players will be penalized!
From this perspective, the ten players who were penalized by Pan Zi seem insignificant compared to these two world champions.

The warm-up tire craze had barely begun when Hulkenberg was already saying "NO POWER" on TR.

Soon, the team told him to go back to the repair area to check the situation.

But when they were almost at the pit lane entrance, the team told him not to go into the pit lane and to try starting the race first.

This decision is also normal.

Hulkenberg started in eleventh place, and going back to the pits like that would definitely be a huge loss for him.

If you don't lose horsepower after the race officially starts, then you've made a profit.

Most importantly, the team looked at the telemetry data but didn't find anything too unusual, so they were unsure what the problem was.

It's really frustrating to encounter something like this right at the start of a competition.

However, the joys and sorrows of drivers are not shared.

Drivers like Kvyat and Ericsson, who were behind Hulkenberg, were told by the team to launch effective attacks at the start.

Once on the straightaway, the old man began to drastically reduce his speed.

He stopped normally at the first starting position on the right, with the front of the car facing left.

Rosberg parked in the first position on the left, with the front of the car facing right.

Wu Shi watched the two arguing back and forth, feeling nothing but joy.

Let them fight, the fiercer the better.

As the cars were positioned and ready to depart, Jonathan told Wu Shi over the radio:
"Hulkenberg's car can't start, so we'll have to regroup, which means we'll have to do another lap of formation driving. You can treat it as a warm-up lap."

"I can't tell you the detailed data or specific parameter settings. Just do as we said before."

Immediately, two of the five traffic lights remained constantly green, while the other three flashed yellow.

The warm-up lap has begun again. Hulkenberg's car is parked at the very edge of the track, completely out of power.

But during this second warm-up lap, Sainz's TR started playing again:
"NO POWER".

"What's going on today?! Another one has lost motivation?!"

The soldier was stunned, then burst out laughing.

"Did you play too much during summer vacation? You're too tired to go back now, hahaha!" Fei Ge laughed.

On the other side, Hulkenberg's vehicle was pushed back into the P-room.

"Back to the pit room, back to the pit room." Little Red Bull also told Sainz.

Judging from the way he entered, he probably wasn't there to inspect the car and start, but rather to prepare to retire from the race.

The race hadn't even started when two cars withdrew. This situation doesn't qualify as a "DNF" withdrawal, but rather as a "DNS" withdrawal, meaning they withdrew before the race even began.

This time, without any surprises, the five red lights can finally be turned on.

Wu Shi glanced at Rosberg on his left.

Perhaps he didn't notice it when he came back from the second warm-up lap, but the Mercedes driver's car wasn't pointing as far to the right anymore.

Hamilton in front of him also had his car straight.

Five red lights lit up one after another, then went out, and the race started!

The Belgian Grand Prix has officially begun.

As soon as Wu Shi released the main clutch paddle, the secondary paddle was set to the most suitable engagement point, and even the engine speed was perfectly controlled by his right foot.

Buzz!

His start was as strong as ever.

'Too slow!'

Sure enough, the two Mercedes cars, which already had starting problems, had a very poor start due to the lack of guidance from the engineers.

Wu Shi's exceptionally sharp maneuvering propelled 59 Williams forward like a rocket.

He surpassed Rosberg almost in the blink of an eye.

Rosberg also wanted to push Wu Shi to the right.

But Wu Shi had already taken the lead and no longer paid any attention to Rosberg.

Now an even more crucial question is before him: which route should he take to attack Hamilton?

Yes, Hamilton had a better start than Rosberg, but it was still a mistake!

The decision was made in a split second.

After glancing at the gap on the right side of the track, Wu Shi didn't think twice and put the ball in directly.

His starting advantage was too great; after running two car lengths, he was already alongside the old man's front wheel!
But by this point, his advantage had been exhausted, and Hamilton had caught up with the pace.

The old man did not choose to squeeze Wu Shi to the right, as blocking Wu Shi in this way would only benefit Rosberg on the left.

The most pressing issue for him right now is entering corners.

Once the center line is occupied on the right turn of the first bend, Wu Shi will have no way to launch an attack!

Hamilton astutely assessed the situation and veered the entire car slightly to the left.

Wu Shi also took this opportunity to follow the old man closely.

At this time, Rosberg was actually caught in a tough battle in the rear.

Grosjean was forced into the middle lane from the right by the quick-starting Ricciardo.

Grosjean's start wasn't slow either, so he squeezed Bottas out of the way as he entered the middle lane.

Rosberg, however, was not going to give up his position, and relying on his leading starting position, he blocked Grosjean.

This card put him and Ricardo in a head-to-head battle.

But no one expected that when Rosberg veered towards the center line to give up space on the left,

Perez emerged from within.

In the blink of an eye, Turn 1 arrived.

The front row, almost completely packed, offers incredibly narrow space for entering corners.

Wu Shi was the first to encounter this problem.

Fortunately, Hamilton steered to the left to better enter the corner.

He immediately followed, using the vehicle to maintain his position and protect himself from attack.

After the old man entered the bend, he followed closely behind.

Because he moves quickly in and out of the paint, the old man naturally moves faster when exiting a corner.

This is also what Wu Shi needed; once the old man left, the driving lane was cleared.

At this point, he was already able to step on the gas.

Buzz!

Wu Shi used the empty lane to closely follow the old man out of the bend.

Now they were completely free from the chaos in the rear.

The situation in the rear is becoming increasingly chaotic.

Bottas, who had just fainted, had fallen somewhere.

Ricardo surged to the front, forcing Rosberg to relinquish a significant number of positions.

Grosjean also made a mistake, slipping out of position.

Because of his excellent position and route, Master Pei managed to stand side by side with Rosberg.

The chaotic fight that erupted at the start completely confused the commentators, making their statements flow seamlessly together.
"Oh! Oh! Mercedes has suffered another major starting blunder!"
"Wu Shiqi did an excellent job; he immediately surpassed Rosberg!"
"My God! Rosberg's start was a disaster!"
"Ricardo moved incredibly fast; he overtook Grosjean and jumped directly from seventh to third!"

Is he going to compete with Rosberg for third place?!

"Rosberg won't let him succeed! Rosberg is pressing inward! He's going to stop Ricardo."

"No! Rosberg can't do it! Grosjean has blocked his space!"

"Bottas, who had a terrible start, was completely pushed back and had no room to maneuver!"
"Perez also rushed out from the far left lane where no one was paying attention!"
"Wow! Three cars are going to enter the corner side by side! Who will be the winner of this battle?!"

"Hamilton and Wu Shi have already left the curve!"
"Rosberg has the best position in the center. Is he going to hold onto third place?"

"NO! He didn't do it! Ricardo has surpassed the past!"

"Perez has surpassed both of them!"

"Oh! Rosberg has fallen from second to fifth! Oh!"

As the narrator watched the cars gradually form a line, he thought he could finally take a break.

As a result, Wu Shi sped through several small bends from 2 to 4, caught up with Hamilton's tail, and used the wake to pull his speed to an extremely high level!
Will Williams, already tuned for high speed, be able to catch up on the straightaway?!
"He's caught up with Hamilton! Turn 5 is just ahead, he'll have a chance!"
"He's inside, he's going to brake too late!"

"My God! Oh! He overtook us in the braking zone!"
"But can he stop in time?"

Heh!

Wu Shi demonstrated to everyone through his actions that in Spa, a place he knew intimately, he felt he could stop if he could.

He will never repeat the mistake he made at the Hungaroring circuit!
The faint white smoke and the locked scene were completely different.

We've succeeded!
However, in the following series of turns, the lead at right-hand corner T5 does not mean that it can be maintained all the way to left-hand corner T6.

Sure enough, Wu Shi had just overtaken Hamilton a moment earlier.

The two cars then entered Turn 6.

Hamilton spun from the outside to the inside, aggressively drove over the shoulder, and completed the overtaking maneuver.

Then came the right-hand bend.

Although Wu Shi was pulled away at turn 6, he was faster exiting the turn!
Hamilton, who had driven onto the kerb, was actually affected and unable to immediately regain front wheel traction.

Swoosh! Roar!

The engine roared and the tires squeaked incessantly.

laugh!
Accelerating on the short straightaway, Wu Shi gained the upper hand.

By driving into Turn 7 from the inside, Wu Shi regained the advantage.

The combination bend has emerged, and Wu Shi is in the lead!

"Wow! A miracle! Another miracle!"
"I would call it Wu Shi's starting miracle!"

He has created another miracle!

"His starting ability is unmatched!"
"Who would have thought that he would once again use his starting advantage to overtake the first and second place finishers!"

The commentator's voice was hoarse, a completely uncontrollable roar!
(End of this chapter)