F1: Absolute Car Feel

Chapter 259 A Good News and a Bad News
In the replay, Ricardo entered the repair area before Wu Shi, and Wu Shi only stopped in the work area after Ricardo's vehicle had already been lifted up.

Next, Wu Shi finished changing all four wheels and the vehicle landed, while Ricardo also landed.

Because of this delay, Wu Shi, who came later, was able to leave first.

Then, an overhead view showed the situation during Red Bull's tire change.

The other three wheels were changed quickly, and even the jack at the rear was lowered ahead of time.

However, the left front wheel got stuck, and the mechanic couldn't remove the bolts even after tightening them twice.

All the time was wasted on this.

"Wu Shi got a position for nothing!" the soldier chuckled.

"Yes, judging from the previous stint, overtaking tonight was going to be very difficult. Nobody expected Red Bull to put on such a show for us," Fei said with a laugh.

"There were actually quite a few changes in location during this entry into the station."

"Yes, the drivers who pitted earlier have all lost money, especially Kvyat, who is now behind the two Mercedes drivers."

"Let's see what tires everyone is using." The soldier noticed the angle shown in the broadcast.

Of the current top ten drivers, only Hamilton, Rosberg, Perez, and Nasr are using soft tires.

The rest of the riders switched to supersoft tires.

"It seems that Mercedes has not yet solved the problem of temperature control for ultrasoft tires."

"Is it possible that they adopted a new strategy, using soft tires first and then switching to supersoft tires?"

The game is currently in virtual safety car mode, so the two had a chance to discuss it.

In VSC mode, on lap 15, Massa had to pit again for a tire change due to tire damage caused by a collision.

Subsequently, physical security vehicles replaced virtual security vehicles.

"Safety car, deploy the safety car. There is still a lot of debris at the exit of the repair area, and Matthew is cleaning it up. Be careful when you go there."

Jonathan offered a reminder.

"Copy".

For the next few laps, the safety car led the way.

However, the accidents involving Massa and Hulkenberg have begun to be investigated.

Multiple replays show that this collision was not caused by Massa squeezing Hulkenberg.

Because after coming out, Massa had no space on his left side, which was entirely due to Hulkenberg closing him down too hard.

In this situation, Massa will most likely not have to bear any responsibility.

On lap 17, the lapped car was freed.

This means the track conditions have returned to normal and the race is about to restart.

At the end of lap 18, the safety car was removed, and the race was about to restart.

"Watch out for Ricardo behind you," Jonathan warned just before the start of the race.

"I know."

Wu Shi, of course, kept a close eye on Da Ya.

However, he felt that as long as he didn't make any mistakes, there was no possibility of him being eliminated.

Kvyat was stuck in the back row and unable to move, which is enough to show that Red Bull was not ridiculously strong in tonight's race.

Sure enough, once the safety car was inside, Vettel accelerated and then braked hard, before immediately accelerating again and pulling away at full speed.

This sudden action makes it impossible for the car behind to respond and follow.

Wu Shi could only accelerate immediately after Vettel braked hard and accelerated.

But the distance has already been created.

Fortunately, with his sudden acceleration, Ricardo was unable to keep up.

Vettel led the charge across the checkered lines, and the match officially restarted!

Overtaking will now be permitted.

The drivers in the front row were very close together.

However, as soon as the race started, Sainz's car encountered some problems, making it very difficult to shift up from low to high gears.

The sound of engines echoed across the track. On lap 19, Vettel pulled ahead of Wu Shi by 0.3 seconds.

After switching to the new supersoft tires, Vettel actually stopped pushing as aggressively.

"Lewis, we'll continue with the two-stop strategy. We need to use this soft tire for a while longer."

At this moment, Bono spoke to Hamilton.

"That's right, both stops are necessary." The soldier nodded.

"So it seems their plan is to switch to supersoft tires later, using the new to compete with the old? Using supersoft to compete with soft tires?" Fei Ge said.

"Do they have any new soft tires?" the soldier asked in return.

"hiss"

For the two players who don't stream practice matches and ranked games much anymore, they don't remember many of the statistics very clearly.

On the third lap after the race restarted, Vettel pulled away from Wu Shi by nearly a second.

Ricardo's lead was extended to 0.8 seconds by Wu Shi.

At the end of lap 21, the safety car had been back for three laps, and DRS was reactivated.

Jonathan reminded Wu Shi of the situation, but in reality, even with DRS, overtaking was extremely difficult.

Vettel led the race with a time of around 1 minute 52.4 seconds.

Wu Shi's time fluctuated between 52.5 and 52.7 seconds.

Ricardo, on the other hand, was more stable and faster, almost as fast as Vettel.

However, whenever he approached Wu Shi to attack, Wu Shi only needed to lightly block him on the track line, making it difficult for him to launch an attack.

After all, the performance difference between the two race cars isn't so great that they can be completely outmatched.

Especially on straightaways, the FW37 is extremely fast thanks to continuous directional optimization.

The drivers continued racing, still entangled in their pursuit.

"Kimi, Wu Shi has blocked Ricciardo. Everything is normal in the car now. You need to try to attack Ricciardo." Ferrari's TR sounded.

However, despite saying that, Kimi has had a hard time seizing opportunities.

On lap 23, the investigation results for Hulkenberg and Massa came out, and Hulkenberg will be penalized three places in the next Grand Prix.

"Wow! It really is Hulkenberg's fault."

"Of course it's his responsibility!"

The soldier replied matter-of-factly:
“Look at Hulkenberg’s driving line at the time, it was like he was going to crash into Massa.”

At this moment, Hamilton's TR sounded again: "Keep this speed going, I can catch up."

“OK, Vettel is slowing down, Wu Shi has blocked Ricciardo, and Kimi is trying to take Ricciardo’s position,” Bono told Hamilton.

The situation on the field has now basically stabilized.

Vettel was able to quickly pull the car away, but what happened in the first stint showed that no matter how hard you run, it's all for nothing when the safety car comes out.

Therefore, Ferrari changed its strategy. Vettel might as well keep running with the tire on, since Wu Shi couldn't catch up anyway.

Moreover, by pressing down on the car like this, Wu Shi's speed will also decrease, which will slow down Ricardo as well.

This gives Kimi a chance to try attacking Ricardo.

If Kimi surpasses Ricciardo, then Vettel can suppress Wu Shi, and then Kimi will have a chance to surpass Wu Shi.

Ferrari has a vehicle advantage in Singapore, so they definitely want to bring one or two back with them.

Wu Shi had noticed this situation long ago, knowing that Vettel's speed in the first stint was terrifying.

And now, after five or six laps, he can still see Vettel's taillights.

This is enough to show that Vettel is definitely trying to save his pregnancy.

Therefore, he basically didn't pay much attention to Vettel's speed and got into his own rhythm.

He has a lot of experience when it comes to protecting a pregnancy.

Perhaps it is precisely because it is difficult to achieve anything on the track that each team is resorting to underhanded tactics outside of the track.

I thought the position on the track would remain unchanged until the second stop.

However, by lap 26, Hamilton's speed had been steadily declining.

He was subsequently overtaken by his teammates Rosberg and Red Bull Kvyat.

Hamilton TR: "NO POWER GUYS."

Bono immediately responded, "OK, we're investigating what's going on, and we've indeed seen a problem."

Nicky Lauda, ​​who was watching the game, was also confused and made a puzzled gesture.

How did the problem suddenly occur out of nowhere?
On the track, Hamilton's speed decreased, and cars kept overtaking him.

Hamilton TR: "Quick guys, quick!"

BonoTR: "OK, we're working on it, we're working on it."

Hamilton became anxious and said, "All drivers are set to 01 by default. Try setting the engine driver to 01 by default."

BonoTR: "It's not working, Lewis. We see that the accelerator isn't fully open. Is it a pedal problem? We can't see any electronic information."

Hamilton TR: "No, I've already floored the accelerator! But there's just no speed!"

Just one lap later, Hamilton dropped to 8th place.

"Purely mechanical is still the most reliable!" the soldier remarked.

"Purely mechanical isn't reliable either! If the iron chain breaks, it'll be uncontrollable," Fei Ge laughed.

"Judging from this situation, Hamilton is very likely to get no points at this race."

The soldier shook his head. Losing points due to a car malfunction was something that was hard to accept no matter how you looked at it, especially when it came to competing for the world championship.

"Then his pursuit of Wu Shi will be severely slowed down."

“Let’s do the math. I remember Wu Shi has 211 points and Hamilton has 200 points. If this race ends like this, Wu Shi will have 229 points.” The soldier started calculating.

"Six more stops to go"

However, at this moment, Massa's TR chimed again: "My gearbox is always stuck in neutral."

Dave TR: "No problem, everything is fine, keep going."

On lap 27, Vettel set the fastest lap of the race at 1 minute 50.306 seconds, pulling away from Wu Shi by nearly 3 seconds. Hamilton was still trying to recover, anxiously asking:

"Quick, tell me how to reset the accelerator?"

Bono TR: "Try HPP default 01".

Hamilton TR: "Useless!"

Bono continued to Hamilton, "Try strategy mode 1, let's see if it will restore the throttle."

Hamilton TR: "NO, it's useless!"

Bono TR: "Okay, back to Strat mode 3, try RS mode, watch out for EB."

"No."

Hamilton's voice on TR grew increasingly anxious.

But in the end, Bono could only tell him to wait and see, and run a few laps first.

This was practically a death sentence for Hamilton in this match.

F1 isn't a CRT TV that you can just tap twice and it'll be fine again in a bit.

Meanwhile, Massa was recalled to the station to check on the situation.

After entering the station, nothing was found, so we came out again.

After only one lap, Massa reported a problem with the gearbox; no matter how he adjusted it, it would inexplicably shift back to neutral.

There was really no other way, and on lap 31, Massa was recalled and retired from the race.

On lap 33, Hamilton (lap 31) also chose to retire from the race.

Jonathan TR: "Lewis and Massa have both withdrawn from the race."

Wu Shi TR: "This is both good news and bad news. Luckily, you didn't tell me there was good news and bad news and then ask me which news I wanted to know first."

"Hahaha!"

Wu Shi's TR made the commentators laugh.

"It's clear that Wu Shi is quite relaxed right now."

"Yes, Ricardo tried many times, but he couldn't surpass it."

At the end of lap 33, Kvyat pitted for tires.

Red Bull encountered another problem with tire changing; the right rear tire got stuck, resulting in a 6.6-second tire being replaced.

"What's going on with Red Bull today?!"

"Everything is going wrong!"

"The advantage we had worked so hard to gain on the field was lost in an instant."

Meanwhile, Alonso also opted to pit and withdraw from the race, marking his seventh withdrawal this season.

It seems that the high-temperature environment puts considerable stress on the engine.

At the end of lap 35, the pit stop rush began.

Perez and Nasr entered the station.

"Wu Shi, we need to be careful, Ricardo is 2.1 seconds away from you."

"Are we about to enter the station?" Wu Shi asked.

“Yes, we are considering it,” Jonathan said.

As the ultrasoft tires approached the end of their lifespan, the drivers in the front row increased their speed.

Wu Shi clearly sensed that Ricardo was finding it increasingly difficult to maintain his speed.

And without making a sound, Verstappen has already moved up to eighth place.

This young man, who started the race a lap behind everyone else, was quietly doing something big, and even the broadcast cameras didn't notice him.

On lap 37, Vettel suddenly shouted into the radio:
"There's a fan on the track! Between turns 13 and 14!"

Next, Wu Shi revealed his native language TR:

"Holy crap! There's someone on the track! And they're even in the DRS zone!"

For Wu Shi, this kind of shock far exceeded seeing someone walking slowly on the highway.

After all, even on highways in some plain provinces, drivers only boast about speeds of 174-220 km/h.

Here, Wu Shi glanced down and saw that it was 288 kph!

"BOX, BOX, Wu Shi, let's pit, change to soft tires, and finish the last stint."

Although Jonathan didn't understand what Wu Shi was babbling about, he guessed from the scene that a safety car would definitely be deployed, so he gave the team instructions without hesitation.

Sure enough, the safety car came out immediately.

"Oh! There's someone on the track! How could they do that! Why are they watching the race from the track!"

The commentators were stunned; this situation was extremely rare.

"Hahaha!"

"He crawled back behind the railing! You can't do that in Singapore! He might get caned!"

The commentators were also surprised that the safety car was brought out not because of a vehicle accident, but because someone had entered the track!
Regardless, the appearance of the safety car immediately prompted everyone in the front row to choose to enter the station.

Koviat suffered another loss.

The pit stop times for the three drivers in the front row were all perfectly normal.

Even though Williams was a little slow, taking a full 3.1 seconds, Ricardo wasn't fast either, only 2.6 seconds, so it didn't matter much in the long run.

Kimi, on the other hand, took more than 4 seconds, but it didn't affect the overall situation.

Actually, once the fan climbed off the track, the track returned to normal.

However, the safety car still managed to push through.

“Rosberg is in fifth place, and he’s switched to soft tires again. Everyone in the points zone is on yellow tires,” Jonathan said.

"Copy, does that mean I just need to run the remaining 23 laps normally?"

“Yes, the safety car will continue for two more laps, so you only need to drive 21 laps,” Jonathan reminded him.

The safety car was moving very slowly, and the yellow tires were difficult to keep warm, so the front drivers had to keep both tires warm.

Wu Shi even saw through the rearview mirror that Ricciardo got stuck at turn 13, almost hitting the wall.

On lap 40, the safety car was removed.

While warming up his tires, Vettel reduced his speed to gather the cars together.

Once the tires have warmed up, immediately accelerate and move forward.

"We have 20 laps left."

After Jonathan finished speaking, the broadcast camera stopped focusing on the front row, because the fighting in the back was extremely intense at that moment.

Barton was attacking Bottas, but after Bottas made a defensive stop, Barton couldn't stop in time and almost hit Bottas's tail.

More shards fell to the ground.

However, this time no safety car was deployed; only a yellow flag was raised for the third time slot, and it was quickly withdrawn.

Just as Barton left, Verstappen caught up with Bottas and began his attack.

On lap 43, there were approximately 29 minutes left in the race (the full 2 ​​hours).

On lap 44, after passing Bottas on the previous lap, Verstappen set the fastest lap, 1 minute 50.298 seconds!

For the next dozen or so laps, the entire track was basically silent.

In the final few laps, Ricciardo desperately chased after Wu Shi.

However, on the narrow Marina Bay circuit, if Wu Shi gets even slightly stuck, Ricciardo won't be able to get past him easily.

The distance gained by closing the gap on the straightaway with DRS cannot be converted into an attacking opportunity on the curve.

The two players remained locked in a close battle in the final laps, but their positions did not change.

And so, the race reached lap 61.

Two hours had passed since the official start of the race, but the organizers allowed the race to continue, as it was only the last lap.

Ferrari also began telling Vettel that he could slow down to protect his tires, as there was no longer a threat from behind.

As Vettel crossed the checkered line again, he excitedly shouted into the radio:
"A Ferrari at top speed! That's incredible!"

Then, an Italian song was played, followed by the following:

"We remained calm in Singapore's sweltering heat! Thank you everyone!"

"Keep enjoying the victory, guys, it was a great race," Ferrari responded in the TR.

Williams also received a congratulatory message from Jonathan: "Excellent! You've earned another 18 points, which is very important!"

"Yes! Thank you, team! Thank you, team!" Wu Shi cheered a few times.

Red Bull TR also celebrated Ricardo, as they had few opportunities to stand on the podium this year.

"YES, got it. Cheers, guys. I have a great car, just think we've had a bit of bad luck, but anyway, thanks!"

Ricardo said he felt happy, but mostly sad.

They were firmly in second place, but the safety car ruined it all.

If this match brought joy to some and sorrow to others, then the one who was most sorrowful was definitely not Ricardo, but Hamilton, who had already packed his bags and gone home.

After withdrawing from the competition, the old man with dyed blond hair left the venue directly, it's unclear whether he was rushing to a club or a concert.

When Vettel parked his car at sign number 1, fireworks burst forth around the track, creating a dazzling display of sparks in the night sky.

Wu Shi parked the car and saw Vettel and the Ferrari crew celebrating enthusiastically.

Vettel, in particular, was extremely excited!

Wu Shi was naturally very happy, but along with his happiness came worries about the future, which prevented him from celebrating to his heart's content.

With six Grand Prix races remaining, his lead is only 29 points.

The old man only needs to win 5 more matches to catch up in points.

He has to win one game, otherwise he'll be stuck in second place forever.

The fireworks in the sky lasted for several minutes. After Vettel and his crew finished celebrating, he came back and patted Wu Shi on the shoulder.

"Well done! Well done!" Vettel was clearly still excited.

“Yes! I also think this result is good! Congratulations!” Wu Shi said with a smile.

(End of this chapter)