F1: Absolute Car Feel

Chapter 260 The Inexperienced Pan Zi
Vettel waved the Ferrari flag as he walked into the lounge surrounded by people.

Wu Shi and Ricardo were watching the screen on the indoor television together.

"Oh, I don't know why it takes so long to change a tire." Ricardo watched the replay and was speechless.

Wu Shi touched his nose and remained silent; it wouldn't be good to say anything now.

Fortunately, he and Ricardo had a good relationship, so the silence didn't last long, and the two started talking about the last stint's offense and defense.

Ultimately, Ricciardo put a lot of pressure on him, but the difficulty of overtaking in street racing is unavoidable.

After a while, Vettel came in, and the two of them looked over.

Hey! Congratulations! Woohoo!

Vettel continued to cheer in Itali, his excitement infecting the two men.

Seeing this, the commentators laughed and said, "This might be the most harmonious break room we've had this season."

Vettel's excitement is understandable.

Every victory he achieved with Ferrari was hard-won, and each one seemed to foreshadow an even better year for Ferrari.

As for why not this year? This year's result is almost obvious: Wu Shi and Mei Ben will compete in the final round.

Soon, the host's voice could be heard outside. Ricardo watched the video alone for a while, shook his head, and walked out of the lounge.

As soon as they stepped outside, there was a huge cheer.

After all, almost 80% of the white people who come to Singapore to watch the game are Australians.

Ricardo standing here is no less like he's playing at home.

When you stand on the podium at home, you're greeted with a huge roar of cheers.

Then Wu Shi came out, and many Chinese people cheered enthusiastically.

That's how sports competitions are; people look at the competition itself and then at the athletes or teams they support.

So when Vettel came out, he was greeted with the loudest cheers.

Ferrari fans cheered in unison, creating a huge atmosphere.

Watching from the sidelines, Wu Shi, wearing a red racing suit, won the race and indeed received more cheers than the other drivers.

After the national anthem was played, Singapore's Deputy Prime Minister Teo Chee Hean went on stage to present the award to the champion.

After receiving the trophy, Vettel gently tossed it into the air and caught it.

Subsequently, the Singapore Minister of Transport presented Wu Shi with the trophy.

Although this person also has a Chinese name, they are not Chinese.

Wu Shi accepted the trophy and raised it to show it to the audience.

Finally, it was Ricardo's turn. The Australian also raised the trophy high, showing off his signature big teeth.

Even though he didn't get second place, he was still very happy, after all, he had widened the gap between himself and his teammates, hadn't he?

The following interviews focused entirely on Vettel.

Today's race was quite dramatic, but it flattened out the battle for the top row.

Both critical safety cars were stuck during the pit stop window, meaning the front-row drivers practically got into the pits for free.

In this way, there is no interesting point about the entry strategy, nor is there an interesting point about the fierce competition after exiting.

Furthermore, Wu Shi, who was in second place, didn't have a car that could compete with Ferrari, so the championship was already a sure thing for him.

As for the battle for second and third place, there were only a few shots of Ricciardo braking late to try to take corners, and then there were no other two.

But Vettel still talked a lot about the recent difficulties.

At the beginning of the season, Ferrari was full of confidence, dreaming that the combination of Vettel and Ferrari could revitalize the Prancing Horse.

But as the races progressed, they discovered that this year's story was about Wu Shi and Williams reviving their private team.

As a result, the internal pressure increased, which also made Vettel extremely irritable.

It could be said that every victory is Vettel's blood pressure medication.

The truth is, when you want to revive Prancing Horse, driving skills are not the most crucial element.

After the interview, Wu Shi walked back and saw that Pan Zi was also being interviewed.

His performance today, starting a lap behind and finishing eighth, has garnered attention from some media outlets.

After the interview, Pan Zi saw Wu Shi and came up to greet him with a smile.

"A good match, right?" he said with a happy expression.

“Of course,” Wu Shi nodded.

“You don’t seem that happy,” Panzi said.

“Yes, I often think about what I need to do to maintain my position on the leaderboard in the next six races.” Wu Shi rubbed his chin.

“That’s a difficult question to answer,” Vestager nodded and said.
"Why not look on the bright side? Maybe Mercedes won't work after the engine change?"

"Oh, thank goodness they didn't give us a new engine," Wu Shi laughed.

“Hahaha.” Verstappen laughed along.

As soon as Wu Shi returned to the pit lane, he heard some mechanics discussing how Ferrari had been reprimanded by the race organizers.

"What's going on?" Wu Shi asked, becoming gossipy.

"They got so excited during the awards ceremony that they shoved the security guards, so the organizers reprimanded them."

The mechanic found it funny when he talked about it.

"They were so excited; we've never been this excited before."

Another mechanic said.

“But isn’t the situation of their team leader more important?” the mechanic said.

"what's the situation?"

Wu Shi was somewhat surprised. Was Maurizio Arrivabene going to be taken down by Ferrari?

Not to the point.

"Yes, that's what Maurizio promised before, if Ferrari wins four times this year, he will run naked in the streets of Maranello."

"Wow! How many games are there now?"

"Three games!" the mechanic exclaimed excitedly.

"Oh! Jones, do you really enjoy watching an old man with his bare bottom?" The mechanic next to him patted his colleague on the shoulder.

"Hey, don't get me wrong! I just really want to see the team leader naked."

"Cough cough."

Wu Shi coughed twice.

Claire walked over and said to Wu Shi, "Congratulations, you've widened the gap with Lewis again."

Then he turned to the mechanics and asked, "What were you discussing just now? You seemed so cheerful."

"Uh, we're celebrating Wu Shi!"

"Yes, I think he's definitely more familiar with Singapore. How about we ask him for some ideas for tonight's celebration party?"

The mechanics immediately laughed it off.

Claire smiled and patted Wu Shi on the shoulder: "They're right, you choose the place tonight! It's a pity you can't drink yet."

The dramatic retirement of Hamilton from the Singapore Grand Prix made everyone realize once again that it might not be as easy as imagined for Lewis to catch up with Wu Shi.

Mercedes' post-race investigation into Hamilton's vehicle malfunction revealed that it was due to a turbocharger system failure.

Specifically, the problem stems from the detachment of the metal clamp between the intercooler and the pressure chamber, leading to pressure leakage and turbocharger failure.

As a result, when Hamilton floored the accelerator, the car's acceleration performance was also affected.

After the problem was confirmed, Toto also said that he never expected that such a small part would cause such a disastrous consequence.

When asked by reporters about his views on the competition between Lewis and Wu Shi,

Toto touched his nose and said that there are still six races left on the calendar, and they have plenty of opportunities to overtake the points, provided that no more unexpected events occur.

Nikki Lauda also made a rare comment on Wu Shi.

He said:
“I don’t think Wu Shi’s FW37 this year has any advantage over us, but he still leads us in the standings for a long time.”

"This is not due to the car's performance or the driver's skill, but rather because we made too many unforgivable mistakes during the season."

"But looking at Wu Shi, he and his team never made any major mistakes; they got every point they could."

"That's how it is when you compete for the world championship. The more points you can get, the more likely you are to win the final victory."

"In the next 6 races, we will make sure we don't make any more mistakes. Only then can we win the drivers' championship."

Clearly, the defeat in Singapore has significantly increased the internal pressure on Mercedes-Benz.

What does it generally mean if there is a team championship but no driver championship?
This means the problem wasn't with the car, but with the person in charge.

As the season draws to a close, discussions about the ongoing competition for the points standings are heating up.

Many domestic media outlets began to suggest that Wu Shi would ultimately win, and these statements naturally drew rebuttals from some people.

"With six games remaining, given the current performance gap between Williams and Mercedes, it will be very difficult for Wu Shi to win!"

"The Mercedes in Singapore is such a crappy car, it's incredibly slow, and you're talking about performance differences!"

Even if Wu Shi performs exceptionally well in every match, he can only get a runner-up at best!

"Are you kidding me? If Wu Shi hadn't been lucky, would he have gotten so many points? Look at the races he won, either Mercedes withdrew or Mercedes had some problems. Did he win any of them based on his ability?"

"Idiot, those who say it was luck should watch the replays of the Austrian and British Grand Prix! Those were real wins!"

The intense discussions in domestic online communities are just a microcosm of the broader situation.

Meanwhile, details about the person who ran into the race track during the competition were also uncovered.

It is said that the fan was drunk and wanted to get a closer look at the race cars, which is why he walked onto the track.

The British man now faces a maximum fine of £360,000 and a six-month prison sentence.

In the short week between the end of the Singapore Grand Prix and the start of the Japan Grand Prix, the paddock was filled with news.

Red Bull has still not chosen an engine supplier for the 2016 season, but it has been revealed that Horner has been in negotiations with people from the Volkswagen Group.

This brings the question back to Audi: should they somehow get involved in Formula 1?

Meanwhile, Red Bull is also negotiating an engine supply agreement with Ferrari, but progress is very slow.

The reasoning behind this is quite simple: even with a bad engine, Red Bull has still maintained considerable competitiveness from time to time this year.

This is enough to demonstrate that they possess excellent aerodynamics and a highly advantageous chassis.

Therefore, Ferrari had to consider whether Red Bull would become a major threat to them on the track if they supplied engines to Red Bull.

Red Bull also boldly stated that without a good engine, four cars would be lost in the 2016 F1 season.

This time, not only Wu Shi, who completely disbelieved that Red Bull would withdraw from F1, but most people also stopped believing Red Bull's nonsense.

On the other hand, there have been many reports about whether Renault will return to F1 with the help of the Lotus team.

Lotus is now facing an extremely dangerous debt crisis. They will be summoned to the London High Court next Monday, which is the deadline for them to repay their debts.

Therefore, many media outlets believe that Renault may make a move at this time.

Renault does indeed have similar plans and seems to want to acquire Lotus.

As for Lotus's two drivers, Grosjean is almost certain to join the American team Haas, which will be joining next year.

On Wu Shi's side, Xi De also called:
“We’ve been in contact with Mercedes a few times, and Toto and Nicky Lauda are indeed quite interested in you.”

Wu Shi smiled after hearing this and said, "But it seems that no progress has been made."

For Wu Shi, Williams is already very good, but he would be willing to bring his talent to Mercedes if he could.

"Yes, Nico Rosberg's seat cannot be removed; they need a German."

"As for Lewis, his contract may be cancelled at that time."

"But based on what I've learned recently, their board doesn't seem to think you're a good fit for them."

Sid's words immediately made Wu Shi realize that next year's Mercedes-Benz Arena might still follow a highly controversial script.

So, given Wu Shi's performance this year, if he joins the Mercedes next year, can Rosberg really beat him?
I believe no one thinks that way.

After all, Rosberg's chances of winning against Wu Shi this year are not high, even though he is driving a car with superior performance to Williams.

If the two are driving the same race car, that's even more...
Wu Shi won't be like Hamilton, who was sleepwalking in the first half of the season and only started to catch up in the second half.

This year, Lewis will once again have to catch up in the second half of the season.

"Well, I would be very happy to join Mercedes if I had the opportunity. Their advantage in engines is unmatched by other teams."

“Until the next major change in technical regulations, I believe Mercedes is the most competitive race car,” Wu Shi said.

Sid agreed, saying that no one in the paddock would deny that Mercedes' engine was good enough.

Few would question Mercedes' engine performance next year.

The day after Wu Shi and Sid's phone call, Force India confirmed that Perez and Hulkenberg would continue to play for them next year.

Sainz also criticized Verstappen in an interview for not giving him space, even though he was going faster at the time.

Wu Shi couldn't help but laugh when he saw it.

If Verstappen were replaced by Wu Shi, Toro Rosso might actually follow the team's instructions.

But Verstappen isn't some grassroots driver without connections. Sainz is a second-generation driver, but Verstappen isn't?
The games were back-to-back, and there were events almost every day in between, so the time went by very quickly.

In fact, the team had already packed up and sent all kinds of supplies to Japan after the Singapore Grand Prix.

When Wu Shi arrived in Japan on Thursday, he was in a fairly good mood.

At least the atmosphere here isn't as somber as it was last year.

He arrived at the paddock with several drivers.

As a result, the entire Lotus crew was found sitting outside the roller shutter door.

"What's going on?" Wu Shi asked, somewhat surprised.

“I don’t know, maybe their facilities haven’t been delivered yet?” Vestager shook his head.

“You didn’t know? They haven’t paid enough, so they can’t use the venue for the time being,” Sainz said.

"Uh"

Although I wanted to laugh, it was impolite to laugh like that.

"When are you planning to go to the Track Walk?" Sainz asked.

“I think it’s better to stay home and look at Google Maps,” Verstappen shrugged.

"I guess we'll go together later," Wu Shi said.

For him, driving the track is not very meaningful, since driving it once to check the track layout and road conditions is far less useful than driving a lap on Friday.

However, for many drivers, this is a very important event.

When chatting with Zhou Guanyu, Xiao Zhou mentioned that he was used to using this time to check things like braking point references and corner entry references.

In short, the only person in the paddock who has publicly stated that Thursday's project is not needed is the old man.

Verstappen only talks about it privately; in reality, he takes it very seriously on the track. This year, he's just a rookie.

"It seems there's an activity planned for today, to experience the unique culture here?" Sainz asked.

"Oh?! Unique culture? Anime and manga, brothels?" Wu Shi said with a resentful expression.

"Hehehe! What are you thinking!" Vestager laughed.
"I'm going to try out sumo wrestling."

"Oh, that's not a pleasant experience. I don't want to be jostled around with a bunch of sweaty fat guys," Wu Shi shrugged.

No wonder Jonathan didn't tell him about this; it seems he knew he didn't want to go.

It might rain tomorrow.

Back in the P room, Jonathan, who was already in work mode, said...

As the track engineer, he would need to accompany Wu Shi to walk the track later.

"What about the main competition?" Wu Shi asked.

"sunny."

“That would delay our calibration time,” Wu Shi said.

"Yes, you need moderate downforce here, but you'll need to run some tests on 130R (15th) and Spoon (13th-14th) for specific data."

“My advice is that you should try to find the running method with the lowest downforce, and we need to make adjustments based on that,” Jonathan advised.

"Oh, I understand."

Wu Shi nodded. The Suzuka Circuit is a track with complex curves but a fair number of straights.

This is a great test of the team's ability to balance downforce during the tuning process.

The trade-offs involved here encompass various aspects such as cornering stability, cornering acceleration, top speed performance, and tire wear.

Although Wu Shi is able to better control the race car and try to keep the tires in place, he still needs the engineering team to help him find the best theoretical values.

After completing the track walk on Thursday, the team held an internal meeting.

Several engineers provided analyses of the Suzuka circuit over the years and gave basic tuning parameters for various aspects.

Wu Shi and Massa also need to speak on this matter.

Of course, Massa was the main speaker in this segment, since Wu Shi had never actually driven an F1 car on this track.

At the end of the meeting, Claire said:
"Our goal is not to stay on the podium, our goal is definitely to win! Only victory can keep us in the lead! Otherwise, it's all just castles in the air!"
"The more victories we have, the greater our chances will be!"

Boosting morale and inspiring the troops is the most important thing that Claire, the deputy leader, can do right now.

As expected, Friday brought overcast skies and then rain.

There was basically no room for improvement in the first fifty minutes of practice, and Wu Shi's idea of ​​making extreme adjustments to the car also failed.

The rain didn't stop until the last ten minutes.

The drivers all set lap times, and in the end, Sainz took first place with a time of 1 minute 49.434 seconds.

However, it's not very useful as a reference. Some drivers who practiced a lot ran more than ten laps, while others who practiced less just took one lap.

The second practice session was at 2 PM. It wasn't raining at the start, but the track wasn't dry either.

Just when everyone was about to dry the track, it started raining again!

In the end, everyone could only test on the partial rain tires.

In the second practice session, Kvyat led the race with a time of 1 minute 48.277 seconds, followed by Rosberg and Hamilton.

Ferrari trailed the drivers ahead by almost two seconds, their advantage from the previous race completely wiped out.

That's F1 racing for you; it's common to see both incredible and unpredictable results.

Wu Shi was getting a little frustrated after not getting any real opportunities to fine-tune his skills in two consecutive practice matches.

But Massa fared even worse; he didn't even get to play.

Williams' dismal practice sessions have become a regular occurrence on the show, so everyone is taking it in stride.

Even reporters asked Wu Shi if he was planning to give everyone another surprise in tomorrow's qualifying rounds.

Wu Shi said he couldn't answer, and everyone else was stumped.

Fortunately, the next day, Saturday, the land finally dried up.

This is the last chance to fine-tune it.

The continuous rain throughout the day has kept the temperature low today.

Wu Shi used three pit stops and seven laps to find the minimum downforce required for the two high-speed curve areas.

The engineers immediately performed data calculations and found that the downforce still needed to be higher.

Otherwise, Wu Shi would still face insufficient downforce on the rear wheels and be unable to accelerate when exiting several slow corners.

With ten minutes remaining in the match, the final round of adjustments was finally completed.

After matching the car with the best attributes, Wu Shi put on the specially reserved new neutral tires and tried a lap of speed.

The effect was excellent; he achieved a time of 1 minute 34.297 seconds, placing third.

He was only five-thousandths of a second behind Hamilton.

Trailing Rosberg by 0.3 seconds.

This is a very rare opportunity to get close to Mercedes in a practice match.

Once on the low-temperature, high-speed track, the Mercedes engine delivered a significant boost, allowing for much more flexibility in car tuning.

However, all teams are currently facing a significant problem: insufficient tire testing.

Pirelli provided orange hard tires and white medium tires for this race.

White tires are definitely faster, but the long-distance performance of both has not been fully demonstrated.

This undoubtedly presents a huge strategic loophole.

"Wow, Wu Shi's speed in the third training session is really fast. Judging from this, he has great potential in the ranking competition."

"Yes, we see that Mercedes' speed is back, while Ferrari is in a bad situation. They are not as good as Mercedes, Red Bull, or Williams in the third practice session."

"This is three things that are not good enough? Hahaha!"

"Toro Rosso's speed is also good, Verstappen finished seventh."

"Yes, I remember last year, Verstappen made his debut here. Although he wasn't as amazing as Wu Shi, you have to admire his adaptability to F1."

An hour and a half after the third training session, the ranking matches will begin.

The schedule is very tight, just like the two Grand Prix races held back-to-back.

Before getting into his car, Wu Shi took a few deep breaths.

He had a chance to compete for pole position in Suzuka Grand Prix qualifying, so he certainly wouldn't give up that opportunity.

　①I was arrested for embezzlement in 2024, so I won't write my name.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)