F1: Absolute Car Feel

Chapter 267 9.9-Second Advantage

This happens at almost all rain stations; there's a high probability of various collisions during the start, leading to a chaotic scene.

A driver's misjudgment of braking at Turn 1 can trigger a series of accidents.

Just now, everyone from sixth place onwards was affected.

Alonso and Grosjean suffered tire blowouts, Bottas' front wing was damaged, and Stevens' left rear wheel was hit by a torpedo from his teammate.

The drivers who were involved in the collisions all pitted to change tires at the end of the first lap.

The others were fine, having switched to semi-weather tires, but Bottas was different.

"Wow, Bottas switched to dry tires right after entering the pits?" The soldier was also quite surprised when he saw the camera.

How dare they switch to dry tires when the track was incredibly slippery?
And it's Bottas?
This attempt is nothing more than a gamble that the stadium will dry out quickly, but right now it's still drizzling every now and then.

I thought that the yellow tinge at the start would already make the drivers wary and pay attention to the slippery track conditions.

But just as they entered the second lap, Nasr attempted to overtake Eriksen inside but misjudged the grip and couldn't stop at all.

Bang!

The front wing collided with the side of the flank, exploding into a pile of debris.

The organizers handled the situation by issuing only a yellow card for a single timing segment, without deploying a safety car.

The series of accidents that occurred behind them attracted a lot of attention.

When the camera returned to the front row on the third lap, everyone was surprised to find that Wu Shi had already pulled ahead of Hamilton by 1.3 seconds!
This immediately sparked speculation among the commentators.

"Is this because the FW37 has exceptional rain-fighting capabilities?!"

"No, at this time you need to make a calm judgment. This is the result of Wu Shi's outstanding personal ability."

In contrast, everyone naturally looked at Wu Shi's teammates.

Massa, who started in 7th place, has now fallen to 13th.

Of course, Massa was involved in a collision at the start, so that doesn't count.

The fact that the two are now consistently at least a second apart on each lap is enough to explain some of the issues.

Behind them, Nasr, who had re-entered the pits to change his forewing, also switched to slick tires, following Bottas' example.

Both drivers lost a lot of positions due to pit stops, so they naturally wanted to take a gamble.

On the Austin circuit, the wet surface dries quite quickly, but only in certain areas.

Overall, the track remained slippery, and most drivers dared not drive freely, with their primary goal still being to keep their cars stable.

Wu Shi was very focused while leading the race, and when the straightaway was a little less crowded, he touched the button under the steering wheel.

Pressing this button means he believes that dry tire lap times are more suitable for the track than semi-wet tires.

The team will then immediately respond based on the subsequent weather conditions to determine whether to switch to dry tires.

This is the most crucial part of this website.

After all, dry tires are faster than semi-wet tires, not by a second or two, but by at least ten seconds!

If he seizes the opportunity a lap before Hamilton, that's a ten-second difference!

Therefore, this is the first key point of this competition.

Wu Shi continued cruising, and with the use of semi-weather tires, Hamilton and he were evenly matched.

When the two are evenly matched, it often means that the car behind cannot overtake, and even an old man would not dare to make any rash moves when it is raining and foggy.

Can I take it with me?

Wu Shi suddenly asked, sensing that the engine still had some power left.

Moreover, Hamilton's lap time is now limited, so he might as well try to increase his speed.

“Okay, set it to mode 3. There will be some light rain later, but no showers. The track is expected to dry out gradually,” Jonathan said.

For two consecutive laps, Wu Shi's time was under 1 minute 57.1 seconds.

Hamilton, however, became extremely inconsistent, starting with a time of 1 minute 57.4 seconds, barely keeping up, but quickly dropping to 1 minute 58 seconds on the next lap.

This wasn't because Hamilton lacked driving ability in the rain; it was because the downforce was greatly reduced when following other vehicles in the rain, which was extremely dangerous.

However, the old man did not follow the carriage and took a different route than Wu Shi.

He would find that those routes were easy for someone who couldn't swim, but dealing with Wu Shi was wishful thinking.

Of course, as the race has progressed, Hamilton is not as adapted to rain as Rosberg.

However, just as Wu Shi was preparing to further extend his lead and widen the gap, the tournament organizers deployed a virtual safety car.

“There is still debris left at Turn 1. We are now on lap 5. We are deploying the virtual safety car.”

Jonathan informed Wu Shi of the situation on the field in great detail.

But I couldn't help feeling a little regretful, because the virtual safety car would have allowed Hamilton to catch up.

On lap six, Nasr and Bottas took advantage of the virtual safety car opportunity to pit and switch back to semi-wet tires.

They made the wrong bet; the track was still wet, and the consequence of that was falling to the back of the pack, trailing most of them by ten seconds.

That's pretty tragic.

On the eighth lap, the virtual safety car was removed, and the race resumed.

Rosberg, who was left behind, had a quick start and managed to overtake Ricciardo with a single burst of acceleration, before finally passing Kvyat at Turn 12.

His impressive maneuver of taking down two Red Bulls in a row drew cheers from the crew.

That was so satisfying!

It's worth noting that Hamilton's actions at Turn 1 on the first lap were truly appalling.

Even with all team resources tilted toward Hamilton, this still caused dissatisfaction among Rosberg's crew.

Even a clay figure has a bit of fire in it!
Now everyone is hoping that Rosberg will overtake Hamilton and teach this arrogant black man a lesson!
Williams only paid a brief look at Rosberg's situation before turning his attention back to Wu Shi and Hamilton.

The distance Wu Shi had created earlier was completely destroyed after the virtual safety car appeared.

However, Wu Shi, who continued to lead, seemed to be getting faster and faster, and FW37 left long trails of rain and mist on the track.

On the ninth lap, Wu Shi broke his own record, achieving a personal best time of 1 minute 56.930 seconds.

Even though Hamilton's lap time was good, he was still 0.146 seconds behind.

"Wu Shi's lap time in the rain is quite impressive!"

"Didn't they say Williams' aerodynamics were bad? How come he runs even better than May?" Fei Ge was genuinely puzzled.

Rainy weather may smooth out the power differences between teams, but it will increase the aerodynamic differences.

For example, Red Bull's Ricciardo also ran a lap in just 1 minute 56.9 seconds.

Both were faster than Hamilton.

“You did a great lap. If you can be faster, we’d like to be even faster,” Jonathan immediately said in TR.

Wu Shi, however, did not have the extra energy to reply to Jonathan.

In the rain, you can't afford to make any small mistakes; you have to constantly monitor the changes in grip between the front and rear wheels.

However, the track surface conditions are different on each lap, and the non-linear fluctuations in grip mean that drivers need to adjust their driving every lap.
laugh!
The speeding race cars kicked up water droplets, forming a wall of mist.

The semi-weather tires also have a very strong drainage capacity, squeezing the water on the road surface to one side briefly after being driven over them.

Wu Shi controlled it perfectly, allowing the semi-weather tires to travel on the optimal path with the strongest grip.

Swish!
1 minutes 56 seconds 854.

He lapped an even faster lap.

反观汉密尔顿，上圈还有1分57.076，这圈的速度瞬间降到了1分57秒812。    一圈被带开一秒！
Not to mention how surprised outsiders were, even Williams' own people were stunned. Were we that fast?
Bono's voice remained largely emotionless as he told Hamilton in the TR:
“Lewis, set up Strat 3. You’ve been pulled away, and that’s dangerous.”

Hamilton also doesn't have a backtrack, and even on long straights, if you don't accelerate properly, the car can slip.

第10圈，吴轼领先汉密尔顿1.9秒、罗斯伯格2.7秒、科维亚特3.9秒、里卡多4.7秒、佩雷兹10.2秒、维特尔10.8秒、维斯塔潘12.1秒。

Before Hamilton could even keep up with Wu Shi, the Red Bull duo had already increased their speed to a point where Mercedes had to defend.

It seems that, just as Newey said, Red Bull is only one engine away from winning the championship.

When it rains, Red Bull's powerful aerodynamics come into play, making it completely fearless against Mercedes.

Susu!

On lap 12, Kvyat caught up with Rosberg and prepared to overtake him at the last corner, but his car slid out of the corner and he was overtaken instead.

Ricardo seized the opportunity presented by his teammate's mistake, overtook Mercedes, and then took over the baton.

On the rainy straight road, Mercedes and Red Bull were evenly matched.

But Ricciardo, who was behind him, had a slipstream, so he was actually faster and looked like he was about to launch an attack as he entered the corner.

Rosberg noticed the situation and braked very late at Turn 1. As a result, the car did not brake as he expected and instead spun out.

The drifting car was out of control; had it not been for the extremely steep uphill corner, a rarity on an F1 track, Rosberg would never have been able to complete the final deceleration.

Ricardo seized the huge opening and easily overtook the defender from the inside.

The Rosberg crew members were immediately deflated.

Was this another mistake?
Ricardo, now in third place with clean air, is unstoppable.

他在第13圈飞速跑出了1分56秒680的成绩，别说汉密尔顿了，连吴轼都比他慢了将近0.2秒！
However, Ricciardo is not Wu Shi after all, and cannot control his lap times with extremely precise control.

He slowed down a bit on lap 14, finishing with a time of 1 minute 56.898 seconds.

Even so, he still caught up with Hamilton in two laps, and the difference in time quickly decreased from more than 1 second to 0.3 seconds.

Then, on lap 15, Ricciardo launched an attack on Hamilton.

With better grip in the rain, Ricciardo was practically unstoppable, constantly testing Hamilton's ability to handle the situation from behind.

All this fuss has left Mercedes looking like a child who can't walk, wandering aimlessly in the rain.

This isn't Hamilton's fault; if Ricardo were to attack Wu Shi, Wu Shi would do the same.

After all, Wu Shi's ability to run fast is not due to the excellent wet-weather tuning of the race car, but rather because he can always find the spot with the best grip and pull away directly.

At Turn 18, Ricciardo braked late and easily overtook Hamilton.

The old man gave it his all, running a time of 1 minute 56.568 seconds while being chased.

But what about Ricciardo? After passing Hamilton, his speed became even more exhilarating, completing the lap in just 1 minute 55.362 seconds!

"The track conditions are improving; it hasn't rained for a long time."

Wu Shi suddenly said this in the TR, which made the commentators think he was going to pit and change to a dry tire.

Mercedes, in particular, were overtaken by Ricciardo twice, but they were still waiting for the track to dry out, so their eyes remained firmly on Wu Shi.

Mercedes' strategy team considered the possibility of Wu Shi switching to dry tires, and even had the crew prepare dry tires, just waiting to copy Wu Shi's actions.

Jonathan naturally noticed this situation, and his brow furrowed slightly, highlighting the strategic disadvantage of the leading driver.

However, this disadvantage can sometimes be turned into an advantage.

He pondered how to communicate with Wu Shi on TR.

While the two teams' strategy groups were battling it out, Rosberg caught up with Hamilton on lap 16 and launched an attack at turn 12.

However, Rosberg was not tough enough as Hamilton easily overtook him.

The competition between the two drivers left Toto looking displeased.

On lap 17, Verstappen also overtook Vettel at turn 11.

This surprised Vettel, but fortunately, the straightaway afterwards allowed him to overtake again.

At this moment, Wu Shi briefly pressed a button on the steering wheel.

Upon noticing this, Jonathan immediately greeted the people behind him.

The crew carried the tires and ran out.

The cameras almost immediately noticed and focused directly on Williams' pit stop.

"Ah! Is Wu Shi going to be the first to switch to dry tires?!" the soldier exclaimed in surprise.

“They must have a plan. The track is getting drier and drier. You can see that there are completely dry racing lines in many places,” Fei Ge added.

"No, what I mean is that Wu Shi is in the lead right now. His speed has been increasing over the past few laps, and he's already reached around 1 minute and 54.7 seconds," the soldier said.

Starting from lap 15, Wu Shi's lap time entered the range of 1 minute and 55 seconds.

On lap 17, the time dropped to 1 minute 54.8 seconds.

Although this lap time is about 0.2 seconds slower than Ricciardo's per lap, it is almost 1 second faster than Hamilton's per lap!
After three laps, the time difference between him and the old man had increased to more than 5 seconds.

Therefore, as long as Wu Shi continues to run on semi-weather tires, his lead will only widen.

So does Wu Shi now believe that switching to dry tires will give him a faster speed?
Nobody knew what was going on, and Mercedes was facing a very short decision – whether to recall Hamilton?

The strategy team considered two scenarios: the conditions for using dry tires were ripe; and Rosberg was faster than Hamilton and was likely to launch an attack afterward.

recall!

“BOX BOX BOX,” Bono said.

At the end of lap 17, Wu Shi ran straight away without making any movement as he passed the entrance to the pit lane.

Ricciardo did the same, while Hamilton plunged into the pit lane, much to the delight of Rosberg, who was just 0.5 seconds behind him.

"Oh! Hamilton went in first!" the soldier exclaimed.

But Fei Ge didn't make much of a move. He said, "The conditions on the track are indeed good enough to use dry tires now."

"But Williams made a feint, he must have had something in mind," the soldier said.

In fact, this is indeed the case.

After Hamilton pitted, Wu Shi pressed the button three times in quick succession to confirm that he would pit on lap 18.

Jonathan certainly knew why Wu Shi didn't pit on lap 17.

They agreed that a short press of the button meant they were preparing to enter the station, but whether they would actually enter was uncertain, while three presses confirmed that they were entering the station.

Hamilton changed tires in 2.7 seconds, switching to soft tires.

When they came out, they were in 9th place, a full 35 seconds behind Wu Shi.

Most importantly, there are too many people blocking the way ahead.

At the end of lap 17, Wu Shi set the fastest lap time of 1 minute 54.314 seconds on his last half-wet tire.

However, that record was subsequently broken by Ricardo's 1 minute 54.197 seconds.

At the end of lap 18, Wu Shi entered the station.

On lap 19, Hamilton's first dry lap time came out at 1 minute 55.101 seconds, which was not ideal.

But more than that, people are concerned about Wu Shi's situation after his release.

Swish!
On the main road, before Hamilton could be seen, Wu Shi slowly turned out at the pit lane exit ahead.

A 9.9-second advantage!

(End of this chapter)