F1: Absolute Car Feel

Chapter 315 Death
In Monaco, the most meaningful race of the weekend was qualifying; no track has ever been more difficult to overtake on.

Therefore, when Wu Shi secured pole position with an astonishing lap, the outcome was already predetermined.

However, the player who made it most difficult for Monaco to overtake was Ricardo, who was in second place.

On lap 28, Ricciardo's MGU-K system malfunctioned, causing him to lose at least 130 horsepower.

With more electricity being depleted than being replenished, the hybrid powertrain's output pressure is entirely directed to the gasoline engine.

By lap 36, Ricciardo was no longer able to use 7th and 8th gears on the straights.

His brakes even overheated, forcing him to release the accelerator and coast just before the braking point.

Even so, Vettel and Hamilton were still completely obscured.

Wu Shi saw that he was about to pull ahead for 30 seconds, and Jonathan told him to slow down to protect the engine, so he simply let off the throttle and coasted for a section of the road.

The entire race was made all the more ridiculous by the behavior of the cars in front of it.

Many fans, upon seeing this, clamored for the cancellation of Monaco or suggested simply having qualifying instead.

However, this is obviously impossible. It's not that Monaco needs F1, but rather that F1 needs Monaco.

After enduring 78 laps, Wu Shi parked his car behind the number 1 marker and simply raised his hand slightly to express his joy at winning the championship.

The reason is simple: even though the cars are much faster this year, the total time taken is about the same as last year. You can imagine what Wu Shi, who was in the front row, was going through.

The awards ceremony was once again officiated by Prince Albert.

I don't know if it's just my imagination, but I felt that there was a look of relief in the eyes of the prince and princess, as if they wanted him to win the championship.

Wu Shi's strange feeling dissipated when he saw Ricardo.

When Ricardo wins the championship, he'll ask everyone to drink shoe wine.

To be honest, Wu Shi found this custom quite vulgar, but it was their tradition.

He swore he didn't want to experience this kind of celebration at all!
After securing two consecutive victories, Wu Shi has significantly recovered his points, temporarily reclaiming the world championship title.

Of course, the most discussed topic after the race wasn't who won the overall championship, but rather Wu Shi's last lap in qualifying.

Many experts and veteran car enthusiasts are analyzing and dissecting the cars, studying videos of Wu Shi, Ricciardo, and Hamilton repeatedly.

Compared to Hamilton, Wu Shi's cornering is extremely extreme, and he is faster than Hamilton on almost every corner.

Compared to Ricciardo, people have discovered that Red Bull's smoothness and agility in corners are unmatched by Mercedes.

However, Wu Shi managed to catch up in every corner by using an even more extreme driving line, and then used Mercedes' traction control to gain an advantage on the straights.

Brilliant works are always worth talking about, and this round of competition can be considered as adding another classic battle to Wu Shi's already illustrious career.

In the following six Grand Prix races in Canada, France, Austria, Great Britain, Germany, and Hungary, Wu Shi won the championship in all but the Austrian Grand Prix, which he had to withdraw from due to mechanical failure.

In fact, such a mechanical failure should not have occurred at the Austrian Grand Prix.

Wu Shi had noticed a problem with the hydraulic system's hoses as early as after the qualifying rounds, which could lead to fluid leakage.

The team replaced it as required, but the newly installed pipes malfunctioned again during the race!

Wu Shi had to withdraw from the competition due to a hydraulic system malfunction.

After the match, Mercedes conducted an inspection and found that the hose connection was not installed according to requirements.

This left Wu Shi completely bewildered; he genuinely hadn't noticed such a subtle difference.

However, the complex mechanical system served as another reminder that not all faults can be detected.

After all, he spends most of his energy on things like tire management, throttle and brake control, and torque distribution, and sometimes he does overlook some small details.

He can't possibly pay attention to the problems of a few small screws all the time.

Moreover, the car that was repaired after qualifying could not be moved until the race, so he had no way of finding the problem during the scout lap.

In fact, even if the survey team finds the problem, there may not be enough time to fix it.

Hamilton also had bad luck at this station.

The problem wasn't with the hydraulic hoses, but rather with insufficient fuel pressure near the end of the race, causing his ranking to plummet and forcing him to withdraw from the competition.

It's rare to see both Mercedes and Mercedes retire, but their competitors aren't exactly happy about it.

When it comes to team points, Wu Shi and Hamilton, two aces, are put together, and the majority of the points have already been taken away. How can they compete?
In the driver points competition, Wu Shi's dominance with the W09 was astonishing.

He consistently scored all the points he could get; how could anyone else compare to him?
Sky Sports UK quoted Vettel from last season, calling Wu Shi "a track machine that never makes mistakes, a ruthless racing demon."

Media outlets from various regions have used different language to describe Wu Shi's absolute dominance.

Italian media always like to rub salt into Ferrari's wounds when they are having a bad time, saying that "because of Wu Shi, Ferrari will lose its second world championship."

The Thai Post even said, "Wu Shi and the fastest car immediately made the race meaningless. Who can outrun him? Nobody can outrun him."

Many drivers in F1 history have achieved this kind of dominance in races.

However, there are very few players as consistent as Wu Shi, who can defeat even the strongest teammates.

That's why everyone used the most exaggerated tone to express all of this.

Wu Shi is now being highly praised in the hunting grounds.

During these Grand Prix events, many significant events also occurred in the paddock.

First, the Paul Ricard Circuit in France returns to F1 after a ten-year hiatus.

Mercedes also upgraded its engine here, becoming the fastest car in the paddock, and Toto no longer shied away from mentioning it.

Secondly, the financial situation of the Indian Force is getting worse.

Vijay Maria's financial disputes have seriously affected the team's normal operations.

According to information obtained by Wu Shi, the Force India team may only have around £20 left in working capital.

What is this concept?
With that little money, Force India wouldn't even be able to finish a single race.

If they hadn't been trying their best to raise operating funds, they probably wouldn't even have had the money to airlift supplies.

Due to its dire financial situation, Power India was forced into administration and entered bankruptcy protection proceedings before the summer break!
Having long predicted that Indian forces would reach this stage, Wu Shi immediately contacted General Manager Shufu.

Force India has been a strong team in recent years, and it's not unreasonable for them to use it as a springboard into F1.

Unfortunately, at the beginning of this year, Geely spent $90 billion to acquire a 9.69% stake in Daimler Group, becoming its largest shareholder.

At that time, the group did not have sufficient funds, so it did not have many ideas about the Force India team.

Most importantly, even if Geely participates, it will face a strong competitor: Lawrence Stroll!

The young master's father is really planning to buy him a racing team.
Wu Shi knew that F1 would become profitable in the future and the value of the teams would increase, but he couldn't attract investment!
He might be able to buy Power Indulgence with all his savings over three years, but he wouldn't have enough funds to operate it. He would end up losing money and might not even survive 2019 or 2020.

Wu Shi could only watch helplessly, mainly because his financial resources were too weak.

In fact, even if he was willing, the company's executives were not very supportive of his investment.

F1 not only needs to buy the team, but also pay salaries. Before the money can actually circulate, the demand for funds is enormous!

In other words, buying a car fleet is just buying an admission ticket; every attraction inside the park has a clearly marked price.

Wu Shi had no choice but to temporarily give up the opportunity.

Martina also believes that Wu Shi should not be too involved in the team's operations. She put it bluntly: "You can't put your energy into running the team. If you're going to be a hands-off manager, other projects are far more secure and profitable than investing in F1."

Wu Shi admitted to the matter, saying that he only realized the complexity of the entire caravan after spending a long time with it.

However, the most significant, and somewhat unexpected, piece of news of the season is:
On July 25, Ferrari CEO Sergio Marchionne passed away due to illness.

In fact, even before this big shot appeared in the Grand Prix races before the summer break, the news had already spread in the paddock.

According to some media reports, he had difficulty recovering after shoulder surgery, and his condition suddenly worsened on July 21.

The Agnelli family, which controls the Fiat Group, immediately began personnel adjustments.

In a very short time, Louis C. Camilleri took over as CEO of Ferrari, and John Elkann (the Agnelli family heir) took over as chairman.

Ferrari is once again facing internal turmoil, with the team, which had been inspired and unleashed under Marchionne's management, forced to halt operations again.

Without Marchionne's supervision, it's hard to imagine how quickly a decline in Ferrari's internal morale will occur.

Furthermore, with the number of managers increasing from one to two, the inconsistent policies have left it unclear whether this is a blessing or a curse.

Ahead of the Hungarian Grand Prix, numerous celebrities both inside and outside the paddock expressed their condolences.

Ferrari race cars also feature a black stripe painted in front of the cockpit.

The staff of Haas and Sauber teams wore black crepes to commemorate the leader who spearheaded the partnership between Ferrari and them.

Marchionne's position in both the finance and automotive industries is unquestionable; he was the one who saved Fiat from the brink of bankruptcy.

When he left, the Fiat Group inevitably experienced various upheavals.

These upheavals will affect the Ferrari team.

The grief at Ferrari hadn't subsided when bad news also came from Mercedes: Niki Lauda had contracted the flu.

Toto, Wu Shi, Hamilton, and others visited Nicky Lauda before the game.

The three-time world champion was in very bad shape and needed a transplant.

It was only after the competition ended and news of the successful lung transplant surgery came that everyone breathed a sigh of relief.

Wu Shi and Hamilton exchanged a glance, both feeling a sense of relief.

Both of them were brought into the Mercedes team by Laudal, so it can be said that they have a very close relationship with this former world champion, and their feelings for each other are evident.

In particular, Wu Shi was able to get the opportunity in the 2014 Singapore practice tournament thanks to Lauda's great efforts!
Otherwise, no matter how talented he is, he'll probably have to wait until 2016 to reach Williams' level, by which time Williams will have already weakened drastically.

His rookie season may still be impressive, but it will never be able to recreate the miracle of 2015.

The long summer break had barely begun when the bankruptcy takeover of Power Indulgence came to a conclusion.

Stroll Sr. directly acquired the team for £9000 million, approximately $1.125 million.

The team name has been changed to Racing Point Force India, and they will run the rest of the races under this name before officially becoming Racing Point Team next year.

The once-glorious Indian team will eventually disappear from F1, just like all other teams in history.

However, although the team name has changed, the basic personnel structure has remained the same.

This is why most of the capital that enters F1 prefers to acquire teams – building an F1 team from scratch is extremely difficult and time-consuming.

Nevertheless, the team's financial restructuring and personnel adjustments are expected to render the team unable to compete in the second half of the season.

However, as soon as the summer break ended and F1 arrived in Belgium, several major news items emerged.

Ricardo has confirmed his transfer to Renault next year!
Ricciardo's performance this year has been remarkable. If Red Bull Racing were more competitive, he would definitely have a chance to compete for the WDC!

Unfortunately, as Ricardo said at the beginning of the season, he is getting older and needs to pursue WDC.

He wants to bet on a big team to return to F1, just like Hamilton did in 2012!

Of course, the atmosphere within the Red Bull team may also be one of the reasons for his departure.

Horner and Marco both expressed shock and disbelief at the news!
They even said, "This is just a formality of the agreement; it doesn't mean anything."

Even so, Red Bull still has to prepare its drivers for next year.

Sainz, who was originally loaned to Renault, should perhaps return to take over the position, but Marco and Horner are not fond of Sainz.

After all, Sainz's performance wasn't particularly impressive, and he didn't have an advantage over Verstappen.

They had an advantage over Kvyat, but Kvyat had no motivation to play at that time, so what's the point?

After joining Renault, he never beat Hulkenberg.

Compared to top drivers, he is only mediocre in the paddock, with occasional highlights, which is not worth the effort of major teams to poach him.

Of course, there are also rumors that Verstappen didn't want Sainz as a partner, which led Red Bull to release Sainz's contract.

It's hard to say what others think of this rumor, but Wu Shi thought it was true.

Given his relationship with Verstappen, he is fully aware of how intense their internal struggle was in 2016.

Both men are second-generation drivers, and they use this as leverage to negotiate with the team.

Clearly, Sainz is a cut above the rest in this regard. He hasn't lived up to his potential as well as Verstappen, yet he keeps offering various excuses to justify it.

Pan Zi also mentioned Sainz's situation when he was chatting with Wu Shi.

Sainz is a complete second-generation driver. The influence that the older Sainz could exert on Red Bull was something that the older Verstappen, a bottom-ranked F1 driver, could not possibly exert.

And besides Sainz, who else would come up for Red Steak?

Gasly, who is doing well at Toro Rosso, is likely to get this great opportunity.

However, joining Red Bull and partnering with Verstappen is not good news for most drivers.

After all, Verstappen's talent is undeniable; if you can't outrun him, it will basically affect your future career.

But that's how Red Bull works. If you run well on Red Bull, you have to improve. Otherwise, what's the point of Red Bull?
After being dropped by Red Bull, Renault didn't want Sainz either, and the last news was that he was going to McLaren.

Alonso is helping this fellow countryman.

Speaking of Alonso himself, he seems somewhat reluctant to stay in the paddock.

In reality, Renault's engines aren't much better, and McLaren's competitiveness remains lacking.

Driving slowly, even a world champion will eventually find it boring.

Amidst a flurry of news, the first race after the summer break, the Belgian Grand Prix, has concluded.

Ferrari turned grief into motivation, and the resulting upgrades allowed Ferrari to regain its former glory.

During the race, Ferrari's speed was astonishing, and it directly overtook Hamilton on the track.

Unfortunately, the arrival of the yellow flag prevented Vettel from continuing his attack on Wu Shi.

However, Ferrari's advantage was very obvious at this race, and Vettel still managed to overtake Wu Shi by using DRS and slipstream.

A relentless overtaking maneuver on a straight road is almost impossible to stop, because it's simply a matter of speed.

However, Mercedes couldn't create a significant gap in the corners, so they couldn't shake off Ferrari.

The victory made Ferrari very happy, but it had little impact on their overall performance throughout the year.

(End of this chapter)