F1: Absolute Car Feel

Chapter 336 You reported me?
Before the start of the match, a light drizzle began to fall.

Wu Shi, wearing a thick coat, looked somewhat helpless.

Soon after, the rain intensified, turning into a downpour, and only gradually subsided as the match approached.

“Start on half-weather tires,” Jonathan said.

"it is good."

Wu Shi took off his thick coat and put on his racing suit, preparing to survey the track.

After the race cars came to a stop in the starting grid, the rain completely stopped, but the road surface was still slippery.

Wu Shi looked around the track and saw that both Red Bull cars were using semi-weather tires.

“The two Haas, Gasly, and Ocon vehicles all use full-weather tires,” Jonathan said.

"Will it rain heavily later?" Wu Shi asked.

"It's impossible to make a precise judgment."

Jonathan shook his head, saying that even the most advanced technology today cannot predict rainfall with perfect accuracy.

After the pre-race performance, the starting procedure began at 3:00 PM sharp.

During the warm-up lap, Wu Shi didn't focus much on warming up the tires; instead, he was assessing the grip on each corner.

Especially now that the speed is very slow, you can check the specific condition of the road shoulder.

However, not long after starting, Wu Shi received a TR from Jonathan:

"Leclerc slides out, watch out for water in turns 11-13."

"Copy".

Wu Shi had already driven past that place and had now arrived at bends 14 and 15, where there was still a lot of standing water.

After circling the road, he concluded that the road shoulder was not as slippery as he had imagined, but it was still best to avoid touching it if possible, as it was extremely dangerous.

Because a wet, slippery surface will cause the tire to completely lose most of its grip.

Once on the curb, no further maneuvering is possible; the car must wait to return to the track before it can brake or accelerate.

In F1 racing, where every millisecond counts, this is clearly a huge waste.

Wu Shi parked the car in the starting grid, with the old man beside him.

He glanced down at the vehicle settings, turned off the tire warming mode, and then looked in the rearview mirror.

Perez's car behind him was straight, but that doesn't mean he didn't want to earn a spot at the start.

When you're in the lead, everyone is your enemy.

beep!

Suddenly, a loud sound rang out, and the indicator light above lit up red.

beep!

beep!

The third red light came on, the race car revved up, and the roar of the engine drowned out all other sounds.

The large amount of hot air cooled down and formed white water vapor, which drifted on the track.

beep!

The last red light came on.

Swish!
The red light went out almost immediately without much hesitation.

After releasing the clutch, Wu Shi felt the friction between the rear wheels and the ground, and immediately increased the throttle.

Buzzing!
His race car sped up very fast, and once it reached a certain speed, it immediately kicked up the water on the ground, creating a white, misty wall of water vapor.

"Wu Shi got off to a very fast start, and no one could threaten his position!"
"His Lewis on the wing encountered some slippage at the start, and his tail was swinging!"

The old man paused noticeably, which prompted Verstappen and Perez behind him to immediately take action.

Perez followed closely behind Wu Shi all the way forward, and the car was now level with the old man.

At the same time, Verstappen, who had a faster start, had already crossed the finish line between the two.

Before reaching Turn 2, Perez had already slowed down due to a lack of courage and control.

Verstappen had no cars on his inside that could stop him, yet he still unsurprisingly squeezed past Hamilton.

After Turn 2, Hamilton's position became so narrow that it was extremely difficult to maneuver, forcing him to run onto the kerb of Turn 3.

The entire vehicle bounced violently.

Verstappen, however, drove past without incident.

Because of this wheel-to-wheel disadvantage, the old man even faced attacks from Perez behind him.

Fortunately, Old Pei's cornering speed was far inferior to these two, so he had no chance of overtaking.

Unexpectedly, the fierce competition between the old man and Panzi was resolved at turn 3.

Wu Shi, who was in the lead, encountered no obstacles at all. His car speed increased rapidly, and he drove perfectly on the planned racing line.

By this time, he had already pulled ahead by nearly 1.2 seconds, which shows just how fast he was driving!

For top riders, the difference between rain and dry conditions isn't that significant, but for average riders, it's a major problem!

The camera moved away from the front row and focused directly on the drivers who were skidding.

Both Latifi and Sainz failed to brake in time when cornering, either spinning out or running over the run-off area.

Leclerc also found an opportunity and directly bypassed the clumsy Perez.

The broadcast camera had just finished replaying this scene when it suddenly switched back to Latifi.

The guide was already on the wall before Turn 14.

"I just slipped, how did I get up on the wall again!" the soldier exclaimed.

"Safety car, the first safety car of the day!"

Soon, the replay appeared.

"Oh, there was a collision."

Is it Mark?

"Mick!"

"Ma Zeping!"

The three of them quickly started talking incoherently, unable to understand what was going on for a while.

With the safety car in place, Verstappen appeared behind Wu Shi.

Hamilton was in third place at this time, and Leclerc was in fourth.

Perez was very unlucky, losing two positions.

After reviewing the footage, everyone finally understood what had happened.

It turns out that Coach La never looks in the rearview mirror, and when he slipped and returned to the track, he squeezed Ma Zeping so much that he had no room to move.

He then crashed into Ma Zeping's left front wheel, causing the race car to lose control and crash into the wall.

Because the crane was still operating slowly on the track, everyone could only continue to run lap after lap following the safety car.

Wu Shi was speechless when he saw Verstappen constantly crowding around him.

He got annoyed after watching for a while, then suddenly slammed on the brakes, and Verstappen's car immediately overtook him.

Verstappen broke out in a cold sweat and immediately slowed down, following behind Wu Shi.

"He surpassed me?" Wu Shi asked in TR.

Their little squabble was quite amusing.

Jonathan said, "We are watching this situation."

Immediately afterwards, Hamilton also commented on TR: "Did Max just surpass Wu Shi? I saw it."

"Hahaha! This is a setup by the joint team for Verstappen!" the soldier laughed heartily.

"Verstappen was too outrageous; I wonder if the tournament organizers will punish him," Fei said.

However, there was no further news regarding the three individuals.

The broadcast began replaying the overhead view of the start and the driver's first-person perspective.

"Wu Shi was too fast. He and Verstappen moved at the same time, but Wu Shi was obviously faster in the follow-up," the soldier said.

“Every time he starts, it’s like he’s on a perfect starting line. Any driver who starts after him must have started slower,” Haoran said.

"Well, Perez is not bad either, but he was slowed down by Verstappen. Actually, Hamilton isn't slow at all!"

"Oh no! That's too dangerous!"

In the replay, Verstappen had completely driven the tires over the white line on the left side of the road.

It can be predicted that if the tires move just a tiny bit to the left, they will run onto the green grass outside the track.

Furthermore, Verstappen was able to maintain the vehicle's acceleration and stability while keeping his foot on the white line!

At Turn 1, a slightly curved bend, Verstappen even drove straight through the curb.

By turn 2, the old man had actually fallen quite far behind.

However, the old man briefly took the lead again by braking late, but Panzi stepped on the gas at just the right moment in the bend and overtook him again.

Verstappen then completely blocked Hamilton as he entered the apex of Turn 3.

In fact, Verstappen had already overtaken at Turn 1, and Hamilton's subsequent actions were simply an attempt to force his way into position.

If it were a weaker driver, they might have let him win.

Unfortunately, his opponent was Verstappen, who, once in the lead, was unlikely to let him win.

The bump caused damage to the left endplate of Hamilton's front wing, resulting in some instability in the vehicle.

Suddenly, on the fourth lap, the camera focused on a damaged Haas.

Mick Schumacher crashed into the wall, smashing the front wing to pieces even with the safety car on.

The only good news was that the car didn't stall and was able to get back on the track, run another lap, and enter the pit lane.

However, the repair area was closed.

This is Mick's own fault.

The collision occurred right at the exit of the pit lane, and the shattered front wing remained there.

In the replay, everyone saw why Mick went up the wall: he was wearing out his tires on the straightaway and they were getting hot, which caused him to lose control and go up the wall.

Perhaps the rookie drivers of the past few years have raised everyone's threshold for rookies, so seeing this year's drivers makes people shake their heads frequently.

As soon as Mick's footage ended, the broadcast switched to Perez.

Master Pei slid sideways while cornering, crashed into the run-off area, and almost went up the wall.

"What's going on? How can he still coast forward even after releasing the accelerator?"

Haoran quickly understood the reason for Perez's mistake and said:
"Um, this is normal. There's a specific term for it in racing, um, I can't translate it."

"It means that if you suddenly release the accelerator, the vehicle's center of gravity will shift forward very quickly, which can easily cause a different kind of oversteer."

At this point, the conversation between Mick and the engineer was played on the radio. Mick apologized to the team, and the Haas engineer gently comforted him, telling him that the team hadn't suffered any losses and to focus on the race.

On the sixth lap, the track was finally cleared. After Wu Shi saw the safety car's roof light go out, he began to consciously observe Verstappen.

He swayed left and right on the straightaway, starting to make a warm-up tire pattern.

Pan Zi completely ignored him.

However, Wu Shi still did it this way, lightly passing the 17th bend, still swaying left and right.

But on such a short straight stretch of road, he suddenly accelerated after aligning the front of the car with the apex of Turn 18 while swaying.

Buzz! !

With a roar of engines, the race car accelerated rapidly toward the main straight.

Verstappen was still outmaneuvered because his car hadn't yet aligned itself with the corner, so he naturally had to slow down his acceleration for a moment.

Now, Wu Shi's lead remains unshakeable.

Hamilton's starting reaction was almost identical to Verstappen's, so he quickly began to threaten Verstappen.

However, if Verstappen simply defended the paint, Hamilton would have no chance at all.

Nevertheless, Hamilton at the rear still set up a massive formation, unleashing its full power output and rapidly increasing its speed.

Mercedes No. 44, carrying a huge spray of water, hurtled towards Red Bull.

Verstappen was not intimidated and continued to execute the lines precisely.

In the end, Hamilton could only slow down and abandon the attack, obediently following behind.

At the 5-6 combination corner, the dominant Hamilton suddenly made a mistake exiting the corner, which completely eliminated his chance to catch Verstappen.

And Leclerc behind him had also increased his speed, wanting to launch an attack.

However, Imola is Imola after all, and this is not a good place to overtake. Hamilton's lane was blocking Locker's path.

The top four positions will remain unchanged unless someone makes a mistake.

At this point, Perez, who was in fifth place, was already a full four seconds behind Locke, who was in fourth place.

This clearly demonstrates how quickly top drivers can widen the gap with drivers behind them in rainy conditions.

Meanwhile, McLaren's Norris began to accelerate and overtook Ferrari's Sainz.

On lap 9, Wu Shi set the fastest lap time of 1 minute 32.822 seconds.

Verstappen was 2.3 seconds behind him, and Hamilton was 4.8 seconds behind Verstappen.

Locke followed closely, trailing Hamilton by only 1.17 seconds.

However, there is no DRS in the rain, so the only purpose of controlling this time difference is to constantly put pressure on the opponent and look for an opportunity to overtake.

After these three laps, the track began to dry out.

Gasly, using full-weather tires, was outmaneuvered on the straight by Norris, who was using half-weather tires.

Just half a lap later, Sainz also out-eaten Gasly.

Clearly, those who bet on full-rain tires all made the wrong bet.

In the TR, Toro tells Gasley, "It's raining harder now, it's raining harder."

Obviously, being overtaken like that on the track can easily have a psychological impact on a driver, and the team has to comfort him.

The race continued lap after lap, and soon we reached lap 20.

Wu Shi started with a slower train, but Verstappen and Hamilton followed very closely.

After being worn for so long, the tires are severely granulated, and rubber keeps falling off.

Five more laps later, the situation became increasingly complicated. The distance between the three cars not only did not increase, but was actually being closed by the slower car.

Furthermore, some slow trains were being looped the first time, while the slow trains that were looped the first time were also looping the slow trains that were being looped the second time by Wu Shi.

"It's still damp; it's not time to change to a dry tire!" Wu Shi said.

On lap 26, Vettel, who was the first to switch to dry tires, was already close to Wu Shi's lap time.

"Looks like it's time to switch to dry tires, but I don't know when we'll be able to get to the station," Fei said.

On lap 27, Wu Shi's car suddenly turned into the pit lane as it approached the pit lane entrance.

"Oh! Wu Shi was the first to change to a dry tire?!" the soldier exclaimed.

Wu Shi brought the car to a steady stop, and the crew changed his tires to yellow tires in 2.2 seconds.

At that moment, the GP told Verstappen, "You have one lap time."

Red Bull didn't follow suit, wanting Verstappen to try the overcut.

Bono also told Hamilton, "We can try to catch up with time."

"Will Wu Shi be overtaken?" Haoran asked nervously.

"It's unlikely. You can see in the slow-motion footage that the rubber particles from the semi-weather tires are constantly flying around. They're obviously not holding up anymore." The soldier shook his head.

On lap 28, Hamilton and Verstappen pitted on the same lap.

The two players are less than 2 seconds apart, so a mistake during entry could result in a change of position.

Red Bull didn't have any problems, but Hamilton got a 4.4 tire change.

Wu Shi has passed away.

“It’s definitely over! Wu Shi’s lap time has always been the fastest in the entire paddock.”

Swish!
Wu Shi sped through the maintenance area exit, followed closely by Red Bull and Mercedes-Benz.

On lap 31, Wu Shi lapped Stroll and came behind him.

He was aware of several drivers in the paddock who didn't check their rearview mirrors, so he dealt with them cautiously.

Overtaking will only occur on wide, dry routes.

sieve!
Soon, amidst waving blue flags, he activated DRS and overtook Storr.

The young master can still recognize flags.

Verstappen then completed the overtake, while Hamilton was blocked by Storr and Russell.

If he cannot overtake more slow trains as quickly as possible, he will get stuck in traffic and waste time!

Hamilton knew there was still a chance, so he understood he had to find a way to surpass them!

At Turn 7, he risked going inside to overtake Russell.

However, the inside of Turn 7 had not dried and remained slippery.

Almost as soon as he entered the corner, the old man found that his tires had lost traction, and then the whole car drifted out of control and off the track.

However, Hamilton handled the situation very skillfully, adding a touch of throttle as he entered the edge of the gravel area.

He wanted to get the race car off onto the concrete, even if it meant damaging the front wing.

He then began to slowly reverse, gradually pushing the race car out of the way.

"Ah! How could he reverse on the track?!" Haoran exclaimed in surprise.

"He didn't reverse, he just put the race car on the track, hahaha," the soldier said with a laugh.

When the official broadcasters all believed Hamilton would inevitably retire and marked him OUT, the veteran bravely returned to the track and restarted the race.

His damaged forewing scraped against the ground, sending sparks flying.

Because of this delay, the old man's match was basically ruined.

After changing his tires and front wing, he came out in 15th place.

However, the old man was not one to give up easily. He apologized in the TR and returned to the track to begin his pursuit.

Mercedes vehicles still boast top-tier performance in the paddock.

With 32 laps remaining, he fought hard to catch up, eventually returning to fifth place and taking the fastest lap.

"What a magnificent feat!"

"Hamilton is still amazing!"

"When did you get the idea that he's weak? Hahaha!"

With the checkered flag waving, Wu Shi, accompanied by sparks, crossed the finish line, finally winning the Imola championship without any major incident.

Verstappen had no chance to deal with Wu Shi throughout the race and finished second.

Norris overtook Leclerc in the final stages to finish third.

Leclerc is fourth.

Wu Shi felt unusually relaxed after getting off the race car.

Although his battle with Verstappen in the previous race cost him the championship.

But Verstappen's battle with Hamilton in this race allowed him to easily win the championship.

Clearly, more competition will erupt among the three.

Wu Shi and Verstappen both knew this, so after they took off their helmets, they both looked at each other.

"You reported me?" Pan Zi asked.

“Yeah, I saw you really wanted to surpass me, so I was just waiting to see if you dared to. I didn’t expect you to actually dare!” Wu Shi laughed.

"Haha, this way I can put more pressure on you, otherwise you won't have a chance here," Pan Zi laughed, trying to lighten the mood.

Norris seemed a little shy, but Wu Shi knew he had to avoid him, or he might get his balls ripped off.

After two rounds of competition, the current situation has become basically clear.

In terms of teams, Mercedes holds the lead, while Red Bull's second place remains unchallenged.

McLaren has overtaken Ferrari to take third place, while Wolverhampton Wanderers appears to be in the ethane-rich region.

As for the drivers, Wu Shi and Verstappen each won one championship and one runner-up, tying for first place.

Even so, the media generally believes that Wu Shi will dominate the upcoming matches.

After all, Mercedes still seems to have an advantage; as long as they gain the tactical initiative, they can still reliably win the championship.

Red Bull is happy with this speculation, with Horner stating directly that they are indeed lagging behind Mercedes.

Toto immediately objected, arguing that Red Bull only had one car that performed well in the race, which allowed Mercedes to win easily.

Hamilton was extremely disappointed by the sheer size of Imola.

Immediately after the match, he posted a message saying, "I'm sorry."

Clearly, he was too impatient; otherwise, the loss for third place would have been far less than that for fifth.

Norris is currently third in the overall standings, significantly ahead of his teammate Ricardo.

Storr leads Vettel, who has yet to score, with 3 points.

The fact that these two drivers are lagging behind has shocked fans, especially the form of four-time champion Vettel.

However, there are only two Grand Prix races this season, but there will be 22 races this year, so nothing is certain yet.

(End of this chapter)