Chapter 155 - 77: 4 Seconds Left

Chapter 155: Chapter 77: 4 Seconds Left

"No, you’ve already done very well. Next, we will proceed with long-run testing," Toto said over the Team Radio.

"Copy."

The car crossed the checkered line but didn’t go for a cooling lap. After all, a lap time of around 1 minute and 51 seconds wasn’t enough to overheat the car’s components. With his first lap out of the way, Wu Shi felt he had already grasped some of the car’s cornering characteristics.

The W05 had excellent stability in corners, making it extremely comfortable for the driver. This ease caused drivers to overlook the careful control of speed, leading to actual cornering speeds being slightly too fast, which in turn required throttle, brake, and steering corrections. Therefore, Wu Shi would say those mistakes weren’t the car’s fault, but his own. If he fully adapted to this car and could nail every corner perfectly, he could absolutely set a terrifying pace.

Unfortunately, he didn’t have that much time. At this moment, he not only had to follow team orders to help test the soft tires’ performance and degradation curves during long runs, but he also had to constantly memorize cornering details.

Over the next two laps, Wu Shi incrementally improved his speed. By the third lap, his time had reached 1:51.011, right on the verge of breaking into the 1-minute 50-second mark. As he charged into the fourth lap, Wu Shi spoke over the radio. "Mr. Tony, I want to try adjusting some of the car’s settings myself."

Tony instinctively wanted to refuse. After all, when it came to tweaking the car’s parameters, data-backed engineers had more of a say. He thought to himself who Wu Shi thought he was—just a greenhorn who had barely gotten the chance to drive.

However, Toto stopped him and spoke into the radio, "You are permitted three laps to test your ideas."

This scene made quite a few people in the team look sideways. They realized that Toto was actually quite fond of and trusting toward this young driver from Hua Country; otherwise, he would have at least added a reminder to "bring the car back safely."

Having received permission, Wu Shi felt grateful to Toto. For a rookie to be allowed to manage car adjustments on the track was an absolute sign of the team’s trust. But he also felt a bit of pressure. After all, he was genuinely adjusting his driving style by feel, and doing so on a street circuit made it very easy to crash.

It was from this lap onward that Tony’s chatter decreased.

To unleash a car’s maximum performance, various parameters needed to be adjusted when entering different types of corners. There were two main parameters that required adjusting.

One was the front-to-rear brake bias. This operation could change the ratio of braking force between the front and rear, allowing control over the car’s weight transfer during braking. In addition, this could selectively sacrifice the braking performance of the front or rear wheels in exchange for corresponding grip. For Wu Shi, front-wheel grip was more crucial; he needed precise and rapid corner entries.

The other parameter was differential control, which was far more complex.

As everyone knew, during a turn, a vehicle’s inner tires traveled along a smaller circle with a shorter distance, while the outer tires traveled a larger circle with a longer distance. If the tires were fixed to the same axle, they would conflict with each other because the outer tires needed to rotate more times to cover the longer distance, while the inner tires needed to rotate less. This would cause the outer tires to slip and the inner tires to spin freely, exacerbating tire wear and wasting precious power.

To solve this, vehicles were equipped with differentials, which decoupled the tires on both sides via gears, allowing them to rotate at different speeds according to their respective needs. However, this brought about a problem. If one side had too little grip, engine power would be transferred by the differential to the side without grip. The tire with grip would receive no power input, ultimately making the vehicle difficult or even impossible to drive.

To handle such conditions, a locking mechanism would be installed on the differential. Once locked, the tires on both sides became coaxial again, preventing power from pouring out to the side without grip. The "lock" often mentioned in off-road vehicles refers to a differential with a locking function.

As the crown jewel of human automotive manufacturing, even though F1 races were held on closed circuits, the car’s center of gravity would shift to one side during rapid cornering, causing the grip on one side’s tires to be greater than the other. Thus, a "lock" was also mandatory.

However, high-performance cars like an F1 definitely couldn’t use a direct full lock, but rather a limited-slip differential. This type of differential could be adjusted through different settings to range from fully locked to completely open. This way, when the grip of the tires on one side was lower, the degree of locking could be tweaked to output power to the side with higher grip.

Such a complex and sensitive operation was actually carried out by an electro-hydraulic system governed by a pre-written program. The rotary knobs that the driver could adjust were actually tweaking the feedback level of the differential’s program, thereby achieving different sensitivities under various track conditions, tire conditions, and driving styles.

Normally, a major task for drivers in practice sessions was to test out how to properly adjust these differential knobs. Over the past few laps, Wu Shi had already realized that certain parts of the track were simply more slippery, so he needed to adjust the knob to alter his wheel power.

SWISH!

The No. 6 Silver Arrow sped past. From the T-cam view, one could clearly see that Wu Shi was constantly turning knobs on the steering wheel while driving. Sometimes, right after entering a corner, he would immediately grip the steering wheel with one hand and free up the other just to promptly adjust several parameters.

The race broadcast cameras originally kept panning left and right, but the production team noticed this and specifically pulled up Wu Shi’s T-cam view. When broadcast commentators from around the world saw this, shock immediately crawled onto their faces.

"Is this really his first time driving an F1 car? Let alone adjusting the steering wheel mid-corner, how does he dare take one hand off mid-corner?" Brother Bing was extremely surprised. It should be known that many veteran drivers would only make adjustments before entering a corner and then grip the steering wheel with both hands.

Anyone who has driven a car through a corner at high speeds knows that under extreme velocity, any minute adjustment to the steering wheel could result in violent variations at the wheels. Not to mention that the steering ratio of an F1 car is extremely small.

Wu Shi’s operation meant that if there was an issue with his corner-entry angle, he would have to rely on one hand to steer. No driver would ever dare claim they always drove an F1 car one-handed. Therefore, his ability to do so meant he felt his steering input was already precise enough to not need strenuous corrections; he simply needed to use the self-aligning torque provided by the front wheel alignment to adjust the rest of the way.

"Maybe it’s a habit left over from driving F3," Brother Fei said.

"That’s not a good habit. F1 steering leaves no room for errors," Brother Bing shook his head.

While the two were talking, Wu Shi had already completed his fourth lap. This was the most exhausting lap he had driven; his hands felt as heavy as lead.

Tony spoke over the radio, "1:50.366. Congratulations, your lap time has improved further, but I have to remind you that operating like this consumes too much focus and physical energy."

"Yeah, I was just testing it out. I’ll be able to find a comfortable setup very soon," Wu Shi replied.

Wu Shi, of course, knew that his driving method on the fourth lap wasn’t viable. Only when driving a slow car does one need to make adjustments everywhere. When driving a fast car, not much adjustment is needed. After all, fast cars are uniformly fast, while slow cars are slow in a myriad of bizarre ways. That is why drivers need to constantly tweak parameters to squeeze out the car’s absolute limits.

On the fifth lap, Wu Shi’s adjustment motions indeed decreased significantly. He was beginning to familiarize himself with the W05.

At this moment, Alonso suddenly spoke over his radio: "Hey, what is he doing? This is a practice session, not qualifying."

Other drivers shared his sentiment. Drivers from Caterham, Sauber, and the Lotus Team were left utterly speechless. After several laps of testing, they already had a vague idea of the fastest lap times. Even Neon driver Kobayashi Kamui, driving the Caterham car, couldn’t help but complain over his radio: "What does he think he’s doing? Throwing a tantrum in a practice session while driving the fastest car on the grid? Truly stupid!"

But no matter what others said, Wu Shi kept driving his car. By the tenth lap, his time had reached 1:49.201.

At this point, the other teams couldn’t take it anymore and began preparing to recall their cars to swap to supersoft tires for testing.

"Whoa, ten laps, and his speed gets faster with every lap! Is Wu Shi really going to pull off a miracle here?" Brother Bing was naturally aware of the prerequisite seating agreement in Wu Shi’s contract with Mercedes-Benz.

"He is just adapting to the car, which is enough to demonstrate his terrifying adaptability. As an F1 driver, lacking absolutely exceptional adaptability won’t cut it.

"Because the opportunity given to a rookie driver might only be a single season, or sometimes even just a few races. However, I remain cautious about whether Wu Shi can create a miracle," Brother Fei said, his tone much gentler.

"What was the third-place time on this track last year?" After Brother Bing asked the question, he looked it up on his phone, quickly found the answer, and said, "It was 1:43.058, set by Grosjean driving for Lotus."

"That’s still a six-second gap," Brother Fei noted.

"No, you can’t look at it that way. This year’s cars should be slower than last year’s, at least in terms of qualifying times," Brother Bing shook his head.

"Then how about comparing it to the Monaco results?" Brother Fei suggested. "Both are street circuits and share some similarities."

Brother Bing immediately flipped through his phone and said, "The 2013 Monaco pole position time was 1:13.876, and the top three were all within 1 minute and 14 seconds. The 2014 Monaco pole position time was 1:15.989, and Ricciardo took third with a 1:16.384."

"So based on the gap in pole times, there should be about a two-second difference," Brother Fei concluded.

"Yes, which means this year’s pole position time at the Singapore circuit should be around 1 minute and 45 seconds. Doesn’t that mean he’s only four seconds off?" Brother Bing said.

"If this analogy holds up, the gap should be around that much," Brother Fei nodded.

"It still looks incredibly daunting. Hey, wait a minute! Wu Shi hasn’t used the supersoft tires yet, has he?!" Brother Bing exclaimed, clapping his hands and springing to his feet.