Chapter 173 - 94: If We’re Going to Beat Anyone, Let’s Beat Mercedes-Benz!

Chapter 173: Chapter 94: If We’re Going to Beat Anyone, Let’s Beat Mercedes-Benz!

"Wow! Wu Shi has moved up to second! He bumped Rosberg down! That was an absolutely beautiful lap!"

Amidst the praises of the commentators and the audience, Wu Shi couldn’t quite bring himself to celebrate. His mind was frantically replaying the lock-up that had occurred at the final corner.

He should have been perfectly clear about the car’s steering grip, so why did he still over-steer at the end, leading to understeer and a lock-up?

He felt there were two reasons. The first was greed. He thought that by adjusting the brake bias towards the rear wheels, he could gain more front-end grip in the corner to handle the steering. As it turned out, that simply wasn’t enough. In other words, a slight deviation had occurred in his mental calculations and simulations. This was human error.

The second reason was an act of God.

Jonathan had only warned him to watch out for the north wind at Turn 9, but failed to mention that this same wind could sweep across the artificial lake enclosed in the middle of the track and directly hit Turn 15. With a tailwind, his speed was naturally faster than expected, which also increased the pressure on the brakes. This caused the front tires’ grip to deplete rapidly, ultimately resulting in the lock-up on the track.

Wu Shi’s mind worked fast, and Jonathan’s data analysis was equally swift. The engineer quickly replied over the TR, "It’s not your fault. You already did a great job. I should have kept an eye on the wind conditions and reported them to you constantly."

Just moments ago, the Williams crew had actually heard Red Bull informing Ricciardo about the strong tailwind at Turn 15. However, the crew members monitoring that TR ignored the message. After all, it wasn’t a tactical issue and thus didn’t seem to warrant reporting to the team. Moreover, with the wind conditions at various parts of the track clearly marked on the multitude of screens in front of them, the crew naturally assumed it wasn’t something that needed to be explicitly stated.

Jonathan was annoyed by his own oversight and immediately jotted it down in his notebook; it would be a crucial point for their post-qualifying debrief.

After his cool-down lap, Wu Shi brought the car back to the pit lane. He was the first on the grid to finish Q3, and for the moment, his time still kept him in second place.

Coming in behind him was Vettel, who had also only run five laps, clocking in at 1 minute 27.757 seconds to take fourth place. It seemed that Williams’ single-lap pace at this stage was still enough to suppress Rafa.

Wu Shi felt a flicker of hope for the actual race. Even if their long-run test expectations weren’t as good as Ferrari’s, could they possibly open up a pit window through a three-stop strategy?

Yellow (soft) - White (medium) - Yellow (soft). He needed to communicate this idea to the strategy team after the session. After all, relying on their massive computer simulation data was far more practical than his own spitballing.

After Vettel crossed the line, the camera cut to Rosberg, who was halfway through the third sector. Surprisingly, his first two sector times were dead even with Wu Shi’s. However, in the third sector, the Mercedes-Benz was visibly much faster. He crossed the line at 1 minute 26.921 seconds, overtaking Wu Shi to snatch second place!

In the final half-minute, Hamilton crossed the start/finish line to begin his final flying lap. He really didn’t need to run again, but it would have been a waste not to use that set of soft tires.

Just looking at the first two sectors was enough to tell how fast Hamilton was. Entering the third sector, the car’s straight-line speed was simply terrifying. Although Hamilton’s driving featured constant, minor steering corrections, it wasn’t because he lacked precision; rather, the wind today was genuinely intense.

Soon, Hamilton also reached Turn 15. Under the watchful eyes of the crowd, his front left tire also suffered a slight lock-up. The resulting chain reaction made the racing line of the No. 44 Mercedes-Benz almost identical to that of the No. 59 Williams.

Yet, despite making the same mistake, no one called it a pity. Because even with that error, his lap time was still miles ahead!

minute 26.327 seconds!

"A damn car from Mars!" Wu Shi cursed inwardly. His racing suit was peeled halfway down, revealing his Williams T-shirt underneath as he stared at the data.

Right behind the Mercedes-Benz was Massa. He crossed the line again, narrowly edging out Vettel with a time of 1 minute 27.718 seconds to claim fourth place.

Q3 concluded, and the final results were out. Two Mercedes-Benz cars taking the front row. Two Williams cars on the second row. Two Ferrari cars on the third row.

Wow, that was quite neat.

Big Red Bull’s Ricciardo was seventh, and Little Red Bull’s Sainz was eighth. The Lotus Team’s Bottas and Grosjean took ninth and tenth, respectively.

With the qualifying results finalized, the cars in the pit lane passed post-session inspections to ensure there were no technical violations. At this point, the reporters began their interviews.

The focus of the interviews for Hamilton and the Princess naturally centered on their rivalry. In this session, the Princess had trailed Hamilton by a full 0.594 seconds—a gap large enough to fit an entire Williams car in between.

Hamilton remained composed during his interview. He said what needed to be said and withheld what didn’t, then pursed his lips into a polite smile, nodding as he accepted the reporter’s congratulations.

"Hey, Nico! Congratulations on securing a front-row start. We noticed you made a slight error during your first flying lap, but thankfully you made up for it on your second run. What are your thoughts on this result?"

"Thank you. The wind on the track was indeed quite strong today. Often, sudden crosswinds can affect the car’s handling. I think the result I achieved today is quite acceptable," Rosberg replied.

"You were 0.594 seconds behind Lewis, but Wu Shi was only 0.115 seconds behind you. Do you think you’ll face stiff competition from Williams during the main race?" Reporters always loved to nitpick and stir the pot.

"I don’t think so. We have enough pace on the long runs," Rosberg said quickly. It sounded less like genuine confidence and more like he was trying to pump himself up.

On the other side, Wu Shi was also being interviewed by the press.

"Congratulations, Wu Shi! Securing third place in your very first qualifying session is a truly remarkable achievement. You encountered a small issue on your final flying lap, which seems to have cost you the chance to challenge for a front-row start."

"Yeah, the crosswinds were really intense today. It’s been a long time since I’ve encountered conditions like this, and it definitely made the track much more complicated. I shouldn’t have overlooked it. Even though my engineer had warned me about this issue before we started, I consider it a lesson I need to learn from."

"Your pace during qualifying was quite good. What are your thoughts on tomorrow’s race?"

"Well, our long-run pace during winter testing wasn’t ideal. Since tomorrow is my first official race, I think I need to focus on defending my position steadily. Ferrari’s long-run speed is something we absolutely cannot ignore."

"Are you saying you won’t be able to fight the Mercedes-Benz cars and might even struggle to fend off Ferrari’s attacks?" The reporter quickly latched onto the crux of the statement.

"You could interpret it that way. The tire degradation over long runs isn’t exactly optimistic, but I’ll do my best tomorrow."

Wu Shi nodded politely. Although the FW37 had undergone another round of adjustments after winter testing and its tire degradation had actually improved, he obviously couldn’t state that outright. It was better to play coy.

Since he was starting third, why would he bother worrying about the guys in fifth or sixth? If he was going to fight anyone, he was going to fight Mercedes-Benz!

On Saturday evening, Wu Shi received a call from his father, who told him he wouldn’t be able to make it to watch his debut race.

The schedule of a major corporate president was unimaginably busy for ordinary people. This was especially true for the business lines, which required coordinating with countless departments. Every day was a never-ending cycle of meetings, relentless decision-making, and an eternal stream of emerging problems.

Wu Shi assured him that as long as both father and son were happily striving for their respective careers, there was absolutely no need for apologies.

Later, Martina also called. It wasn’t convenient for her to come either. After all, the internal turmoil at Rafa was still ongoing. Her relationship with President Meng was neither particularly close nor distant, making it hard to gauge how much the situation would affect her.

As for Louise, the poor little girl couldn’t possibly fly to the Southern Hemisphere all by herself to watch the race.

Jos Verstappen, however, did show up. As soon as the qualifying session ended, he pulled Wu Shi aside for a chat. The burly former F1 driver now had graying hair, a clear sign of his advancing age.

"You’ve already climbed high enough now," Old Verstappen sighed with emotion. "The coming era belongs to you."

Wu Shi shook his head but didn’t reply.

"Last September, I was completely tied up with matters at Red Bull. Otherwise, do you really think I would’ve let Mercedes-Benz tear up their contract with you so easily?!" Old Verstappen was still quite fiery. When his temper flared, he didn’t just curse at Toto; he’d chew out Marco just the same.

"It wasn’t a breach of contract. I just didn’t perform well enough."

Wu Shi didn’t care. After all, his guaranteed income for 2015 was a staggering 20 million US Dollars plus 5 million Euros. If anyone thought he should feel wronged, they could take it up with his 20 million US Dollars. He wasn’t yet at the point in his life where he could ignore money. Having a bit of wealth to his name at least gave him the courage to push the car harder, didn’t it?

"Hahaha!" Old Verstappen shook his head and said, "You gave up a World Championship, you know."

"The World Championship is right there. It’s not going to run away." Wu Shi knew in his heart that once something had already happened, was there really any point in trying to negotiate it? Obviously not.

"Good! Spoken like a true champion who fought his way to the top. That’s the spirit!" Old Verstappen praised before abruptly changing the subject. "Have you considered investing in a company?"

"What?"

"Martina must have set up a driver management company for you. I think we could collaborate and try to expand it—whether that means forming a racing team or establishing a go-kart driver development system," Old Verstappen suggested.

Wu Shi pondered for a moment before shaking his head. "That’s not something I’m planning to consider for the next two years."

At four o’clock on Sunday afternoon, the stands at the Albert Park Circuit were nearly packed to capacity.

The temperature today was a mere 20 degrees Celsius, with the weather transitioning from clear to overcast. Since the tire degradation was significantly lower than anticipated, the team ultimately settled on their final strategy: a one-stop race.

There were only seventeen cars on the starting grid. The Manor Team’s two cars failed to enter the race, and Bottas was absent from the main event due to a soft tissue contusion in his back sustained during qualifying.

During a standing start, the straight was incredibly short for the front-row drivers; the distance from pole position to the braking point of Turn 1 was barely three hundred meters. Therefore, the drivers at the front had to focus on defending their racing lines the moment they launched.

Based on last year’s data, the soft tires could last for about 12 laps.

Jonathan over the TR: "Magnussen’s engine blew during the reconnaissance lap. There are oil slicks between Turns 3 and 5. Please be careful."

During the formation lap, Wu Shi replied over the TR, "Yeah, I saw it."

Two parallel, light-colored oil stains trailed along the track.

Williams’ deputy team principal, Claire Williams, stood in the pit garage wearing sunglasses as she watched the race unfold. Approaching Turn 15, Hamilton bunched up the pack so the trailing drivers could get into position faster, preventing their tires from losing too much temperature.

All cars took their positions on the grid.

The five red lights illuminated one by one, lighting up every second. Wu Shi flexed his hands. A moment later, all five red lights were glowing brightly.