Chapter 87 - 17: I Was Just Running at Cruising Speed

Chapter 87: Chapter 17: I Was Just Running at Cruising Speed

By the time Wu Shi reached the second timing sector, he had no time to dwell on his mistake. The stretch after Turns Six and Seven was the fastest section of the entire track in terms of average speed.

At such high speeds, there was no chance to correct a mistake.

WHOOSH!

"What kind of lap time is he going to set?" a mechanic asked.

"He was already a second faster in the first sector."

"That’s still different from his race pace. Even if he’s a second faster in all three sectors, he still won’t get a time in the 1:52s."

"But he just had a slide. If you factor that out, he’s got another three-tenths or so..."

Everyone was getting a little tense. If this lap time wasn’t good enough, it was clear how difficult the tuning work ahead would be.

They knew, of course, that their team’s database was mediocre. It was difficult to provide a driver with a competitive car right out of the gate, especially when compared to the major teams.

But if a genius like him couldn’t get any real performance out of their car, wouldn’t that just prove how bad they were?

One of the crew members was Italian. When this thought occurred to him, he suddenly said, "If Wu Shi is too slow, the Italian fans are going to tear us apart."

"..."

"Don’t worry too much. The fans are pretty rational," Alan said.

"No, no, no," the Italian mechanic said. "There’s this group of moms in Italy. They used to take their kids go-karting, but after seeing Wu Shi on the podium every day, they’ve basically adopted him as their own son. So if Wu is too slow, they’ll just take it out on us and say we’re abusing him."

Alan’s jaw went slightly slack. He didn’t yet understand the power of fandom, so he found that line of thinking hard to grasp.

"The time for the second sector is in! He’s one-point-five seconds faster!" someone shouted.

Alan’s attention snapped back to the screen. ’Is this it? A chance to set a fastest lap in the 1:52s?!’

Wu Shi’s car had just passed the timing point and entered the Great Straight. The subsequent Turns Fifteen through Eighteen were mostly medium-to-high-speed corners, with only Turn Sixteen being a low-speed one.

From the first-person onboard view, he couldn’t gauge the speed at all; he could only stare at the comparison telemetry curve on the side.

Into Turn Fifteen, the braking was again extremely late but very decisive. After just a few tenths of a second on the brakes, the car coasted through the apex, and even before reaching it, he was already getting back on the throttle.

SWISH!

In one corner, he gained nearly four-tenths. Over the next few turns, Wu Shi’s approach was completely different from before. It was all about braking at the absolute limit, throwing the car into the turn, and then using the throttle to find the rear grip again before accelerating rapidly.

VRMM-WHOOSH!

Finally, the car crossed the line.

1:52.322.

CLAP CLAP CLAP!

A synchronized burst of applause erupted.

"Oh! How did he set that lap time?!"

"Based on the earlier tests, a lap time like that should be enough to challenge for pole, right?!"

Alan clapped a few times as well, then spoke to Wu Shi on the team radio. "That was a good push lap, but you should have gotten a few more familiarization laps in before going for it."

"Huh? Ksshhht—"

Wu Shi’s questioning tone came back over the radio, leaving everyone confused. They thought he was still very unhappy with the time,

after all, it was less than a second faster than his race pace, and still a considerable distance from a true qualifying lap.

"I was just running at race pace."

Wu Shi’s next words came over the radio.

Alan froze. The crew members were stunned as well.

What?

Race pace?

’Wait a minute, man. You set the fastest lap of the session at race pace, even with a mistake?’

"Wu Shi, are you aware of your tire condition?" Alan prompted. They could tell whether he was pushing or not.

"Of course," Wu Shi replied. "This set of tires can run another twenty laps like this, no problem."

Alan instinctively glanced at the data. Tire life was at about 75%. He took a deep breath. "Alright then, run this set of tires into the ground before you pit."

"Roger that. But I’ve noticed a few issues, can you guys take a look on your end?"

With that, Wu Shi continued his race-pace laps.

Just as he’d said, he had run that last lap at race pace, not pushing the tires to their absolute limit at all.

The reason everyone thought he was pushing was that his lap looked exactly like a hot lap. He was braking at the absolute limit for every corner—wasn’t that the definition of putting extreme stress on the tires?

Alan and the others realized this discrepancy and were already studying the data telemetry.

"His late braking is so precise, he’s not causing any excessive tire wear."

No one could understand how Wu Shi was pulling off something that should only be possible in theory.

Alan quickly ran the numbers. "His control over the tire grip and the brakes," he concluded, "it’s as precise as a mathematical formula."

"How long is he on the brakes, from application to release?"

"Sometimes less than a second."

"Then how is he modulating the brake pressure in such a short amount of time to perfectly match the braking force to the available tire grip?!"

No one could answer that question. They could only stare blankly at the data.

WHOOSH!

Lap after lap.

Eventually, Wu Shi’s lap times stabilized, consistently falling between 1:51.800 and 1:52.000.

"He’s running at qualifying pace during a race simulation, and his tire management is this good," a mechanic said. "I can’t see how he doesn’t win the race."

Alan was left completely speechless. Wu Shi had just mentioned on the radio that there was still room to improve the car’s setup.

’In other words, there was still more lap time to be found!’

After fifteen laps, the car pulled into the pit box.

"The tires are shot," were Wu Shi’s first words after getting out of the car and removing his helmet. His earlier prediction had been too optimistic.

"Yeah, we can see that."

At this point, the edges of the tires showed jagged, irregular rubber residue—traces left by the softened tread rubber shifting outwards.

By checking the wear indicators on the tires, the mechanics confirmed that the set was completely finished. There was even a risk of a blowout if the car moved any further.

"You started feeling the issues with the tires toward the end?" Alan asked.

"Of course," Wu Shi said. "That’s why I dropped my pace. I was over a second slower on average, but it still wasn’t enough to slow the degradation. We need to make some more fine-tune adjustments."

"That’s still incredibly fast."

Alan said quietly, his heart filled with shock as he looked at the young driver. He added,

"If the other teams weren’t sandbagging too much in their tests, you’ve basically locked up pole position."

"Hm? Alan, is it possible I was holding something back, too?" Wu Shi said with a grin.

"..." Alan was utterly speechless.

"The test day isn’t over yet. We need to hurry up with the parameter changes and get ready to continue," a mechanic reminded them.

The whole team sprang back into action.

Tuning a car is a tedious and difficult process. Even for Wu Shi, the constant cycle of driving, sensing, getting in and out of the car, and debriefing left his head feeling foggier as the day wore on.

A person’s energy is finite, after all; you can’t stay perfectly sharp forever.

As the sky began to darken, the day’s testing came to a close.

Over the next two weeks, another official test was organized, though this time it wasn’t at Silverstone.

During the test, Wu Shi came up with some new suggestions for improvements, which were added to the team’s data backups.

Finally, amidst great anticipation, the day arrived: Friday, April 18th.