Chapter 168 - 89: Except Stroll

Chapter 168: Chapter 89: Except Stroll

On March 13, the temperature in Melbourne, Australia was 20 degrees Celsius. It was neither too cold nor too hot, though a passing breeze carried a slight chill.

"Track temperature is 40 degrees, wind speed at 2.3 meters per second. The weather is great today, perfectly suited for racing," Jonathan Carter said. This season, he had been reassigned as Wu Shi’s race engineer.

"It really is a good day. The track is relatively empty, too," Wu Shi said.

"That’s not a good joke." Massa shook his head.

Only sixteen cars participated in today’s Free Practice 1, which made the grid look rather pitiful. Among the absentees was the Marussia Team—also known as the Manor Team. Due to severe financial struggles, they had nearly collapsed entirely. Fortunately, a fresh injection of investment in February had managed to save the team. However, despite being cleared to compete in the 2015 season, their tight budget left them with a slew of car issues. The software problems plaguing their vehicles remained unresolved before the start of the Grand Prix, making it naturally impossible for them to participate.

The Sauber Team was also unable to race due to an ongoing lawsuit regarding their driver seats.

"Alright, time to get ready for the race," Wu Shi replied. While Sauber’s absence was a bit of a joke, the Marussia Team’s situation highlighted the genuine plight of privateer teams. For instance, the Caterham Team, which had been racing on the tracks just last season, was already history this year. Now that he was an official member of Williams—another privateer team—it was only proper for him to be mindful of his words.

The Albert Park Circuit was a highly complex street circuit, characterized by narrow run-off areas and intricate corner combinations. However, once FP1 began, no drivers ended up crashing into the walls. Instead, it was Honda’s engine reliability that suffered massive issues, while Red Bull Racing’s Ricciardo had to retire due to engine failure. Constrained by the Honda engine’s severe lack of power, the two McLaren cars were trailing a full two seconds behind Force India. They retreated to the garage for adjustments after just a few laps. If they couldn’t turn things around for Free Practice 2 in the afternoon, the engineers would likely be facing another long night of overtime.

Meanwhile, the two Mercedes-Benz cars continued to display terrifying dominance, both finishing more than a second ahead of Wu Shi, who sat in third place. But this was ultimately only FP1, and many teams had yet to show their true pace. Wu Shi had simply followed team orders to push for a bit of speed to test the car’s qualifying performance.

During the afternoon’s FP2, which focused on long-run tests, Magnussen hit the wall, and Ricciardo failed to make it out on track due to an engine change. Massa was sidelined right from the start due to a hydraulic failure. As a result, the entire team’s long-run testing duties fell entirely on Wu Shi’s shoulders. Running these practice tests was often more exhausting than the actual race. From the moment he drove onto the track, Wu Shi was constantly providing feedback while communicating with engineers handling different modules to gather comprehensive telemetry data.

This prolonged stream of communication left his mouth completely dry. Even though he rarely drank much during races, he found himself biting down on his drink tube, desperately gulping down water. Throughout the grueling hour-and-a-half practice session, the car pitted four times. It underwent varying degrees of adjustments to the rear, side, and front wings to better suit the circuit. Concurrently, the crew took four separate samples of the medium White Tyre. They needed to coordinate with Pirelli to jointly analyze the tire compound’s performance.

By the time he finished his 33-lap stint, Wu Shi stepped out of the cockpit dripping with sweat.

The moment he returned to the garage, Jonathan Carter said, "Our White Tyre is suffering significantly more degradation compared to Ferrari."

"It felt pretty good to me. As you can see, it held up for a full 33 laps. I think a one-stop strategy will work just fine for the race," Wu Shi said bluntly.

"The pace drop-off toward the end doesn’t look promising."

Wu Shi scratched his head. "The pace difference shouldn’t be that massive, right? Even though the degradation was a bit faster, committing to a one-stop strategy is still viable."

Hearing this, Jonathan Carter nodded. He documented the feedback to hand over to the strategy group engineer, Rodrigo Barerra, and then said, "Massa didn’t take part in the long-run tests today. Your telemetry will directly dictate his choices." Carter’s implication was crystal clear: don’t give reckless feedback, or it would negatively impact the entire team.

"Yeah. At least from my perspective, I can guarantee it’s doable." Wu Shi pushed his hair back with his hand, exposing his forehead to cool off.

By noon the following day, as Free Practice 3 began, Massa’s car was finally repaired, allowing him to participate in the entire session. Hamilton was the first to push his lap time down to 1:27.867. Vettel followed closely behind, though still 0.696 seconds off the pace, while Rosberg trailed by 0.954 seconds. Everyone was beginning to show glimpses of their true pace. Wu Shi and Massa both clocked times in the high 1:28s, securing fourth and fifth places respectively.

Judging from the practice sessions, the Williams Team seemed to be in decent shape, yet they lacked the fierce competitiveness they had displayed the previous year. This was primarily because the other manufacturers had spent the past year playing catch-up and were finally beginning to close the gap to the Mercedes-Benz engines. Meanwhile, Mercedes-Benz had spent much of the previous year resolving their engine reliability issues.

"Ferrari’s pace is definitely picking up. I’m not sure if it’s because of the Four-Time Champion Vettel joining them or something else," Jonathan muttered to Wu Shi.

"Our absolute pace has definitely fallen behind," Wu Shi said.

Jonathan nodded. Since they had access to the most comprehensive telemetry, they could roughly deduce the situation. He continued, "Kimi didn’t showcase Ferrari’s true speed, which is why I have my doubts."

"We’ll see everyone’s true pace during the qualifying session this afternoon." At that moment, Massa’s engineer, Dave, walked over.

"Good luck out there," Massa said to Wu Shi, extending a fist.

"You too!" Wu Shi nodded and bumped fists with Massa.

During the downtime before the qualifying session, Verstappen, clad in his Little Red Bull uniform, dropped by for a visit. "Your car is looking pretty good," he said.

"Max, I can’t share our telemetry with you anymore," Wu Shi joked.

"Hahaha, if you’re willing to share, I’m certainly more than happy to accept," Verstappen replied with a laugh.

"During practice, it looked like you were always lagging slightly behind Sainz," Wu Shi remarked. It was highly unusual for Verstappen to be chatting here instead of tweaking his car during his precious free time.

"Yeah. My dad gave me an earful about it."

"Jos is still the same as always. At this point, apart from never having teamed up with Schumacher, your achievements are already on par with his," Wu Shi said with a smile.

"Being on the same team as a great driver doesn’t prove anything."

"Oh ho." Wu Shi noticed the confidence lingering between Verstappen’s brows. The guy was steadily maturing. Although he was still receiving lectures from Jos, he was developing more and more of his own opinions. "It sounds like he said something you don’t quite agree with."

"Yeah." Verstappen nodded. "He thinks I should be adapting to the car as quickly as Sainz, and that I shouldn’t be losing to him. But I’m not losing to him. I’m just still getting used to the machinery."

"So it seems the team isn’t tuning the car entirely according to your preferences?" Wu Shi easily saw through Verstappen’s subtle complaints. The Red Bull Second Team’s focus was likely heavily skewed toward Sainz. Whether due to Sainz’s age and experience advantage, or simply a battle of whose father had more backing, Sainz ultimately commanded higher priority.

Verstappen shrugged nonchalantly. "It’s fine. Once you deliver results, the team will naturally pivot to support you."

Wu Shi nodded in deep agreement. During winter testing, he hadn’t been involved in a single on-track incident. His astonishing consistency had immediately earned him the team’s praise. Now, any doubts directed at him were mostly centered around his young age and lack of experience, rather than any skepticism about his actual driving abilities.

Every driver’s authority within a team was fought for, lap by lap, out on the asphalt. Well, with the exception of Stroll, who hadn’t even entered the paddock yet.