Chapter 169 - 90: Is Wu Shi Too Fast, or Is Kimi Too Slow?

Chapter 169: Chapter 90: Is Wu Shi Too Fast, or Is Kimi Too Slow?

"Welcome, everyone, to the live broadcast of the qualifying session for the opening race of the 2015 Formula One World Championship, the Australian Grand Prix. This year, we’ll see four rookies take to the track. They are: Williams Team’s driver from Hua Country, Wu Shi; Sauber Team’s Brazilian driver, Felipe Nasr..."

David Croft began explaining this year’s team changes to the viewers, as the average fan could easily get confused without a proper rundown.

After finishing his discussion of the personnel changes, he had to give special mention to Wu Shi and Verstappen.

"Driver Wu Shi from Hua Country, car number 59, is not only the first driver from Hua Country to compete in an official F1 race, but he is also the youngest driver in F1 history. He is currently just 16 years and 101 days old, with a full 264 days until his 17th birthday!

"It’s hard to imagine such a young driver on the track. Even though he won the 2014 F3 championship with an overwhelming advantage, we still have to worry about his race performance. Does he have enough experience to handle an F1 car? Will he be able to bring the car back in one piece?

"His teammate this year is Felipe Massa, a very experienced driver who might be able to offer him a wealth of guidance. In any case, it’s now time for us to watch him race."

As an official commentator, David Croft didn’t mention that the FIA had already begun adjusting the entry rules for young drivers because of Wu Shi and Verstappen.

With the two youngest drivers in history entering F1 at the same time, it was hard to tell if this was a boom in young talent or if the teams were rushing their development.

Wu Shi sat in his car while Jonathan knelt beside him, stressing once again, "This is your first official race. You need to remember, bringing the car back safely is more important than anything!"

"I understand. I’ll be careful," Wu Shi replied. Jonathan was hammering this point home because a rookie crashing often meant shattering the foundation of their own career.

He had developed a deep understanding of the car during winter testing. Unless he pushed it to the absolute limit, there shouldn’t be any problems.

The screen in front of the cockpit displayed the track conditions. The air temperature was 29 degrees today, with a track temperature of 38 degrees. These were clearly excellent temperatures, so there was basically no need to worry about the tires overheating.

However, the weather map on the screen showed a significant crosswind today, reaching 2.6 meters per second. It was especially noticeable in the sector between turns nine and ten, making it very easy for a car to lose control.

The teams had already noticed this issue during the practice sessions.

As for how to avoid it, that really came down to a bit of luck. As everyone knows, large-scale weather forecasting is difficult enough, let alone predicting crosswinds in one small section of the track.

"My advice is to go out on soft tires right away. Making it into Q2 is the most important thing," Jonathan said.

"The medium tires will be fine. Trust me. We have to save the softs for the push from Q2 to Q3, otherwise we’ll be one set short."

Wu Shi said this because, on this track, the soft tires were much, much better than the mediums for setting a qualifying lap.

"Okay." Jonathan nodded and gave the order.

After the medium tires were fitted, car number 59 was lowered to the ground and, with a VROOSH, drove out of the pit lane.

Based on the times from Free Practice 3, a lap of around 1 minute and 28 seconds would be enough to get into Q2. With this in mind, Wu Shi immediately began his warm-up lap.

There was plenty of time in Q1. After the first warm-up lap, Wu Shi began to push for a fast lap.

On the Albert Park circuit, you could only use a little bit of most curbs. Taking too much meant you couldn’t get back on the tarmac in time, and just past the short curbs lay the grip-less grass, which was enough to ruin any driver’s race.

After turn sixteen came the Great Straight.

"I’m starting my lap."

As Wu Shi announced this over the team radio, he had already opened his DRS. The car’s acceleration and top speed were both enhanced in its low-drag state. Amidst the roar of the engine, the sense of danger from the G-forces caused his adrenaline to spike.

By the time the car reached the checkered line, its speed had already hit 303 km/h.

Wu Shi glanced at it, then continued to accelerate. About one hundred meters from the second-to-last orange marker on the track barrier, he began to gently ease off the throttle.

His speed at this point was 319 km/h.

Drag caused the car, no longer at full throttle, to decelerate slightly. The moment the car passed the orange marker, Wu Shi immediately hit the brakes and began to trail-brake. He continued until he was past the final orange marker, then started turning right to enter the corner.

Turns 1 and 2 were a chicane. After lightly mounting the apex curb, he immediately had to straighten up and turn left. And after these two turns, he needed to adjust the differential.

He was a bit slow here.

He said over the team radio, "Feels like a bit of understeer."

Then, the car mounted the left-side curb. At this point, he could release the steering a little, heading right toward the right-side curb.

However, on corner exit, as he floored the throttle, the rear wheels began to spin slightly.

Wu Shi felt the car twitch but didn’t lift off the throttle at all. He stabilized the car with quick steering corrections. As the speed picked up, the rear wheels’ rotation finally matched the car’s speed, and they regained grip.

From an external camera angle, it looked like he had just narrowly avoided losing control and spinning out. It was a heart-stopping moment.

However, the broadcast was currently focused on Ferrari’s Kimi. While everyone else was on the white-marked medium tires, he had gone straight for the yellow-marked softs.

Based on what was seen in the practice sessions, the softs were quite a bit faster per lap, so everyone was watching to see what kind of time Kimi would set.

After that dangerous save, Wu Shi wasn’t panicked or frightened at all.

After Turn 2 was a straight. With DRS wide open and rapid upshifts, his terminal velocity was high enough to approach 310 km/h.

But he couldn’t maintain that speed for long. He had to brake hard immediately and remember to close the DRS. Turn 3 was sharp, and it connected to Turn 4, a wide, sweeping corner. It was crucial to get through Turn 3 quickly while still carrying speed into Turn 4.

As he accelerated past Turn 3, Wu Shi could feel that the medium tires still didn’t have enough grip. Because of this, he couldn’t accelerate faster through the left-hand Turn 4, or he would risk spinning out.

Past Turn 5 and after a short straight, he finished the first sector.

29.001.

Then he braked through Turns 6 and 7. Turn 8 was a sweeping corner where he applied throttle while still turning, followed by the right-angled Turn 9 and then another sweeping corner at Turn 10.

This circuit had many of these slow-corner-to-fast-corner combinations. After all, a street circuit has to adapt to the local layout and couldn’t guarantee the same variety of corners as a purpose-built track.

The car sped on, crossing the end of the second sector as it approached Turn 11.

28.678.

Jonathan pursed his lips when he saw the time. ’That’s a very good result. It looks like it’s on par with Kimi’s time, and he’s on softs. So, is Wu Shi just that fast, or is Kimi too slow?’