Chapter 75 Pre-match Strategy
In the afternoon, the track surface became even hotter, and the wind picked up considerably.
"These are the data from the main competition."
Before the competition began, Wu Shi and his crew discussed competition strategies in the conference room. An engineer pushed a notebook in front of him, which contained air and ground temperature curves, wind speed and wind direction change graphs, and various parameters of the vehicle under different fuel load conditions during the afternoon competition.
Such a massive and complex dataset is not meant for drivers to memorize, but rather to give them a basic understanding of the overall situation of the race.
When the race officially begins, the engineers will provide real-time updates to the drivers via the TR.
"Understood." Wu Shi mainly looked at the general situation of the departure points; he couldn't possibly remember too many details of the subsequent data.
"Although we had some unpleasantness during qualifying, Wu Shi, I still need to tell you that you need to follow the feedback the crew gives you during the race," the engineer said.
Sid looked at Wu Shi, wondering how this guy would answer.
"Yes, I was really too excited during the qualifying rounds. Let's discuss a few plans now to form the basis of our strategy for this afternoon's matches."
Wu Shi currently has three sets of tires: one set used for three qualifying laps, one set used for one qualifying lap, and the other set of old tires from Friday's practice session, used for only five laps.
"What we need to know is that if you follow the racing pattern you used in qualifying, the tires won't last for three races," the engineer emphasized.
Wu Shi nodded, "This is where strategy is tested in this competition."
There are three main races in total, each lasting thirty minutes plus one lap. How should the three sets of tires be allocated?
When facing attacks from drivers behind, should you gamble on your tires to finish the race and struggle to maintain your position, or should you prioritize preserving your tires to finish the race?
"You have three pole positions, which is both your advantage and your disadvantage," the engineer continued.
As a front-row driver, Wu Shi's strategic choices are very passive. No matter what tires he chooses for the first race, the drivers behind him will use the "Tian Ji horse racing" strategy to use bad tires to take out his good tires—this is based on the premise that the second place in the three races is different.
According to the ranking results, the second place in the three Sebring races was actually three different people.
The two starting drivers for the first race were Antonio Foco.
The two starting drivers for the second race were Nicolas Latifi.
The two starting drivers for the third race are Max Verstappen.
"I think we should use the worst tires for the first race," Wu Shi said.
"Why?" Engineers need to know the reasons in order to understand the driver's intentions.
"First of all, among these three, Max is the most aggressive. He will definitely attack me, so he will most likely keep the new tires for the third race. He will fight with everything he has to win. If we fight each other, the tire wear may become uncontrollable. I feel more at ease leaving the new tires here."
As the level of competition increased, Wu Shi could clearly feel that the level of his opponents was gradually increasing.
The participants in this race are all seasoned champions who have been racing since childhood. They have extensive experience and their skills are no longer rudimentary. Each of them has their own insights into racing.
However, because the competition level is not the highest, the upper limit of the cars is not high. This means that when people compete, the technical adjustments they make are limited by the limits of the cars.
Just as everyone gets full marks on simple math problems, only problems with clearly defined levels of difficulty can reveal the level of top students and ordinary students.
No matter how amazing the technology, it's a pipe dream to win against a world-class driver's new tires with a worn-out, rotten tire when you can't break the physical limits.
The engineer shook his head and said, "If that's the case, in order to win more games, you should put the better tires in the first two games to ensure victory, instead of fighting to the death in the last game."
"I am confident," Wu Shi said, adding confidently, "With the new tires, I am absolutely certain of winning against Max, but if I use the old tires, I might not be able to stop him in order to finish the race."
The tires used in this race had already worn out three of them during testing. The team has tire performance curves, and once the wear reaches its limit, the performance of the tires will drop precipitously.
At that point, it will be difficult to defend against Verstappen, let alone the other players.
"Confidence, sigh." The engineer shook his head, not saying that young people are just arrogant, but how could he describe it as having absolute certainty in a competition?
"Take a look at my test lap time and compare it with his," Wu Shi said.
The engineer didn't lose his temper or argue with him. Even the most emotionally unintelligent person wouldn't want to start a conflict for no reason when they saw that Chairman Rafa showed some favor to the boy.
After comparing the lap times, it can be seen that, under the same tire conditions, Wu Shi can indeed easily beat Verstappen.
"And what about Antonio Foucault? Can he just sit idly by?" the engineer asked another question.
"He said to use the old tires from Friday." Although these tires had been used for five laps, they were for cruising, so the wear was far less than the tires used for three laps in qualifying.
"Antonio's lap time isn't slow, can you stop him?" The engineer asked, puzzled. In fact, everyone present was also puzzled, since purely based on the data, Antonio was the strongest among them besides Wu Shi.
As for Wu Shi, it's hard to say. Antonio's driving is much more disciplined than Verstappen's. When he guards against Antonio, it's like a gentleman against a gentleman; when he guards against Verstappen, it's like a villain against a villain.
In a gentleman's contest, the competition is fierce but not destructive, so a slightly inferior tire is sufficient; but when dealing with a petty person, there is no room for carelessness. If Verstappen overtakes you with a fish-like move, it will be difficult, and you will either have to withdraw from the race or give up your position.
Verstappen's statement, as some commentators would say, means he's able to keenly seize opportunities and decisively overtake. However, another group of commentators would say, "How could he overtake like that? That's pure torpedo! A turret-gun!"
"He drives more gently, and I don't think the struggle with him will be too intense," Wu Shi explained.
After everyone looked at the data and discussed it, the engineer spoke up: "I understand. I respect your opinion, after all, you have already upheld your decision in the ranked matches."
The final tires were selected based on the following method: the old tires used on Friday, the old tires used for three laps of qualifying, and the old tires used for one lap of qualifying.
"If only it rained, we wouldn't have to go through all this trouble using rain tires," Wu Shi suddenly said.
After the tire strategy is agreed upon, the next step is to adjust the racing mode, such as the front and rear brake ratio, the left and right brake ratio, the amount of fuel, etc. These actually require a complex strategy team to complete.
However, this is currently a temporary team provided by the authorities, and more complex plans have to be shelved.
Fortunately, he can control the settings required for the vehicle to run, and even if the race car has a problem, he can figure out what happened faster than the crew and then make a decision.
Therefore, whether or not to listen to the train crew depends on the situation.