Chapter 265: Mercedes Secures Front Row
As the season drew to a close, the battle for the Drivers' World Championship remained full of suspense.
Media outlets everywhere questioned whether Hamilton could defend his championship title.
A 22-point difference, coupled with only five Grand Prix races remaining, formed the basis of this doubt.
If Hamilton were to falter even slightly—a very strict judgment, where not winning a Grand Prix counted as faltering—he would likely lose his chance to defend the title.
Because once Wu Shi secured a victory, that would extend the lead by at least another 7 points.
29 points, with four Grand Prix races left.
Even if Hamilton won every race, as long as Wu Shi could maintain second place in each, the points gap would be insurmountable.
In Grand Prix racing, where surprises are common, consistent victories are extremely difficult to achieve.
Therefore, reports predicting Wu Shi would win the World Championship also became more frequent.
The FIA and F1 both welcomed this development, with some promotional posters even featuring a showdown between Wu Shi and Hamilton.
For the Briton and most Europeans, supporting Hamilton for the championship was a matter of course.
But for Williams Racing fans, Wu Shi's fans, as well as Hamilton's haters and Mercedes' haters, supporting Wu Shi was the right choice.
The rivalry between the two sides caused F1's popularity to skyrocket.
Even the merchandise of both teams sold more, though it seemed Yiwu was the ultimate beneficiary?
Nevertheless, the Mercedes team had realized the key elements to defending the championship.
Thus, after the Japanese Grand Prix, they immediately convened an internal meeting.
The main purpose of this meeting was simple: how to ensure the Drivers' World Championship remained with Mercedes.
To put it more bluntly, how to ensure Hamilton defended his World Champion title?
After everyone thoroughly analyzed the car, the drivers, and the upcoming circuits, they discovered a crucial point lay with the other driver.
Everyone's gaze unconsciously turned to Nico Rosberg.
"Nico, we need you, the entire team needs you to pull yourself together. As long as you can finish in the top two, Wu Shi will be off the Champion's throne in three more races."
"After adjustments and optimization, our car has reached its most perfect state this season. You should go out and win every race."
"Wu Shi is not unbeatable; they have obvious weaknesses. In the next five Grand Prix races, we will specifically optimize strategies for you."
"…"
Rosberg listened to the endless words of comfort, encouragement, or even reproach, feeling as if countless hands were gripping his neck.
He was almost suffocating!
Why?
Why?
He pushed his hardest in every race, thinking far more in every moment of every race than he had last year!
Why did the result turn out this way?
Were these people encouraging him truly encouraging? Or were they secretly mocking his lack of skill?
Could he really not beat his childhood friend and rival?
Was he truly not good enough?
Yes, he was not as good as Lewis, but that was because Lewis had extensive experience.
But why was he not as good as Wu Shi?
Why was this rookie so formidable?
He clutched at his hair, his mind filled with self-doubt and paranoia, occasionally recalling his father's face.
World Champion
World Champion
"Nico?"
"Nico?"
Rosberg suddenly woke up with a cold sweat, looking at Toto who was calling him.
"Hmm, you should stay focused during the meeting."
"I know."
At Williams Racing headquarters, the debriefing meeting for the Japanese Grand Prix was still ongoing.
Everyone's lap times for each lap had been pulled up.
"Lewis's medium tyres lap times generally hovered around 1 minute 38 seconds. In reality, this wasn't faster than the hard compound."
"We should note this. Perhaps the hard tyre was the optimal choice?"
"Hmm, if we had used the same medium tyres as Lewis for the second stint, perhaps we could have been closer to what we expected."
"The main issue is that we didn't have the long-run test data for the tyres. If we had known the hard tyre would have such strong durability, we should have adopted the recommended strategy."
"Strategic issues still cannot be improved immediately, but pit stop work still needs intensified training."
"And regarding further optimisation tests for the FW37, we have still invested enough ideas into it."
"…"
Multi-departmental discussions, endless information and data were laid out before them.
Wu Shi felt a bit dizzy just looking at it, and had to slowly make sense of it, following the rhythm of the others.
After the meeting, Massa smiled and patted Wu Shi's shoulder:
"There are five races left, you have to hold on! It's not time to surrender yet."
Wu Shi nodded and said, "Of course, this is the World Championship. The fight stops when the result is out."
"Very good."
Massa looked out at the gloomy, sunless sky. That distant year of 2008 still lingered in his mind.
"Every point you lose unexpectedly during the season will be accounted for in the final race," he said.
Wu Shi remained silent. In 2008, at the Brazilian Grand Prix, the final race on the calendar, Massa won the Grand Prix but still lost the World Championship.
Not to mention the controversial Singapore Grand Prix caused by the 'Crashgate' incident.
Just looking at Massa's mistakes on track, one could see that if he had just a few more points, would there have been so many issues later on?
The crash in Australia, the spin in Malaysia, the penalty in Singapore.
These were all caused by his own reasons, not external forces.
However, racing is like that: you make mistakes, your opponent makes mistakes, but if your mistakes are more numerous and more fatal, you lose everything.
As Wu Shi stands today, what does he have more of than Hamilton?
It's the all-out effort in every race, the pushing to the limit by eliminating all mistakes, ultimately securing every point possible.
Of course, his luck has also been good.
Mercedes' double retirement, the strategy team's blunder, and Mercedes' car failures all allowed him to gain more points than expected.
"I know, I won't let this year become mine."
Wu Shi did not utter a single year.
After all, every driver who missed out on the WDC could name a few such years.
Perhaps one more for him wouldn't be much, and one less wouldn't be little.
But he didn't want this year to be one that later generations would sigh and shake their heads about when looking back at his F1 career.
While the two teams were busy helping their drivers contend for the World Championship, the other teams were not idle either.
Force India and Sauber filed a complaint with the European Commission regarding the distribution of F1 commercial revenue.
Simply put, they argued that the regulations issued by FOM gave European teams an unfair advantage.
This affected fair competition in the sport.
They primarily targeted the additional revenue awarded to Red Bull, Mercedes, Ferrari, McLaren, and Williams Racing.
Ultimately, the two teams wanted a more reasonable and larger share of the revenue.
This was understandable, but the EU needed to review it, and F1 had not expressed much about it either.
Red Bull also had a host of issues, with dissatisfaction over the Renault engine being a constant topic of discussion every weekday.
In fact, with the 2016 season approaching, they indeed needed to finalise their next engine.
But Ferrari was unwilling to foster a competitor.
And Mercedes? They also flatly refused to cooperate with Red Bull.
After being rejected by both teams, Newey directly stated:
"We might be forced to leave F1 because Mercedes and Ferrari refuse to supply us with their engines.
"This is purely out of fear that we will beat them with their own engines."
This immediately drew many media outlets to say that Newey was simply bragging.
All in all, the paddock chaos continued, and there was no telling how long it would last.
F1 itself was not idle either, with internal turmoil brewing.
Bernie Ecclestone hinted that F1's major shareholder, investment fund CVC Capital Partners, might sell its 35.5% stake.
However, Bernie Ecclestone did not disclose the buyer.
But this did not stump the journalists.
While they couldn't unearth all potential buyers, they at least dug up an Emirati fund, Qatar Sports Investments.
2015 was indeed a tumultuous year for F1!
In the first half of the season, many people said F1 was no longer interesting, and that F1 faced a crisis of sharply declining viewership.
Many media outlets described it as an expensive and unexciting sport.
In fact, if it weren't for Wu Shi's disruption, this year would indeed have evolved into such a result.
Mercedes would have secured almost all pole positions and victories, leaving no extra points for other teams.
But now, Mercedes still had to worry about Lewis Hamilton's championship.
Spectators were happy to see Mercedes stumble, and even if this sentiment wasn't as strong as it would be a few years later, it was at least present this year.
Before the Russian Grand Prix on October 11th, Renault issued a letter of intent for equity, saving Lotus from debt liquidation.
This led the London High Court to agree to a ten-week stay of execution for liquidation, awaiting Renault's acquisition of Lotus.
At the same time, Button and Alonso also confirmed that they would continue to race for McLaren next year.
Manor also released good news, announcing that they would become a Mercedes customer team next year.
Meanwhile, Alexander Rossi would miss the Russian Grand Prix.
He was going to participate in the final round of the GP2 Series.
Amidst the flurry of activity, the Russian Grand Prix arrived.
Wu Shi travelled to Russia on Thursday, arriving at the Sochi Autodrom.
This circuit was only put into use last year, weaving through the venues of the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics.
Surrounded by the Black Sea coast and the Caucasus Mountains, the scenery was quite beautiful—
However, this also brought a side effect: very high track maintenance costs.
The constant Black Sea winds blowing across the circuit accelerated its aging.
Therefore, to maintain the operation of this circuit, Russia had to spend large sums of money on preparation every year.
And Russia's funds have never been particularly abundant.
However, for Russia, the economic value of the Sochi Autodrom is now only secondary; they value its political significance more.
In 2015, Russia was isolated, and both the Sochi Winter Olympics and international events like F1 were Russia's way of showcasing its openness.
The reason Wu Shi arrived so early and gazed into the distance was because on this circuit, Mercedes had an achievement:
An undefeated record!
It would not be an exaggeration to call Mercedes the King of Sochi.
From 2014 to 2021, the Drivers' Champion here belonged to Mercedes.
This circuit seemed to be the embodiment of the Mercedes dynasty.
And in 2022, due to various political factors, the Russian Grand Prix was cancelled.
So, subsequent teams like Red Bull, Ferrari, and McLaren never had the chance to overturn Mercedes' achievements here.
Like all circuits Mercedes excels at, this is a medium to high-speed track that heavily relies on the engine.
Two DRS zones only provide overtaking opportunities for cars with straight-line speed.
Besides this, the most notable feature of this circuit is the incredibly large Turn 3, a left-hand corner forming a semi-circle.
This section is a full 750 meters long, with F1 cars averaging around 270 kph.
Such high speeds continuously generate 5 lateral G-forces, severely testing the drivers' necks.
A gust of wind blew, and Wu Shi, wearing his jacket, still shivered slightly; the wind was a bit chilly.
Thursday for track walk, Friday for practice sessions.
The race weekend began as usual.
In the First Free Practice session, Hülkenberg set the fastest lap with a 1 minute 44 seconds 355, securing the quickest time.
Hamilton, due to a spin, barely managed a good result.
As for the reason for the spin, it's unknown whether the Briton hadn't quite found his rhythm yet, or if the oil stains on the track hadn't been completely cleaned up—
The first thirty minutes of the First Free Practice session were spent clearing those damned oil stains.
Thankfully, at least it didn't rain, so they could still collect speed data.
However, during the Second Free Practice session, heavy rain arrived.
This again resulted in most drivers not having a chance to fine-tune their setups.
Wu Shi sat in his race car, visor open, staring blankly at the rain outside.
The broadcast camera happened to focus on him, seemingly in a daze.
The Sochi Autodrom is very demanding on setup, just as all medium-to-high-speed circuits test a team's setup balance; this track is no exception.
As in the previous race, Williams Racing still faced the trade-off between downforce and low drag.
This cannot be simulated by a calculator; a computer can at most help optimise the racing line, but it cannot provide a team with completely realistic setup parameters.
Jonathan no longer looked at the screen, but rather at the drizzling rain outside the pit garage.
Fortunately, the weather improved for the Third Free Practice session the next day, and the track dried.
Like Suzuka, this was the only opportunity for testing and setup.
However, young Sainz caused a major accident, with the car suffering exceptionally severe damage!
Race control immediately issued a red flag, stopping the session.
Sainz was carried off the track on a stretcher.
Even though it wasn't quite appropriate at the moment, Wu Shi still felt his luck might be running out.
The car wasn't as good as expected, even though he secured the second-fastest time overall.
Fortunately, after Sainz was taken to the hospital, it was confirmed that he was not seriously injured.
A G-force of 46G was perfectly withstood by this young body.
The qualifying session in the afternoon was nothing to write home about. When you can't even outpace the two Mercedes cars in practice, why pray to dominate in qualifying?
Rosberg set a time of 1 minute 37 seconds 113, which was thought to be quite strong, but Hamilton then beat it, securing pole position by a mere 0.02 seconds.
Wu Shi pushed to his limit, achieving third place with a time of 1 minute 37 seconds 412.
This time was 0.3 seconds behind Mercedes, but it was a whopping 0.5 seconds faster than fourth-placed Vettel!
Wu Shi had given his all!
Mercedes got their desired front row lockout.