Chapter 270: The Duty of an F1 Driver
The United States Grand Prix, like a super hurricane, became the talk of the paddock.
When Wu Shi won again, people suddenly became doubtful about the FIA Formula 1 World Championship falling to Mercedes.
25 points—this was no longer a comeback Lewis Hamilton could achieve through his efforts alone.
If Wu Shi could still aim for second, then even if Hamilton won every race, it would be useless.
This was also why most media, when predicting the World Champion, stated they couldn't make a judgment.
After all, Wu Shi getting second didn't seem too difficult, did it?
At least in previous races, Wu Shi was almost always on the podium, and as long as the drivers ahead made any mistakes, he would seize the opportunity to move to a higher position.
After the race, Wu Shi was compelled to participate in some interviews.
In fact, there were a few media outlets he couldn't refuse, such as the state media and Italian media.
CCTV expressed the idea of filming a documentary, but this wasn't something Wu Shi could agree to alone; it also involved the FIA, F1, Williams Racing, and various other parties.
However, they came to Wu Shi to seek his opinion, and Wu Shi naturally nodded in agreement. CCTV stated they would handle the remaining negotiations.
Williams Racing had more reservations about CCTV's invitation and replied that they needed to consider more issues.
The FIA and F1 were different; their processes were slow, requiring a wait for a response, which was expected to take some time.
Meanwhile, Hamilton and Nico Rosberg were also constantly harassed by the media.
Because Hamilton, after catching the hat Rosberg threw, did not throw it back, the focus of attention was on Rosberg not letting him pass on the track.
Rosberg had to respond multiple times, stating:
"I am not a number 2 driver; letting someone pass when I have a speed advantage is a ridiculous thing."
And Hamilton also stated: "I am confident I can win the World Championship with my own ability. It's his business if he doesn't uphold the team's interests."
These words were somewhat out of touch with reality.
But the two were now like fire and water, with enormous conflict, and exchanging harsh words was already the most common form of confrontation.
The day after the Grand Prix, Toto Wolff stated in a media interview:
"Nico's behaviour disappointed me. I have always believed that the birth of a World Champion is never about one person, but about a team. It's a pity he is outside the team."
Niki Lauda also criticised Rosberg: "This is a rather selfish choice and should not be like this."
It was inevitable that both of them would criticise Rosberg; now was the time to contend for the World Championship, and his actions showed disregard for the team's interests!
By Wednesday, Rosberg said in another interview:
"The team has already talked to me about this. I don't have anything more to tell you. I just want to say that I will fulfill the duty of an F1 Driver."
These words didn't reveal too much meaning, and no one knew how the situation would develop after the race.
However, Toto later stated in front of the media:
"For the upcoming races, our goal is a one-two finish."
At the same time, Williams Racing held a press conference, announcing that they would bring some upgrades to the next Grand Prix.
Williams Racing did not disclose specific details, only stating that the optimisations were in tyre management, power unit tuning, and ERS.
This was actually the result of Claire Williams' decision to invest more budget.
Aerodynamic improvements were limited by wind tunnel and CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) simulation time, making development very difficult.
After all, Williams Racing didn't have a humanoid wind tunnel.
During the week, at a meeting of the F1 Strategy Group, the FIA and FOM both proposed a cap on the maximum price for engines and gearboxes for customer teams.
This proposal naturally received a warm welcome from most teams; no one wanted to be exploited by engine suppliers anymore.
However, Ferrari directly exercised its veto power, killing the proposal at the suggestion stage. Its Team Principal, Maurizio Arrivabene, stated that he refused to sell engines at a loss.
Ferrari had just been listed on the New York Stock Exchange, and if engine and gearbox supply profits were cut at this time, it would definitely affect the stock price.
So, it was normal for the Ferrari Team Principal to react so strongly to this.
Toto Wolff also expressed outside the venue that Mercedes was unwilling to do this, which was considered an endorsement of Ferrari's veto.
The other teams were very timid; no one continued to bring up the matter, and no one even commented on Ferrari's privilege of having veto power.
The hidden mystery behind it was certainly not just a few words in the news.
And following Lotus's financial crisis, Force India also encountered a financial crisis.
Because its director, Subrata Roy, was sentenced and expected to go to prison in the coming days, which affected their finances.
Indian legendary tycoon Vijay Mallya was forced to ask FOM for a payment of $10 million through reservation to secure Force India's participation rights in the 2016 season.
But one thing to note is that Force India had filed a complaint against FOM just last race week.
This time, they shot themselves in the foot.
However, Bernie Ecclestone still agreed to it.
After Mallya received the promise, he immediately announced his intention to sell the team to Aston Martin.
Aston Martin had indeed been considering a return to F1, but whether this was speculation remained unknown.
Manor Marussia F1 Team's internal situation remained volatile; the Team Principal had been asked to resign, and the team's investors once again raised questions about the team's profitability.
Whether this team could survive until next year would be a big problem.
The Mexico Grand Prix returned to the calendar after twenty-three years.
The track, named Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez, had been re-paved, and it was obvious that the new asphalt would be very slippery.
Coupled with the drivers' unfamiliarity with the track, it was likely to lead to many incidents.
However, Wu Shi was very familiar with this place; he might be the only F1 Driver who knew how to drive this track before the race.
Compared to later years, the 2015 Autódromo Hermanos Rodríguez track primarily still had Turns 13-15.
"You think you need more downforce?" Rod asked.
"Of course, at 2200 metres above sea level, if we don't increase the downforce, we'll be in big trouble," Wu Shi said.
The engineers were naturally aware of the impact of altitude and had made corresponding adjustments.
However, Wu Shi's emphasis still made them decide to make modifications.
But after several changes, the data in the simulator became increasingly worse.
"That's normal. If you want more downforce, the top speed will naturally decrease," Rod said, leaning on the table.
The track had a long straight of 1.2 kilometres, but the subsequent Turn 1 was almost a right angle, severely testing the car's braking ability and cornering stability.
"Should the front wing angle be slightly larger?"
"You only need front wheel grip?"
"Theoretically, yes," Wu Shi nodded.
The engineers once again racked their brains and began to make adjustments.
Amidst urgent preparations, October 30th arrived.
During the practice session, Williams Racing unveiled its new car. Many Mercedes engineers took the opportunity to look around, but they couldn't find any changes.
The subsequent First Practice Session was again affected by heavy rain, and everyone used intermediate tyres for testing.
It wasn't until the Second Practice Session in the afternoon that there was an opportunity for dry tyre testing.
However, in the rain, everyone was slightly more cautious about grip issues and drove conservatively. Once it was dry, they all let loose a bit.
Max Verstappen, who set the fastest lap in the First Practice Session, spun and hit the barrier at Turn 16 just 5 minutes after coming out, ending his session early.
Carlos Sainz Jr., Sergio Pérez, and Valtteri Bottas also kept spinning.
Even Hamilton lost control and spun at Turn 4.
It wasn't until the Third Practice Session that everyone's times improved.
Rosberg and Hamilton remained neck and neck, leading the pack.
Wu Shi, due to downforce issues, couldn't set a fast enough flying lap and was ranked fourth.
This brought up the classic dilemma faced by weaker F1 teams—speed or stability?
In the end, Wu Shi still made a suitable compromise: speed was more important than stability.
After all, fast is fast, and stable but slow is meaningless in a race.
This was also a challenge for him; a car without stability, even if it performed well in qualifying, would become very fragile in the race.
The three practice sessions had already shown that the current track grip was very poor, which further exacerbated the shortcomings of a speed-focused setup.
However, Williams Racing's advantage still lay in its excellent speed after running with light fuel.
By qualifying, the final version of the car was placed under Wu Shi.
Felipe Massa opted for a more conservative setup direction.
"30% chance of rain."
Jonathan told Wu Shi before Q1.
This statement emphasised the need to set a lap time quickly to deal with any sudden changes.
So Wu Shi was not going to try too many things; he immediately pushed to the limit.
In Q1, he set a time of 1 minute 20.321 seconds, topping the leaderboard.
However, Hamilton and Rosberg were not going to give him any more chances, both immediately running into the 1 minute 19-second range.
Among so many people, only they ran into the 1 minute 19-second range. The full 0.4-second gap made Wu Shi realise that he was indeed a bit slow.
However, this lap did not use the softest tyres.
After the first ultimate flying lap, Rosberg and Hamilton still ran a few more laps on track; they still wanted to get familiar with the track.
In Q2, Hamilton took the lead, successfully setting a time of 1 minute 19.829 seconds, once again taking first place.
This time, Rosberg only managed a time of 1 minute 20.045 seconds.
Only when returning to the pit, he said on the team radio: "Lack of power."
No one knew what problem Mercedes had, but Wu Shi was certainly happy.
Hamilton, who took first place on his first flying lap, still chose to do a second flying lap.
This was actually the choice of most drivers in Q2, after all, it was a new track, so two more flying laps would definitely make Q3 more comfortable.
Wu Shi still chose a four-lap rhythm to complete Q2, so by the race, his starting tyres would be three to four laps fresher.
Towards the end of Q2, it actually started to drizzle in some parts of the track, turning the 30% chance of rain into 100%.
Everyone at Williams Racing was happy; in their eyes, Wu Shi was the god of wet races.
The current situation meant that Wu Shi could once again play to his strengths.
However, they rejoiced too soon, because due to the car's re-adjustment, Wu Shi was now the one who feared this semi-wet, semi-dry surface.
Fortunately, the drizzle was very light and did not significantly change the grip of the ground.
With the DEBUFF fully applied, Wu Shi struggled to complete his first ultimate lap in 1 minute 19.937 seconds.
But before the applause from the Williams Racing team could finish, Hamilton and Rosberg successively set times of 1 minute 19.8 seconds, which directly re-secured pole position for Mercedes.
Wu Shi felt he had pushed to his limit, and the only thing he could do about this result was to prepare for his second flying lap.
In the final five minutes, the ready drivers exited the pits again.
Sebastian Vettel was the first to set a lap time, 1 minute 19.850 seconds.
This was the four-time World Champion who had grown from a prodigy, immediately pulling out the limit after only one exploratory lap in Q2.
Anyone had to marvel at the power of peak Vettel.
Then came Rosberg, who rushed to first with a time of 1 minute 19.480 seconds.
Wu Shi was still on his flying lap and had no idea how strong his opponents were. After crossing the finish line, his time only improved by less than 0.1 seconds.
1 minute 19.848 seconds, narrowly beating Vettel.
And finally, Hamilton, with the World Championship title still undecided and immense motivation, pushed his W06 to its absolute limit, crossing the line in 1 minute 19.210 seconds!
At this point, Wu Shi and Vettel could only sigh in admiration.
Even Rosberg, also driving a W06, couldn't match him.
Toto Wolff nodded with great satisfaction at this result.
They had done everything they could; they couldn't possibly expect Ferrari and Red Bull to do better and inexplicably block Wu Shi behind them, could they?
In fact, this Grand Prix was quite unfavourable for Mercedes.
The reason for the disadvantage was that the Mercedes engine was too adaptable to the thin air at high altitudes—
Although Toto Wolff couldn't fully understand the parameters of the other engines, he was still confident that in the race, only their engine could guarantee long-term stability and speed.
And unfortunately, their opponent at this time, Williams Racing, also used this highly adaptable and stable engine.
To be honest, if there really was a small button to reduce power, Toto Wolff would really want to press it.
During the post-qualifying interviews with the three drivers, a reporter again asked Hamilton:
"Are you ready to reclaim the World Championship title?"
"Of course, our car is fantastic, and I have no reason to make the same mistake as last Grand Prix," Hamilton nodded.
Then the reporter asked Rosberg: "Nico, what is your mission for this race? Is it still to win?"
"I will fulfill the duty of an F1 Driver," Rosberg still replied.
This sentence was ambiguous, leaving people unclear.
The duty of an F1 Driver could be to fight with all his might for victory, or it could be to sacrifice his individual aspirations for the greater good of the team.
No one knew what Rosberg was thinking.
When the reporter pointed the microphone at Wu Shi, Wu Shi thought for a moment and said:
"I only need to get two second places and one arbitrary podium to maintain my points lead. If you want to ask me about my goal, this is my minimum goal."
"Do you think you can catch up with them in the race?" the reporter continued to ask.
"I don't know, because at least in qualifying I was slower than them. However, there are many factors that influence the race, and these cannot be predicted now."
Wu Shi replied.
It could be said that in the third-to-last Grand Prix, both World Championship contenders and one supporting World Championship contender were under extreme pressure.
Wu Shi knew his own situation; getting third place was the limit for this car.
And getting second or first usually required hoping that Mercedes would have problems.
But the day before the Grand Prix, he slept soundly, as if he had no pressure.
It wasn't until the Grand Prix arrived the next day that the tension returned to him.
Responding to this tension was the seemingly insane, enthusiastic cheering of the entire Mexican audience. Although this cheering was for their national F1 Driver, every driver could share in this enthusiasm.
"This is truly crazy."
Wu Shi and Max Verstappen stood together, feeling a bit emotional.
"Yes! Only Checo (Sergio Pérez) can make so many people cheer for him," Verstappen said.
"Netherlands fans wouldn't be far behind," Wu Shi laughed. The orange smoke sea was a headache for every F1 manager.
"Speaking of that, your home Grand Prix also has enthusiastic fans. Do you remember the solo parade the organisers prepared for you?" Verstappen said.
"Of course I remember," Wu Shi said, rubbing his fingers.
"You should respond to them, and you should respond to your inner self even more."
"Of course, brother, I'm now closer to the highest honour than Lewis is," Wu Shi laughed.
When Sergio Pérez waved his hands, the broadcast camera zoomed directly onto Pérez's face.
"Oh oh oh oh!!!"
The entire venue once again erupted in intense and sustained enthusiastic cheers.
As long as Pérez was in the paddock, he would receive unlimited welcome from his home fans.
Therefore, he could say in the future what Wu Shi would never dare to say:
"I did not return alone; with me returned the voice of a nation, the power of a continent."