End of the Century Talented Racer

Chapter 202 Reflection

Clearly, Daniel learned from last year's comeback.To defeat Stewart, the last thing you can do is to get carried away by the victory, let alone belittle yourself just because of a victory in a game - this is the example he set with his own experience.

When Altaïr crossed the finish line, the team congratulated him, and he praised the team, as if the two sides had jointly won the race.

"It was definitely a great race, especially considering that we have been in trouble for the past three years, and this season has not been easy," Altaïr said after the game. Obviously the right decision. Now we have points for both cars and we are in a good position! Leysin is our next target."

Due to Citroën's unsatisfactory performance in the past, frequent problems with the new car have cast doubt on its readiness for the season.But when it came to Melbourne, there were no reliability issues throughout the weekend of Citroën racing.

Of course, Altaïr's No.7 is also lucky to a certain extent.In fact, Porter was the fourth fastest team on the track, with Wesley and Easter both qualifying ahead.As Leysin's Vergil was penalized to start three places back, the two Porter cars advanced by one grid position respectively, and they were fourth and fifth respectively after Tesrock made a mistake and spun at the beginning of the race.

After the game, Altaïr couldn't love himself and went back to the lounge to hug everyone. "Our performances will get better and better, we know the car has a strong race pace. Although the other opponents encountered problems and gave us opportunities, being able to stay ahead of Tesrock shows our potential. It is a team unity. This is definitely a good start.”

After the Australian Grand Prix, Porter seems to be the team with the most enemies. They have been publicly criticized and questioned by Citroen and Pride.

The reason Porter was questioned is actually very simple, that is, there are too many Dongsheng factors in them. From the design of the car, the influence of Dongsheng can be seen everywhere. In the eyes of many people, they are the "Dongsheng Second Team" ".After the jaw-dropping "double-retirement incident" in the Australian Grand Prix triggered the safety car and indirectly helped Daniel win the championship, the Porter team became the focus of public opinion.

In the view of Dajiao Racing Team, Porter Racing Team is completely a paid team. They did not spend their human and financial resources on the research and development of racing technology, but directly paid Dongsheng. This is unfair to other teams. .Altaïr of the Citroën team even directly stated that there are shadows of "cloning" everywhere in the Porter team.

Everyone in the Porter team seemed aggrieved, and the team leader publicly responded to Altaïr's criticism: "I think he had better think about what he is talking about before he speaks. Everyone has their own position. Now I'm proud of what we've achieved." The driver Wesley said Altaïr's remarks were pure jealousy: "Anyone who runs ahead of him will annoy him. I was also at Citroen and saw them. The structure of the team, I understand why we upset him."

The situation of the Porter team is not like that of the Leysen Second Team. After all, the latter is the legitimate Leysen Youth Team. Porter's approach of taking shortcuts really annoyed other competitors.

Bingcheng was still reflecting. On the 16th lap of the Australian Grand Prix, Stewart's "comfortable race" went as planned.Stewart maintained the lead after the start of the race and was 3.3 seconds ahead of Dongsheng driver Santak.Daniel's gap behind his teammate has reached 4 seconds.

Santak chose to pit on this lap.With the help of the extremely high tire changing efficiency of Dongsheng technicians, it took a total of 21.4 seconds (between the speed limit lines) to become the second fastest stop in the field.At this point, the race was under the "green flag," with Santak losing a total of 18 seconds.

One lap before, Santak had just made his personal fastest lap, which meant that Dongsheng's strategic team chose to pit at this time not because the tires of the No. 7 car were nearly exhausted.In fact, this is the beginning of Dongsheng's "overall strategy".Allowing Santak to pit "early" at this time is to "lure" Stewart to pit after one lap, thereby prolonging the number of laps Stewart uses the soft tires.There is no doubt that Dongsheng has shown the advantage that both drivers are at the forefront.Daniel could try a late pit stop strategy.

Dongsheng thought calling Santak into the pits would prompt Stewart to react.Because drivers who pit early often have an advantage because they change to new tires with stronger grip in advance.The tactic, known as the "undercut", worked so well at last year's Australian Grand Prix.

But in this year's game, Undercut's power has not only declined, but even backfired.Santak switched from the ultrasoft to the soft two "grades" harder at the pit stop, but his first lap after the stop was 0.6 seconds slower than his last full lap.Bingcheng quickly discovered this, but at this time Bingcheng had decided to call Stewart into the pit, thinking that the opponent's slower lap time would help him.

Stewart performed better than Santak after returning to the track, but Stewart's first speeding lap was still 0.1 seconds slower than the "old tire".

On lap 19, Stewart was 13.3 seconds behind Daniel, who had not pitted.If Daniel pits under the "green flag", Daniel will fall behind Stewart, but assuming the SC (Safety Car) or VSC is deployed, Daniel may be able to move to the lead.

Bingcheng understood the risk and told Stewart that he needed to speed up and close the gap between himself and Daniel to within the time required for a VSC pit stop.

The team told the defending champion: "Daniel may be about 1 second ahead of us if he pits." Stewart responded immediately, and within 5 laps he was close to 1.7 seconds.At this time, the Bingcheng team thought that the gap between the two was small enough. In fact, Bingcheng made a calculation error.When Easter's car "leads out" of the VSC, Daniel opted to pit and returned to the track just ahead of Stewart.It was this crucial pit stop that helped Daniel win the race.But how did Bingcheng "screw up" all this?
"Thinking that I have enough time difference to hold the opponent to pit under VSC."

The ice city leader explained Stewart's tactics to the media after the game. "Our goal is to maintain the gap between Stewart and Santak, try to widen the gap to prevent Santak from using the Undercut, but also pay attention to the gap with Porter to prevent the safety car from changing. Besides, everything is in our within the control."

When Stewart was still in front of Santak after the pit stop, the only thing the team had to worry about was Daniel, and the only possibility for the latter at that time was the SC and VSC that brought uncertainty.

"We calculated how many seconds we would have to be behind before VSC was dispatched before our opponents would benefit from it. The intelligent system told us that only 15 seconds would be enough." The Ice City team leader revealed that the team also reduced this value for the sake of insurance. A few seconds, "so we thought we would have a 3 to 4 second lead given the gap at that time. But when the broadcast screen cut to the exit of the pit lane, Daniel was ahead of us."

The team leader of Bingcheng also said that Bingcheng was sure that the gap between Stewart and Daniel was less than the time needed for Daniel to pit, and the team even warned Stewart to slow down before VSC officially appeared. "We were saying 'We can defend the VSC pit stop and keep this gap and we have a three or four second advantage.' We thought there was, but it wasn't."

The ice city team leader also confirmed that Stewart correctly followed the wrong instructions given by the team. "It's a software glitch, or an error in the way the program calculates," he reasoned.

But two remaining questions remain.

Would Stewart have won the game if the City hadn't made a mistake in calculating the required safety gap?

Bingcheng gave an affirmative answer.But in fact Stewart still needs to protect his tires better, because if Stewart takes the lead after Daniel pits, the gap between the two will be very small.

"I think if there were no mistakes, we could win the game." The team leader of the ice city said, "Stewart knew at that time that it would be his last set of tires in the game, and he needed to follow the team's goals in terms of wear. He There should be enough gap to save tires."

Stewart also agrees with the leader's point of view. "The distance between me and Daniel is very close, maybe only 1 second." He said, "If I know that the gap is not enough, I may try to catch up. But it is not clear whether the gap can be reduced enough."

So, if another Ice City driver, Seaver, can avoid mistakes in qualifying Q3, will the direction of the race be very different?In fact, Seaver's inability to cooperate with Stewart in the main race was a major concern of Ice City after qualifying.

If Seaver can perform normally in qualifying and get the top four, he will be a great helper to Stewart in the race.Seaver can help contain Dongsheng, or force Dongsheng to switch tactics by making an early stop.

"I don't know if Seaver can play normally in today's situation, it will help the situation." The ice city team leader said when asked if Seaver had avoided a crash in qualifying, the result would have been different. .

"Obviously, we had to react to the Santak pit stop, because the risk of undercut was real. That meant we had to choose between two strategies. Pitting with Santak meant that if there was an SC or a VSC Sometimes we could lose the lead. And today that's what kept us from winning."

Ice City rider Seaver had a disastrous weekend in Melbourne.In qualifying on Saturday, he made a mistake and crashed in the third quarter and was unable to run a valid result. In the main race, he moved back 5 places to start because of the replacement of the gearbox, and finally finished 8th.

(End of this chapter)