RoleplayNovel Chapter 58 The Advantage Lies With Me!
Chapter 58 The Advantage Lies With Me!
Tang Che: "copy".
Mattia laughed with relief: Not fighting for a position? How could Tom not fight for a position? As long as the car can still run, as long as there's an opportunity, Tom will definitely fight for it!
As long as Tang Che has a breath left, he is invincible! (crossed out)
The problem is that there is no opportunity for the time being. The three cars in front are not competing with each other and are all running at their own pace. Each of them is faster than the AT03 of the Tangche and each of them is pulling away from the AT03 of the Tangche.
If Verstappen catches up with Russell and engages in a prolonged and intense battle, with each losing time in the struggle, Tanger has a chance to catch up with both of them.
Take victory over you.
On lap 36, Mattia reported in the radio: "Russell will pit on the next lap."
Russell's second stop window is earlier than Red Bull and Alfa Toli expected. To avoid being at a disadvantage in terms of pit stop strategy, Verstappen, Perez, and Tangche, who are directly competing with Russell for a place, should all adjust their pit stop strategies.
If Russell switches to the new yellow tires while Tangcher continues to use the old ones, the disadvantage will be exaggerated dramatically—on this extremely tire-wearing track, the new yellow tires will be much faster than Tangcher's old yellow tires after 16 laps, and the later Tangcher pits, the further behind Russell will be after his second pit stop.
It's unlikely that Tangcher will have a chance to compete with Russell for the position now. If the disadvantage is exaggerated, it will be even more difficult for Tangcher to fight for the position.
If Tang Che wants to retain any hope of securing a position, he must at least ensure that his disadvantages are not exaggerated.
To prevent the disadvantage from widening, Tanger had only one option: "I'll pit on the next lap."
For Alfa Toli, it doesn't matter how much behind Taunter is than Russell, because they don't want Taunter to fight Russell. The team's current goal is to maintain P4 and finish the race safely.
Moreover, the team strategy group believed that regardless of whether Tangcher pitted on the same lap as Russell or a few laps later than Russell, Tangcher was unlikely to have a chance to compete with Russell for position, and the cars behind him were unlikely to catch up with him. In the end, Tangcher would still finish in P4.
Therefore, the team didn't care whether Tancher pitted on the same lap as Russell or a few laps later. They simply told Tancher that Russell was pitting and let Tancher decide for himself whether to pit with Russell.
Mattia: "copy."
On lap 37, Russell pitted for yellow tires, as did Tanger.
Mercedes changed tires in 2.4 seconds, which is average.
Alfa Romeo's tire change took... 2.1 seconds, very good!
Thanks to the excellent performance of the crew, Tanger slightly narrowed the gap with Russell after leaving the station.
Mattia: "7 seconds behind Russell, 3 seconds ahead of Bottas."
Trailing Russell by 7 seconds, unless Russell engages in a prolonged battle with the Red Bull duo, Tanger has no chance of catching up.
Leading Bottas by 3 seconds isn't a huge advantage, but Bottas is significantly slower than Tanger, so he can't catch up with Tanger.
Tang Che is in a single position again, and the only way to get a position is to wait for a safe car or a red flag.
But safety cars or red flags aren't something you can just have whenever you want. For now, Tang Che can only continue running at his own pace and leave the rest to fate.
On lap 38, to avoid being undercut by Russell, Perez pitted for yellow tires. After exiting the pits, he was ahead of Russell by 4.6 seconds.
On lap 44, Verstappen pitted for yellow tires.
Verstappen had already opened up a pit window for Russell before entering the pits, and after exiting the pits, he was stuck between Perez and Russell, 6 seconds behind Perez and 1.2 seconds ahead of Russell.
Russell cannot threaten Verstappen if he is not behind him for even a second.
Verstappen's new tires are very fast, and he is rapidly closing in on Perez. He will definitely catch up with Perez before the end of the match.
Red Bull will then have to consider who will win the championship – should they make Perez give way to Verstappen? What if they don't make Perez give way and Verstappen and Perez start fighting?
On lap 47, the Red Bull team gave the instruction: "Checo, you and Max are on different strategies, please give way to him."
Perez is about to start contract renewal negotiations with Red Bull, how can he not let this car go?
Perez: "That's not fair, but it's okay."
It evokes a sense of bitterness and hardship typical of middle-aged corporate slaves.
But Verstappen is still more than 2 seconds behind Perez. If he wants to give way, he has to wait for Verstappen to catch up, which would take another lap or two.
On lap 49, Hamilton, in p6, pitted for red tires and dropped to p8 after exiting the pits.
Hamilton, who dropped to the back of the pack on the first lap, considered retiring from the race. However, encouraged by the team, he continued to compete. With the help of the team's strategy group, he moved up positions much more efficiently than Sainz, who dropped to p11 on lap 7.
The foundation of their eight-time champion dynasty is clearly still there, in all aspects, but the W13 limited their performance.
Now that the W13 is showing promise, Mercedes is immediately demonstrating its strength in the aerodynamic era. If the W13 can maintain its dominance from now on, the Mercedes dynasty may continue into the ground effect era.
Mercedes still had a good performance in this game!
On lap 52, Mercedes called Russell to pit for red tires.
After Russell left the station, he fell behind Bottas, more than 2 seconds behind Bottas and 11 seconds behind Taunter.
Is Mercedes getting hyped up in this spot?
Mercedes didn't just randomly call up Russell; they had their own reasons for doing so.
First of all, the red tires are incredibly fast, ridiculously fast—Hamilton's lap time after switching to red tires is more than 4 seconds faster than Bottas'! By pitting Russell for red tires, we not only don't have to worry about losing P3, but we can also snatch the fastest lap.
Are Mercedes so confident that Russell will definitely get past Tontard?
That's how confident they are! Putting aside the huge advantage in tires, just look at that car, it doesn't have power steering! Driving a car without power steering is difficult enough, how can the wheelsets possibly maintain a high level of precision?
Mercedes: No matter how you look at it, in a close battle, it's a normal car against a faulty car, a newer red tire against an older yellow tire, and the advantage is mine!
Mercedes has changed its strategy. What do Red Bull and Alfa Romeo say?
Red Bull: Russell poses no threat to us anymore.
AlphaToli: We have no solution.
If we let Tangcher enter the pits now, he will fall between Sainz (p6) and Hamilton (p7), and it will be virtually impossible for him to catch up to p4.
If Tanger stays on the track, not to mention Russell who will definitely catch up, Sainz, who is currently 16 seconds behind Tanger, may also catch up with Tanger in the final stages of the race by taking advantage of his car and red tires.
A single-minded approach has become blocked at both ends.
Between two evils, the lesser one must be chosen, so Tang Che can only stay on the track and run on these yellow tires until the end.
As for what position I'll ultimately get, that's up to fate.
Late on lap 60, Mattia reported in the TR: "Tom, Russell has a DRSE in the DRSE zone before Turn 1. Please maintain risk-free confrontation."
The team actually hoped that Tangcher would avoid going up against Russell, but everyone knew that Tangcher would definitely not give up P3 so easily, so they could only tell Tangcher to avoid risky confrontations.
Tang Che: "copy".
On lap 61, in the Drs area before Turn 1, Russell arrived.
Russell activated his DRS! His top speed is incredibly high! That should be enough for him to launch an attack at Turn 1!
Tang Che: The top speed is very high, but too high. If I give you the inside, can you stop?
Russell charged straight for the basket! His tires were severely locked! He almost went off the track!
The AT03 race car calmly passed by the W13 race car, its effortless regaining of the lead seeming to say, "Kid, haste makes waste."
Russell wasn't impatient; he underestimated his opponent. He thought he could easily overtake Tancher with his car's performance and tire advantage, but he overexerted himself and ended up losing more than he gained. This lock-up not only cost Russell 0.4 seconds but also wore down his tires, significantly diminishing his tire advantage.
Russell is in the Dr.S. zone between Turn 9 and Turn 10!
drs! Restart!
Tangcher lightly tapped the brakes just before the braking zone at Turn 10! This is a defensive move that Tangcher rarely uses; the only time he used it before was to defend against Russell, and he used it again to defend against Russell!
Russell got faked out last time, and he got faked out again this time!
Russell's braking rhythm was disrupted!
Tang Che calmly cut into the paint and entered the corner!
That defense was absolutely elegant!
In the series of low-speed corners after Turn 10, Russell was right behind Tanger by 0.4 seconds.
The AT03's cornering performance is inferior to the W13, and its tires are severely worn out, making it unsuitable for extreme late braking. It simply cannot shake off the W13 in continuous corners.
But this doesn't mean that Tanger is completely out of options.
As he exited Turn 16, Tanger naturally swung the rear of his car, taking advantage of the tires' sideslip, and added some turbulence to Russell's car.
Turbulence has a significant impact on ground effect vehicles; Russell lost 0.2 seconds exiting the corner, falling 0.6 seconds behind Tanger.
Entering the Drs area, Tangche hugged the side closest to the inside of Turn 1.
Russell activated DRES, sucking in Tanger's tail.
Just before the braking zone of Turn 1, as Russell was about to turn towards the outside of Turn 1, Tanger changed lanes towards the outside of Turn 1!
Russell got faked out again!
However, Russell reacted quickly this time and immediately drove to the basket!
The two cars were side-by-side in the corner, exiting the corner... Russell took the lead... Tanger took the cross line! He regained the lead!
But the lead that Tanger regained from Russell was just as precarious as the lead Russell had previously regained from Verstappen!
Russell goes all out on Turn 2!
It's not that easy to succeed! I've already said that overtaking is not easy on any of the corners on this track except for Turn 1 and Turn 10!
Tanger only needed to give Russell a slight nudge, and Russell's attempt failed.
Tanger is still in the lead!
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#2022 F1 Spanish Grand Prix Commentary (Five-Star Sports)#
"Wow! They've defended against it again!"
"Tanter has already covered for a full five laps, and keep in mind that Tancher's yellow tires are 15 laps ahead of Russell's red tires! Tancher's car doesn't even have power steering, it's simply unbelievable!"
"Little Thompson really pulled out all the stops in those five laps of defense, using almost every legal defensive tactic imaginable. It was textbook-perfect defense!"
"Isn't this similar to Alessandro's performance at last year's Hungarian Grand Prix? Back then, Alessandro was also driving a slower car and defended against Hamilton, who had a huge tire advantage, for a long time."
"From Mercedes' perspective, they should be about the same. (laughs)"
"The race is now in its final lap, and Tom Cruise could very well finish in P3!"
"Oh no!!!! Little Tom has gone too far!!!! Little Tom has made a serious mistake!!!!"
"Russell is bringing the podium home!!!!!!!!!"
"Russell is locked out again!!!!"
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Both players made mistakes, which meant neither of them made any mistakes, so Tangche was still in the lead!
This incident caused a rollercoaster ride for both the Alfa Romeo parking garage and the Mercedes parking garage.
Even after the roller coaster ride, my heart was still pounding.
Before crossing the finish line, no one can say for sure what other unexpected problems might arise!
Exiting Turn 16, Tontard used the same trick again, swerving his car to give Russell turbulence!
What can Russell do? Take a different exit line to avoid the turbulence? But that would still reduce his exit speed! No way!
The two cars were 0.5 seconds apart, and there wasn't enough time to catch up on that short straight before the finish line!
The checkered flag waved, and Tang Che crossed the finish line, bringing P3 back!
The pit garage and pit walls of the Alfa Romeo team exploded! More violently than ever before!
Simply put, the podium was such a wonderful surprise this time!
Before the race started, no one, including Tang Che, expected to make it to the podium. The more conservative ones thought that holding onto P7 would be good enough, while the more ambitious ones thought they could get P6 or even P5.
Unexpectedly, the Mars team faltered more badly in this match than in any of their previous ones.
Hamilton dropped out, Sainz dropped out, Leclerc withdrew from the tournament, and Tangche easily made it to point 4.
After Tang Che picked up the wallet and got to P4, the car did have the dream of going on stage, but the hydraulic system suddenly failed, and no one in the team dared to think about going on stage anymore. They were all thinking about how to keep P4.
Before Russell closed the gap to Tanger, no one thought Tanger could hold P3.
To everyone's surprise, Tang Che turned Mercedes' divine move into the Eagle's move, making the impossible possible!
Especially the mistakes made by both players in the last lap of the race, which raised the tension between Toncher and Russell to the next level.
With an unexpected surprise and the emotional release following the thrill, it would be strange if the Alfa Romeo team's pit garage and pit walls didn't explode like never before.
The monkeys' calls in the TR were more excited than ever before, and Tang Che's tone was more flat than ever before, or rather, Tang Che's tone was extremely tired: "Thank you for the support of the crew, thank you for the colleagues in the factory, this podium also belongs to you."
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Bonus Chapter: F1 Anecdotes (14)
At 16:24, according to the Cybertronian Daily, Leclerc and Zhou Guanyu withdrew from the race because they got food poisoning from their cars!
此时瞬间登上F1和赛博坦热搜，F1车迷们和汽车人们超级无敌万倍大惊失色疑惑不解，纷纷表示：「F1-75和C42的食谱不是有专人调配吗？怎幺会吃坏肚子？」
It turns out that F1-75 and C42 got tired of racing fuel, so they secretly ran out of the pit lane the night before the Spanish Grand Prix to eat Cybertronian oil hotpot at a restaurant on Cybertron. However, their power units, which were used to special oils, were completely incompatible with the oil in the Cybertronian hotpot, resulting in power unit failures during the Spanish Grand Prix and ultimately causing Leclerc and Zhou Guanyu to retire from the race.
Cybertronian Daily correspondent Bumblebee has interviewed F1-75 and C42. The driver of the car involved said, "I regret it now, I really regret it. If I ever sneak out again, I definitely won't eat Cybertronian oil hotpot."