Chapter 193: The Struggle Disappears into Thin Air
Jonathan's words were like blood poured into a shark tank.
If even the Williams team had noticed the problem, how could Ferrari not have seen it?
How could Mercedes' strategy group not have seen it?
Of course everyone had seen it.
Rosberg's race engineer had been reminding him for several laps already, and after hearing Williams' warning over the broadcast feed, they reiterated
"Wu Shi is now within one-point-one seconds. As his tyres reach operating temperature, his pace will continue to increase."
Rosberg was breathing heavily, pressure mounting, the scene from Melbourne flashing through his mind.
He forced himself to stay calm, eyes locked forward, staring at the rear wing of his teammate's car.
Wu Shi's situation was no better.
The Ferrari on fresh soft tyres was extremely quick. He was using Vettel's pace to drag himself faster, which was terrible for tyre management.
But from the previous stint, he already knew that Ferrari's soft tyres would drop off sharply in the latter half of their life.
Several times on the straights, he tried to calculate the numbers in his head, but after a full lap of mental math, he was already inside Rosberg's DRS window and still had no answer.
His brain simply couldn't multitask at this intensity.
Irritated, he keyed the radio.
"Is Vettel right behind me? He feels very fast. He wasn't this quick in the last stint."
Jonathan immediately understood the subtext.
He switched to the internal channel and told Rodrigo they needed to analyze Vettel's tyre degradation compared to the previous run.
Ahead, just before the DRS detection point, Rosberg pushed slightly harder, stretching the gap to just over one second.
"Front-left temperature is rising. Keep an eye on it. Gap to Hamilton is one-point-five seconds. One-point-five."
Rosberg clenched his jaw.
Annoyed, but with no choice but to swallow it.
If nothing else, he told himself, he could just stay glued to his teammate. His tyres were newer this stint — that had to count for something… right?
Jonathan kept feeding Wu Shi updates on Vettel's gap, and Wu Shi did everything he could to keep the Ferrari outside the one-second window.
Once DRS was enabled, this stint would be over.
Under the open and hidden pressure among the top four, the fight at the front suddenly became tense again.
Everyone's soft-tyre condition was slightly different.
The only truly stable variable was Wu Shi — his lap time rose and fell almost entirely with Vettel's.
---
Lap 25
Sainz suddenly slowed and moved off line.
"We've got a gearbox and intercooler issue. Bring the car back safely," Toro Rosso instructed.
"Copy."
Sainz was helpless.
The problem happened just after he passed pit entry — meaning he had to limp an entire lap back at crawling speed.
Even if the car could be fixed, the rest of the race would be nothing more than mileage and experience.
---
Lap 26
About twelve or thirteen laps after the pit stops, the gaps between the front four gradually opened again.
The earlier tension dissolved into lap after lap of stable intervals.
Even professional commentators couldn't truly feel the psychological pressure the drivers were under — they could only summarize once the timing screens stopped changing.
"It looks like the front positions are locked in now," Brother Fei said.
"Everyone's managing pace and protecting tyres," Brother Bing added casually.
"Shanghai absolutely destroys the front tyres. Both snail-shaped complexes cause long understeer phases. More understeer means more wear — they have no choice but to back off."
At this stage, the race really was quiet.
Only Ricciardo was fighting Ericsson in the midfield.
Several times it looked like Ricciardo would complete the move, only to be repassed on the next straight.
---
Jonathan suddenly spoke.
"Vettel's lap times are dropping."
Wu Shi replied flatly,
"You calculated that a bit late."
"He just told Ferrari he's pushing very hard but can't go any faster."
---
Lap 30
Rosberg came on the radio again.
"I think there's something wrong with my front-left."
His pace was falling.
But Wu Shi was slowing too.
And Vettel was dropping off even faster.
The gaps between the top four stretched from around one second to nearly two.
"Push this lap. Box next lap," Ferrari told Vettel.
---
Lap 31
Vettel pitted.
With no soft tyres left, he switched to the harder white-walled medium compound.
A clean 2.5-second stop — Rafa was absolutely on point today.
"Vettel stops early. Can these medium tyres really go another twenty-five laps?" Brother Bing wondered.
"It'll be tight," Brother Fei replied.
"Or Ferrari believes the medium is faster and they can make the overcut work."
"Then what about Wu Shi's strategy?"
Almost as soon as he said it, Mercedes called Rosberg in.
"Box, box."
"What?! Rosberg is pitting as well?!" Brother Bing exclaimed.
"His front-left has severe graining and vibration," Brother Fei explained.
At the same moment, Hamilton set the fastest lap of the race: 1:43.008.
The booth burst into laughter.
"Rosberg's tyres are gone, and Hamilton just sets fastest lap."
"Hamilton will pit too, but the gap between them is quite large this stint."
"Hamilton leads Rosberg by thirteen points in the championship, but at the start we saw him angle the car clearly to block."
"So what about Wu Shi? Williams hasn't reacted yet."
---
On track, Wu Shi continued.
His tyres always lasted longer than most — because his brain operated with machine-like precision, executing standardized inputs corner after corner.
The first person to truly notice this was Jos Verstappen, back during Formula Renault testing.
Those four hundred-plus laps they ran together left a deep impression on the former F1 driver.
Now, every Williams engineer knew:
No one was more consistent than Wu Shi.
The team studied the lap times carefully.
Vettel's out-lap was average.
His second lap still wasn't quicker than Wu Shi's.
Rosberg showed similar patterns.
Jonathan was just about to tell Wu Shi to extend the stint when Wu Shi rotated a knob on his steering wheel — indicating critical tyre degradation.
And it was true.
He was making more and more unnecessary steering corrections mid-corner.
To maintain pace, he was driving at absolute limit — no easier than pushing on a flying lap in qualifying.
> "Box next lap."
---
Lap 33
Wu Shi pitted.
As expected, he switched to white medium tyres.
A standard 2.8-second stop.
Ferrari prepared to call Räikkönen in, but Kimi said he could go longer — he wanted to extend the stint so the mediums could comfortably reach the finish.
A normal strategy.
But Vettel had already committed, so Ferrari split their plans.
Rosberg had no choice but to follow.
---
Lap 34
Hamilton pitted.
Lap 35
Massa and Räikkönen both stopped.
---
With the second round of pit stops complete, the picture at the front was clear.
No position changes.
The chaos was now entirely in the midfield.
Unless something unexpected happened, the only remaining suspense would be in the battles behind.
At the front…
The struggle had quietly disappeared into thin air.