Grand Prix World 1998: The Tyrell Challenge Part 21

 Living in the points: The 2000 Brazilian and Argentinean GPs

Welcome back to the Tyrell Challenge, where our money supplies are increasing and our performance is fantastic ... considering the first two years. We brought our first major upgrade of the season, a simple Engine Remapping which to add power to the usually low powered Mugen Honda.

There. We went from Power 4, to Power 8. We lost a bit of Fuel Efficiency and Heat Resistance, but that's no big issue. 

So ... how much that impacts performance? A LOT.

Ah, yes. Closer to Sauber now. Beautiful. Something great to know is that the better you are, the harder it is to improve. That means that Ferrari, Benetton and McLaren won't improve much. Sauber will improve a bit. We will improve A TON MORE than everyone above. The caveat is, of course, the guys behind us can improve more than we do, but I am not concerned by them.

In other news, I decided to focus on the Bridgestone and Shell deals for Tire and Fuel suppliers. I'm kinda sad, because I remained loyal to Goodyear and Elf for so long, but it is time to improve. Evolution must occur.

Yep, the bumpy Interlagos circuit, where we have seen amazing results for Tyrell thanks to the demolishing attrition rate and variable rain factor. At some point we'll have a normal race with a realistic amount of finishers, but as long as we aren't on those DNFers, I'm happy.

2 Points in Heat to cope with the attrition rate (Both Engine and Car), a Point in Rain because Brazil, a Point in Surface because 1998 Interlagos is bumpy and we are using that track and a Point of Overtaking because ... dudes aren't that good passing.

Soft tires for the boys. That MIGHT compromise the race a bit, but look. P5 and P8 are solid results. Realistically speaking, we are fighting Sauber at this point, and we absolutely destroyed Sauber. Fantastic.

Go Minardi!

Oh ... neat! At least, for Diniz, who is competent.

Absolute masterclass from Pedro Diniz. Last car on the lead lap considering both Ferraris, both McLarens, both Saubers and a Benetton were out there. He beat all except the deities of this year, too. Podium for the home boy! As for Takagi, P11 ... meh ... I told you, he isn't that good in the rain.

Look, a NORMAL amount of DNFs. This is low for a Brazil race. Didn't matter this time around, Tyrell podium. On MERIT and PACE.

I have a feeling that Ferrari will easily win this WCC. We MUST hold P3 this year.

Yeah. Yeah. Tied with The Mika. The Michael will easily win this championship too. Yes, this is an attempt at a jinx. Hopefully, it works and it is strong enough to make this competitive.

The AAR starts with this beautiful message. MONEY!!

Ah, yes. Some contracts are ending. That includes Double H's contract. He's gone to Sauber. At the halfway stage, we'll check the state of the paddock again.

Here, we have hired our Chief Designer and Mechanic of the future. Both are Level 4 Chiefs. 2001 will be a very good year with these two ... but we need a good Technical Director too ... There's an extra condition too. Goto is Arrows' current Designer. In between seasons, there's a chance a Chief improves or regresses. This depends on current team performance and, if the Chief changes teams, previous team performance. In simpler terms, if Arrows sucks and we are good, Goto might go from Level 4 to Level 5!

First things first, the Remapped Engine is here. This I'll use as a Qualifying Engine, due to that Reliability 2.

The upgrade is progressing nicely. I rate that.

Brake Performance Upgrade is done. That should help overtaking a slight bit.

Appreciate the results of a Brazil GP race. The cars are absolutely wrecked. We can't even test with this. I'll patch up the cars a bit and send them out to test.

The testing! This was a cheap day of Testing, fortunately.

Thanks to the Research Points, we could complete the Design for the Auto Gears. Designed was approved by the FIA and constructed.

Of course, Car 2 is still somewhat wrecked. We will fix that, don't worry.

Those deals are moving along nicely. Hopefully, hopefully we will get a Works deal with Bridgestone.

The Shell deal might be a bit more difficult, but I want that Works deal.

Yep, we are still racing on Argentina in the year of our Lord, 20 centuries after something happened. At least this track won't attempt to kill us like Interlagos does.

Distributed the points fairly even for this here event.

Here's your evidence that we did use our Qualifying spec engines for this Qualy.

Solid qualifying. Diniz screwed up his final lap, and couldn't beat Salo. Takagi, however, did enough to beat him. Fantastic job! Also, The Tosser on a Minardi is 13th, in the first page. Great job!

Back to the Race Spec engine.

Now here's something I haven't shown ever. This is the race strategy page. Here I assign the planned strategy, how much fuel to load on each stop, and which tire set they should put on each stop. You might notice we have 27 laps of fuel but we planned to go 24 laps? I usually extend the stops, because the overcut is best in this time and age. Same with the 28 laps on the first stop. As for the tires, I have 7 sets of tires to use through Qualifying and Race. Yes, this game is that deep.

When one of the guys is not in the page, you know something is up. We just didn't have the pace to fight with the Big 3. Diniz beat the superior Saubers. MSC dominance might bore fans.

No one to blame but ourselves for this DNF, Hydraulics issue is a car issue, not Engine or Tire.

No points today, but we should be fine. It is early days. Don't worry, results will improve.

Holding P3 might be ... more difficult since Benetton is competent now.

M O N E Y!!!

Oh, the Tosser at Stewart I see.

Heh ... Lord Newey back at Ferrari.

It was either John Barnard, or Ross Brawn, both Level 4. Barnard was cheaper than Brawn, so it was a no brainer me signing the cheaper, equally skilled guy.

We got a Throttle performance upgrade ready to be constructed. We had Level 3 Reliability for the Hydraulics which is ... average. Still failed.

That rear wing is coming up nicely.

Productive test day. A bit expensive, but we are swimming on cash. Lovely.

The Engine points let's me work on the engine a bit more. I traded a few Fuel and a Heat point to make increase Reliability. This could easily be our new Race Engine, at least until the Engine Spec 2A arrives.

Cars are getting fixed. Not totally, though in this case there's no need to.

OK, if stuff happens, and someone takes the two Bridgestones Works deals, we will be fine since we can fall back to the Partner deal.

The Shell deal is not as advanced I hope we can get that Works deal. A Partner deal won't be the end of the world, but it is less efficient.

I feel a bit better about leaving Goodyear. Williams already has a Works deal wrapped up here. One of two. If we tried to go Works here and someone had a better Department than us, we would be screwed.

 

Here, no one has a Works deal yet. We can miss the first one and still pick up the second one no problem. I hope.

 

Notable, Mugen Honda made an improved engine. I see better Fuel and Heat I think. 

 

Similarly, Goodyear made an improved Tire, a Wet Weather tire. Not amazing, but it isn't a big deal.

This chapter is done. Next up, we have Imola and Spain. Our first upgrade will arrive for Spain, along with a max power engine, and we should get a bit closer to the Big 3 after that. At least I hope.

Like this content? Want to do something entirely optional and support it? Go right here, on this link:
https://ko-fi.com/jose21crisis