Grand Prix World 1998: The Tyrell Challenge Part 35

The Agony of Defeat and the Thrill of Victory: The 2001 Austrian and German GPs

Welcome back to the Tyrell Challenge, where I decided that we probably aren't winning any titles this year ... as if we had a chance. We had a pair of solid weekends last time out, with the highlight being Nick Heidfeld out dueling both Ferrari drivers en route to his first ever win, making him infinitely many times more successful than he was in real life and ... now I'm angry at myself for some reason.

Minardi packs their first upgrade of the year for Austria. Arrows also packs a ... significantly bigger upgrade. Ferrari, Williams, Stewart, Jordan and Tyrell pack upgrades for Germany. We are officially in the Top 6 properly.

Quick Nick is truly a boom or bust driver so far in this career ... part of it is my fault, I know. I think we will finish out this season by experimenting with the race strategies. Haven't experimented with the 3 stop, France might be the place to ... we'll play around with that next year.

We now go to the A1-Ring, a fairly well rounded track on the Styrian mountains ... you should know this already. Anyway, Overtaking is the only weak point, but Dust takes care of that.

In addition to just filling up the "Dust" bar, I gave us some "Speed". It increases pace, but the effect is not as strong as "Dust", plus it makes the engine less reliable. We should be fine, though.

Pedro on absolute FIRE on quali. A full tenth on a Ferrari is a significant advantage. Heidfeld was solid, but was on the Hards.

Strategies are simple. A slightly longer 1st stint designer for overcuts, a short 3rd stint for S P E E D, a standard middle stint.

Nick will also stretch first Juan and only stop for extra overcutness, plus trying to speed up said stop. Between a giga long stint + 7 sec stop and a standard stint + 10 sec stop ... I take the quick stop.

FOK!

Yep ... yep ... Diniz blew up. From what I think was net P3. Nick lacked a bit of pace to challenge for higher spots, but we had a big time shot for tons of points ... damn it.

OK, ok, relax. Still 6 races to go. P2 still within reach ... maybe.

... Maybe P3 is our thing this year. Everyone is way stronger than last year.

West Sauber ... all that's missing is them taking up Mercedes Engines.

I'm not happy either. In other news, Minardi has a Tires Works deal!!

That's what I mentioned before, the Shell Works deal.

Everyone is jumping ship to Bridgestone, wow.

I COULD complain about that Auto Gears Ferrari is using ... not just yet.

The Design for Next Year's car is finally complete, with a lot of time to spare. Get ready for money to drop a bit, we'll build them ASAP.

Nearly everything up to 4 now. Just have to do the Suspension Reliability and we can focus on the Clutch unless the FIA releases the Tech Regulations.

Extra +5% of Handling will definitely help, we can reach 77-78% at the end of the year, depending on whenever I want to upgrade for Italy or Europe.

Here's the 03A Spec Engine. Had it arrived on the previous GP, we would have a giga boosted engine for Germany. Instead, we'll get it for Hungary ... we got it, that's the point.

I'll start skipping the results of Test Days unless something notable happens.

High Drag means higher Engine Heat, not that big of a concern, we don't push the Mugen-Hondas a lot unless we are a hot lap, qualy and in/overcut laps.

Two engine remaps later and we have this. The main difference is the Response and Rigidity. This means we can REALLY push the engine and, assuming it doesn't overheat, get extra pace for free.

All cars are clean and ready. We have 2 '02 cars ready. Preseason testing will tell us if it is another 2nd/3rd place caliber car, or a real championship car.

For once, a track where we are OP. The Hockemheimring is the second fastest track in all of the calendar. And the one that stresses engines the most so ... uhhh ... Mugen-Honda pls.

"Dust" because SPEED, "Speed" because SPEED and "Heat" to counter the lower engine reliability.

First, Quick Nick was on FIRE today. It is an All-German front row, Nick barely beats MSC. Second ... Diniz, we can't be P2 with qualifying efforts like that! Come on! He's on Softs, yes.

The standard strat around here, 1 stop. That's it. Let's win this.

Diniz couldn't do better than 3rd (Because 3rd is bad, yes) because he was stuck in traffic, and he got released too late to catch up to the front pack. Said front pack contained Quick Nick and Edmund Irvine. Once again, Nick had to outperform someone to win. In this case, he didn't just have to defend from Eddie, he also had to progress through traffic. He did so excellently. Also, we outscore both McLaren and Ferrari. Notable!

I wouldn't mind a 3rd-4th WDC finish, you know? Still ... it is just a 15 point gap to The Mika for Pedro. 

Just 20 points to P2 as well. Can't climb there in a race, but still ... we are close.

Yup, loss of cash, due to use building those 2 '02 cars.

An All-Tyrell front page, yes!

Ah, there's the new Tech Regs. We'll see them.

First things first, every component now are Level 4 Reliability. Before thinking about what to upgrade next, we need to see those Tech Regs.

OK ... we focus on maxing out the Clutch and Hydraulics, in that order.

Active Suspension Level 4, let's go!

The Ferrari engine deal is fully guaranteed now, we need to focus on the other deals as well.

We are done for today, thanks for reading. Next time, we go to Hungary and Belgium. Hungary will be all kinds of ... "F U N" I'm sure. Belgium, it will depend on the weather, but points are very likely. We really need them. See you then.