Grand Prix World 1998: The Tyrell Challenge Part 37
Attempting the Impossible: The 2001 Italian and European GPs
Welcome back to the Tyrell Challenge, all of you. The situation is hot.
Pedro Diniz is within striking distance of the lead of the WDC. THE LEAD OF THE WDC! This is not the situation we expected to be in at the start of the year, but since we are in this mess, we better make the most of it. 3 races to go, we got an upgrade and another one will hit in Japan, no matter what.
Similarly, we are 3rd in the WCC, and well in striking distance of the lead of the WCC. THE LEAD I- ... sorry, you get the point. Anyway, even if the WDC is out of the picture, the combined forces of Pedro and Nick could get the WCC which ... heh ...
This I did not expect at the start of the year. It is a pleasant surprise.
Performance Chart hours! We brought our Italy upgrade, Prost, McLaren, Jordan, Stewart will bring Italy upgrades too. Minardi, Sauber, Williams and Ferrari will bring upgrades for Europe. That said ... the top bunch looks very, very tight. Let's fix that.
We have the power and the technology to increase the resolution, so we can see the top bunch better. Arrows just barely sneaks into the pic. The front part of the grid is still mad tight. We are a second tier top team, tied with Williams. And yet, we are beaten the top 3 recently. We need to maintain that form.
2 Wins per Driver. Yup, the Silversone split kicked in hard.
Forgot to put it up last race, here's the Wear on the cars. I directly had no interesting in patching up Car 3 because ... well, we ain't going to use it. Also, we are on the E Spec chassis. That's a lot of upgrades.
Here we go, a final 3 race shootout that starts on the Legendary Monza Circuit. Pure straight line speed where the brakes and engine suffer. We need to increase our defensive ability, though. Remember, Poor Balance means we struggle defending.
"Dust" helps with defending PLUS pace, which I rate. "Heat" point just to prevent the engine from going "BLAM" this race. We cannot afford any DNFs.
Something I forgot to show is the Bridgestone Guaranteed Works deal. That's all suppliers on a Guaranteed deal.
Yeah ... guess we'll wait 'till it dries out.
Good quali sesh to get ahead of The Michael, but both McLarens locked up the front row which ... might cause some issues. We need to dispatch them ASAP, while holding MSC behind.
Some idiots that qualified in the wet without waiting for the track to dry out.
Pretty basic 2 stopper. I don't think the Hard tire is any kind of useful on this track, so we brought the Softs. They ... maybe, maybe, MAYBE could do a Juan stop on the Softs, but that's too risky. We are ... f-....figh-....fighting for a championship, can't afford risks ... that ... was hard to write.
Magnussen made the 1 stop work, and the AI 1 stop is the single most powerful strat in the game, which is unfortunate. Still, Tyrell 2-3. MSC, for some forsaken reason, went on a 3 stop. Then Ferrari decided Newhouse could fight with MSC. Costing him points, thanks. Also, Hakkinen laid down an egg.
2 points. The difference between The Michael and Pedro is 2 bleeping points. TWO! And thanks to the big, fat 0 Mika scored, we are well ahead of him. Unfortunately for Nick, Magnussen won, which means he pulls away. Still, Nick is at striking distance.
A full Tyrell 2nd page. Great.
Ferrari should NOT be happy.
We have the ULTIMATE Clutch pretty much. We can bring one more upgrade and it will be a Level 5 Hydraulics Reliability, which will carry over to the next year.
Forgot about this, NOW we have all Supplier Works deals that are Guaranteed.
Unfortunately for us, if we want to have a shot, we need Pedro to outscore MSC by 3 points in the last 2 races. One of those races is the other German track, the Nurburgring. Nick's second home GP, too. Rain is a possiblity which is ... concerning for Nick, and for Pedro to an extent since The Michael is unstoppable in the wet. We need this to run dry.
Simple, "Dust" and "Rain", for pace and if the rain happens.
Guess we'll wait 'till the track dries out AGAIN.
Track went from Wet to Wetter to Wet to Dry for 3 laps, to Wet, to Dry. Nick just barely gets the lap in, since his first dry lap flyer was interrupted by a foking Stewart. Since no one other than our boys could set a proper flyer in the totally dry track, we man the front row. MSC is still close, but hey, front row. If this holds ...
Remember when Jorg Muller was performing excellently for Arrows? I do. I certainly do.
Start trembling, it WILL rain at this track.
Of course, I only discovered that in the race. Simple 2 stop again, we do everything in our power to hold the fort.
Guys ... the fortress held up ... to elaborate. It did rain. MSC nearly wiped the floor with us ... until, with 8 to go I think, track got dry. I sent out the guys on Scrubbed Tires (I think they give extra Grip in Damp Tracks) and they proceeded to hunt down the leader. The Leader was none other than The Michael, who decided to stay out on the Inters. Bold call, but with too much to go. We caught up and passed without too much drama.
McLaren score another F'ing Egg. Two of them actually. At the worst possible time too.
Dudes ... dudes ... it happened ...
Dudes ... we ... are leading ... the championships. We are actually in position to win both Formula One Championships!
First, the Drivers: Mika's disappearance means that he is actually out of contention for the Drivers Championship, so it is a straight fight between Diniz and Schumacher, The Michael ... with Diniz leading, by 4 points! Heidfeld can pick off Magnussen for P4 as well.
Then, the Constructors. Leading by 11 points over Ferrari and 12 over McLaren. A 2nd place finish by either of our guys instantly removes any shot the others have. They need a 1-2.
We can win them. This year. This year.
A full Tyrell front page ...
... plus 2nd page news article. I love it. Ferrari MUST be upset considering how this season has just slipped away. Still a race to go, but geez ...
And 3rd page articles! Remember how the Media dissed us all year long for "Not living up to our promise"? I do. I very much do. I DO.
FIA Supplier Regs are in, we'll see them soon enough. Next chapter of course.
Manager of the Month. Damn right I was!
So, upgrades for Japan will be Level 4 Power Brakes ...
... plus another Reliability upgrade, for Hydraulics as I mentioned ...
... plus we upgrade to the F Spec, plus 4% on the Car Handling. We are throwing everything we got at them.
As an extra, Petronas Guaranteed deal.
Here's what we expected to make this year. A bit lower than expected since I put so much of my Commercial department into signing the deals instead of keeping our current sponsors happy.
And here's the Sponsorship for Next Year's Car. Nearly TWENTY MILLION Dollars extra. $20M! We don't need pay drivers anymore!
That's it for this chapter. As you might expect, you will have to wait for the next one. The promised day has accelerated its timeline, far more than I ever imagined. Can we clinch Tyrell's 2nd World Constructors Championship and 3rd World Drivers Championship, exactly 30 and 28 years respectively after they won their last Championships?
Only one way to find out. See you at The Promised Day at Suzuka.
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