Grand Prix World 1998: The Tyrell Challenge Part 16

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Risk v Reward: The 1999 Hungarian and Belgium GPs

I see Hungary is up, and while I like the track ... well ... anyway, focus, focus, welcome back everyone. Last time, we had a predictably terribad race and much, much better race. We are holding strong in P3 in the WCC. The dream is possible, you know ... that said, as last season showed, anything can happen in F1. It usually doesn't, despite what Murray Walker might want you to believe, but just keep that in the back of your head.

This is another chapter with a survival race and a points race. Hungary is all about preventing the guys from either making a mistake, or tiring themselves out then make a mistake. Belgium is all about weather luck and tire management. Let's kick things off!

As you can see, EVERY midfield car is packing upgrades for Belgium ... except us. We really, REALLY need to finish our current upgrade or we are going to have it rougher than it should be down the stretch.

Mechanics Department be happy. Drivers are ... not ... huh?!?!

Oh, great, look, Engine Upgrades. Let's recap:
  • Mercedes: Max Power, +1 Reliability, +1 Weight. Sure would be nice to use one of those now.
  • Ferrari: +1 Heat, +1 Heat. Don't know why it shows Ferrari without upgrades BTW.
  • Peugeot: Max Heat, +1 Power, +1 Reliability.

  • Mugen-Honda: +1 Fuel. POWER WHEN?!?!?! We don't have that Engine Spec yet, BTW
  • Mecachrome: +1 Power, Irrelevant, because no one uses Mecachrome power, though.


The Hungaroring. Despite the stats, this isn't a track that will seriously damage cars. It's pretty tame like that. However, it wears out the driver like only Monaco can, so we need to have the guys drive with care. If we are lucky, we can move up places through attrition on the guys in front.


Trying to balance out the setup. Takagi's setup is similar, except he doesn't have the Dust point. Not that critical anyway.


Welcome back, Olivier.


Soft tires = Good starting position. Softs also force me to tell the guys to keep calm while on track, lest they burn their tires and/or wear themselves out. Also, Panis is back and completely destroyed Herbert.



Oh, dear lord. What the heck is this podium?! Well, this pic does show one of the reasons why this podium is like it is, with the Michael blowing up (from the lead) ... this ... this podium is all kinds of cursed, good points in the fight against Mika Salo, bad in the fight against Benetton, moving on.

Yep, The Mika had his "stupid driver error" moment of 1999. So did the other Mika. Double H simply blew up from the lead, a 2005 McLaren trademark. Both McLaren DNF'd from the lead actually.

OK, Collard is a concern now.

That WCC fight be tight, both for 1st and for 3rd. This is highly concerning.

Here begins the AAR. Say goodbye to the "Race Profit" message. We won't be seeing it in ... quite a while.

Cursed GP I say, CURSED!

Arrows ... ARROWS!

Huh ... Minardi? Well, I guess Mugen-Honda can pull extra data with their help and make an engine with actual power!


We'll check those regs in a few. Also, took a mental note on that Ferrari Automatic Gears news flash.


Next year's car is FINALLY complete at 100% efficiency.

Thanks to Hungaroring barely wearing the car, I could put more mechanics into Testing, which means more points everywhere.

Which means we can complete the next Driving Aid I've been working on, Traction Control. And I've legalized too.

So, built the Aid, built a 2000 car and a pair of spares. Sadly, all of the tracks after Hungary do a ... high level of wear to the car, so we might start running low on Spares.

Cars do be fresh, though.

In other news, we got a deal done with Petronas. And yes, Red Bull Tyrell Petronas is a thing. This is the late 90s and soon to be early 2000s, so Red Bull and Petronas being on the same team is alright.


We all know Spa. Great track, punishes brakes and poor handling cars and has an ... interesting weather. Time to gamble.


I had 2 choices. Either round out the setup more, by giving points to Braking and perhaps Wind, or adding Rain points, hoping that it rains and we can take advantage. Since everyone else brought upgrades and we are unlikely to keep pace, might as well gamble on a wet race. Even if it stays dry, we have a strategy advantage, but we won't be as good as we could be.



Soft tires, obviously. The Michael with a very nice lap time.


Guess the gamble will pay off ...

It did. Allow me to explain how good we were ... we overtook Villeneuve (A Ferrari) and Frentzen (A McLaren) on merit and pace. At least on the wet. For a very small period of time, 5-6 laps, it got dry ... then it got Wet again. Some time lost, but no harm done. Of course, we had nothing on The Michael, he just disappeared. Mika did hang on, but Ferrari reacted quick to the conditions. Notably, the Benetton's are NOT in the points!

What a fall from grace, Collard. Alesi is to be blamed though.

A 3 race shootout for the championship? Righty then. There's also a BIG gap from Diniz to Salo now. Diniz might end up best of the rest, y'all.

Similarly, Tyrell might end up best of the rest.

Hello, "Race Loss" message. Can't say I missed you.


"High Performance" ... I mean, sure, let's go with that. Also, media, it is NOT in the bag!

What the he- ... WHY?!?! OK, next chapter we'll address that. If they are not signed up yet, we might get our big break after 2000.





At last, that current year car upgrade is complete! An extra 6%, which is fine. It is more efficient to bring more, but less effective upgrades rather than more effective, but less upgrades, however.

Here are those new regs. Brakes, Gearbox and Hydraulics will stay as they are this year.

I might, could work on a Hydraulics Reliability upgrade but ... it ... it's fine, don't worry about it.

With no time for another upgrade, I'll focus on Set Up and Research for Driving Aids.

Car 4 is out on the track again, Spa destroys race cars.

There's another Sponsorship deal. Not much cash, sure, but it is a long deal, which means I don't have to keep renegotiating them.

In terms of sponsors, we are nearly done. Nearly $30m a year is a ton of cash.

There's still a bit of the car to fill up. We don't NEED to ... but I'd like to. Will be difficult, though.

That is it for this one. Next time, The Temple of Speed v our poor Mugen-Hondas and the Nurburgring and a borderline guaranteed wet weather race.

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