Grand Prix World 1998: The Tyrell Challenge Part 42

A slight hiccup: The 2002 San Marino and Spanish GPs

Welcome back to the Tyrell Challenge where we are dominating left, right, up, down and origin. We are dominating n-1 dimensions. I want this domination to continue (before someone goes Tyrell domination could bore fans), so there is an upgrade in the works. It will get here for Spain. Of course, an upgrade right now is not like an upgrade when we were midfielders. They won't be as massive. That said, we don't need a GIGA boost to overtake Ferrari. That's the n dimension we've yet to dominate, the performance chart. Speaking of which ...

Thank you Minardi for forcing our resolution to be lower than it should be. As you can see, both Ferrari and Tyrell brought upgrades for Spain. Prost ... brought an upgrade it seems ... let me ...

Yep, increased resolution. And yes, Prost has a smol upgrade, design or engine or tech, not sure. We close up on Ferrari which is good.

In control of this championship, and we have won all 3 races so far. Qualy performance is just fine, but race performance is goated. Let's keep it up.

Again, my brain can't comprehend why the Braking rating is so low. Anyway, we are still a bit low on Grip thanks to our Diffuser, we should be fine due to the fact that this track has solid Grip and it is not dusty.

Filled up the Dust bar, a point of Speed and Grip for extra fast, and Heat to protect the engine (due to the extra Speed point) and reduce driver errors (yes, it does that) and protect the brakes (does that too)

Good weather, thank you.

We are still not capable of locking the front row consistently. We can control the second row at least. Again, we are meh in qualy, it is the race where we shine.

Badoer out performing Montoya. McLaren and Dinz ... dear lord. How the mighty have fallen ... S ... Sorry, Pedro.

Oh, great. F'ing great. Bye Nick.

As per usual, wet weather means we either 1 stop it (Try to anyway) and understand that the situation is fluid and change tires ASAP.

Tyrell Drivers UNITE!  The only drivers on the lead lap? Current or ex Tyrell drivers. Fisi wins because he's all right in wet weather, Nick held on just fine. MSC ... well, Ferrari in general was slow changing tires. Diniz ... well, I guess he knows how Tyrell operates and that got him up front. BTW, this is another race where Damon Hill had a decent result (P4) getting away from him due to a DNF.

Mika Salo and Estaban Tuero are on bumper car watch as they took out Shinji Nakano and Mika Hakkinen. The Mika tends to be punted more than usual.

The lead changes once more. We are so, so far away from everyone else.

Same in the WCC.

That's a lot of cash that we'll use paying Newey next year.

Domination is the word you are looking for.

Stefano to Williams then. Also, Nick has confidence and S P E E D.

So, we are downgrading at Chief Mechanic, since our current Mechanic got signed away.

Them test days be expensive. Don't worry, we have the resources.

Then new diffuser gives us +5% performance AND a lot of extra grip which is what we really needed, doubly so on Spain and Monaco. Now the Airbox ... Engine will be fine, since it is so OP. I'll take care of it still.

Nothing too exciting, just a brake reliability upgrade.

The Monaco-and-beyond engine will be effectively OP. Fuel efficiency I rate, but it isn't as important as ... everything else.

If only the FIA asked for a Tire Downgrade, our Works deal would be even more impressive. These Ultimate Tires are not as impressive as you think.

Spain then. Solid test track ... decent ... as a race track. Very aero dependant, which suits our new diffuser.

Overtaking, of course, is optional. "Dust" handles that so don't worry.

The drivers reported after Practice and Qualifying that the grip was amazing. The timesheet confirms it. The bad diffuser was costing us so much lap time. It is fixed now.

Minardi keep flirting with the 107% lap time, Juan keeps crossing it.

What, you think we finally got a dry race? No, it rained again late in the race.

No experimentation today, just a straight up 2 stopper.

First, the good. Giancarlo Fisichella put down one of the most dominant performances in F1 History. And it was assisted by Michael Schumacher. You see ... it rained. Rained enough that we had to use Inters. MSC did not. He managed to hold up Villeneuve (Faster, on inters) while still on that set of dries. Then it dried out, Newhouse had to pit again while The Michael just went past. While the Ferrari men were fighting in the wet, Fisi just walked past them. That alone doesn't explain how the midfielders were 2 laps down. The car/driver package was on point today.

Now the bad. In a very (real life) 1999 Europe moment, Quick Nick got off the line fine ... then the engine cut out. Electronics issue. In universe, I'd like to believe we have part of our Traction Control System working as a Launch Control System. And, just like Hill and Frentzen in that race, Nick used it, didn't turn it off properly/it didn't disengage properly and it killed the engine. DNF on lap 1. Unfortunate ... just imagine a 1-2 as dominant as the win.

Now Fisi in complete control of the championship. MSC closes on Nick. It should be fine.

Dominance, told you. N-1 dimensional dominance.

Tons of cash, as usual.

I don't think Ferrari is happy.

And after a single year of using Ferrari power, we are going Merc power. We will, effectively, be Mercedes' Works team ... I hope you see what I'm going for. McLaren Ford, because ... Ron Dennis be drunk or something, IDK.

Good luck, Pedro.

Clearly, the media must hate us.

Another not exciting upgrade, Throttle reliability upgrade.

Slowly, but surely, the 2003 031 is in the Works.

Just the usual, this is just a cheap Test Day.

Ultimate engine now.

Ultimate Hard tires as well. When will we use them, I don't know.

Had to repair some Damage on Nick's car, but they are all clean.

Here's something interesting. We have EVERY 2003 deal signed up. That means there's not much need to focus on the deals themselves.

We can go all in on Hospitality, just in time for Monaco, fantastic.

That's it for this chapter. Next up, we'll have the Monaco GP (Hospitality!) and Canada. We have the potential to win both of these races. We just have to execute. See you at Monaco.