Grand Prix World 1998: The Tyrell Challenge Part 45

 A streak ends: The 2002 Austrian and German GPs

Welcome back to The Tyrell Challenge where we still own everything. Not totally dominantly so, as Ferrari has fought seriously against us, but still have won every single race. Simply, we have the best car/driver package in all of F1. Maybe we have the best car design in all of F1 (believable) or maybe we have the best drivers in F1 (less believable). Whatever it is, we are approaching MP4/4 levels of dominance (The F2004 and RB18 aren't a thing in this universe yet, they'll just get a mention).

And, speaking of dominance ...

Stewart and Minardi bring upgrades for Austria, Jordan and Tyrell will bring upgrades for Germany. Yes, we are dominant and we are still bringing upgrades.

The U shaped A1 Ring will be the scenery for our next dogfight/race. Weather is a bit ... weird here, usually good, but tends to get random at times. Overtaking is a bit difficult, but we should have that under control.

Full "Dust" as you would expect, a "Rain" point because weather be weird and an extra "Speed" point. I could have put a point or 2 in "Overtaking" but "Dust" should take care of that.

Thanks to our R&D work, every single component is maxed out. The Engine and Fuel, OP. The Tires, goated. All that remains is Driving Aids.

Remember when Ferrari was awesome in qualifying but we were better in the race? Remember when I kept complaining about it? Well, we got the advantage now. Our race advantage has not vanished, fortunately.

Minardi is just disappointing. BTW, Hakkinen just ... just ... bad.

Oh, this is an issue. Goodbye to Nick getting a race result.

Fisi will be fine. 1 stopper for him.

Nick gets the 2 stop strategy. And hopefully he has pace. And hopefully, the track dries up really, really fast.

Fisi in total control of this event. Fought The Michael for a while, got overtaken when it was wet ... then it got very wet, Fisi came back with Extreme Wets. Eventually the track dried up and both Tyrell drivers dominated as per usual. That said ... Nick's story on this race is interesting. He screwed up on T1 and went from P3 (MSC passed him on the start) to P19. He climbed a bit on the Inters, then climbed more on the Extreme Wets. Back to the Inters for a better climb, though just into the top 10. Then on the Dry Softs, he made it to the points. On the final set of laps, he caught up and overtook MSC for the 2nd place finish. So while you see Nick there at P2, which is where he started ... he was second-to-last on L1. His journey was a long one.

Those Gearboxes man. Also, Badoer Gearbox failure, drink (I'm sorry)

Fastest lap ranking here. I usually don't like to post this because they trend to get screwed up due to overtakes, as those artificially speed up cars. Austria is one of those tracks that usually isn't affected. Fisi's lap was outright fantastic. Jacques Villeneuve was extremely close too. No one was particularly close to these two.

Oh, Luca.

3 in a row. Great job for Fisi-man.

Amazing that Sauber is hellbent on using Ferrari engines. You know, credit to them.

Stewart? Why?! Benetton Ford ... I've heard that before.

Jordan Peugeot is also acceptable.

Yeah, thank you, F'ing finally

I'll be simplifying this next section. Instead of using an image, I'll explain what happened next.

• Built two 2003 cars
• Upgraded Gearbox Performance to Level 5
• Got Level 5 Automatic Gears rejected by the FIA for the infinieth time
• Built the most recent aero upgrade to bring the car from 89% to 94%
• Did a test day, getting full Setup, Development and Research points.
• Used the Development points to figure out new aero faults. This time, it is Poor Balance which ... I hate(!). New Bargeboards are in development as we speak.
• Usual Maintenance to the cars, to get all of them to 100%.

Next up, Germany, the Hockemheimring. The engines suffer here, of course. Brakes also suffer, but I don't mind about them. Overtaking is kind of easy. It will be a slipstream battle today.

Full "Dust" as usual, but the 2 remaining points will be on "Tarmac", as that helps the tires last the 1 stop strategy. Now, I don't really need to do that, as the Softs should last long enough but ... I want to be sure.

It should be noted that, at least on this one, Fisi was assisted. Remember what I said about overtakes speeding up the overtaker? Well ... that happened to pole sitter Fisi. Credit to him anyway, Nick would have gotten that pole were it not for that, and you know he wants to win here.

Minardi ... pls.

Here we go, standard 1 stop strategy on this track. Nothing impressive. And if we get overtaken, it doesn't matter unless whoever passed us is 1 stopping as well.

Nick ends Fisi's streak of 3 races won. Fisi was ... meh, during the opening 15 laps, he dropped to 3rd on the opening lap and fought with MSC. He picked up the pace latter, but was just, JUST barely faster than Nick. Not enough to catch up. Then traffic happened. He got close, but not close enough.

And now Luca's gearbox blows up. Wonderful, Minardi.

Nick is 17 points back. It is a massive gap, but it isn't impossible to get there. This championship is still a thing.

The WCC ... 95 points ahead ... yep. This is over, Tyrell are your 2002 World Constructors Champions.

Lower profits on the last few reports. That's due to us building the 2003 cars. Profits will continue at the regular rate in the next chapter.

And yes, Nick W. At his home GP. You know Fisi wants that Monza W in his resume.

Huh ... Williams powered by Shell ... all right.

Bunch of Bridgestone signings. All Customer deals too.

Minardi Mugen-Honda then. Partner deal too ... well ... good for them.

WHY HIM?!?!

Look at that money increasing!

That's it for this chapter. On the next one: The always tough Hungaroring, and the fantastic (but weather affected) Spa-Francorchamps. We want to keep this streak going. See you then.