Grand Prix World 1998: The Tyrell Challenge Part 46
It's Game On: The 2002 Hungarian and Belgium GPs
Happy New Year everyone, and welcome back to the Tyrell Challenge. Last time out ... the usual happened, we won. To be specific, Fisi and Nick split last chapter, Nick winning his home GP and Giancarlo winning without too much issue at Austria. On this go around we have a very difficult race, and a very simple race. Let's see what we get today.
Arrows and Prost bring upgrades for Hungary, Minardi, Stewart and ALL OF THE MIDFIELD upgrades for Spa. I can't quite see who's the better team right now ... increase resolution!
This keeps looking better after each chapter. I like this. Just 5 more wins and we achieve the unthinkable.
The Hungaroring, a fairly entertaining track. Really tough, hard to pass, brutal on the engines, and yet doesn't cause that much car wear. Tire wear is a different matter but hey ... can't get everything.
Of the remaining races, this is perhaps the most difficult. It is 77 laps long, and the AI always load 20 laps of fuel and could go all laps on the race without issue (Hard tires and what's known as the 1st stint glitch). A 1 stopper from the AI will kills us. Points in "Dust" and "Heat" so we can push the engine and still have pace.
Quick Nick to the pole! Just a typical front row lockout. Benetton beats Prost and The Mika just ... meh.
Both Minardis made it. Good job.
Time for the alternative strategies. Fisi's side of the garage thinks that a 3 stopper will be the better strat.
Nick's side think the more conservative 2 stops works better. They think he can save the tires enough to do the 2 stopper.
In a battle of the number 2 drivers, Nick beats Jacques. As you can see, no The Michael and no Fisi. Villeneuve could have very well won this but ... Ferrari pit stops. Nick had 2 stops, both of 7 seconds (7.1s and 7.2s). Jacques had 2 stops as well, one of 8.9s and ... 14.7s. On that second stop, Nick overtook Jacques and never looked back. Shout out to the one stopping Frentzen and Hakkinen.
Now ... Fisi and MSC. Fisi overtook the backmarker Montoya, and he promptly ran into the Tyrell car. Why? I don't know. And this is based on 1998, so you can't repair the Rear Wing. DNF. MSC's DNF was a simple engine failure. MSC could have won this assuming Ferrari didn't bungle his stops too.
Nick just taking pot shots at Fisi ... despite Nick gaining due to "Not Fisi's fault". Also, Fisi is LEADING the WDC!
Oh, yeah, I can tell he ain't happy.
Oh, yeah, we could tell Ferrari had issues.
Get ready for so many Driving Aids.
Speaking of those regs ... not a single piece of Technology will carry over to 2003. All of that Reliability testing, lost. Damn it, FIA.
WhyyyYYYYY??!!
OK, Nick is within a race W + Fisi Non-points of taking the lead of the WDC. This is heating up now. Also, MSC is well out of reach of the WDC, so the 2002 champion will be a Tyrell driver.
In-between race updates:
Since none of the parts are carrying over, we finish this Reliability upgrade and jack the Performance all the way up.
Thanks to the damage on Fisi's car, we had to build another car. We could have repaired the other one, but that would have wasted so much Mechanics time and Spares. Instead, I just built another car and scrapped the other one.
The amazing Spa-Francorchamps. Random weather, fairly strong winds, harsh on the brakes (not really) and hard to pass. With a car as good as ours, we got this under total control. Plus, we have the Soft 1 stop strat to get this under much more control.
Full "Dust" plus a point of "Rain" because you know Belgium is weird in terms of rain.
Front row lockout by half a second. Dominant race car, I told you. Prost is back on their regular schedule.
Minardi made it to sub-2 min lap times!
At least the temperatures are down, good for the tiees.
One stop strategy of course.
Nick managed a 1 lap overcut on Fisi ... well ... not exactly. Fisi was ahead after the stop, but Nick immediately got through down the Kemmel straight, then defended for his life. Traffic made it close. And, as you can see, 4 tenths between them!
I panicked a bit when I started seeing all of those engine failures and DNF, feared that one would happen to us ... nope. McLaren simply blew up.
Just look on the lower screens. Look at the Tyrell cars and how close they are!
This fight is on, bois. The fight is ON!
Did not expect Nick to win 3 in a row!
I've stated multiple times already that the WCC is completely under control. Prost-Ferrari ... alright.
So many driver aids.
... ok, I won't complain, even tho I should.
We have now fixed the bargeboards, giving us a 5% boost.
And finally ... the car is perfect. There's no more handling issues, no more need to improve it anymore.
And here's how the 2003 031 will look like. Merc power, as we technically now are the Merc works team ... Dennis down at McLaren probably ain't happy at all.
That's it for this chapter. Next chapter, we finish the European season. Will the championship be decided next chapter? Or will it go down to a showdown at Suzuka? We'll see, then.
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