Car Racing without Money

Chapter 752: Chapter 305: A

Double pit stop refers to the situation where two cars enter the pit lane one after the other on the same lap, and the team’s technicians need to prepare two sets of tires to help the two drivers complete the tire change and rejoin the race sequentially.

Describing this process in words makes it seem quite simple.

In reality, however, it is extremely difficult.

The reason is simple, as each team has only one outdoor pit space and a shared team of technicians.

The procedures for tire changes in F1 have already been streamlined to the extreme, comparable to assembly line operations, to reduce tire change times to around two seconds.

If both cars pit, it means four new tires are required, along with four old tires that need to be swapped out.

Not to mention the increased complexity of the procedure, even the placement of these four tires, without affecting the activity space of the team’s twenty-plus-person technician crew, is a very meticulous task.

If anyone is blocked by a tire or slips while handing over, the pit stop can result in several seconds of lost time, which is unacceptable in an F1 race where every second counts.

Even if the technician team collaborates perfectly throughout the entire process without making a single mistake, managing a double car pit stop on the same lap remains a significant challenge.

Another critical issue remains: who pits first, and who pits second?

It should be noted that even without errors, tire changes typically take more than two seconds; Chen Xiangbei wants to remain within Perez’s slipstream, the car’s following distance must be kept within one second. ƒreewebηoveℓ.com

This means that when pitting one after the other, Chen Xiangbei must wait for at least one second, and factoring in temporary start-up time, this process loss is likely to exceed two seconds.

Two seconds is quite drastic in F1; in qualifying, for instance, the gap from first to last might not even be two seconds. Even during a fifty-plus lap race, it’s common to see dramatic last lap overtakes.

Unless Mars Rover leads throughout with a clear advantage, those two seconds may decide the championship!

If it were merely two seconds, he might grit his teeth and accept it.

Another difficult point to accept is that whether the front car has a tire change error or the back car does, it’s always the latter that suffers. freēwēbnovel.com

After all, if there’s an issue with the front car’s tire change, the back car can’t simply jump ahead to change theirs, they must wait patiently.

Moreover, compared to the front car, the possibility of the rear car having a tire change error rises exponentially; historically, this has happened countless times, and the more tense the situation, the easier it is to make mistakes.

If drivers have a choice, no one wants to be the one pitting second.

"Odetto, are you not considering letting North swap positions before pitting?"

Briatore’s voice timely emerges, as the team’s number one driver, Chen Xiangbei should reasonably have priority.

This differs from swapping positions on the track, where a wingman completely acts as cannon fodder; the order of tire changes is in the hands of the team. If you want to avoid looking bad, you can even have Chen Xiangbei pit one lap earlier and Perez pit one lap later.

However, running an extra lap on the track will allow Perez to be caught up by the car behind by almost two seconds, which for him is essentially the same as losing a position, only in a way that makes the team and Chen Xiangbei look better.

Odetto internally actually favors staggered pitting, as maintaining dignity matters to adults sometimes.

But at this moment, another car appears in front of Perez, from the Indian Force Team, it’s Sutil.

This driver has endless new and old feuds with both Trulli and Chen Xiangbei, plus the management of the Indian Force Team naturally holds a distaste for Chinese drivers, often deliberately provoking competition, which gives Sutil the backing to stir up trouble.

This time, however, Sutil hasn’t outpaced Chen Xiangbei and others, instead, a start-line crash damaged his car’s front wing, forcing a pit stop to replace parts, and allowing the head two HRT Racing Cars to lap him!

According to standard F1 race rules, a lapped car must yield to the trailing car unconditionally.

If he doesn’t immediately cooperate for the opponent’s overtake, the race staff will wave a blue flag to remind him to make way quickly.

If the driver ignores the blue flag for three times consecutively without yielding, the race committee will impose penalties.

Setting aside the process of waiting for three blue flag signals; for a nearly bottom-tier lapped car, penalties against Sutil are meaningless unless his obstruction demands a black flag level response.

No doubt, Sutil will hold the line below that level.

But meanwhile, he would greatly frustrate the two HRT drivers.

In previous moments, Perez or Chen Xiangbei might have managed to overtake aggressively.

This time, the two with depleted tires are helpless against Sutil ahead, even if Chen Xiangbei gets a staggered pit stop to change tires first, Perez staying on track will lose three to five seconds due to the obstruction.

The double pit stop on the same lap is imminent, with no more time to make decisions.

"Perez, pit this lap."

"North, pit this lap, you’re behind Perez."

Odetto quickly issues a few commands; it’s not that he hasn’t considered Briatore’s suggestion. He is not an inflexible leader who insists on sportsmanship at all costs.