Chapter 241: The Entire Nose Cone Fell Off
By the time all start replays concluded, the race was already on lap five. Just then, the director cut to a radio transmission from Williams:
Jonathan: "How is the car holding up?"
Wu Shi: "The front wing endplate took some gravel hits, and the air intake... nothing major to report."
His explanation was vague, and no one outside the team knew the car's exact condition. But telephoto cameras quickly focused on car number 59—from the outside, the front wing looked intact.
"Charging into the gravel like that is bound to affect the car somehow," Brother Bing said with concern.
"Agreed—otherwise the team wouldn't be checking in," Brother Fei nodded.
While they worried for Wu Shi, the field had stabilized: leaders had pulled clear, and midfield battles were already heating up with DRS-enabled attacks.
After the long straight on lap six, Wu Shi was right on Felipe Massa's tail—within a second, well within overtaking range.
Wu Shi: "I'm significantly faster than him. He should let me through so I can save tire life."
The message fell silent in the Williams garage. Commentators weighed in:
"Wu Shi's request makes perfect sense, whether based on championship points or on-track pace."
"Though the team may be cautious about potential damage to his car."
The reasoning was sound. Jonathan briefly removed his headphones to look at Claire Williams behind him.
"Massa has a five-second penalty from the start—blocking Wu Shi serves no purpose," he said. Only the Deputy Team Principal could authorize such an order.
Claire hesitated for a moment, then instructed the strategy group: "Have Dave tell Felipe to let him pass. We need to prioritize Wu Shi's points."
Jonathan was relieved—but when he turned back to the screen, his heart skipped a beat: Wu Shi was already attacking!
Into Turn 1, his braking was aggressive to the point of being startling, yet he somehow managed to slow from high exit speed. White smoke from his tires signaled a slight miscalculation, but he dived for the inside line immediately.
Massa didn't defend the gap not out of weakness, but because the inside of a hairpin leaves you vulnerable to a crossover overtake. Sure enough, while Wu Shi led into the corner, Massa retook position with better exit speed.
But the next straight featured a DRS zone. Massa was on the right after exiting Turn 1, and Turn 2 was a left-hand hairpin. Activating DRS, Wu Shi drew level—and unleashed his signature move: subtle, relentless squeezing.
To spectators, the move looked minor, but to Massa inside the car, it felt overwhelming—like being pressed by a mountain. Only top-tier drivers could maintain composure in such moments, especially with the braking zone approaching fast.
Wu Shi pushed Massa further and further to the track's right edge. He knew the FW37 better than anyone—he'd lost positions at Turn 3 earlier precisely because he'd been squeezed to the inside. Now, Massa was forced to the outside, facing similar disadvantages. The Williams performed best on a middle line, where track camber optimized balance and speed.
Whoosh!
Wu Shi completed the overtake into Turn 2, pulling a full car length clear on exit. Even with gravel still scattered across Turn 3 from his earlier off-track moment, he held position—moving up to ninth before the team's radio call even went through.
Massa: "What were you going to say? Don't just hold the mic silent—the static is awful!"
The director played the transmission for effect, drawing smiles from the audience before cutting back to the front of the field.
Vettel set the fastest lap of the race so far on lap five: 1:28.067—clearly set while conserving tires. Rosberg trailed by 4.4 seconds, with Räikkönen 1.19 seconds behind him and Hamilton a further 1.36 seconds back.
This was the race's focal point: Vettel's lead was secure, but positions two to four were tightly contested in a stalemate. Hamilton was content to let Räikkönen pressure Rosberg; Rosberg hoped Räikkönen would hold back; and Räikkönen—true to his "Iceman" reputation—kept his intentions to himself.
Behind them, Nico Hülkenberg was running fifth, benefiting from a clean start and steady pace. His position was precarious, however—Daniil Kvyat was within a second behind him, with Daniel Ricciardo just 0.4 seconds further back, forming another three-car battle.
Sergio Pérez was eighth, 16.972 seconds off Vettel's pace. Wu Shi, now ninth after overtaking Massa, was 18.312 seconds behind the leader—and closing in on Pérez's DRS zone by lap seven.
His medium-compound yellow tires were wearing heavily, though, so he adjusted his approach: instead of pushing hard, he planned to chip away at Pérez using DRS. Even so, overtaking proved far harder than expected.
Damn it! Master Pérez, don't use Hamilton's defensive tactics on me!
Wu Shi complained internally, realizing just how difficult passing was on this track. He suspected Massa had deliberately let him through at Turn 2—a thought that left him with mixed feelings. After three laps of persistence, he finally made the pass, moving up to eighth place thanks to the FW37's performance edge.
"Wu Shi is up to eighth, but he's 27 seconds behind Vettel, who's dominating at the front," Brother Bing commented.
"If he wants to make up ground, he needs to keep overtaking quickly."
"You can see he's rushing—he missed his window several times against Pérez."
"He has to be in a hurry—every lap behind slower cars costs him over two seconds."
By lap 12, Wu Shi was closing in on Kvyat, ready to attack.
Jonathan: "Watch your tire temperatures—are they overheating?"
Wu Shi knew they were hot, but slowing down to cool them would mean falling further behind. He also noticed Kvyat was significantly slower than teammate Ricciardo—no surprise, given Red Bull had told Kvyat not to block his faster teammate earlier. According to Jonathan, Ricciardo had already passed Hülkenberg to run fifth, while Kvyat was stuck—clearly something was amiss with his car.
The Hungaroring's two DRS zones shared a single detection point, creating unique challenges: overtaking on the main straight was difficult to complete fully, and attacking the hairpin from the inside left you open to counterattacks. Without DRS, passing elsewhere was nearly impossible—just like Monaco.
Like with Pérez, Wu Shi spent three laps behind Kvyat before finally passing him on the straight. Hülkenberg was now over two seconds ahead—a gap built entirely from being held up by slower traffic. Wu Shi used those two seconds to cool his tires, opting to conserve them rather than push for another immediate attack; overtaking on track consumed too much life, and he planned to use strategy to gain positions instead. Most drivers would switch to hard-compound white tires next, so lap times weren't expected to improve drastically.
Jonathan: "Kvyat is pitting now."
Lap 13—earlier than expected.
Wu Shi: "What tires is he taking?"
Jonathan: "Hard compound, pit stop time 2.6 seconds."
Wu Shi: "Should we come in too?"
Jonathan: "Your lap times are still strong—stay out for now."
Wu Shi: "Copy."
The team's thinking aligned with his own. Kvyat's stop triggered a wave: Massa, Verstappen, Button, Grosjean, and Nasr all pitted on lap 14, followed by Hülkenberg, Sainz, and Alonso on lap 15. The track ahead of Wu Shi was now clear—part of the team's plan, as they'd predicted Hülkenberg would pit early.
Jonathan: "Clear air ahead—push these tires hard. We'll let you know when to pit."
With the early pitters gone, Wu Shi moved up to sixth place, behind only Vettel, Rosberg, Räikkönen, Hamilton, and Ricciardo. Pérez and Ericsson pitted on lap 16.
Jonathan: "How are your tires holding up? Hard compound lap times aren't faster than yours right now."
Wu Shi: "Are the hard tires performing that poorly?"
Jonathan: "No—the field behind is just chaotic. Keep pushing new lap times until the tires are done."
Other drivers might have interpreted this as "stretch the stint," but Wu Shi knew it meant exactly what was said: push flat out until lap times dropped, then pit immediately. He was three seconds behind Ricciardo with clear track ahead, so he increased his pace—moving from mid-1:28s to early-1:28s, and even two consecutive laps in the 1:27s, closing the gap rapidly.
On lap 18, a small aerodynamic flap detached from the right side of Räikkönen's front wing. While it affected balance slightly, replacing the nose cone would cost more time than it was worth, so the team planned to leave it as is. The same lap, Bottas and Pérez collided at Turn 1 while fighting for position—Pérez spun into the runoff, damaging his side skirts and dropping from points to 15th.
By lap 19, Wu Shi's tires were on the verge of cliff-edge degradation. Red Bull was fast enough that overtaking Ricciardo on old tires would be nearly impossible, so he pressed the pit button on his steering wheel. Williams prepared hard-compound tires for him—their strategy was medium-hard-medium, unlike the medium-medium-hard plan used by drivers needing to defend position longer.
Wu Shi pitted at the end of lap 19. Pit lane time at the Hungaroring typically added around 22.5 seconds to race time, and Williams' tire change took 3.1 seconds.
"If Williams wants to win championships, they need to match the big teams' pit stop speed," Brother Bing noted.
This was a known weakness: while the team had occasionally hit sub-3-second stops earlier in the season, most changes now took around three seconds. Wu Shi's crew was among the fastest in the team—Massa's often took 3.5 seconds. In contrast, Mercedes and Ferrari consistently stopped in 2.5 seconds or less—a difference that could be critical.
When Wu Shi rejoined, he was still six seconds ahead of Hülkenberg, 23 seconds behind Ricciardo, and 47 seconds behind Vettel. Mercedes and Ferrari immediately informed their drivers of his stop—Wu Shi was now a key focus for both teams, with every move closely monitored.
Hamilton pitted at the end of lap 20, switching to medium tires with a slow 4.1-second stop.
"Not ideal, but it won't be a major issue," Brother Fei said.
Hamilton emerged 15 seconds ahead of Wu Shi, making it harder for Wu Shi to close the gap further. Lap 21 saw the front-runners pit in clusters: Vettel, Rosberg, and Ricciardo all came in. Vettel's stop was uneventful (over three seconds), while Rosberg's took 2.8 seconds and Ricciardo's 2.7—surprisingly switching to hard tires. He rejoined two seconds behind Wu Shi.
"Red Bull let Wu Shi run two extra laps on track—they must have been focused on Mercedes and Ferrari," Brother Fei joked.
Räikkönen pitted on lap 22, keeping his damaged front wing and switching to hard tires with a 3.2-second stop.
"Most big teams are over three seconds today—does the Hungaroring have some kind of debuff?" Brother Bing wondered aloud.
With all front-runners pitted, the order was:
1. Vettel (11s ahead of Rosberg)
2. Rosberg (2.7s ahead of Räikkönen)
3. Räikkönen (1.9s ahead of Hamilton)
4. Hamilton (11.4s ahead of Wu Shi)
5. Wu Shi (3s ahead of Ricciardo)
6. Ricciardo (6s ahead of Hülkenberg)
7. Hülkenberg (3s ahead of Kvyat)
8. Kvyat (5s ahead of Verstappen)
9. Verstappen (4s ahead of Alonso)
Verstappen and Alonso had pitted early and were closing ground with fresher tires. On lap 24, Grosjean was given a post-race 5-second penalty for an unsafe release during his stop. Vettel then set a new fastest lap: 1:26.877—well beyond Wu Shi's consistent 1:27–1:28 pace. As Jonathan had predicted, new hard tires were running at similar speeds to worn mediums.
Dave: "Treat this like Friday practice—focus on consistency."
Massa: "This car is nothing like it was back then! I can barely get it to behave."
Jonathan: "…"
"Looks like Williams is struggling with setup issues this race," Dave noted. External opinions had attributed their weaker performance to Wu Shi's supposed lack of track adaptation—a misconception that added pressure, as fans now expected top qualifying results regardless of circuit characteristics.
Blue flags began waving on lap 25 as leaders lapped slower cars. Massa dropped to 16th shortly after, his car's issues unclear. On lap 33, Kvyat made his second stop (2.3 seconds) switching to medium tires—his hards had only lasted 20 laps, meaning a third stop would be necessary for the remaining 36 laps. Early pitters were all heading for three-stop strategies.
Tire degradation was severe across the field, driven by high aerodynamic demands: insufficient downforce forced drivers to rely more on mechanical grip, wearing tires quickly. This depended on both car design and driving style—Ricciardo's tires were lasting far longer than Kvyat's, despite driving the same Red Bull.
Grosjean and Button pitted on laps 34–35, followed by Hülkenberg, Alonso, and Sainz on lap 36, and Verstappen on lap 37. When Alonso's worn medium tires were inspected, they were found to be leaking.
Williams' strategy group debated their next move: Wu Shi needed to pit around lap 40 for a three-stop strategy, but Ricciardo was close behind—pitting would mean losing position. Wu Shi decided to keep pushing his hard tires to hold fifth place.
On lap 41, Räikkönen radioed his team: "The car's lost power—speed is dropping off." Moments later, Hamilton received word from his engineer Bono:
Bono: "Lewis, Kimi has power unit issues—his pace will drop. Be ready to attack."
Hamilton: "Copy."
Hamilton had been stuck behind Räikkönen for laps and was eager to pass—gaining position would cut his points deficit to Rosberg and close the gap to Wu Shi. Both Mercedes drivers were on a two-stop medium-medium-hard strategy.
"Kimi had issues in FP3 too—we don't know if it's related," Brother Bing said. "His pace is down to 1:30s while Vettel and Hamilton are in the 1:27s—he's losing two seconds per lap."
On lap 42, even lapped Alonso managed to overtake Räikkönen. The camera focused on Räikkönen's onboard view: full throttle yielded just 280kph instead of the usual 300kph, and he watched helplessly as the McLaren pulled away. Even the Iceman was visibly frustrated, constantly asking his team for answers.
Wu Shi continued cruising, knowing he was about to gain another position. While he felt for Räikkönen, he couldn't help but be pleased. Before Jonathan could update him on the battle ahead, a full-course yellow flag was displayed—quickly switching to a virtual safety car (VSC).
Jonathan: "Hülkenberg has crashed heavily at Turn 1! VSC active—BOX! BOX! BOX!"
The urgency in his voice told Wu Shi this was a critical opportunity. Replays showed Hülkenberg's front wing had completely detached; his car ran over the debris, lost front-wheel control, and slammed into the tire wall—scattering large amounts of debris across the track.