"Good performance. Return to the pit and wait. The track is too congested right now," Gaëtan Jego said.
Only then did the heavy stone in Dominik's heart drop. It turned out that there was no problem with himself or the car; it was just that the track conditions were too bad.
Dominik switched the FW44, which had been in first gear, to neutral and killed the engine. Over 20 technicians adjusted their positions and quickly pushed Dominik and the car into the garage. Dominik was still a little surprised; in F2 with Carlin, it took multiple position adjustments to be pushed back. Williams did it in less time than a tire change.
"Well done. Your time has surpassed many drivers. Keep up the good work," a voice rang out from Dominik's radio again.
"Thank you, Gaëtan," Dominik quickly replied.
"Hey! That was Mr. Capito, the team principal!"
Dominik was startled. Indeed, the voice was somewhat different from his engineer's. He instantly felt blood rush to his head, quickly unbuckled his seatbelt, detached the steering wheel, and jumped out of the car.
He ran to the command console across the garage. "I'm sorry, Mr. Capito." At this moment, Dominik's face was almost the same color as the Ferrari garage next door, which made Capito and the strategists burst into laughter.
"It's fine. Your performance is very good. Keep up the hard work. Next, the team will install sensors for you to collect long-distance data," Capito said with a smile, telling Dominik to return to his car.
After Dominik returned, Gaëtan Jego walked over and did not mention the small incident. "Warm up. You'll be in the car for a while now."
Dominik knew that this meant the team implicitly recognized his qualifying ability, allowing him to officially begin the heavy-lifting of pre-season testing.
The roar of race cars echoed through the straightaways of the Catalonia circuit. The technicians around car number 45 were installing a massive aero rake—a "grill" of sensors—and filling the car with fuel.
Dominik thought, Since this will be done under heavy fuel conditions, will the car experience more understeer on entry and oversteer on exit in Seat Corner (Turn 5) and La Caixa (Turn 10)?
"F14T," Dominik instantly thought of that legendary, difficult-to-drive Ferrari. Is he treating me like Alonso? Dominik cursed inwardly.
In the distant Alpine garage, world champion Fernando Alonso sneezed twice, his face full of confusion.
"Get in the car," Gaëtan said, beckoning to Dominik. He put on his helmet and sat in the cockpit.
"Help me buckle the back," Dominik said to Gaëtan, pointing to his neck. It turned out the helmet's connection to the HANS device wouldn't latch. After Gaëtan helped him secure it, he whispered in his ear, "Don't go too fast, but it's best to be faster than Albon's lap time. He's currently around 1 minute 28 seconds."
Gaëtan whispered because the team radio was monitored by everyone, including Capito, and it was better to keep internal rivalries discreet.
Dominik settled into the car. When the tire warmers were pulled off, a brand new set of C3 tires appeared. The medium compound. As he drove into the pit lane again with the aero rake attached, the Alfa Romeo race car a few garages down also pulled out.
Dominik closely followed the red and white Alfa Romeo C42, also equipped with sensors. As soon as he crossed the pit exit line, Dominik mashed the accelerator.
"24". The number on the side of the Alfa Romeo flashed past Dominik's eyes. It was Zhou Guanyu.
Instead of passing immediately, Dominik eased off the throttle to create a gap for a clean lap, but kept Zhou in his sights.
At Turn 3, the long Renault curve, Dominik took the outside line to maximize momentum. The moment Zhou's car exited, the Williams FW44 and Zhou's Alfa Romeo C42 simultaneously accelerated towards Turn 4.
Approaching the corner, Dominik pulled out of the Alfa's slipstream, braked hard, and settled back behind Zhou. An overtake during data collection was risky, and the upcoming Turn 5 (Seat) was a nightmare for the heavy Williams.
Indeed, under heavy fuel, the understeer on entry was amplified. Dominik fought the wheel. Fortunately, the exit was smoother. Because of that one moment of understeer, the FW44 had fallen behind by two car lengths.
Dominik kept pushing. After navigating the high-speed Turns 6, 7, and 8, he finally reached the back straight DRS zone. He didn't hear any team instructions to back off, which meant Williams was tacitly approving this battle.
In fact, both Williams and Alfa Romeo were observing this duel. The 2022 season was less than an hour old, and the two rookies—one Chinese, one Hungarian—were already scrapping on track.
Almost all the team principals watching the monitors tuned in. In 2021, these two teams were back-of-the-grid rivals. This was the first sign of the new pecking order.
The activation of DRS turned both cars into bouncing machines. The porpoising was violent. However, because both cars had DRS open, and the gap was large, Dominik could only use the slipstream to slowly inch closer.
Dominik did not conserve his tires. He pushed flat-out through the technical third sector, threading the bulky Williams through the chicane with such precision that by the final corner, he was only seven-thousandths of a second behind Zhou.
Finally, exiting the last corner onto the main straight, Dominik ignored the G-forces tearing at his neck and the headache-inducing bouncing. He switched to Attack Mode, opening DRS and deploying full ERS.
Although the Alfa Romeo was in a similar mode, its shorter wheelbase made it draggy on the straight. Zhou had no power to hold off the charging Williams.
Dominik surged past Zhou before the braking zone for Turn 1.
"Okay, let Zhou pass, and find a clean section to set your own pace," Gaëtan said calmly over the radio.
Dominik's heart tightened. Did I mess up the data?
"Very good chase," Gaëtan added, relieving the tension.
Gaëtan knew that the Alfa's short wheelbase gave it an agility in corners that the Williams couldn't match. Yet, Dominik hadn't just kept up; he had reeled Zhou in through the twisty final sector on equal tires.
This indicated that Capito's gamble on the rookie was already paying off.