Have the AI FINALLY Been FIXED in the Wet Weather?!

Added: 2026-05-10

[00:00:00]We are back with my team.

[00:00:02]>> Big day. The team feel we now have enough info following our talks with possible drivers that we can now start negotiating contracts. Drivers who we've had at least an early meeting with may now be receptive to discussing a contract. Kind of get things ready for next season. Now, there won't be another season, but I want to try and see if we can secure the services of Max Vstappen and basically form the ridiculous lineup of Max Vstappen and Scholar for the next season.

[00:00:34]>> Okay, set. Now, we wait. Hopefully, we'll hear back soon, but these things do tend to drag on. Let's keep our fingers crossed and just focus on what we can control. I'll let you know if I hear anything. So, with that out the way, let's quickly talk about the previous episode. It's been over a month. A lot has happened. Xanvul was the last race we did in reverse. If you want to go watch, catch up, and see what happened, go check it out, guys. The link is in the top right. We're going to jump into today's episode. Spoilers also ahead, so be warned. And yeah, we're basically back to finish up the season.

[00:01:10]We've got six rounds to go, including today's video. So, five more after this.

[00:01:15]and we're going to try and polish this off and then we'll see if we get a peep, a word, some sort of an announcement regarding the F126 DLC, which no one has any idea about. So yeah, I'm aiming for one to two episodes of this a week. So it should span about another month, which should naturally take us into June, which is when we're expecting the DLC to launch. But at this stage, your guess is as good as mine. We advance on the timeline, getting closer and closer to the Italian Grand Prix Monz. But before we do that, >> great news. They've accepted that contract and signed in the dotted line.

[00:01:50]We should celebrate and make sure we figure out how to stop any leaks about it. Nice work getting this one over the line. And there we go. We have secured the services of one Max of Vstappen for next season after he originally turned us down last season. This time we've got our hands on him. Now, let's talk about a few things. Number one, both of our drivers, of course, are going to get some fresh components as we are at a power circuit. We're at Monza. We're at the Temple of Speed. I want to quickly refresh your memory. Starting with the R&D graph. You can see no upgrades this season except except for two separate occasions. Okay, Racing Balls brought some upgrades around Canada and they've suddenly brought themselves right up to our level. And in the last episode, Audi finally brought their first upgrade. So, who knows if Audi also do RB improvements. They might be with us for the final rounds of the season. Now, I want to quickly refresh your memory in the standings. Of course, we need the constructors naturally because we are one two in the drivers. So far this season, we've won almost every round except for two. We've been on the podium also in every single round. We've been so strong all season long. And yeah, this race hopefully will be no different. We are selecting Pierre Gazzley for this one. And yeah, hope you guys enjoy. I've also switched up some of the format, some of the cutscenes.

[00:03:14]You're not going to see practice because it's quite repetitive. We're going to jump straight into qualifying. And then we've also tweaked the race format as well, which you guys will see. So, let me know what you think in the comments down below. Now, this weekend, we have one big thing to note. Heavy, heavy rain in the race. Qualifying is set to be dry, so that is good for us. But a wet weather race could be interesting, especially a very heavy rain race with over 90% expected. So that should be interesting. Either way, that's all the updates. So let's begin with the qualifying here for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza.

[00:03:49]They call it the temple of speed and the pilgrims have come to worship. It's all about the speed today. Qualifying awaits us. Welcome to Monza for the Italian Grand Prix.

[00:04:06]Now, here we go on track straight away in Q1.

[00:04:10]Looking to get into Q2 using only one set of tires, minimal dramas, and wanting to have a nice straightforward, easy session, using the majority of our battery as we race into the parabolic, the final corner of the lap. Up to the line we go, and we're going to open up our account with a 1 minute 15.2 and that actually moves us to P5. A CL sitting in P3. We didn't go out again. That lap was enough to get us through. It was actually pretty close and competitive. Uh but yeah, no dramas.

[00:04:46]We get through. However, not everyone did. Yukis Cenoda, Franco Colapinto, one Merc, one Red Bull out in Q1. Also, both of the improved racing balls out, but Botalto in the improved Audi actually makes it in. We then move into Q2 and we begin with a very good lap so far. Purple in the middle sector, but we make a mess of the last corner, kind of clipping the inside curb too much onto the grass. It then kind of offsets the car and sent us wide and we lost a lot of time. We still went significantly quicker than, you know, before. We did a 152 now 148, but we're only P7 and everyone has sort of leveled up their pace. So, I went for a cool down lap and we're now going to go for a second push lap to try and improve. I basically need to match what we done before, but trying to clean up that final corner. If we achieve that, then that should give us a decent lap time.

[00:05:47]Possibly like a 114.6 if we just find over a tenth. And that would probably be enough to get us into Q3. For sector one, we're basically neck and neck with our previous run. Checker flag drops as we get a decent run through the chicane now into the Lesmos.

[00:06:02]Important here to try and keep the speed high. Carry momentum at all times through here as we now head on to the back straight. Opening DRS using down to about a 40 to 45% battery as we prepare the Ascari chicane. Land on RS140 as we go purple again. We launch it through here. carrying that speed all the way through. And we went a little bit slow before, but we're still basically a tenth of a second up. So now all we have to do is just tie up the final corner. We're P10 right now on the cusp. The clone P9, so we are both on the brink of elimination. We do have a better final corner. Not as good as I thought, but we are going to improve and get through. And yeah, that's P8 for us with Scholar making it in P10. Lando Norris, our nearest championship rival, makes it. So does Gabrielle Bortalto in P7. But the big one from Q2, Max Vstappen is out. He did not make it into Q3 and neither did both of the Aston Martins or especially surprisingly the Hascars. Neither one, especially Bman who's been very, very quick. Instead, it's going to be Lawson in Q3 in the Williams, Boralto in the Audi, and also Hajar in the other Williams also. Now we begin Q3 with a fresh set of soft tires looking to improve. Now we did a 114.7 in Q2. We did a 15.2 in Q1. So that's kind of going to be our references. So for this obviously naturally we have to go quicker. Good strong uh turn one.

[00:07:38]They're breaking nice and late. Driving around the curbs at the Band first chain I believe. Then down towards the next one. Turn three. down towards turn four and turn five. I believe the first chicane is the the Retaphilio chicane.

[00:07:53]This one, I know it has a name, but I always forget this one. I'm sure you guys can correct me in the comments.

[00:07:58]Into the Lesmos. Number one, sixth gear.

[00:08:01]Very fast, of course, with these maxed out cars. And then the second Lesmo as well, just really attacking the curbs as we open DRS down the back straight.

[00:08:09]Preparing the Ascari chicane for this one. Sixth or fifth gear with these cars. Maxed out cars. You know, it's on the on the cusp. I'll go for sixth. We launch it in using every last cimeter of the track and the white lines. And now we just have one more corner to go. And like before, we just want to try and avoid messing up parabolica. So we break at the 50, not just after. Not bad. Not bad. Pretty decent. Clipping the apex.

[00:08:35]Tight line to the right all the way to the finish line. And we do set a 1143 which is actually 4/10 quicker than our Q2 lap. So, we do actually go quite a bit quicker, but Scholola Cler shoots to the top of the pile into the 113s.

[00:08:52]113.919.

[00:08:53]So, that's great for us as a team. The CL being quick is money. But the question is, can we match him?

[00:09:12]Heat.

[00:09:30]Heat.

[00:09:36]Heat. Heat.

[00:10:15]And there we go. I think we did everything we could in that one. I I do believe when you're 8 milliseconds behind George Russell, like we were with Pierre Gazzley, you can find 8 milliseconds. So we should have got P5 but the top four was too quick today.

[00:10:30]Both Ferraris Antonelli on home turf on pole and yeah LL also P3 did not improve on his final run. The only bit of good news for us Lando Norris our main championship rival is P8. So we will take that and overall not a bad qualifying. Monza is not my best track that are usually pretty strong here. But either way, the race should be interesting because that is the dry portion of the video and the weekend and all we have now is rain, rain, and more rain. So, let's begin with the race.

[00:11:04]Welcome to the home of the Parabolica, now known as the Cerver Alberto in tribute to the Italian motorsport legend Michael Alberto. It's a long, long righthander. It dares you to keep your foot as far down on the throttle as you possibly can. It's one of the great corners on the calendar and we're here at Monza ahead of the Italian Grand Prix. Off the back of a fantastic qualifying session, it's time to see how our starting grid looks like for today's race. Andrea Kimmy Antonelli lines up on pole position and Oscar Pastri completes the front row. Considering the rest of the grid, we have Llair Albon, George Russell and Gazzley, Lawson, Norris, Bortalto and Isaac Hajger, Okon Stroll, Ollle Bman and Crawford, Vstappen Oivan, Paul Aaron and Pepe Marty, Cenoda Dan, Colinto and Dennis Her. rounds off the grid. It's almost time for the lights to go out. So, let's head down to the track where preparations are underway.

[00:12:18]Right, here we go then. Showtime at the Temple of Speed for Monza. P6 on the grid. Not bad. Scholar is P3.

[00:12:27]Overall, the conditions are what they are. They are absolutely abysmal and it's full wet, heavy rain conditions for the start. Now there is one thing to note very importantly here. Now the forecast says heavy rain the entire race no change. Traditionally when this happens you can usually run an intermediate tire. Now what I'm going to do in this first stint I'm going to take a little bit of caution. The track's a bit wet. So we're going to start on the wet tire. See how we go. The minute there's a decent dry line and I feel like it's worth a gamble. We'll switch to inter. So likely at the regular scheduled first stop only stop of the race the AI would probably go for another set of wets whereas we're going to go for a set of in and see if that's a race winning call. I'm running 41 kilos of fuel which is exactly what we had after the race simulations which was 40.9. So hopefully this should all work out. I've tweaked my setup. So we're ready for the rain. So let's get into it and let's see how we do. Now luckily we were able to get some tire temp before we begin.

[00:13:32]The radar suggests that this heavy rain will be with us for a while now. It's hard to say if in or wets are better right now.

[00:13:39]>> Well, there's confirmation. Then a quick little burnout before we line up in our grid slot. We're going to start in none.

[00:13:46]That should work pretty well. And here we go. Showtime at the Temple of Speed.

[00:13:53]Right. Here we go. It's been a while since we've done a race start versus AI.

[00:13:57]Lights on.

[00:14:04]It's a good getaway. Had to be very patient with the revs.

[00:14:12]Locking up. Easy does it into the first chicane. Nice and gingerely.

[00:14:16]The cler Albon side by side. Llur gets the traction. We also beat Russell to the punch. And we're just going to sneak down the inside of Alex Albon here in the Ferrari.

[00:14:29]Trying to run him out of road. Oborn's still there.

[00:14:34]Oh, we have to straight line it. We have to straight line the chicane using the escape road. Evasive action necessary.

[00:14:45]Not ideal as we try to rejoin. Lost a whole bunch of positions though. Just using kind of the the dry weather breaking point into that corner didn't really work. missed my breaking point and that massively hurt us. So, we've got to fight back. We've got a very good straight lance. But you can see here we've got the run on Lance Stroll around the outside as we move up and go into P11, but we are way down the order here with a lot of work to do.

[00:15:17]All right, Aron's next P10. Let's try and fight back and overtake some of these kind of midfield runners.

[00:15:24]The conditions are going to stay exactly the same. So, it's important that we try and find our pace early on and find our confidence. Mark on getting through on HAR there into the first chicane and getting the move done.

[00:15:36]Let's see if we can try and follow through and move up as well. The train has split in quite a few areas actually already by the end of lap two. Bman's got a run and he's going down the inside here.

[00:15:49]Well, I break him into parabolica, but already I feel like we're slightly under the back foot.

[00:15:55]I feel like we were quite quick on lap one. We got a few cars in. Could that be for ins or damage?

[00:16:02]That's certainly very interesting though.

[00:16:05]Yeah, it's actually quite a few cars in, you know. They can't all have damage.

[00:16:10]So, it must be for inas. Let's not panic though. We've got no pace at the minute though. We are getting absolutely smashed in these conditions. Jack Crawford's got a run. Doesn't commit to a move. I'm doing personal best as clear pits. Okay.

[00:16:29]Interesting.

[00:16:31]Bando purple is in the pits.

[00:16:35]>> So we do a personal best and it is the AI switching to in.

[00:16:39]Okay.

[00:16:41]Okay. Left rig just starting to overheat. So, it is definitely time to switch to ins. That's very interesting.

[00:16:47]I've never seen the AI do that before. I wonder if they finally patched the AI and you can't exploit them anymore in these heavy rain conditions. That would be very interesting. Either way, we're going to have to box. So, we're going to get the inter selected and we're going to come in through the final corner we go. Land double pit and we're going to follow him in. We've lost over a second already to the cars behind. So, it's definitely in.

[00:17:16]We should have started on the inter, which was my gut feeling, but I thought, like always, you could probably take advantage of the AI in these conditions where they'll usually do the whole race on wets, even though it's clearly glaringly obvious intermediates. But I'm happy to see that at least for this race, they're applying logic and doing the right strategy. So, it now means we've got an actual challenge on our hands. It's a slow stop as well for the first time in a while. 4.5 and that is going to send us way down the order. I think >> that was our last stop. No more scheduled pit stops. Let's go.

[00:17:49]>> Without that slow stop, we probably could have rejoined P1 or so. But look at this. Because of that slow stop, we've been dumped right into the thick of it with Isaac Hajar here through the first K. We're going to try and get the traction down.

[00:18:04]But for the first time in a while, there's some heavy rain conditions. For the first time, I think possibly ever in some heavy rain conditions, we're going to be battling AI on the exact same intermediate tire. Usually, they're always on wet. So, this for me is going to be a new experience to see what their pace is truly like in these conditions.

[00:18:20]Oh, hello. They're closing again.

[00:18:24]Okay, >> for stop now.

[00:18:27]>> He must have got damage.

[00:18:30]Must have. So, that's huge. Championship leader Scholar of course my teammate in for presumably a wing repair and another set of inters. Meanwhile, Crawford Sullivan going at it. I'm kind of being held up here. We're going to get the traction down. We're going to get one of them and we'll try and get Zach now through here through Cover Grande on the outside and longer line.

[00:18:55]>> No need to worry about the tire for now.

[00:18:57]Everything's looking good. Running out of battery, but we get him on the brakes and move up into P12.

[00:19:05]Well, let's see. Maybe this tire is going to help us and suit us a bit more.

[00:19:09]We've got a train of cars ahead slowing so we can hopefully gain up a little bit of ground. I think they're being led by Bortalto, who's not that quick, of course, in the Audi. 126.8 from Oscar Pastri. That gives us a reference time to see what the top guys are doing. 126.2. The Ferraris are quick in both the hands of Pestri and Albon. We are nowhere near a 126.

[00:19:31]Although we were held up on that lap.

[00:19:33]So, let's see what we can do on this one. 126.4. So, the AI getting quicker.

[00:19:40]To be fair, we are also going significantly quicker on this lap. But this time, uninterrupted, of course, doing a much more competitive lap. This will be into the mid to low 27s hopefully. Still though, it's off the pace. That's for sure. We've never been quick around here. We've always very reliant on the AI battling. So, that may be the case today. Also, yeah, Lando 262 also responding very good pace. I will say one thing, if we can get to the front of this queue of cars, we're looking at like a P6, which is basically where we started. On the contrary, on the other hand, there is one thing to note. Tire wear is extremely low on this intermediate tire. So, we can go to the end. We were also one of the latest cars to fit the in. So my strategy gamble to recover this race is to not box again and go to the end. So the AI may well stick to their strategy and box once more, but we are certainly not. So I'm banking that might be our our roll of the dice. 1270. That's a bit more respectable.

[00:20:38]Fastest car last time around was clear 126.1 of course is recovering through the field. Bman goes for a move on Russell of course in the crowd strike Mercedes and that might open up an opportunity for us. I've got plenty of charge lone to the 1258.

[00:20:57]We know we've got the traction. Bman's probably got the straight line speed, but we're trying to get through down the inside line. Double overtake absolutely critical. That's P10.

[00:21:13]Let's keep at it. Let's keep chipping away here. We can definitely clear these guys. We're quicker, more efficient, I think. Right into the 126s. That is very good. Now, we're only 4/10 off the leader pace. So, we're starting to catch up and get quicker.

[00:21:27]I think also I'm starting to get more comfortable now with this game in these conditions. It's been a long time since I've driven this sort of situation. So, stuck behind Bortalto. The cler 255 lowers the benchmark. That's insane.

[00:21:43]Oh, all crossed up. Bit out of shape there. Going a bit over the top.

[00:21:49]I need traction zones. That's where I'm strongest.

[00:21:59]I don't think that was ideal.

[00:22:01]Russell's got a run on me here. That was probably not the best line. Trying to carry speed into Ascari.

[00:22:09]Oh, we're deep.

[00:22:11]Suddenly now Russell's kind of showing some pace and I'm starting to struggle again in this phase. No overheating, just a bad lap for me there. I've set my bias to 56. I've moved it forward a bit to see if that can aid with corner entries without me locking the rear. And also I've lowered my front wing to two. So if we stop again, we should gain a bit of much needed straight line speed. So let's see if this works out. Portalto now really starting to hold us up. But to be fair, he's staying there. And now he actually pits. There we go. I jinxed it. Right. We getting to the 125s for the first time. So, we're starting to find a little bit of pace. That break bias adjustment is helping.

[00:22:51]So, are the AI going to stop again? If so, this gamble of not boxing for another set of in could help us recover our race. I think P5 is likely going to be the target behind the two McLarens and the two Ferraris. We've got a run on George here out of turn two. I've got momentum this time and that Merc isn't very quick in a straight line it seems as J tries to move over there as we also try to move to the right. We just locked tires a little bit but we move back past the Mercedes man. Let's see what Cenoda does on this lap if he pulls away or not. What sort of pace he has. All right, the leaders are staying out. So it seems only Bortalto was going to box on that one. No one else pitting for now. No, Okon is. So, the midfield runners maybe not as efficient or as good on tire wear and they're having the need to box. I'm hoping Llur can go to the end as well.

[00:23:44]That will help him recover his race.

[00:23:46]Russell trying to rechallenge, but we've got him marked. And now here is where we can make the difference. I kind of have to survive in sectors two and three, but in sector one, I can really make a difference versus the AI with my traction. So, we've got to use this first sector to really try and open the gap to George. Right. Personal best.

[00:24:05]Significantly better. 1254.

[00:24:09]That is good. Really good. 10 laps to go.

[00:24:14]Maybe we have a strong end. Who knows?

[00:24:16]>> Okay. Heavy rain will be staying with us for a while now. At least a 20inut window of heavy rain.

[00:24:22]>> I think I prefer that if the rain picks up. I think that suits us more to be honest. Just noticed the left rear going up to 91 getting a bit hot. So I'm going to see if I can try and find some water.

[00:24:33]and drive on it for as long as possible down the straights.

[00:24:37]So, I am trying to push the catch over here. So, I don't want to let off the pace, but we're very very evenly matched.

[00:24:44]But, we'll just try and find some water for as long as possible. We need more rain.

[00:24:50]Crawford out. Could there be a late >> VSC deployed? The virtual safety car has deployed. We need to give a positive delta here. Slow down and maintain a positive delta.

[00:25:00]>> There is a late sting. a late VSC. Let's try and also cool these tires down as much as possible. I get to recharge the battery as well. It's not going to go to a full safety car, but that's not not an issue. We get to cool the rear tires off and do one last push to try and get Cenoda here.

[00:25:17]>> Virtual safety car is ending. Maintain your pace until we get the green flags.

[00:25:22]VC ending. Wait for the greens.

[00:25:24]>> There we go. Back underway.

[00:25:27]Cenoda getting caught out a little bit.

[00:25:28]I feel like visually at least that's what it seemed like.

[00:25:32]They are going to go full whack now though. They're going to go flat out.

[00:25:35]They're going to be on the battery and hard to stop. But we've managed to get our tire sign to 82. That's huge for the left rear.

[00:25:42]We can now just stick to the water and hopefully a bit more rain falls. That's all we need just to make the difference.

[00:25:49]We're catching Vstappen as well. I think 4 and 1/2 seconds. The gap seems to have really come down. So, let's keep at it.

[00:25:55]Russell having a look on this restart.

[00:25:58]Doesn't really stick his nose in properly. So, we're going to take the line into the final corner. Just got to weather the storm here on this restart.

[00:26:05]George will be very quick, but we can manage again. Just trying to stick to the inside. Stick to the water.

[00:26:12]Russell having a look. He's got momentum.

[00:26:20]Double front lock up from us, but we keep it under control and stop the car in time. This my BR shot here.

[00:26:29]It's going to happen out of turn two. If we can get the traction down and get momentum through turn three, which we've got, this is going to be our best chance to get this moved on. We're going to be on the outside though. Running out of battery.

[00:26:43]Oh, horrible. Absolutely horrible.

[00:26:47]Getting that all wrong there. Had to just take some out to not get a warning or a penalty. tried to do the little shift, shake and bake to the inside, but completely backfired on me.

[00:27:02]Oh my god, that was a bit of a moment there. It's going to take just one moment of getting it absolutely perfect.

[00:27:10]But we're running out of time and laps to find that moment to get it right.

[00:27:17]I might have a chance here though. I've got to run on Cenoda, but we're just running out of battery.

[00:27:24]Yeah, sector one is definitely my calling card. That's the where it's going to happen.

[00:27:31]Bman out. That's behind. So, no issues there. I believe that's both has cars now out of the race. Not for the first time this season. We've seen that happen. Oh, I'm trying to save some battery. We've got this lap and the last lap to do this. I'm trying to do like a little rehearsal, but I'm struggling to get close enough.

[00:27:51]We are really catching Vappen though so so much. We need this. We need to be closer into this first chicane to try this move. Cenod's pulling away though.

[00:28:00]Maybe he's burning his battery.

[00:28:06]Trying to get a quick direction change through there.

[00:28:12]Come on. Come on.

[00:28:15]Do we have anything left in the tank?

[00:28:18]Oh, that's not enough. Snow's hanging on.

[00:28:22]My only hope is that SA runs out of battery maybe at the end of the lap or something and we can pick something up.

[00:28:27]Lando wins. Oh, full sent it through there, but it's not enough. I think Soda's still got a battery in the tank.

[00:28:35]Yes, he does. Frustrating end to the race. Just couldn't get a chance to try a a move really.

[00:28:45]Just impossible around here. Not enough traction zones.

[00:28:50]All right, race over. Take care of the car on the way in.

[00:28:54]>> Good job, guys. Good progress. So, just keep getting better.

[00:29:03]>> Now, that was a bad race. Like, genuinely, I believe we finished on the podium every single race this season with at least one of our cars. And I think that streak has come to an end today. I don't know for certain. That's my theory. But there is some bad news.

[00:29:19]Lando Norris, the nearest rival in the championship to both of our drivers, won the race. The defending champion, bounces back in Monza. McLaren get a one-two with Anthony also in second place ahead of Alex who gets on the podium. Pastry just missing out. But for our drivers, of course, P7 for Pierre Gazley and P12 for Shaol Cler. possible damage which is terrible news because in the championship it's going to close things right up. The clal leads 17 points over Pierre, 19 points over Lando. Lando gets right back in the mix to be fair. Pastri, Antonyelli and Vstappen all sort of join the fight again with five rounds to go all being covered by 38 points. It's genuinely the closest but it's been all season pretty much. in the constructors. The lead is still pretty healthy. 40 points. So, we're looking good to retain the constructor's crown, but the drivers has been blown wide open again. So, we'll see what happens in the coming rounds.

[00:30:20]Guys, if you enjoyed the video, leave a like. Let's try and smash 500 likes for this video. Subscribe for more F1 Crew Mode content on my channel. And yeah, as always, a massive shout out to my members of the channel. Check out the two videos on screen. And I'll see you guys next time. Take care and let's goodbye from me. Chow chow.