F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 114 I am
Red Bull's current struggles are only temporary. Developing race cars is not like assembling Lego according to the instructions; sometimes it's inevitable that you'll take the wrong path.

But the reason why elite teams are elite teams is because they have research and development capabilities that far surpass those of other mid-tier Earth teams.

The development of midstream racing teams often relies on guesswork.

If you guess right, great; but if you guess wrong, you're doomed. You might not be able to recover for at least the next five matches.

Even if a team like the Bulls sometimes goes astray in their research and development, firstly, they have the resources to ensure they don't fall out of the points bracket, and secondly, their strong mid-season research and development capabilities allow them to quickly correct their mistakes.

When Shu Long returned to Milton Keynes last time, he learned from Rob Marshall that Red Bull had already discovered the hidden dangers in the chassis and suspension layout of the car, and that a preliminary upgrade plan would be available by the next race at the latest.

Whether it's useful or not is another matter, but at least their efficiency is undeniable.

Otherwise, why would they be the Mars team?

To compete for the annual championship, it's not enough for a small team to get a lucky upgrade in one or two races. To become a world champion, you must ensure that your car is directly competitive for the podium for at least 70% of the time throughout the year.

Red Bull looks pretty awesome now, right?

Leaving aside whether the team can maintain this lucky momentum, the unique and completely subordinate relationship between the two Red Bulls in the paddock makes it virtually impossible to compete for the world championship here.

So no matter how well Shu Long gets along with the Toro Rosso crew or how proud he is of the team's R&D achievements, he will never hesitate to move up to Red Bull if given the opportunity.

He undoubtedly showed this determination during the afternoon qualifying session.

Q1 had barely started, and before the track conditions even began to improve, Shulong, who was already waiting at the pit lane exit, was the first to set his own flying lap time.

1:41.832
This is basically a guaranteed lap time into Q2. After seeing the result, Shulong finished his cool-down lap and went straight back to the pit.

Despite being given ten sets of red tires before the race, he still only had five sets of new red tires available for use in qualifying, which was no more than before.

There is only one set of white tires. Even if it has been used for fifteen laps in practice, it is impossible to return it to Pirelli. Two yellow tires have been used and one set has been handed over. Now there is one new yellow tire left. So the remaining five sets of tires to be returned are naturally all red tires.

Theoretically, the remaining four sets of red tires should be allocated according to the method of two sets in Q2 and two sets in Q3. The extra run in Q2 is not to ensure that we make it into Q3, but to give us another chance to grasp the real-time conditions of the track.

As for how to implement it specifically, it depends on the lap times that other teams can achieve in the remaining time of Q1.

But things are different now; the possibility of an accident happening is almost zero!

一直到Q1停表，束龙这个早早做出来的圈速始终稳居排行榜的前列，前方的三人分别是勒克莱尔的1：41.426、汉密尔顿的1：41.614和维斯塔潘的1：41.727。

Hamilton's results were somewhat unexpected. It's unclear whether it was due to the incredible performance of Liu Yiquan or Mercedes finally resolving the issues exposed by the new kit.

Bottas ranked 1:42.026 in P6. Judging from this result, Shu Long simply hopes that Hamilton is awesome.

However, somewhat surprisingly, McLaren's Sainz also managed to reach P5 with a time of 1:41.936.

Albon, on the other hand, is in a slightly precarious position. His time of 1:42.154 just puts him in P10. He should have no problem getting into Q2, and probably not too bad to get into Q3 either, but it will be difficult for him to go any further like he did in practice.

Q2 was the same as before. Shu Long, who had entered the pit lane early, immediately improved the best time of all cars to 1:41.403.

Not only did it outperform the two Ferraris, it also arrogantly stepped on the two Mercedes-Benz cars in front of it.

Hamilton and Bottas both had a time of just over 1:41.5 in their first laps. Surprisingly, Bottas was faster this time, while Wilt slightly improved his time to 1:41.889, which was no threat to Shulong.

What's going on? Has the Ferrari's engine failed again?
The evidence is Leclerc, whose time in this round was even worse than Q1's, 1:41.995, which was more than half a second slower than Q1's.

Of course, it could also have been a mistake, because Lock & Lock rushed onto the track during the second flight lap, and not long after, Shu Long, who was still sitting in the pit, saw the yellow flag signal on the track on the small screen on the HALO rack.

Unsurprisingly, it would have been strange if the street race hadn't produced a yellow flag, and the collision must have been quite severe, as the yellow flag quickly turned into a red flag.

"Oh no, this red flag might last a long time."

Hamelin's words left Shu Long somewhat confused. Right now, he was ranked P2, with only Verstappen ahead of him at 1.41-1.388. This situation could be described as extremely favorable!

"What happened? Who hit him?"

"It's Leclerc."

"Was the accident serious? Is he alright?"

"The collision wasn't too serious, and the other person is fine. It's just a bit difficult to clear the race car and debris out of here."

Upon hearing that no one was in trouble, Shu Long's curiosity was piqued, and he quickly turned to look at the screen in the P room broadcasting the match to see what had happened.

Coincidentally, the footage happened to show a replay of the entire incident.

"I am stupid! I am stupid!"

No wonder Hamelin said that the cleanup was quite difficult. Leclerc had an accident at the "Castle Bend" on the eighth and ninth tracks. The red Ferrari crashed headfirst into the protective wall outside the castle, and the more than five-meter-long car completely blocked the 7.5-meter-wide track.

The cause was likely that Leclerc was too eager to push the limits after his mistake in the first round. He braked too late before Turn 8, and his tires locked up slightly, so the car was ultimately unable to get into the corner.

Okay, forgive Shu Long for laughing a few times rather rudely.

"Haha~ Ciel! Parking is not allowed in the middle of the road!"

Regardless of how this mistake occurred, judging solely from the image displayed on the wall, the overall effect was indeed quite "stupid."

However, this meant that by the time the race organizers pulled the Ferrari out of the wall and dragged it away, it would be almost 50 minutes later.

There was only a 7-minute break between Q1 and Q2, and the track conditions were basically in a state of continuous optimization. As a result, they waited here for half a day, and the track that had finally warmed up a little was now completely cold again.

And that's why Hamelin was so upset.

Leclerc wasn't the only driver who underperformed in Q2. The charm of street racing is that drivers are always trying to push their limits, but the extremely low margin for error means that not every driver can perform perfectly on every lap.

Besides Locke, who's currently rubbing his head in frustration, Sainz and Albon also underperformed in their first flying laps of Q2, with one clocking 1:42.398 and the other only managing 1:42.494. Given the even worse track conditions, the difficulty of achieving a lap time sufficient for advancement is self-evident. At this rate, it's practically certain that both of them will miss Q3.

As a teammate, he couldn't just stand by and watch someone die. At Albon's request, Shulong's main task in the second flight lap after the race restarted became helping Albon slow down the slipstream.

Fine.

Since the mission was simply to experience the limits of the track under the current conditions, Shu Long naturally didn't mind doing a favor.

Fortunately, Albon lived up to expectations, seizing the opportunity of the long straight when he was full of slipstream, and improved his time to 1:42.015, successfully advancing as P8.

Shu Long was only given a slight boost because he had secured his own advancement. But once he enters Q3, it will be a crucial stage where he will have to fight tooth and nail. As for how well Alben will fare, he can only hope for the best.

Based on the results of the first two qualifying sessions, Shu Long is now even considering competing for pole position, and it seems that his only rival is Verstappen.

As a result, the first round of flight circles had just ended when their beautiful wishes were shattered.

He did beat Verstappen, but looking up at the current lap time leaderboard, he not only failed to become the expected purple P1, but was directly demoted to P4?

Two old Mercedes silver cars! They actually managed to get a lap time under 1:40 right off the bat, even before the track conditions had fully improved?!
Ferrari's only remaining model, the "Tilted-Head Uncle," is no less impressive. His 1:40.797 caliber underwear looks like it's carrying a heavy lead ball, making a resounding impact!
If only one person was this fast, it could be explained as one of them performing exceptionally well, but for all of them to be this fast, no one would believe it unless the team was hiding something.

Shortly after, Verstappen completed his second flight lap, and his time was updated to 1:41.069.

The good news is that this result is still within an acceptable range; the bad news is that he has pushed Shulong back to P5.

Fortunately, Leclerc's accident in Q2 severely damaged his car, preventing him from participating in Q3. Otherwise, what would have been the difference between this promising Baku race and the Shanghai International Circuit two weeks prior?

"Let's adjust the wing angle a little smaller. The track's grip is still not enough, and the upper limit of low-speed corners is lowered. I feel we still need to make up for some time on the straights."

"Can it be done?"

"It should be fine. This track is mostly composed of right-angle turns, so the loss of downforce won't have a significant impact."

"What about those consecutive high-speed full-throttle corners at 13, 14, 17, 18, and 19? If there's not enough downforce, the car will shift to a push, right?"

"It's okay, I can control myself at this level."

Since Shu Long himself said so, the team seems to have no choice but to believe him.

The commentators eagerly awaited the news, and Gan Mengning, who had returned to his own little viewing spot, anxiously chewed on his yogurt straw, but the lap time gap next to Shu Long's name never turned into the exit marker.

"What's going on? If we don't come out soon, we'll miss the last lap!"

"Logically speaking, Toro Rosso shouldn't be letting the car out this late. Albon has already left long ago!"

"Yeah, that's right. Shu Long just helped Albon get into Q3. I thought this round it would be Albon's turn to help Shu Long make a gamble. Could it be that there's something wrong with the car?"

"Pah, pah, pah! On the bright side, maybe he's trying to save a set of red tires for the race? After all, it was quite unexpected for Mercedes and Ferrari to suddenly break the lap time barrier of 1:40. Oh, he's out!"

The commentators were right; the two families of old silver coins from Benfa and other countries did indeed catch him off guard.

Others might say they know where to improve on every lap, but Shu Long, with his [Friction Control], knows all too well where the limits of Toro Rosso's car are. Even if he squeezes every last drop out of the car, he can't improve by even a second to challenge Mercedes.

Challenging others might be impossible, but Verstappen, with a score of 1:41.069, still has a chance to fight back.

All he can hope for is a redesigned track.

Leclerc's red flag has been delayed for far too long. The match, which was supposed to start at 5 p.m., has now been dragged out to almost 7 p.m., and it's almost dark!

So no one can say for sure whether the current situation on the track is better or worse, but Shulong can only gamble on it as a better situation.

Since he no longer asked Al to help him with the trail, clean air is naturally more important to him.

This is both the price of the low-drag setup and the reason why Al didn't have a slipstream; he couldn't continue to sacrifice his downforce in corners.

As the last race car still on the track, Shulong naturally gets a lot of exposure, and everyone is eager to see what kind of fart this guy can finally squeeze out after holding back for so long.

As a result, Shulong gave them a yellow card in the first time segment.
Although this yellow lap was only 0.012 seconds slower than the previous lap, almost everyone calmed down, and no one thought that Shulong could break the monopoly of the three major teams once again.

However, when the purple color in the second time slot of Shulong directly improved his fastest time by 0.3, the Red Bull team became a little uneasy.

Shu Long's performance from Turn 5 to Turn 12 was nothing short of a work of art. While the performance of the car is certainly important, the level of skill displayed in this segment was so impressive that anyone who saw it would agree that it was a testament to human genius.

The third timing segment is short, lasting only a little over twenty seconds in total, but this is where Shu Long has to pay the price for his changes to the training.

It's just a matter of pushing your head. There's a way to shake it off, and there's a way to push it off.

The first upgrade to the race car was less than a month ago, but the paddock seems to have forgotten who Shu Long's current manager is.

The low temperature at sunset created the perfect conditions for Shulong to avoid overheating its tires.

Before the left turn of number 17, he swung the car straight in with the front wheel against the wall. The car was thrown all the way to the side of the guardrail before it finally came to a stop. Then, the Toro Rosso, while still close to the right guardrail, swung to the right again before even touching the apex of the turn.

This is absolutely crazy!
The race car's front wing and right front wheel almost—no, they practically grazed the barrier outside the guardrail. Even a millimeter's deviation would have resulted in a scattering of debris.

This incredibly precise racing line allowed Shu Long to maintain the advantage that should have been at full throttle, even in the area where he should have eased off the throttle to adjust the car's center of gravity, with a maneuver that was almost theoretically impossible.

The third timing segment turns green.

1: 41.063!

"My God, P4! Man, you did it! We're P4!! Even though it's only by a mere 0.004, we're starting from the second row tomorrow!!!"

(End of this chapter)