F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 125 Groundhog and Haas
This year's Canadian Grand Prix is ​​a bit special; it may be the most popular race ever held on this circuit.

Throughout the race weekend, the air temperature remained above 30 degrees Celsius, and the surface temperature of the track exceeded 50 degrees Celsius.

The Villeneuve circuit is 4.316km long and has three DRS sections. The maximum top speed can reach 340km/h, and the highest average speed per lap can exceed 220km/h. It is a high-speed circuit with few corners and gentle curves.

Moreover, the elevation difference of the track is not large, only a little over five meters, making it one of the flattest tracks in the race calendar.

At this point, most people probably realize that this is another track where Ferrari, with its superb beast-like engine, has a considerable advantage this year.

Similarly, this is also a very unfriendly track for the four Red Bull cars currently in service.

Because the lap distance here is short, the pressure on the tires from the corners is not high, and generally speaking, the tire wear here is not very high.

This can be seen from the tire choices of most teams before the race. Most teams did not consider additional white tires, but instead chose a large number of yellow tires while ensuring a minimum number of red tires.

One white, five yellow, and seven red is a fairly standard configuration for the front row of the convoy.

In contrast, mid-tier teams seem to prefer tire compounds with one white, three yellow, and nine red.

This requires a brief explanation of the characteristics of the Canadian Grand Prix track.

The track here blends seamlessly with the streets on the artificial island, but the Villeneuve circuit cannot be considered a street circuit in the conventional sense; all track facilities are permanent.

However, this track is quite different from ordinary paved tracks. The track is not very wide, and there are no spacious run-off areas with high tolerance for error on both sides. Overall, it is more similar to the Albert Park Circuit in Australia.

Meanwhile, since many of the track's corners are "S" curves after high-speed straights, the overall characteristics of the track are more favorable to the defending side. In other words, even with three sections of DRS, it is very difficult to overtake.

This makes the difference in tire selection between the top and mid-table teams quite clear: the front-row cars need to stay on the track as long as possible to maintain their positional advantage, while the mid-table cars need to find ways to secure a good position during qualifying.

Toro Rosso can still be considered a top-tier racing team, second only to the three major powerhouse teams. Naturally, they tend to prioritize maintaining a long-distance pace in their tire compound selection.

However, the sudden high temperature before the start of the race was something no one had anticipated. With most teams having upgraded their cars to quickly raise the tires to operating temperature, this race might actually present them with the problem of tire overheating.

Under these track conditions, white tires seem to be the best choice for race strategy.

Fortunately, having learned from the Spanish Grand Prix, Shulong made sure to reserve an extra set of white hard tires as a base, and this race was a lucky break.

The difference between him and Albon is almost like the two extremes of an upper-class team and a mid-class team. He is confident in his qualifying lap time so he prioritizes securing a long race run, while Albon hopes to make the most of his multiple red tires to get a better starting position in qualifying.

Therefore, the Shulong team chose two white tires, four yellow tires, and seven red tires, while Albon chose one white tire, three yellow tires, and nine red tires.

Shu Long used up a set of red tires in each of the three practice sessions to find the lap time limit under different settings, and spent a lot of time comparing the advantages and disadvantages of white tires and yellow tires over long distances in this race.

The conclusion is that white tires are not only more durable than yellow tires at this race, but also have a faster average lap speed over long distances due to the high temperature of the track surface.

After analyzing the data from the first two practice sessions, the organizers directly predicted that the fastest tire strategy for the main race would be yellow and white tires in one stop.

It's foreseeable that a large number of cars in the front row will choose to try and achieve good times in Q2 using yellow tires, and the speed will likely not be too slow.

The track isn't very long, but because there are many heavy braking zones, the high temperature of the track can easily cause the red tires to overheat under extreme conditions.

In other words, drivers cannot push the tires all the way through a single lap in qualifying. They have to make some trade-offs and manage the tire temperature. On the other hand, yellow tires do not necessarily have much weaker grip than red tires at high temperatures, and drivers can choose a more aggressive driving style with a full push throughout the lap.

Because Shulong only had four new red tires available before entering qualifying, Toro Rosso was also planning to have Shulong use yellow tires for his first lap in Q2.

This move was a bit risky, because Toro Rosso's lap record wasn't particularly outstanding among all teams at this race.

Although Shu Long's fastest lap in the final practice session still placed him in P7, the gap between him and Renault's Ricciardo, McLaren's Norris, and Match Point's Perez was not significant; the lap times changed by less than 0.1 as they lined up.

Alben will have to struggle a bit more, as he still has Hulkenberg, Sainz, and Magnussen to deal with.

Although the gap isn't huge, all three are strong drivers with several years of racing experience, and it won't be easy for them to make a comeback when their cars aren't particularly competitive.

Analysis of telemetry data from the three practice sessions shows that Ferrari has a significant advantage in single laps, but is slightly inferior to Mercedes in long distances.

The second-best brand after Mercedes isn't Red Bull, it's McLaren?!

McLaren's performance at this race has shown signs of taking off, ranking third among all teams in both single laps and long runs!

how to say?

When Shu Long saw the result, he felt a little sorry for his manager. Alonso really deserves to be called the unluckiest driver. If Alonso had been driving this car this year, he would have won a few more podiums.

However, Shu Long was somewhat relieved. If Alonso hadn't chosen to retire, he probably wouldn't have had such a heavyweight figure in the paddock become his agent in the short term.

Fortunately, McLaren's two drivers are still somewhat lacking in experience, and Shu Long, driving the Toro Rosso, is currently able to keep things under control.

In terms of qualifying lap performance, Racing Point, Haas, and Renault followed closely behind, while Red Bull could only manage seventh among the teams in this race.

Red Bull fared even worse, ranking eighth.

This may also be related to Verstappen's search for the car's limits. The performance of the upgraded car is clearly not satisfactory to him. The test at the Paul Ricard circuit seems to have given him new ideas, and he is starting to try extreme tuning again at this race.

As a result, he hit the wall in the second practice session and nearly did so in the third, preventing him from setting a convincing lap time within the limited red tire margin. The long-distance data predictions were quite different; Red Bull jumped to fourth place, with Toro Rosso, thanks to its very balanced car characteristics, closely following behind, holding a slight lead over Renault.

While a good long run is certainly good news, it puts a lot of pressure on Shu Long in the qualifying stage, especially since he has to try to set a lap time on yellow tires in Q2. How difficult it will be to drag the eighth-placed car into Q3.

Fortunately, the following Q1 went relatively smoothly. Shulong entered the track early and took advantage of the early clean air to achieve a very good effective result.

Given today's temperature conditions, it's sufficient even without waiting for the track conditions to improve. In addition, the Villeneuve circuit is a bit narrow and crowded, so clean air is still quite important for performance.

The final score was 1:11.617, even 0.002 faster than Verstappen, securing a place in P5 and advancing directly.

This result also gave the Toro Rosso team a lot of confidence. They were initially hesitant about whether to use yellow tires to try for a faster lap time in Q2, but now that they have this kind of speed as a foundation, it is definitely worth taking the gamble.

So, during the rest of Q1, Shu Long didn't sit idle. He took the old red car he had just used to set a lap time and went out for another lap, maintaining his feel for the car while also updating his mental data on the changes in track conditions.

But you never know whether luck or an accident will come first.

Besides the unpredictable weather, the Villeneuve circuit is also prone to minor incidents that can be both surprising and alarming, such as...
"What the—I saw a rather fat little animal on the track! Right after turn seven, is that a groundhog?"

“Yeah, we see that, it’s a groundhog. Keep focusing on your own push.”

Shulong, who was in the first flight loop of Q2, was so startled that he broke out in a cold sweat. Taking advantage of the upcoming straightaway, he quickly complained in TR.

Just now, he was coming out of Turn 7 and preparing to go all out on the throttle and accelerate when he suddenly saw a large, furry rat on the side of the road startled by the roar of the race car and running haphazardly toward the widest road in sight.

Fortunately, Shu Long reacted quickly, easing off the accelerator and shifting the car's weight rapidly to the front wheels. He immediately steered back to avoid the car, otherwise the chubby guy would probably be turned to mush!
Putting aside the question of whether or not to cherish life, even if animal protection associations came looking for trouble, the FIA ​​would take the blame first. The key point is that this little creature is also very dangerous for drivers speeding on the track.

If it's just the front of the race car that gets hit, that's not a big deal. Aside from the helmet visor likely getting a layer of fleshy bits stuck to it, there shouldn't be much else to worry about.

However, if the car's wheels catch up directly, the car, which suddenly loses its grip, is very likely to crash into the guardrail on the side of the track.

"Remember to warn the cars behind you, it might be heading towards the apex of Turn 7 now."

“Copy.”

That being said, Shulong's lap time has inevitably been affected. Just that one corner where he lost his rhythm slowed him down by at least 0.3 seconds.

As expected, the final lap time was 1:11.811, slower than Q1's time!
However, there was some less-than-good news: Verstappen seemed to have misjudged the lap on the yellow tires as well. It seemed he hadn't adapted to the new car setup yet. When exiting Turn 9, the car oversteered, and the rear wheels narrowly bumped against the guardrail outside the corner.

In the end, I ran a time of 1:11.800, making me one of those two unfortunate brothers with Shulong.

Based on this result in Q1, advancing to Q2 should be no problem.

However, as the cars reduced their fuel levels, the two Renaults, two McLarens, and Haas's Magnussen all improved their lap times to 1:11.7 in Q2 using red tires. The two Renaults even managed to get a time of 1:11.5.

As a result, Shulong and Verstappen were both pushed out of the Q3 qualification zone, and were relegated to P11 and P12 respectively.

Albon, on the other hand, was plagued by tire temperature management issues during qualifying, and his lap time of 1:11.9 was still behind Shulong's.

As a rookie in his first year, Albon ultimately lacked experience in this area and was slightly inferior to the veteran drivers.

However, it was precisely for this reason that Toro Rosso struggled for quite some time with whether to use red or yellow tires for the second flight lap of the Q2, which resulted in them starting their second flight lap a little later.

Red Bull is also facing a similar dilemma. Gasly's Q2 achieved a time of 1:11.196 on its first red tire flight lap, meaning that Red Bull's car actually has a lot of lap time margin.

At the last minute, the two Red Bull cars, one large and one small, reached a tacit agreement and, still fitted with the same set of yellow tires, drove back onto the track.

Excluding the mistakes and unexpected situations on the track, it can be seen that their lap limit in qualifying on yellow tires is actually not weak, and they should have no problem beating Magnussen and the two McLarens.

Once the car can get into Q3, the advantage of yellow tires will truly become apparent, and at that point, forcing it into Q3 with red tires doesn't really make much sense.

Then, an unexpected incident occurred. As several cars that grazed the line entered the final flight lap, Magnussen, who had been pushing ahead, made a mistake and crashed into the wall.

This is simply outrageous!

Preliminary assessments suggest that the accident was caused by Magnussen pushing too hard when exiting Turn 14, causing the car to fail to return to the track in time. The right rear wheel, which was accelerating, hit a small patch of grass near the guardrail, resulting in a skid at the rear.

The shattered Haas car was parked across the starting straight, and the race organizers promptly displayed a red flag, interrupting the race.

This news was a complete shock, for Shulong, Verstappen, and Haas alike.

Haas's title sponsor officially lost the lawsuit two days ago on June 7th, and the team has been ordered to remove the Rich Energy trademark as soon as possible after the summer break.

Although the dishonest bearded man was still stubbornly insisting that he would continue to fight to the end, Haas's team manager Steiner had already vaguely realized that the subsequent sponsorship fees were likely to be lost, and such vehicle damage at this critical juncture was simply adding insult to injury!

Putting that aside, Shu Long found it extremely difficult to accept that he was eliminated in Q2 with a P12 finish, while Verstappen was angrily hitting his steering wheel.

Keep in mind that Haas only lost one race car, while Shulong and his team lost a precious opportunity to enter Q3!

Judging from their lap times in the first two timed segments, they were even likely to outpace the two Renaults. As a result, such a rare good lap was ruined by the sudden appearance of the Red Flag.

This is the first time since Shulong joined F1 that he has failed to qualify for Q3.
(End of this chapter)