F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 126 Some are happy and some are worried

Failing to make it into Q3 means that Shulong is once again facing a difficult choice regarding its starting line for tomorrow.

Is it yellow or red, or even more extreme, white?

Because this track is not easy to overtake, even at the start, the car in front can easily block any chance that Shulong might try to find.

If it were anyone else ahead of him, that would be fine. The problem is that the person in front of Shulong at the starting line of P12 is named Verstappen. It is foreseeable that he will definitely become Max's main target for defense tomorrow.

In this way, if they want to move from outside the points zone to the front, they can't just rely on Shu Long's superhuman performance at every start.

The experience from the last Monaco race shows that no matter how fast Shu Long's reaction speed is or how stable his performance is, it is a fool's choice to put all his eggs in one basket at the start.

Even if the track conditions are not as demanding as Monaco, the kind of tight defense that the old man showed at the beginning of the Baku race is not uncommon in the race. Even Shu Long cannot guarantee that his overtaking rate at the start will be 100%.

Therefore, properly arranging the tire compound and the rhythm of each stint becomes of paramount importance.

Maintaining a high level of aggression on this track is a foolish thing to do. Unless you are 120% sure, any rash attempt to overtake the car in front will only wear down your tires. If your race rhythm is ruined, don't cry or complain.

Therefore, the main task of the entire race is not to strive for a better ranking. Instead, the teams need the drivers to stay on the track for as long as possible and constantly balance the relationship between lap time and tire maintenance.

When you do better than other drivers in this aspect, opportunities will naturally emerge as the race progresses.

After discussions at the team's tactical meeting, Shulong finally decided to start the race on a completely new set of white tires, just like Verstappen.

The difficulty in raising tire temperature and the slow start-up of a white tire at the beginning of a race will not pose a significant disadvantage here.

Especially considering the unusually high temperatures on the track these past two days, coupled with Shu Long's consistently strong start, it's safe to say that it's already a good thing he didn't attack anyone.

The advantage of white tires is that in the early stages of a race when following closely, white tires help him maintain his rhythm on the track and can even drag the cars in front and behind into his own racing rhythm.

As the race progressed into the mid-to-late stages, the spacing between the cars gradually increased, and the yellow tires that the second Stint switched to were better protected in the relatively clean air.

That's a good point, but only Shulong and Verstappen dare to gamble like that right now.

For drivers who are not so confident in their abilities or the performance of their cars, starting on white tires means that if they make even the slightest mistake, they could very well lose more than one position.

Furthermore, no one can guarantee that they won't lose their rhythm on their first stint with a white tire.

If the train in front can't keep up and the train behind takes the opportunity to enter the station early and is undercut, that would be a complete joke.

Forget about following a strategy; choosing a white tire as the first stint basically eliminates the option of early pit stops. Unless you cut off your own arm by switching to a two-stop strategy, neither yellow nor red tires can possibly last through the rest of the races.

Of course, there is some good news as well.

Sainz, who started in P9, was found by the race organizers to have obstructed Albon during qualifying and will be penalized three places back in the starting lineup for the race.

Um.
So, besides tire temperature management issues, Albon's poor Q2 performance was probably also influenced by Sainz's performance?
Shu Long didn't hear Alben complain about this at all after the qualifying round, and thought that he just didn't perform well. For a moment, he couldn't tell whether Alben was tough or just too soft-hearted.

Another one is Haas' Magnussen, whose car is severely damaged and will start from the pit lane tomorrow.

Goodness, the main competition hasn't even started yet, and Shu Long has already entered the points zone without doing anything.

Sure enough, no one can be unlucky forever, right?
In response, Albon, whose front wing was shattered by the young star at Turn 1 on the second day of racing, had something to say.
His start was actually quite good, but just as he was trying to launch an attack on Sainz, who had been demoted to this position, the cunning Sainz managed to steer him onto a very difficult path.

This completely negated the speed advantage that Albon had gained at the start.

But the worst was yet to come. Stroll's start was decent, but as soon as the Red Bull and McLaren got tangled up in front of him, the scent of opportunity immediately filled the young master's nostrils.

A late brake just before Turn 1 allowed the front of the car to successfully swerve in front of Albon's car, but the tires inevitably locked up.

The young master handled the situation quite quickly, rapidly adjusting the braking force to regain the car's braking power. However, the missed entry opportunity into the corner could not be recovered.

However, Albon was already entering the corner when a pink car suddenly appeared on the inside, startling him. Just as he was about to turn around to avoid it, another car, Arowana, suddenly squeezed in from the right side of his car.

That's it, dodging left or right is a problem. Alben has no choice but to gamble on the young master's side, at least on this side the young master's driving direction is the same as his.

To be honest, there was nothing wrong with this choice. The problem was that Stroll's pace when entering corners was much slower than he had anticipated.

As expected, Albon's front wing completely detached, nearly taking away Giovanni beside him. If it weren't for the HALO frame blocking the way, Grosjean of Haas behind him would almost have been strangled by a huge piece of carbon fiber.

And just one row ahead of Alben, Shulong's start did not disappoint anyone.

Even with the hardest white tires at the start, the red and blue Toro still showed a strong aggressiveness.

However, instead of attacking Verstappen directly, he skipped ahead and put pressure on the orange-clad McLaren ahead.

Norris was initially somewhat skeptical, after all, he had watched the back-and-forth between Shulong and Hamilton at the start of the Baku race several times and knew that these guys were very cunning during the back-and-forth.

But seeing that the guy behind him seemed quite determined, Norris was forced to sweat profusely as he went to defend the outside.

Now that's great, Verstappen saw that there was such a big opening in the paint and immediately accepted it.

Before McLaren could even complete the lane change, and Norris's car had just shown signs of turning, Shu Long feinted and immediately moved back behind Verstappen, using the inside advantage of the first left turn to finish alongside Norris.

Still young after all, haha~
Shulong, who is a year younger than Norris, thought this after successfully overtaking.
Not everyone has the ability of Hamilton, who is currently at his peak. Even if they can realize that the dragon behind them is making a feint, not many people can keep up with the continuous lane changes when the initiative is completely in someone else's hands.

However, this is somewhat unfair; Shulong and Verstappen could be considered to have violated team rules at this point.

During the pre-race driver parade, Shu Long and Max discussed their race strategy for the main race.

Oh no! It shouldn't be called discussion, it should be called deliberation.
In short, their race goals were definitely not just to finish in the points zone; they wanted to push forward as much as possible, so they couldn't afford to waste too much time with the Renaults and McLarens ahead of them. So, Shu Long and Max jokingly suggested that they team up and launch an attack on Norris at the start.

It was really just a joke; no one would believe it if it were said out loud. Verstappen was also afraid that he might believe Shulong's nonsense and have his position stolen.

Who would have thought that Shulong would actually implement this in the competition, and more importantly, it actually worked?!
Another reason they don't take it seriously is that, in addition to securing a position at the start, they also need to minimize the lifespan of the red tires on the car in front of them in order to improve their position in the early stages of the race.

From Norris all the way to Ricciardo at the front, all of these cars made it into Q3 on red tires, so naturally they could only start on the red tires they had used in qualifying.

But are these red tires really that good for dealing with temperatures of 32 degrees Celsius and track temperatures of 55 degrees Celsius?

It can be said that the earlier the cars in front enter the pits, the sooner Shulong and Verstappen will have clean air to set their lap times.

as predicted.

On lap seven, Renault's Hulkenberg and Ricciardo were already struggling to withstand the pressure from the two Red Bulls behind them and made pit stops one after another.

Gasly then entered the pits, but his pit stop seemed less like a sign that his red tires were worn out and more like an instruction from the Red Bull team to make way for Verstappen, since they hadn't even gotten close to Gasly's DRS area yet.

Before the race had even reached lap 10, the two Red Bulls, one large and one small, had already moved up to positions P5 and P6.

They then completely settled into their own rhythm of maintaining their pregnancy, and the Mercedes and Ferraris ahead of them with yellow tires naturally couldn't catch up for a while.

Behind them, a large number of cars with red tires started and then pitted to change tires. They were now more than twenty seconds behind them, and it was unlikely that they could catch up.

Instead of trying to stay close behind Verstappen and catch his wake, Shulong gradually pulled away to a position of about three seconds, minimizing the impact of the polluted air on itself.

Now his only concern is Gasly's lap time behind him, in case he gets flipped over by the Red Bull No. 2 car that has already completed its first pit stop after pitting.

Although the problem isn't too big, Gasly will likely have to use over fifty laps of white tires to block the new tires' pull. Even if the track is difficult to overtake, it won't provide any conditions for defense.

The rest of the race was a very boring cruise performance, with Shulong and Verstappen just playing their own games in the open space in the middle of the car formation.

However, the front row was quite spectacular.

From lap 30 to lap 40, Hamilton engaged in a high-intensity battle with Vettel ahead of him, with the two taking turns locking up their tires. Mercedes came very close to overtaking Ferrari, but could not find a suitable opportunity.

Ferrari's long-distance performance at this race was indeed slightly inferior to Mercedes' well-rounded performance, but fortunately, the Canadian track conditions gave Vettel ample opportunity to maintain his advantage.

It's fair to say that if Vettel hadn't performed brilliantly yesterday and secured pole position, if he had started from P2 today, Mercedes' rear end might not even be visible now. The tire wear is on a completely different level compared to Hamilton, who was also frequently locking up his tires behind him.

And he also had the advantage of having clean air ahead of him.

However, it was indeed the old man behind him who was putting too much pressure on him, frequently cutting into the defensive line, putting a lot of pressure on the front wheel when entering a corner, and putting a lot of pressure on the rear wheel when exiting a corner.

Especially the rear wheels!
Because he couldn't gain an advantage in the cornering line every time, Vettel had to put a lot of wear on the rear tires with every throttle press in order to keep up with the Mercedes' exit rhythm.

Ferrari's cars are now demonstrating what it means to push into a corner and then drift incredibly fast when exiting.

Just as Shu Long chose to pit on lap 48, Vettel ahead went too far at turn 3 and sprinted into the grass, drifting and sliding all the way back to the track, almost taking away the old man who was driving normally behind him with another dragon tail.

In fact, Vettel's braking point selection was correct, and the tires did not lock up.

However, due to the dirty airflow from the slower car ahead that was lapping it, the front of the car lost downforce. In addition, the tires were already worn out, and the car lost its ability to steer.

Despite the car's struggles, Vettel managed to pull off a pole-to-win, finally redeeming himself after being repeatedly bullied by Shulong in the previous races.

What about Shu Long? His second half of the season was just incredibly boring.

Around lap 39, Gasly had already squeezed out his pit window, so there was no point in pitting at that point. It was better to save some laps for the yellow tires behind him.

The pit stop on lap 48 was considered a normal pit stop, since Verstappen had also pitted four seconds earlier.

After leaving the station, Shulong was about two seconds behind Gasly, but the new yellow calf was no match for the old white Red Bull that had been running for forty laps.

Shu Long first closed the distance to a safe distance with two laps, and on the fifty-first lap, he only encountered a symbolic but not practical obstacle from Gasly. He easily took advantage of his tires to successfully pass through the DRS area after Turn 7.

Even overtaking was done so smoothly that Shulong's final P6 finish was completely uneventful. It was just an improvement of one place from the previous P7, and the result was simply a result of reaping the benefits of his strategy.

The long 70-lap race was basically like going from P10 to P6 without doing anything; I felt completely uninvolved.

A frustrated Gasly expressed his anger, saying he wanted to defend, regardless of their usual relationship, their current position on the track almost determined their future seat status.

Unfortunately, the tires wouldn't allow it. If he were to make a few more aggressive defensive moves like Vettel did, he would likely have to opt for a second stop with twenty laps left in the race.

The loss in that position would be even greater then. You have to remember that he originally started at P5, and now P7 is a result that is not very acceptable.

But this concession only made Gasly more uneasy.

I always felt that if I kept running like this, I might not even have a seat in F1, let alone a seat in Red Bull.

I heard that another Honda player has joined the youth academy, and there's also Kvyat in the team. Even if the Red Bull system had four spots, it wouldn't be enough to fill them all.

Gasly didn't want to see O'Connor's expression after learning he was also a substitute.
Fortunately, the gap between him and Alben finally widened a little.

The accident at the beginning of the race not only damaged Albon's front wing, but also affected the balance of the car. After persisting for 59 laps, he had no choice but to retire from the race for safety reasons.

It's pathetic. We usually get along quite well, but now we've reached the point where we have to cheer for other people's misfortunes.
　Watching Sauber's P5 playthrough felt like eating shit; I haven't even finished writing the extra chapter yet, so I'll have to post it all together tomorrow...

　　
　
(End of this chapter)