F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 136 The First Director

After failing to cut inside at Turn 1, the gap between Shulong and Bottas was actually extended to over 1.3 seconds at one point.

But before the lap was even finished, Shu Long closed the time gap between the two to 0.6 seconds.

The relentless pressure made Bottas more impatient with his throttle when exiting the corner. It was obvious that the other car's rear end was swinging slightly too much in the water, and his rhythm was inevitably affected.

Shulong didn't rush to close the distance, but instead maintained its current ambiguous state. Only after passing the starting straight road did it begin to close the gap again in the first DRS zone.

The Hockenheim circuit has two DRS sections, making it one of the few circuits that does not deploy DRS on the starting straight.

The first section is located between Turn 1 and Turn 2. The second section is quite special, as it is located directly within a long stretch of curves on Highway 5.

The current track conditions are certainly not sufficient to allow the race organizers to approve them to turn on DRS, but that does not prevent Shulong from using the wake of the car in front to create room for error in late braking.

Besides overtaking on many unconventional racing lines, there is another way to overtake on a wet track that has both a high failure rate and a high success rate: braking late at the end of the straight.

Because of the poor grip on the ground, whoever is bolder and has a more accurate sense of grip can often determine the outcome of a corner.

Most race car drivers tend to be relatively conservative in their braking points when it's wet.

It's not that they're being conservative compared to dry courts—that's just stating the obvious. What I'm saying is that their braking points are more conservative than their intuitive judgments based on their physical sensations.

Rainy land and dry land are ultimately different.

On dry surfaces, if you miss your braking point, you can apply heavier braking force and adjust your entry line into the corner. Even if you lock up, you can quickly regain traction by adjusting the braking force with your foot.

If you miss the braking point on rainy roads, even by just 0.1 seconds, you're basically at the mercy of fate afterward.

First of all, you can't make up for the slight loss of braking force by applying more braking force; if you brake even slightly harder, you'll just skid.

Once a tire locks up on wet ground, even if you release the brakes in time, the tire may not immediately regain rolling and braking force as it would on dry ground.

In summary, it can't be made up for in any way.

Even the slightest mistake could result in anything from veering off the racing line to crashing off the track.

The key to racing in the rain is to survive on the track, so many people would rather slow down a little than make a significant mistake than gamble on a 0.1-second or 0.2-second braking error.

The run-off area outside the Hockenheimring is a fairly standard coarse sand area. If a car goes in during rain, there is a very high probability that it will get stuck and unable to get out.

Therefore, braking late is inherently a high-risk, high-reward gamble.

Especially when braking late in areas with more water accumulation on the inside track, the track conditions are almost completely unknown, and the error rate can exceed 70%.

But once you stop, the success rate of overtaking is almost 100%.

The conditions for overtaking at Turn 2 were not ideal. Shulong showed better traction than Bottas at the turn exit, but the Mercedes engine allowed him to widen the gap again at the end of the straight.

However, Shulong still made a tentative attacking move before Turn 2.

This serves both as a rehearsal for a future overtake and as a way to test the grip on the inside of the track for any potential attempts at this position on the next lap.

Bottas, who had been watching the situation in the rearview mirror, swallowed hard. This little madman was really keeping him on edge for a moment.

Bottas wasn't just worried about being overtaken; he was actually more concerned that these kids might be reckless on the track and could accidentally take him down with them – that would be a real pain in the ass.

Fortunately, Shulong is probably not some Verstappen 2. Having witnessed the impact of water accumulation on braking points twice, he probably won't make such a dangerous attempt at Turn 6 at the end of the next long acceleration segment.

As Mercedes' number two driver, Bottas is only slightly inferior to champion drivers like Hamilton and Vettel, which does not mean he is really bad.

The fact that he was able to challenge Hamilton and take pole position several times this year with the resources of the second driver shows that Bottas is a top driver with a very high ceiling.

Although he may seem to have some difficulty swimming, it doesn't mean that his grasp of the track is weaker than others.

Because the terrain at Turn 6 slopes down, it is also one of the most waterlogged areas on the track.

Even regular racing lines have to carefully test the braking points here, let alone unconventional racing lines where the water accumulation is even more severe.

However, this reason alone is not enough to make Bottas completely lower his guard.

Also due to the terrain of Turn 6, the water situation on the regular racing line is not much better than that on the unconventional racing line. If Shu Long really wants to give it his all, he might actually have a chance.

So there are other reasons why Bottas felt that place wouldn't be an attacking point.

As a corner at the end of a long acceleration segment, Turn 6 has a rather shallow angle, making it the slowest corner on the entire track.

This means that the braking force here is usually heavier than that of other corners, which translates to a longer braking distance in rainy weather.

The small angle of the curve means that the inside line is not the best driving route, whether it is rainy or dry.

Trying to squeeze into the inside line will not only make it difficult for the car to maintain corner speed due to insufficient entry angle, but will also greatly affect acceleration after exiting the corner. Anyone with a little common sense would not attempt this.

Bottas was right. Turn 6 was not the attacking point that Shu Long had in mind. The place he really wanted to try was the special DRS zone at Turn 5.

However, Bottas was wrong about one thing: Turn 6 was indeed the slaughterhouse that the dragons had prepared to kill the race.

As a long, high-speed curve, Turn 5 is not a place where you can just floor the accelerator and drive well, especially when the road surface is wet.

High-speed corners often require a more stable rear end, which is why cars with understeer tend to have a greater advantage in such sections. However, the real challenge here is how to prevent a car from actually understeering in high-speed corners.

Besides adjusting the racing line to smoothly transition the car's center of gravity, fine-tuning the throttle is the key to maximizing the car's speed.

On dry tracks, the optimal racing line is to gradually drift outwards towards the outside of the track inside Turn 5, then return to the other side of the track as the corner's curve narrows to prepare for Turn 6. On wet tracks, to make the acceleration line smoother in the later stages, drivers often choose to enter the outside of the track earlier, when speeds are relatively lower. This is the real reason why Shulong was able to use this as his attacking point.

Ignoring the extremely poor visibility ahead, Shulong tightly sucked into Bottas's wake after exiting Turn 4, completely hiding himself in the white mist kicked up by the other's tires and aerodynamic components.

The car behind suddenly disappeared from sight, and Bottas, who was clearly on the advantageous line, suddenly felt a little panicked. So he quickly made a decision that was very appropriate for the current situation - to open his lane to the outside of the track in advance.

There's really nothing wrong with this choice. The outer track is drier, which is more conducive to the traction of the car and helps it accelerate.

At the same time, exposing the dragon behind him again makes it easier for him to make his next move based on the opponent's movements.

But from the perspective of those who see things from God's point of view
"Huh? Why did Bottas give up Shulong himself?!"

A red and blue Toro emerged from the water curtain like an assassin, using the slingshot effect from the slipstream that Bottas had left to accelerate along the line. It barely touched the apex of the corner and, with the shorter distance, rammed its front wheel into Bottas's side.

"Huh?! It can't be that bad, Bottas. As the number two driver for a championship team, aren't you a bit too much of a landlubber? You look so unmotivated!"

Strangely, the soldier, who should have been on Shu Long's side, actually turned around and became angry at Bottas for his lack of competitiveness after seeing this seemingly easy draw.

Considering the conversation before the match where Bing Ge questioned Shu Longyu's fighting level, it sounds like he bet on the wrong side.

Fei Ge and Ran Ge couldn't help the situation, because Shu Long and Bottas had entered the most crucial braking zone of Turn 6 at the same time.

After realizing that he had underestimated Shulong's ability to control the track grip in the rain, Bottas was already trying to make amends, even at the cost of sacrificing some cornering speed to force Shulong to enter corner 6 at a more aggressive angle.

However, Shu Long refused to give an inch, and he had already moved forward by half a car length. According to the rules, Bottas could not make any overly aggressive defensive moves at this point, and the two cars entered Turn 6 side by side in a very awkward position.

Overtaking on high-speed corners of unconventional racing lines in the rain is significantly more difficult than on low-speed corners. To be honest, taking such a big risk to gain such a small advantage is far from what Shu Long expected.

Although the inner line was short, the slight hydroplaning that occurred several times greatly affected his acceleration efficiency in the latter half of the DRS zone, but fortunately, the advantage of this half-car body was actually enough.

Bottas seems to be in a slight lead now, but in reality, his opponent is stuck in a very difficult position. He either has to brake early to give himself enough angle to enter the corner, or he has to take a gamble and risk going off the track.

With the other tires right next to him, Shulong judged Bottas's choice almost instantly.

That's right, Bottas is going to carry out what he previously considered the least likely operation in the most unlikely place.

With a late brake that teetered on the edge of losing control, Bottas predictably went out of the track's restricted area. However, he also used this rare stretch of asphalt in Hockenheim to readjust to a sufficient entry angle, determined to maintain his current P2 position even at the risk of going out of bounds.

"How could he do that? That's against the rules! Doesn't he need to return the seat?"

"Oh! But Shulong used the crossroads, and his cornering traction was significantly better than Bottas'!"

"Can you overtake it? Yes, you can! You've already overtaken it!"

There's no need for Fei Ge and Ran Ge to try to salvage the situation; Bing Ge's solo roar in this segment has almost cleared him of all suspicion.

It seems that the reason why the beginning sounded like a betrayal of one's own position was probably because of the mentality of expecting to see an epic battle, but finding that it ended in a hasty and disappointing conclusion.

Unfortunately, the joy in the studio didn't last long before Ran Ge noticed the prominent yellow flag icon on the UI on the left side of the screen.

"Oh dear, a yellow flag has been raised! Shulong shouldn't need to return the position, right?"

"Yellow flag? How can there be a yellow flag?! Bottas just rushed out on his own, the two cars didn't even make contact, it was definitely a successful overtaking maneuver!"

Clearly, the soldier, whose brain has gone on strike because it can't keep up with his mouth, is probably subconsciously thinking that the yellow flag was caused by this overtaking maneuver.

But let alone the soldier, even Shu Long was loudly questioning the team in the TR, because he almost thought that he was the one who caused the yellow flag.
“Dragon, we need to hand over the position. The yellow flag will appear before you complete the overtake.”

"I...but...this doesn't make sense! He just went out by himself!"

“I know, but that’s the rule. He’s ahead of you before entering the corner and after exiting the corner, and you’re not allowed to overtake during the yellow flag phase.”

"OK! OK! But at least you can tell me which genius caused the yellow flag, right?"

"It's Checo (Perez), he went up into the wall after Turn 1, and the safety car is about to be deployed."

Fxck!

Shu Long turned off TR, mute himself, and furiously pounded the steering wheel in the car, pointing at the central screen and typing furiously, as if it were printed with the face of either Bottas or Perez.

Or perhaps both of their faces are present.

No matter how much he disagreed, he reluctantly gave up Bottas in the end.

But it has to be said, isn't that what makes rain-soaked matches so exciting?
Besides the fact that the gap between the Mars rover and the Earth rover was narrowed by the terrible track conditions, overtaking and close combat were not limited to the DRS button. Aren't these directorial dramas and fun moments on the track that could change the course of the battle at any time the most beloved parts of the show?

The match is still long. Let's see how many times Bottas can use the same Dragon's Breath technique. He doesn't believe that the Finn can withstand his offensive indefinitely.

"Has the safety car been deployed yet? How about considering semi-weather tires? I think the track conditions are now suitable for semi-weather tires."

"Yes, we are considering it and will give you an answer in a bit."

To put it nicely, it's called "considering," but in reality, it's just waiting for other teams to be the first to try something new. In rainy conditions, a wrong tire choice could very well ruin the entire race, and Shulong's current position makes the team hesitant to take too many risks.

Fortunately, Shu Long wasn't the only one with this opinion; more than half of the drivers on the track felt that now was the best time to switch to semi-wet tires.

"Long, we're definitely pitting to switch to partial wet tires this lap. Remember to switch the tire mode to inter."

"OK, copy!"

(End of this chapter)