F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 158 Tearing Clothes and Hair
Silverstone Circuit features many high-speed corners, which often place extremely high demands on the rear stability of racing cars.

For Haas's fragile rear suspension this year, Silverstone was a nightmare, a point-to-point game-winner.

Even Shu Long had to stay on edge the entire time in order to maintain the car's lap time as much as possible over the long distance, capturing every change in the car's dynamics and grip.

In the end, Magnussen deserves a lot of credit for securing that point.

Just as Shu Long made a start that could no longer surprise the audience, moving from P12 to P8, Magnussen also pulled off a miraculous start, moving from P16 to P12 and overtaking Alben.

As a result, Albon soon learned the trick Hamilton had used on him and elbowed Magnussen, who was walking the defensive line under the team's orders. With both sides injured, Albon had to pit early, which relieved a lot of defensive pressure on Shulong in the later stages.

Mercedes, McLaren, and Red Bull all brought a new round of upgrades to this race, and theoretically Red Bull should be faster.

In fact, Red Bull was indeed faster, at least Verstappen was faster. Although he was still a full second behind Mercedes in qualifying, Red Bull's lead over the cars behind him was quite significant.

However, for some reason, Alben still couldn't make it into Q3, and in his eagerness to regain his position, he severely injured Shulong's teammate.

Here, I have to say a few words in defense of Magnussen. Haas still hasn't made any upgrades in this race, and even Magnussen is gradually getting used to the terrible characteristics of this car. It's really a bit unreasonable for Albon to still be like this.

To reverse Albon's current slump, Tayshaun brought back Simon Reni, the "champion" engineer who had previously worked with Mark Webber and Ricciardo, directly from the team headquarters. You wouldn't get this kind of treatment when Gasly was in charge.

However, this may be Alben's last chance. If he has used all his resources but still cannot produce satisfactory results, then for the sake of the overall situation, Tainiu may have to let go of Alben.

The second key factor in Shulong's ability to score points was the match point, which has been making headlines recently.

The previous plagiarism has already been confirmed; Matchpoint did indeed obtain a lot of model data for related components directly from Mercedes.

The problem is that a large portion of these are new rules that were only added in 2020, while Matchpoint obtained this data in 19, which can be said to have perfectly exploited a gray area of ​​the rules.

Of course, whether Shulong can get points has little to do with whether they plagiarized or not. The key point is that Perez was forced into isolation because he tested positive for nucleic acid. After a round, Match Point temporarily pulled Hulkenberg in to play a substitute match.

Of course, it's not that Hulkenberg was so bad that he couldn't outrun Shulong even in the third fastest car in the paddock. It's just that the German veteran, who had just put on his pink racing suit, had only been in the car for a short time when the engine broke down. He couldn't get it started and ended his ridiculous substitute racing journey before he even finished a lap.

Adding to the mix, a number of drivers, including Bottas, Hamilton, Sainz, and Kimi, suffered inexplicable tire blowouts. Hamilton crossed the finish line on his three-wheeled vehicle on the last lap, but the others were not so lucky.

Conversely, the Haas, which should have generated the most tire wear, survived on a set of forty laps on white tires, driven by Shulong.
All I can say is that, at least in Steiner's eyes, Shulong's ability to bring the car back intact was already godlike.

Otherwise, guess why, even though Shulong has already generated a lot of simulation data, Haas has not upgraded its system after four stations?
No Money!
Looking at Kvyat, who went off course and crashed into the wall without any collision in this match, Steiner felt that it was absolutely the right decision to borrow Shulong in the first place. Colliding with Magnussen in one match was really the bottom line they could tolerate.

Fortunately, although the point was not well scored, Shu Long managed to collect a lot of useful data through this British Grand Prix.

Since the next race, the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix, will also be held at Silverstone Circuit, Shu Long believes that even without as many unexpected events to help Haas, and after another round of updated driving techniques, it won't be as difficult as this race.

Shortly after, the second Grand Prix of the year at Silverstone officially started.

The qualifying session was not much different from the last one. The only surprise was that Hulkenberg, who was finally driving, surprisingly took the P3 starting position, which may be the closest he has ever been to the podium.

Unfortunately, Hulkenberg only finished P8 in the final race, while P7 was a miraculous result for Shulong.

The previous accident involving multiple vehicles experiencing tire blowouts was investigated by Pirelli, and the conclusion was that the tires had wear exceeding expectations.

In other words, this should be considered an error by Pirelli in the allocation of tire compound. However, since the tires for the two Grand Prix races had already been prepared in advance, if the compound were to be changed, Pirelli would have to scrap nearly 1800 brand-new tires.

From both an economic and environmental perspective, this is undoubtedly inappropriate, which means that in order to avoid a tire blowout again, almost all teams will adopt a two-stop strategy in the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix.

However, there was one oddball race car with extremely high tire wear. Shu Long wanted to try something different in this race, so he rebelliously chose white tires for his first stint.

Verstappen also started on white tires, and he used a brilliant strategy to overturn two Mercedes cars in this race, squeezing out his first Grand Prix victory in 2020 when Mercedes was absolutely invincible.

Even with Red Bull's white tires, their first Stint only ran 25 laps.

Shulong not only employed a one-stop tactic throughout the race, but also managed to sustain himself for a full 35 laps on his first white tires before finally completing the remaining laps on a new yellow tire.

Don't think this is an easy thing. As a fellow Haas driver, Magnussen not only had to take two stops in this race, but he also failed to finish the race.

Although objectively speaking, Lao Ma did lack a whole match experience for adjustment and learning, he still frankly admitted to reporters that Shu Long's opening move was probably beyond human capability.

The drivers who used one stop throughout the race included Leclerc, Ocon, and Raikkonen. Leclerc's final race result was much better than Shulong's, achieving a miraculous P4 finish, so most people thought Magnussen was exaggerating.

But only those who have personally driven a Haas know that this car's extremely grueling characteristics would probably make it difficult for anyone else to handle.

Even with all his teammates' stats laid bare before him, Magnussen racked his brains trying to figure out how Shulong had managed to hold on.

Of course, none of that matters anymore. Circuits like Silverstone are rare on the calendar, and the Spanish Grand Prix comes back-to-back. The important thing is to get ready for the next race.

The Spanish Grand Prix has a relatively balanced track profile, and since preseason testing was conducted there, Haas finally unveiled their first round of upgrades after five races.

Not wanting to let down the hard work he had put in recently, Shu Long pushed Haas to P4 in the second practice session. However, considering the tire maintenance issues in the long run of the race, he changed a significant portion of the settings in the third practice session.

Magnussen finished with a P11 in the final qualifying round, but was eliminated in P16Q1.

He battled Gasly for the entire race, and then brought Albon into the fray at the end. The three, who were teammates last year, were showing no mercy at this moment, fighting as fiercely as if they were competing for a stage victory.

In the end, Shulong and Gasly's teamwork proved superior, just like their collaboration at Toro Rosso last year, as they jointly brought down Alben. Shulong finished with a P8, Gasly with a P9, and Alben was almost caught off guard by Norris, but fortunately managed to retain his points.

But the next stop is Spa.
Not just Haas, but this track is a complete nightmare for all teams using Ferrari engines.

Fortunately, Spa has always been a track that Toro Rosso is not very good at, so after some struggle, Shu Long still managed to qualify for P11.

Or rather, it wasn't actually that difficult; it was even easier than the previous stop, P11.

In the previous race, among Haas's main competitors, Toro Rosso's speed was actually quite good, but Renault faltered a bit.

Renault actually stood up at this stop, but Toro Rosso and Ferrari both had their pants down, and Ferrari couldn't even outrun Toro Rosso.

This is probably the first time since Leclerc and Vettel started driving a Ferrari that they have started from such a back position without any malfunctions, mistakes, or failures, and after completing all the flight laps.

Leclerc (P14), Vettel (P15), and almost got taken down by Russell driving a Williams; they couldn't even get into Q2.

As for Magnussen, who is also from Haas.

It's not that Shulong didn't help his teammates; in fact, he had already helped pull back the wake.

But Spa's problems with Haas are not just about the engine's lack of power. The biggest problem is Spa's extremely long lap time, which makes it particularly difficult for Magnussen to manage the temperature of the tires and rear suspension.

Without the wake from the slump, Magnussen's first lap time might not even have surpassed Williams' Latifi.

Seriously, this Canadian tycoon, who only got into F1 at the age of 25 thanks to his father's influence, has made a consistently poor and slow impression on the paddock in his first year.

His personality is also mild-mannered, and he always stands alone to the side, which makes him seem out of place in the current racing circle. His only outstanding feature is that he is a little taller than Shu Long and Albon.

In the limited number of times they met, Shu Long didn't actually exchange more than a few words with the other party, so he didn't know much about Latifi. He was just often curious as to why there were so many rich people from Canada.

There weren't many surprises in the subsequent main tournament, except that Sainz withdrew from the competition.

However, thanks to the generous contribution of this Spanish guy, Shulong's ranking rose one place to finish the race at P10, securing a point.

It seems that the competitive landscape this year will remain largely unchanged. Unless one team suddenly makes an incredible upgrade, the overall situation is expected to be quite stable.

However, apart from Mercedes and Red Bull, who are still fighting for the championship, and Ferrari, who are eager to redeem themselves and keep their managerial positions, other teams, including Racing Point, which is paving the way for Aston Martin's entry into the race next season, are unlikely to invest heavily in their cars.

One is the upcoming major rule changes, which will require many teams to allocate most of their resources to the development of cars with the new rules. The other is that many teams have had a tough time this year due to the mask issue.

2020上半年的4-6月份，F1的收入仅为2400万美元，虽然有同期没有办赛的缘故，但即便是在有着足足十场比赛的7-9月份，同期收入乐观预计都会锐减50%左右。

The only sources of revenue are television broadcasts and sponsorships. There are almost no major hosting fees, because many races are actually decided to be hosted by the FIA ​​after they begged the FIA; otherwise, they would have already decided to cancel them.

Not only do they not receive hosting fees, but for many tracks like Silverstone, F1 actually has to pay the organizers hosting fees instead.

Even F1 itself is losing money, so you can imagine how much other companies, big and small, are losing money. And all these companies in F1 have the same name: "sponsors".

Since sponsors are struggling, sponsorship fees have naturally been significantly reduced. This impacts not only on FIA sponsorship fees, but also on mid-to-lower-tier teams that rely almost entirely on sponsorships to keep their operations afloat.

Has was even worse.

This year, Haas's performance has been quite good, at least in terms of the current standings, it's much better than Toro Rosso, which was fourth in the team standings last year.

However, the improvement in performance has not changed Haas's current situation. He has finished seven Grand Prix races, but has been able to secure very few new sponsorships.

Gene Haas is now seriously considering retiring from F1 after 2020. Steiner is busy dealing with this mess every day, but he still has to find time to comply with Ferrari's demands and join in the complaints and appeals against Racing Point.

Ferrari, which at the beginning of the year was criticizing other teams for not trying to improve their car performance but instead resorting to underhanded tactics and complaining about others, seems to have finally realized the disadvantages of racing this year. Recently, it has also joined the ranks of those condemning Racing Point.

On the contrary, Red Bull, which was the most active in reporting other companies last year, has now completely withdrawn and is too lazy to deal with these trivial matters, seeing that it seems unable to bring down their biggest competitor, Mercedes-Benz.

The reason is simple: although Ferrari is currently in third place in the team thanks to Leclerc's excellent performances in several consecutive races, they are very likely to be overtaken by Racing Point in the next two or three races, given the current trend.

The effect of this round of whistleblowing was immediate.

Racing Point, which survived several rounds of complaints from Renault, was confirmed to have violated F1 regulations after repeated verification. As a result, Racing Point's 14 points at the Red Bull Ring Stirian Grand Prix were withdrawn, which did not affect the drivers' individual points, but they were also fined 400000 euros.

The second point is at best an add-on; the key is that these 14 points can at least buy Ferrari some breathing room.

At least for the next race, Ferrari’s home race in Monza, they shouldn’t have to worry about being overtaken in the team standings. Even without the massive crowds at the Iron Buddha Temple, a home loss would be completely unacceptable for Ferrari.

However, Leclerc's P14 and Vettel's P17 in qualifying undoubtedly brought Ferrari's current situation to a new low.

Conversely, Haas relied on a harmonious double-trailer strategy, and Magnussen finally made it back into Q2 after many races. Although P15 is only one position higher than P16, it is still a car that made it into Q2.

Shu Long finished in P12, with two Toro Rosso cars ahead of him, which are also his main targets in the next race.

At that moment, no one could have predicted how the main competition on the second day would develop into complete chaos.

(End of this chapter)