F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 167 24 Hours in Le Mans
Breaking:

According to TGR-E (Toyota Gazoo Racing Europe).

此前伤愈回归的中国车手束龙，继匈牙利F1大奖赛夺冠后确认将加入丰田GR010 Hypercar 8号车组，与日本车手中岛一贵以及新西兰车手布兰顿.哈特利搭档，共同征战2021年第89届勒芒24小时耐力赛

According to Akio Toyoda, CEO of Toyota Motorsport Development Center:

Shu Long had already completed testing of the new LMH car and demonstrated considerable driving skills. He is an outstanding driver with amazing speed. We are honored to have invited Shu Long as a member of the All-Star team and look forward to him creating the miracle of the No. 8 car winning the Le Mans championship again.

This year, the three original Hypercar manufacturers, Toyota and Alpine, along with the small American manufacturer Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus, will send a total of five teams.
Below is a preview of the highlights of this year's 24 Hours of Le Mans, mainly introducing the lineups of teams and drivers worth looking forward to. Shu Long glanced at it briefly and then handed the phone back to Gan Mengning.

This matter had been in a semi-public state before, with many rumors circulating earlier that Shu Long would become an official driver for Toyota's endurance races this year.

However, due to Shu Long's physical condition, his ability to participate was uncertain, and Toyota has not officially confirmed this.

Furthermore, given that Shu Long himself has always focused his public statements on F1, this previous revelation was merely a "rumor."

However, with Shulong's early victory as a foundation, Toyota's decision to release the news at this time can indeed be seen as riding the wave of popularity. Everyone seems to be looking forward to seeing how a rising star in F1 will perform in endurance racing.

“There seem to be high expectations for you right now. After all, although the overall strength of your No. 8 car crew is relatively low, they have won the Le Mans 24 Hours three times in a row. Isn’t the pressure a bit too much?”

"What pressure could there be? The charm of endurance racing lies in the fact that anything is possible until the very end. I just need to do my part well and then fully enjoy this driving feast, and that's all!"

"Alright. I'm just worried that you'll push yourself too hard again. I've read previous reports that the probability of accidents in Le Mans seems quite high."

"That's because the race is so long. People get sleepy while driving, which naturally makes accidents more likely. And have you heard this saying about Le Mans?"

Gan Mengning shook her fluffy little head, which was covered by the pillow, and leaned against her boyfriend like a coward, waiting for Shu Long to finish chewing so she could have something ready-made for her.

"Many drivers who win Le Mans share the same feeling: 'It's not that I won Le Mans, but that Le Mans chose me.' So I'll just wait and see if this mecca of motorsport likes me."

Driving continuously for 24 hours straight, with the driver constantly moving, even the most skilled driver will struggle if the car breaks down. In that case, no one can help.

In addition, this year there are new regulations, and the reliability of Hypercars still needs to be proven. Shu Long is not so arrogant as to think that the championship should be his.

However, it is said that those who survive a great calamity are destined for good fortune. Having survived an accident like last year, Shu Long believes that his birth chart is quite compatible with the sport of motorsports.

After all, this is the Le Mans 24 Hours, one of the three most valuable races in the history of motorsport, and its significance goes far beyond just a single race.

As one of the world's oldest motorsport events, Le Mans has been held for nearly 100 years, from 1923 to the present.

Of course, Le Mans is more than just a car race for many people; it's a car carnival for all motorsport enthusiasts. Rather than simply focusing on a win or loss, it's more like an annual gathering of like-minded people from all over the world.

Aside from the Monaco Grand Prix in Formula 1, Le Mans is undoubtedly one of the best choices if you want to experience the purest racing atmosphere.

"By the way, have you thought about what I asked you before?"

"Which one? Oh, Le Mans? I'm not cut out for that, am I?"

"Why not? You have to believe in your talent! Not to mention compared to me, I feel you're much better than a large portion of the boss drivers!"

This isn't Shu Long joking. In the AM camp of the GT class, most of the drivers are professional drivers and sponsors who just want to join in the fun. Many of the drivers who are called "drivers" actually have questionable driving skills.

Gan Mengning is one of the girls with exceptional talent for driving. Not only did she learn drifting incredibly quickly when she learned from Sister Xuan, but she also learned lap time details very quickly when playing simulators with her at home.

how to say?

At least it's much better than Leclerc's ex-girlfriend who ran away after their breakup, the one who got locked out of his house by Leclerc because he was addicted to live streaming.

During the time they were locked at home last year, they still went out together quite a few times. As the winner of the final stage of the girlfriend competition, Gan Mengning made Shu Long look good in front of those bastards.

However, that wasn't what Gan Mengning was worried about.

If she wants to team up with Shu Long to compete, it means she will inevitably have to appear in front of the camera. Moreover, given Shu Long's own level of attention, if she accidentally messes up during the competition, who knows how she will be attacked.

As a seasoned internet veteran who started navigating the online world in junior high school, Gan Mengning is all too familiar with the current online trends and procedures.

It was rare to see Shu Long so enthusiastically inviting her to experience life on her own, so Gan Mengning didn't want to dampen his enthusiasm for the time being. She suggested that she practice more on the simulator after returning home.

Shu Long didn't think that much about it, just figuring that this matter wasn't urgent, so he didn't continue the topic.

As for the other driver, Shu Long, he has also made plans. He will bring his father along. Having loved motorsports for so many years, now that his son has grown up, he will also take his father to experience the thrill of racing.

今年的勒芒正赛被从以往的6月推迟到了8月21-22日举行，束龙8月5日就提前落地，陪着家里人在周边的几个城市玩了一圈，到了10日才前往车队报到。

Le Mans is touted as a 24-hour carnival for drivers and fans, but in reality, this annual carnival has been generating buzz for a week before the race even begins.

A week before the start of the race, all the cars go to Place de la République in the center of Le Mans for technical testing.

This process is not only an important part of the race safety, but also a great opportunity for fans to get up close to these speed machines on the track and get up close to star drivers.

Although Le Mans is not exactly Shulong's home turf, the fans at the event still showed him considerable enthusiasm.

Apart from a very small number of extreme fans who hold the view that F1 is the ultimate champion and Le Mans is the ultimate champion, the overlap among fans of both races, which are paved track events, is actually quite high because the schedules of the two races do not conflict much.

With the already high popularity of F1, the support that Shu Long received as a newcomer even slightly overshadowed that of his two teammates who had already won the highest honors in Le Mans and the Endurance Series.

There's no way around it; motorsports is ultimately a competitive sport, and as long as it's related to competition, the pursuit of excellence is the underlying theme.

Even though both Kazuki Nakajima and Brenton Hartley are top drivers who once held F1 super licenses, their overall achievements and talents are like two different dimensions from Shu Long. When people want to choose an idol, they will naturally prefer the one who is less likely to "disappoint" them.

In fact, Shulong did not disappoint everyone.

On Sunday, August 15, right after the vehicle inspection, during the two official testing sessions totaling nine hours, Shulong first set a lap record under the new Hypercar regulations using hard tires.
3:28.733, a gap of nearly half a second ahead of Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus, the second fastest in the group.

The data may sound a bit slow, far behind the lap times of the LMP1 era which were already under 3:15, but in fact, when the new LMH regulations were first implemented, the expected lap time for the cars at Le Mans was only 3:30.

The slower lap time limit will certainly be much lower than the previous driving intensity, but in this super long lap of 13.626KM with a total of 37 corners, whoever can better control the details will stand out from the other cars in the same group.

Of course, everyone was running at a relatively low speed during this test, and they were still figuring out how to tune and push the new cars to their limits at the Sarthe circuit. However, under almost identical car conditions, Shu Long's lap time advantage compared to his two teammates was already quite telling.

After two days of adjustments, the first free practice session began on August 18th. Shu Long immediately used yellow tires to break the current fastest time in the LMH class to 3:26.157, outpacing his two teammates by nearly 1.3 seconds.

This way, there's no need to argue about who gets to shine, and Shu Long will naturally be the main attacker for car number 8 in the upcoming regular qualifying rounds.

This is no easy task. Given the speed advantage of the LMP1 class in previous years, advancing from the regular qualifying session to the Super Pole position is almost a certainty.

This year, the advantage is still there, but compared to the ten-second advantage last year, the overall lap time performance of the LMP2 group in practice this year is not much different from that of LMH, which is around 3:28 or 3:29.

If you can't outrun the cars in the next lower class during qualifying, you'll be incredibly embarrassed.

These past two days, Shu Long has been chatting with Magnussen and Ye Yifei in the paddock. They all agree that the front row battles this year will be quite exciting. In previous years, the LMP1 class would undoubtedly sweep the top three spots in the race, but this year, some teams might be upset by the LMP2 class.

Then, in the regular qualifying session, Shulong seized a very good opportunity to advance in the first lap.

不但没有被暖胎的慢车阻挡，直道上反而还能吸一吸低组别赛车的尾流，直接便将LMH组别的圈速记录给推到了3：23.515，领先隔壁丰田7号车由小林可梦伟跑出来的3：26.279接近2.8秒。

Okay, the earlier comments that LMH might crash out of the LMP2 class were indeed a bit too much; at least in qualifying, there's no hope of a comeback.

After all, the rules for the LMP2 category are relatively stable, while everyone is still exploring the LMH category, so such an improvement is normal.

However, for Shu Long, he already had a pretty good understanding of the car's limits when he first got behind the wheel. The fluctuations in lap times mainly depended on the adjustments made to the car's settings by his two teammates.

After all, endurance racing is not like Formula 1. In Formula 1, all that matters is that Shu Long is comfortable driving. In endurance racing, a car needs three drivers to take turns driving it. It is meaningless if only Shu Long is fast.

And coincidentally, Shulong isn't particularly picky about the tuning of his racing cars.

So the process for the Toyota No. 8 car crew in practice was basically that the two guys in front would adjust the car one by one, and then Shulong would take over and push it for a few laps to get a feel for it.

Currently, car number 8 has a significant advantage over its biggest rival, car number 7, and with such a strong team to rely on, everyone is quite optimistic.

But it's unclear whether some people are overly optimistic or simply unwilling to admit defeat and want to challenge the limits of Shulong.

In the third free practice session before the Super Pole 2010, Kazuki Nakajima took too much speed into the Indianapolis Corner, causing his car to sway outwards before he could hold onto the apex, resulting in a spin and a crash into the wall that damaged the rear of the car.
Shu Long, holding his lunchbox, was so startled that he quickly shoveled a couple more bites into his mouth. But then he realized that the dish looked like it was from his own car, and suddenly those two bites felt like he was choking.

With just over four hours until the Super Pole Race, which will determine tomorrow's starting order, I wonder if the team's mechanics will have enough time to fix the car.

While pole position in endurance racing doesn't actually have that much impact on the race result, the key issue is that such a collision could potentially affect the reliability of the cars going on later. What if a collision like this causes a sports car to break down during the race?
Before Alonso joined the team, Kazuki Nakajima had a reputation for being a "kneeling mess at the finish line." Even though Shu Long didn't want to be superstitious, he was afraid that Alonso's genius in team selection would be passed on to him.

When Nakajima returned, he felt extremely guilty and kept wandering around the P room, apologizing to everyone he met.

Shu Long couldn't stand it. This handsome 36-year-old man was a nice guy. He was always very polite and enthusiastic when he spoke. However, he was too tactless. To put it simply, he felt much more "Japanese" than Kakuta.

Whether it's a race or not is secondary now; the priority is to get the car repaired and finish the Super Pole race.

After the starting order for tomorrow is decided, there will be a four-hour free practice session, during which any potential problems can be investigated.

Then, seeing that Uncle Nakajima was about to come over and bow again, Shu Long simply made an excuse that he needed to go back to prepare for the Super Pole Position Tournament and slipped back to his room to sleep.
Fortunately, Toyota, as the current leader in endurance racing, has ample spare parts and resources, and the repair of the race car was basically completed in less than 3 hours.

Basic
The Super Pole Race lasts only half an hour, and with a large number of cars from various classes crammed onto the same track at the same time, there aren't many effective opportunities to advance.

Shu Long's push was unfortunately blocked several times in the first few laps, but fortunately he found a good opportunity to push after the first red flag. He used the old soft tires to set a time of 3:23.633, overtaking Kobayashi Kamui, who had achieved three consecutive pole positions, by 0.27 seconds to move up to P1.

It was a little slower than his regular qualifying time, but it still essentially secured their pole position victory.

As luck would have it, because of the extra rounds on the track, Shu Long seemed to notice something slightly off about the race car.

"The oil pressure in the race car seems a bit off. The power output feels different than before. The engine is not getting enough fuel, and I need to open the throttle wider to get normal power."

"That's not right. But we don't seem to have found any abnormal readings here, and the throttle curve seems normal."

The engineer seemed a little skeptical at first, but seeing that Shu Long didn't seem to be joking, he called a few people over to discuss the matter.

This is a very subtle difference, because the greater throttle opening that Shulong mentioned is less than three millimeters.

This is one of the main reasons why, even after the new F1 engine technology directives, he was able to keep up with the cars ahead of him by upgrading the lagging Haas.

The versatile term "photographic memory" allows him to almost remember the engine's different noise and response states in every situation, enabling him to perform the magical operation of changing the "engine mode" with just his feet.

Toyota's technicians checked the sensor data back and forth several times, and after comparing the data feedback from the other two drivers in the fourth free practice session, they finally confirmed that the race car did indeed have an abnormal fuel consumption problem.

It may not have a significant impact now, but prolonged high-intensity operation 24 hours a day could greatly increase the likelihood of this hidden danger escalating.

Just to be on the safe side, the No. 8 car crew didn't run in the second half of the fourth practice session. Instead, they disassembled the car in the pit and thoroughly inspected it.

Now that he had achieved his goal, Shu Long didn't stay and suffer with them any longer.

Because the weather forecast indicated that there would be continuous rain the next day, the team decided after discussion that Shu Long would run the first leg of the race tomorrow, in order to give the team a sufficient advantage at the beginning of the race.

It's really interesting. There's an old saying that goes, "When a lazy dragon goes out, it rains." Shu Long has only just returned to the arena and has already encountered two rainy battles in a row.

Hartley had witnessed the gap between himself and Shulong, who had just come of age, three years ago, and now he was lying flat on his back; Nakajima Kazuki had just made a big mistake, so he was actually a little embarrassed to argue at this time.

Unconsciously, he seemed to have become the hope of the whole village once again. Shu Long didn't feel that he couldn't bear it. His most important task now was to ensure that he could get enough rest.

After all, Christensen, who has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans nine times, once said, "Le Mans is not a race to be won, but a race to endure."

There's one more thing.

Alonso and his Alpine teammate Ocon cut short their summer break and were present at the stadium today.

As Alpine's first return to Le Mans, and also Alpine's home race, the F1 drivers naturally had to come and show their support.

Moreover, Alonso, who has won the Le Mans title twice, seems to have some experience he wants to share with Shu Long before the race.

(End of this chapter)