F1: The Making of a Racing God

The material for Chapter 168 is here!
"Slow is steady, and steady is fast."

To summarize briefly, this is probably the last piece of advice Alonso wanted to leave for Shulong.

Unlike F1, in Le Mans, drivers don't need to fight the car all the time; most of the time they need to coax the car into driving.

How can I conserve fuel while maintaining my lap time? How can I plan tire wear to match my refueling schedule at the pit stop? How can I overcome fatigue during long drives?
And most importantly, be patient.

These are all things that Shulong has been learning during the six months of preparation. Many things about driving are interconnected.

However, Shu Long listened attentively to Alonso's rambling.

Be patient!

The next day, from morning to afternoon, except for when Alonso and his team performed on behalf of Alpine, Shulong basically ate and drank separately and then took a nap in the team's RV.

Outside, the Michelin Cup Le Mans was still going on on the track, the roar of the engines never stopping, but for Shulong, it was just the right amount of soothing white noise.

Car enthusiasts were celebrating everywhere. Every time you went out, you would be surrounded by layers of young girls asking for autographs and photos, followed by a barrage of flirtatious glances.

Ah, the decadence and debauchery.
The low profile inherent in the term "empty space" seems to have lost its effectiveness. The marks etched on his body by flames make him stand out in a crowd. Far from making him look ferocious and terrifying, the scars add a unique charm to his originally delicate features.

Just the short walk from the P room to the rest area was enough to fill Shu Long's nostrils with all sorts of expensive perfumes. Someone with less willpower might have been completely immersed in it by now.

Although the weather was mostly cloudy today, and the air in Weichang was humid and muggy, there didn't seem to be any signs of precipitation as predicted in yesterday's weather forecast.

So the team discussed their strategy for getting Shulong started several more times, seemingly hesitating whether to have him start the race aggressively from the beginning or let him conserve his energy to extend his advantage in the later, more advantageous night race.

This is roughly how Toyota's No. 8 crew positioned Shulong within the team this year.

Since it was Shu Long's first time participating in an endurance race, most people did believe in his speed, but still had doubts about his ability to protect the race car.

Therefore, the general tactical strategy is to have the more experienced Hartley and Nakajima Kazuki control the overall pace of the main event, and then keep Shulong's playing time to a minimum of about 6 hours, and let him push the pace after he takes the field.

As for why he was advised to participate in the night game phase?
Besides Shu Long's strong desire to experience the most distinctive night race of endurance racing in depth, the Toyota team also found through the previous night free practice sessions that Shu Long not only had a high degree of stability in the relatively poor visibility conditions of the night race, but also had a much better lap time compared to any other team in the same group.

Rather than letting him burn the car during the daytime when everyone is competing fiercely, it would be better to take advantage of the night race when everyone is tired and hesitant to play a reverse Tian Ji horse racing strategy.

The team had decided that Hartley would run the first leg of the race, since the rain was slow to start. But then, about 50 minutes before the race, a torrential downpour began.

The high-pitched engine roar of F1 filled the room. Shu Long, who was squinting and simulating driving through meditation, fumbled around in the dark for a moment and then abruptly cut off the following F1 theme music.

He actually quite liked the symphony, but once something you love becomes your alarm clock, some muscle memories can't be overcome just by liking it.

"Is it time?"

He got up and went to the pool, splashed a couple of handfuls of cold water on his face, grabbed a towel and wiped himself haphazardly before starting to put on his red, white and black Toyota racing suit.

The Le Mans races are always very ceremonial and quite grand.

All 43 teams and 62 cars from the three categories were neatly parked diagonally on the starting straight. The flag raising, music, speeches, and an air force performance took about twenty minutes in total.

After all the procedures were completed, everyone else left, leaving only Shu Long to get into the Toyota No. 8 parked in the front row.

Since the opening race will be in the rain, the initial driver rotation plan will naturally follow the first version.

Shu Long would first finish the first two to three hours of the race, then Hartley and Nakajima would take turns, and around 2 a.m., Shu Long would take over to tackle the period from 5 a.m., when the riders are most likely to get sleepy and make mistakes.

At 16:00 PM, the green flags waved on the sidelines, signaling that the race was about to begin its official start.

Today, the starting procedure for Le Mans is quite different from what it used to be.

In the past, Le Mans required not only racing cars, but also drivers.

Whoever can get into the cockpit and start the race car faster will gain a greater advantage in the race. At that time, race cars even had designs such as left-hand ignition devices to increase starting speed.

However, such a starting procedure was too chaotic, and in today's world where racing cars are divided into groups with significant performance differences, it still posed too great a risk to the personal safety of the drivers.

Therefore, while the current Le Mans starting procedure still pays homage to the traditions of the past, it has evolved into a rolling start format similar to karting.

"Let's go, first Le Mans!"

As the car shifted gears and released the clutch, car number 8, leading the pack, kicked up a large wave of water, executed a delicate slide, and slid to the edge of the opposite side of the track, quickly catching up with the safety car leading the pack.

The race cars behind them also started up one by one. The LMH team, composed of veterans, remained calm and composed. On the contrary, many people in the LMP2 group behind them were inspired by Shu Long's pre-battle declaration and began to follow suit.

When it was finally Magnussen's turn to drive another No. 20 car from the High Class Racing team, they were ready to make a cool start, but when they stepped on the gas, they could only feel the rear wheels spinning helplessly in the air.

Who the hell is that?! The jacks behind them haven't been moved yet!

Fortunately, this is only the starting lap. The second lap is the normal warm-up and formation lap. It is from the second lap that the 24 hours of Le Mans officially begin. Otherwise, the hot-tempered Dane in the car would probably want the mechanic to taste the Viking's fist.

Everything went smoothly with Toyota's No. 8 car, but Shu Long's excitement grew.

The convoy of 63 race cars stretched out in a grand procession, the entire track shrouded in mist and fog, mysterious and vast.

This is Le Mans! It's hard to feel this kind of atmosphere in F1 these days.

Although the 680 horsepower from the 3.5-liter V6 twin-turbocharged engine was hardly enough to give Shu Long a sensory thrill, the magnificent scene still made his heart rate slowly rise, pumping adrenaline forcefully into every muscle fiber.

The safety car's roof light went out, and all the race cars behind it began to form an orderly platoon.

But the Toyota No. 7 next door, driven by British driver Mike Conway, was not behaving itself. Perhaps it was somewhat resentful of the sudden appearance of the dragon, as it frequently used body language and roaring engines to show its defiance from the side and rear.

Conway was once a prospective F1 driver with a super license, but he never secured a seat in his professional career, only serving as a substitute driver for McLaren and Force India.

Although he is now the WEC world champion, which is on par with F1, there has always been a subtle hierarchy of discrimination in the motorsport world. Many people feel that WEC is a place for F1 losers to retire.

Shu Long, who had been sitting on their heads and acting arrogantly since his arrival in F1, still had some grievances.

At least for now, Le Mans, the holy land of motorsport, should be their home ground!

Another high-speed hiss shattered the eardrum, but Shulong didn't even glance to the side. His back teeth seemed to be shivering as they kept making a "clattering" sound, and every now and then a hoarse, short, strange laugh escaped from his throat.

Neither nervous nor panicked, his heightened emotions had unconsciously put him into an adrenaline-fueled state called "Candlelight Gaze," and he was already slightly intoxicated. Endurance racing isn't like Formula 1, a short race of just over an hour, so Shu Long hadn't deliberately activated his "Energy Boost" at the start today. It seemed this adrenaline rush was proving more effective.

Finally, they entered the starting straight, and the safety car in front had already opened its window and waved to them. Then, they made a sharp turn into the pit lane.

This was the signal for the official start of the race. The front row of cars crossed the starting line, and the five Hypercars began to accelerate almost simultaneously.

The Le Mans starter was not very familiar to the dynamic start, so he was unable to gain a significant advantage at the start as he did in F1. Instead, he was outmaneuvered by veteran Conway, who used his experience to his advantage.

Even taking advantage of his inside position, Conway, driving his Toyota No. 7, maintained a very aggressive parallel with Shulong before Turn 1.

Next up is a relatively fast Chicane combination corner, also known as the very famous Dunlop corner.

The Shulong car, whose outer space was occupied by the other car, was unable to get a sufficient entry angle into the corner. Instead, the No. 7 car took advantage of the cornering speed brought by the line to complete the overtake, and then lost its lead because it was blocked from the entry line of the No. 3 narrow corner.

Almost simultaneously, the engineer told him to stay calm through his headset, but apart from a slightly arrogant expression on his face, Shu Long felt perfectly calm!

Following closely behind the Dunlop Bridge on the Essos high-speed bend, Shu Long did not rush to counterattack. Instead, by slightly shifting his lane, he maximized the grip of his tires and kept a tight grip on the No. 7 car.

The next Tertre Rouge is a classic high-speed corner. It is classic because of the difficulty hidden beneath its seemingly simple lines. The driver must subtly counteract the car's weight as it swings outwards and keep the tires within the optimal traction range at all times.

Even on dry conditions, this is a place where many drivers are particularly prone to exceeding the tire grip limit and losing control, let alone on such an extremely slippery track.

The efficiency of exiting the corner here will determine the speed on the Mulsanne straight after the corner. It can be said that success or failure will be an important reference indicator to measure whether the top F1 driver or the WEC world champion is stronger.

Perhaps no one will really care about this short-lived victory or defeat, but for Conway, who was once called a loser in F1, the psychological burden he carries at this moment is really heavy.

However, Shu Long couldn't afford to think about those messy concerns at the moment. All he knew was that he was really annoyed by a car getting in front of him, so he slammed his car onto the outer edge of the track in a frenzied manner.

Under his rough yet delicate control, the right front wheel gripped the boundary line to the limit, even at the cost of a slight fishtail, in order to get the car into the right corner angle in advance.

After a mere 10-degree slide, a perfectly timed throttle input locked the car off its spin, precisely capturing all tire grip and allowing it to smoothly cross the corner and enter the exit phase ahead of schedule.

At this point, Conway was still unaware of what was happening and continued to maintain the fastest corner exit line in his theoretical system, ensuring that the car could accelerate on the straight ahead on the smoothest curve that would not directly impact the wheels.

Just as he was slowly dissipating the inertia of the outward trajectory and preparing to return to the center of the track, a menacing assassin suddenly appeared from the blind spot inside the track, which was obscured by the wake mist!

then
With his hand raised high and then gently lowered, Shu Long was not completely blinded by passion. Instead, he used a very subtle force to gently push the other party's car body outward.

This is probably what makes touring car endurance racing more interesting than the skeletal Formula 1. Unlike F1, which is so delicate that it's almost impossible to break at the slightest touch, touring cars with their shells can engage in some of these real, hard-hitting, physical confrontations.

It was such a light touch that it didn't even cause any real damage to the car.

With the skillful guidance of force by the Tai Chi technique, Shulong directly disrupted the entire center of gravity balance of the adjacent car No. 7 as it exited the corner, causing the rear of the car to swing outwards in a very dangerous manner.

By the time Conway, covered in cold sweat, managed to steady the race car, Shu Long had already slipped away long ago while he was cursing.

After the first PlayStation deceleration corner after the Mulsanne, Shulong had extended his lead to more than two seconds. Without car number 7 interfering, his amazing speed in the rain was finally on full display.

This year's Toyota GR010 Hypercar features four-wheel drive, which gives it a traction performance far exceeding that of a rear-wheel drive vehicle, especially under terrible track conditions like rain.

Combined with the Shulong's extremely precise and keen perception of the car's grip, its crushing power over other cars might be better described as a massacre.

There was no need for a massacre; a whole bunch of cars were just churning out suicides in the back.

Shulong's lead and the resulting speed were almost unbearable. The Alpine and Scuderia Cameron Glickenhaus teams behind him were disrupted in their pursuit, and they ended up performing a fancy waltz in the rain.

An hour into the race, Shulong had already extended his lead over car number 7 to 30 seconds. Behind him, apart from Toyota in P2, the third-place finisher was surprisingly car number 38 from the JOTA team in the LMP2 class.

The pre-race banter between Shu Long, Magnussen, and Ye Yifei came true. Apart from the two Toyotas, all three LMH cars from the other two rear-wheel-drive teams were outmaneuvered by the prototypes from the secondary class.

Of course, the performance advantage of the LMH cars is undeniable. As the race entered its third hour, the other two teams gradually returned to the normal ranks of the LMH class.

However, by this point, Shulong had extended his lead over car number 7 to about 1 minute and 15 seconds.

As the track gradually dried and the cars made three pit stops for refueling and tire changes, the LMH class cars gradually returned to normal lap times. Shulong, who was in a long-distance maintenance phase, was unable to gain a further lead.

At 6:55 p.m., Shu Long, who had been racing for nearly three hours, entered the pits at the team's notification, ready to switch with Hartley to complete the next three hours or so of the race.

"Beautiful! Beautiful! Get some rest!"

"Keep it up! We already have a huge advantage, so there's no need for us to rush. If others are anxious, they'll make more mistakes."

"I know, I know, I'm an expert in this area!"

With his achievements and strength as a foundation, no matter how frustrated he felt about Red Bull's unreasonable substitution of Shu Longji for him, Hartley now found this monster pleasing to the eye.

Even if someone is an indescribable Nyarlathotep, Hartley can still imagine him as the adorable Nyarlathotep.

In just three hours, he managed to gain a lead of more than a minute. Hartley had never had such a comfortable advantage in endurance racing. As long as he played it easy on the track, he didn't know how he could lose!
Shu Long had just climbed out of the race car and was immediately covered in sweat.

After the entire Toyota No. 8 crew completed the handover and baton exchange, the technicians quickly grabbed Shulong and hugged him tightly, layer upon layer.

Someone had been driving for three hours straight without feeling anything, but now he almost fainted from lack of oxygen. It took a full three minutes before someone remembered to hand him a bottle of Red Bull.

"No, no, no, water is fine! If I drink this, how will I be able to sleep? Find me something to eat first."

"No, no, this is water! I've changed it for you. Mr. Horner specifically told you to be mindful of Red Bull's brand image."

Uh... okay!
Contracts are sometimes not something you can sign carelessly. After the official driver contracts took effect this year, although they earned more money, Red Bull also became stricter with certain requirements regarding endorsements.

Standing outside the pit lane, I took a few sips to moisten my throat. About five minutes later, Conway from car number 7 came into the pit to prepare for a rider change. Their next rider to take over was the absolute mainstay, Kobayashi Kamui.

However, instead of interacting with his teammates, Conway angrily walked towards them after seeing Shulong.

"So this is an F1 genius?! Who taught you to drive like that? You're just a loser who was dumped here after being rejected!"

Shu Long responded with a timely sneer, which only fueled the other party's anger. He was about to pounce on Shu Long when several quick-thinking technicians grabbed him and stopped him.

cut~
Shu Long took another sip of the nauseating saline solution, and out of the corner of his eye, he noticed the DTS photographer staring blankly at him. He gave a slightly embarrassed laugh and tossed the wrench, which he had somehow gotten his hands on, back into the tool tray.
(End of this chapter)