F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 191 Tragic - The Old Man - Tragic
Push with all your might?
Then let's push!
Based on Shulong's experience with the current tires, it's not impossible for him to run from start to finish.

However, if the current precipitation on the track changes, he can't predict the possible fluctuations in subsequent lap times. But at least he would rather take control of the race than stay on the track and leave it to fate.

This is essentially Red Bull's open secret, which may, to some extent, prompt Mercedes to make the decision not to pit.

But before that, how will they deal with the suddenly approaching Shulong?

Anyway, we can't just let Shulong go for nothing, can we?
Keeping your opponent behind you at least allows you to remain calm and adaptable to any situation.

But if the dragon is placed in front, then Red Bull can feint and not make it either, or go all out to disrupt Hamilton's lap time.

Both options would cause Mercedes additional and unnecessary tire damage, and clearly this passive situation is not what they want to see.

The lap times of the various teams on the track are not developing in a completely linear fashion.

The rise in track surface temperature also led to an increase in tire temperature. Even though the track surface is still wet, the semi-wet tires inevitably showed some degree of particle formation, and everyone's lap times have actually begun to decline.

In addition, in order to make the so-called zero-stop strategy possible, even the top-tier cars on the track can only barely keep their lap times around 1:34.5.

The lap times of the new semi-weather tires are actually slower. As analyzed earlier, the lack of contact area caused by the drainage grooves makes the upper limit of the grip of the new semi-weather tires even lower than that of the old rain tires that are now almost worn down to slicks.

But since they are using new semi-wet tires, the margin of error is definitely greater than that of the old tires. As the race progresses, they may soon regain the advantage in lap times.

Not only on the Shulong side, Red Bull also sent an order to Verstappen to push forward with all their might. It seems that Red Bull wants to drag Bottas into the mess as well, not just Hamilton.

The entire strategy looks like an open and obvious conspiracy. All of Red Bull's moves have a very clear objective: to keep Hamilton on the track.

The reason why a conspiracy is considered a conspiracy is that even if the opponent knows it's a trap, they still can't help but step into it.

With no concerns about tire wear, Shulong improved his lap time rapidly. Although the tire wear was no longer enough for him to break the current fastest lap time, he still managed to push his lap time back to 1:33.8 on lap 32.

With a lap difference of 0.7, Shu Long and Hamilton are closing the gap very quickly, almost within 1 second after just three laps.

Mercedes couldn't figure out Red Bull's intentions for a moment, nor did they know how strong Shu Long's desire was for overtaking. All they could do was tell Hamilton in the TR to speed up a bit.

Even if it costs more tires, never get into an unnecessary entanglement with the dragon.

By lap 35, the gap between Shu Long and Hamilton had narrowed to 1.2 seconds, and the two remained close for the rest of the lap.

The speed of the race cars is far from the limit of what the drivers can handle. Now it's not about who is faster, but who has better control over the speed rhythm in a single lap.

For Hamilton, a seven-time world champion, experience is definitely the one thing he has in abundance.

After all, the competition conditions between the two sides are not fair. Hamilton has a full 9 seconds of clean air ahead of the P3 Leclerc to take advantage of, while Shulong not only has greater tire wear, but at this distance he has also begun to be affected by the dirty air from the car in front.

Unable to find a way to break the deadlock in the short term, Shu Long could only seek advice from external brains through TR.

"OK, Box! We box in this lap!"

There's no need to try to break through; Red Bull has already achieved its goal. Shulong and Verstappen just need to follow the plan and pit for tire changes.

It was another pit stop, similar to the previous race, and again, it was a pit stop with a very ample time interval between the two cars.

Red Bull's tire changers first gave Verstappen a 2.8-second tire change practice, and then Shu Long's team, with their excellent teamwork, achieved the fastest tire change of the entire event in 1.96 seconds.

Its significance goes beyond just being the fastest in this race. It is also the first time that any team in the entire F1 paddock has managed to change tires in under 2 seconds since the FIA ​​issued that complicated new pit stop technical instruction.

Red Bull's two pit stops finally broke the stagnant situation on the track, and teams began to notify their drivers to pit in the next lap or two.

This includes Bottas, who are currently leading in P1.

This is the biggest attraction for Mercedes right now: if Verstappen doesn't pit, Mercedes will definitely need Bottas to hold onto the lead and fight to the end.

Otherwise, if Verstappen wins the championship, even if Hamilton finishes second, the gap will be at least 7 points.

However, if Verstappen chooses to pit, then Mercedes will have a very good reason to need Bottas to pit as well.

To maintain tire competitiveness, keep up with Verstappen's push window, and make way for Hamilton.

Currently, only three trains have not entered the station.

Ocon was the first to propose the no-pitching strategy, Hamilton tried to gain position by exploiting the strategy difference, and Leclerc has now risen from P3 to P1 to take the lead.

This is essentially a strategic gamble between Red Bull and Mercedes. Mercedes may have figured out Red Bull's intentions, but in their view, at least for now, they are definitely not at a loss.

Without any stops, Hamilton's final position in this match will likely be P4, widening the gap with Verstappen to ten points.

But now Verstappen has chosen to step in, and if Bottas can keep him behind, Hamilton could even overtake by two points and return to the top of the standings.

Even if there is an opportunity to take action against Leclerc later
Indeed, just as Red Bull was setting up a game to put Hamilton in a difficult position, Ferrari also very willingly entered the fray.

With their lead and current advantage over Hamilton behind them, the allure of the championship is hard for Ferrari not to be tempted. This could very well be their closest chance to the top of the podium this season.

But Ferrari's pace wasn't particularly fast to begin with. They had already given their all just to maintain their rhythm, and their tire wear was even worse than all the cars that had already pitted. In this situation, are you telling them they should keep going for at least another 20 laps?!

"Go fxcking hell! haha~"

I don't know if it was because of the car bumps or the bad signal, but even though he laughed twice at the end, you could even hear a slight sob in Leclerc's voice in this TR.

Regardless of what Red Bull and Mercedes think, at least for Leclerc right now, he's feeling a mix of laughter and curses.

The situation on the field was really complicated. Nobody knew if their choice was right. Aston Martin's Vettel even tried to change to a set of yellow tires when he first pitted.

As a result, they became completely obedient after only one round.

While semi-weather tires are indeed not as effective now, this does not mean that dry tires have become the better option.

The lap times of the cars with the new semi-wet tires have been released one by one, almost all of them are just over 1:34, which is about 0.5 to 0.6 seconds faster than the cars with the old wet tires.

With only ten laps left in the race, those who can maintain their current rankings might be able to hold on. It seems that Mercedes and Ferrari have a slight edge in this strategic battle.

but.
老旧的半雨胎在第42圈突然进入了悬崖点，勒克莱尔的圈速很快从1：34滑落到1：35，下一圈就直接掉到了1：36秒之外。

Hamilton is slightly better, managing to keep his lap time under 1:35. The problem is that the first-tier teams behind him, now equipped with semi-wet tires, are pushing their lap times back to 1:33.6 with their fuel levels getting lower and lower!
Bottas and Verstappen already had a significant lead, and after pitting, they were only less than 3 seconds behind. Such a huge lap time difference left them no chance to defend, and they quickly regained their positions. So, should they pit or not?

Shulong, which had been completely removed from the tactical notebook, has suddenly come back into the sights of both Ferrari and Mercedes.

After one pit stop, Shu Long is currently 16 seconds behind Hamilton and about 21 seconds behind Leclerc.

The lap time gap between the two teams is expected to only widen, and the remaining race distance is not enough for them to hold onto their positions. In addition, the lap time advantage of the new tires over the old tires can make up for the losses from the pit stops.
In other words, in the final stages of the match, Hamilton and Leclerc suddenly became the most direct rivals.

The old man didn't actually want to go in; he had his own understanding of the tire granulation process, which could be seen from his lap time advantage over Leclerc.

Unlike tire blistering, granular wear is not entirely irreversible; with proper driving, some tire grip can even be restored.

However, Mercedes did not heed Hamilton's suggestion to stay on the track.

Since they were already behind, the only way to turn the tide was to take the initiative, and they finally managed to forcefully bring the old man in on lap 48.

Leclerc, who was in the lead, was spun out for a moment, but he quickly caught up on the next lap and still led Hamilton by 1.7 seconds after leaving the pits.

With eight laps left in the race, it seemed like there was still a chance, but then the rain suddenly intensified.

Limited by polluted air, Hamilton desperately found himself unable to effectively close the gap with Ferrari, remaining stuck between 1.2 and 1.4.

After running hard all day, only to be told it was all for nothing, even a seven-time champion would find it hard to control their emotions.

"I told you we shouldn't have gone in! Damn it!"

After venting his frustration by complaining a few times in TR, the old man could only force himself to calm down and then numbly crossed the finish line.

He finished in P5 with 10 points, bringing the gap between him and Verstappen to 12 points.

Choosing to pit wasn't a problem. Given the tire condition and the current weather and track conditions, he might have ended up behind Gasly.

But having secured pole position and then miraculously improved his ranking by six places despite the penalty, it's hard to say that Hamilton's performance in this race was solely his fault.
Even if he lost, it wasn't because of this pit stop. In fact, once Hamilton missed the right window for a stop after being blocked by Red Bull, the game was already over for Hamilton.

It's not that Mercedes did a bad job, it's just that Red Bull did an exceptionally good job, while Mercedes might have just lacked a bit of luck.

With such an outstanding performance, coupled with the popularity accumulated from seven championships, Hamilton should theoretically at least be awarded the Driver of the Year title as a consolation prize.

But when the final vote was announced, Shulong narrowly defeated Hamilton's 19% with 22% of the vote. The smug look on the photo of a certain cheeky guy making a "V" sign with one hand almost became the last straw that broke the camel's back.

Unfortunately, while Hamilton was still outmaneuvering Leclerc, Shu Long, who started in P20 today, has quietly made it to the P3 podium.

This was actually a relatively uneventful rain race, with all 20 cars finishing the race, and there wasn't much of a director's segment that audiences usually enjoy.

After nearly two hours of tedious and arduous work, perhaps only the constant surpassing of Shu Long and Hamilton could occasionally stir up some of the audience's passion.

In particular, Shu Long's constant cries of "Who's next?" echoing in the TR like a death knell became almost the sole focus of the commentators throughout the race, making him a truly deserving winner of the Best Driver award.

Back at the starting grid of P3, Shu Long first celebrated a little with the mechanics who surrounded him to congratulate him, then turned around and saw two very classic expressions.

One is the "brainless" Bottas, who is now smiling broadly after winning the championship, while the other is Verstappen, who is clearly "unhappy" with a smirk on his face.

Aside from the frustration of not winning the championship, Shu Long, as the culprit, could probably guess the reason for the other party's worries, so he skipped his own teammate and went to congratulate the beaming Bottas first.

Then the first thing he said was:
"To whom it may concern"

Bottas paused for a moment, then quickly realized what Shulong was talking about and happily continued his classic TR line.

"Fxck you!"

This was a joke Bottas made to strategy director James Walls after winning the Australian Open in 19. The reason was that throughout the 18 season, Walls had acted as a wingman for Hamilton to help him fight against Vettel, who had been pressing him relentlessly at the beginning of the season, without any regard for driver rights.

Behind that zero-frame opening line, "Valtteri, it's James," lies countless unspeakable tears of bitterness.

Even now, Bottas still can't escape the fate of being a wingman. In several races, he has given up the fastest lap and deliberately overused the engine. Before leaving the team, he was able to squeeze a point out of Hamilton at a crucial moment in the championship race, which is really not easy.

While Shu Long had just uttered a double entendre right in the face, he seemed quite satisfied, as if he had achieved some kind of milestone, and then turned to Verstappen, who was trying to escape.

"Maxie? Considering all the effort I've put in, you shouldn't have forgotten anything, right?"

"But neither of us won the game, so I don't think this opportunity is very good. Maybe next time?"

"Huh?! This special commemorative livery isn't something you get every day. Look how symmetrical we'll be standing on the podium later. I think today is perfect for us!"

"But I haven't practiced beforehand."

"It's alright, I'm giving you special permission to demonstrate only the last move today!"

It's clear that Verstappen ultimately succumbed to someone's tyranny, as all F1 fans around the world have observed.

After the champagne-opening segment of the awards ceremony, Shu Long pulled Verstappen into a lunge position right under Bottas's nose, then made a gesture of pointing his index fingers together.

"Rong—, don't be shy, repeat after me, Rong—he!"

"I don't speak Japanese!"

Okay, I'll let you off the hook this time, but you can't be so lenient next time!

Whether there will be a next time is another matter. After the race, the team was still packing up to prepare for the US Grand Prix two weeks later. Shu Long and Verstappen went ahead and flew to New York with Horner.

They have a promotional filming project to complete, which serves as material for Red Bull's planned official entry into the A-League and also as publicity for the Miami Grand Prix, which will be added to the calendar next year.

The two missions are not quite the same. At least Shulong can drive the RB7 through the streets of New York and has plenty of footage to shoot all the way to Miami.

Except this.

Before the Turkish Grand Prix, Teng Weifeng contacted Shu Long, saying he would bring two YouTuber friends to the US Grand Prix to cheer him on.

Since we're already here, why not invite more people? It's been a while since I've seen my girlfriend, so Shu Long decided to invite Gan Mengning along too.

(End of this chapter)