F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 196 The Dilemma at the End of the Season
Strictly speaking, Shu Long is actually one of the drivers who has had relatively few conflicts with Ma Zeping within the racing circuit.

Aside from the fact that he only joined the team halfway through the season, the two usually had little interaction and no conflicts except for laps. Of course, considering that Haas's points and bonuses were paid by his father last year, Shu Long usually wouldn't use any overly harsh words.

But deliberately blocking someone's flight path is just too ridiculous!

Normally, Shu Long wouldn't bother with such a rogue driver, but he hadn't been doing well in the two practice races. When he was overtaking, he got annoyed and slammed the door on Ma Zeping's side, scaring the bastard and sending him and his car flying onto the grass.

The two were each reprimanded and almost got into a fight in the dark room.

I had heard that Ma Zeping had a history of beating up his teammates when he was in the lower grades, but I didn't expect that this bastard would actually want to do it.

Seeing that Ma Zeping actually dared to push him, Shu Long simply tensed his chest muscles and shoved him to the ground right in front of the event organizers.

The landlord's foolish son seemed genuinely dumbfounded, as if he had just slammed into the vault door. But after losing face so badly, his first instinct was still to get his revenge.

Fortunately, someone grabbed him and stopped him. After the staff pulled Ma Zeping out, the others in the office cautiously began to probe.

"Have you calmed down a little bit?"

"Of course! There's only been one person who's gone mad from beginning to end, isn't there? When have you ever seen me lose my composure?"

Uh-huh
Shu Long casually put the landline back on the table, then, under the dumbfounded gazes of everyone around him, patted the spot on his chest where dirty hands had just touched him, gave a couple of embarrassed chuckles, and slipped away on his own.

Who said today's young drivers are much easier to manage than those troublemakers of the past?

The event organizers are doing alright; each person doesn't have to worry about the schedule for too long.

The real headache is for Ma Zeping's fellow drivers who need to work with him on the track, as well as the engineers in the Haas team who are silently reminiscing about the past.

Haas was one of the first teams to make an official announcement, and after the summer break, they announced that they would continue to retain the current driver lineup next year.

Just thinking about this makes me wonder how many people in the paddock feel overwhelmed. Anyway, every time Shu Long runs into Mr. Steiner in the paddock, he always feels that the way Mr. Steiner looks at him is almost like he's about to be slicked back with a little bit of cornstarch.

There may be only one word in the world that can describe Steiner's current feelings—regret!
He regrets selling his backside to Ferrari, regrets not being able to keep either Magnussen or Grosjean, and also regrets the brain-dead decision he made to borrow Shulong from Red Bull.

Looking back now, it seems like every single step I took was a stupid mistake!

From frugality to luxury is easy, from luxury to frugality.

Last year's car was also bad, but at least Shulong was able to consistently bring back points in every race, and even reached the podium twice. Despite the despair, there was still hope.

What now?
He wanted to ask Ferrari for help, but ended up with that rich kid Mick; he wanted to attract sponsorship by leveraging Shulong's achievements, but ended up with that old man Ma Zeping.

Now both of these issues are stuck in my hands and I can't shake them off. I can't even guarantee a permanent seat for an experienced and capable driver. I can only leave him in the reserve driver position.

Who would be willing to come?

Pooh!
Steiner felt like he had become a laughing stock among the paddock managers. He wished he had let Haas rot completely in 19!

"I'm sorry this happened. If I had the power, I'd fire them all, but right now even Gene Haas can't control them."

"It's nothing, I understand." Shu Long patted his former team leader on the back reassuringly. "I would be even happier if you could be merciful and slightly stagger your qualifying rounds from us."

"No, no, no, don't even think about it! If we deliberately block you, we might be able to get into Q2 again!"

"Really?"

Such a simple and unadorned word, yet it immediately broke Steiner's defenses. His wrinkled, chrysanthemum-like face creased in pain for a long time before he finally managed to utter a sentence before Shu Long waved goodbye and left:
"Oh, Fxck!"

What was originally just a joke by Steiner suddenly gave Shu Long an ominous feeling after the third training session ended and he remembered this incident.

The Rodriguez Brothers circuit in Mexico is quite special, with an average altitude of 2200 meters, making it one of the few high-altitude circuits on the annual race calendar.

Judging from the track layout alone, this fairly spacious track has a fairly standard shape, and with the addition of two very long straight sections in the DRS zone, overtaking shouldn't be too difficult.

But in fact, overtaking in the Mexican Grand Prix is ​​not only difficult, it is extremely difficult!

High altitude means that the air is relatively thin, and even a high downforce tail wing kit can only provide slightly more downforce than the low drag kit at Monza.

This means that the DRS efficiency of the race car on this track will be very low. If the car behind does not have overwhelming power or tire advantage, it will often be difficult to rely on DRS to obtain enough speed margin to overtake.

At the same time, the thin air puts a lot of pressure on the power unit, resulting in low fuel combustion efficiency and the engine's heat dissipation efficiency being far lower than that of other low-altitude tracks.

In other words, following other cars in polluted air is very difficult for racing cars. In many races, drivers even have to deliberately increase the distance between themselves and the car in front to maintain the car's condition.

Therefore, your qualifying position is extremely important on this track!

The test missions for Shulong and Verstappen in the first and second training sessions were completely staggered. Shulong in the first training session was equipped with a low-drag kit, while Verstappen used the medium downforce tail wing.

Mercedes' rocket engines are incredibly fast on the long straights of Mexico City!

So Red Bull is essentially trying two completely different approaches: one is to try to salvage some losses on the straights, and the other is to try to gain more advantage through the numerous slow corners in the second and third time slots.

The problem is that Red Bull's current overall aerodynamic design has gone to extremes, with a greater emphasis on ensuring the car's absolute cornering speed advantage in medium and high-speed corners.

The reason for this choice is twofold. Firstly, Red Bull cars have a very good chassis and suspension, which has always provided excellent mechanical grip. This is why the Rodriguez Brothers Circuit has always been a Red Bull stronghold.

Furthermore, both current drivers possess exceptional abilities. Even if the car's performance in slow corners is slightly weaker, they can compensate to the greatest extent possible with their driving skills.

However, the redesigned rear layout requires some downforce to ensure that the suspension can reach its full potential. Even though the suspension is pushed to its limit by the "suspension dog" (a nickname for a suspension system), the maximum drag per lap is still about 0.16 lower than the medium downforce setting.

So the two switched their plans again during the second practice session and found that it wasn't a human problem; the low-resistance kit just didn't work!
Thin air does have its advantages. When DRS is open, the vibration of the top flaps is reduced to a lot. After Red Bull made some component reinforcements to the tail wing connecting shaft this week, it seems that it is still usable.
So, the two Red Bulls' mission in Practice 3 became the same: to thoroughly explore the lap limits of the medium downforce package. However, during the checkpoint inspection after Practice 3, they discovered a crack in the bottom wing flap of the Dragon's rear wing!

How to do?
Putting aside the quality issues of this toy car, the qualifying race is just a few hours away, and the key question now is whether the rear wing is still usable.

Is it going to be a quick fix like in the last game, with a few pieces of super glue applied, or is the rear wing design to be changed temporarily?
The reason why this temporary fix was adopted in the last round was because the failure occurred in Q3, and the premise was that Shu Long had already made a very convincing performance, and the possibility of Red Bull competing for the paddle was extremely high.

The problem is that Red Bull is the challenger in this race. If they fall behind in qualifying, unless they give up and only aim to finish the race, the three DRS zones along the track will inevitably trigger the variable rear wing system at high frequency. If it malfunctions, they will face the risk of retiring from the race.

Then we have no choice but to gamble!

At the same time, they couldn't put all their eggs in one basket, so Red Bull held an impromptu tactical meeting to discuss the matter and decided that one of the two would switch to a low-resistance kit, while the other would try a high-low pressure kit.

The low-drag kit is undeniably inferior to Mercedes in lap times, but considering Verstappen's lower margin for error compared to the Sorrento, the team decided to have Verstappen install the low-drag kit.

They at least made adjustments during the second practice session, and even if the low-drag kit can't outrun the other cars in qualifying laps, it will give them a better chance to overtake in the race.

As for Shulong, they should try out the high downforce kit that they hadn't even considered testing this race weekend.

If there are any surprises, then he can at least serve as the team's first line of defense.

If not, he wouldn't have really lost anything, would he?

There was hardly any time to adjust the car. The team simply came up with a plan based on their experience and then rushed Shulong onto the track.

The entire first quarter was chaotic; Shulong's first flight was ruined by Ma Zeping.

The literal meaning of "stirring up trouble" doesn't mean that the green-headed mushroom deliberately blocked the way again; it simply means that the yellow flag was triggered by the mushroom's own mistake of climbing on grass during the dragon's advance.

Instead of returning to the pit lane, Shu Long took advantage of the 18 minutes he had to stay on the track during Q3 to do four or five laps that didn't quite resemble charging laps, constantly exploring and adjusting his driving style.

最后在Q1还剩3分钟的时候进站重开一套新红，将成绩刷新到1：17.1位列P4晋级。

In Q2, everyone was using yellow tires to set lap times, but Shulong, due to its high downforce setup, actually got more tire temperature and grip, and surprisingly advanced from P1 to Q3.

His advantage in the second period was simply too great, leading Hamilton in P2 by 0.6 seconds in that period.

The third timeout also had an advantage, but unfortunately this segment was a bit short, and the overall lead was less than 0.07 seconds.

The disadvantage in the two long straights of the first timing segment was just too great, losing 0.64 in a single segment.

Such results have undoubtedly far exceeded the team's expectations, and have even given rise to some unrealistic fantasies.

However, the red tires that reappeared in Q3 made up for the loss of grip in many low-speed corners, but the speed lost by Shulong on straightaways could not be made up for.

In the end, he could only barely improve his score to 1:16.379, and he almost got overtaken by Perez driving his Toro.
Verstappen wasn't much better off, finishing a full 0.4 seconds behind pole position. The only consolation might be that Bottas was the one who ultimately took pole position.

The qualifying session was full of drama, but the main race on the second day was surprisingly boring.

Shulong was extremely bored.

Mercedes has finally found itself in a two-on-one situation, but Bottas seems to have become a bit too relaxed lately.

First, he blocked Hamilton's entry angle on the inside line, then the Red Bull cars, who had a great start, braked late and passed him by two positions. Then, Perez elbowed him 180 degrees at Turn 1 and dropped him to the back of the pack, where he was completely out of sight.

Toto clutched his head in anguish in the P room, probably drafting a dozen or so curses in that instant.

Fortunately, Hamilton got back up to P2 after Turn 2, which prevented him from falling into complete despair.

There was nothing they could do; Shulong had truly done his best.
In qualifying, at least he has DRS to reduce the tail speed dragged down by the high drag wing, but the problem is that there is no DRS available at the start of the race.

Even though he quickly pulled ahead by a car length after exiting the corner thanks to stronger traction, the massive rear wing made him look like he was wearing a parachute. Hamilton, who caught the wake, completed the turnaround with almost no effort.

There was no way to even struggle.

Despite having a significant advantage in the second timed section of the race when everyone starts on yellow tires, the low-speed deceleration corners offer little room for overtaking, and Hamilton can easily block him by simply moving slightly along the defensive line.

The competition is basically over at this point; it makes little difference to either side.

Hamilton was quickly pulled more than 5 seconds behind Verstappen. Mercedes' engine was now like a pressure cooker, and the rapidly rising red-hot telemetry data made Hamilton dare not get too close to either of them.

After three unsuccessful attempts to overtake using DRS, Shu Long had no choice but to give up his hopes and start trying to maintain his position, keeping himself about 3 or 4 seconds behind Hamilton.

Forget about turning around, you can't even get close on a straightaway, so it's better to save the engine's state.

The three uninteresting players occupied three uninteresting podiums, and it seemed that the Mexican people's attention had shifted from Sullon to Bottas.

Judging from the start alone, Bottas's fainting spell almost allowed Perez to overtake him, and in the end, both players were injured and neither managed to squeeze into the points zone.

To the fervent Mexican fans, there was no doubt that Bottas ruined Perez's race.

Red Bull is naturally pleased on two fronts. Despite having such an unfavorable start, they've managed to extend Verstappen's lead to 21 points.

With four races remaining, the medium downforce wing remains a minefield. Red Bull may have to deal with this dilemma in every race from now on, and may have to make do with a wing kit that is not compatible with the intended use.

Without that 21-point advantage, the possibility of Hamilton overturning the deficit would be quite high.

(End of this chapter)