F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 202 Cramming-Style Feeding

Shulong overtook Perez on lap 9, at which point he was not far behind Norris, only 1.4 seconds away.

However, in order to close the gap to a distance sufficient to overtake, he spent a full five laps despite having a 0.3-second lead on a single lap.

"Guys, get some help and think of something! I'm in red tummy, this can't go on!"

"Where do you feel something is wrong? You can mark it on the steering wheel, and we'll try to find a solution."

"There's a problem everywhere, man! Everywhere! This track is a nightmare, full of high-speed combination corners, and the car's rear end is sliding terribly in the dirty air!"

Unexpectedly, everything went smoothly during the practice matches, but such a big problem occurred during the main competition.

Reni couldn't think of a good solution for the time being, so he could only ask Shulong to try to loosen the differential in the corner a little.

It's somewhat useful, but it still causes slippage, and it greatly affects the traction efficiency during the acceleration phase after exiting a corner.

Shu Long tried a few turns, but finally decided to turn back.

The lack of downforce at the tail end due to the influence of dirty air is a defect of this version of the cut-off tail wing. If no solution is found, the improvement that can be achieved by changing the settings will be minimal.

"Let's make more use of DRS. Our aerodynamic efficiency on the straightaway should be higher than the car in front of us. We'll figure out the rest when we get back."

"I'm using it now! Next time we dock, I think we can try lowering the canard angle of attack by two degrees!"

“Understood, we’ve noted it down.”

It was too difficult, so Shu Long decided to slightly change his running style.

After celebrating Norris's birthday last time, that brat kept clamoring to show him what he was made of on the track. Shu Long was originally planning to take him down with a cool overtaking maneuver.

It seems there's no chance now; we can only try to exploit the DRS on the straightaways to overpower the enemy.

To be honest, this is not easy.

Even a normally equipped race car will be significantly affected by the polluted air in the densely packed high-speed corners here. The Los Angeles International Circuit in Qatar is particularly damaging to tires, and every extra lap is a relentless test of the car's condition.

Moreover, because only one section of DRS was installed, the dragon head had to overcome the influence of dirty air from all 16 bends in front.

At the same time, it is necessary to plan the battery distribution of the race car and keep the distance between cars within 0.5 seconds in order to create enough overtaking opportunities on this only section of DRS.

Fortunately, the wind speed was not high at the moment, so it did not create any unnecessary difficulties for Shulong in following the vehicle. The tailwind from the southeast helped Norris a little, so that Shulong's approach efficiency after activating DRS was not as high as expected.

Finally, on lap 17, Shu Long tore off a protective film from his goggles, waved goodbye, and finally left the papaya orange race car, which was quite dazzling under the lights, behind.

Without the interference of polluted air, Red Bull's lap time lead over McLaren by a full 0.6 seconds was perfectly realized, quickly leaving Lando out of the DRS range.

"Who's next?"

"Fernando, gap 3.1 seconds. Also, you're currently in point 3, how's the tire feel?"

"This is a bit bad. The last stroke left a lot of grainy texture. Let me smooth it out and see how it goes. By the way, who else has come in ahead of me?"

“Pierre made it on lap 13, and Max just made it on this lap. You take care of the tires first, and I'll give you the comparison results of your lap times in a bit.”

Why are you all here so early?
If Shu Long remembers correctly, Gasly also chose to start on red tires today, and his 13 laps on the old red tires, which he had done before, seems to be within the normal range.

But Verstappen wasn't using yellow tires? If it's going so early, what was the point of choosing yellow tires for Q2 yesterday?
In fact, Verstappen had no other choice. The high-low pressure kit made it impossible for him to create any overtaking opportunities. Instead, the excessive load on the tires caused some unplanned tire wear in the dirty air.

With only 16 laps in, Red Bull's number one car had already created a gap of more than 8 seconds between itself and Hamilton ahead of it.

So this early entry into the station had nothing to do with any tactical attempts; it was simply because his yellow tires just couldn't keep up.

On the other hand, Shulong took advantage of the short stretch of clean air that Alonso had cleared for him, wore down his tires, and regained a lot of grip. His lap time gradually returned to around 1:28.271, which was similar to the yellow tires Verstappen wore before his pit stop.

According to Reni's report, Hamilton also pitted on lap 18, and his lap time on white tires quickly improved to 1:27.495 after exiting the pits.

Verstappen's lap time in clean air was actually decent, around 1:27.65, because he missed Hamilton's window.

But Red Bull knows its own strengths and weaknesses. Verstappen, still hoping to win the championship, pushed very hard on almost every lap.

No one knows what Hamilton was thinking. It's hard to say that he didn't adopt a more conservative approach to racing because of the 8.4-second difference between them.

The key to the competition now may lie with Shulong.

Yesterday, the possibility of Shu Long contacting the team for feedback before Q2 actually came true. After being serviced by Shu Long for two laps, the old red car on the Red Bull No. 2 even showed a slight improvement in lap time.

Because Pirelli officially provided the three hardest tire compounds, C1 to C3, for this race, it is indeed possible that the wear rate of red tires will be similar to that of yellow tires when the track temperature conditions are suitable.

Meanwhile, Alonso, who also started on red tires, kept his lap time around 1:28.9, and by lap 21 he was almost caught up to by Shu Long and fell into the DRS range.

Then the problem is coming!

Given that Red Bull's lap times weren't weak, should they try to get Shulong to quickly overtake Alonso and move up the rankings, or play it safe and continue to extend the first stint to try a one-stop strategy?
If Red Bull were to attempt a pit stop, they might be able to allow Shu Long to disrupt Hamilton's second pit stop in the second half of the race, potentially creating an opportunity for Verstappen to stage a comeback and win the title.

However, this presents a problem: Hamilton currently holds the lead, and Mercedes' strategy team is not foolish either; they could choose to maintain the lead and not pit.

For a moment, the team was undecided, so they asked Shulong for his opinion in the TR.

Shu Long gave a direct negative answer.

It wasn't that he didn't want to help his teammates; it's just that, in order to deal with the tire chipping issue, he used the characteristics of the track to scrape off a considerable layer of broken rubber debris.

Although the tire has regained a lot of grip, the sidewalls are much thinner than before. Especially on a high-speed track like Qatar with many corners and high loads, a tire blowout could happen at any time and it would be all over!
The team thought about it and agreed. They were hoping that Shulong would bring back more airflow data from the rear wing, so they didn't force him to push himself on the track.

So on lap 23, Red Bull notified Shulong to pit, and Alpine, having received the information, quickly followed suit and called Alonso in as well.

It seems they really want this podium; they're afraid Red Bull will undercut them.

But Alpine really doesn't need to rush this time. Shulong's pit stop this time was quite complicated, involving changing tires, adjusting the angle of the forewing, and even adding two more people to spray fluorescent paint on Shulong's tail wing.

After everything was dealt with, the tire change took 6.3 seconds, and after leaving the pits, he fell behind Alonso by 3.7 seconds.

Red Bull never intended to hide it from the beginning; the entire paddock knew they had been trying to solve the tail wing problem in recent races, so using races as a form of testing didn't seem strange.

They're not even afraid that other teams will copy their designs based on feedback from the paint team. They're like, "Why don't you cut off your own tail wing too!"

Of course, taking data is one thing, but after leaving the pits, Shu Long had no intention of taking it easy at all; otherwise, he wouldn't have asked the team to slightly reduce the angle of attack of his forewing.

This is done to shift the car's balance in corners towards the rear, thereby addressing some of the instability at the rear, while also reducing the frontal area to decrease drag and making overtaking with DRS a little easier.

Most importantly, Shulong hopes to use this to reduce the load on the tires from the front of the race car.

To overtake, you first need to close the gap with the car in front in the corner, and the most straightforward way to avoid the dirty air is to slightly deviate from the car in front's racing line. However, Qatar demands extremely high control over the cornering rhythm of consecutive high-speed corners, and simply adopting an unconventional racing line to avoid the dirty air will inevitably affect the car's lap performance.

Therefore, Shu Long decided to solve this problem at its root. He wanted to change his running style, a style that Alonso was most familiar with yet also most unfamiliar with.

Both vehicles switched to white tires, but Alpine's lap time after exiting the pits could only be maintained at 1:28.5, while Shulong improved to 1:27.6 on the second lap.

This is a difference in the performance of the race cars, and it actually has little to do with the driver's driving skills.

Red Bull is undoubtedly a top-tier team, while Alpine, despite not being particularly slow this season, is only about third in the Earth group.

This is only because they benefited from the poor performance of Ferrari cars; otherwise, on some disadvantageous tracks, they would have been at the bottom of the paddock.

However, when it comes to the offensive and defensive phase, it's time to see the driving skills of the two drivers.

Currently, apart from Kimi, who is retiring at the back of the team, Alonso, a living fossil who participates in various races and continues to compete in F1, has the deepest heritage in the entire paddock.

After Shulong complained about the difficulty of following the car during the attack on Norris, Alpine shared this crucial intelligence with Alonso.

Although the Los Angeles International Circuit is not the Hungaroring, and Alonso may not be able to continue to use the magic of "Hamilton's Theory of Defense" here, he can still do a lot using the track conditions.

It's not just Shulong that's avoiding polluted air by using its route; Alonso in front is also constantly changing his route choices, aiming to continuously add new polluted air problems for Shulong.

Older generations of artists often display an imagination that leaves young people in awe.

Alonso's active "crossing lines" created a lot of chaotic turbulence across the track. To balance the car's traction, Shulong even had to frequently release the throttle. This kind of following was much more difficult than when attacking Norris!
"I bet Mr. Newey is ecstatic right now! Iron Man is helping us build cars!"

Horner chuckled a few times upon hearing this, raised his hand and patted Newey's thigh, but was quickly slapped away by the team's aerodynamics guru.

At this moment, the screen in front of Newey only showed one image: the in-car camera pointing directly at the rear wing of the race car.

The results of the competition are not important to Newey at all. It's not like he's competing for the championship. What data could be more valuable than the dynamic changes of fluorescent coatings under these polluted air conditions?
Once fully immersed in his work, Newey's speech became utterly devoid of warmth, completely cold and aloof.

"Let him try to overtake; we're not letting him retire here."

Horner pursed his lips to ease the awkwardness, then glared at René, who was pinching his lips and trying hard not to laugh, on the far side.

What are you waiting for if you're not working? The boss is getting the short end of the stick and you're secretly gloating, huh? They'll dock your entire performance bonus later!

"Ahem! Don't waste time, buddy. We need some airflow data for the overtaking phase."

"Fine! Get ready to clap!"

Another wave of lane changes occurred on the starting straight, with Alonso weaving in and out of lanes, not intending to give any extra slipstream to the cars behind him.

After entering the braking zone, it squeezed forcefully towards the inside line and grabbed the apex of the corner first, not giving Shulong any chance to pull back and try to brake late.

However, Shulong didn't show much desire to turn around here. Instead, he forcefully turned the steering wheel to the left side of the track before entering the corner, until the inner tires were almost out of the track's boundary limit before he slammed on the brakes to enter the corner.

The radius of Turn 1 is relatively large, so normally a relatively smooth "U" shaped line would be chosen to ensure cornering speed and sufficient acceleration distance before the short straight at the next corner.

Shu Long is making the most of this spacious track by adopting a very sharp "V" cornering angle, accelerating at full throttle before the front of the car is even fully straightened.

Alonso happened to catch a glimpse of this scene in the rearview mirror and couldn't help but blink twice.

It looks familiar, but I'm not sure. Let me take another look.

Everything was normal at the next turn, except that the spacing between the two cars seemed a little off.

Did that kid mess up? This just makes him even slower.
After Turn 3, there is a short straight section. Shulong usually chooses to suck in the wake to release some electricity, in order to make up for some of the cornering time affected by the dirty air.

However, since the following turns 4 and 5 are all high-speed and relatively narrow consecutive full-throttle right turns, generally not many people will choose this as an overtaking point.

Seeing that Shulong's offensive desire wasn't very strong, Alonso was able to take a breather and focus on his driving, lest he spend half a day working hard only to be sent back by his own mistake, which would be ridiculous.

There was one thing that made Alonso subconsciously feel a little uneasy: why did he feel that Shu Long seemed to be deliberately keeping a distance from the car just now?
Everything seemed normal until hairpin turn 6, but after a short straight, Alonso's eyes widened once again at hairpin turn 7.

Turn 7 is strictly speaking a medium-speed turn. It is best to brake fully and downshift to fourth gear before the turn, and then accelerate smoothly in the middle of the turn after getting close to the apex.

The next two turns, 8 and 9, were high-speed turns. Alonso didn't pay much attention to what Shulong was doing at first. He just glanced at the rearview mirror before entering turn 8 and vaguely felt that Shulong's angle of entering turn 8 was a little different from his.

etc.
Are you really just playing around?! But what's the point? Opportunities like this are rare!
The answer was finally revealed before Turn 16, when the car behind braked a little earlier, instantly confirming Alonso's suspicions.

Earlier and lighter braking, and an earlier entry point into corners compared to conventional lines.

While completely avoiding the dirty air trail of the car in front, Shu Long accelerated with full throttle, eventually ending up on the same road as Alonso, throwing his car onto the kerb as they exited the corner, almost nose to tail of the tail.

The ball veered off around the same time it passed the DRS line. The slingshot effect, combined with the lower drag, left Alonso with absolutely no room to even attempt a defensive maneuver.

"Ugh—that little rascal!"

A helpless yet somewhat amused roar echoed through the Alpine team's TR.

Alonso was inspired to become a manager after seeing Shu Long use this tactic to mess with his old friends.

Who would have thought that the boomerang of schadenfreude from back then would finally strike them on the head three years later?!

My initial feeling was right. Shu Long's unusual actions at the beginning of this round didn't seem to have much significance for offense or defense. It didn't seem like he was trying to rely on his signature cornering skills to win.

Los Angeles International Circuit was originally a MotoGP circuit, and while it is indeed a high-speed track with many high-speed corners, the track width is actually not very generous in many places.
Even with this "push-head running method," the opportunities you can actually find are not many.

Shulong never expected to be able to overtake using this technique, which is no longer suitable for modern aerodynamic vehicles. Its main function is to minimize speed loss while avoiding dirty air, and it is also particularly prone to causing tire overheating.

But unlike in 19 when Toro Rosso had done special tuning and adaptation, even Shulong didn't dare to use it in the main race. They had to give it a chance to test it out in a few corners and do some practice work in advance.

Of course, the results were far better than expected.

As he watched the taillights of the car gradually disappear into the distance, Alonso's first thought wasn't about the passage of time or the changing times, but rather about getting his revenge.

How many laps are left in the race?

"27 laps to go."

"understood!"

Contrary to his tone of anger, Alonso was actually quite calm at this moment.

His opening moves have also changed from the previous rough defense, and even his turning movements have become much softer.

(End of this chapter)