F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 203 Two Old Trees Blossom Newly
"Nice overtaking man, but you'll probably have to negotiate your own contract from now on."

"Bullshit! I bet Alonso would absolutely adore me!"

"Long said you love him very much."

"You'll see how much I love him after the race!" Alonso's distinctively trilled English now had a hint of gritted teeth. "Who's up ahead of us now? What are their lap times?"

It's not easy for the old man to stand on the podium for the last time. If he doesn't show some real skill, these young people won't know how shrewd he is.

Alonso's information indicated that there were four players ahead of him, with Verstappen and Hamilton taking turns setting the fastest lap times, both around 1:26.5, and maintaining a pace of around 1:27.2 over longer distances.

This data is actually similar to that of Shu Long, but there is an outlier among the top five drivers in the field, namely Bottas, who is 19.7 seconds ahead of Shu Long. His lap time is just over 1:28, which is about 0.1-0.2 seconds faster than Alonso's lap time.

"How did Bottas end up there?"

The old man and the young man asked the same question almost at the same time. What was strange was not why the other man was able to reach P3, as it was easy to guess that Bottas had not yet entered the station. What was strange was why Bottas had such a huge advantage in seconds.

Qatar's total time for a single stop is around 25 seconds, while Bottas, although he ranked very quickly, was actually always about 12 seconds behind Shulong.

In other words, the fight between Shu Long and Alonso just now allowed Bottas to reap the benefits for almost 8 seconds.

That would be a bit troublesome, for both Shulong and Alonso.

The race has now reached lap 32, and Bottas is clearly aiming for a first stop. Whether Shulung and Alonso behind him try to take a first or second stop, they will be in a very difficult position because of Bottas.

Based on their current strategy execution, the ideal window for the second stop should be around laps 41-43. If Shu Long wants to compete with Bottas' first stop, he can only try to make up at least 15 seconds in those ten laps to ensure he has a sufficient advantage at the end of the race.

Mercedes is not Alpine. Given the disadvantage of following other cars, Shulong has no way of ensuring that he can overtake on the third stint.

It would actually be simpler for Alonso, because Alpine simply doesn't have the luxury of a two-stop-one-stop system. Even with new tires, they wouldn't be able to push for enough lap times to make up for the time lost during pit stops.

Therefore, in order to have a chance at the podium, they basically have no choice but to take an extreme gamble.

In other words, the arduous task that originally belonged to the entire team has been taken on by Alonso. He now not only needs to maintain his lap time below 1:27.8, but also needs to take care of protecting his tires.

Red Bull's strategy team clearly saw through the plans of both teams. After quickly calculating the potential time difference of several tactics, they handed it over to René to quickly relay to Shulong.

"So, is it possible to stop driving to protect the pregnancy, buddy?"

What will happen if Alonso chooses to take a second stop?

"Like Bottas, their two-stop strategy poses no threat to us, but if we can maintain our current lap time and control tire consumption, Bottas should fall about 8 seconds behind us, which should be safer."

"I don't know! Until the tire reaches its breaking point, I can only tell you that the tire can still run. So, should we choose to preserve the tire now?"

"If possible, do your best. Adjust the brake balance a little back at Turn 6. If you can ease off the accelerator at Turn 9 without losing too much speed, try to get through it. Our tires are under relatively heavy load at these points."

"Ayeaye! Captain!"

I can't hear you~
Horner added this comment in the Pit Wall channel, and the previously lively discussion instantly froze as if a bucket of ice water had been poured over it.

"What? Nobody knows SpongeBob SquarePants? My daughters love watching it!"

"I think some people are so happy they're about to faint."

"Shut up, Lambias! How far is Max from Hamilton right now?"

"Uh—6.5 seconds? We have the fastest lap now, but it seems there's no way to get any closer. Maybe we can only consider a second stop after lap 37 to try again?"

Unlike Shulong, it's not very valuable for Verstappen to insist on taking a one-stop approach.

First of all, they did not consider the option of saving the tires in the first place. The early pit stop caused Verstappen's tires to be almost seven times older than Shulong's, and about 20 times older than Bottas's tires after the first pit stop.

Verstappen won't lose his position by stopping now, but if he insists on taking an unnecessary stop, he might be threatened by Bottas or Shulong later in the game.

On the contrary, a second stop would disrupt Hamilton's rhythm ahead, so Mercedes would probably have him follow suit with a second stop as a precaution.

The act of stopping at the station itself implies uncertainty.

If Bottas pulls off a slip-up like he did in Monaco this year, wouldn't that mean Verstappen could be declared the champion of the year ahead of time?

GP then quickly informed Verstappen of their strategic objectives for the site.

Don't worry about saving tires or anything else. Before lap 40, don't leave any tires on the ground. Push with all your might every lap.

Newey doesn't seem very happy.

With this strategy in place, Shu Long will essentially be cruising in very dry, clean air for the remaining twenty-odd laps of the race, which will not help him at all in continuing to observe and think about the tail wing improvement plan.

As for the slower cars that were lapped after receiving the blue flag, their impact was negligible, almost negligible.

It seems even the heavens heard the workaholic's lament, as Bottas, who had already persevered on the track for 33 laps, suffered another double tire blowout.
This time it's the front left.

Fortunately, Bottas didn't get stuck in the gravel after the tire blowout. Unfortunately, Bottas didn't get stuck in the gravel after the tire blowout.

This left the race organizers with no sufficient reason to issue a yellow flag and deploy the safety car. Red Bull was also unable to benefit from this variable. Meanwhile, Bottas, who had struggled to return to the track, was lurching along, wobbling and crashing around.

"This guy splashed sparks all over my face! And..."

Before Shu Long could finish speaking, he quickly cut inside the apex of Turn 13, dodging Bottas, who had rushed out of Turn 12 and was running back like a bull.

"Damn it! Isn't this dangerous return to the track?! Or dangerous driving?"

"We've noticed, you're right, so we're recording it and reporting it to the organizers."

Whether or not he gets fined is irrelevant now. Bottas's tire blowout has essentially knocked him out of contention for the top spots, and Shulong was just venting his emotions to the team.

The asphalt on the Qatar circuit is extremely rough. After rubbing back like that with sparks and lightning, it's hard to say whether the front wing is ruined or whether the fenders on their floor are even up to standard.

Meanwhile, Bottas' tire blowout not only made Red Bull, but also all the teams trying to execute a one-stop strategy became more cautious.

In fact, this tire blowout was completely unexpected, because Bottas had not shown any signs of excessive tire wear and loss of grip beforehand. In fact, as his fuel level decreased, his lap time was gradually improved to 1:27.8.
Moreover, the tire blowout itself was completely unexpected. It wasn't even because Bottas made a mistake by catching up with Qatar's unique double-layered shoulder; it simply happened because the tire couldn't withstand the load during a high-speed corner and then burst.

This is also related to the characteristics of the Lusail International Circuit.

Because there are many high-speed corners and few sections that require heavy braking, it is relatively easier for drivers to manage tire granulation. They can easily rub off the uneven tire granules with asphalt while cornering.

However, this also brings a problem: drivers' understanding of tire wear is relatively vague.

With just a little rubbing, a lot of grip can be regained. If the tire load is managed properly on a single lap, many people will have the illusion that they can keep running like Bottas.

Then, when the tire wall reaches a certain vulnerable critical point, bang!
There are 24 laps left in the race, but the white tires on the dragon car have already completed 10 laps before that. This means that to finish the race on the white tires without stopping, the dragon car would need to withstand at least 34 laps of the rigors.

Want to bet?
Hannah glanced at Alonso, who was now 4.7 seconds behind Shu Long, and switched the communication to the data analysis team in the background to start discussing Shu Long's strategy of changing to a two-stop strategy.

On lap 35, Reni, representing Red Bull, gave them their answer.

"Raise the pace a little and try to widen the gap between you and Alonso to more than 8 seconds."

"Are we going to change it to a two-stop service?"

"Not necessarily, so please also pay attention to tire wear."

Alpine quickly relayed the information from Red Bull to Alonso.

This was a crucial decision concerning the podium, and the team's strategy group, which had long been accustomed to hovering on the edge of the points zone, suddenly lacked the courage to make a decision, and simply tried to shift the responsibility onto this veteran rookie.

What was originally such a dire situation, with Alonso having consumed more gasoline than Shulong had driven for more miles, suddenly saw a glimmer of hope and felt he could turn things around.

They didn't explicitly tell the team whether or not there would be a second stop; they simply stated:
"I don't know, the tires don't feel right. I'll try pushing them a few times first."

于是在红牛那边对Alpine遥测数据的观测里，阿隆索先是努力地把单圈推上了1：27.9，接着滑落到1：28.1两圈，然后又颤颤巍巍地跑出一圈1：27.6。

He certainly looked like he was struggling terribly, as if his opponent's ceiling was limited to this. On the other hand, Shu Long's current lap time is consistently maintained at 1:26.8, even slightly faster than Verstappen, seemingly posing no threat to Red Bull's strategy.

This is exactly the effect Alonso wanted.

Red Bull may have treated them as rivals, but in reality, they didn't really take the little Alpine seriously. Alonso was all too familiar with the arrogance of such big teams.

By lap 39, Red Bull saw that Shulong had widened the gap to 8.3 seconds, so they wanted to test Renault's attitude. If it was about right, they planned to have Verstappen and Shulong pit on the same lap for their second pit stop.

Renault cooperated to an almost obedient degree in this matter, and sure enough, they passed the decision-making ball back to Alonso.

Alonso didn't reply, but silently unleashed a lap time of 1:27.3 before finally sighing and surrendering in the TR.
"The tires are worn out; it looks like we need to stop again."

"OK, let's move to the next station on the next lap!"

At this point, only two teams were planning to pit, so Renault's movements were quite noticeable. A group of tire changers hurriedly ran out of the pit garage with tires in their hands, found their respective positions, and waited in place.

Red Bull had already planned to pit Verstappen on this lap, so seeing this, they didn't hesitate any longer and waved to another group of people in the garage to bring out a new set of yellow gear.

Verstappen was far ahead, and his 2.2-second tire change was no problem. As the green light came on and he drove out of the parking space, Shulong's car just happened to emerge from the entrance passage of the pit lane.

It takes about 11.5 seconds from entering the pit area to the entrance of Red Bull's pit stop.

The tire change at Shulong's location also went very smoothly. Even with the addition of some fluorescent agent at Newey's request, the entire process took just over 3 seconds.

Horner, who was standing sideways, glanced at his watch and then looked out at the entrance to the maintenance area, vaguely sensing that something seemed amiss.

What about Alonso?

Just then, a car roared past on the main straight opposite the Pit Wall, and I only caught a glimpse of a metallic blue race car speeding away.

"Haha~ Just kidding!"

As the saying goes, to deceive the enemy, you must first deceive your own people.

Alonso's move not only fooled Red Bull, but he even targeted Alpine's teammates. The strategy team and the tire-changing technicians genuinely thought that Alonso's tires were about to give out!

With this back and forth, Alonso bought himself at least 18 seconds of breathing room, with only 16 laps remaining in the race.

After Shulong entered the station, two more people appeared in front of him: O'Connor and Norris.

In other words, if Shu Long wants to make it to the podium in this race, he not only needs to get past these two cars that are also likely to adopt a one-stop strategy, but he also needs to close the gap with Alonso by at least 1.5 seconds per lap on average to be considered relatively safe.

There wasn't much of a problem with the lap times; Shu Longxin Huang set the fastest time on his very first lap.

1:25.491, a full two seconds faster than Alpine in a single lap.

Alonso was not to be outdone, and on the next lap, he used his old white car, which had already run 20 laps, to set a time of 1:26.53, which slightly slowed down Shulong's pursuit.

This young man is a bit uncivilized. If given a second chance to get close to his back, he probably wouldn't give his manager any face at all.

But since it's an old tire that's already been used for 20 laps, it can't be used like a new tire every lap. If it keeps going at this pace, it's unlikely it can keep its podium position.

"Wait, wait, wait! Who else did you say came before Long?"

“There’s O’Connor, and there’s Norris.”

"Then please tell Esteban to defend with all his might! Like a lion!"

When Alonso said that, Shulong was already 0.7 seconds behind Ocon, and after Turn 16, he sucked in the slipstream and activated DRS to complete the turn.

But Ocon probably received instructions from the team, so he moved to the inside and made a very extreme late brake, seemingly trying to block all the angles of Shulong's apex and take back the position.

Shu Long ignored him, choosing a relatively conventional braking point but applying less force, and taking advantage of his tires' better grip to drive straight to the outside and overtake.

Generally speaking, the attack and defense end here.

As a result, Ocon acted like a rabid dog guarding its food, slamming on its brakes and discharging power along the taillights after Turn 3, determined to make sure no one could enter the turn before Turn 4, and then braked incredibly late, crashing straight into the inside apex of the corner.

Shu Long had already noticed the other party's movements in the rearview mirror. Based on his observation of the other party's racing dynamics, he directly concluded that this person was definitely going to cause trouble. So he slightly delayed his acceleration and gracefully let the ruthless madman pass.

How much per month? Are you kidding me?!
However, Ocon's disruption slowed him down by at least 1.2-1.4 seconds, but the pressure on Alonso might not be much less.

Shu Long had no time to continue his battle with O'Connor. Norris was still quite far ahead of him, with a 5.3-second time difference. Given his current 1.2-second lead per lap, he would probably have to catch up for a while.

It's unclear what the internal discussions at McLaren went through.

With a 4th place finish within his grasp, or at least a 5th place finish if he was overtaken by Shu Long, Norris surprisingly surrendered early in this true man's duel, choosing to pit for tires on lap 49.

Maybe they really can't hold on any longer?
After all, when the race reached lap 52, just as Shu Long was about to overtake Latifi, whom he had lapped for the second time, this guy actually had a flat tire right in front of him, and there was another burst of sparks and lightning.

Next was Ma Zeping.

Shu Long had recently had a falling out with this lunatic. Last time, when he tried to outmaneuver him, they just missed each other at the entrance window. This time, he was really worried that this weirdo would cause him some trouble.

So they didn't take any risks and, while eating DRS, flipped over on the straightaway.

At this point, there were still 5.3 seconds left in the race against Alonso. Shulong's pursuit was slowed down considerably by the slower cars lapping ahead of him. Just as he was preparing to overtake Russell on the next straight, Russell also suffered a tire blowout!

what?
[Is the panel still there? Aren't you going to add an entry for this?]

[The Mystic Eyes of Death Perception After a Tire Blowout!]

Mercedes-Benz's racing cars seem to be suffering from a serious illness today!
Shu Long caught all three race cars with their tires blowouts with his face!

However, it seems that Red Bull's previous caution was a reasonable judgment, and Norris's timidity was not without reason. Even the toughest C1 white tires can have a blowout at any time after reaching this mileage.

Alonso seemed to be debating whether to pit, as his front left tire was losing traction. His lap time on lap 54 dropped to 1:29.1, allowing Shu Long to close the gap to under 2 seconds.

As a result, the right wheel had just touched the line at the entrance of the repair area when it feinted and jumped out again.

This time, the old man wasn't just teasing Shulong; he genuinely wanted to enter, but Alpine's strategy team urgently halted the entry.

It wasn't that the team was retaliating against the leader for messing with them earlier; it was just that the entire track was under yellow flags, and a virtual safety car had been deployed.

Led by a virtual safety car, all race cars must reduce their speed by more than 40%, and overtaking is not allowed during this period.

"Only two laps left! Why are they raising the yellow flag at a time like this?!"

Shulong was a little overwhelmed, but there was nothing the team could do because the organizers needed some time to deal with Latifi's car.

Latifi's tire blowout happened in a rather unfortunate way. He just missed the pit lane entrance, and because he went off the track and was further damaged by the double kerb, his tire blowout was quite severe, with the entire rubber layer coming off the rim.

Seeing that I couldn't drive back, I had no choice but to find a place to park the car on the side of the road.

Even Alonso felt the result was somewhat unbelievable; he had been prepared to pit for P4, but who would have thought...
"Miracle! Guys! I think we've witnessed a miracle!"

His return to the podium after 7 years, and also Alonso's 98th podium in his career, is an unexpected and dramatic turn of events.

Meanwhile, Hamilton, who had been struggling since returning to the track, finally won his 100th career title.

After the competition, Shu Long went to congratulate his manager. He felt that the manager was now exuding a fatherly aura, and his expression was full of the meaning of "young man, you still have a lot of training."

"So why are your tires fine?"

"Sometimes losing is winning, kid. Maybe our race car is too slow and doesn't have the ability to damage the tires too much?"

Hamilton, who had just won the championship, was in high spirits when he heard this and his eyes lit up.

"Hey! I think this line is great, it should be in a movie, right?"

(End of this chapter)