F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 207 The decisive battle at the top of the Forbidden City
Laugh, why aren't you laughing anymore?
Fei Ge, always eager for a good show, shifted his gaze from Bing Ge to Hao Ran's face.

Who just shouted, "Shulong has entered a perfect window of opportunity after this overtaking maneuver! Their lead should be secure from now on!"

Fei Ge thought it might not have been him who said it. He vaguely remembered that the voice was relatively deep, so it didn't seem to be Hao Ran.
Um.
Young people, stop standing there! Quickly find something to talk about to ease the awkwardness of the older generation!

"Cough cough! Uh, the forewing of the Shulong has completely fallen off, and I think I saw the tail wing hit the wall just now."

"However, it doesn't seem as badly damaged as Russell's and Ma Zeping's cars. He's still moving, let's see if he can finish the repairs and return to the game during the break in the red flag."

"Oh no, he stopped! That's not good. Hopefully, the power unit wasn't damaged. I remember this car's quota was already used up."

It might get even worse; the race car got stuck in gear.

When the collision occurred, Shulong had just shifted into fourth gear. He couldn't shift up or down at that moment. For the sake of protecting the race car, René quickly told Shulong to stop the car on the track and wait for someone to tow it.

It's a pity, but it looks like he'll have to withdraw from the competition.

To be optimistic, it's fortunate that the accident happened relatively early, before the race car had even picked up speed.

Otherwise, given the narrow layout of the Jeddah circuit, a sudden obstacle blocking the track would likely have disastrous consequences, potentially becoming the next Huber.

On a more optimistic note, we're not too far from P-room now, so at least we don't have to walk too far to get back.
what--!
Damn, I'm still so angry just thinking about it!
With such a fantastic start and such high hopes for winning the championship, they were first ruined by Mike's yellow flag, and then, after restarting, they encountered this terrible situation.

Although Shu Long is not under the pressure of the annual championship at this moment, this withdrawal from the competition is conservatively estimated to result in a direct loss of $100 million in prize money.

Damn it! Haas, I hate you!
However, there should be someone who hates Haas even more than Shu Long. When Shu Long walked back, he saw a person standing at the center of Turn 2. George Russell was staring at his shattered race car and sighing.

"How are you? Are you alright?"

"No, the speed wasn't fast at the time, it was just a race car! Williams' financial report this year is terrible, I'm not even sure if there's any budget or new parts for the next race."

"Is that so? But I remember that after Checo signed Albon, he brought a large amount of sponsorship to Williams, right?"

“Yeah, but obviously sponsors would prefer to see their money spent on the drivers they support.”

Such a realistic and heavy topic.
Shu Long said he empathized with the situation, adding that he probably had a harder time in Haas than Williams last year.

Fortunately, Dmitry Mazeping didn't mind the team using his sponsorship money in advance. Of course, it wasn't entirely out of selfless kindness; he probably hoped that Shu Long would help adjust the car while he was still with the team.

However, the fact that Shu Long could often score points did not mean that the car was easy to drive. Even Magnussen had a hard time keeping up with Shu Long's pace of adaptation. It would be a miracle if Haas didn't finish last this year after recruiting two complete rookies.

Speaking of Haas, Shu Long then noticed the white race car parked not far away.

"So you were also tricked by Haas?"

"Yes, it was an undeserved disaster."

"Tsk tsk tsk~ Anyway, thanks for not choosing to run me over. By the way, why don't you go over and knock Ma Zeping's helmet off?"

"What?!" Russell's eyes widened even more. "Are you sure you want to mock me like this?! Right after you thanked me for all the sacrifices I made for you?"

Shu Long was laughing so hard he was convulsing, and Russell couldn't resist slapping the bastard's helmet.

Every wrong has its perpetrator, and as one of the culprits who caused someone to withdraw from the competition, this slap wasn't entirely unjustified.

In the second Grand Prix of the year, Imola, Russell's right tire hit the still-wet grass while overtaking Bottas, causing him to lose control and crash along with Bottas.

Bottas himself hadn't moved the steering wheel; it was just that the track was gradually narrowing, and Russell mistakenly thought that Bottas had closed the door on him, causing him to climb onto the grass. He got out of the car and angrily walked over to slap Bottas on the head.

After watching the replay, I realized it was my fault, apologized, and received forgiveness.

However, for Russell, who is particularly concerned about his appearance, this lapse in composure is obviously a dark history that is hard to forget. It was only during this period that Shu Long brought it up to make a joke.

After this round of banter, the two were much less upset about withdrawing from the competition.

What can you do if your car is broken? Just consider it leaving get off work early.

It took about five minutes to get back to the pit wall. By then, even Verstappen had already circled around and returned. He was now out of the car and having a heated discussion in front of the pit wall, looking quite upset.

Shu Long took off his helmet and hood and crept over to listen. It turned out he had been penalized for time.

Because the pre-race schedule required the yellow-tire Stint to run more than 31 laps, Verstappen probably weighed the importance of leading over the new tires, which is why he didn't choose to pit under the yellow flag induced by Mick.

However, Max seems to need some pressure from someone ahead of him to unleash the Rockets' starting ability. Once he starts in first place, he always tends to have some problems. In the second round, Hamilton overtook him from the inside.

The result was that the outside player made a huge tackle and got stuck, so he had no choice but to cut through the apex of Turn 2.

According to the rules, any position gained outside the track must be returned, and Hamilton, in order to avoid the inside torpedo, had Ocon steal a position from behind.

As it happened, Shu Long triggered a double yellow flag at that moment, which soon turned into a red flag. The current ranking was thus fixed, and from the perspective of the result, Verstappen's gains outside the circuit have not yet been returned.
After listening for a while, Shu Long tiptoed away.

He finally got to enjoy Verstappen's favor, but he didn't get to play much of a role and became a victim of Mikkelsen's actions. Now, when it comes to assigning blame, he's getting a piece of the action again.

Fortunately, the race organizers may have taken the special circumstances into consideration and have now proactively offered Red Bull Racing two options:

They'll either have to change their starting position from pole to behind Hamilton, or they'll have to accept a 5-second penalty.

Is that even a question?
In the first 5 seconds, Verstappen was penalized to P10 or later, so they had no choice but to agree to start from P3 when the game restarted.

However, Red Bull is taking a gamble and has switched to yellow medium tires, intending to run the next 35 laps on yellow tires.

Just like the data analysis results from Red Bull's backend yesterday, yellow tires have a similar rate of degradation as white tires. Unless there are special circumstances and the strategy is temporarily modified, Red Bull has considered stopping the red and yellow tires in the Shulong race.

They are now betting that Verstappen can use the better grip of the yellow tires to regain his lead at the start, solidify his lead in the first few laps, and then secure the final victory.

This may be one of the few advantages Red Bull currently has over Mercedes; they have an extra set of new yellow.

If Hamilton wants to follow Red Bull's strategy, he can only do what Bottas did: abandon his only white tires and put on the old yellow ones he's already used. But that would also put him at a disadvantage in the later stages of the race.

"Over and over! It's lights out and away we go!"

When the commentator uttered the same line for the third time tonight, the plot seemed to finally return to the main storyline of the Red Bull script.

Ocon, who started from pole position, had never experienced anything like this before. He was immediately overtaken by Hamilton at the start of the race and then followed the same path as Verstappen in the previous round.

On the contrary, Verstappen took over Ocon's spotlight this time, taking advantage of the gap when the veteran was suppressing Ocon to kill two sheep in one go, directly entering from the inside of Turn 1 and directly entering P1 at the start of the game.

The rest of the match turned into a long chase.

Alpine, who also benefited from cornering, was overtaken by Verstappen, while Hamilton was blocked by Verstappen on the inside and couldn't start entering the corner. Therefore, Ocon didn't technically have to relinquish the lead to Hamilton. As a result, Ocon, who had a very unpleasant experience with Verstappen in Brazil in 18, ironically took on the role of Red Bull's second car's wingman in this race, holding out until lap 18 before being overtaken by Hamilton.

Everything seemed to be going in Red Bull's favor, but a cornering contest between Kimi and his old teammate Vettel on lap 25 planted a minefield for the rest of the race.

Scattered carbon fiber fragments can be found throughout the area from Turn 6 to Turn 9.

After the lessons learned from the numerous tire blowouts in the previous Qatar race, the organizers dared not take the risk. If these carbon fiber fragments caused a car to lose control due to a tire blowout in a series of high-speed corners, the destructive power would be no less than that of a Claymore landmine.

So it was yellow flags again, plus a virtual safety car.

This seems to be a major advantage for Verstappen, who drives on yellow tires, as the speed limit will undoubtedly help him manage the yellow tires.

Unfortunately, the old man who changed his front wing during the pit stop was right in front of them and was driving incredibly slowly, which completely wiped out the 2-second advantage that Verstappen had managed to gain before the yellow flag.

The race did not resume until lap 33 when the green flag was raised.

Kimi received two blue flags, which slightly slowed Hamilton down when he had to give way. However, he couldn't balance the two flags perfectly, and Hamilton eventually closed the gap to 0.7 seconds without taking any damage, trailing Red Bull by only about 1.2 seconds.

While the yellow flag and virtual safety car did slow down the wear of the yellow tires, they also slowed down the wear of Hamilton's white tires, and caused Verstappen to miss the opportunity to build a sufficient lead using the yellow tires.

Mercedes, running at full speed, was truly unstoppable. By lap 36, they had closed in on DRS's attack range, and on lap 37, they launched their first extremely aggressive attack on the starting straight.

As a result, Verstappen refused to comply, seemingly remembering Horner's pre-race warning, and his late braking forced both of them to go off the track at Turn 2.

Hamilton simply couldn't afford the consequences of retiring twice. He showed considerable caution in both offense and defense throughout the game today, which is why Ocon managed to take advantage of him twice.

So the old man still didn't choose to go all out, and finally, after giving up the whole game, he got a result that was favorable to him.

Verstappen must return to his position or face a penalty of being forced to leave the position.

But at this point, making the turret give way to the vehicle would be tantamount to completely setting off a firecracker.

You want to move aside? Okay!

Recalling the braking battle between Shu Long and Hamilton over DRS, Verstappen slammed on the brakes at Turn 26 to slow down, attempting to secure the final DRS while completing the position exchange.

As a result, Hamilton, who was behind, was unable to avoid it and, while swerving sharply, still bumped into Verstappen's rear.

The old man's front wing was not seriously damaged, but a large piece of the diffuser at the rear of the Verstappen was scratched off. The impact of this damage is comparable to the direct damage to the rear wing. The whole car has conservatively lost 5-10% of downforce without reducing drag.

How can we play then?
Hamilton played steadily for 43 laps, seized the opportunity to overtake, and quickly pulled away to finally win his 7th title of the season.

Red Bull's upgrades to address dirty air pollution were partly implemented in the rear diffuser, but after entering Mercedes' dirty air system, it seemed to revert to its old ways, failing to keep up with the car at all, and even falling behind by a full 6 seconds in the last 7 laps.

The race ended with a 5-second penalty for that mistake; if P3 hadn't been so far away, he probably would have lost a position.

After the match, seeing that the atmosphere in the pit room was rather somber, Horner, as the team leader, gathered his emotions a little, clapped his hands, and attracted everyone's attention.

"Alright guys, don't be so discouraged. This result is actually pretty good for us!"

"At least we still have a 5-point lead, and at least we still have two reliable drivers! Look at Mercedes, they only have one."

Someone seemed to have started it, and as if to relieve their inner frustration, the room suddenly erupted in laughter.

Verstappen didn't laugh; it seemed he wasn't in the mood for it at the moment.

Shu Long didn't laugh either. He watched the entire match from the pit room and objectively believed that Bottas actually played quite well in this game.

At the very least, as an opponent, Bottas is highly respectable.

The number two driver, who was going to leave the team at the end of the season, did not receive any resources from the team and was even suspected of being strategically sacrificed to be used for engine experiments. In the end, he used the old version of the engine he used at the beginning of the season to defeat Ocon. It was really not easy for him to get to P3.

The trend of belittling rivals to demonstrate superiority seems to be particularly prevalent abroad. The most common manifestation of this is that people start to act arrogantly when they have a slight advantage, which is largely the source of the so-called "white arrogance" stereotype.

Red Bull's team has a fairly lively personality, and because they have been on the chase for the past few years, they have also been relatively restrained.

Especially with the political infighting temporarily subsiding this year, the racing scene has once again demonstrated its competitiveness to contend for the championship, creating an overall positive and uplifting atmosphere.

However, Horner seems to be intentionally trying to evoke similar emotions to counteract the disappointment of losing two consecutive races and to keep the team in high spirits for the final race.

Shu Long himself didn't really like this style of approach, but he couldn't help but admire Horner's outstanding leadership skills. No wonder Red Bull could become a rising power in the paddock in such a short time.

As expected, he is the most lovable and hateful unorthodox team leader in the hunting grounds.
The season finale in Abu Dhabi is another back-to-back race week, leaving the suspense of the championship race until the very last round. This is undoubtedly the most anticipated and also the most nerve-wracking development for all racing fans.

Liberty Media Group knows how to generate buzz and build anticipation among fans, so they specially assigned interview teams for Thursday's media day.

Shulong and Bottas are in one group, Hamilton and Verstappen are in another, and Horner and Toto are in yet another.

Shu Long and his partner are the least hostile couple. They don't have any direct conflicts of interest. Next year, Zhou Guanyu will team up with Botas, so the two of them will naturally focus on making money peacefully.

Even so, the media below still tried their best to stir up some tension among them.

The point of contention that the reporters focused their fire on most was probing how determined the two players were to help their teammates win the championship.

Bottas can hardly disrupt the front row anymore; his engine is old and his speed limit is insufficient, so a penalty wouldn't be worth it for him.

Every family has its own troubles, and the situation in Shulong was no better.

The results of the car inspection after the last race were not very optimistic. In this race, Shu Long will need to replace his gearbox, and conservatively speaking, he will be penalized five times.

If the car demonstrates sufficient overall speed in several practice sessions, Red Bull might even consider replacing the engine along with the Sullane, potentially giving them even more control in the race.

It is conceivable that before the two can help their teammates, they will inevitably have a fierce battle with each other.

Unfortunately, these two are probably even more Zen than Kimi right now. They sat on the stage and smiled so kindly that it could be described as benevolent. They were completely unmoved.

When it came to Hamilton and Verstappen, they didn't even bother with any pretense; they simply placed this year's Drivers' Championship trophy between the two of them.

The two, who had a minor altercation on the track in the previous race, were surprisingly harmonious. On the contrary, the team leader's feud didn't need any media provocation; he immediately took his sarcastic remarks to the extreme.

Toto stated bluntly: "Faster drivers should win the championship, not the one decided by crashing."

Horner didn't hold back either, saying right away: "We only want to win on the track, not shout for a championship in the stewards' office. We want fairness."

just
In the lead-up to the end of the season, it seems like you, Horner, are the one who's been going to the tournament director's office the most.
(End of this chapter)