F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 218: A chapter with too many topics to choose from, I don't know what to name it.

The training camp lasted for almost half a month, with a full schedule of high-intensity physical training every day. The only time we could relax a little in the pool was after dinner.

It's still aerobic exercise, no matter how you round it up!
As the person in this group who least needed to recover his physical condition, Red Bull specially arranged a boxing coach for Shu Long to prevent him from getting bored.

Boxing is a very comprehensive training program.

The extensive running, jumping, and trunk coordination greatly test a person's cardiopulmonary function. At the same time, responding to commands to punch and dodge can also provide excellent training for reaction ability, body mobilization and coordination, as well as the brain's ability to quickly process information.

The general process is that Shu Long and the coach move their feet continuously. When they shout "straight," they need to use a straight punch to hit the target on the same side. When they shout "cross," they need to use a hook punch to hit the target on the opposite side.

At the same time, the coach would occasionally launch a counterattack against Shulong without warning, at which point he would need to react on the spot to dodge.

Regardless of how much this training might improve his already peak reaction speed, Shu Long at least felt incredibly capable after such practice, and perhaps he could even make it a hobby after retiring.

Overall, it's a very fun activity. Combined with Shulong's extremely fast reaction speed and superb physical abilities, it can sometimes even create a fighting style similar to Dragon Ball.

Later on, it even escalated to the point where the coach's mind was in complete chaos, shouting incoherently, while Shu Long was still able to process all the information with remarkable ease. "Amazing" is not enough to describe the complex feelings of the onlookers.

Anyway, it got Verstappen and the others really excited, and they all wanted to try it out for themselves.

Gasly usually prefers ball-drop reaction training, while Verstappen and Kakuta do more light-dash training. Now that they've started playing, they realize the importance of watching others do it.

Simply put, it means that the brain can keep up but the hands can't.

Information transmitted to the limbs via neuronal signals is barely acceptable if it doesn't go wrong, but it's basically impossible to convert it into a powerful and substantial strike like that of a dragon, which makes their punches often look a bit effeminate.

If the commands are shouted too quickly and people get nervous, it might turn into a slightly strange twitching.

Before going on stage, they all thought they were guaranteed to succeed, but after the coach slapped them twice with a punching bag, they became obedient. No wonder Shu Long, that freak, always reacts so erratically every time he starts a race.

However, this also aroused Verstappen's competitive spirit, and he even squeezed out his usual nightly simulator relaxation time to set aside an extra hour to practice his reaction and coordination skills.

He couldn't help but be nervous.

Back when Shu Long was still struggling with Toro Rosso and Haas, I didn't realize how much power a faster start could have. It wasn't until I teamed up with Shu Long and went head-to-head with him a few times in the second half of last year that I truly understood how terrifying it was.

In the new season, everyone is starting from scratch. If we don't work hard to make up for our weaknesses, we can only watch helplessly as the team tilts its strategy towards Shulong. In severe cases, it's like handing the championship over to them.

Verstappen knows that Red Bull is no longer his comfort zone, and the challenges he faces are far greater than those of any of his teammates. He must show unprecedented drive.

On one side, people are drenched in sweat, while on the other side, it's much more relaxed.

Aside from regular training and recreational activities, Shulong has been mostly focused on the 2022 Winter Olympics during this period.

Having learned from Schumacher's experience, Shu Long, also a racing driver, had always been wary of snow sports. It was Horner who reminded him to take a closer look.

Gu Ailing, the female athlete who won two gold and one silver medals at the Winter Olympics and became famous overnight, was actually an athlete sponsored by Red Bull Austria.

I originally just thought the young girl was very talented, but I didn't expect that she would become a national idol overnight by taking advantage of the popularity of the Winter Olympics. It was a pleasant surprise.

Unfortunately, there are still no Chinese races planned for this year. Otherwise, Red Bull would have already been planning to have Gu Ailing and Shu Long collaborate. Now, they expect to invite them to the pit room to watch the races at some of the races during the season.

Whether or not there will be a joint effort is another matter; what really bothers Shu Longtou is that he has sparked another online debate in China these past few days.
Both are athletes sponsored by Red Bull, and they happen to be a man and a woman, so it's inevitable that some busybodies will compare the two.

Some people say that the girl is only 18 years old and has won the highest honor in her first participation in a top global competition. Isn't that better than you, who was 18 years old when you first drove an F1 car and only got 3rd place?

The opposing side retorted, "You can all go cool off somewhere else!"

The three most recognized major sporting events in the world are the Olympic Games, the FIFA World Cup, and the Formula One World Championship. Even if you consider the Winter Olympics as a sub-event of the Olympic Games, it's at best on par with them.

Shulong won 6 championships in just 6 months. If you include the 24 Hours of Le Mans, which is on par with F1, he has 7 championships. How come his resume is worse than yours?
Unable to compete on data, the rebellious spirit on the other side was also thoroughly stirred up.

"So what?! It's already incredibly difficult for a girl to reach the highest level in a sport! Besides, can racing even be considered a sport? If your car wasn't fast, how could you have won so many championships?"

Wait a minute!
Putting aside the alleged boxing comments, where did these conclusions come from? Sure enough, once the hype goes up, it easily attracts all sorts of weirdos!

Driving a Toro Rosso that finished sixth in the year to win the championship in Hungary, and you call that fast? Well, that probably has something to do with luck too.
But anyone who watched last year's Le Mans knows that it was purely a matter of speed. Car number 8 suffered a hydraulic failure in the middle of the game and its speed plummeted, but Shu Long managed to carry the team to victory by driving for nearly 12 hours by himself.

Now you know that motorsport performance is closely related to the competitiveness of a car. Didn't you see that someone almost won the F1 championship in their first F1 race, driving a Toro Rosso that finished second to last that year?
Do you know why F1 is called an extreme sport?

This isn't even considered a sport. What, aren't skis a means of transportation? Come on, take off your skis and try skiing with your butt!
Then the other side started bringing up the prestige of the competition, arguing that F1 has races every year, which is incomparable to the World Cup and the Olympics held every four years, and so on.

At this point, the argument had completely devolved into a childish squabble. When the masses support a new god to ascend to the throne, they absolutely cannot tolerate the slightest defilement, and both sides are doing their utmost to pull each other apart.

Of course, if it were just some discussions, it might not have developed to this point. Anyone with eyes can see that this is the result of someone deliberately guiding public opinion.

Shu Long had been asking his mother for help for a long time, hoping to get those fan leaders and their fans to calm down.

In the end, neither side benefits from the back-and-forth fighting; they're both just making a fool of themselves. They might make a small mistake and then be magnified and attacked.

Unfortunately, this was a situation that a few fan leaders couldn't control. Shu Long underestimated his current influence in China. There were plenty of self-proclaimed Confucian scholars online who spontaneously debated with others on his behalf, and he himself seemed to enjoy it.

On the contrary, those fans who tried to quell the flame war were directly labeled as spies sent by the opposing camp.

It's really speechless.

The current discussion atmosphere no longer tolerates rational and objective opinions; those who choose sides, either left or right, will become targets of attack.

Even the ceasefire comment posted by Shu Long himself using his account was met with dozens of negative comments. It was only after a home visit to his social media profile that he realized he had been wronged.

The whole thing is so abstract!

It seems that we can only hope that Red Bull will continue to work on the collaboration between the two. If the two celebrities are relatively harmonious, maybe the fans on both sides will calm down. As for completely eliminating it, let's not daydream about it.

Speaking of collaborations.

After miHoYo secured a personal sponsorship deal with Shulong, Red Bull seems to have a new idea based on the reaction to Shulong's official announcement of helmet updates.

To put it bluntly, Red Bull is essentially selling sugary drinks. All their efforts to cultivate an image of extreme sports are ultimately for the purpose of selling sugary drinks; that's their core business.

Genshin Impact has shown the world the potential of a top-tier secondary game IP to create a promising consumer market. If Red Bull didn't initially intend to compete with brands like War Horse for the low-spending gaming audience, everything changed after Mikey's emergence.

With Shulong acting as a middleman, it seems that both sides are planning to collaborate on creating a Red Bull x Fuel drink collaboration energy beverage brand, which will be promoted in sync with the game's release schedule.

This not only allows Mickelson and the Red Bull team to reach a special team sponsorship agreement that benefits both sides, but also helps Red Bull break through the consumer base in China that was originally limited by the framework of extreme sports.

The specifics are still under discussion. Depending on the situation, we might consider creating a new company with three separate entities: Red Bull, Thai Bull, and miHoYo. If the deal goes through, Red Bull's livery might even be changed this year.

Regarding paint schemes, aside from the white Bull paint scheme used for Honda's anniversary celebration last year, Red Bull's paint schemes don't actually change much from year to year.

Based on the prototype we've seen so far, it seems the only difference is that the paint on the darker parts has changed from black to dark blue.

The design has undergone significant changes due to the shift from aerodynamic to ground-effect principles. The overall lines appear smoother, but it lacks some of the sharp, angular presence of the aerodynamic design.

The specific results will depend on the actual performance of the car on the track. One by one, everyone went back to their own homes. Shu Long stayed at the base until the 20th before setting off and hitching a ride on Verstappen's private plane.

This year's winter testing will still be conducted in two rounds. The first round will take place from February 23rd to 25th in Barcelona, ​​Spain, as usual.

The second round will be held at the Sakhir circuit in Bahrain from March 10th to 12th, just one week before the season opener.

The two rounds of preseason testing were not only conducted on different tracks, but also had different promotional scales.

The first round of testing was essentially a semi-confidential test; there would be no live stream from anywhere in the world, and only simple content reports would be provided each day.

The second round of testing will not only have an audience, but will also include a live broadcast and promotional activities to kick off the season.

According to some sources in the vicinity, it seems that a wealthy Middle Easterner provided the funding, so the decision was made to postpone the initial large-scale publicity campaign until Bahrain.

Money really can buy anything; even the opening match, which usually takes place in Melbourne, Australia, was snatched up by Bahrain. The first round of testing was rather uneventful, with Verstappen running on the first day, Shulong on the second, and the two of them running in the morning and afternoon on the third.

The two had slightly different tasks, and their results were fairly average.

Verstappen's best result on the third day was P3, while Shulong consistently hovered around 5th or 6th place.

His task was to test long-distance following, try to solve the problem of dolphin jumps in racing cars, and be responsible for the wetland test of artificial watering on the track on the afternoon of the third day.

Since it's the first year of the ground effect regulations, each team naturally has a different understanding of how to be the fastest under the new rules.

However, almost all teams face the most troublesome dolphin jump of the ground effect regulations.

Under ground effect regulations, the majority of downforce on a race car will no longer be provided by the aerodynamic components above, but will instead be generated through the airflow channels in the car's floor using the Venturi effect.

When airflow passes through the channel, it is compressed and then expanded rapidly, which creates a low-pressure area under the car. Rather than downforce, modern racing cars are more like suction forces.

This places stricter requirements on the height of the race car's chassis, because generally the closer the track is to the ground, the stronger the effect.

When a race car is sprinting at full speed on a straightaway, the extremely high suction force will lower the car's suspension, further increasing downforce and grip.

It seems like a virtuous cycle has been formed, but there are limits to how much it can be suppressed.

If the tunnel is too close to the ground, the air boundary layer will significantly reduce the airflow through the tunnel, causing the race car to lose a large amount of downforce in an instant, thus causing the race car to bounce off the ground.

Then it is compressed and bounced again, which creates the so-called dolphin jump phenomenon.

The principle is actually very easy to understand. Just like when spraying champagne, they would use their thumb to cover part of the bottle opening to make the champagne spray faster and more rapidly.

But you can't completely block the bottle opening, can you?
Despite this simple fact, no team in the paddock noticed the problem. Not only did the simulators lack the corresponding data, but even when studying the wind-blown motion model, they were unaware of its serious impact.

Therefore, setting the floor height has become a major headache for every team in the paddock.

Raising the car can effectively solve the dolphin jump problem, but it also causes the car to lose a lot of downforce. Raising the car by just 1 millimeter can result in a loss of 0.1 seconds per lap.

What is 0.1 seconds? In F1, 0.1 seconds is a matter of life and death!

No racing team would willingly sacrifice performance for comfort! Absolutely not!
But this is not just a minor physical problem where drivers are complaining about back pain from being jolted around; it's a serious issue that can genuinely affect driving performance and racing speed.

The dolphin jump phenomenon occurs most frequently at the end of each straight, which is precisely where drivers need to brake and start entering the corner, requiring the most precise control, making the problem very tricky.

Previously, drivers only needed to consider the very even change in downforce as speed decreased when tracking the track. Now, during braking, you first need to deal with the uneven tire stress caused by bouncing.

As a result, there were countless yellow and red flags during the three-day test. Everyone was either on the verge of their tires locking up or running off the track. Everyone needed to readjust their old habits of driving aerodynamic vehicles to the driving style of ground effect vehicles.

Of course, the changes in the new regulations are not all bad.

From the current perspective, the biggest advantage of the new ground effect vehicle is that its resistance to polluted air has been significantly enhanced.

有明显提升的区间主要集中于3-1秒，从1秒到0.5秒的范围内和去年区别不算大，但0.5秒之内简直是天差地别。

The thing Shulong did most during the first round of testing was to follow a passing car and lap it together. If the car stopped running, he would wait patiently on the side of the road for the next ride.

The increased resistance to polluted air is also partly due to changes in tire size.

今年的轮胎正式更换为了18英寸的大轮胎，干胎和雨胎的最大直径尺寸从过去的670mm以及680mm扩大到了如今的725mm和735mm。

This has actually undergone many rounds of testing, but previously it was just aerodynamic vehicles with modified suspensions to fit larger tires. Now, when paired with a proper ground effect vehicle, the power of the new tires is truly being demonstrated.

The most obvious change brought about by the increase in tire size is that the aspect ratio will decrease.

The benefits of a lower aspect ratio include, but are not limited to, mitigating localized overheating during tire slippage; reducing contact patch deformation during driving; and resulting in less airflow variation.

At the same time, the compound of tires with the same number will be harder than last year. The rate of tire degradation has made Pirelli truly Pirelli, which means that the Shulong can adopt an aggressive driving method with more slip angle when following other vehicles.

All these changes seem to indicate that the 2022 season will be a season of intense competition and overtaking.

Overall, Shu Long was quite satisfied with the new season's car, except for a slight stiffness in low-speed corners.

This is because Red Bull switched to a front-pull, rear-pull suspension design this year, and McLaren is the only company in the paddock to adopt the same solution.

There's a reason why no one uses it. The front-pull, rear-pull suspension has an inherent deficiency in mechanical grip. If the driver doesn't have enough car control skills, the time lost in low-speed corners alone is unbearable to watch.

Compared to Red Bull, McLaren's performance was very noticeable, with Norris and Ricciardo both having a very difficult time driving.

However, the front-pull, rear-push suspension performs better in terms of aerodynamics. It is clear that Newey has gone to great lengths to fully unleash the potential of Red Bull and its two drivers.

They were determined to maximize the car's strengths and then rely on the driver's ability to compensate for the car's weaknesses.

There's nothing else to it. Although everyone tries to hide their crotches, the tests always reveal a lot of information, more or less.

Overall, the competitive landscape doesn't seem to be much different from last year. Red Bull remains a strong contender for the championship, while Ferrari seems to be finally recovering.

Shu Long, out of personal interest, paid more attention to Alfa Romeo. This year, not only did Zhou Guanyu join the team, but the matter of Geely's entry into the market is also closely related to Alfa Romeo, so it's really hard not to care.

It seems that Arroyo's car quality has been problematic this year. Numerous mechanical failures occurred during the three-day test period, and Bottas was unable to complete even a few laps properly. Together, the two only managed a total of 175 laps in the first round of testing.

I don't know if this is a good thing or not. If the team struggles a bit, Geely might be able to negotiate a lower price later.
Perhaps it was precisely because the car performed so well, coupled with Verstappen's knowledge that Shulong had no plans for a long-term contract extension, that Max officially announced his super contract with Red Bull after just one round of testing.

They renewed their contract with Red Bull until 2028 for around 50 million euros per year.

The price may fluctuate slightly depending on the points accumulated, but it is already quite expensive, and there is not much room for negotiation.

In contrast, Shulong's contract is more like that of a pure enforcer, with the team's driver income in the 21 season around 2000 million euros.

This season, the terms have been updated, with the base salary increased to 1800 million euros, the bonus for a single point rising to 6 euros, and additional revenue from Red Bull and various sponsorships.

Overall, the specific treatment is slightly lower than that of world champions. How much you can earn depends entirely on your ability. It's not impossible for someone with real talent to earn more than their teammates.

Besides these miscellaneous little things, an unexpected situation occurred during the first round of testing—the goose and the little bird got into a fight.

For a time, Ma Zeping's position at Haas became very awkward. Although the FIA ​​allowed Russian drivers to continue competing under a neutral status, Ma Zeping's father's extremely special status meant that Ma Zeping was destined to be involved in this matter.

So, just before the second round of preseason testing in Bahrain, Haas officially announced the termination of its contracts with sponsor Uralkali and driver Nikita Mazepin.

To be honest, no one expected this outcome, especially since the FIA ​​had already given them a way out.

Ma Zeping may indeed be very unpopular, and his talent may not be worthy of an F1 seat, but he should absolutely not be kicked out for this reason and in this way. This makes the slogan "We race as one." that sports have no borders seem like a joke.

The key issue is that Haas hasn't refunded Uralkali's sponsorship fee for this year, which is rather unseemly.
Ok.

As a driver, it's really hard to accept Haas and Steiner's actions, especially since they had a memorable working relationship. This whole mess has really upset Shulong.

But when he thought about how Ma Zeping was missing from the track this year, it was really hard for him to show a sad expression on his face.

Especially when he learned that Haas had rehired Magnussen and signed him to a multi-year contract, Shu Long, a close comrade-in-arms who had shared the hardships of working with the garbage Haas for a year, really couldn't help but laugh out loud.

Despite both having "Ma" in their names and both having questionable driving styles, Magnussen and Mazepin are fundamentally different.

Magnussen is indeed fast, and his aggressive defensive moves are supported by actual technical skills, which is predictable in Shu Long's eyes.

Unlike Ma Zeping, who was a complete novice and couldn't control the car, coupled with his impulsive, irritable, and easily angered personality, which caused him to run wildly on the track, you simply couldn't figure out what he was thinking.
Although he didn't dare to celebrate on social media while things were in such a heated situation, Shu Long still sent a congratulatory message to Lao Ma as soon as he heard the news.

Welcome back, old friend!

(End of this chapter)