F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 223 A Well-Off Dining Table
"Oh dear! What a pity!"

"Leclerc is really something. I remember Shu Long and he fought quite well in F2, right?"

"If we only look at the final results, Shulong would have a much better chance of winning. However, I took some time to follow a few of the races at the time, and the battles between them were indeed very exciting."

The one who answered Bing Ge's question was Xia Ge. It's rare that the commentary team for this stop wasn't Bing Feiran and his two friends. In addition to Xia Ge, a classic guest, Zong Wei was temporarily filling in for the simultaneous interpretation.

With two big milk bottles missing, I just hope there will be fewer unpredictable factors from outside the field during today's game.

There is no DRS available for the time being, and it is estimated that overtaking will have to wait until three or four laps later. Naturally, the commentators have focused more on Zhou Guanyu, who is participating for the first time.

"Hey, look what happened to Zhou Guanyu – he's fallen to the back of the line?!"

"Wait a minute! If you look closely, Bottas has also dropped from sixth to 14th. It doesn't seem to be a driver issue. Could there be some hidden problem with the car?"

Everyone held their breath, worried sick about Zhou Guanyu's performance.

It's worth noting that there are many outstanding individuals who came before Xiao Zhou. Although it took him three years to graduate from F2, he still managed to achieve the highest honor in the F2 series. Fans have high expectations for him, if not too high.

Shu Long has been known for his exceptional starting response since his debut, and he reached the podium in his very first F1 race.

Zhou Guanyu's results in the lower groups are naturally incomparable to those of Shu Long. We don't expect you to be as amazing as him and stand on the podium in the first competition, but at least get some points, right?

However, the race started with a five-position drop, which dampened the spirits of many fans. The only reason they weren't so disheartened was that Shu Long was still ahead of them, and A Luo's older brother had dropped even more positions than Zhou Guanyu.

Fortunately, Zhou Guanyu smoothly overtook Ricciardo after a few turns, and on the second lap, he successfully overtook Stroll by bumping into him at the consecutive corners 1 and 2, gaining two positions in just over a lap.

He then overtook Norris on the third lap, Hulkenberg on the fourth lap, and Perez on the sixth lap, returning to P15 to rejoin his teammate Bottas.

This overtaking efficiency was quite high. In fact, he even overtook his old rival Mick on the next lap, instantly drawing the commentators' attention away from the front row of contenders.

Aro's car does indeed have a considerable speed advantage, while Zhou Guanyu, in the lower categories, has a lower lap limit, but he stands out precisely because of his excellent overtaking ability and extremely high long-distance stability. Such a performance can only be said to be in line with expectations.

Perhaps there will be some surprises?
So what was Shu Long doing while Zhou Guanyu was dominating the scene?
"Max reports that his engine braking is having a strange effect on the race car. Please report the situation on your end."

"Really? I have a feeling he's just throwing a smokescreen at me?"

This means no. Shu Long's usual driving habits don't favor excessive engine braking; he prefers to rely on the accelerator and brakes to control the engine speed in real time.

He quickly glanced at the rearview mirror, made a small dragon-like run after Turn 3, avoided Verstappen's slipstream, and then returned to the center line to pressure his teammate's driving line. While the other was still adjusting his entry angle, he took the lead and entered Turn 4 first.

He's busy dealing with his teammates.

Leclerc is now more than two seconds ahead, while Verstappen is pressing him relentlessly from behind. Shu Long has no choice but to slightly shift the focus of the game's tactics.

Leclerc's brilliant move at Turn 1 on the first lap not only quickly established his lead, but also forced Shu Long and Verstappen to close in on each other.

These two Red Bull cars don't differ as much in attributes as they do from Ferraris. To be honest, the potential of the Shulong car should be slightly lower than that of the Verstappen car.

Only now that the dirty air left by Leclerc has had less of an impact can he barely keep up with Verstappen in low-speed corners.

While ground effect racing cars are more resistant to polluted air, this doesn't mean they are completely immune to its effects under current regulations. In fact, telemetry data shows that resistance to polluted air has improved by about 8% in the 1-3 second range, and only by 14% in the 0-0.5 second range.
It can be said that Leclerc's two-second lead was deliberately conceded by Shu Long. Whether from the perspective of a single game or the entire season, defeating his teammate first is undoubtedly the most cost-effective option.

Of course, the only one who would benefit from continuing to entangle with his teammate is that brat Leclerc. As early as the third lap, Shu Long had already started planning how to get rid of Max, that tagalong.

Is there a problem with the engine braking?
Regardless of whether this information is true or not, since there is information on the track that seems to be able to change the course of the battle, we might as well let Shulong give it a free try.

Both of them simultaneously charged the race car twice.

On lap 12, Shulong started the race with a full-on DRS defense on the starting straight. Then, after turn 3, there was another DRS attack, which forced Shulong to release more DRS than the car behind him once again.

However, Verstappen seemed to have seen through the dragon's intentions, and simply opened the variable wing at the rear to maintain the gap between the two cars within 0.6 seconds, without making any further attempts that might damage the car's condition or tire wear.

The second DRS section is a bit short, so instead of wasting energy here, it's better to try to overtake in the DRS area after Turn 10.

Due to the difference in car setup, Verstappen has a speed advantage in the combination corners of corners 9 and 10, where he needs to brake while in the middle. Once he gets close, the car in front without DRS is basically helpless.

Shu Long had anticipated this situation, so after Turn 4 he quickly switched the car's discharge strategy to SOC12, trying to maintain his position while accumulating more battery power during the continuous high-speed corners from Turn 5 to Turn 8.

then
Shullon started braking early before Turn 9, which Verstappen could have anticipated, as Shullon had always done it this way before, and Verstappen had even imitated him once in qualifying yesterday.

Pre-braking will inevitably affect the braking point selection of the car behind. The reason why Shulong was able to block Verstappen's position for the first few laps was because he kept using this position to affect his teammate's cornering rhythm in turns 9 and 10.

But Verstappen couldn't take it anymore this time.

Dragging his feet and relying on DRS to overtake on the straights is not in line with his personality. This lap he wants to take advantage of the situation, first relying on his higher stability in low-speed corners to get past his teammates in the corners, and then completely throwing Shulong out of his attack range on the straights!

As a result, just as Verstappen was pulling his head towards the inside line, the regular racing line maintained braking force but gave the steering wheel an excessive input angle.

The race car was already slowing down, with reduced downforce at the front. If you then forcefully turn the steering wheel at this point, there will only be one result: the tires will experience an instantaneous overload of lateral grip, causing a light, thin trail of white smoke to rise.

Made a mistake?
This was the first thought that popped into Verstappen's mind, because the same scenario had happened to many teams during the winter testing and the three practice sessions. Even Verstappen himself had experienced at least three instances of his inner tire locking up during the car setup process.

The same scenario happened quite often after the start of the race. The engineers at GP reminded Verstappen several times in the TR, saying that he should be more careful with braking in this position, because Magnussen had already locked up twice in the same spot.

Given that the tuning of the Shulong race car was even weaker in dealing with the lack of downforce at the front, it is not surprising that the same situation occurred under duress.
No!

This so-called "clutching to death" lasted only a moment. As a prodigy who mastered Alonso's push-head running technique in his first year of high school, even more so than the founder himself, Shu Long was all too clear about how to control the blurry line between pushing and not pushing.

As I gently released the brake pedal in sync with the steering wheel returning to center, I seamlessly resumed tracking. Aside from slightly widening the turn on turn 10, there was virtually no impact.

On the contrary, Verstappen, in order to avoid the outside line of Shulong, although he did overtake in Turn 9, had to downshift from third to second before entering Turn 10, forcing himself to take a narrower line to hug the apex of the corner.

broken
The strange engine braking felt like an invisible giant hand. Verstappen felt someone suddenly pull him from behind. Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed that the outer beam seemed to have returned to its parallel position with him, and he had a vague feeling that something was wrong.

And there's something even worse.

After passing the DRS detection line at Turn 10, Verstappen was speechless to find that he did not hear the "beep" sound he should have heard in his headset, nor did the DRS indicator light on the steering wheel illuminate.

Then he saw the dragon beside him, who should have been half a body length behind, first climb the turn using the more comfortable exit line on the outside, and then happily spread its tail fins and sped away. "Fxck hell! Again?!"

When people are speechless to the extreme, they can actually burst out laughing. Verstappen now wishes he could slap himself through his helmet. He's been fooled so many times, doesn't he know how to learn his lesson?
After so many laps of overtaking, with the opportunity right in front of you, how could you resist trying, poet?
I really can't tell them apart!

"How's the window now? My tires are almost worn out, can we try an undercut?"

"Sorry Max, Long's tires just locked up, and he had already booked a pit stop."

Hey!
How could he possibly make every step of the calculation so painful?!
"I don't care! I want it too!"

Wait a minute, maybe this situation is actually a good thing?
Verstappen was slightly agitated after being tricked by Shu Long, but having been through the baptism of a world champion, he quickly regained his composure and organized the information that was currently in his favor.

The current pit stop window is so-so. If there are no mistakes during the tire change, he should be right in front of Magnussen after exiting the pit, and there will be a 6-7 second window of opportunity between him and Russell ahead.

After Shu Long moved aside, a nearly four-second gap of clear air naturally appeared in front of Verstappen, making it uncertain who would cut whom in a head-on confrontation.

"Never mind, it's nothing. How much of a lap time is there between me and Charles now?"

"I don't know. Your struggle with Long just now took up a lot of time. Maybe you can try pushing him a little in the next lap."

“Copy.”

The internal conflict within the team has come to a temporary end, and unlike the serious car damage that occurred with Verstappen and Riccardo in the past, the five stars can't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

It's hard to say who came out on top in that contest. Although Shulong has the upper hand in terms of position, Verstappen has taken control of tire management.

If any unexpected situation occurs during the race, the extra tire damage that Shulong incurred could become the deciding factor in the final outcome.

Shu Long changed into the new red suit that had been reserved before the match, clearly intending to use the second stint to do something big.

Because Leclerc started with that new red tire, if no other unexpected situations occur on the track that interfere with the course of the race, Ferrari's first stint could very well last for more than 20 laps.

Shulong is now planning to use the lap time advantage of the new tires to put pressure on Ferrari to undercut, forcing them to pit earlier and minimize the impact of the tire difference between the two teams.

Red Bull agreed to Shulong's request to enter the station so quickly because doing so would also benefit Verstappen.

This means they can bet on both of their drivers at the same time, maximizing their chances of winning the championship. Why not?

However, such strategic differences obviously cannot show results in just one or two laps. While the commentators were closely watching Shu Long's lap times after leaving the pit, they couldn't help but turn their attention to Hamilton, who had chosen to pit on the same lap as Shu Long.

The old man struggled so much in this race that it reminded me a bit of that 19 race in Shulong, where he was driving a small Red Bull car, highlighting the feeling of being in the middle of nowhere.

He couldn't catch up with Sainz ahead of him, and in just over ten laps, he was already 6 or 7 seconds behind. His teammate Russell behind him couldn't catch up either.

The poor car stability caused Hamilton to experience too many unnecessary lateral slips while trying to maintain his lap time, resulting in very poor tire wear.

With such competitiveness, improving the ranking was simply a pipe dream. In a fit of anger, the old man asked the team for a set of white tires, seemingly determined to keep running in red and white tires in a fit of pique.

The former seven-time champions were so pathetic after being dethroned that even the commentators, who were more inclined to support their own drivers, couldn't help but feel a sense of pity.

Of course, the reason why a seemingly ordinary tire-changing scene caught the attention of the five commentators was mainly because Hamilton, after exiting the pits, landed right in front of Zhou Guanyu.
No one expected that after such a turbulent 2021 season, the first game of the new season would bring viewers such a thrilling viewing experience.

Fans in China are especially lucky. After so many years, two Chinese drivers have suddenly appeared in the paddock at the same time. Now they can not only enjoy the epic battle between Shu Long in the front row, but also spare some attention to Zhou Guanyu in the back row and enjoy the pleasure of growing up together.

Xia Ge, who rarely returns to the commentary team, clearly showed his desire to have fun, stating that this would be a very valuable training experience for Zhou Guanyu.

Seven-Crown Champion!

The last rookie to be able to go toe-to-toe with seven-time champion Hamilton in his first game was Shu Long. If Zhou Guanyu can seize this opportunity and put on a good performance, wouldn't that be equivalent to an indirect yet relatively direct horizontal comparison between him and Shu Long?
No sooner had he finished speaking than Hamilton's car suddenly swerved in the corner.

"Huh?! Hamilton went too far! It's so cold, so very cold, the hard tires are freezing, I can't get any grip at all after leaving the pits!"

"Wow—Zhou Guanyu! He's here. Beautiful!"

Although it may seem like he was taking advantage of someone's misfortune, there is no doubt that Zhou Guanyu seized the opportunity and made a very impressive overtake of the world champion in his debut.

A precise and composed maneuver at the extreme crossroads, when the two cars were closest, Arro's nose cone might not have been more than 30 centimeters from the rear of the Mercedes.

The future is promising, the future is promising.

Don't blame the domestic commentators for being biased and not commentating on others. After all, Zhou Guanyu appeared in nearly 60% of the footage in the first ten minutes. Many of these shots were even taken directly from Zhou Guanyu's vehicle and helmet perspectives.

As the only rookie driver in the paddock this year, even the race broadcaster showed Zhou Guanyu a lot of extra favoritism during this race.

After all, there were about ten overtaking maneuvers in the first ten minutes of the race, with Zhou Guanyu contributing seven of them. If Shu Long hadn't taken turns fighting with Leclerc and Verstappen in the front row, the focus of the early race would have been almost entirely on the rear group of cars.

One act ends and another begins; the highlights of today's opening ceremony are non-stop.

The commentators hadn't even recovered from Guan Yu's performance when Leclerc couldn't resist pitting on lap 15, switching out his old red suit for a defensive stint.

Shulong's pace after leaving the pit was really too fast, almost catching up in lap times by 0.9 seconds per lap. If left unchecked, you won't even be able to see his taillights later.

However, Leclerc would face a problem if he entered the pits at this point, as Russell was still waiting in front of the window.

The C3's soft tires weren't actually that soft; after leaving the pits, they still needed some mileage to warm up. Although not as badly off as Hamilton had been, Russell still managed to block them for a whole lap.

Sometimes it's really hard to tell whether Ferrari's strategy team is being overly enthusiastic or not.

If you want to say he's happy, it seems there really isn't a better option, and they did indeed prevent the undercut from happening.

But if you were to say how clever they are, this time their pit stop, which was neither too early nor too late, allowed Shu Long to catch Leclerc's DRS on lap 17, and the gap between the two cars was rapidly narrowing at a visible speed.

At this point, there were no cars in front of Leclerc, so there was no wake from any cars to provide him with any defensive assistance. How to defend against Red Bull, whose tail speed was insanely fast, was a real problem.

Even Verstappen pitted for a yellow card in the previous lap, seemingly preparing for a tire-burning strategy, making him another potential threat.
Where is Sainz?
Come on, bro!
(End of this chapter)