F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 226 Wheat
Once the surrounding noise subsided a little, the convoy could finally hear what Shu Long was muttering to himself.

"This lousy car is completely undriveable! It can't move an inch!"

What a scumbag!
They were calling her "sweetie" during the competition, but now that it's over, they've turned into "old hags"!
The team was also completely baffled. They had finally achieved a winning start to the season, so why were they so resentful instead of celebrating?
Aside from taking precautions to keep Shulong on the engine protection, there's nothing unusual according to the telemetry data. You didn't withdraw from the race, did you?

"The power steering broke down after about ten turns; it's like driving a boat on land! I'm going to ask you for disability compensation, boss!"

you also?

Horner turned to look at Verstappen standing beside them. He was already annoyed that he had withdrawn from the match in a daze, and his expression became somewhat complicated after hearing Shu Long's words.

Engine braking failure, power steering failure, and finally, a power unit failure.

I thought he was incredibly lucky in this game, but it turns out he wasn't the only one carrying a heavy burden.
The team was about to ask for more details when Shu Long had already parked back in the champion's parking space and decisively pulled the steering wheel out of the group chat.

Don't ask! Whoever asks will be rewarded with two laps!

After everyone had finished get off work, there was no need to bring up those unlucky things. After weighing himself, Shu Long took off his helmet and went to celebrate with the crew members who had gathered by the fence.

After finally managing to break free from Marco's embrace, she stood before her family under the spotlight.

Great, great. Last time we had such a big event at the same location, such a big accident happened. To be honest, I was a little nervous before the start of the competition today.

Especially as I drove, I noticed the handling of the race car felt increasingly off, almost to the point of making me superstitious.

Now it all seems like a minor issue. He hugged his parents once each, and then got a good pat on the head by his future father-in-law. Only then did he finally have time to turn his attention to his girlfriend, whose little face had puffed up like a bun.

He slipped both hands under Gan Mengning's armpits, and before the question mark on her head could even appear, he lifted her up by her armpits and pulled her into his arms.

The two have become very proficient at this combo in many other scenarios.

Gan Mengning almost reflexively wrapped her two slender legs around the dragon-shaped waistband, raised her face and leaned forward. Just as she was about to take the next step, she realized that the occasion was inappropriate, and immediately buried her head in her boyfriend's arms like an ostrich.

"I'm exhausted today, how about a kiss as a reward?"

"roll!"

okay!

Shu Long obediently returned Gan Mengning to her father temporarily, not because of any inherited henpecked husband genes, but simply because he felt as if a cold gaze was directed at his back.

It's you.
Unable to find comfort from his girlfriend, Shu Long seemed to suddenly remember that his wife, with whom he had fought a bloody battle for an hour and a half, was still waiting for him at home. He turned around and hugged the front nose cone of the Red Bull No. 2 car, giving it a series of passionate kisses.

What kind of yandere girlfriend is she? She's so difficult to deal with normally, but when it really matters, she's more reliable than anyone else.

The five-star commentator was almost laughing himself silly.

This year, since Tencent Sports failed to acquire the broadcasting rights, Five Star has once again become the mainstream viewing channel in non-Cantonese-speaking regions of China, and the number of people crowding into the live broadcast room is unprecedented.

Perhaps because the lineup of the three giants of the milk bottle was not complete, Shulong withstood at least two waves of healing power from them today. If it weren't for the broadcast of Shulong's complaint about the car malfunction, the golden mouth buff from the five stars might have broken down today.

It's unclear whether it's because Shu Long alone exhausted the power of Bing Ge's "poisonous milk" technique, but today their attempt at Zhou Guanyu's "poisonous milk" actually turned into a positive buff.

"You got points? That's great!"

"You're so awesome! Congratulations! Try to lead the standings for the whole year."

After finishing the post-race interviews, Shu Long was greeted by a constant stream of drivers congratulating him.

Of course, the group also included Brother Tou, Old Man, and Zhou Guanyu, a rare fellow villager from Weichang.

To be honest, before the race started, Shu Long thought his loose tongue would ruin things. It would be extremely difficult for an old yellow tire with more than ten laps to defend against a large group of red tires sprinting at full speed.

Who would have thought that Zhou Guanyu would actually pull it off?!

"What was the last one again?"

“P8, Xavi said it seems to be your suggestion, thankfully I listened to it.”

The two stood together and chatted for a long time before the awards ceremony, and Shu Long finally understood what had happened during the competition.

It can only be said that Bottas truly deserves his reputation as a Mercedes legend who almost rivaled Barrichello. Even after joining a smaller team and becoming its leader, he remains an outstanding team player.

Zhou Guanyu adopted a no-pitching strategy. Logically speaking, given the disadvantage of red tires and the gap in experience, Bottas could have easily overtaken his teammate at the beginning of the race.

As a result, Bottas stayed behind for a full five laps, using Zhou Guanyu as a locomotive to block several waves of attacks from Kakuta and Ocon, until the penultimate lap when the two switched positions.

Although it's a bit unfair to his teammates to say this, thanks to Verstappen's withdrawal, Zhou Guanyu's final points doubled from two to four.

The two players combined for 10 points in the first game, which was undoubtedly a fantastic start for Aro, who only scored 13 points last year.

Alfa Romeo has now jumped to fourth place in the team standings, right behind Mercedes.

Of course, it is precisely because of Verstappen's withdrawal that Red Bull now only has Shu Long's 25 points, currently placing them second in the team standings.

Sainz, who had been waiting for his opponents to be weakened throughout the race, finally achieved his goal of finishing third. On the podium, Shu Long was cornered and verbally abused by two Ferraris in red shirts. Horner, who followed him up to receive the team's victory trophy, was of no help whatsoever.

What use are you?!
To be honest, it was a bit of a disaster, but the color scheme of the composition actually matched quite well with the national anthem playing during the awards ceremony and the national flag on the big screen behind it.
The post-race celebrations were very brief, and the contrasting atmosphere between the two sides made it seem as if Ferrari had won the championship.

Even the atmosphere at Aro's place was much more festive than at Red Bull's.

Zhou Guanyu was relatively calm at first. When Shu Long opened champagne on stage, he was seen smiling broadly below. However, as soon as the event ended, he hugged his competition engineer and burst into tears.

It can be said that Shu Long's early ventures in the paddock in the past two years have paved the way for Zhou Guanyu, but Shu Long's presence has also brought too much pressure to Zhou Guanyu.

What if I can't keep up with my teammates' pace in ranked matches? What if I can't get any points this season? What if I can't even keep my spot in the game?
There is never a lack of comparisons in this world, nor is there a lack of extreme arguments.

Despite having worked hard for their dreams for so many years, Zhou Guanyu is often belittled by outsiders simply because he is not as capable as Shu Long.

It's not a possibility, it's reality. While many people are willing to elevate Shu Long to godlike status because of his achievements, Zhou Guanyu has withstood just as much similar criticism and trampling.

"They skipped F3 and F2 in just two years, and you've been struggling with F2 for three years. How can you compare to them?"

"If you're not good enough, no good teams will want you. If no good teams want you, you can't win the championship. What's the point of getting into F1?"

The list goes on and on.

Even though the motherland has become so strong that it no longer needs a few medals to prove itself, it still cannot change the deep-rooted obsession with champions in the minds of most people.

They don't care about the so-called passion for motorsports, nor can they see the pure enlightenment behind the sport. They define a person's entire life based on just a few titles, and what they care about is just the vanity that gives them something to talk about.

This is nothing to be ashamed of.

Even though Shu Long himself was already tired of the outside world's analysis and evaluation of him, and had long been numb to praise and flattery, he could not help but feel a little proud from time to time because of his achievements and the admiring looks in the eyes of others.

But these are ultimately just noise; one cannot always live for others.

Some things you can only learn and grow from by experiencing them yourself. Apart from patting Zhou Guanyu on the shoulder when he passed by, Shu Long could do nothing else to help him.

The experiences of everyone who has made it into the paddock are enough to fill a magnificent novel. Everyone has gone through this, and it can be said that these twenty people are definitely the group in the world that understands each other the most.

Every family has its own troubles, and Shulong really doesn't have any spare time either.

Overall, Red Bull's championship win was quite painful. They can't expect such good luck (Verstappen: Yes, good luck!) and superb driver performance in every race. The successive breakdowns of several cars cannot be simply attributed to some accidental minor problem.

Immediately after the race, they convened a meeting to analyze the potential causes of the car's problems based on the two drivers' experiences during the race and sensor data.

Firstly, the failure of this power steering system is most likely related to the front tie rod suspension that Red Bull suddenly switched to this year. The original power steering system is not very compatible with the current design.

Normal driving may not reveal many problems, but once a race car is driven to its limits, it is very likely to cause deformation of internal parts.

Verstappen's blunder may have stemmed from his late braking on the kerb, while Shulong's side can be fairly certain that it was caused by his feint that appeared to lock down the ball.

As for the engine.

Gasly's unit was badly burned, so the cause of the accident couldn't be determined immediately, but Verstappen's team determined it to be a hydraulic malfunction after a simple check.

This is the same problem that Shulong encountered at Le Mans last year.

Because of the differences in engine specifications and technical principles, hydraulic failure in F1 is basically a death sentence, but this also shows how dangerous the race that Shu Long was in with the Toyota No. 8 car was.

Jeddah's next match is back-to-back with Bahrain on the calendar; some things can be resolved, but ultimately it's only a temporary fix.

Take this engine oil pressure problem, for example. They say they've found the root cause, but how effective it will be is still unknown.

There's no other way to fix the power steering system issue except by replacing a set of parts. In short, before the second round of the race, the team told both drivers to take it easy. The only way to truly solve the problem is to wait for further research and development upgrades.

Because of his experience winning the Le Mans title against all odds last year, Shu Long was pestered by Verstappen for several days.

Anyway, considering that he now has a full 25 points advantage, and that Shu Long's understanding of Red Bull racing is also thanks to Verstappen's sharing at the Bahrain pre-race meeting, he doesn't have much intention of hiding anything.

But ultimately, maintaining a car is a skill that comes from experience, and Shulong's rich experience is not just due to the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

Looking back now, the experience of being tormented by the extremely bad cars at Haas in 2020 can definitely be considered a valuable asset in Shulong's racing career.

If it weren't for Shu Long's efforts to protect the car driver back then, let alone scoring points, it would have been a question whether that Haas car could even have finished the race.

In contrast, Verstappen seems to have no concept of protecting his car. During the years when Mercedes dominated the market, if he hadn't given his all in every race to push the car to its limits, he might not have achieved what he has today.

But drivers have things they have to do at each stage of their careers. Whether they can accept it or not, Max listened intently, just like a big cat being stroked.

This feeling is very strange, even for Shu Long, who has had seamless cooperation with his teammates many times in his professional career, it feels a bit eerie.

In the past, he was able to cooperate with Magnussen and Gasly without any reservations because there was no direct competition between them, and they got along well and would lend a hand whenever possible.

The fact that he agreed to help the team in the last few races of last year so that Verstappen could win the championship is also a testament to this.

Conversely, in the matches where the competition for the spot with Alben was most intense, they hardly helped each other on the field, and they even had little extra communication off the field.

You might get some help from your teammates on the field, but never count on Verstappen. This is a consensus that everyone in the paddock has reached over the years.

But outside the racetrack.
Brother, we're fighting for the championship! Your openness makes me feel ashamed of my scheming against you in the last game!

For a moment, Shu Long didn't know who to complain to. His parents had gone back home to take care of the new go-kart brand, and Gan Mengning had also returned to China to prepare for her re-examination.

After much deliberation, Shu Long reluctantly made an appointment with his agent.

As the most senior driver in the paddock, Tou Ge naturally has first-class experience in all aspects, and in theory, no one is more suitable to confide in than him.

But drivers of Alonso's era were all a bit hot-tempered, and the relationships in the paddock were particularly distorted. The veteran driver was even jokingly called a "political head" because people always felt that talking to him about this would lead him astray.

As it turns out, Brother Tou seems to have become much more peaceful as he gets older. He first asked Shu Long what he thought of this kind of relationship in the paddock.

"It's alright, at least everyone gets along quite comfortably, which allows us to focus more on the game instead of constantly thinking about scheming against each other."

Thank you so much for your honesty!

Alonso felt like he'd been choked by his own driver, but he couldn't say anything directly, especially since he was currently brewing other plans in his mind.

As for Alonso's advice for Shulong, there isn't much.

He hoped that Shu Long would be more mindful of things off the field, but ultimately it depends on each person's specific thoughts; in short, do whatever makes you comfortable.

Let's put all this messy stuff aside for now, because there's something even more messy going on.

On Friday, after painstakingly completing the first practice test and setting numerous driving constraints for the Red Bull race car, which currently has many hidden problems, the Saudi Aramco factory, located not far from the track, was attacked by missiles shortly after the clock stopped.
(End of this chapter)