F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 227 Grass Team
Despite being quite young, Shu Long felt as if he had witnessed something truly extraordinary.

Missiles? Attack?
He was familiar with these two words, but when they were combined and happening around him...
Holy crap, is this real or a dream?!
Perhaps it's because our mothers have protected their children too well. Even though the explosions and smoke under the cover of night were clearly visible on the track, Shu Long still felt a sense of unreality.

All talk of championships and competitions seems like child's play in the face of war.

The missile attack occurred less than 10 kilometers from the racetrack, which is practically the same as an explosion right in front of you on such a flat plain in Saudi Arabia.

The competition was abruptly suspended as expected. The key question now is whether the competition will continue or not.

"Husse" quickly claimed responsibility for the attack. As outsiders, it is usually difficult to determine whether they are a revolutionary army or simply a group of terrorists. In any case, in Shulong's mind, these people are almost synonymous with the word "madman".

He also frequently uses this word to describe himself and anyone who believes in speed and limits.

The difference is that Shu Long and his group were gambling with their own lives, while that group was throwing other people's lives onto the roulette wheel.

That's really exaggerated. You have to understand that F1 is a global sport, with passionate fans all over the world following the races.

Even among that group of lunatics were fans of these drivers and teams, yet they still brazenly chose such a specific time to launch such a blatant attack, targeting Saudi Aramco, a well-known sponsor of F1 racing.
It wasn't just a coincidence.

Even if the F1 leadership assured the team principals and drivers in an emergency meeting that this was just a routine attack on Saudi infrastructure and that they would not target civilians, that's something to take with a grain of salt.

If this attack fails to achieve the desired effect, who can guarantee that they won't try something big next time and directly target the P-house here with missiles?
Logically and rationally speaking, it's definitely not the case.

F1 is now operated by Liberty Media, an American company, and there is an American team in the paddock.

Not to mention that there are also three and a half British drivers and numerous British teams, two French drivers and one French team, as well as two Chinese drivers and a Chinese team that is not currently operating within the track area.

It's just an armed group; anyone with a brain wouldn't provoke four of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council at the same time.

The premise is that they actually have brains. Who would dare to gamble against a bunch of lunatics?

The FIA ​​dared to do it, the F1 leadership dared to do it, and the Saudi local government also dared to do it.

The interests involved here are too great; even if it means risking their lives, this competition seems to be a must.

The only saving grace now is that none of the Shulong family members came.

Shu Long felt that he could still focus on the race. Optimistically, he could just drive away in his F1 car when missiles came at him. But if there were still a few burdens standing in the pit lane, then the race would be over.

Hulkenberg and Magnussen found it very annoying.

The "ball-sucking" brothers had already thawed their differences during last week's drivers' parade, with Hulkenberg's greeting to Magnussen even carrying a hint of joking and teasing: "Suck my balls, honey."

Now their camp is very united, and they all find the decision to insist on holding the games hard to understand.

Because their wives and children were in the P room, Hulkenberg was only temporarily replacing Vettel, whose nucleic acid test had not yet turned negative. Who would have thought that after so many years of racing, he would encounter such a mess in a semi-retired state?
Verstappen also appeared very agitated.

Although he is not married yet, he has a very deep relationship with Kelly, and his relationship with Little P is even closer than that of a biological daughter. He has now completely taken on the roles of husband and father.

Even though the drivers had strong objections, the race organizers had no intention of listening to them and directly decided that the second practice session would officially start at 20:15 in the evening.

It's quite surreal, considering that the pillars of fire that have illuminated half the sky at the Saudi Aramco factory not far away haven't been extinguished yet!

With all this off-field chaos causing trouble, Shu Long lost all interest in going to the team to get his phone back.

Without even thinking about it, you know that the groundwork will be filled with messages of concern, worry, and advice to abandon the competition and run away. Anyway, as long as the second missile doesn't come, he has to run away from the competition anyway, so watching the messages will not only be useless, but will also affect his performance.

With his mind a jumbled mess, Shu Long didn't have the time to continue thinking about how he would get along with Verstappen. Instead, as if to distract themselves, the two of them huddled together again and started discussing how to tune the race car.

In the previous practice session, Shulong set the fastest lap of the entire event, while Verstappen only ranked P3, behind Leclerc.

Of course, this doesn't mean their speed difference was actually that large on the surface; rather, the two tested different sizes of rear wings to test the new regulations for ground effect racing.

In the first training session, Shulong selected a rear wing kit with moderate downforce, which is similar in performance specifications to the cut-down version of their rear wing at the end of last season.

Verstappen opted for a high downforce rear wing, but as everyone has seen, the effect seems far from ideal.

Comparative experiments always require strict control of variables to arrive at more objective conclusions. Therefore, the current less-than-ideal conclusion is only a "seemingly" prefix. The two will adjust the tail fin specifications and conduct another round of testing during the second practice session.

The result is indeed that the upper limit of the set with moderate downforce is higher.

The final rankings for the second practice session were: Leclerc (P1), Verstappen (P2), and Shulong (P3).
It can't be said that Verstappen was the worst; everyone's lap time improved by about 0.7 seconds overall. However, Ferrari was able to perform exceptionally well on this track with a large proportion of full-fuel cars but few proper straights and many corners.

Leclerc seemed to have reached a new limit for the car, and he pushed it to the limit, extending his lap lead over Verstappen to 0.14 seconds before the left front suspension and the barrier at the apex of Turn 4 could "stupid".

Red Bull, on the other hand, is not even looking for the limits; they are even hesitant about whether to adopt a more conservative high-downforce tail wing.

Thanks to this year's unique rear pushrod suspension, even the drag on straightaways from the high-downforce rear wing is far less than its rather flamboyant appearance suggests.

In addition, given the characteristics of Gidado's high-speed corners and lack of straightaways, the high downforce kit can give them a more stable performance in high-speed corners. At the same time, their tire retention over long distances, stress on the front suspension, and lap time maintenance will all be slightly better.

There are indeed many hidden dangers in racing cars now. Gasly's engine broke down again during the second practice session, and he had to get out of the pit lane and push the car back to the pit pit himself.

Considering the engine usage limits for each season, Red Bull has only inspected and repaired these Honda engines so far, and has no plans to replace them with brand new power units. In other words, the battery at the Garriss plant had to be replaced because of a fire.

The battery quota is even less than that of the internal combustion engine, with only two sets available each season. Gasly's start to the season with Toro Rosso can be described as extremely unlucky.

Reflecting on Red Bull's situation, it could also be said that Shu Long and his team were extremely unlucky.

Not only do they have to use a more conservative engine output mode than their opponents in qualifying and the race, but they also have to use a kit with a lower upper limit for the rear wing. Even when pushing, the two of them have to think carefully.

Leclerc can fly along the edge of the track with impunity, squeezing every inch of space to its limit.

Red Bull's strategy is so extreme that even a sudden stop on the shoulder could cause a power steering failure, forcing them to be extremely cautious in their route selection – a truly unfavorable situation.

Racing is exhausting, and driving it is exhausting for both the driver and the racers.

Of course, nothing is more grueling than what Mercedes has gone through.

After driving championship contenders for so many years, this year is the first time Hamilton has truly experienced what it feels like to have a tractor in his hands. Although he seems to be able to maintain his position around P5 or P6, his best time on red tires is actually almost 0.5 seconds away from the lap times of those on yellow tires.

Russell must have felt like he'd been screwed over.

After being tormented by Williams for so many years, and finally officially promoted to Mercedes and ready to drive the Mars rover, it feels like I'm still stuck in Williams.

If Williams' Alben and Perez indicated they also had something to say, then this would never end.
Currently, there are probably only three teams in the paddock that are satisfied with their own cars. All three use Ferrari engines, and the drivers from other teams are increasingly dissatisfied.

After the second practice session, the drivers and team leaders held a meeting with the event organizers and local government representatives.

There was absolutely no substance to it; no matter how many people voiced their objections, the other side only ever assured them of their air defense system. They claimed that important local officials and their families were all there, so there was absolutely no need to worry about security.

That's just... laughable.

If air defense systems are really that effective, then are people littering cigarette butts inside Saudi Aramco's oil facilities?

The endless, repetitive bickering went on until after 2 a.m. Shu Long, hiding in the back, couldn't be bothered to listen to the nonsense and just squatted down with Zhou Guanyu, whispering amongst themselves.

It's certainly something to be happy about to score points in the first match, and if possible, Zhou Guanyu hopes to continue the momentum from the opening match.

But he clearly encountered considerable difficulties this weekend. Despite his continued improvement in speed, the gap between him and his teammate Bottas was still too large, with the same car resulting in a 0.6-second difference in lap time.

This is not quite the same as in Bahrain. Although Bahrain was not as fast as his teammates, the main reason for their failure in qualifying was the series of mistakes in Q2. Throughout the weekend, Zhou Guanyu was able to keep his speed about 0.3 seconds behind Bottas.

His performance in the race was among the top five, and his lap times over the long distances were consistently at the same level as Bottas'.

Of course, Zhou Guanyu is known for his long-distance ability in the lower categories, so it's normal that he can't beat Bottas, whose lap time is even comparable to Hamilton's.

However, this is no longer a race with standard F2 cars. Faced with completely different car designs, frankly speaking, Shulong can't offer much help.

I'm quite interested in Aro's unique racing car design this year, the dragon.

If Red Bull's front-pull, rear-push suspension this year has McLaren as a counterpart, then Arroyo's front-push, rear-push design this year is truly unique in the paddock.

Since Haas has grown closer to Ferrari through its relationship with Shu Long, Arro has adopted an operational strategy of gradually moving away from Ferrari's control.

From refusing to sign Mick and putting him in Haas, to being unwilling to keep Giovanni and instead signing a three-year contract with Bottas who came from Mercedes, all sorts of details can reveal some clues.

Even after Vasseur announced the signing of Bottas last year, a pro-Ferrari executive at Sauber's sporting division resigned in anger.

Although this year it still uses the complete power unit and gearbox assembly provided by Ferrari, after purchasing it, it went against the grain and abandoned the gearbox housing, keeping only the core, just to adapt to their seemingly outrageous double pushrod design.

It's hard to say whether this approach is more beneficial or harmful. The fact that both Zhou Guanyu and Bottas had a terrible start in the opening race is likely due to their unauthorized modification of the gearbox.

Zhou Guanyu was repeatedly tormented by the anti-stalling device, and Bottas also bluntly stated that there seemed to be a 50% chance that the clutch would inexplicably get stuck during the start phase.

Aside from this minor flaw, Aro's current speed is really good. The double-putt design seems to have given them a lot of room for fine-tuning in the first year of the ground effect rules, when everyone is still exploring.

As both Shulong and Verstappen were searching for new setups to balance lap times and long distances with their high downforce packages, Bottas even dominated the P2 rankings for a while, until he was taken down by the Red Bull duo just before his timeout.

This seems to be the limit of what they can do, with all the coaching tendencies leaning unequivocally towards the long distance of the main race.

Jeddah has three sections of DRS, so there are plenty of overtaking opportunities. The two drivers' primary task now is to stay on the track; as long as they are alive, they can always find a chance to win.

This was a strict order, and no one dared to gamble. If there was a problem with the car, it would mean another week of wasted effort, which was especially unacceptable for Verstappen, who had already failed to score anything the previous week.

As if to sound an alarm for the two, the engineer who discovered the abnormal telemetry data immediately called him back when Kakuta had only completed a small part of the flight path on Little Red Bull's side.

I was complaining before that the race car from Kakuta's side was a Honda-exclusive model, since everyone else's cars had problems but his was fine. The manual was written in Japanese, right?
Now, no matter what, even the kids can't run ranked matches.
Compared to the speed of its competitors, Red Bull's extremely unstable vehicle is the biggest source of pressure for Shu Long and his team, who are afraid that if they exert too much force somewhere, they will be forced to quit their jobs immediately.

Red Bull, wanting to experiment with different settings, only provided four new red sets for ranked matches. To protect the engine, each player only made one clean circle to ensure advancement and stayed in the P-site.

Alben and Perez, who suffered at Williams's hands, once again topped the list.

Zhou Guanyu set the closest lap to Bottas all weekend, only 0.2 seconds slower than his teammate, and finished in P10 to advance to Q2.

This was definitely an unexpected surprise.

When we talked about it yesterday, Shu Long wasn't too embarrassed to say it directly, but the reason why Zhou Guanyu's gap with Bottas became so big at this race was most likely because the Jeddah circuit had a "wall".

To put it simply, Zhou Guanyu isn't very good at street races.

This is related to car feel, courage, personality, and driving habits developed over time.

Sometimes luck plays a part too. Zhou Guanyu always gets caught up in one accident or another whenever he encounters a street race in F2. So far, he has only won once, in the Monaco reverse grid sprint race.

However, if the ceiling is high enough in street racing, many accidents can be avoided.

Putting aside Zhou Guanyu's progress, the most abstract thing in Q1 was the veteran's unexpected elimination, while his young teammate Russell made it directly to P5 in Q1.

This was something no one had anticipated before the competition. The most painful part was Hamilton's elimination, which was caused by Stroll driving Martin, whose car had turned into a green tractor, and stepping on his head.

It's worth noting that Hamilton was the pole position winner at Jeddah last year, and due to calendar adjustments, there were only 112 days between the two Saudi Grand Prix.

Could it be that simply changing one version of the racing rules has rendered the former seven-time champion obsolete?
Q2 Shulong still only achieved a single flight lap.

It wasn't that he wanted to protect the car; in fact, it was similar to his mentality when he was in school and always prepared a lot of stationery before each exam. Before entering the pole position, Shu Long actually wanted to run a few more laps to get a feel for the car.

Regardless of whether it's useful or not, it's good to have some psychological comfort.

Unfortunately, Q2's progress was interrupted by a red flag that went out of control on the shoulder at Turn 10.

This was a very serious collision. The entire car was completely wrecked, and the entire gearbox and rear axle fell off. Shu Long, who had just started his first time trial, was startled and stopped to check on him for a long time to see if he was still conscious.

Mick seemed to be relatively conscious, but he was struggling to move around in the race car, even finding it difficult to remove the steering wheel and get out of the car.

Aside from reminding the race organizers to send cars over as soon as possible, there wasn't much else a driver could do. Shu Long could only hurry back to the pit garage as the team reminded him, so as not to get in the way of the main road.

How many times has this happened?
It is often said that after a driver experiences his first major accident, he either undergoes a transformation in his skills and mindset, or he never recovers.

The most obvious example is Norris.

His abilities have clearly improved since his dominant performance at Spa, and even though McLaren produced an orange wreck this year, he still frequently manages to break into the top ten.

It always feels like Mick is either in a car crash or on his way to one. Everyone else should be scared by now, but he just gets more and more into crashing. I don't know if that's one of Mick's strengths.

At least their mental fortitude is strong enough, isn't it?

This red flag ruined many people's flying plans. Jeddah is a track that requires very clean air. After the race restarted, everyone was crowded together. Shulong could only barely find a relatively clean window before the race ended.

Red Bull's competitive edge this year, on par with Ferrari, is undeniable, so it would be truly unreasonable for it to be eliminated in Q2.

However, Zhou Guanyu was not so lucky. While Bottas set a record of 103 consecutive times entering Q3, he was unfortunately eliminated in P11, just 0.2 seconds away from the closing line.

The series of dramatic events kept racing fans on their toes, but the Q2 stoppage finally gave them a chance to rest and remember the highly anticipated battle for pole position.

Red Bull or Ferrari?
(End of this chapter)