F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 238 The weather is like a girl, and so is the car.
As long as I can advance, that's all that matters.

Shu Long was still a bit depressed when he drove back to the pit lane. In the last few minutes of Q2, he couldn't do any effective laps faster than on dry tires. He just used semi-wet tires to drive on the wet track to see if he needed to make a slight adjustment to the angle of the front wing.

After entering the pit lane, he asked the engineer in TR to give him +3 to the front wing, and then he closed his eyes, leaned back in the car, and stopped talking.

He had already imprinted the latest driving feel he gained from the previous few laps into his memory, and now he planned to simulate driving the car a few laps in his mind to see where the racing line could be slightly optimized.

However, Rennie seemed to think that Shulong was holding back his anger again, so he gave a general report on the situation of all the drivers on the field.

Those who directly gamble on rain to train, like Verstappen, are still a minority.

Aside from Red Bull's own two players, only Norris and Magnussen are currently sticking to wet-field training in the top ten, while the other two, like Ferrari's two, seem to be preparing to fight for a better position in qualifying.

Sainz was in a crash in the previous quarter, and the damage was clearly not something that could be repaired in just a few minutes.

As for the other teams, they are basically not a threat. In other words, although Shulong may be at a slight disadvantage in terms of setup, it is not entirely impossible for them to compete for a front-row position or even pole position.

That's the charm of rainy races: no one can guarantee a perfect lap, and anyone could miraculously win in the final stages.

Anyone is possible.

Q3 Shulong was the first to get on the track, ready to try his luck and squeeze in three laps during the window gap.

The conditions on the track surface are constantly changing. The water on the track may be drained more and more as the race progresses, or the rainfall may exceed the tires' drainage capacity, resulting in increasingly poor grip.

No one can predict what might happen on the track, and you can't be sure that everything will go according to plan. So, you just have to rely on the number of attempts to guarantee a minimum success rate!

As a result, he had only completed half of his first flight lap when a red flag appeared on the track.
Magnussen went off the track at Turn 11, almost perfectly replicating Bottas's dramatic save in Practice 1, with the front of his car just centimeters away from the barrier.

The most ridiculous thing is that the person hadn't even gotten stuck in the car.

Perhaps because the gravel buffer zone on the Imola side was paved more firmly, Magnussen managed to drive the car out by himself after moving it around a few times.

In other words, this was basically a precautionary red flag for safety reasons. Apart from ruining Shulong's good deed, it didn't even last for thirty seconds, and all the other drivers still on the track were not affected much.

Those who needed to warm up their tires did so, and those who were supposed to enter the sprint lap did so normally.

Verstappen performed consistently as expected, currently holding onto P1, while Leclerc is 0.4 seconds behind in P2.

Norris surged up to P3, followed closely by Magnussen, who had almost messed up earlier. Aside from Sainz, whose bike was broken, only Shulong hadn't yet achieved a valid time.

Because Magnussen had just disrupted their rhythm, the track was packed with nine cars, making the traffic incredibly congested.

As the rain continued, the temperature on the track surface steadily decreased, and everyone was trying to set a fast lap time as quickly as possible, which made the window for a clean lap increasingly narrow.

With only six minutes and fifty seconds left, Shu Long finally began to accelerate gradually after exiting Turn 15, thanks to Reni's reminder. He then let Alonso, who was on a flying lap, pass him and took advantage of the wake to start pushing forward.

Alonso seemed to have noticed that the driver behind him was Shulong. After crossing the finish line, instead of slowing down to recharge, he impulsively dragged himself along the starting straight and then moved to the right after the fake corner 1 to put Shulong ahead.

at last!

One lap time 1:27.831, Shulong squeezed out Verstappen to move into P1.

On the other hand, Verstappen was blocked by Ricciardo at the junction of Turn 11 and Turn 12 and was unable to break his own fastest lap time.

Being blocked is unavoidable; there are simply too many cars on the track. The Imola circuit is already narrow, and if you happen to be in the wrong position and drive off the track, you might not even be able to get through.

Fortunately, there were still a little over five minutes left in the race. Although the rain would slow down the lap times, Imola is only a short track of 4.9km. With a bit of luck, it's not impossible to get another flying lap.

However, the problem lies in the word "maybe".

Verstappen and Leclerc's second lap was ruined once again. Bottas' exhaust system malfunctioned, causing some thermal damage to the gearbox, forcing him to stop on the right-hand grass before Turn 7.

Verstappen was also subject to an investigation because the race officials believed he did not slow down enough when he saw the double yellow flags.

Fortunately, there were no further penalties in the end, because Red Bull provided Verstappen's throttle data at the time, confirming that Verstappen had released all the throttle when he saw the yellow flag.

The track was slippery and he couldn't just slam on the brakes, so this was the best he could do in an emergency.

This incident wasted more than two minutes, and the yellow flag turned into a red flag, freezing the remaining time of Q3 at 2:58.

However, before he had even finished the warm-up lap after the race restarted, Norris lost control and drifted off the track at the exact same Turn 11, following the path Magnussen had just drawn.

Norris, however, was not so lucky. His car's nose cone was completely embedded in the barrier, and he could only wait for a crane to come and rescue him.

Of course, one could also say that Norris was lucky; his loss of control indirectly saved him from his current P4 position in qualifying, as Magnussen's first two time segments of the lap he ruined were a full 0.2 seconds faster than him.

Verstappen looked rather grumpy after getting off the race car.

Three red flags in one quarter of Q3!

When the rhythm of the dragon's slewing was repeatedly interrupted, Verstappen thought that Lady Luck was finally willing to favor this ugly doll. Who would have thought that things would develop like this?

Did last year's champion use up too much of their luck?

Fortunately, Verstappen is not completely hopeless. After all, P2 is the front row starting grid, and the starting order of the race will be determined by the results of tomorrow's sprint race.

According to the weather forecast, tomorrow's sprint race will most likely be a rainy one.

Today's qualifying session was a lucky break, as Verstappen had been betting on Saturday's sprint from the start.

The reason why a high probability is only a high probability is because there is never a shortage of low probability events in this world.
The second practice session this morning was on a cloudy day.

The sky was quite overcast, and it felt like raindrops could fall at any moment. You could even smell the damp, earthy scent of actinomycetes in the air.

However, just before the afternoon sprint race began, the sun had already pierced through the thick clouds, sending dazzling spikes of light crashing down on the earth.

Although it's hard to believe, the reality is that the track is even drier than the faces of the drivers, who are covered in a thin layer of sweat under their helmets.

One wrong bet and the whole game is lost.

Because the sprint race used a setup with higher drag and an emphasis on tire traction, Verstappen couldn't get going on the track at all, and in the end he couldn't even hold onto P2 and dropped to P3. Tomorrow he will start from the second row with Sainz.

Don't be surprised that Sainz, who didn't even participate in Q3 ranked matches, is here.

Ferrari's cars are already among the top-tier cars in the paddock, and with proper dry-weather setup, overtaking several top-tier cars in the 21-lap sprint race is no problem at all.

It's quite helpless.

The weather forecast originally indicated that there would be rain on Friday and Saturday, and Sunday should have been a cloudy, dry game.

Now the sprint race, which was supposed to be rain-soaked, has turned into a dry race. Can we really expect the main race, which was supposed to be dry, to turn into a rain-soaked race? If this continues, Verstappen might drop all the way to P4 or below in tomorrow's main race!
But don't tell me, you really shouldn't tell me!

During the drivers' parade before the main race, Shu Long conducted the interview while holding an umbrella.
It wasn't just raining; it was raining quite heavily, almost as much as it had on Friday.

The original plan was to start on yellow tires, but now it's estimated that we'll need to switch to semi-weather tires. If the rain doesn't stop, we might have to switch to blue full-weather tires for the start. Now it's Verstappen's turn to smirk.

Shu Long, looking distressed, leaned against the railing, perfunctorily waving and interacting with the fans outside the fence while taking the opportunity to survey the water accumulation on the track.

When I was driving a race car with the lowest competitiveness, I always hoped that the race would be as chaotic as possible. Now, just watching the raindrops pounding against the track makes my head ache.

Even though Shu Long had just won pole position and the sprint race, he still felt that the unpredictable weather this week was more likely to affect his emotions than his girlfriend.
If this kind of trouble were to be shared, it might sound a bit like "Why don't they eat meat porridge?"

So far, Shu Long is definitely one of the luckiest people on the track. In fact, he is not the only driver tormented by this chaotic race weekend. Verstappen is not even worthy of being listed here.

Take Zhou Guanyu for example.

Even if he had finished in his original position, he would have started in P14 on Sunday. However, he was forced to retire after being pushed into the wall by Gasly on the very first lap.

To make matters worse, the damage to the car was quite severe. Alfa Romeo was unable to complete the repairs before the two-hour post-race inspection period began, so they simply went ahead and changed the car's setup to start from the pit lane.

However, Zhou Guanyu was one of the drivers who used a dry setup yesterday, so it seems like a good thing that he can rightfully switch to a different approach to deal with the rain today.

Let's put him aside for now and take a look at Mercedes instead.

Since their two cars suffered a crushing defeat in qualifying, being eliminated in Q2, Mercedes' two cars still couldn't pull off a miraculous comeback in the sprint race. Even with Mick making it to P10, they could only start from P11 and P14 respectively.

When Hamilton was interviewed during the drivers' tour, he was asked by the host what Mercedes had gained from the races these past few days. Without hesitation, Hamilton replied, "Statistics."

When asked about his goal for today's game, Hamilton replied, "To try to win the game."

As soon as he said that, even the person who said it couldn't hold back and grinned, showing off his big, white teeth.

"Pfft~!"

Heaven knows how hard Shu Long was biting his sleeve, who was originally worried about the competition later.

Look at the mindset of those seven-time champions! Regardless of whether they can win or not, they should do their best to strive for it, as long as the result is worthy of their efforts!

right?

Shu Long hopes that one day he will also have the confidence to be so nonchalant. With seven world championship trophies in hand, he would probably only have a backache from being bounced around like a dolphin, but he would definitely not have a backache from standing and talking.

During the drivers' parade, the rain had actually started to gradually decrease, and by the time they got into their cars to start, it had basically turned into a light drizzle.

Uncle Melander drove the safety car around the track a few times to check the grip and confirmed with the race organizers that the race could proceed normally with the use of semi-wet tires.

Everything seems to be developing in a direction favorable to Shulong. If there is no further precipitation, it may be possible to switch to dry tires in the second half of the race.

Regarding the crucial transition between wet and dry conditions on the track, Shu Long is confident that no one is more sensitive to changes in grip than him. Even if he is temporarily at a disadvantage in the early stages of the race due to poor setup, he is confident that he can catch up in the second half of the race.

If there is further precipitation...
Then all we can do is try our best and leave the rest to fate. What else can we do?
At this moment, Shu Long could never have imagined that the part of his destiny that belonged to good luck seemed to have been overdrawn in the past two days, and now he was probably in a cooldown state for mana regeneration.

When the lights go out, the dragon's position is P1, but when you accelerate out of turn 3, its position has dropped to P12.

The commentators were at a loss for words when it came to commenting on this scene. The shock of seeing Shulong's car overturn at the start was no less than that of Hamilton failing to make it into Q3 this year, especially since it was such a dramatic fall of more than ten positions!
However, right now everyone is too busy to analyze the causes of the dragon's failure.

Whether it's a rain-soaked race on a wet track or a static start, fans are already anticipating how much fun will unfold after the lights go out, even before the race begins.

The truth is, there are a lot of funny things to watch.

When the lights went out, it was clear that Shu Long's reaction was still one step ahead of others. However, after his tires started moving, he suddenly hesitated for a moment. After that, the race car clearly showed a lack of power. Compared to the race cars around him that were "whooshing" forward, it was as slow as if it had stopped in place.

The whole process looked as if Shulong himself made a mistake by starting too early, then quickly stopped himself after realizing it, and then accidentally triggered the anti-stalling device.

As a result, Shulong's extremely unsuccessful start, like the wings of a butterfly, triggered a series of chain reactions.

Shu Long wasn't the only one who had problems at the start; Leclerc's acceleration was also clearly problematic. He was blocked by Sainz at the start, and Verstappen, who was moving towards the center line to avoid his teammates in front, overtook him. He even ended up behind Norris.

Sainz was jostled by his current teammate Leclerc, former teammate Norris, and former teammate Verstappen, causing him to drop rapidly backwards. Then, Ricciardo, unable to avoid him, crashed into the gravel run-off area outside Turn 2.

Another gravel buffer zone!
This is the second consecutive match that Sainz has had to retire due to getting stuck in the sand; it feels like he's been cursed by the sandpit.
Didn't you say that Imola's gravel ground was paved quite firmly?
How come so many people can run off the track without getting stuck? Ricciardo almost ran onto the gravel with Sainz, but they had no trouble going up there. Only this unlucky little red car got stuck almost 100% of the time.

Leclerc's Golden Tapir Award was awarded too early!

The chaos at the start was clearly not limited to that. The collision between Ricciardo and Sainz led to Bottas's rear-end collision, which forced Russell behind to swerve in a hurry, only to be squeezed by Mick and spun around on the spot.

Shulong is lucky to be in P12 now; otherwise, he would have conservatively fallen to P15 or lower by now.

Looking at it this way, Zhou Guanyu's departure from the maintenance area today was a blessing in disguise. He didn't do anything but follow behind as a war correspondent, and now he's at P17.

As the indirect culprit who caused all of this, while the yellow flag safety car was rescuing the desperate and trapped driver Carlos, the race broadcasters finally released the onboard replay of Shu Long's car at the start of the race.

When the second of the five red lights came on, Shulong squeezed the clutch and started giving it gas, bringing the RPM to around 8000. He then pressed the paddle shifter twice to shift directly into second gear.

I don't see anything wrong with it.

Starting in first gear on a wet, slippery surface provides too much torque, which can easily cause the drive wheels to spin and slip. In this case, shifting directly into second gear is just right.

As all five red lights went out at the same time, the onboard camera, viewed from the T-shaped frame, also shook violently.

The 0.119 is just the clutch response of the Shulong. In fact, there is a slight delay before the car responds to power, which is enough for fans to tell that the Shulong did not have the so-called preemptive start seen from the previous perspective.

There's really no problem here.

As everyone has seen from the third-person perspective outside the field, Shulong's starting position drop was clearly not due to tire spinning causing a loss of traction; there must be some other cause.

Just as Shu Long was releasing the clutch from the semi-engaged state to the fully engaged state, for some reason the colored LED light at the top of the steering wheel that displays the engine speed suddenly dropped a bit.

at the same time.

Shu Long quickly flicked the shift paddle with his right middle and ring fingers several times, but the gear on the screen remained stuck in second gear. It took him a long time to reluctantly shift into third gear, and the car's RPM only slowly picked up again after he had already gone a long way through Turn 1.

Who says racing is only for men?!

Kato Taka's hands softened her in just a few strokes; what else could she be but a girl?
cough!
The TR clip that Shu Long just released was almost entirely "beep beep beep". Ran Ge painstakingly sifted out a few scattered words that hadn't been blocked, and only then did he manage to piece together the truth of the matter.

"Oh, Shu Long just said there's a problem with the car's gear synchronization. It must be a bug in the car's program. The team's race engineer was just teaching him how to troubleshoot the fault codes."

It wasn't just about clearing fault codes; during the time the safety car took the car for a spin, Shu Long restarted almost the entire program on the racing car's steering wheel, following René's instructions.

After repeatedly adjusting the settings and trying a few more times, it should be fine now.
Hopefully there won't be any problems!

You have to pit during the race, right? If you pounce on the clutch and something goes wrong, then you might as well quit!

(End of this chapter)