F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 239 Fruit Ninja

The safety car didn't stay in place for long; just two laps later, René reminded Shulong in the TR that the race would be restarting.

On the fourth lap, Aston Martin's safety car pitted, and the yellow flag turned green as Verstappen exited Turn 17. The semaphore indicator on Shu Long's steering wheel promptly informed him of this.

The timing of Verstappen's decision to restart the game is therefore crucial.

Turns 17 and 18 at Imola can be viewed as giant rectangular hairpin bends formed by two right-angle turns.

After exiting Turn 15, there is a long uphill climb, reaching almost the peak at the mid-point of the false bend. Then, including Turn 16, it is a steep downhill section where the terrain gradually descends from high to low.

Currently, the relative positions of Shulong and Verstappen are roughly equivalent to one person standing a little in front of the DRS detection point before Turn 17, who can look down through the wire mesh in the middle and observe the other's movements.

Since Turn 19 is almost a fake corner that does not affect throttle output at all, even without Shu Long having much knowledge of Verstappen, one can guess that the opponent will definitely use Turn 18 as the starting point for acceleration to signal the start of the race.

Because if anyone on this field were in the lead, they would inevitably make the same choice.

Before Verstappen could even create a noticeable gap between himself and Norris, Red Bull's number one car had just caught up to the apex of Turn 1 when the other Red Bull, which had slightly slowed Hamilton's pace, almost simultaneously floored the accelerator and instantly bit into Stroll's rear at the apex of Turn 17.

On the one hand, it eliminates the possibility of a counterattack by Mercedes due to its low drag characteristics, and on the other hand, it lays the groundwork for its own overtaking after the race resumes.

Shulong has already had a tough time in this race, falling directly from pole position to where he is now. He must take advantage of the restart of the race to quickly improve his position.

In fact, if he hadn't been restricted from overtaking before the starting line, Shu Long could have easily taken down at least one car right before turn 17 with a late brake.

Then, whether Stroll was startled by Shulong's sudden movement or simply distracted by the safety car's turn, the rear of the car slid slightly as it exited Turn 18.

Then you're doomed!

From Turn 18 to Turn 2, there is a very long stretch of full-throttle road. Turn 19 can be almost strategically ignored. In other words, the quality of exiting Turn 18 will greatly affect the acceleration efficiency of the subsequent full-throttle section.

The dragon, having absorbed a full amount of wake turbulence, was not in a hurry to overtake. It was only when it was less than ten meters away from the starting line that it pressed the overtaking button, fully discharged its power, and seamlessly connected with an outside line tap.

P12→P11
Before Renee could even utter his encouraging praise, Shulong turned and sucked up Kakuta's tail current, clearly indicating that his first offensive was far from over.

Kakuta witnessed Shulong overtaking the Aston Martin in his rearview mirror, and then saw the madman plunge headfirst into the water mist kicked up high by the ground effect behind his car. For a moment, he couldn't catch the other's movements.

The sense of oppression hit me almost instantly.

Fear stems from the unknown. Kakuta's only known understanding of Tsukuryu was that this guy was a complete beast and could not be judged by common sense.

Why is the only known information adding fuel to the fire of fear?!

It's really damn hard to believe I'm living in Bengbu.
Outside shooter? Inside shooter?
I can’t guess it at all!
After Turn 1 is a long, continuous left-hand curve, which is essentially still a "curve".

Especially since the road surface is still quite slippery, Kakuta doesn't dare to press the overtaking button in the bend as recklessly as Shulong, which would only add more uncontrollable wheel torque to himself.

The spray curtain created by Vettel in front also greatly affected Kakuta's visibility, forcing him to slightly shift his lane in front of the car and anticipate his next braking point.
Taking advantage of this lane change, I secretly checked the location of Shulong in the rearview mirror.

Then they couldn't find anyone.

In other words, the dragon is still being sucked into the wake?
Dude! We're about to enter the braking zone! Are you sure you don't want to crash your little brother with your eyes closed?

Vettel must have noticed Kakuta's movements behind him and mistakenly thought that the opponent wanted to launch an offensive attempt inside at Turn 2, so he switched to interior defense.

To avoid his braking point overlapping with the car in front, Kakuta had no choice but to return to the outside line to prepare for the turn.

But just as he moved out, Shu Long burst through the water curtain from the inside, and with an extremely late brake that should never have happened under the current track conditions, he managed to squeeze right in front of Kakuta, following closely behind Vettel.

P11→P10
"He! He! Me!"

"It's OK! It's OK! Let Shu go. We're not direct competitors."

It was that same kind of nonsense that only Red Bull could spout. The irritable Kakuta was so angry that his nose almost twisted out of shape. But the Road Rage alt account had only been online for a second when it deflated like a punctured balloon.

In a rainy battle, everyone has a chance to fight for their own victory, and Kakuta has every reason to refuse the team's orders to him.

But he didn't intend to give way at all! It was Shulong who overtook him, so who can be blamed?

Did he take off his helmet and slap himself twice on the spot?

Brother, could you please say so earlier next time? At least this time, being overtaken would have added a touch of heroic sacrifice, wouldn't it?
However, it doesn't matter. The belated TR made the audience confused about the cause and effect of the events. Indeed, many people mistakenly believed that Shulong's overtaking was due to the team's humility in giving up resources, including many mainstream media commentators in China.

"Oh ho~ Kakuta was asked to give way to the car. After all, he's the big brother of the Red Bull team now, so it's quite normal."

Is that so?

Ran, sitting to the side, was completely confused, feeling that Kakuta's tone just now didn't seem to convey that meaning.
However, there isn't time to correct this minor detail right now.

Alonso seemed to have lost some speed after the race restarted, and shortly after Shu Long overtook Kazuo, Vettel also moved up to P8.

The director seemed to have a premonition that there was going to be a good show, but as soon as the camera switched to the T-shaped vehicle in Shulong, a sharp shard flew in and splattered directly in the face of all the viewers watching the live broadcast.

Strange screams erupted, hands trembled, and the commentators in the studio instinctively ducked under the table.

The footage from Shulong was already blurry, but the director still promptly provided a replay of what happened.

Several cracks appeared on Alonso's right side box at some point. Just as Shu Long was about to dodge his agent from the outside, a strong lateral airflow forcibly tore off a large piece of carbon fiber from the Alpine's body.

It was just a hair's breadth away. Luckily, HALO blocked it a little, otherwise this thing would have spun right onto the dragon's head.

Fortunately, Shulong was unharmed in the end, while Alonso had a large hole in his sidepack, making it impossible for him to continue driving, and he had no choice but to pit and retire from the race.

P10→P9
Poor Ao Ge once again became the unluckiest driver in the paddock. Even he himself couldn't believe how unlucky a person could be. When he got out of the car and saw the big hole in the race car, he laughed out loud with relief.

Is the feng shui of Alpine cursed?
Staying here any longer will shorten my lifespan, won't it?!

Alright, since the race is over anyway, Alonso simply found a folding chair, comfortably lay down behind the pit lane, and put on some headphones to see how that kid Shu Long was going to put on his show.

Love so and so!
Of course, such a puzzling car damage couldn't have happened out of nowhere. After the race broadcasters investigated thoroughly, they finally discovered the culprit behind Alonso's car damage—Shulong!
Oh no, it's Mick!
Mick's 270-degree spin on the track just now caused his car's rear wheel to lightly tap Alonso's car, which happened to be passing by. From that moment on, the seeds of his eventual retirement from the race were sown.

The reason why Comick was pushed out of control by Russell was because of the chain reaction caused by the car malfunction of Shulong during the start.

So that's how boomerangs came about!
Fortunately, the boomerang-shaped car had its culprit, and the dragon's loss of position at the start wasn't due to his own operational error. Ultimately, it was the car's own fault for not performing well. Apline was able to rest in peace by using the fragments to chip away at the Red Bull No. 2 car before leaving.

Shu Long can't rest yet, and neither can the Red Bull race car under his butt.

It's just a cut on the head, put on a band-aid and keep charging!
As the race progressed, the rain gradually subsided, and clear light gray racing lines began to appear on the track surface. On lap eight, Leclerc successfully overtook Norris, moving back into P2, while Shulong caught up with the hunchback after passing Ocon on lap ten. At turn 17, he took advantage of the downhill momentum and made a very aggressive late brake on the inside, his tires groaning as he gained another position.

P9→P7
The weather forecast indicates that there may be rain in twenty minutes, but it's only a possibility.

After the telecom fraud incidents of the past few days, Shu Long now has a 90% skepticism about the reliability of this weather forecast, with the remaining 10% stemming from his materialistic belief in science.

But the word faith inherently includes the meaning of expectations for the future, and right now, Shulong is only willing to believe what he has personally seen and felt.

The track is still wet, but it's drying at a visible rate, so the time to use slick tires should be in the next few laps.

If he simply followed the established path and continued to catch up, Shu Long would need to overtake at least four more cars before he could pass the Earth Group and see the championship contenders ahead. For the position that rightfully belonged to him, he was willing to take a gamble.

In the following laps, Shulong didn't intend to leave any margin in the tires. While Verstappen, who was in the lead, complained about the increasingly severe sideslip of the car, Shulong recklessly tormented the fragile semi-wet tires with a driving style that made the slip angle more and more obvious.

Even through the camera angles provided by the broadcast, the commentators could clearly see that the Shulong tires were divided by an outward camber from the middle. The outer side was still a darker light black, while the inner side of the tires had turned grayish and slightly whitish.

This clearly shows that some of the tread patterns on the semi-rain tires have been smoothed out, but that didn't stop this madman who disregarded the risks from setting the fastest lap of the entire event.

Lap 15.

Shu Long closed in on Bottas 1.2 seconds later, just in time to see Russell attempt an attack on Magnussen.

There was clearly more than one madman on the track. Russell stared at the sausage kerb at the apex of the Chicane corner without blinking, and took off without hesitation.

As a result, he did briefly move up to P5, but Magnussen's control of the car out of the corner was clearly better, and he regained his position before even reaching Turn 16.

At this point, from Magnussen to Russell to Bottas, the three formed a DRS train without DRS, with the difference between each other less than 0.8 seconds.

The battles in the wetlands are characterized by a lack of restraint and intensity. Even Shulong would find it difficult to break through the encirclement of this train formation in a short time. If the pressure is too great, it is easy to be taken down by someone else's mistake.

The semi-weather tires, almost worn down to bald, provided Shulong with ample grip. Approaching Turn 17, he pressed the "BOX" pit stop button on his steering wheel, activated TR, and simply shouted, "Red!"

Red tires!

Due to the complex weather conditions on the track in the past few days, each team has at least one set of new red tires left. Shu Long, who uses yellow tires for the sprint race, even has two sets of brand new red tires.

Regardless of whether it will rain later, Shulong is planning to use the red tires to try to undercut all the Earth groups in front of him in the next period of time!
The pit layout in Imola was the opposite of the previous race. Red Bull, the team that won the team championship last year, was placed in the position closest to the pit lane entrance. Shu Long’s sudden pit stop notice caught the tire change team off guard.

A tire change in 3.2 seconds is barely acceptable.

This was a last resort, as all 19 other riders on the track were his opponents. In the previous race, Shulong's pit stop plan was disrupted by Verstappen because he was positioned relatively far back on the track and lacked strategic priority.

This time, he was unwilling to be foolish enough to reveal the information to the team in advance, which would cause the other crew to panic and cause trouble.

Of course, it wasn't that no other teams reacted at all.

Just as Zhou Guanyu overtook Albon, Alfa Romeo relayed the message that Shu Long had come to the pits to change to dry tires.

Based on his recognition and trust in someone's abilities, Zhou Guanyu chose to follow without much thought.

However, Aro equipped Zhou Guanyu with a new yellow tire, intending to use this yellow tire as the sole tire for the entire lap, and then called Bottas to pit on the next lap as well.

Bottas should have been allowed to advance first, because Aro was also a victim when Shulong tried the undercut tactic.

Unfortunately, Shulong's pit stop was quite unexpected. Bottas had already crossed the finish line and it was too late. He could only try to make up for the loss in lap time on the next lap.

However, Bottas' tires were the same new yellow ones as Zhou Guanyu's.

Betting on dry lap times is definitely not a gamble. Even though Red Bull is more than 20 kilograms heavier than Arro in the new season, the two cars are not even in the same league in terms of competitiveness.

Not everyone has the confidence to fight a two-time suspension like Shulong, nor does everyone have the abundant reserves of new red cards like Shulong.

Not everyone has the courage to put on a bald tire before the soil is even fully dry, like Shulong did.

Regardless, the current track temperature is still too low. Even the correct operating temperature window required for the second softest C4 compound red tire is not comparable to that of the semi-wet tire.

On his first lap, Shu Long didn't rush to push forward; instead, he focused on warming up his tires on the narrow, dry racing line.

In the second lap, he didn't push immediately. Instead, he tested the car's current limits on various types of corners by using several classic high-speed corners, low-speed deceleration corners, and heavy braking hairpin turns in the first and second time slots before finally picking up his pace in the third time slot.

The fastest lap time of the day is currently held by Leclerc, and it seems that Shulong, who switched to dry tires earlier, did not show any threatening lap times.

However, after Shulong achieved purple scores in the first and third time segments of the 18th lap, the others finally realized the seriousness of the problem.

The last few cars in the back group were the first to pit, while those ahead of Verstappen and Magnussen, who was overtaken by Russell, missed the pit lane entrance and didn't find the opportunity to pit for dry tires until lap 19.

At this moment, Reni finally brought Shulong the news he wanted to hear: the rain predicted in the weather forecast seemed to have been swerved by a gust of wind and was unlikely to fall anytime soon.

Take a look!

What did you say just now?

Of course, Shu Long's super undercut tactic was not entirely successful. After all the drivers had completed their first pit stop, he only managed to get to P5 overall. Russell took advantage of the few laps when Shu Long was warming up his tires and pushed hard, finishing the pit stop more than 2 seconds ahead of the pack.

Bottas's situation was disrupted by the team's right front tire change.

After a tire change that took about 5 seconds, he even fell behind Magnussen after his pit stop. This means that the only rider Shulong truly undercut was his old teammate Magnussen.

Haas seems to be having some kind of problem; his speed in the race is struggling, and it won't be long before he gets humiliated by Bottas again.

It cannot be said that Shulong's early entry into the station was a failure.

He had to work so hard to raise the tire temperature, but didn't everyone else on the field need to? Especially since he was the only one who chose red tires on the second stint!
C3 compound yellow tires will only be harder and more difficult to wear than red tires!
On lap 21, Shulong caught up with Russell and gave the perfect answer to Russell's attempt to overtake Magnussen on lap 15 before turn 14, splashing a trail of water off the racing line before precisely cutting inside.

"He's so daring!"

I don't know what aspect of Shulong's courage the soldier was admiring.

Does this mean Shulong dared to risk getting his helmet knocked off and having both tires removed to overtake Russell? Or does it mean he dared to use slick tires to try and brake late on a wet track?
There may be both.
It's important to know that slick tires have almost no braking power on wet surfaces. The problem is that the Imola track is only so wide. When Shulong forced his way to the side, it meant that Russell also couldn't keep all four tires on the dry racing line.

What right do you have to fight me when you're just a yellow tire that hasn't even warmed up yet?

Meanwhile, Norris was 10 seconds behind Leclerc, while Shulong was already 5.6 seconds behind Norris.

P5→P4
(End of this chapter)