F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 258 Tracks
what's the situation?
do not know!
During the encore, Shu Long was called over for a random check of the car's weight before hurriedly returning to the pit crew to have them check it for him.

Even Verstappen's crew was called in to help, forming a human wall to block the cameras peeking out of the pit room, while another group quickly removed the engine cover to determine the fault.

However, it was still a completely new power unit that had just been installed. After a few minutes of rough troubleshooting, these top engineers couldn't see any obvious problems with the hardware with the naked eye. They could only guess that there might be a bug in the race car's system program.

With time running out, the 8-minute break passed in the blink of an eye. With the Q3 already officially running, the team could only hurry up and reassemble the Shulong race car, taking it out for a spin to test whether it could run or not.

The timing for releasing the cars at this point is actually a little late. Most of the cars that have left the pits have already completed their first warm-up lap and are gradually getting into the regular driving rhythm.

The unique characteristics of the Baku circuit highlight the importance of the slipstream, so the entire driving group held on relatively tightly, and Shulong received several blue flags for letting him pass as soon as he left the pits.

Awesome!

“Sainz is 6 seconds behind you. Be careful to clear the lane before Turn 7.”

"Ayeayeaye!"

Shu Long quickly moved to the right-hand off-lane to avoid being penalized for intentionally obstructing the race and losing his starting position.

"Who's behind us? I might as well just let them all pass at once. There's no way to properly warm up the tires like this!"

"Russell in 43 seconds! And then there's Hamilton, Alonso, Yuki, and Max!"

Almost as soon as Rennie called out a name, a race car "whooshed" past Shu Long. In a mere second time trial, the car actually took almost a minute to finish.

(Competition Engineer: Simon Reni)

"no yet?"

“Uh—Pierre is 16 seconds behind you. Watch out for the blue flag signal on the side of the track.”

How did he end up so far back?

Because of Verstappen, or who else?
Originally, Little Red Bull had planned to have Kakuta drag Gasly to a clean lap in the first round of flight laps, while the situation on the track wasn't too chaotic yet, so that Gasly could gain a starting position. Then, in the second round, after the tires were changed, they would find an opportunity to help Kakuta do a lap.

As it turned out, Verstappen, perhaps annoyed by the slow wait at the tow truck window at Toro Rosso, and with Gasly still grinding his tires, swerved and pulled ahead to enter the flight path.

Judging from what René said—

The performance of Leclerc and Shullon in Q2 must have put considerable pressure on Verstappen. In addition, Shullon's suspected powertrain malfunction gave Verstappen a rare opportunity to improve his starting position.

It seems they're planning to run three flight laps in Q3 to see if they can use that extra lap to find their best form.

If they can get in front of Shu Long, then regardless of whether they finish first or second in qualifying, they will have the opportunity to team up with Leclerc to suppress Shu Long from the start of tomorrow's main race.

After that, focusing on dealing with Ferrari is much easier than dealing with Shulong!

This move disrupted Gasly's rhythm, so he decided to wait for a clean lap without dirty air and bet on the second time slot, which has the most low-speed corners.

That was the original plan, but the moment Shu Long heard Gasly's name through his headset while he was at Turn 15, he subconsciously started simulating Gasly's real-time location on the track map and a not-so-mature plan slowly emerged in his mind.

“Pierre is 6 seconds behind.”

"."

Shu Long didn't answer, but simply refreshed Gasly's location on the real-time map in his mind, which was a little faster than he had expected.

"3 seconds!"

From Shulong's perspective, which was almost entirely aligned with Gasly's position, the rear of his own car and the front of Gasly's car in his rearview mirror appeared almost simultaneously with Rennie's live broadcast.

Having just caught a glimpse of it, Shulong, who was at the apex of turn 16, decisively began to accelerate at full speed.

Turns 17, 18, 19, and 20 are all high-speed corners where you can accelerate at full throttle. Providing Gasly with slipstream at these intervals should provide him with sufficient drag reduction without affecting the car's stability.

Hamelin, who has returned to being Gasly's racing engineer, is too familiar with the dragon's tail. He can tell what kind of fart is coming from the dragon just by looking at it from one side.

(Former competition engineer: Pierre Hamelin)
"Grab his Pier! You have a great wake right now!"

"Yeeeeeep! I can feel it!"

You can tell that Toro Rosso's dolphin jump is pretty impressive. The electric current generated by the bumpy ride on the all-asphalt road makes Gasley look like a Transformer, which makes it hard not to feel a bit of schadenfreude.

However, Gasly's final finish was anything but cheerful. With nine drivers already setting valid lap times in Q3, he surged to P4, and Hamelin quickly relayed this excellent news for Toro Rosso.

This is truly remarkable. Since Shu Long left the team, Little Red Bull has not seen such an exciting starting order in a long time.
"Well done, buddy, that was a great run."

"We gave it our all, guys! Thanks to the timely change in strategy, and thank you for the timely intelligence. And who was that guy up ahead again?"

“It’s Long. He specifically waited to give you a ride.”

Shulong started accelerating when it was about three seconds away, but was eventually caught up by Gasly, who had a higher initial velocity, and was caught by the wake to about 2.4 seconds.

It might not sound like a long distance, but when compared to an F1 car, the 2.4-second interval is actually only enough for Gasly to see the dark outline of a car's rear.

Add to that the recent high temperatures and direct sunlight in Azerbaijan, and the residual heat from the engine lodged between buildings, and the wavy, distorted visual image is good enough to recognize as a car; trying to discern detailed racing characteristics is simply asking too much.

However, when Gasly learned the name from Hamelin, a look of realization immediately appeared on his face.

"Ah, I guessed it was him!"

Just now, I felt that the way the trailer was being towed was very familiar. It was as if there was some tacit understanding between them that they could reach without communicating, and they could keep the intervals just right.

2019, especially the second half of the season.

Shu Long and Gasly, these two brothers who were holding their breath and suffering together, couldn't even count how many times they had executed such a perfect team tactic in a match.

From Hartley to Kvyat, then to Perez and now to Kakuta, Gasly has only had this level of experience in Shulong.

Actually, Hamelin could have completely ignored this. The timing of Shulong's acceleration is quite subtle. Many drivers choose to accelerate here to create a flying lap, just to get a little bit higher top speed on the starting straight.

But in 19, the entire Little Red Bull team was impressed by someone's genius-like performance. Now that they realize that Shulong might need help, they subconsciously feel that they need to give a little response.

Hamelin understood Gasley's situation and was also familiar with Gasley's character.

The two Frenchmen, both named Pierre, had been working together for even longer than they had each worked with Shulong. Without needing much further communication, they quickly reached a consensus on how to proceed with the next flight.

Shulong quickly refreshed its ranking on the lap time leaderboard after completing a full flight lap.

1:41.810, just squeezed Sainz out of P3, only 0.104 seconds slower than Verstappen, but a full 0.451 seconds behind Leclerc.

While most of the cars were driving back to the pits to change tires and adjust their condition, and Shulong was cooling down the cars and charging them, Verstappen continued to push the wheel with the old red tires for another lap.

Fortunately, whether it was due to insufficient tire grip or the lack of exhaust flow to ride on, he was slower this lap than the previous one.

It was Verstappen's turn to pit. Shu Long glanced at the small screen mounted on the HALO pillar, and when the dark blue dot marked VER moved to the vicinity of Turn 14, he waved to the mechanics around him to quickly remove the tire warmer blankets from his tires.

Hurry up and release the car!
Actually, going out at this time is risky. Although the track may seem clean and empty, it is easy for the slow cars that are warming up behind him to affect the flight path.

However, leaving the vehicle at this time also has advantages, namely, it allows for a fairly clean towing tactic.

The premise is that Gasley is really willing to cooperate.
Thank goodness!

Shortly after Shu Long drove onto the maintenance area road, Toro, having observed Red Bull's movements, followed suit, first placing Gasly in front of Shu Long, and then releasing Kakuta after the two had passed.

As last year's champion team, Red Bull's pit garage in Baku this year was placed closest to the pit lane entrance. Toro Rosso, on the other hand, finished 6th in the team rankings last year, and their pit garage was located slightly behind the middle of the pit lane. This way, they would be able to react quickly if there was any cooperation intention from Toro Rosso.

It was only when Shu Long knew from the beginning that he had the foresight to do Gasley a favor.

Otherwise, after both Alonso and Alonso were eliminated because they didn't leave enough new red car quota for Q2, Shu Long, who wasted half a day making expressions, originally wanted to find his agent Alonso to strike a pose.

Of course, it would be better to find Gasly, since the two have had previous experience working together, and it's relatively less likely to backfire.

Just as Hamelin understood Gasly, based on Shu Long's understanding of Gasly, he felt there was a high probability that the other party would reciprocate the favor. Gasly's current situation at Toro Rosso is quite awkward.

Everyone knows that Gasly is a talented driver. His victory at Monza in 2020 with Toro Rosso undoubtedly proves that he deserves a seat, but that seat should not be with Toro Rosso.

Gasly is currently blocked by two big names, Shulong and Verstappen, and below him is a large group of Red Bull youth academy players whom Marco is preparing to promote for training.

It's not a promotion opportunity, but it's a shame to let such a capable driver go. The key issue is that we don't know where to put him.

Marco recently planned to make a trade with Gasly and Alpine, but Toro Rosso's competitiveness and performance this year have ironically become the biggest drag on their team.

Aokang has already scored 28 points this year.

In contrast, Gasly's luck this year is comparable to Verstappen's. After seven games, he has only scored 6 points, which is even less than that of his teammate, the semi-rookie Kakuta.

Just like Monaco in the previous leg, they made the wisest decision at the beginning to switch to semi-wet tires, but because the timing of switching to dry tires was messed up by Mick's two Haas cars, they unfortunately fell short at the entrance to the points zone.

With this year's performance, it's definitely not impressive. Gasly is the type of player that the Red Bull system doesn't really want to keep, and they can't get a good price to sell him. He desperately needs a resounding victory to revive his value!
Otherwise, who would you trade it to for Alpine?
Aokang? They only get 28 points! Even if you're foolish enough to trade a 6-point product for an Alpine, you still won't see the value for money!

It can't be Alonso, right? Haha
So don't be fooled by the fact that Shu Long just helped Gasly by going into the flight circle; the chain reaction that this action could trigger is far more complex than it appears on the surface.

Gasly's lap time, which was just pulled out by Shu Long, was 1:42.231, a full 0.481 seconds ahead of Russell behind him.

This is an achievement that is already beyond the reach of Toro Rosso, thanks to perfect timing, location, and support. Russell, who was practically shaken to his core, had to risk his life to defeat Gasly's current P5. Gasly, who felt he couldn't achieve a better result, wouldn't have suffered much loss even if he had simply given up the second flight lap.

It can be said that the only person who sacrificed himself in this act of repaying Shulong was Kakuta. Now, the only thing the kids can do is try to follow Shulong around and see if they can get some benefits.

The commentators stopped their idle chatter and focused all their attention on the three Red Bulls of various sizes on the field, eager to see what kind of show they would put on.

The willingness of different teams to cooperate is a rare sight in the history of F1.

If there is a certain subordinate relationship between Toro Rosso and Red Bull, and Shu Long and Zhou Guanyu are fellow townsmen who appreciate each other, then how can we explain Magnussen's subtle favoritism when giving way to another car in Imola?
You have connections wherever you go.

Let alone in the old days when the atmosphere was full of tension, even in today's much more harmonious paddock, such a driver is probably a rare sight.

The last character to evoke similar feelings in those around them seems to be Luffy from the Marineford War.
Before we get too far ahead, with the help of the engineers on both sides working together remotely, Shu Long and Gasly slowed down their tire warm-up pace a bit, allowing the slow-moving cars that were released in the first wave to pass through their windows.

Around turn 17, Gasly began to accelerate and enter the flying lap.

Shu Long, who was behind, counted in his mind for less than two seconds before he caught up with the pace of the accelerated advance.

As long as Gasly is willing to tow the vehicle, Shulong can take the initiative to match the other party's starting rhythm, which does not actually require a high level of tacit understanding between the two.

He didn't originally need to follow so closely, but since the current race car lacks power, he could only make the most of the slipstream to compensate for the loss in lap time, and he had to figure out how to handle the corners himself.

Red Bull is fast, and even though it was criticized by Shu Long, it still has a more than 1-second advantage over Toro Rosso in terms of absolute lap time.

This is only because the car is currently experiencing some problems. Otherwise, based on the fact that Shulong even slightly outperformed Leclerc in the three practice sessions, Red Bull's lap advantage over Toro Rosso is close to 2 seconds.

This can also be seen from Kakuta's first-round Q3 result: 1:43.056.

Even considering Gasly's average lap time of 0.2 seconds faster than Diagonal Field, in a normal clean lap without a trailer, Toro Rosso and the front-row Mars rover lineup are from completely different dimensions.

So even though Shulong only allowed two seconds for acceleration, and the initial speed disadvantage of starting later was slightly widened to 2.3 seconds, the scene on the track was still quite comical.

Gasly, who was leading the way in the front row, was being quickly caught up by Shulong, while Kakuta, who was behind, was being pulled away quickly.

This doesn't feel like a live broadcast of a qualifying race; it's more like a tense chase scene from the main race. The director also wisely gave the camera a first-person perspective from the Shulong vehicle.

Then I saw Shulong frantically rubbing the steering wheel.

Although the counter-steering adjustments weren't very large, and sometimes seemed similar to the slight shaking that occurs on a normal road surface, the frequency of his small-amplitude steering wheel movements was simply too high.
This is a rare occurrence in Shulong's in-car setups. Unless it's during intense battles in a race, Shulong's control of the steering wheel is precise, stable, and smooth most of the time.

Judging solely from the action, even seasoned car enthusiasts and commentators often cannot discern whether Shulong leans more towards oversteer or understeer.

Baku's street surfaces don't offer the same grip as regular paved tracks, and they're covered in dust, fallen leaves, and trash. This gives you an idea of ​​just how slippery Shulong's low-drag setup would be in dirty air.

But even after a lap of intense effort against the car, they almost caught up to Gasly by 1.3 seconds when crossing the finish line; any faster and they would have been within DRS range.

The final score was green, yellow, and purple, a jump of 0.392, bringing the score to 1:41.418 and placing it in P2 of the entire competition.

Pity.

Leaving aside Verstappen's DRS issues that plagued him for more than two practice sessions, Red Bull's competitiveness under Shu Long's leadership this week was supposed to be slightly superior to Ferrari's. Who would have thought that the newly installed power unit would run into such a problem?

What are you up to?!

Shu Long worked so hard during the holiday, but when the competition week came, his legs were still weak while his car went limp. What's the explanation for this?
Not to mention that on several nights, RB18 secretly replaced Gan Mengning and climbed onto the dragon bed himself.
Hiss—that shouldn't be possible, right?

Normal people should be more certain in their thinking, but after finishing the interview and returning to the P room, Shu Long still subconsciously pinched his girlfriend's cheek gently, as if to make sure that it didn't have the texture of tire rubber.

Fortunately not.

[Nonsense! Of course not!]

After the race, there was no mood to celebrate the so-called "front row start" good result. Instead, the focus was on further confirming the cause of the car's lack of power before the closed zone rules were triggered.

The good news is that it was indeed not related to hardware; it was a conflict between the existing racing program and Honda's newly upgraded engine, which caused the engine to produce two gears less power in qualifying than the team had originally set.

Basically, no troubleshooting is needed; just re-flash the computer.

But this raises a question.

Since the technical directive banning "party mode" was issued in 2020, once a car is on the track during qualifying, teams are not allowed to modify the engine's operating power; the only thing that can be adjusted is the battery's charging and discharging strategy.

It can be said that Gasly's championship at Monza that year was closely related to this technical instruction.

At that time, the teams that mainly relied on the so-called qualifying mode to gain an extra advantage were Ferrari, Red Bull, and Mercedes.

Ferrari's engine cheating the previous year was a major blow and can be disregarded. Meanwhile, Mercedes and Red Bull were both hampered by the difficulty of managing their high-powered engines in the race. After being targeted by yellow flags several times, they were unable to break through the pack and ultimately Gasly and Shulough secured their only Grand Prix wins and the only two podium finishes of the 2020 season, respectively.

The current point of contention is that the engine power used by Shulong in the qualifying race is indeed lower than the preset value, but the set parameters are clearly intended to be higher. So, if it is adjusted back, is it considered a violation or not?
Red Bull was unsure, and even the inspector in charge of overseeing them was uncertain. In the end, they reported it to the FIA ​​for review, and the conclusion was that it needed to be calculated based on the engine's actual power.

Upon closer examination, it is indeed not difficult to understand.

If such a loophole is blatantly left for teams to exploit, it's foreseeable that many teams will inflate engine power figures in their programming during future races. In that case, the technical directive proposed two years ago will undoubtedly become a mere formality, and everyone will continue to modify it however they want.

In that case, forcibly making corrections at the risk of being penalized and forced to shut down would be counterproductive.

After all, most teams' setups at the Baku circuit are geared towards low drag, which is quite similar to the Monza circuit. This means that overtaking efficiency after turning on DRS is not very high, and once you get stuck in a train of cars, it can be very difficult to break out.

After considering it over, I realized that...

The starting position of the Shulong P2 isn't actually that bad, and if it can absorb the slipstream, its lap time isn't that much of a disadvantage. Maintaining the status quo seems to be the best option that can be achieved.
I don't know why, ever since Shu Long joined Red Bull, it always feels like the cars are having problems here or there. It's like no race can be completed smoothly from start to finish. It's just full of misfortunes.

Oh, besides Miami, maybe add Monaco too.

But to have only two out of eight races is an incredibly low ratio!

Even though Shu Long is currently leading the championship standings by 36 points over Leclerc, he still can't help but feel that this season has been mentally exhausting. He was so tormented that even winning the championship didn't make him feel like he was awesome; it was more like he just got lucky and stumbled upon a title.

While I used to be a bit slow in Red Bull Racing, I never thought racing was so fussy. Just climbing one place was a huge encouragement.

No wonder Hamilton and Vettel used to always complain about their cars, even though they were already going very fast.

Secretly reveal some of the darker aspects that you don't usually tell others.

Back then, Shulong was filled with negative emotions due to the chaos caused by Red Bull. Every time he heard similar comments, he would secretly think to himself that they were like wild boars who couldn't eat fine chaff. Their racing cars were already so powerful, so why were they whining all day?
If he were driving it himself, it would probably fly right off the wheel!

Now that the race for the championship has begun and every point lost is a source of anxiety, it seems that Shu Long has gained a newfound understanding of the veteran champions of the paddock.
(End of this chapter)