F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 270 In the end, he still grew into a cunning and scheming person.
Vips must have had some exceptional qualities to be noticed by Marco in the first place, and he must have been quite resentful about being fired for a casual joke during a live stream.

Shu Long didn't sympathize with him. Many truths are often revealed in jest, and self-righteous arrogance isn't something that develops overnight.

Even seven-time world champion Hamilton couldn't change his prejudices in the paddock. Who knows what this brat is muttering about behind his usual joking and playing around.

They weren't very close to each other to begin with, so being fired was just that—being fired. In fact, because of the existence of "emptiness," Shu Long sometimes had an indifferent, almost cold, attitude towards certain things.

He doesn't care about anything as long as his bottom line isn't crossed.

Every person who makes it into the F1 paddock has a story that could fill an entire inspirational movie script. Too many people fall along the way, and they are just a junior trainee who is abandoned and not even worthy of pity. They don't even have the right to be mentioned in the next supporting role.

In contrast
This year, Piastrelli, who fought his way through a group of rookies, seemed to have taken on the role of the protagonist, and even showed some of the momentum that Shu Long had when he swept through the lower divisions.

Although this was Piastral's second year, many of his traits reminded the old man of the almost omnipotent Shulong from back then.

Calm, assertive, intelligent, and with a touch of wildness hidden beneath her well-behaved exterior.

Apart from being a little older than the original Shulong, everything else is a little less impressive, but when put together, it is clearly a downgraded version of the "Shulong Mini"!
It's probably that so-called "white moonlight" effect?
It's clear that Dr. Marko likes him very much. Right here in Austria, Red Bull's home turf, Marko secretly met with Piastri, accompanied by Red Bull veteran Mark Webber.

A lineup that is quite symbolic.

The once-biggest victim of the Multi21 instruction, the dethroned general; Shu Long, who is practically a successor; and the unlucky kid Pi Ya Zi, who is so confident after crushing the weak that he is about to step into the muddy waters of Red Bull.

They represent Red Bull's past, present, and possible future.

Webber certainly doesn't want his drivers to follow in his footsteps, but there's a successful example right now, with Shulong as an example. Everyone can see how much Red Bull favored Verstappen in the past, and they managed to reverse the primary and secondary status between the two through sheer strength.

Having a precedent gives us hope.

The only problem now is that Shu Long is too strong. At only 22 years old, he obviously has a long, long way to go in his prime. Meanwhile, Verstappen has signed a super long-term contract until 2028. It is not certain that Piastri will have a chance to be promoted after signing with Red Bull.

He can't just waste his youth like Gasly did at Toro Rosso, can he? Or be loaned out as a mercenary for a few years like Shu Long?
There is actually another very tempting option in front of Piastelli: waiting for Hamilton, who has passed his peak, to retire from his position. This is also one of the closest channels for him to get a chance to compete for the championship.

As for the other potential seat opportunities, to be honest, they were not Piastrelli's first choice to consider.

Marco has always been good at judging people. This seemingly well-behaved kid has a very sharp ambition and cunning. Even though Alpine has reserved a seat for him, Piastri, who has a complete plan for competing for the championship in the future, probably doesn't even look at that mediocre pink car.

However, the factors influencing whether Hamilton continues to compete are not entirely dependent on himself. Due to the numerous commercial interests involved, unless Hamilton has truly given up his competitive spirit, there will always be countless invisible hands firmly holding him back in the paddock.

Alonso is the same in this respect. The A14 behind Alonso has only recently gotten on track. This is a business structure that he has built up over many years in the paddock. There is no reason for him to choose to leave during the rising period of his career like he did in 18.

This incident was also a result of information asymmetry created by Alonso's side in collusion with Marco, so that Red Bull could more easily grasp Piastrelli's needs. The outside world is currently unaware that Alonso has no intention of renewing Alpine's contract, and has only publicly stated that the future will be discussed during the summer break.

Therefore, in Weber and Piastrelli's understanding, they really couldn't afford to wait!

To put it bluntly, Piastrelli is only one year younger than Shu Long. Shu Long was almost a world champion at 22, but he is already 21 and still hasn't graduated from F2?!
Feeling that there was no more time to waste, beneath her seemingly calm and polite exterior lay a rather anxious heart.
Webber is now a seasoned veteran, and he sees through all of this. Apart from Piastrelli's own opinion, he doesn't actually recommend trying to get into Alpine's seats, which have too many uncertainties.

Besides the issue of competitiveness, Renault has completely lost its customer teams due to its consistently poor engine performance over the past few years, and its deep network of relationships within the paddock is now in complete disarray.

As a newcomer, if he is truly tied to Renault's system and fails to achieve results, he will have no channels to maneuver if he wants to switch teams.

Forget about Ferrari.

Unless they are world champions, they are quite exclusive towards drivers who come from Ferrari's youth academy.

Currently, the only team still closely associated with Ferrari is Haas. However, Haas's cars have been visibly distorted for several years in a row, and even a super-connected player like Mick is almost at his wit's end.

Even if Piastri only suffered under Haas for a year, his professional career could basically be declared over.

In this respect, Piastrelli and Shulong are quite similar. They both come from modestly well-off families but lack substantial capital. The commercial support from the Australian market is almost entirely concentrated on Ricardo. Apart from his abilities, he doesn't have much else to offer.

Therefore, for "ordinary" drivers like them, Red Bull is indeed the place with the greatest opportunity to make a name for themselves.

At least as long as he can produce outstanding results for his teammates at Toro Rosso, Marco will try to send him to Red Bull to test his mettle. As long as Piastriken agrees, it will inevitably be accompanied by Gasly's departure. There's no reason why Kakuta is inferior to him.

So the question comes back to Shulong.

Will he choose to force Verstappen to step down and become a mainstay, or will he choose to leave enough room for his future direction?
According to publicly available information within the paddock, Shulong's contract will expire at the end of 2023, and Piastri and Weber are hoping to get a relatively clear answer.

Shu Long had actually discussed this matter with Marco beforehand.

Regarding the two factions within Red Bull, Shu Long is clearly someone both sides are trying their best to win over. However, compared to Verstappen, who is of pure Athletic descent, Shu Long, who is currently strongly supported by Horner, is obviously more inclined to side with the Thai Bulls.

Meanwhile, the leader of the Orlando Bulls, Matthias, is really on his deathbed. A series of arrangements are being made in secret to ensure that the Orlando Bulls will not fall completely under the control of the Thai Bulls after his death.

These details were also secretly revealed to Shulong by Marco.

The old man knew that in the years following his old friend's passing, the Orlando Bulls' faction would inevitably enter a period of decline, and in every respect, he could not compete with Horner, who was already highly favored by the Thai Bulls.

So the old man has been keeping a low profile lately, and hasn't interfered much in Red Bull's internal affairs. It seems that his relationship with Horner has returned to the harmonious state it was in the early days of Red Bull's establishment. He just wants to focus on youth training.

From some perspectives, Shulong's interests seem to be closely intertwined with Horner's, but only Marco knows that his future is also closely related to his beloved student Shulong.

Thanks to their past discovery and the support they received during their most difficult times, the old man and the young man shared a lot of information that even Horner was unaware of.

Besides handling cooperation negotiations with Porsche, Horner's other biggest concern right now is reaching a contract renewal agreement with Shu Long.

But only Marco knew that Shulong would most likely consider finding another way after this contract expired.

Tai Niu's subsequent takeover might seem like a good thing for Shulong, but the change in management structure will inevitably be accompanied by a considerable period of personnel chaos, which will indirectly or even directly affect the team's overall competitiveness.

Today's Ferrari may be tomorrow's Red Bull. The already established Ferrari has no need to waste its peak years on a revitalized Red Bull.

Although the old man was reluctant, he had no reason to dissuade Shu Long. At a critical time when Red Bull was about to undergo a major change, Shu Long's departure might actually be a good thing for him in some ways.

Moreover, Red Bull's interests are already deeply intertwined with those of Shulong, and negotiations regarding the new joint project are nearing completion. Ao Niu, Tai Niu, and mihoyo will each invest 31% to establish a Red Bull energy drink subsidiary project called "Fuel Drink," which will produce, but is not limited to, a series of IP-related collaborative replica products.

It primarily targets young, but not particularly sporty, car enthusiasts who prefer staying at home, as well as the vast MiHoYo user market that MiHoYo has cultivated globally.

As for the remaining 7% of shares, they will be transferred to Shulong on the condition that Shulong becomes the permanent spokesperson for the project.

It was precisely because of this degree of shared interests that Shulong's departure became an unexpected trump card in Marco's hands, one that was also absolutely lethal to Horner.

The negotiations with Porsche were almost entirely dominated by Horner, who saw this as a crucial opportunity to change his position within the team. Others had little room to intervene, including Marco.

The news that should have been officially announced around the 8th has been completely silent until now. The old man has been managing the team for so many years and naturally has his own sources of information.

It can only be said that the current progress of this matter is very unfavorable to Horner.

It's easy to imagine how the various management factions within Red Bull will view Horner if they fail to retain Shu Long's contract.
Although he felt somewhat sorry for his team leader's strong support recently, Shulong had long seen through the true nature of the hunting grounds. There was no such thing as black and white; the place they were in was filled with an impenetrable grayness.

Shu Long is not a cold-blooded creature who doesn't care about anyone once he puts on sunglasses; rather, his nostalgic personality makes him appear very sentimental in many situations.

Shu Long did not approve of many of Dr. Marco's practices, but because the old man had once been kind to him, Shu Long never embarrassed the old man when it came to taking sides.

Horner had used and suppressed him before, but Shu Long had seen his current support. At this moment, all Shu Long could give back was his own achievements. As for what to do in the future...
I already have a draft in mind, but I'll talk about it later.

So did Piastrelli get any answers?

Neither Shulong nor Marco explicitly stated it, but they casually mentioned that old Mateschitz would be pleased with Piastri's choice, and then simply gave him a look to let him figure it out for himself.

Judging from the strength of Weber's handshake and his expression before leaving, the message should have been conveyed.

After leaving, Shulong quickly got back to work, and Red Bull also brought a number of upgrades to this crucial home game weekend.

It can improve the heat dissipation efficiency of the hood.

Some have had their front-end spar geometry finely adjusted to better suit the characteristics of the Red Bull Ring track.

There are also modifications to the brake disc heat sink, increasing the disc-disc gap to optimize heat dissipation.

With a tight schedule and heavy workload, and the Red Bull Ring being one of only three tracks this season to feature a sprint race, there was only one short practice session before the sprint qualifying to test the effectiveness of the car's upgrades.

Because the qualifying session was scheduled so tightly, Red Bull couldn't allow the two drivers to do a comparative test in this round of upgrades. In any case, the driver using the old kit would definitely be at a disadvantage in the subsequent qualifying sessions, which is absolutely unacceptable under fair play regulations.

Shulong didn't really care about the impact of the adaptation time; he could basically use the training methods that Verstappen had done right away.

But this is a matter of team operational priority. As a driver leading in points, he has no reason to humble himself. It would be interesting if people thought he was easy to bully and took advantage of him all the time.

However, without the data from the old and new tracks to compare, the team could not determine the effect of the upgraded kit. They could only prioritize the pole position in qualifying and then conduct comparative testing in the subsequent second practice session.

Fortunately, judging from the lap times achieved in practice, it's not a case of wasted effort resulting in a negative upgrade.

Apart from Hamilton and Russell both hitting the wall and triggering red flags in Q3, there were no other unexpected events in the subsequent qualifying sessions that had a significant impact on Red Bull.

Shu Long finished with a time of 1:04.876 to take pole position, while Verstappen narrowly beat Leclerc by 0.029 seconds. The two Red Bulls will start from the same row on their home track in the sprint race on the second day.

Since they had already entered qualifying and triggered the so-called closed zone rules, the team's testing in the subsequent second practice session was basically limited to the tire strategy for the race, and most other car settings were prohibited from being modified.

Red Bull currently holds a lap advantage over Ferrari, and in the sprint race, Leclerc alone will likely find it difficult to break through Red Bull's two-car blockade. So, the team decided to take a gamble and temporarily replace Shulong's parts with an older set to compare with Verstappen's upgrade.

The upgrades have indeed had some effect. However, lap times are an uncontrollable variable due to the individual abilities of the drivers. Sometimes Verstappen is faster, and sometimes Shulong is faster, so they will not be used for reference or discussion at this time.

However, data shows that Verstappen's car maintained excellent condition over long distances, resulting in a lower load on the car's power unit and brake pads under the same driving intensity.

It's unclear whether it's a dragon-slaughtering device or not. According to regulations, he will need to switch back to the same parts and settings as in the qualifying race during the subsequent sprint race. We'll find out when he drives it.

but.
Perhaps the data from the morning test was correct. The overall driving experience at the beginning of the sprint race was indeed as Verstappen and the data analysis team described, but Shu Long began to notice something was wrong in the latter half of the race.

The sprint race ended with a pole position start followed by a steady P1 finish. The two Ferrari cars were much more intense in their own battle than the moderate fight between the Shulong and Verstappen, and neither had much energy to interfere.

Finally, with special arrangements made by the team at the home track, Shu Long also completed a special circuit lap in a KIM X-bow painted with Red Bull livery.

However, the feeling he had during the match made it impossible for him to show a relaxed smile.

The tire wear is not right, and it's very obviously not right!
Verstappen was pressing him closely from behind. Shulong had done his best to maintain the tire while keeping the speed up, but the 23-lap sprint still took a toll on the C4's yellow tires.

In the last five laps, Verstappen's lap time also dropped significantly, indicating that it wasn't just Shu Long who was experiencing a lack of experience in the second practice session.

This may be related to the relatively low downforce setting adopted by Red Bull in this race.

Especially in Turn 4, to maintain speed, you must enter the corner with more aggressive speed and steering input, and incorporate more wheel slip. Otherwise, the car's rotation will be quite sluggish under the low downforce setting, and the timing of throttle input will be forced to be delayed by a lot.

The team's original race strategy, discussed after the second practice session, was to stop the yellow and white cars together, but it now seems that some adjustments may be needed.

On Sunday, the day of the main competition, it started raining heavily early in the morning.

Yesterday's post-race meeting regarding tire consumption was not optimistic. Since most of the car's setup has been locked by FIA regulations, the teams can't offer much help in this regard. They can only offer reminders based on experience and data about which corners on the track require special attention to tire management.

Shu Long originally thought that the heavy rain was a way for Red Bull to redeem itself from its slump at home, but the rain stopped halfway through and didn't even affect the F3 and F2 races much.

Not only was there no impact, but thanks to the enthusiastic help of these lower-class cars, the water on the track was also drained, and the afternoon F1 race was definitely going to start on dry tires.

There wasn't much to see in F2; it was just another victory for Piastri.

On the contrary, the F3 race in the rain was more fun. In the end, Red Bull's new junior academy player, Isaac Hajar, won the championship on home soil. During the award ceremony, Shu Long was even called over to take a photo with this young Frenchman with a round nose and round face.

Another driver named Martins took second place, and Oliver Biermann came in third. Leclerc's brother, Artier, seems to have inherited some kind of terrible family curse: P4 in qualifying, P4 in the sprint, and P4 in the final race. It's as if he can't get along with the number "4"!
Hopefully, the fourth-place finisher in the main competition, who is also the originator of the "4" series, can carry forward this fine tradition.
(End of this chapter)