F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 279: Willing to Give Up
One spin can injure more than just Russell.

If you lose your horse, you will know no blessings.

Fortunately, the yellow tires couldn't keep up with the pace of the red tires at the start, otherwise Ferrari might not have had such ample room to maneuver.

Although the two Ferraris were close together, they were in VIP viewing positions and had some foresight about the potential accidents that might occur when the two people in front of them were fighting, so they were less affected.

Norris, who was behind Ferrari, was in big trouble. All he could see was his two red butts suddenly wobbling, and the next second he was kissing Russell on the lips.

Do you like stirring up trouble? Now that the fire has burned you, can you still laugh?
In other words, he was young and reacted quickly, swerving to avoid a head-on collision; otherwise, the yellow flag at the race might have turned into a red flag.

Fortunately, both cars were still operational. Taking advantage of the safety car exercise, Ocon and Vettel went into the pits to change their front wings and tires to yellow tires. After leaving the pits, they fell to the back of the pack.

It's not a missile launch, but it's just as good as one.

The accident at Turn 1 resulted in a large number of damaged cars, and fragments of the heroes, including front wings and sidepods, were scattered all over the track. However, some people thought it was more important to ensure the competitiveness of the cars, while others thought it was more important to maintain their position on the track.

Take Alonso and Ocon, for example.

Departing from P6 and P7 respectively means they were very, very close to the scene of the accident, and naturally they were among the first unfortunate victims to be affected.

There was definitely room to avoid it.

However, judging from the starting positions of the two Alpine cars and the various wind changes in the paddock recently, it is likely that O'Connor's old problem will recur.

Not everyone has access to information about Alonso's exact whereabouts immediately. Based on the available information within the paddock, Ocon clearly still believes that the driver Alyne is going to replace is actually himself.

Although that's indeed Alpine's plan, Alonso hasn't said anything yet, has he?

Looking at their current annual points standings, Alonso has been incredibly efficient at catching up since his car got back on track. Although Ocon currently holds the lead in points, that lead is only 9 points.

This is still after Alonso missed out on points due to several unfortunate events at the beginning of the season. Even without the seat turmoil, it can be said that Ocon's kindness towards his teammates on the track had been almost completely exhausted as the points gap gradually narrowed.

Especially since their starting positions were right next to each other, it was obvious they were going to fight.

Unfortunately, Alonso hadn't expected this.

From his perspective, he was the kind-hearted person who was willing to step down to relieve his teammates' pressure. Even if he didn't expect anything in return, he thought, "At least don't deliberately trip me up."
The results of it? !

In qualifying, Alonso lost to his teammate by a mere 0.06 seconds, a difference caused by a slight change in wind direction on the track.

However, in Q1 and Q2 of the first two qualifying sessions, Alonso led Ocon by a huge margin of 0.15 seconds and 0.312 seconds respectively, which undoubtedly put a lot of psychological pressure on a driver who was about to "lose his job" and start looking for a new job. It is easy to imagine how determined Ocon was to hold on to this hard-won P6.

However, Shu Long and his agent are actually quite similar in one aspect in racing: their starting ability is well-known in the paddock. They have repeatedly created miracles by starting off in a grid when they lacked competitiveness, but then achieved results far exceeding the car's expected performance.

This time was no exception, especially since the Alonso P7's starting position had the advantage of a clean line and good grip, and it quickly closed the distance to the Ocon ahead after the lights went out.

This obviously greatly touched Ocon's already somewhat sensitive nerves, and he immediately took a series of drastic measures against Alonso, who might have been somewhat kind to him, including but not limited to: drawing lines, changing lanes in the braking zone, and closing the door to squeeze the driving line in an attempt to force Alonso off the track.

As a result, Hamilton not only took the opportunity to drive past both of them on the track, but Ocon also couldn't avoid being knocked off course by Russell, who had just been fouled by Norris, because he was paying too much attention to his teammate.

The already precarious forewing wings both landed on the ground, and then Alonso's right forewing endplate was scraped off. What grudge could they possibly have?
The old man got so angry that he started ranting in TR!
"I've never seen Esteban defend like this in my entire life! Never!"

Then came a series of beeping telegram sounds.

Things are better now.

I bet Alonso will curse even more after the race if he goes to check the Ocon car's headlights at the start and finds out his teammate has only been watching him through the rearview mirror the whole time.

In the end, it can be said that evil people will get their just desserts. The leader figured that since he was leaving the team anyway, there was no need to take it too seriously. He decided to tolerate him for another six months and hope that they could both be at peace.

Alonso glanced at his rearview mirror and sighed inwardly at the menacing Red Bull race car inside.

Damage to the front wing endplate has a significant impact on this track, which demands extremely high downforce levels. It will definitely need to be replaced during the next pit stop, but it seems unlikely that this first stint will be able to make it.

Just as there are unlucky drivers, there are also drivers who benefit from accidents.

For example, Verstappen, and the Arroyo duo who started in P11 and P12 respectively in yesterday's qualifying.

Verstappen started from P10, immediately eliminating Ricciardo ahead of him. Thanks to the pit stops of Russell, Norris, and Ocon, he has now moved up to P6.

Bottas and Zhou Guanyu are in similar situations, but they are much luckier than Verstappen.

Aro's transmission has some issues this year, causing them to often slack off during starts, with about a 50% chance of the clutch getting stuck.

However, Ferrari's gearboxes this year have all had some issues. Ferrari itself experiences occasional gear jams. Arroyo made some modifications to the gearbox to fit its compact housing, which exacerbated the gear jamming problem.

Unfortunately, at this stop, the two brothers encountered similar problems at the same time, and on top of that, they were starting with yellow tires, causing their positions to drop sharply.

This drop actually allowed them to stay calm and act as war correspondents from behind, quickly finding a clean line to overtake others, and then, with the help of several cars entering the station ahead, they both entered the top ten.

Bottas is currently in P8, Zhou Guanyu is in P10, and Gasly, who almost beat both of them with a start on red tires, is in between.

Regardless of what others do, Verstappen's four positional upgrades are no joke. It seems that Shulong's sinister elbow strike not only failed to stop his teammates, but actually helped Verstappen a lot.

While being led around in circles by the safety car, Shu Long occasionally checked the current rankings on the big screen of the broadcast, but did not actively communicate with the team. He slowly twisted the snake line by himself, seemingly lost in thought.

The situation was actually within his expectations.

The action against Russell was the result of his careful planning, but whether it could be realized depended on Russell's cooperation. If Russell hadn't been so aggressive at Turn 1, Shu Long might not have been so decisive.

Of course, it's not Russell's fault. Human nature is the most vulnerable thing to being tested. Almost every step Shulong took before the lights went out was guided in this general direction. The fact that he stepped in can only mean that drivers who want to compete for the championship have similar thought processes in some aspects.

Despite Russell's usual polite demeanor, Shu Long could sense his ambition from just a few words.

You'll definitely be fooled!
As for whether there will be any consequences for causing this accident.
Because the accident had a significant cascading effect, the race organizers naturally investigated it, and Shu Long's name was marked with an exclamation mark for quite some time. However, it wasn't long before the race organizers classified it as a routine track accident, and naturally, there was no further investigation or punishment.

The start phase is inherently prone to chaos, not to mention that this collision was so deceptive. Shu Long deliberately positioned himself as the victim, and from the replay, it looked like he was completely squeezed by Russell and had no choice but to try to move a little closer to the track.

Including that elbow-like counter-attack, no one would consider such a move as the cause of Russell's loss of control. Even if someone had a wild imagination, they wouldn't think that Shu Long did it on purpose.

First, the risk is too great. If the front suspension were to break in, the team would have to retire from the race, which would be a huge loss for Shulong, who has a very high chance of winning the championship.

Secondly, anyone who has any experience or understanding of driving will not intuitively believe that this is an operation that can be completed, and rationally it is even more impossible!

It's already impressive that such a heavy steering wheel can maintain the accuracy of the line. To make any tricks, you not only need an incredibly strong hand, but also to maintain perfect output coordination with the accelerator pedal in the intense wheel-to-wheel action. Just thinking about it is unbelievable.

Unfortunately, the human body, which is beyond the theoretical limits of human capabilities, is just that abnormal.

Shulong has a cheat, although this cheat does not make the car faster or even directly enhance his driving skills. It only provides a sufficiently high numerical panel, and the mechanism itself requires him to practice and learn.

But once he figures out something strange, this powerful set of stats becomes the key and foundation for ensuring his transformation into a mechanical monster.

Take the matter of steering wheel control, for example. The logic of tightness versus looseness mentioned earlier may not be entirely applicable to it. This is not some grammatical error that goes against the natural order, but rather a fact.

If Shu Long wanted to, he could maintain a strong grip throughout.

It has little to do with the fact that he only just unlocked 100% of his [bone and muscle strength] at the beginning of the season thanks to that damned steering hydraulic failure. Of course, it did improve him quite a bit, but his reaction speed, which was perfected very early on, is the key.

The extremely abnormal reaction ability can improve not only the starting ability of the dragon, but also its ability to deal with unexpected situations on the track.

Most importantly, this allows him to make real-time judgments and responses to changes in the car's dynamics at every moment, ensuring that he fully follows the car's dynamics while maintaining a stable input to the steering wheel angle, rather than relying entirely on the throttle opening to make the car passively adapt.

The change brought about by reaching the maximum power level is that even in the most awkward counter-attack position, he can forcefully turn the steering wheel to make the slightest adjustments. This is the source of his confidence to take risks and do bad things.

As for this strange trick
If Verstappen hadn't been so obsessed with GT3 racing in iracing, and instead had been causing more trouble for others in open-wheel racing with Shu Long, perhaps we could have already seen some signs of trouble from his teammates' random point drops and retirements.

Verstappen, of course, doesn't care now. He learned from TR that his rapid promotion was related to Shulong, and he even secretly cheered for his teammates in his heart.

See, he should thank us!

Shu Long certainly wouldn't have such good intentions; on the track, you could use any of the dirtiest words to describe him.

However, Shu Long has an excellent memory. He knows too well how to walk on the edge of the rules. As long as he doesn't go too far in a moment of madness, even in many competitions, it's hard to find fault with him.

Take last year's Abu Dhabi as an example. If it weren't for the fact that tournament steward Masi needed to give the audience an explanation instead of being unjustly accused of affecting the championship race, Shu Long could have avoided being punished for using the Latifi car to create the red flag.

So what's the point of going through all that trouble to save Verstappen so much effort?
There were indeed a bit too many carbon fiber fragments on the track, but because they were relatively concentrated, the cleanup was actually quite efficient. It took about three laps to clear enough material to continue the race.

Therefore, the safety car didn't stay in the car for long. The roof lights went out at the end of lap 4, and the race officially resumed on lap 5 with the green flag.

Without deliberately putting pressure on the vehicle, Shulong did not want to create extra load on his red tires.

However, thanks to his control of the acceleration and the overwhelming grip advantage of the red tires over the yellow tires, he quickly built a 0.8-second lead after Turn 5, and by lap 6, the lead had increased to 1.4 seconds, giving Ferrari no chance to use DRS.

However, after taking a 2.5-second lead on lap 8, Shu Long slowed down his pace, keeping a close lead over Ferrari.

The purpose of pulling away is not to shake off the Ferrari, but to provide the Ferrari behind with a section of clean air to help maintain its tires, while keeping it at an ambiguous distance that won't completely despair the other vehicle.

Sometimes Shu Long even feels like he might have been born into the wrong family. If he were a different gender, even if he didn't drive race cars, he could still attract a whole bunch of sycophants.

So why do we do this?

The game of chess itself involves taking and giving up.

The Hungaroring circuit is known for its difficulty in overtaking. Since Shulong has already taken the lead, wouldn't it be more logical to leave a few more obstacles on the track to better slow down Verstappen's pursuit?

However, given Shu Long's understanding of Red Bull's car performance and Verstappen's abilities, only Mercedes and Ferrari can truly provide an effective defense against him.

Why was Alonso able to hold off Hamilton for nearly ten laps last year? Besides Alonso's exceptional understanding of the track, Hamilton's conservative approach—avoiding potential crashes and retirements due to the intense race for the championship—was also key.

Verstappen doesn't care about this or that. Now that he's far behind in points, he's completely fearless. If he doesn't win the championship, second or third place doesn't really matter to him. Once he gets an opportunity, he'll really pounce.

Moreover, Shu Long also attended the team's tactical meeting. He knew clearly what tactical changes would be made if Verstappen's attempt to break through failed and he was held up by the pack. In fact, this change was proposed by Shu Long in order to break through the pack, taking into account the possibility of not overtaking Russell at the start.

This is the so-called "two reds and one yellow" tactic.

Verstappen's engine failure in Q3 yesterday turned out to be a blessing in disguise. By not setting a second flying lap, he returned an old set of red tires and saved himself a brand new set of red tires, meaning the two had the same tire reserves for the race.

In this way, Verstappen can find clean propulsion air behind the car formation by ending the first stint on red tires early, then use the second set of red tires to go full speed and quickly complete a lot of undercuts, and then choose the next tires to complete the last stint as needed.

This is an extremely drastic yet highly threatening strategy; if executed smoothly, it could even directly threaten Shulong's position.

As a front-row driver, and one that is highly likely to take the lead, Shulong cannot rashly adopt a similar strategy to Verstappen. Even if Shulong himself were willing, the team would not agree to implement it.

What is the reason?
Because I have to defend my teammates, I need to risk being outmaneuvered by Ferrari and disrupt my race rhythm?

Don't be silly!
所以看似帮忙束龙阻拦维斯塔潘的赛车从8台锐减为了4台，其实在束龙的计划里就是4台到3台的区别而已，拉塞尔身为那个倒霉的1就是所必须要主动舍弃掉的棋子。

You will gain something in return for something you give up.

With the safety car leading the way for three laps, Ferrari's yellow tires not only entered their advantage zone earlier but also extended the duration of their advantage. More importantly, the swivels greatly extended the number of laps that the red tires could maintain their performance.

Shu Long's most important task in the upcoming races is to make Ferrari realize the superior performance of red tires in the race. It can be said that the longer he can stick with this set of red tires, the clearer the signal will be to Ferrari's strategy team.

If Verstappen decides to use the undercut tactic, Ferrari, under pressure to maintain their position, will likely respond by intervening defensively through strategic adjustments, rather than using the yellow tires' advantage to continuously create overcut threats against the Ferrari.

(End of this chapter)