F1: Starting with a Simulator Master

Chapter 126 Saudi Arabian Flight Circle (Part 2)

Luo Xiu used this extreme micro-management, which was like dancing on the edge of a knife, to miraculously set the fastest time in the first segment, even after losing downforce from the forewing.

There was no wind in Jeddah at night, only the sonic boom of this Ferrari tearing through the air!

After a short straight, the high-speed left-hand hairpin bend of T13 comes into view. This is an inward-sloping section, which is the part of the track with the longest G-force load.

Luo Xiu plunged into the corner at a speed nearly ten kilometers per hour faster than Leclerc's previous fastest lap entry speed.

At the apex of the bend, he deliberately let the left wheel sink to the lowest point of the camber angle, which is the carousel of the Jeddah circuit!

At this moment, the laws of physics became his best friend. Utilizing the huge angle formed by centrifugal force and the track's inclination, the race car was like a spinning top moving at high speed in a giant bowl, exiting the corner at full throttle with unparalleled speed and being thrown to the outermost edge of the track.

After exiting the corner and entering the short straight of T14, followed by the left turn of T15, Rochefoucauld once again decisively floored the throttle to crush it. The benefits of the low downforce front wing were once again evident at this moment, and the top speed was 5 kilometers per hour higher than that of the Leclerc.

Ahead lies the high-speed battle zone from T16 to T21, which is also the fastest continuous lane change section on the F1 calendar.

In the deceleration combination corner from T16 to T17, Luo Xiu, with his usual precise operation, steered the car outwards, crossing the towering red and white shoulder of T16.

He made extremely bold use of the difference in elevation between the curb and the road. At the moment when the suspension was compressed to its limit after passing the curb and then rebounded violently, the car was launched out of the corner like a fully drawn bowstring, squeezing the cornering traction to the very edge of the car's limit.

He masterfully utilized the extremely narrow exit lines of the Jeddah circuit to the fullest extent.

The highlight moment has arrived!

The moment the car veered outwards from the corner of T17, the high-pressure air blades left by the right endplate of the front wing cutting through the air ripped a terrifying gash more than half a meter long in the concrete retaining wall, which was covered by the sponsor's GG membrane!

The broadcast camera lingered on the gap for a few seconds at just the right moment.

Under the violent turbulence, the rough, gray-white wall behind the torn GG membrane was finally exposed to the camera.

However, there wasn't a single scratch or scuff mark on the wall.

"Oh my God! He————"

The extremely brutal visual impact allowed commentators and viewers around the world to witness Luo Xiu's exquisite maneuvering. The race car sliced ​​through the GG sticker on the wall without leaving any scratches on the wall!

but!

There was no time for the commentator to continue talking to the wall. Car number 55 was still speeding along when DRS intervened again, and the rear wing instantly flattened out!

The ultra-low downforce tuning of the front wing played a huge role at this moment. Combined with Luo Xiu's extremely fierce full-throttle push, the race car weaved through the snake-like high-speed straights of T18 slightly left, T19 slightly right, T20 slightly left, and T21 slightly right, and the speedometer numbers soared back to nearly 330 kilometers per hour!

Second time slot, keep farming purple!

At the end of the T21 false bend, the top speed stabilized at 330 kilometers per hour. Immediately afterwards, the extremely dangerous high-speed deceleration and downshifting bends T22 and T23 suddenly appeared before us.

75 meters before the T22 bend, he slammed on the brakes and downshifted to 5th gear, speeding over the curb at a terrifying speed of nearly 280 kilometers per hour. The extremely violent bouncing impact sent another shock through the chassis, stimulating Luo Xiu's aching back.

But I couldn't worry about that now. The moment the car was straightened, I slammed on the gas again!

Immediately after exiting T24, the car enters the second DRS high-speed zone of the track. Apart from dealing with the heavy braking at the hairpin turn of T27, the rest of the time you just need to keep the steering steady and go full throttle.

However, the law of conservation of energy in physics is an ironclad rule that no amount of driving skill can violate.

At this point, the race car's speed once again broke the 330 km/h mark.

There are less than 5 seconds of flight time left before the T27 hairpin bend braking zone.

In those crucial 5 seconds, disaster struck.

On the steering wheel display, the MGU-K indicator light, representing the System-on-Chips (SoC), began flashing wildly.

The battery is dead!

The battery reserves, which had already been depleted in the exit lap, were finally completely exhausted in the full-throttle DRS zone where the most crucial speed boost was needed.

The engine was still roaring at full power, but the 160 horsepower that the electric motor could provide had vanished into thin air, and the race car experienced a serious power gap at this critical juncture of full-speed acceleration.

"The power's out!"

In the broadcast studio, Fei Ge watched the telemetry data plummet as the tail velocity curve dropped sharply, a hint of despair flashing in his eyes.

In a flying lap race that lasts for more than a minute, even a loss of just 0.2 seconds during the battle for pole position can render all the crazy pushes of the entire lap futile.

"—But wait—why is the power going out only now?"

Fei Ge raised his confusion abruptly, reasoning that Luo Xiu should have run out of power long ago due to his previous frantic push.

At that moment, the broadcast camera switched to Luo Xiu's cockpit view, marking the first time in the aviation industry that an in-cockpit view had been shown.

Luo Xiu had no intention of bowing to the law of conservation of energy.

Faced with the isolated situation of the internal combustion engine, he approached T27 in a desperate situation of gradually losing speed, showing the extreme micro-management that amazed countless top track engineers who later analyzed the telemetry video of this lap.

Two seconds before reaching the T27 hard braking zone, Luo Xiu gripped the steering wheel with one hand, while his other hand moved with lightning speed across the steering wheel, which was filled with dozens of knobs.

He switched the MGU-K to the highest level of kinetic energy recovery mode, and with the brake ratio adjustment and a series of subtle operations, he made full use of every possible way to replenish energy, extracting as much battery power as possible from the braking area.

In fact, he implemented this method of recovering battery power in the braking zone in every deceleration corner of this racing lap.

Especially in the final braking zone of T27, he wanted to maximize the recovery and utilization of this kinetic energy.

With immense braking pressure, the intense regenerative resistance that had just been activated in recharge mode instantly descended. The hot tires, which were already rapidly heating up at full throttle, and the brake discs, which were being constantly cooled by the wind, were now struggling wildly on the ground due to the lack of downforce and the pulling of the brakes.

The race car is on the verge of going out of control!

And at that moment, the excruciating pain in my back struck!

The world of the mind palace began to collapse. There were no data panels or layouts of the entire track. All the power was concentrated on the last left-hand hairpin turn of the Jeddah circuit—T27.

Every speck of dust, every breeze, every movement of air, and even every ray of light from a lamp has been perfectly reproduced to the extreme.

At the last possible moment, Luo Xiu threw the car into the final corner of the Jeddah circuit.

The race car glides, cuts into the apex of the corner, and exits on the outside of the track, its closest point to the right-hand crash barrier being only 0.001 meters.

At a distance of only centimeters, not even dust can pass through.

And then—no hitting the wall, no loss of control, no accidents!

On the contrary, the battery level gradually increased, and with the final wonderful DRS activation prompt, car number 55 sped away, using up all the power it had just recovered!

Facing the final straight stretch of road with only full throttle remaining, Luo Xiu didn't hesitate at all, his right foot almost plunging into the gas tank!

Advancing triumphantly!

"He crossed the finish line!"

Amid cheers from the audience, the numbers on the big screen finally stopped.

1 minute 32.2 seconds.

The exclamations and praises were overwhelming, one after another.

"Absolutely phenomenal! Luo Xiu has just pulled off a miracle!

6

(This is unbelievable! Luo Xiu just performed a real miracle!)

"Unbelievable! He matches Verstappen to the thousandth of a second! That

is sheer brilliance from Luo Xiu!

'

(Unbelievable! He was one millisecond off Verstappen! This is an incredibly amazing, god-like performance from Luo Xiu!)

"A fraction of a second! Absolutely perfect! Ran-ge, when was the last time I saw you like this?"

"The last time was in 1997! Back then, Villeneuve, Schumacher, and Fritz all achieved the exact same time. The last time was in 1997!"

"Uh—now the pressure is on Sainz. His appendicitis really came at the worst possible time—"

"Or perhaps it just came at the right time!"

In the studio, the commentators praised him repeatedly, and when they heard Fei Ge's exclamation, they couldn't help but laugh out loud.

"Ha ha ha ha----"

Verstappen's time on the last lap of qualifying was 1 minute 27.472 seconds.

Luo Xiu achieved the same result, with an exact time, down to a fraction of a second!

"In that case, Luo Xiu should be ranked second—"

After the laughter subsided, Fei Ge resumed his professional commentator tone.

According to F1 qualifying rules, in the event of identical times, the driver who set the time first ranks higher.

Verstappen is first, Rosicky is second.

But that doesn't matter anymore, because at this moment, in the eyes of everyone who understands and watches F1, the value of this result has long surpassed the ranking position.

Luo Xiu was in an extremely passive situation for Ferrari, facing interference from the exit lap and a poor finishing speed, ranking third from the bottom overall.

Despite the completely mismatched deformable seats and the fact that even the battery had run out in advance, the rover managed to achieve a miracle by pushing its limits with its own flesh and blood, completely overlapping with the Red Bull Mars rover that was once the most popular!

At that moment, all the team leaders and top drivers who were staring intently at the timetable had the same chilling thought uncontrollably popping into their minds.

"The paddock, ruled by the Red Bull dynasty, is about to change."