F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 52 The Limits of the Individual and the Limits of the Team

"Ness!"

At the window seat in KFC, Gan Mengning clenched her little fists and punched her roommate's thigh until it ached.

"What are you looking at that makes you so excited? We finally got to go out and have some fun together during the holidays, and all you did was look at your phone."

"Racing!"

"Racing? You like that kind of thing?"

He Xuanyi leaned over and watched for a while, but to be honest, she couldn't understand what was so interesting about it. Didn't they drift?

"Eat quickly, we still need to go scoop out millet this afternoon."

Although she was called a roommate, she wasn't actually Gan Mengning's roommate at university, but rather a good friend who shared an apartment near the school.

The two were not classmates in high school. They met at a comic convention, where one was dressed in cosplay and wandering around while the other was taking pictures.

This girl named He Xuanyi is also a content creator on Bilibili. She is practically in the same industry as Gan Mengning, and mainly posts cover songs. After they met in real life, they also collaborated on many songs.

He Xuanyi doesn't show her face either. Although she has her own virtual avatar, she doesn't do regular live streams like Gan Mengning. She has a very peculiar sense of social anxiety and likes to wear revealing cosplay outfits and sneak off to comic conventions to let loose.

Both were top students, both got into Xiamen University, both had a deep love for anime and manga, both came from well-off families, and both were afraid of their classmates finding out about their side jobs.

The two hit it off immediately and decided to rent a house not far from the school, which they would use as their dormitory and studio for the time being.

Of course, she still needed to go and find some grains, but right now Gan Mengning just wanted to properly introduce He Xuanyi to her newly discovered hobby.

"You mean this guy could be China's first F1 driver, and he's doing really well right now?"

"Uh-huh!"

"But he hasn't gotten first place yet. Aren't there still three names ahead of him?"

"Oh, that's not the idea!"

This is the standard by which most people judge achievement—the champion-only mentality.

There's nothing inherently wrong with that, but being too snobbish often reveals a lack of self-confidence and even a sense of inferiority. What's wrong with openly acknowledging others' excellence and one's own shortcomings?

Gan Mengning understands this principle, but she can only understand half of it. Right now, she only wants to see the good points of Shu Long and selectively ignores everything else.

She could tolerate saying a few bad things about Shulong herself, but if an outsider who knew nothing about her dared to question her, she would immediately get angry with that person!
Originally, she only planned to give He Xuanyi a little basic knowledge about racing, but now she's really in trouble. She's making sure He Xuanyi opens an app and searches for "Shulong". She won't give up until she's shoved this information into He Xuanyi's mouth!
Actually, she didn't really understand it before. She only caught up on the data and rankings by watching a few games recently. Each time, she mainly wanted to see if she could find that jerk in the Red Bull pit room.

Before Shu Long appeared, she found the competition quite boring to watch, but since Shu Long appeared on the track, just staring at the green, yellow, and purple data boards and hoping for the lap times to be refreshed has become an exciting thing.

Actually, Shu Long didn't tell Gan Mengning about the training session; it was the young girl who took the initiative to send her a message to confirm after seeing the news.

Shu Long could confidently declare "I'll let my strength speak for itself" in front of unrelated outsiders, but when facing Gan Mengning, with whom he now had a delicate relationship, he was terrified of making a fool of himself in front of this girl.

Unfortunately, this information could no longer be kept secret from Gan Mengning. Ever since she started paying attention to this kind of content, the platform's big data had already recorded Gan Mengning's user habits, and related information would automatically pop up on the homepage even if she didn't actively search for it.

If Red Bull's decision hadn't been so rushed, Gan Mengning had originally planned to fly directly to Japan during the National Day holiday to support them. But then she thought, since they hadn't even asked her, wouldn't it be a bit too much to just force herself to go?
No, no, I have to be reserved!

While He Xuanyi was giving her extra lessons, Gan Mengning turned her attention back to the competition.

Shu Long then attempted a few more laps, but was unable to break his own fastest lap record.

The tires were already on the edge of a cliff, and with him recklessly squeezing their potential, even just looking at the aerial view, you could clearly see the car's drifting state, which was neither drifting nor floating.

This is a very rare occurrence in F1 driving in recent years; it was actually more common in the Schumacher era.

One aspect is the difference in downforce performance between racing cars, and another is that the old stone tires with vertical grooves did not perform as well as the current Pirelli tires in terms of grip.

Alonso's most famous understeer style is essentially about squeezing the tires' potential by utilizing the slip angle.

Modern racing cars already have high downforce and grip limits. The ideal slip angle for F1 cars to maintain a neutral steering state is usually less than 5 degrees. It can be said that it is almost invisible to the naked eye in dynamic situations. Only by using a high-speed camera to slow down the motion can you see a little bit of it in a few corners.

Because of aerodynamic balance and tire protection considerations, most drivers in F1 cars usually keep the tire slip angle at around 2-3 degrees.

During qualifying, you can be more aggressive, but you also need to be mindful of your pace, otherwise you might face tire overheating issues before you even finish a single push lap.

Furthermore, the handling of a race car becomes increasingly unstable as the slip angle increases. Even a fraction of a second of concentration causing the car to deviate slightly could mean there's no chance to recover.
You might get lucky and be able to increase your cornering speed in a few corners by driving at the limit, but if you can maintain a precise position on the edge of the limit in every corner of the entire race, that's not a race car driver, that's a superman!
Shu Long now gives people the feeling of a superman. Every corner the race car goes through makes people involuntarily break out in a cold sweat. Yet, the limits of the physical phenomena seem to be completely within his calculations. The choice of the entire racing line is chaotic, yet it has a certain smoothness and freehand style.

"Holy crap! This kid is amazing, his car handling is absolutely top-notch!"

Upon hearing Bing Ge's evaluation, Fei Ge also expressed his feelings: "I feel like I see the shadow of the drivers of the previous era in him. Back then, they really used their skills to squeeze out speeds that didn't belong to racing cars. The racing cars now are still too advanced."

Ran, the simultaneous interpreter, was younger and didn't have the same deep feelings as his seniors, but he still vaguely saw a sense of déjà vu in the overhead shot of Shulong.

"Sigh, I don't know if you guys feel the same way, but I always feel like Shulong is treating F1 like a go-kart."

"Hiss~ Huh? You know what, it actually does seem a bit like that!"

Don't be fooled by how others are bragging outside; Shulong is resorting to any means necessary because he has no other choice.

The previous few laps of pushing too hard had already aggravated the tire chipping, and since Marko hadn't called a stop, Shu Long thought his lap time hadn't met the standard, so he had no choice but to keep pushing.

Is it that Marco doesn't want to call a halt?

Well, he's not really in a good mood right now; he just wants to see what this kid is capable of.

However, as a racing engineer, René's soul was on the verge of running away from home several times. Just by following Shu Long's car around for a while, the clothes of a large group of Red Bull mechanics behind him were already soaked with sweat.

"Pay attention to your tire temperature, and try to keep the car on the track."

It was said in a very tactful way, but the gist was: you better watch out, kid, if you crash the car, they'll be the ones in trouble.

The way Shulong drives now is such that if he doesn't crash, he's fine, but if he does, it'll be a major disaster. There's only a two-and-a-half-hour gap between the first and second practice sessions. If Shulong really damages the car, his brothers will be crying over the repairs just to avoid delaying Ricardo's second practice session.

The same words were also said to Marco: "That kid is reckless and goes crazy on his own, but you old lunatic don't know what's important either."
Fortunately, Horner, as the team leader, finally played a small role at this time.

"There's not much time left in the first training session. Call him back and put him on the red tires. Give him about five laps of time to push forward. After that, let him run a few more laps and check how well the red tires are wearing out this year."

"Should we adjust the settings? Or should we do a tire-changing practice while we're at it?"

"Ask him yourself."

Shu Long's answer was that it was unnecessary; the current racing cars were quite easy to drive.

Moreover, he really wanted to experience the full speed of an F1-level tire change. Before, he could only stand on the sidelines and watch from the pit lane, which had been something he had been longing for for a long time.

"OK, BOXBOX! Don't forget the speed limit button in the repair area."

"Copy!"

To be honest, Shulong was a little nervous, much more so than when he was on the track.

Whether you run slowly or fast on the track, at least you have control over the outcome, and you have a sense of certainty.

However, this tire change is a high-precision collaboration between the driver and the entire racing team. Their fate is not only in the hands of others, but if the driver makes a mistake, it will have far-reaching consequences.

There was a tire-changing strategy back in F2, but only six people were responsible for changing tires. Apart from the front and rear jacks, each of the four tires was handled by only one mechanic, who disassembled and reassembled the tires himself.

The overall speed of all the teams is not high. Speed ​​is definitely important, but being a little short is not a big deal.

Unlike today, in F1, changing a tire requires at least 20 people working together, and the key to victory or defeat can be a difference of just a fraction of a second. It's impossible not to be nervous.

Apart from the mid-season test last year, Shu Long has hardly had any time to work with this team. Back then, he changed tires while adjusting settings in the P room. Now, with the [Core of Synergy] only 23% unlocked, he feels very insecure.

Red Bull's pit stop is the third one from the exit, which is the third to last for Shulong entering the station. There is a long maintenance area ahead, which gives him plenty of time to prepare mentally.

From a speed of 80 km/h to a complete stop, Shu Long applied the brakes with precision, aligning the four tires precisely with the four air gun operators.

The jacks in front didn't even feel the impact from the front of the car.

Every time a race car enters the pits, the guy in charge of the front jack is probably the most uneasy, especially since they're not very familiar with the jack's capabilities. How can you not panic when you see a car rushing straight at you?
It's not unheard of for a race car to crash into a pit lane, sending the driver and jack flying together; who knows if such bad luck might happen to you someday?
However, in reality, everything happened so naturally, rising and then falling.

The meddlesome race organizers displayed the tire change time on the big screen – 1.93 seconds, just a fraction of the previous record of 1.923 seconds set by the Red Bull team.

Even after the tires were properly secured and the train had left the station, the mechanics still couldn't believe that they had performed such a smooth and seamless operation.

It's so easy, it feels like the food is being fed to me as soon as I open my mouth.

Of course, a driver's pit stop can't always be perfect. For example, the jackhammer often needs to find the tire position on the spot, and the two teammates responsible for removing and installing tires also need to be flexible in their positioning according to the actual situation.

It can be said that in addition to the tire changer's skill, the accuracy of the driver's parking position is also crucial.

Was it a fluke? Such good luck during the newbie protection period?!

Of course, as surprising as it may seem, even though it wasn't a tire change for the main race, the fact that the team members, who work together day and night, completed such an excellent collaborative task is still something to celebrate.

They patted each other's helmets and pressed them against each other's foreheads. Horner, in the pit room, also took the lead and clapped along.

At the same time, Shu Long's excited voice came from the TR: "Cool! Beautiful teamwork, we were really lucky just now, how many did we exchange?"

Not to mention the tire changers, even he himself felt that luck played a large part in what happened.

To ensure a smooth entry into the station, he focused all his attention on maximizing the special effects of the entries.

First, I used "Photographic Memory" to quickly determine the exact positions of all the technicians. Then, with my excellent spatial awareness, I planned the most efficient and reasonable entry route. At the same time, I used "Sharp Eyes" for dynamic vision and the ability to integrate information at high speed to continuously calibrate my route and braking points. Finally, "Friction Control" ensured that I would not waste braking power and lock up because of the old soft tires that had almost no grip.

The "Core of Synergy" may have played a role to some extent. Before the situation had completely come to a stop, the subtle movements of the tire changers around him seemed to have already told Shulong that this time their pace was perfectly synchronized.

"1.93, an excellent tire change, we almost broke the record just now."

"Brilliant!"

"Newbee? What does that mean?"

"Um, literally it means cow's *, which means very powerful in our area."

"I don't understand! Why would you use the cow's 'that' to describe this damn thing?"

"I don't know, maybe it's because it's big?"

"."

"Alright, alright, stop! Stop! Put your attention back on the track, watch the battery level, set the engine power (STRAT) to 2, the battery strategy (SOC) to 3, and the engine braking to 7. With this set of tires, you should only have two to three laps of spurs left, don't waste it."

The sudden utterance of a Chinese sentence did not cause a great stir among the team members, but it did resonate deeply with those watching or broadcasting it live in China.

The Japanese Grand Prix already has a large Asian audience, and Shu Long, who stepped up amidst the controversy surrounding Ricardo's departure, is a rare Asian, so the organizers managed to focus all the attention on him.

After such an excellent entry into the game, even though the subsequent dialogue was filled with a lot of censored words and was completely distorted by the organizers, it was still displayed on the public screen, leaving Ran, the five-star interpreter, both amused and exasperated.

This time, he doesn't need to rack his brains to achieve "faithfulness, expressiveness, and elegance." As long as you understand some Chinese, it won't prevent everyone from understanding the meaning of this passage.

What?! You're saying it's indecent?!
This is called cultural export! Stop saying "fuck" like foreigners all the time!
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(End of this chapter)