F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 63 A Blessing from the East (4K6)

The theoretical limit of human reaction speed is actually around 0.1 seconds, so track and field events generally use 0.1 seconds as the basis for whether or not a false start is made.

F1 racing has slightly different rules. As long as you don't move your tires before the lights go out, meaning your starting reaction isn't negative, it's not considered a false start.

Shu Long's reaction speed is already very close to the limit of human reaction speed. With the addition of the 10% boost from [Energy Special Adjustment], his actual reaction time is slightly less than 0.1.

The reason it's at this level is simply because starting a race car isn't just about taking a step; there's a series of controls involved, including throttle, brake, clutch, and gear engagement. Achieving this result is already at its limit.

Especially in recent years, since F1 adopted a completely random start with the lights off, drivers' reaction speed at the start has actually been much slower than before.

The current fastest starting record is held by Alonso – 0.08.

This result actually involved a great deal of luck and coincidence; it could be said to be a complete bluff, because in the past, when the lights were turned off at relatively uniform times, many experienced drivers would choose to anticipate and guess the lights.

"Oh my~ 0.106! Let me explain a little to the viewers in the live stream. Although it's marked in red on the screen right now, this score doesn't actually qualify as a jump start."

"But I have to say that young people's reaction speed is really fast. Under the current rules, it's so fast that it feels a bit unreal. They're probably just lucky."

It's not just five stars; in fact, most mainstream media outlets believe that Shulong's extraordinary start this time was an unintentional coincidence.

Because Vettel and Hamilton, who currently have the highest honors on the track, one with four championships and the other with four championships and about to have five, have the fastest starting reaction records under the latest starting rules, which are 0.16 and 0.18 respectively.

You're saying 0.106 wasn't a fluke? Are you kidding me?
Shu Long didn't care whether he was being tricked or not; all he knew was that the position he was stuck in was very comfortable.

Mercedes cars are indeed very fast, but their speed is actually limited when fuel is heavy. On the contrary, the Shulong has a greater advantage in cornering speed.

So the situation on the field now looks like Bottas is marking Shulong all the way, in order to allow Hamilton to open up a large enough penalty window in the early stages, but in reality Shulong has no intention of attacking Bottas in front of him.

Even if he could surpass Bottas now, without DRS, he wouldn't be able to defend against Mercedes' Mars rover's attack at all, and it would be completely meaningless except for wasting his own tires.

Moreover, Mercedes' two cars started on red tires that had been used for the push lap, giving Shulong ample time to wait for them to pit and start running at their own pace.

Now, with a Finn breaking through the wind ahead, and also very kindly helping Shulong pull the DRS all the way to defend against the Ferrari behind him, even his battery power is well preserved.

In fact, the pressure from Ferrari behind him is negligible. Forget about attacking Toro Rosso ahead, Vettel is in dire straits himself.

Ferrari's car definitely had problems in this race. The decision to start on yellow tires did not give them an advantage. On the contrary, they found it particularly difficult to even defend against Verstappen, who started on red tires.

In the previous qualifying session, in order to compete with Mercedes for pole position, they tuned the car too aggressively.

Vettel, in particular, found that the yellow tires on his car seemed to be wearing out more than the Red Bull's red tires, and he was being overwhelmed by Verstappen in the low-speed corners of the second stage.

Kimi is actually in a slightly better position. Anyway, he's going to retire at Sauber-Arro next year, so his attitude towards pole position is that he'll take it if he can, and if he can't, so be it.

He's just hanging there calmly behind Verstappen, watching his teammates get all sweaty from being pushed around by their juniors, enjoying the show immensely, and even seeming to be munching on a Magnum ice cream.

It's on the fourth lap.

Verstappen, taking advantage of the strong grip of the red tires, made a super extreme late brake at Turn 1 and squeezed into Vettel's inside line.

The two entered Turn 2 side-by-side, wheel to wheel. At Turn 3, Verstappen used his inside advantage to push Vettel out, easily overtaking him and completely disrupting Vettel's exit rhythm.

Uncle Tilted Head had no way to deal with this Red Bull brat. In order to completely disrupt Verstappen's center of gravity in the downhill corner of Highway 3, he was thrown off the track by inertia and even had his chassis hit hard by the curb on the way back.

Such a great opportunity, so let's not blame others for taking it. Kimi almost burst out laughing in the back, and took the lead in opening the DRS and biting Verstappen's tail before his teammates.

With a Red Bull and a Ferrari, the two held hands and left their "runaway stepmother" and "soon-to-be-divorced ex-wife" far behind.

Shu Long is now under pressure, as Verstappen behind him is driving a Red Bull RB14, which is a comprehensive upgrade of his STR13 in terms of performance.

The STR13 has a fast cornering speed? The RB14 has a fast cornering speed too!
Does STR13 save tire pressure with high downforce? RB14 also saves tire pressure with high downforce!
Is the top speed of STR13 too low on the straights?
Sigh~ The RB14's top speed isn't enough to compare with Mercedes and Ferrari. Stepping on your Red Bull is just child's play for it.
Based on a horizontal comparison of the qualifying sessions, we can roughly estimate that the RB14 can create a lap time difference of about 0.25 seconds over Toro Rosso on all the straights of this track.

“Max is now 1.2 seconds behind you.”

“Copy, I can see him now.”

In addition to granting Shulong exceptional dynamic vision, the extremely wide field of vision is also key to his ability to quickly gather a large amount of information during high-speed races.

While focusing his attention on closely chasing Bottas ahead, Shu Long managed to catch a glimpse of the entire farce that had just unfolded behind him using only his peripheral vision through his two narrow rearview mirrors.

"I now how to do?"

"Take care of your tires; we're not direct competitors!"

That's where engineers' cleverness lies.

Even though everyone in the paddock knows that Red Bull and Toro Rosso are part of the same company, the rules do not allow one team to act as a wingman for another. In serious cases, this could result in fines, deduction of team points, or even a ban.

Even if it's a team order, you can't openly say you're letting Max pass, but the excuse of maintaining your own tactical rhythm is very versatile.

But for Shulong right now, that statement is utter bullshit!

He's aiming for the podium! What do you mean by not being a direct competitor?

P3 and P4 may sound like just a difference in rank, but in reality, one person ends up in the audience watching the national anthem play, while the other gets to spray victory champagne in front of the whole world under the spotlight.

Do you think just anyone has a chance to get close to the podium?

Didn't you see that Renault's Hulkenberg, since his debut in 2010, has a glorious record of 168 races but 0 podium finishes, far surpassing his predecessor Adrian Sutil?

Fourth place is not an honor, it's a disgrace!
However, he has almost no other options now. The yellow-tire Toro's ceiling is what it is, and whether he can defend against Verstappen behind him depends on Bottas' performance in front.

Fortunately, Bottas seems to have received instructions from the Mercedes team and is now finally no longer focusing on helping Hamilton suppress the lap times of the cars behind him, and his overall pace of exiting corners has noticeably increased.

Mercedes seemed to be under pressure from Ferrari in this qualifying session. Not only were they tricked into losing a set of red tires, but their overall car setup was also quite aggressive in their attempt to challenge Ferrari for pole position. While both Mercedes and Ferrari were using red tires for the long run, Verstappen was even able to set the fastest lap of the race, while Hamilton's tires already showed clear signs of wear.

Mercedes' immediate priority is not to rely on Bottas, whose rear tires also have severe granulation, to stop the two Red Bulls from chasing him. Bottas' primary task now is to delay the time when Verstappen catches him with DRS as much as possible.

Mercedes' engine power is unmatched in the arena, and its durability far surpasses Ferrari's, putting some pressure on Shulong.

Even if he's fully utilizing Bottas's wake and has activated DRS, he still won't be able to keep up with the Mercedes without slightly increasing the discharge power.

The battle raged on from lap seven to lap seventeen. Bottas was 0.5 seconds behind, and Verstappen finally caught him on the edge of DRS. This was almost a signal that the two unfortunate guys could give up the struggle.

With the combined support of DRS and slipstream, Verstappen's closing speed was astonishing. He used the DRS on the final straight of lap 18 to get right behind Shulong.

On the next nineteenth lap.

On the same starting straight, DRS again applied the extreme late braking that shouldn't be expected from nearly twenty laps of red tires. Verstappen, pulling away, cut inside the lines of two cars in one go, completely signaling the collapse of the Shulong-Bottas joint defense.

Actually, if Shu Long had wanted to defend, he could have. Bottas was on the normal racing line. He only needed to move slightly towards the center line to advance his entry into the corner, which would have subtly neutralized Max's relentless attack.

However, doing so would make his intention to defy the team's orders too obvious. In order to prevent the team from making a clearer concession, he actually has another plan.

Just as Verstappen overtook him in the paint, Shu Long decisively launched a counterattack against Bottas in front of him, taking advantage of the momentum almost as Max passed him.

Changing lanes while entering Turn 1 is actually very dangerous. While closely following Verstappen, Shulong also ran onto the bumpy section of road that he had mentioned to Gasly earlier, which directly affected the car's speed in the corner.

The original expectation was to at least achieve a wheel-to-wheel alignment with Bottas in the corner, but now it has only barely managed to squeeze the front wheel a little in front of Bottas' rear wheel.

Fortunately, the front wheels had this advantage, so Bottas couldn't close the gap on Shulong on the inside of Turn 3. Instead, Shulong followed Max's method seen in the rearview mirror and widened his line a little, directly squeezing out Bottas, whose rear wheels had severely worn down.

Everyone saw it! He couldn't hold on to the ground by himself; I didn't touch him with a single finger!

Because I was following the car so closely, the wear and tear on the Mercedes' tires was quite obvious. In addition, Bottas's rear wheels were struggling more and more as he exited the corner, so I could guess that the Mercedes was probably not far from coming to a stop.

Hamilton, who had been leading the pack in clean air, might have had slightly better tire conditions, but Bottas's sudden acceleration just now was obvious to everyone – Mercedes must have sensed that Max was too much of a threat.

If we extrapolate slightly, Hamilton's red tires probably won't last much longer either.

Shulong's main task now is to change the car he's following to Max. Whether it's taking advantage of the current situation to close the gap with Hamilton in front, or dragging the old man into the tire change, it's a sure-fire deal for him.

Sure enough, Bottas suddenly disappeared from the rearview mirror the next time.

Shortly after, Shu Long was informed in the team's radio that both Mercedes cars had pitted and changed to white medium tires, and were now in sixth and ninth place respectively.

"You are currently in P2. Kimi from Ferrari is 7.692 seconds behind you. Maintain your rhythm and now you can give Max a little push."

RB14, now at 21 laps on red tires, is at the prime of his career, while Shulong, at 21 laps on yellow tires, is no less capable. Under his conscious protection, it's in such good condition that it looks like a brand new tire.

No bubbling! No granulation! The rubber layer on the entire tire surface peeled off exceptionally evenly. Under slow motion, apart from a slightly dusty appearance, there were no particularly obvious signs of wear.

To gain the time advantage as much as possible, Shulong's only option is to choose a powerful ally.

Even good tires are useless. If there are no cars in front to pull him with DRS, STR13's current mid-range speed in the paddock could easily kill him.

The yellow soft tires currently in use are more heat-resistant; otherwise, they might not be able to withstand such close following for so long.

The RB14's characteristics are completely different from Mercedes' W09. Verstappen's speed advantage on the straights is something that Shulong can easily keep up with by simply turning on DRS.

On the contrary, the RB14's extremely exaggerated cornering stability in this race made Shulong's job very difficult. They were taught by the same master, and the master was even the senior brother. How could Shulong break through his skills?
He can't keep up with Verstappen as closely as he does with Bottas, otherwise, given the existing performance gap in corners, getting more polluted air would make it even harder to keep up.

"I need to keep a distance of about 0.7 or 0.8 meters from Max. Please keep an eye on him for me, and remind me if he gets too far away!"

"Copy! You are now 0.853 away from him."

The battery that had been built up over twenty laps is now running out. Shulong must release more battery than Max at every corner exit to avoid being thrown out of the DRS zone. Otherwise, the Ferrari, which seems to be more than seven seconds behind, may be right behind him in just a few laps.

The situation remained deadlocked until lap 30, when Shu Long received a very strange message from the team: Verstappen was replying in the radio that his red tires were feeling better and better.

This is actually good news.

Because if Verstappen chooses to pit now, he will be about 0.7 seconds behind Hamilton after exiting the pit. But if Verstappen's report is accurate, Shulong could even create a free pit window for himself by following Max's rhythm.
In addition, this data allows Shulong to make an advance estimate of the lifespan of the red tires at this station, which is very helpful in how he plans the remaining stock of his set of yellow soft tires.

By lap 36, Red Bull realized that the gap between Verstappen and Hamilton had narrowed rather than widened, and finally called him back to complete the one-stop strategy for the race.

How are your tires feeling right now?

"Absolutely perfect! I suspect these tires could even last fifty laps!"

“OK, copy! Now you need to start pushing as much as possible! Hamilton is less than 0.5 seconds behind you in the window, but he’s 0.3 seconds faster per lap now, so we need you to shift away a little from the slow cars right now.”

How much faster do I need to be?

"It's about 0.2 seconds faster per lap."

"Simple!"

Shu Long smirked excitedly, fiddled with the steering wheel, and changed back all the car safety settings he had just made to protect the tires.

Sorry, Mr. Tire!
I've taken such good care of you for over thirty laps, now it's time for you to suffer the consequences!

　I was going to say there wouldn't be any more today, but the monthly tickets and tips have been outrageous, so I'll try my best to finish writing about the competition. ┭┮﹏┭┮
　　感谢读者1904042929876959232、Jincxy、无尽的苍茫、漫游者i、天三地八、卡布奇诺先生cc、唐江野、本天使、飞扬的小羊、圆圆的狗爪、Ecstasy、皇尚在上、龙玉轩第一、隔壁魔王、书友20220316073555147、书友20180827122303006、240803、猪油笑、人间之里【未与封尘、无関风月、山河破碎、再打我就还手啦、如镜、书友160812090836551、O我的你在哪O、山-鬼、是小壬壬啊、书友20170503130229215、逗逼的大熊猫、百想影帝地光、坏坏的笑K、李小爻、食堂喂饭、limitlesss、WaltHK、焰焚狂热、——就此别过、F1赛车游戏王、KG灬lversonll、劳逸结合型、繁华万千、0恶魔de幻想0、西青法师、钺宇宸、Drogon共工、AniccaQAQ、DestinyKey、风阳清、淡描青花、书友20230321003626270、克拉伦、资深菜鸟00大佬们的月票投喂。

　　I can't write the rest, I'll thank you in the next chapter!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)