F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 71: Inconsistent Quality (4K7)

Barcelona's geographical location, adjacent to the Mediterranean Sea, gives it a very pleasant climate.

This year's temperatures are lower than usual, and the weather forecast suggests intermittent rainfall, which may make this testing process quite interesting.

Of course, this is definitely a situation that the team does not want to see. Usually, such weather conditions will force them to adjust the originally scheduled test program, which will have varying degrees of impact on test items such as tire wear and engine power.

The reason why the Circuit de Catalunya is often used as a winter testing track is because it has a near-perfect track layout in a mere 4.675km length, covering almost all types of corners.

Every lap a race car completes here can largely demonstrate its overall performance, making it immediately clear where it is at a disadvantage compared to other teams.

In that case, it would be better to travel a bit further, even if it means going all the way to Bahrain for testing. That would be better for the R&D team than guessing the answers like this.

After landing, everyone settled into the hotels arranged by the team. That evening, last year's overall driver champion invited all the drivers he could find to a meal together.

This year we lost several familiar faces, and the most regrettable loss was the absence of F1 legend Fernando Alonso at his home circuit.

He's been through a lot in F1 these past few years, and his fighting spirit has almost been worn down at the prime of his career. This year, he plans to rediscover the joy of driving in other racing events.

Of course, many new people also joined at the same time.

But among those sitting at the table today, besides Norris and Alben, it seems that Shulong is the newest one. However, everyone seems to completely ignore the fact that he has only played in one game as a rookie.

Sober's Giovinazzi seemed to be preoccupied with something else. Old Leigh, on the other hand, liked parties, but he felt that Hamilton's vegetarian dinner was a bit stingy and he couldn't really let loose and have fun, so it wasn't very interesting.

The two Red Bull drivers were still having a meeting at the factory in the UK, while Haas only sent Magnussen, as Gross, a father, went to spend time with his wife and children.

He's such a good family man; Shu Long felt inferior in comparison.

To avoid the almost ubiquitous cameras that are constantly trying to expose him, he has had to minimize the time he spends with his family during this period.

To put it nicely, this is a way of protecting his family, but in reality, it's also Shu Long's way of helplessly escaping public opinion.

Ultimately, they were too concerned about how others perceived them.
The other teams all arrived, but it seemed like none of the two Williams players had ever seen them.

Not only the drivers, but when they arrived at the track today, Williams' pit garage seemed rather deserted.

For the third time, Shu Long slapped away the dirty hand reaching for his groin. He looked speechlessly at Lando Norris, who seemed to have nothing but height. It took a lot of effort to resist the urge to grab him by the collar and throw him like he used to.

Lando's teammate Sainz seems to have gotten used to this way of greeting this season. During the time they stood outside the restaurant chatting, it was obvious that the Spaniard, who looked more and more like an Indian, maintained a defensive posture almost the entire time.

Didn't you see George when you arrived?

"I don't know either, but there seem to be some rumors in the UK that Williams' car this year seems to have a major problem with its design direction, and it might not even make it to the first round of winter testing."

"Is there any chance of such a thing?"

No one can answer this question, and there's no need to answer it anymore.

The next day, at the small press conference where the STR14 race car made its official debut, there seemed to be an unusually large number of reporters who came to get the first scoop. Without much inquiry, it was easy to piece together the truth from their snippets of conversation—Williams was confirmed to be absent from the first round of testing.

Russell is undoubtedly a very capable driver, but not everyone has the same good fortune as Max, Leclerc, and Shulong.

Max's good fortune stemmed more from Dr. Marko's unconditional favoritism, while Leclerc and Shulong were truly lucky to have stumbled upon some truly great cars.

One team benefited from Ferrari's continuous engine upgrades and joined the team this year. The other team, through a series of coincidences, reached the podium in its very first race.

Some might think that luck comes along all the time, but ability is the key to seizing the gifts that fate bestows.

That's certainly true.

But this is a very rare occurrence. Most drivers in their first year in F1 are simply tortured by junk cars, to the point that they begin to doubt their potential and future.

This year, Russell may have drawn such a big prize, as may his unlucky former rookie teammate Kubica.

This is quite rare in the history of F1. It seems that after losing the Stroll family's big leg, Williams' situation can no longer be simply described as just living a hard life.

A bad name can indeed affect one's fortune. Kubica's brilliant talent once shocked the paddock, but compared to Hamilton, who had a smooth career at the same time, Kubica's life was full of twists and turns.

Shu Long heard that his right hand was close to amputation several times, and although it was saved after all efforts were made, it still lost about 70% of its function.

It's unclear how he manages to consistently control an F1 car under extreme conditions. Perhaps, like Shu Long in that KZ karting final, he can only resort to slightly extreme measures. Regardless of the final result, his courage and confidence are truly admirable.

As for those drivers who left, there may be some regrets, but we can only wish them good luck.

Sometimes it's hard to say that the reason why some drivers are eliminated from the paddock is due to a lack of ability, because if they were given a good car that suits their style, they might be able to make a name for themselves in the paddock.

However, it's also hard to say that their problems weren't due to a lack of ability, because the most important task for an excellent driver is to adapt to the race car.

Compared to racking one's brains trying to find the key flaws in a race car, shifting all the blame onto the driver, while seemingly cold-blooded, is often the most efficient and cost-effective approach for a team.

By constantly sacrificing "one person," you can save the jobs of at least twenty people. Even a fool could figure this out.

There are countless poor souls like these who are sacrificed throughout the entire paddock.

Red Bull is different. They don't need to make excuses for their cars. In the team's short history of less than 14 years, the number of drivers who were kicked out for even more bizarre and incomprehensible reasons could almost form a football team.

So when a reporter who likes to stir up trouble asks the following questions, it doesn't seem so unreasonable.

"Mr. Shu, do you think you'll be replacing Pierre or Brandon this year?"

"Hmm, I don't think I'm here to replace anyone; they are all very respectable drivers."

"LongShu, do you think you can continue your good luck from last year? Or will you be exposed like the others and kicked out by Dr. Marco?"

"I don't know, all I can do is give it my all."

"After winning the Taiwan title last year, do you think you deserve the Red Bull seat even more?"

"I"

The race car's brief debut had barely ended when the first reporters swarmed forward like vicious dogs pouncing on their prey, their cameras and microphones practically shoving into Shulong's mouth.

Although they used honorifics in every question, their attitude was particularly aggressive, and their words were full of malicious attempts to provoke.

It seemed they didn't just want to get the real answer from Shu Long; they just wanted to extract the answer they wanted to hear. Alben, standing nearby, felt quite neglected, but genuinely grateful for himself. Caught in the middle of the power struggle within Red Bull's upper echelons, he was terrified that saying the wrong thing would lead to his utter ruin.

The press officer sensed something was wrong and gestured to Shu Long to shut up and break away.

Hey, you should have said so earlier.

What Shu Long finds most troublesome is dealing with the media. When he's out and about, he represents not only the Red Bull Racing team, but also the national flag behind him, which carries a heavy psychological burden.

Their physical abilities, which are already close to the theoretical limits of human beings, are not just for driving. Their monstrous strength, which is completely unreasonable, combined with the force-dissipating and force-borrowing techniques of Tai Chi, causes chaos and defeat wherever they go.

"Sorry, sorry, we still have a lot of work to do. Let's talk again another time!"

In the afternoon, I walked the track with the car crew and discussed some tuning options that might need to be changed. I also briefly talked about the indicators that needed to be achieved in the first round of testing. Shu Long then went back to the hotel and stayed there until February 18th before reappearing in front of the public.

As a complete newcomer to F1, Albon's testing task on the first day was more about getting used to the driving feel of an F1 car, so a large part of the testing actually fell on Shu Long.

The first step is to take the sensor bracket, jokingly called a "barbecue grill," out for a stroll. This step is mainly to determine whether the efficiency of the race car's aerodynamic components matches that of the simulator.

If the sensor readings deviate from the simulator settings, the team may call Shulong back to spray fluorescent paint on certain areas to determine the subtle actual airflow direction.

This step is arguably even more important than testing the limits of the car, as it relates to the team's subsequent direction in developing the car. Otherwise, if they go further and further astray in the wrong direction, it will become a complete joke.

Fortunately, the outcome was optimistic.

The problem is that the front wing and the chassis layout, which was changed this year for Honda's engines, don't mesh very well. The overly soft rear suspension makes the downforce at the front of the car slightly insufficient, causing the car to understeer a bit in medium and high-speed corners.

Apart from this, everything else is basically the same as the emulator settings.

Next came the tire performance testing.

This year, Pirelli has removed some of its more extreme tire compounds, reducing the original seven rainbow-colored dry tire compounds to five.

The sidewall thickness was also reduced, with the front tire sidewall thickness reduced by about 0.2 mm and the rear tire sidewall thickness reduced by about 0.4 mm. In addition, the high-strength woven structure inside the tire was optimized to some extent.

The original intention was to alleviate tire overheating and reduce tire blistering, but judging from the actual driving experience on Shulong, Pirelli seems to have gone a bit too far this time.

Compared to the particle-like phenomenon that can be somewhat mitigated through tire management as the number of tires increases, tire blistering is actually more dangerous.

Besides the fact that the process itself is completely irreversible, the most frightening thing about tire blistering is that the loss of grip is sudden, rather than showing a slow and steady downward trend like granulation.

The main cause is insufficient heat dissipation of the tire. The temperature inside the tire is higher than that outside, which causes the molecular chains of the internal rubber to break. Finally, like skin scalded by boiling water, uneven bubbles float on the surface of the tire.

Like scalded skin, this part of the tire is very fragile, and a little force might scrape off a large piece of skin.

But now Shulong has realized that the problem with this tire is not whether it will blister, but whether it will suddenly catch a cold and sneeze while driving.

It's too difficult to raise the temperature.
If you run at the normal pace of a race, the new tires that come out of the pits will likely need seven to eight laps to reach their normal operating temperature.

The only alternative is to force the tires to warm up through more aggressive sliding driving, but this offers almost no benefit to tire protection during the race.

The situation on Alben's side is not so optimistic. He and his teammates came up with the same solution, but there were major flaws in the handling of the details.

Long-distance lap times can closely match Shulong's pace, but due to tire wear rate, it is difficult to maintain such a good pace for a long time.

Shu Long himself is actually in a relatively good position. He is able to consciously control the tire slippage damage within an acceptable range. Although the tires will probably wear out two to three more times than normal driving, it is still better than random slippage caused by insufficient tire temperature.

Over the next two days, the two Toro Rosso drivers disagreed on the car setup.

As a beginner, the best way to solve problems is to copy your teammate's answers, especially when the data presented by that teammate looks very similar to the correct answer.

But after running two laps under Shu Long's tutelage, Alben found that he couldn't run anymore, and it wasn't as good as the method he had figured out on his own.

This isn't about whose method is right or wrong; it's more about the difference in ability.

There are differences even among good students.

They learn the same formulas and methods, yet some people can filter out all the logic in just a few lines and solve a challenging problem in less than five minutes.

Some people might insist on doing it and succeed, but the derivation is often lengthy and complex, and the process of working on the same principle can take ten or twenty minutes. Not only is it laborious, but the calculation may not even be correct.

Alben understood Shulong's idea: to balance tire wear in corners by using high downforce characteristics.

The key lies in the word "balance".

High downforce means that the lateral slip of the racing tires will be reduced. For Albon, the most obvious side effect is that the front tires are always overheated and under high load, while the rear tires can never warm up.

Albon didn't want to fall behind his teammates in lap times, even by a second, so he ended up with high tire wear and his car started drifting out of corners as he drove.

It's inevitable that a high-low pressure setup will be at a disadvantage on straightaways. To make up for it in lap times, drivers have to force themselves to be more aggressive in corners, but at this point, the tire's limits are actually more blurred in the driver's perception.

For example.

Like rubbing an eraser on a table, Alben's own approach to tire training is to gently rub with a relatively appropriate amount of force. Although the upper limit is relatively low, he at least has a clear idea of ​​the overall degree of slippage and tire damage.

Shulong's solution is to press the rubber against the table and apply it with great force. At this time, the high grip and high pressure give the rider a lot of confidence in the corners, and the tires are less likely to slip and the tire damage is naturally less.

However, in pursuit of lap times that push the performance limits, the precipitous drop in grip can make the car's dynamics completely unpredictable, and tire damage can occur either by not appearing at all or by tearing off a large chunk from the tire.

On the morning of the third day of the test, rain fell on the track.

Albon's high downforce in wet conditions has slightly alleviated his anxiety on the lap time leaderboard, allowing him to rise from sixteenth to seventh place.

However, looking at his teammates' results, Shulong, who had been hovering around eighth or ninth place, has now risen to third.

The gap in positions seems to have narrowed, but the lap time is actually about 1.2 seconds slower, which shows how clear and obvious the difference is between people.

As the rain subsided and the track dried in the afternoon, Albon finally decided to be himself again.

The logic behind their racing cars is fundamentally different from the underlying code; forcibly imitating them will only lead to more and more bugs.

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(End of this chapter)