F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 88 Uncle Tilted Head is Here with Another Big Gift
After leaving the station and pulling away from Williams, Shulong was more than 6 seconds behind the other car in front, Arro, driven by Giovinazzi, and 28 seconds behind the real P5 Verstappen at that moment.

Mercedes is about one and a half seconds ahead of Verstappen, while Ferrari's two cars are now only less than two seconds ahead of Mercedes.

After shaking off some of the effects of polluted air, Red Bull and Mercedes gradually caught up with Ferrari in terms of pace over long distances.

All cars before P5 have not yet pitted, and the average pit stop time for this race is about 22 seconds. This means that within the first stint, Shulong is only about five or six seconds behind the leading cars.

Of course, for the top ten cars, the data from the first stint is not very valuable for reference.

Since both are using heavy oil, the aerodynamic and suspension advantages of the Mars rover are not very noticeable at this point.

Moreover, all the top ten drivers started using the same tires they used in Q2 qualifying. Combined with the high frequency of skirmishes in the early laps and the resulting tire wear, even Leclerc, who has reclaimed P1 from his teammate, is now struggling to keep up with Shulong's long-distance lap times.

Therefore, the actual performance over long distances will largely depend on the subsequent stops.

"Watch your lap times, STRAT6 and SOC8, keep up your current pace."

"Couldn't we be a little more aggressive? I have a long stretch of clean air ahead of me, which should allow me to close a significant gap with Max, right?"

"Yes, but Antonio's first stint will be long, and we need to be careful not to enter the opponent's dirty air zone, as this is very bad for protecting the tires."

"Okay, but you must let me know as soon as it's ready to proceed!"

"Copy! Just maintain the current cruising pace. The game is still long, anything can happen."

The monotonous cruising continued until the twenty-fifth lap, when the yellow-tire staunch defenders ahead of Shulong finally completed their first pit stops one after another, and his actual position finally returned to the proper P6.

It was at this moment that Shu Long finally received the command to push forward with all his might that he had been dreaming of in the TR.

"OK, we're now seven seconds behind Max, and Norris is five seconds behind you. This is the moment you wanted."

"Is Lando behind me? What happened to Kimi? Did he stop twice?"

"No, it was just a normal overtaking maneuver on the track."

After being feinted by Toro Rosso on lap 13, Arroyo managed to keep the old man on the track until lap 16 in order to barely pull ahead of Williams.

With nearly 23 laps to go and his red tires still in the ground, compared to the yellow tires of others, even if Kimi were a god, he would feel powerless to turn the tide. In the end, when he realized that he really couldn't squeeze in, the team reluctantly called Raikkonen back.

He writes as "Old Lai Tou," but reads as "a great injustice."

Ultimately, as expected, Aro's failed strategy directly led to Raikkonen being used as a practice target for coordinated defense by the two Williams cars, while also providing an opportunity for Norris, who was almost taking off with the second Stint, to overtake.

In fact, Norris and Shulong were not the only ones who surpassed Kimi during this period.

Ricciardo also overtook Arro once in the first stint, but after coming out on yellow tires, he was blocked by two Williams cars for a while. Then, he was ruthlessly overtaken by a kid named Norris. Later, Hulkenberg, who came out on yellow tires and ran the second stint, also took advantage of the situation.

We agreed that I was coming to this small car fleet to retire, but why does my blood pressure seem a bit unhealthy today?
Making the same stupid mistakes time and time again has pushed Old Lai, who wasn't very talkative to the point of mental breakdown.

Especially when Hulkenberg overtook him, the already unwilling Old Lai tried to counterattack, but he went too far on the crossroads and almost scraped the back of the car in front.

The team's engineers probably saw this scene through the vehicle's infotainment system. Their first reaction wasn't to check the data from the various sensors, but instead they immediately opened the TR and asked Kimi if the front wing was damaged.

This completely stunned Old Lai, who retorted without any politeness.

"I don't know! Shouldn't you be the one telling me?"

I was too naive when I was young.

At that time, I just felt that Sauber was the team that gave him a chance when he first started out. Although the team's overall competitiveness was not good, the team atmosphere was still very good. After wandering and struggling for half his life, choosing to end his career here seemed to be a good choice.

The mindset of those returning home may have changed quietly without them realizing it, but the changes in Sober are truly earth-shattering!

Old Lai had thought Ferrari's strategy team and engineers were invincible, but he never imagined there were such experts in the world. Whose subordinates were these?!
Compared to the vibrant and colorful life of Lao Laitou, life in Shulong is much more bland and boring.

It was said that he needed to push forward with all his might, but in order to better preserve the car's condition in the second half of the race, various settings restrictions made it impossible for him to run smoothly.

The gap between him and Verstappen gradually narrowed from 5.7 seconds to 6.3 seconds.

Yes, you heard right, the gap has widened rather than decreased.

This was only because Vestapan had inhaled Renault's dirty air for quite a while after entering the station; otherwise, a Mars rover without any constraints would have only pulled the Shulong further away over long distances.

Running aimlessly in the middle of nowhere, if it weren't for the pre-race Red Bull and [Energy Special] to keep him going, Shu Long suspects he might have fallen asleep while cruising.

Most fans in the country who stayed up all night to watch the race were even more tired than him!

Many people came specifically for Shu Long, but apart from the two scenes with Chao Haas and Aro at the beginning of the match, Shu Long hasn't gotten a single shot in the entire match so far, making him seem like an invisible person on the field.

On lap 35, Shu Long entered the pits on time to change yellow according to the established race strategy.

Because there are no direct competitors ahead or behind, after the most intense position battles in the early stages, the distribution of cars on the Bahrain circuit will be relatively loose, and the tire-changing windows will become less compact.

Unexpectedly, this strategy has become the perfect one for Shulong.

The mileage for red and yellow tires is evenly divided into 12, 23, and 22. This means that under the premise of a two-stop strategy, the potential of each tire set is fully utilized, and the driver does not have to be overly concerned about tire maintenance, which would make the driver hesitant to drive.

Luck always favors the prepared. Just when Shu Long thought he was going to finish the game without any trouble, Hamelin's excited voice suddenly came from the TR.

"Get ready, we might be about to start fighting for P5!" "What's going on? I can't see Max in my line of sight?"

It wasn't Verstappen; the person who had the problem was actually Vettel.

Ferrari was incredibly fast in qualifying and in the clean air at the start of the race, leaving Mercedes with no chance. However, as the race progressed, Mercedes finally showed an advantage that Ferrari did not have over the long distances – tire wear!
Ferrari's lap record this year is very high, a fact that was agreed upon by all teams in the paddock during the winter testing phase. At the same time, the fact that they seem to be having trouble adapting to this year's new tires was also evident during the winter testing.

Like previous years, Haas's race car this year features a completely original design, except for the main aerodynamic components, which were designed and developed in-house. The engine, gearbox, and even the rear suspension are all original parts purchased directly from Ferrari.

Magnussen, who had made a stellar run to P6 in qualifying, is now facing this predicament.

Putting aside the issues with his tire-changing strategy, Magnussen performed normally in this race, but the problem of excessive wear on the rear tires has been a persistent issue for him, causing him to slip from P6 at the start of the race to his current position of P13.

This is a case of small things leading to larger problems. If even high-quality counterfeit Haas vehicles are like this, then Ferrari must also have issues.

However, Ferrari's overall design is more coordinated, so there are specific designs to reinforce these aspects in terms of aerodynamics and chassis layout. Therefore, the problems are not as obvious as those of Haas.

While Haas may save money, the cost of copying homework is knowing the "what" but not the "why." The answer is there, but the formulas don't match. What can you do then?

However, each team has its own benchmark. Haas only compares itself with mid-table teams. Ferrari can't very well come and compare itself with mid-table teams, can it?
By the standards of mid-table teams, Ferrari's solution to tire damage is undoubtedly quite perfect. But when compared to Mercedes, it becomes an intolerable and fatal flaw.

Ferrari's time advantage at the start of the race was gradually eroded by Mercedes, whose cars and tires were in better condition. By lap 37, Hamilton had finally caught Vettel's DRS again and launched a formal attack on him on lap 38.

Similarly, in the first DRS zone after Turn 4, the five-time champion overtook the four-time champion on the outside of Turn 4, taking advantage of the more comfortable exit angle to pass him in one fell swoop.

Perhaps Vettel was too anxious, causing his mentality to fluctuate, or perhaps the wear on Ferrari's rear tires has slightly exceeded Uncle Wobbe's expectations.

In short, he accelerated a little too much on the way out of Turn 4, and the rear of the car went out of control on the spot, spinning 180 degrees on the track, doing a "back-up landing" style.

Vettel is very experienced in racing. When he noticed that the car was veering at an angle of more than 90 degrees, he quickly realized that this was not the first time he had lost control and could recover by stepping on the accelerator.

The first thing to do is to squeeze the clutch to ensure that the car's reverse movement will not break the gearbox gears. Then, press the engine protection button to limit the power and prevent the car from triggering the anti-stalling mechanism.

After all that, even though Vettel had minimized the damage, he still wasted at least ten seconds, and the yellow tires were now completely ruined.

However, the house leaked and it rained all night.

In the second DRS section, in order to make up for the loss caused by the previous mistake as soon as possible, Vettel was a little too impatient when overtaking the slower car. He rushed to try to turn around before Kubica, who had received the blue flag, could move aside.

This not only knocked his entire forewing off, but because the timing of the forewing's fall was off, Vettel even rode directly over his own forewing.

Not only did it hit the floor, but a piece of the front wing even got stuck under the floor and wouldn't move.

Without a front wing and with something stuck underneath, Vettel felt the journey from Turn 11 back to the pit lane was incredibly long.

After this series of changes, the gap between Shulong and Ferrari, which had been nearly 45 seconds, was reduced to just over 20 seconds without anyone noticing.

Viewers who had been waiting for over an hour finally saw the red and blue black T-shirt Red Bull again on the broadcast, along with the TR signal passed to Shu Long by race engineer Hamelin; the visual message was self-evident.

"Hmm? Could it be that..."

"I never expected that even though the race is almost over, Vettel, a veteran of Red Bull, would still give Shulong such a generous gift!"

"This time, he not only needs to change tires and replace the front wing, but also clean up the debris under the floor. You can imagine that this pit stop will be very time-consuming!"

Shu Long, whose heart rate had already dropped to below 100 beats per minute, felt his head throbbing with blood. After a relentless chase, he finally caught up with the red car that had suffered a crushing defeat on the main straight road.

"Fuck! We were so close! I should have started pushing this sooner!"

At this point, the commentators and Shulong's TR reached a high degree of agreement, both feeling that Toro Rosso's previous strategy had made the same mistake as Arro's. As a small team, they were only willing to maintain the status quo and did not have the courage to try to break through, which was too conservative!

But
"Calm down, this might not be a bad thing."

"What do you mean it's not a bad thing?! Mercedes couldn't even catch their DRS just now! Ours..." Shu Long restrained himself slightly, forcibly swallowing back the word "garbage" that almost slipped out, "How could we possibly keep up in this polluted air?"

"Don't rush, Sebastian's chassis seems to be damaged. You can follow him for a few laps to check."

Hamelin's words were like a fire hydrant being shoved directly into Shulong's stomach, instantly clearing his head of his feverish rage.

If that's really the case, then maybe there really is a chance?
The aerodynamic layout of an F1 car is interconnected, and it can be said that changing one part affects the whole. The seemingly unimportant chassis is also a crucial part of the aerodynamic design.

Lap times data are not very convincing. As the fuel load of the car decreases with each lap, the overall lap times of all cars, especially at the beginning of the third stint, will generally show a steady upward trend.

Therefore, in situations like this, the difference in speed cannot be clearly demonstrated by data from just one or two laps; only drivers on the track can have a more accurate understanding.

Having patiently followed behind until lap 42, Shu Long finally confirmed Hamelin's earlier guess in TR.

"He slowed down, although he was still faster than me, but at least I could keep up with him without much effort."

"Copy! I think you know better than me what to do next."

I'll take him down!

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(End of this chapter)