F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 103 Rhythm Shift
"Huh? We're seeing that Shulong has actually chosen to enter the station now?"

"Is this timing a little too early? After all, among the cars that are currently ahead of us, Gasly and Ricciardo, who also opted for red tires like Shu Long, have not yet pitted."

"It should be alright, right? I remember the Haas twins that started on red tires pitted early on laps eight or nine to switch to white tires. Maybe the long-run lap times on red tires aren't that great. This isn't slow, is it?"

Young Ran was still rather reserved, somewhat hesitant to contradict the veterans in the studio. Only after Bing confirmed Shulong's current long-distance lap time did he timidly add:
"That's why I was wondering why Shulong chose to pit at this time. His current position is actually very good. If he pits here, he should be able to extend the life of his red tires a bit more at this lap time."

"That is indeed a bit strange. Haas's stop here is probably an attempt to implement a two-stop strategy. Shulong is not making any profit by doing this!"

"At least after overtaking Verstappen, rashly adopting an extra stop strategy compared to Red Bull would actually put us at a disadvantage, because Red Bull could potentially finish the race with just one stop if they start on yellow tires!"

In fact, not only the commentators couldn't understand it, but even several teams in the paddock couldn't figure out why Toro Rosso would give up such a great opportunity.

Haas opted for a two-stop early because they discovered their red tire lap times were severely deteriorating. Facing direct points rivals Renault and the aggressive attacks from Racing Point, they had to proactively change their strategy.

Since Shulong has already replaced its direct competitor with Red Bull, its strategy should be more aligned with Gasley to ensure stability, right?
There's no need to prevent undercuts at all. The first few laps after switching to white tires will definitely be slower than those on yellow tires, which could actually allow Verstappen to overcut.

Unless Shulong chooses to change to yellow when entering the station!

But this is practically impossible. Switching to yellow tires would mean that Shulong's strategy for this race is fixed at two stops, as the wear rate of yellow tires is simply not enough to last through the remaining forty-one laps.

For example, Giovinazzi, who started in red at the back of the pack and pitted for yellow after only 7 laps, can basically be identified as someone who wanted to use a red-yellow-yellow strategy to create a strategic advantage over other teams.

The decision by Little Red Bull to enter the station at this time was naturally based on the considerations of Shu Long and the train crew.

The primary and most important reason is that now happens to be one of the most suitable windows for entering the pits, according to the strategy set before the game.

The pit stop window that Toro Rosso was looking for was between the lovely Williams and the young man at race point, where once again a gap of more than ten seconds was created after more than ten laps.

The cars that entered the pits earlier were closing in on Williams very quickly, and now is almost the perfect time for them to pit.

Otherwise, if they had been a little later and easily passed Williams, Shulong might have been stuck with those two cars that had gotten off to a bad start, the Papaya car and the Haas duo.

If he wanted a more aggressive approach, Shulong could have pitted three laps in advance. However, when he discovered that his tire wear on his red tires was even better than expected under the newly developed following strategy, he decisively decided to implement Plan B with Hamelin.

This was actually the most enjoyable strategy to implement out of all the strategies decided yesterday.

No need to worry about maintaining the pregnancy or saving fuel. Except for a little planning of battery usage, Shulong can basically be pushed all the way to the end.

Because Plan B is indeed a two-stop tactic.

As for why they didn't try to stay behind Ferrari a little longer, as the commentators might have suggested, to extend the life of their red tires and reduce pit stop time, it's related to the information Shu Long gathered by staying on the track for those extra three laps.

Firstly, while Toro Rosso's long-distance performance at this race was indeed outstanding, their lap times were not significantly faster than Red Bull's, and could even be considered slightly inferior.

Pre-match predictions are, after all, just inferences based on data, and there are indeed some discrepancies between them and the actual results.

Another factor was that Shu Long observed Verstappen's movements in the rearview mirror and judged that the tire wear on the yellow tires of the Red Bull was not ideal.

The poor traction in the low-speed corners likely caused Red Bull to experience excessive tire spin. Verstappen only attempted late braking attacks on Shullon in the first twelve laps, and was unusually docile in the following three laps, with his overall corner exits not being very smooth.

In other words, even if Verstappen starts on yellow tires, his overall pit stop strategy should not be much different from Shulong's.

Sure enough, less than two laps after Shulong pitted for white tires, Verstappen also made a decisive pit stop on lap 17, even earlier than Gasly, who started on red tires with his teammate.

Of course, the most crucial factor was Ferrari's poor long-distance performance in this race.

According to unreliable information, the engine problem that Leclerc encountered in the last race for Ferrari was not actually completely resolved. In order to prevent the car from having problems again in the race, Binotto put the engine restrictions back on.

This probably explains Haas and Arro's sudden slump in the race, and it also confirms why Ferrari, which should have had a huge advantage in the Chinese Grand Prix, suddenly couldn't compete with Mercedes in qualifying.

It's worth noting that the Shanghai International Circuit has been Ferrari's strong track in recent years. Last year, Vettel set the pole position with a time of 1:31.095, which was almost half a second faster than Bottas' pole position time of 1:31.547 this year.

This year, due to major rule changes to the front and rear wings, the pole position ceiling for cars on some tracks will be higher than last year, while on others it will be lower.

For example, Melbourne's pole position improved by 0.6 compared to 18, and Bahrain's improved by 0.1 compared to last year.

In contrast, the Shanghai International Circuit has an even lower ceiling than last year's circuit. Apart from the cornering efficiency of the combination corners 1, 2, and 3, the two super long straights with DRS have the biggest impact on lap times.

The tail wing can be deployed, but the front wing, which has been widened by more than 20 centimeters, is not just for show.

Even if the changes in racing regulations have lowered the overall lap time limit, it shouldn't be enough to cause Ferrari, whose engine has been significantly upgraded compared to last year, to lag behind Mercedes by 0.3 this year.

It's almost a second slower than last year's version. This can't be blamed entirely on aerodynamic issues; it's obvious that Ferrari's engine has some problems.

This put Ferrari in a very awkward position. Not only did they fail to beat Mercedes after extreme qualifying setups, but it also resulted in Ferrari's long-distance stability being inferior to that of Toro Rosso.

However, Ferrari's tire wear control is better than Verstappen's, and the difference between them is between red and yellow tires. There is no need to keep a set of red tires on the track to perform more laps than they should.

On the contrary, if Verstappen catches up with the clean air behind him, the dragon might actually be flipped over again by Verstappen, who has a higher lap limit in long distances, after finally managing to overtake the dragon.

It was precisely this extra two laps that gave him the time to advance, allowing Shu Long to capitalize on the opportunity and widen the gap between them from less than 0.6 seconds to 2.1 seconds by the time Verstappen finished his pit stop. Not all cars at this year's Shanghai International Circuit were slower than last year's; Shu Long's qualifying time was 0.9 seconds faster than last year's best time for the Maverick. Of course, it's hard to say whether this was due to the upgraded car or a different driver.

It's probably a combination of both. Although Albon didn't participate in qualifying, his potential in practice matches was higher than that of Toro Rosso last year.

Despite Shulong's early rise of two places to P5, Albon, who started from the pit lane, quietly made his way up, and after his red tire stop on lap 19, he had unknowingly moved up to P13.

Having entered the pits earlier than expected, Shu Long surged forward in the clean air. His strategy is quite similar to Verstappen's; both are trying to leverage their different strategies to secure a podium position for Ferrari with minimal cost.

Of course, Verstappen had another goal: to seize control of Toro Rosso and put him back in the position he should have been in the second team.

These two drivers' long-distance lap times are truly astonishing, comparable to the Mercedes rover's overwhelming impact on the midfield cars.

With brand-new white tires and the fuel level gradually decreasing, Shulong and Verstappen's lap times began to approach 1:37, a stark contrast to the cars ahead that were generally still 1:40.

Despite such a huge difference in lap times, Shu Long still managed to gain a margin of about seven laps in what seemed like less than ten seconds of clean air!
This is the main reason why Hamelin said in his previous conversation with Shulong on TR that the two McLarens that entered the pit early due to the accident were a major advantage for their strategy.

McLaren's lack of competitiveness is relative to the front row cars. In fact, the speed of their cars after the switch to white still poses a great threat to Racing Point, Arroyo, and Ricciardo, who is currently fighting alone on the track.

Hulkenberg's engine problems were never effectively resolved, and the damage to his car was significant after being sandwiched between two McLarens. He was forced to pit and retire on lap seventeen.

In other words, the only cars that could potentially pollute the air at the second stint of the racecourse ahead of us are actually just two Racing Point cars: Raikkonen and Ricciardo.

McLaren's early pit stop has already impacted the original battle strategies of these midfield cars that started on yellow tires.

Shu Long hadn't even caught up with Stroll's rear end yet, and the mid-range cars that started on yellow tires had all basically completed their first stop before 20 laps.

After racing through clean air for 23 laps, the long-awaited Ferrari finally appeared in front of Shulong.

Judging from the yellow T-shaped frame on his race car, he must have just completed a stop.

"Wow~ This is a real lifesaver!"

Seeing the red Ferrari, Shu Long, who was almost caught by Verstappen and placed in the DRS zone, breathed a sigh of relief.

The Toro Rosso's overall pace over long distances is indeed slightly worse than the Red Bull. Its advantage may mainly lie in its more reasonable control of tire wear, but its lap times are still consistently about 0.1 to 0.2 seconds slower than the Red Bull.

If Shu Long and his team are planning to use a one-stop pit stop strategy to finish the race, then this difference in lap time is indeed negligible, as the time saved from the pit stop can completely offset this disadvantage.

The problem is that this strategy is very passive, and the results can only depend on the performance of other teams, which is completely meaningless for Shulong, who wants to compete for the top spot.

Since we've opted for a two-stop system, the difference in tire consumption is practically negligible.

Of course, the current situation is not optimistic for Shulong either. The 2.1-second advantage that he originally gained by pitting early over Red Bull has been reduced to 1.3 seconds by Verstappen's five-lap chase.

On other tracks, this difference might seem quite significant, but the overall layout of the Shanghai International Circuit is so spacious that even though Red Bull hasn't caught Shu Long's DRS yet, Verstappen's presence in the rearview mirror is very strong!
"So we at least overtook a Ferrari? Did Sebastian choose to pit?"

“In fact,” Hamelin hesitated slightly, then reconfirmed the time difference between the group, “no!”

"No?! You mean Seb didn't pit? Or did we not overtake the Ferrari?"

"I mean none of them."

"but."

Okay, no buts, this is the current situation, and Shulong must focus all his attention on the specific implementation of his second Stint.

However, some information is still very important, and Hamelin briefly explained it to Shulong in the TR.

Mercedes is fast! This is already a consensus among all the teams in the paddock, and there is no need to elaborate further.

Therefore, Ferrari, whose long-distance performance was already relatively poor, will gradually be pulled out of the DRS zone by Mercedes after a dozen or so laps. This is basically an inevitable result of this race.

Leclerc did overtake Vettel on the first lap, but as he gradually lost the lead from the Mercedes locomotive, it became very difficult for him to maintain his position with DRS behind him.

On lap 16, after Shulong's pit stop, Vettel, with the help of team instructions, successfully swapped positions with Leclerc.

Then something interesting happened: without the Mercedes DRS traction, the gap between the Ferrari and the car in front quickly widened to more than three seconds.

As a result, without the interference of Mercedes' dirty air ahead, Ferrari's long-distance performance actually benefited from the misfortune. Their overall lap time rhythm did not decrease but increased, basically matching that of the two Red Bulls after the tire change, which led to the current strange situation.

"Vettel should be pitting next lap, probably a little ahead of you. If necessary, you can try to attack Leclerc."

"I'm not sure if I should do it, but I'll try!"

After pitting for white tires, he will face the problem of tire warming up. If Shulong can successfully get past Leclerc in this lap, it will basically mean that he will have the opportunity to directly attack Vettel in the next lap.

Meanwhile, Leclerc at Ferrari also received instructions from the team to focus all his efforts on defending against Shulong.

But Vettel will need to address the tire temperature issue after leaving the pits, while Leclerc, who just left the pits, doesn't need to either?
(End of this chapter)