F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 274 Black and white represent profundity
"Nooooooo!"

Just as Leclerc was furiously roaring as his car was forced to retire because it was stuck in the gearbox and couldn't shift into reverse, Shu Long was also gritting his teeth and pounding the steering wheel several times in the cockpit.

A furious punch that is raised high and then gently brought down.

He should just vent his emotions a little. If he really retires from the race or drops a ranking because of smashing the steering wheel, he might just throw the car over his shoulder when he gets off the track.
Of course, he was genuinely angry; you can't fake that kind of emotion on the track.

why?

Because his teammate Verstappen got a completely free pit stop under the yellow flag, he's now gone straight to P1!

Just now, when Shu Long asked the team for a pit stop, Verstappen also asked, but following the principle of resource allocation based on position, the team will definitely prioritize Shu Long's pit stop, and Verstappen will have to wait for the next trip.

There's nothing wrong with the approach itself. Red Bull's free competition rules have been updated to version 2.0, and their grasp of the scale is much clearer than Ferrari's.

But by waiting just a little while, most of the other riders, except for Shulong, got a huge advantage!

In other words, Red Bull and Ferrari's speed performance gave them a significant advantage over other teams; otherwise, who knows how many positions they would have lost during the 16-lap pit stop. The fact that they were only overtaken by one car is already the best outcome.

The safety car didn't even make two rounds. There was an escape route right next to where Leclerc crashed, and Matthew and the others quickly moved it out.

But really, the competition was just like that.

Due to its overall high-speed layout and the high load on the tires, the Paul Ricard circuit is not an easy place to overtake, and the race at one point evolved into a contest of tire management skills.

Shulong made a total of 6 overtaking attempts before 30 laps, and later could only slow down the pace and control the distance to about 3 seconds to start long-distance tire maintenance.

There's no point in trying again. Besides giving yourself an extra stop, you won't gain anything else, and it might even benefit Hamilton behind you.

As for relentlessly attacking and dragging teammates into the second timeout rhythm, etc.
The previous assumption was based on the fact that Shulong's target was Leclerc, and the two were not on the same team. With the full support of Red Bull's strategy team, Shulong could certainly act more recklessly in the race.

The problem is that the current leader is Verstappen.

According to Red Bull's so-called fair competition principle, even if Shu Long disregards tire wear and drags his teammates down with him, the team will definitely give Verstappen priority when it comes to pitting. What's the point of having an extra pit stop if there's no chance of undercutting?

Also, because the current leader is Verstappen, Shu Long knows his teammate all too well. He doesn't think this purebred Autobot would make any basic mistakes when leading without interference.

"So why did Charles suddenly rush out just now?"

"I don't know. Leclerc complaining about the 'accelerator' or something, maybe the problem from the last game is still a lingering issue?"

Still keeping it?!
What exactly does Binotto do?
Of course, Red Bull is just speculating. Shu Long was just venting his frustration while trying to maintain the pregnancy, and maybe Leclerc made a mistake himself.

This incident has precedent. On the same day in 2020 when Shulong went to Haas to suffer, at Monza, Leclerc's mistake and the red flag indirectly or even directly led to Gasly's first career victory. Like today's Turn 11, it is also a high-speed corner.

As for whether it is true or not, only Ferrari and Leclerc themselves probably know.

In short, it's very annoying.

Last time, because of Leclerc's crash, Shu Long got a podium in his crappy Haas. This time, the unfortunate yellow flag directly caused him to completely lose his chance for an undercut.

Although P2→P2 doesn't seem to cause any positional loss, the opportunity to move up to P1 is now gone, so rounding it up is still equivalent to losing a position.

Seeing that Verstappen was determined to keep running until the very end, Shulong naturally couldn't just sit idly by and wait for his doom.

Isn't it just a competition of who has the better ability to maintain a pregnancy?

Let's drag it out to the last few laps and see who's better. As long as neither of us pits, the one with the better tires will naturally have a higher chance of winning.

【Friction Control】is not just something to make Gan Mengning breathe. Even if Shulong has the disadvantage of dirty air compared to Verstappen, he is confident that he has an absolute advantage when it comes to keeping the pregnancy going. Anyway, as long as he is better than his teammates, that's fine, right?

Judging from the process, Shu Long was clearly the one who had better tire condition. Starting from lap 41, he gradually accelerated to close the 3-second time gap between the two, and by lap 49, he had caught up to 1.2 seconds.

To ensure the car still had enough grip during the final attack, Shu Long didn't dare to push too hard during the chase. However, compared to Verstappen, who not only couldn't respond to Shu Long's chase but whose lap time was even slowly dropping, this performance was actually good enough.

As a result, on lap 50, Zhou Guanyu stopped on the side of the track and retired from the race due to mechanical failure, which once again triggered a yellow flag and a virtual safety car.

It's great that you can close the distance for free, but couldn't you have come two laps earlier with the yellow flag?!

I made it!
Both cars were parked near the escape route, but the virtual safety car triggered by Zhou Guanyu only went around once before reverting to a green flag. The problem is, the first two laps after the green flag was restored didn't have DRS either!
With an advantage in tire grip, and the ability to use DRS, it's indeed possible to overtake in the final stages of the race; otherwise, what's the point?

It's not a situation of overwhelming performance; the two Red Bulls in this station were tuned almost identically.

So, although it seems like there are still two laps left after the green flag is reinstated, the final result is actually decided on lap 51—no, on lap 50 when the yellow flag appears.

Hamilton successfully returned to the podium, while Sainz, despite his best efforts, couldn't beat Russell, finishing in P4 and P5 respectively. Alonso, in P6, added another 8 points to his transfer resume.

Excluding the various reasons for his retirements in the first five races of the season, the veteran driver's scoring efficiency in the subsequent races was quite remarkable, consistently bringing points back for the team in every race.

With his undiminished skill and years of accumulated commercial appeal, Alonso still holds considerable attraction for a large portion of the teams in the paddock.

This result was encouraging enough for Red Bull, and they celebrated properly after the game.

Shu Long's resentment was almost entirely contained in the race car.

This is his teammate's second title of the season, and he himself has already won eight titles this season. It would be too much of a sore loser to have such a long face after the game. After all, luck is part of the game and skill.

The result for P2 was actually not bad in some respects. After the match, Shu Long's total annual points reached 256, still leading Verstappen, who was in second place, by 72 points.

As for Leclerc, who is now overtaken by Verstappen by 19 points...
After the race, Leclerc himself admitted that his crash was purely due to his own operational error. He was distracted by Shu Long's pit stop and forgot to adjust the car's differential settings. In a high-speed corner, he floored the accelerator, which directly caused the rear wheels to slip and lose control.

In such situations, it's human nature to shift some of the blame onto the team. Those who care about the team's reputation or whose position within the team is being heavily manipulated will either use classic excuses like "we will investigate further later" to brush it off.

Lock & Lock is a very honest person; he answered whatever the reporter asked, and he didn't hold back when criticizing himself.

His exact words were: "The level of competition this year was extremely high, and I performed at a high level, but if I keep making mistakes, I don't deserve to win the championship!"

Even when Ferrari made a mistake that caused Leclerc to lose several championships, I didn't see him say such harsh words. It feels like even the most steadfast "Iron Buddha Temple" in the paddock is not enough to describe Leclerc's loyalty to the red Prancing Horse.

This person, inside and out, seems to have been completely molded into the shape of a Ferrari.
There's no way around it, and it's even understandable. Bianchi's obsession has been Leclerc's pillar of support as she's grown up, but it may also slowly transform into an inescapable inner demon.

Leclerc desperately wanted to win a championship for Ferrari.

As for Shu Long, when asked by reporters, "Does Xia Er's withdrawal make you more confident in winning the championship this year?" he simply shrugged indifferently.

It wasn't that he was arrogant; he was simply a little absent-minded.

With only one match left before the summer break, Shu Long felt like a student taking the last exam of the college entrance exam. He was too lazy to think about how he did, and all he could think about was how to have fun during the break.

Moreover, with back-to-back game weeks, he simply didn't have the energy to pay attention to what other teams were doing.

He rushed to the next film set without stopping, and then held several meetings to provide feedback and summarize the new upgrades to the race car, as well as to discuss ideas on the direction of subsequent upgrades after the summer break.

Both Shulong and Verstappen agree on this point. With the budget cap in place, the front-pull, rear-pull suspension is unlikely to be changed until its competitiveness shows a significant decline. This makes it difficult to improve Red Bull's weakness in low-speed cornering mechanical grip.

Since a front-pull, rear-push suspension is better for optimizing aerodynamic efficiency, the future upgrades will naturally focus on maximizing this advantage.

At the same time, we need to find ways to improve the sensitivity of the car's handling, so that the two players can make up for the disadvantage of the car in low-speed corners through their individual operation.

Whitley also showed the subsequent upgrade plan to Shu Long and the others.

Roughly speaking, there will be an upgrade in Belgium after the summer break, an upgrade for the sidepods at the Dutch Grand Prix, an upgrade for the track characteristics at Monza, and a final major upgrade for the cars in Singapore.

That's the tentative plan. It's hard to say what might happen if the factory makes any progress, or they might temporarily add an upgrade to the race car.

To be fair, despite the chaotic atmosphere within the Red Bull team, their management and planning are among the most efficient in the paddock.

The only expense was the extra operating budget spent on the Energy House to maintain Red Bull's image; every other penny was used to its fullest potential. Shu Long felt that even while competing for the annual championship, the level of peace of mind he had was no less than during his years at Toro Rosso and Haas.

However, when Little Red Bull was upgrading, nobody listened to him. Haas listened to him, but he didn't have the money to upgrade!
It's actually a bit sad to talk about, what's going on?
And there's something even more tragic.

However, it has nothing to do with the team or the previous teams, nor is it a problem with Shulong.

On Thursday's media day, Shu Long was not selected to attend the press conference, but as soon as he entered the enclosure, he was grabbed by the Drive to Survive filming crew, who said they needed to add some content on the spot.

"I thought you guys were going to change the main character this season. It feels like my role is turning into a villain's. Maybe you could let me finish filming here before the fans' impression of me gets worse?"

"Oh, darling."

That is impossible!

Shulong is now a ratings guarantee for DTS. The main storyline of the first to third seasons revolves around him. Starting from the fourth season of the 21st season, the narrative perspective has become more ensemble-oriented, but Shulong still gets plenty of screen time in every season.

Regardless, DTS isn't produced by Red Bull itself, so every team with a story to watch has to be included to some extent. Shulong hasn't really cooperated with the production team to add any extra scenes this year, and we thought things would finally calm down, but they pulled this stunt today.

"So what exactly are you going to film? Why all of a sudden? There shouldn't have been any noteworthy events this week that warrant reshooting, right?"

Or is the point to hype up the idea that Leclerc's mistake ruined his title hopes?

That dragon had no intention of playing along.

He can be ruthless on the track, but once he's out of the cockpit, he doesn't want to keep whipping the corpse anymore, and there's no need to ruin his character.

However, it seems that this is not what DTS wanted to mention.
The female host, who was in charge of asking questions, scratched her brow, quickly glanced at the whiteboard in her hand, and deliberately chose a very gentle tone to speak slowly:

Did you know that Vettel recently opened an Instagram account?

"I heard about it, and I was quite surprised. I thought he was basically disconnected from electronic devices except for the steering wheel."

Of course they know. When Vettel opened his Instagram account, the Red Bull official account even invited him and Verstappen to welcome him. Even if a member of the Red Bull family moves to another place, they are still a member of the Red Bull family.

"Have you seen what he posted?"

"Not yet, I'm sorry, I really don't have much time lately."

I actually saw it a long time ago, but when I looked at it a couple of days ago, there was nothing on that account.

The female host certainly didn't mean to blame Shu Long; she simply gestured with her eyes to the square bulge in Shu Long's pocket that belonged to his phone, and raised her hand in a "please" gesture.

Shu Long raised his eyebrows in confusion.

Want to see it now? Right here?
Speaking of Uncle Wai Tou, despite the many criticisms he received both inside and outside the paddock, Shu Long actually had a very good impression of him because of the care he received when he first entered the paddock. It's just that he and Kimi Lao Lai Tou didn't get along very well.

Kimi is usually aloof, but becomes lively after drinking. He has a completely indifferent attitude towards many things in the paddock, as long as he has a car to drive and can have some fun.

Unfortunately, Shu Long doesn't drink alcohol, which creates a deep generation gap between him and Lao Laitou that is difficult to overcome.

Vettel is very lively in real life, or rather, Uncle Tilted Head is a bit too lively in real life, but he is a completely invisible person on the internet, basically out of touch with real society.

What you do online doesn't really matter. Being lively in real life is great, isn't it? How can you say we can't get along?
Well, this might be related to Vettel's overly conservative and traditional views on certain issues.

Perhaps calling it traditional or conservative isn't quite accurate; how would you describe it?
Sometimes, Vettel gives Shulong the feeling of a typical parent from China in the early years. You can feel that he has good intentions towards you, but he is also determined to instill certain things that he thinks are right into you.

I know he means well, but I also know that many of his ideas are wrong; to put it bluntly, he is a typical product of Western happy education.

For example, not using smartphones and staying away from social media may seem like a conscious choice to focus on real life and work as a driver, but the real reason is that Vettel believes that the radiation from electronic products is harmful to the human body and can be as toxic as a psychoactive drug.

Does this concept sound very familiar?

This is very similar to the popular argument in China in the early years that "the lower the education level, the greater the radiation." It cannot be denied that there is some truth to it, but it lacks a more comprehensive understanding of the logical connections between things.

This includes Vettel's increasingly persistent adherence to a certain kind of paddock political correctness in recent years.

For example, environmental protection; not wanting the FIA ​​to interfere too much with drivers' freedom of dress; and the issue of racial discrimination, etc.

His intentions are generally good, but you can't guarantee that everything he believes in is correct. Many things seem like nonsense to outsiders, and to put it more bluntly, Vettel is like a clown putting on a show.

However, Shu Long believes that rather than saying that Vettel was putting on a show, it would be more accurate to say that he was pursuing a higher level of spiritual fulfillment, but he simply went astray because his starting point was not high enough.

As a junior driver, he didn't have the right to correct others, which is why Shu Long felt he couldn't get along with Uncle Wai Tou.

I always feel like if we talk for too long, I'll get lectured, the kind of lecture that you know is wrong but you absolutely won't listen to, the kind that they'll use to give you a lecture next time if you don't change, and you can't even refute it.
As for whether opening an Instagram account would contradict Vettel's previous statements about left-brain and right-brain thinking, Shu Long was only somewhat surprised but didn't find it strange.

Given Uncle Waitou's behavior in the paddock over the past two years, opening a social media account may simply be a way for him to more easily promote his "correct" views.

Wait a minute!
Shu Long suddenly thought of a possibility.

Is DTS bringing this up now to dedicate an entire episode to this topic? The current Red Bull team's critical views on former Red Bull drivers? Are you guys just hoping I die?!

While struggling with how to refuse to film such controversial subject matter, the trembling finger that had clicked on Vettel's Instagram page suddenly hovered over the only video. Seeing the black and white cover, he was stunned and froze in his chair.

Could it be an obituary? Pshaw! What are you thinking? We just greeted each other when we entered the paddock this morning!

So what kind of work is this all about?

"I hereby announce that I will retire from F1 after the 2022 season."

Uh--

ha? !

(End of this chapter)