F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 37 F3 First Battle
Marco's meaning was very clear: stop thinking about all that nonsense and just get to work on whoever you see.

He would not deliberately ignore the influence of external conditions. Regardless of the final result, there was only one thing Shu Long needed to do from beginning to end: to go all out.

Hayden will be responsible for evaluating whether the overall performance was satisfactory.

What to do when there's a gossip in your team?

Shu Long thought he had gotten along well with the crew members during this period, but Red Bull's competitive system was too cruel, and people's hearts simply could not withstand the test under such circumstances.

It's not just the drivers who want to get into F1; which of these engineers doesn't want to?

Everyone would naturally think that, but the problem is that you have to show results to prove it.

The five burly men who came with Shu Long were all essentially dependent on him for their livelihood, and Hayden was their mouthpiece.

Knowing that Shulong was their key asset, Hayden wouldn't openly put pressure on Shulong, but he knew who to pressure Shulong from.

On April Fool's Day, the F3 European Championship officially kicked off at the Paul Ricard Circuit in France, a day that seemed like a joke.

Shu Long maintained a lukewarm performance throughout the practice sessions, with his fastest lap time even ranking in the middle of all competitors.

This time, the pressure on Marko did not arrive as expected. There was a conflict between the F1 and F3 schedules, and the old guy went to Bahrain with the team. Now it is clear that Max is more favored by Marko.

It was a voice message sent by Grandpa Shu through Shu Xiong's phone.

"Don't be nervous, Long'er! Our child is quite capable!"

It was a rare occasion for the whole family to come to the event to watch the competition. Their intention was to cheer on Shulong, but it inadvertently added a lot of psychological pressure to him.

Regardless of the final ranking, under Marco's guidance, Shulong only needs to let the data speak for itself. He can guarantee that the car's performance will be pushed to its limits, and the final result may only indicate that the car's ceiling has been reached.

But in front of his family, he didn't care about any of those excuses; Shu Long simply didn't want to lose.

That's why he focused on finding a relatively tire-efficient setup and racing line throughout the entire practice session, and in the first race, he just wanted to win steadily without any major incidents.

The fact that the car was tuned to prioritize tire protection does not mean that Shu Long does not care about the order of the car. Tuning is one thing, driving is another.

Hayden did not choose to file a complaint because he could see the lap times of all the cars on the track.

The fastest loop in Shulong is currently purple, and the next two loops are all yellow.

This doesn't mean that Shulong messed up the last two sections, because there's another purple one in the last two sections that actually runs in Shulong's territory, but it just happened to be on a different lap.

Those who follow the drivers' backstage lap times will notice that Stroll, who set the fastest purple lap, spent the entire lap in green-purple-green, while Shulong, whose best lap time was three segments of purple-green-purple, cleverly hid in 12th place, even slower than his teammate Ryan.

It's obvious to anyone that there's a problem, but no one can guarantee they can guess the maximum lap time of Shulong. After all, it's not uncommon to specialize in improving the average speed in a particular area through tuning modifications.
Perhaps only Hayden, who understood the power of the dragon-binding technique, could guess that this was probably someone's silent protest against his accusations.

The tuning has indeed been changed, but not for lap times. Instead, it was to limit the tire temperature from getting too high during long runs, so they softened the suspension, which negatively affects lap times.

练习赛之后便是30分钟的排位赛，并不像F1那样还分Q1、Q2和Q3，更像是卡丁车那样的自由刷圈节。

Shulong went out very late, first setting a lap time that would guarantee him a top-five finish, and then spending a long time waiting in the pit.

The organizers allocate a limited number of tires, and there is only one tire compound for the entire race. Apart from two sets of rain tires, the five sets of dry tires are basically used for practice, qualifying, and the three races, so spending time on the track at pointless times to wear out the tires is completely pointless.

It wasn't until the final push by Stroll that Shulong finally drove out of the pit lane to begin the tire warm-up process.

How much is he?

"1 minute 24.209 seconds, current pole position. You're fourth now, keep an eye on the time, there are only three minutes left."

One lap is enough.

The last sound to reach Hayden's earpiece was the roar of Shulong's engine, which almost drowned out his whispers on the starting straight.

The appearance of a purple color silenced the young master who was still excitedly roaring in TR.

The first stage at the Paul Ricard circuit featured a large number of low-speed corners, where the oversteer-oriented setup of the Shulong car proved to be a major advantage, allowing it to pull ahead of Stroll by a full 0.4 seconds in the very first stage.

This is absolutely absurd. Giving the same reason to Strohl would be like talking nonsense, because he himself also tends to favor over-training.

Fortunately, the green of the second section of Shulong made the entire Prema team breathe a sigh of relief. The second section was the fastest section of the entire track, and the two consecutive super straights allowed them to maximize the power of their specially tuned engine, bringing back their lap time in Shulong by 0.25.

However, the third stage was not a happy one for them. The third stage was a series of high-speed corners. Stroll's oversteer setup meant he didn't have much of a power advantage. He couldn't press the accelerator too hard, and he had to make a lot of corrections to the steering wheel.

There were no major mistakes, but even if Stroll were to reverse each lap like in a game, he couldn't guarantee that he could run faster than the previous lap.

As Shulong's race car crossed the finish line, the purple and green lap timer first made the Stroll crew members gasp. Upon closer inspection, it seemed that this green one was 0.16 smaller than the young master's green number. The purple total lap time in first place felt like an invisible slap, forcefully hitting their faces.

If they let their opponents be 0.3 points faster, and then Old Stroll takes the blame and deducts their pay, will he?
Fortunately, the purple lap in the third segment was also on their Prema car, taken by Zhou Guanyu, who had just crossed the finish line around the same time as Shu Long and was now in third place in lap time.

The entire track consists of three sections, and the purple color of two of them is on their side. So they can't say that the mechanics didn't tune the car well, right?

It's clearly because your young master didn't run away on his own!

Actually, I have to say something fair about Strohl here.

Lance is indeed a young master, but he is not a spoiled brat in the traditional sense. To be honest, he is a young master with ideals and ambitions, and he is particularly ruthless to himself.

Stroll, who was about to park in the pit lane, immediately cut off the communication with the engineer after hearing the bad news and went back to the track through the pit lane passage.

Unfortunately, there wasn't enough time left. Before the first warm-up lap was even finished, the black and white flag had already been waved, leaving Stroll, who had pulled off an abstract maneuver, pounding his steering wheel in frustration on the track.

On the other hand, Shu Long, who secured pole position, is far from happy. The car's performance has a greater impact on the results than he anticipated.

The first stage of the car reaching purple was a breeze, and the second stage reaching green was also expected, but failing to reach purple in the third stage was quite unexpected. The car's setup wasn't the type that Shu Long was most comfortable with. To curb the high load on the front wheels, he pulled the car back a bit in the corners, making the cornering action less responsive.

However, the impact of this is still within the adjustment range of the dragon's ability. It is simply a matter of changing the running style to make up for the loss of advantageous segments in other places.

This is why Shulong was able to perform better than expected in the third high-speed corner thanks to his greater rear-end stability; who would have thought there was such a skilled driver among them?

As expected of a driver who graduated with a runner-up finish in his rookie season, even without major resources within the team, Zhou Guanyu, relying on the Tianlong car of the Prema team, can still fully demonstrate his abilities.

Is this the power of "My idol is Alonso"?
When Shu Long's family went out for dinner that evening, they bumped into Zhou Guanyu and his mother. After discussing it, they decided to share a table. The two mothers, who both supported their sons' racing careers, immediately started chatting enthusiastically.

Unsurprisingly, Shu Long and Zhou Guanyu once again became the kind of "other people's children" that parents talked about. The two young men felt very uncomfortable, so they simply went out together and found two empty chairs by the door, away from the "Marco" that was growing everywhere in the parents' invisible comparison.

Zhou Guanyu looked preoccupied, and after hesitating for a long time, he finally broke the silence by speaking.

"What are you going to do about your match tomorrow?"

"Why are you worrying about me now? Your starting position wasn't much better, was it? What, are you trying to mess with me?"

"Ah."

"Huh? Huh? Huh?! Holy crap!"

Shu Long sat up in terror, clutching his buttocks. He looked Zhou Guanyu up and down as if he were seeing him for the first time, and then, for some reason, his gaze stubbornly locked onto the top of Zhou Guanyu's head.

"Hey, who did your hairstyle? It's fucking awful! You look like a crooked pineapple!"

"What's so great about your buzz cut? You look like you just came out of prison!"

"Hey, you know what! Dr. Marco won't let me get a haircut anytime soon. He wants me to grow it out a bit so it's easier to manage my image. What kind of hairstyle do you think would look good on me?"

"Someone like me."

"You're kidding me, that's so lame!"

Zhou Guanyu glared angrily, about to defend his Ferrari-inspired hairstyle, but he realized halfway up his butt that he had been led astray.

"No, don't interrupt! The team already told me in their meeting today that tomorrow, besides trying our best to get a better position, Maximilian and I's most important task is to keep you out of the way. I heard that Lance's father specifically emphasized this to the team."

"Just do what the team tells you to do. Right now, you still need to use their resources to grow. At least it won't hurt to be obedient on the surface."

"Are you sure you don't need me to add some water?"

"No need! I still have a teammate ahead of me tomorrow."

Nico and Ryan qualified ninth and thirteenth respectively today. Ryan's results were unchanged, but Nico will start from the front row tomorrow.

However, Shu Long had no intention of using team resources to coerce others into becoming his wingmen. He certainly wouldn't have been willing to do it himself. There's a saying: "Do not do to others what you would not have them do to you."

"Then I'm really going to do it to you, huh?"

"Then use your strength!"

On the second day of the main race, Shu Long, who had secured pole position the day before, could only start tenth. The two cars in front of him were both red Prema cars, which at first glance looked like a city wall blocking his view.

Stroll, who started in the same row next to Shu Long, was half a body length ahead, but the moment the lights went out and the car started, not only was half a body length ahead, but the rear of the red car belonging to Zhou Guanyu in front of him was almost taken over on the spot.

With a 97% success rate in both reaction and fundraising speed, and the added attribute of "friction control," Shulong was an absolute king from the very beginning, giving Zhou Guanyu no chance to struggle or agonize internally.

However, once everyone's cars picked up speed, Shulong's slight advantage in power became less noticeable. When they overtook fifth place, they were blocked by Russell, the former Carlin of the Hitech GP team, for six laps.

The overall performance of the Hitech GP team's cars is actually similar to that of Carlin, which has Red Bull this year. Russell's qualifying lap times are the same as Shulong's, which only shows that their cars are at this level. To see where their cars should actually be, just look at their teammates.

But just like the gap between them in the rankings, Russell does have the ability, but that ability is only enough for him to block Shu Long for six laps, not even one more.

Besides dealing with Stroll who was relentlessly chasing from behind, Shulong was also observing Russell's playing style in front of him.

Nothing else is particularly special, but in slow corners with relatively small angles, Russell clearly prefers to take the outside line and brake late. Nowadays, most drivers of his generation have similar habits when it comes to speed.

The effect wasn't very noticeable in the slow combination corners of the first stage; drivers need to enter the corners quickly and find the right entry angle for the next corner.

The biggest feature of late braking is that it changes the racing line from a U-shape to a V-shape. The characteristic of the "V"-shaped line is that it allows you to gain a positional advantage in advance while maintaining speed when exiting the corner.

It can be said that as long as Russell follows the normal racing line step by step, he will not be threatened by the dragon behind him, provided that the cars are of similar performance.

Of course, it's not entirely without a chance. One of the few available spots is the low-speed combination of Turn 8 and Turn 9, which is where the Paul Ricard track sight, which is generally shaped like a rifle, is located.

Russell's line meant that there would often be a huge gap on the inside. Shu Long stayed close to the rear of the car in the first stage and gained enough speed by sucking in the slipstream to successfully run alongside the car before Turn 8.

However, Shulong did not immediately choose to turn around. Instead, he maintained a parallel stance with Russell until entering the corner, even at the cost of sacrificing his line and speed, in order to block Russell's chance to find a crossover line.

The side-by-side maneuver inside the corner made it difficult for Russell to straighten his car and accelerate, while Shulong on the inside line had no such concerns and even slightly increased the throttle at high RPMs.

The race car immediately drifted and twisted, which perfectly made up for the understeer caused by the late braking and hard blocking earlier, so that the front of the car was perfectly aligned with the shoulder of Turn 9 and smoothly connected the exit and entry of the corner.

　A driver's preference for oversteer or understeer is relative. Most drivers prefer their car to be more responsive in low-speed corners and more stable in high-speed corners.

　　However, the difference in speed in high-speed corners is not that big. The handling of low-speed corners, which are the biggest drag on speed, is often the key to determining lap time. Therefore, most young drivers will say that they prefer a setup that is more inclined to oversteer.

　　I watched a comparison of Zhou Guanyu's and Bottas's cars from an amateur's perspective and found that he often chooses to brake later than Bottas, which does match his own statement in the interview that he likes aggressive oversteer. However, his control of rear stability when exiting corners is not as good as Bottas's. So, on the contrary, he should need a car with stable rear end to highlight his ability.

　　(In addition, an aggressive driving style and a conservative offensive and defensive strategy are not contradictory. Zhou Guanyu's overtaking was very clever, but his defense was indeed a bit weak. I don't know if he was limited by the team's instructions and the car's performance. After all, he once made a brilliant save to finish sixth in the team.)
　　Thank you to limitlesss, book friend 20200724130026367, book friend 20191217082125925 and ordinary priest for your monthly tickets.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)