F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 51 Suzuka Circuit
The Suzuka Circuit, located in Suzuka City southwest of Nagoya, is 5.807 kilometers long with an elevation difference of 40.4 meters.

Because of its unique figure-eight layout, this track features both clockwise and counterclockwise rotations, making it one of Shu Long's favorite tracks in the simulator.

Red Bull chose to have Shulong practice at the Japanese Grand Prix because the track's 18 corners offer a balanced mix of low, medium, and high-speed corners, allowing for a comprehensive assessment of a driver's abilities.

Especially the Suzuka Circuit's most famous series of S-curves, which demand a high degree of precision in the driver's throttle control and the car's center of gravity management, providing a unique sense of excitement and exhilaration.

As the first race car to start moving forward, it's no surprise that Shulong achieved three purple lap times on the leaderboard.

However, it was somewhat surprising that Shulong's purple lap time, which was based on his combined lap times, remained at the top of the leaderboard after most drivers had already set their fastest lap times.

Of course, it wasn't to the point of shocking everyone.

In the first practice session, almost all teams focus on finding the balance of the car. In the second practice session, they start to try to explore the limits of the car. In the third practice session, they seek to make a trade-off between stability in the race and the upper limit in qualifying.

So now everyone's engine power is basically running at a low level, and the fuel level on the car is not clear. Every team is hiding their so-called lap time. Red Bull's car itself is not bad, so this result is not particularly surprising.

After all, young drivers only get to compete in one session, especially now that they're in such a sensitive situation. It's not impossible for the team to let them run as freely as possible.

This is also what most viewers of the game were thinking, but for the ten teams on the field, it wasn't so easy.

The trade-offs between each team and driver are audible to everyone. Everyone knows that Ricciardo's car still has a lot of room for improvement, and judging from the progression of his lap times, Shulong is not just blindly pushing. His control of tire wear and maintenance of lap times are so skillful that he doesn't seem like a rookie at all.

Of course, few drivers lack competitiveness and fighting spirit.

Whether it's a younger, energetic guy like Leclerc or an older, more laid-back guy like Kimi, nobody wants to see a rookie standing comfortably above them. After hinting to the engineers in TR for a long time, they finally got the push command.

The first to break the purple lap record for Shulong was Red Bull's former crown prince, Uncle Waitou, followed by Verstappen driving Red Bull's second car. Then Hamilton and Bottas' two Mercedes cars also started to gain momentum, directly causing Shulong's ranking to drop to 8th.

That's right, this is where a rookie should be.

Hamilton was ridiculously fast here, but the difference in lap times among the others wasn't as big as it seemed on the leaderboard. From Bottas right after Hamilton all the way to Shulong, the fastest lap times of the other guys were actually less than 0.5 seconds apart.

This performance would normally earn a good or even excellent rating from other teams, but Shulong's lap time is a full 0.3 seconds behind Verstappen's, which is clearly far from the standard Marko wants to see.

"Can you go even faster with the remaining tires in this set?"

This time it was Marco's voice, and you could tell what he was going to say just from the first syllable.

He's actually doing a pretty good job protecting his tires; they can at least support him for four or five more laps at full speed, but whether he can go faster is another matter.
"What are you dawdling about? If you can do it, you can do it; if you can't, you can't. Hurry up and don't delay our subsequent arrangements."

Shu Long hesitated for a moment, but finally decided to tell the truth.

“I can try, but could you mute Reni so I can run a quarter my own way? It’s affecting my rhythm.”

Perhaps because he was used to playing simulators alone, Shu Long was actually a little uncomfortable with someone constantly nagging him and trying to teach him how to drive.

The frequency of conversations between race engineers and drivers is actually much higher than what the audience can see. Drivers usually give feedback to engineers about areas where they feel uncomfortable with the car in a particular corner, and the engineers' job at this time is to suggest changes to the car settings based on the situation.

What should have been a track race turned into a nightmare for Shu Long, who felt like he was listening to a rally roadbook. He had to adjust the steering wheel settings about 15 times a lap according to someone else's standards.

As a newcomer, Shu Long initially thought he should just do whatever others said. Now, he needs to learn more than offer opinions.

René may have meant well, but it felt like he was treating Shulong like a complete novice who knew nothing, constantly repeating the various settings that the car needed to be adjusted before each corner.

This is also why Shu Long hesitated at first; it's hard to bear to betray someone's good intentions.

But now he has to be more direct, otherwise he'll be pressured to death by Marco!
The solution provided by René may be the optimal solution for this race car in his understanding, but it is not the optimal solution that Shulong feels it to be.

He can adjust the car's settings, but not like this. It doesn't feel like a driver is controlling the car anymore; it's more like a driver and engineer are teaching the car how to run on its own.

Many drivers frequently change a lot of car settings when pushing their lap limits, just like René's plan for them. This can greatly reduce the difficulty of car operation and increase the lap limit.

Shu Long, on the other hand, tends to make more adjustments to the settings when racing long distances, mainly to protect the racing car's mechanics and tires and avoid driving at the limit for extended periods.

On the other hand, when pushing his limits in a single lap, he particularly dislikes making unnecessary movements, and rarely adjusts the settings except for differential lock and brake balance.

These two things are easy to adjust; the buttons and knobs are right next to your thumb, and you can just flick them as needed.

These are mainly related to the upper limit of the racing car's lap time. Unless you want to mess with the lap time, these are items that need to be adjusted. However, under normal circumstances, Shulong will only consider adjusting them when the types of corners that are connected are too different.

Compared to brake balance, differential lock requires even less adjustment.

Differentials are also divided into corner entry differential lock and corner mid-corner differential lock. The corner mid-corner differential lock is not adjusted much. Generally, a relatively moderate locking ratio is set to ensure the transmission of traction when exiting the corner, while allowing for earlier and more stable throttle release.

Shulong has a relatively high preference for differential lock-up rate in corners.

A high lock-up ratio can cause fishtailing in corners. In addition, the car's pre-race setup for front wheel camber and suspension was biased towards oversteer, making the car's current characteristics quite sensitive.

But for Shu Long, who possesses the ability to control friction, handling the sliding dynamics at the rear of a race car is probably one of his strengths.

As for the differential adjustment for cornering, there are even fewer.

Shu Long prefers to preset a relatively low cornering differential lock to ensure the car tends to oversteer, giving him a precise and responsive front end. For him, there's generally only the option to continue drifting, not the need to adjust for push-up due to unstable handling.

Other adjustment options include engine braking.

This thing itself doesn't adjust very frequently, and it mainly affects the rear wheel. Usually, there will only be one or two presets that work in conjunction with brake balance throughout the entire race, so let's skip that for now.

Shu Long felt that the over-the-top and unnecessary part of René's strategy was the extremely frequent adjustments to torque and brake shift. According to René's plan, he would be busy to death on this lap, and basically he would need to make adjustments once for each corner.

To put it simply, one of these two things assists the driver in applying the accelerator, and the other assists the driver in braking and tracking.

Adjusting torque can prevent excessive rear wheel spin caused by excessive throttle input when exiting a corner. Brake shifting, on the other hand, can gradually shift the braking proportion to the rear wheels as the driver releases the brakes while tracking the track. Its main function is to prevent lock-up and help the tires regain traction.

For Shulong, who possesses [Friction Control] and [Neural Reaction and Recruitment Speed] with extremely high unlockability, these two are precisely the settings that require the least adjustment. As long as they are set to a reasonable level, he can use this feeling as a benchmark to adjust his operational precision.

His reaction speed allows him to become aware of abnormalities in the car's dynamics in a very short time, and the increased speed of his reflexes gives him more precise control over his body.

Others can achieve good lap times by adjusting settings, that's their skill, but Shu Long prefers to keep the race car at the limit through his own operation, savoring the thrill of walking a tightrope, rather than trying to reduce the risk.

Having such high base stats isn't all good. It raises the limits of Shulong's maneuverability, allowing him to maintain composure and ease while driving at high speeds, but at the same time, it makes it harder to experience the adrenaline rush that speed brings.

Marco and Reni, facing off against TR, exchanged glances for a while before finally acquiescing to Shulong's request.

"Switch to charging mode, charge more this lap, and you can run the next lap yourself."

Renee's emotions didn't actually fluctuate much; at most, he was slightly annoyed.

The two of them hadn't gone through any adjustment period to begin with, and most of the advice he offered was based on Ricardo's past habits, so it's normal that not everyone could accept it.

In Red Bull, results speak for themselves; you can tell who's right and who's wrong just by looking at their lap times.

Based on the current performance of the Shulong on the track, its lap times are barely acceptable, its tire management is excellent, and its stability is good, but its communication with engineers regarding feedback from the race car is clearly severely inadequate.

I barely touched the "mark" button on the steering wheel the whole time.

I had repeatedly emphasized to him before the race that he should mark any section of the car that seemed strange or very good on the track. The engineers in the back would focus on analyzing the data from that section, as it is a very important reference indicator for improving the car design and lap times.

Guess what the guy replied?
"Everything's fine, I can't just keep pressing the same button the whole time, can I?"

Then there was almost no proactive communication or feedback within TR. They collected very little intelligence during this exercise, and most of it was still based on last year's plans.

It's safe to say that once the second practice session begins, a massive amount of work awaits Ricciardo, giving him a real headache. At this point, it's still unclear whether Shulong has a strong ability to adapt to the car or is simply less sensitive to it.

But Shu Long felt there was really nothing to say. At least 70% of the car's current characteristics were derived from the data he simulated, making it incredibly easy to drive, like his own child.

After charging for one cycle, the battery level reached about 80%. Shu Long turned the engine power mode knob back to 3 and deliberately accelerated sharply before Turn 18, initiating an incredible straight-line acceleration.

One green lap followed by a second green lap; the first two laps combined were about 0.4 seconds faster than the previous fastest lap.

With no strange people whispering in his ear, Shu Long could finally focus all his attention on the track in front of him and the car beneath him without any distractions.

But before he reached T13 and T14, he still encountered a test from the tires.

After all, these were old yellow tires that had already run nearly twenty laps on the track. Although there were a few pit stops to adjust the front and rear wing angles, this number of laps was actually close to the theoretical performance limit of the yellow tires on this track.

Even though Shu Long had taken good care of her along the way, the haggard woman, whose face was already ravaged by illness, was no longer as strong as she used to be, and she would groan and whine after taking just a few more steps.

Turns 13 and 14 are a series of left-turning turns, which can be viewed as a large hairpin turn with a double-aperture structure.

The key is that it is a downhill curve, and the track as a whole has a reverse tilt with the inside higher than the outside, so you have to find the delicate balance between aerodynamics and tire load very precisely.

Then came the full-throttle turn at number 15, where the car felt slightly wobbly, but Shulong managed to keep it under control. However, before the two consecutive zigzag turns at numbers 16 and 17, Shulong had to brake earlier due to the reduced tire grip.

Although adjusting the entry angle slightly compensated for the loss in cornering speed, the overall disastrous three-section yellow lap brought Shulong's impressive lap times back to rock bottom, and he finally finished in fourth place, 0.15 seconds slower than Verstappen in third.

"Crossing the finish line! Great, let's see where we are? Fourth?! Nice!"

Unlike Shu Long, who was slightly disappointed, the Five Star Studio was a sea of ​​jubilation.

The fact that the old tires, which are close to twenty laps old, can still break their own fastest lap time demonstrates a multi-dimensional ability. At this moment, Shulong's performance can be said to have completely exceeded their expectations.

There are currently four legendary F1 world champions on the track, and Shu Long is faster than three of them, only slower than Lewis Hamilton!

It's worth noting that Alonso was severely hampered by McLaren's performance this year, but Ferrari, with its two world championships, was very competitive throughout the year, second only to the undefeated Mercedes.

　Luckily, I set my posting time early every day, because that's exactly what I was afraid of. On Sunday, I was almost blocked from posting because the manual reviewers weren't even working.

　　This level of explicitness is just ridiculous. I haven't even written the part about driving in my novel yet, and they've already done it to me.

　　It's Sunday today, and I inexplicably woke up at 6 AM, which is bad enough, but why are so many big names urging me to update so early in the morning? Are people all this disciplined?
　　Also, there's been so much fun this season. Towards the end of the season, I really wanted to go to Ferrari. It seemed like it would be really interesting; they're so good at creating drama.

　　感谢寂静过分、糖可可酱、猫宅萌萌哒、书友20191216194243084、20230401134738401、书友20210809225031649、YoHane529、读者1440554696250396672、飞扬的小羊、音角、书友080305082628539、书友20201128081631029、不懂就混、兜兜转转过分了、pmy、凡选福星和老蔡大王的月票投喂，又是好震撼的月票连击
　　
　
(End of this chapter)