F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 58 Driving Skills and Sharingan (4K2)

"Ah? Oh!"

Gasly paused for a moment, but without much hesitation, he turned to his game engineer and asked for the setup plan that had been finalized in the previous practice session.

It's only fair to reciprocate; if Shu Long wants to see it, then let him see it.

Gasly's car settings are much more complex than Shulong's. Fortunately, Interlagos is a relatively short track, so the entire push lap only requires about 8 settings adjustments, twice as many as Shulong's.

But the man took it, glanced at it, then frowned, closed his eyes, and seemed to be deep in thought.

"Hey! What are you doing?"

This is a French phrase, but it wasn't spoken by Gasly. The voice was also very familiar to Shu Long; it was his F2 teammate Leclerc, with whom he had battled for a whole year last year.

"It's already after get off work, why don't you hurry up and grab something to eat and rest?"

As fellow French-speaking individuals, Leclerc and Gasly have known each other for a long time, maintaining a good relationship since their go-karting days.

However, this time Leclerc didn't come specifically to find Gasly; he mainly wanted to give his old teammate Shu Long a good beating.

During the first practice session at the Japanese Grand Prix, it was understandable that Shu Long was faster than him in a Red Bull car that could compete for the podium or even the championship. How come he is now faster than him in a Toro Rosso car that is ranked lower than Sauber Arro?

You said that Toro Rosso has made a big upgrade in this race, but Sauber has also made a big upgrade in this race. How can the purebred Ferrari team II be unable to beat Toro Rosso team II?

However, seeing the way Shu Long and Gasly were acting, he knew roughly what the situation was.

Last year, they were teammates on the Prema team. Shu Long is indeed a bit different from others. He had experienced many things where he only intended to exchange driving experiences and feelings, but ended up being taught a lesson.

"Stop, stop, stop! Let's go get something to eat first. I want to listen when we get back... Wait! Never mind, I don't think I can listen to this?"

This silly kid, who's already been booked by Ferrari for next year, seems to have lost his mind and is only now realizing that he's no longer Shulong's teammate.

When you're teammates on the same team, it doesn't matter, but when you're on different teams, a driver's first priority is to consider the interests of their own team.

He also misses the time when he was teammates with this guy who was several years younger than him. Although he was a bit overwhelmed on the track, they still got along very well in their daily lives.

There wasn't much backstabbing or infighting; they shared many hobbies, and most importantly, they were all friends with Zhou Guanyu.

Things are different now. Eriksen, one of his teammates, has been quite resentful lately and isn't easy to communicate with.

It's not that it's incomprehensible. Being kicked out of the team right at the peak of its career, and being replaced by another "newcomer" of similar age, would make anyone resentful.

Of course, while Leclerc understands, he doesn't want to force a friendly gesture at this point in time.

After all, he was a lucky guy who had a Ferrari escorting him the whole way. At this time, whatever he said to his teammates might be automatically filtered into sarcasm and ridicule.

As for Arroyo's other seat, it was taken by Kimi Räikkönen, who returned to the team where he debuted to retire. It's like a major reshuffling between Ferrari and Ferrari's second team.

Shu Long rolled his eyes speechlessly, his train of thought interrupted. He was also hungry, so he decided to find something to eat first.

"Let me see your fastest lap timer in a bit, then I'll know where you're slow."

Not liking to tweak car settings doesn't mean Shu Long is unaware of how those settings will perform on the track. He can glean some insight into the reasons for his struggle with the feel of racing from Gasly's car setup.

A top student can calculate the correct answer by following the formula, while a genius can simply glance at the answer and even deduce exactly which step you went wrong.

They bought some high-calorie wraps from the drivers' house behind the house and took them with them. The three of them found a small round table with a parasol outside and ate and chatted.

After all, I'll be sitting in the car for at least another hour in the afternoon, so something that provides plenty of energy without taking up too much space is undoubtedly the best choice right now.

It's already hot and bumpy inside a race car, so if you suddenly get a stomachache, that would be the death of you.

"Hey Shu, why did you choose that number for your race car?"

Since Shu Long is now a legitimate F1 driver who will be participating in the main races, unlike in the previous practice session when he used the junior driver number assigned by the team, he has to choose a car number that may accompany him throughout his entire career.

Without much hesitation, since several of her preferred numbers were no longer available, she simply picked a seemingly lonely number – number 69.

This is what Leclerc finds most incomprehensible. There are reasons why people don't choose certain numbers, and he was almost speechless when he saw the Shulong racing car number today.

Children might not think much of it; it's something that adults understand.

Not to mention Leclerc, even when Toro Rosso was going to help him register, Uncle Toster looked strange and checked several times before reporting it.

There's no way around it; when it comes to my favorite digital dragon, my first thought is to associate it with my favorite anime character.

He originally wanted Android 18 from Dragon Ball, but Stroeer had already taken it. He thought about it and figured Android 17 would be fine too, but that number belonged to Leclerc's godfather, Bianchi, who died in an accident.

Using his own birthday as his license plate number seems a bit strange. It would make him feel too deeply tied to the number, and if he retired in the future and saw other young people choosing his license plate number, wouldn't he feel like someone else was riding his car?

"Are you sure? Unless you win the championship, your car number might stay with you for the rest of your career."

"Are you sure? What's wrong with this number? I think it looks a bit like a yin-yang symbol."

Grandpa Shu has never been very involved in Shu Long's racing career. Tai Chi was a rare common topic between the grandfather and grandson. Now that he has officially become a race car driver, we naturally want to let the old man have a sense of participation.

Although it was usually the elderly who taught him in a rambling manner, and Shu Long learned absentmindedly, he still managed to accumulate many warm memories amidst his busy racing career.

"Oh~ Tai Chi, I remember that's Chinese Kung Fu? Well, your number is pretty cool!"

"Why not?"

Leclerc raised an eyebrow awkwardly, exchanged a glance with Gasly beside him who had an equally strange expression, and decided it was best not to let their filthy thoughts slip out of his mouth.

Unfortunately, their expressions already betrayed them, and Shu Long's expression immediately became awkward after his thoughts wandered for a moment.

As a modern young man living in the 21st century with a smartphone, even though Shu Long's private time in the motorcade was extremely limited, it didn't mean he was a clueless little boy. Teng Weifeng had introduced this term to him back then, but so many years had passed, and without consciously trying to connect it to that idea, he hadn't immediately grasped its meaning.

It was all because Tost's expression was far too serious! If he had been even a little bit more lewd, Shulong might have changed his mind on the spot.
Awkwardness seemed to be the filling of today's wraps. The three of them tried to steer the conversation in three different directions, but somehow they ended up discussing the weather again, starting with the choice of car license plate.

The Brazilian Grand Prix usually takes place around this time of year, which coincides with the time of year when São Paulo is most prone to rainfall during the seasonal transition.

The weather forecast says it might not rain in the next couple of days, but this huge patch of dark clouds overhead doesn't look like it's going to be easy to deal with. If it really decides to leak some water onto the track, there's not much you can do about it.

There was a reason why Red Bull chose to have Shu Long play for them at this event.

First of all, this short track doesn't actually cause very severe tire wear, and most teams can finish the race with a one-stop strategy. In other words, this is actually a great place for Shulong to run freely and fully demonstrate its potential.

Another characteristic is the frequent rain here; countless classic rain-soaked races have taken place on this track.

A battle in the rain is precisely the best touchstone to test the true worth of a genius.

Two years ago, Verstappen made a stunning save here and then a series of incredible comebacks, which changed many people's stereotypical impression of him as "Vestaliban". The label of genius was officially imprinted on his name.

Back in the team's pit garage, Shu Long, of course, didn't forget the important matter that had just been interrupted by Leclerc, and asked the engineer to help him retrieve Gasly's fastest lap time from the computer.

When he looked at Gasly's tuning scheme and throttle and brake curves, he had basically guessed the answer. Now, looking at the in-car system, he quickly located the problem.

In fact, he has had similar abilities since childhood, with a strong sense of empathy or perspective.

Sometimes, just standing on the sidelines watching how others drive, he would have the illusion of directly embracing their perspective, and even the feeling and habits of driving would be subtly reflected in himself.

This peculiar talent, like his innate sensitivity to space and speed, was not manifested on the system panel for some reason, but it did provide him with many advantages in his racing career.

The most obvious thing is that he can completely replicate the driving style and habits of someone he has carefully observed in a very short time, almost like the Sharingan of racing skills.

Shu Long's highly adaptable and versatile driving style today is inseparable from his continuous learning from everyone, both from various competitions since childhood and from Red Bull's internal records of top drivers.

Perhaps this is some kind of special effect that comes with "eagle eyes," but it has created a wonderful chemical reaction with "photographic memory" or some other entry.

Having just followed Gasly's car ride and experienced the same feeling firsthand, he immediately grasped the key points.

"You were driving too aggressively at Turn 10. Did you hesitate to accelerate when exiting the corner?"

"Hiss~ But this isn't the place."

"Well, we don't actually need to push it so hard here. We don't need to hit the curb too hard when we come out of the corner."

The primary reason is that in this section of continuous downhill curves, if the line is widened to accommodate the turning speed of the right turn at No. 10, it will inevitably affect the turning point of the left turn at No. 11 to some extent.

Turn 11 is a full-throttle turn, so it is much more important than Turn 10, which is the slowest turn on the course. The speed at Turn 10 is usually around 80 km/h, so you can't go much faster even if you want to.

This is a matter of route selection.

Gasly's choice wasn't really wrong. Compared to the high-speed corners that aren't very distinctive, the slow corners are where it's easiest to widen the gap between him and other drivers. Prioritizing the slow corners just shows that he's very confident in his full-throttle line for Turn 11.

But what Shu Long wanted to say was, "Actually, it's not just that; look at the steering wheel you're driving here."

He didn't say much, but Gasly still reacted quickly.

"Did I set the corner differential lock too high?"

They are all top-level drivers. Sometimes it's not that they don't understand, it's just that their minds are stuck and they can't quite grasp the concepts.

There is still a barrier between drivers and engineers called "communication".

Drivers aren't responsible for the theory; they simply provide feedback to the engineers based on their own feelings. Engineers, however, don't understand the driving experience; they can only offer feedback and advice based on what they perceive as correct theory.

The corner differential mainly affects the distribution of power to the left and right drive wheels when accelerating out of a corner.

Turn 10 is a proper low-speed U-turn. When entering the corner, race cars usually need to reduce the differential lock to ensure oversteer characteristics. Understeer has a significant impact on corner speed here. Giving more power to the outer wheel can better help the race car straighten its direction.

Then, when exiting a corner, it is necessary to increase the locking ratio and optimize the transmission of traction. Objectively speaking, Gasly's setup is definitely the best choice here.

At first glance, this appears to be a structure with an inward camber. On corners with an inward camber, the load on the inner and outer tires of a race car will be relatively balanced. This is why, theoretically, it is possible to maximize cornering speed and accelerate out of the corner earlier.

Moreover, the locking ratio in curves can be adjusted to be very, very high on such terrain.

However, there is a rapidly rising terrain ridge near the shoulder on the exit line, where the load on the outer wheel will be much greater than that on the inner wheel.

At this point, the differential speed requirement for exiting the corner is actually reversed.

The high load on the outer tires makes their actual grip much higher than that of the inner tires. With a high lock-up ratio, the car is prone to extremely severe oversteer here, which is the main reason why Gasly not only dared not accelerate but also had to slow down the accelerator.

In the afternoon's second training session, considering the need to strategically lull and guard against direct competitors Arro and Indian forces, Shulong focused entirely on long-distance testing.

In the end, unsurprisingly, Shu Long's fastest lap was only twelfth, just ahead of Haas' Grosjean.

Gasly, on the other hand, seemed to benefit greatly, ultimately managing to squeeze into eighth place, behind Leclerc.

　That's how the story goes. Real-life F1 drivers are definitely much better than me, a keyboard warrior. Just take it as a joke.

　　I have an exam today, so I'll only update once. I'll catch up when I get back.

　　感谢书友20191216194243084、Lewis、像我这么吊的还有107位、山-鬼、飞扬的小羊、书友20240206020233222、红烧排骨炖土豆、Griifin、养虎的王、F1赛车游戏王、猫宅萌萌哒、古萨夫尼七、书友20240118065718771、fishorange、DYExia、SiLentQ、转身后仰跳投、五千年尘与土、读者1904042929876959232、刺激偶尔爱上他还能更好、飓风dalin、山河破碎、目光炯炯哈士奇、O我的你在哪O、无関风月、糖可可酱、兜兜转转过分了、吾三岁为仙、JamesDonkey、Nuyoah、四目之鸦和书友20230831221754500大佬的月票投喂。

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　　The big shots have really gone to great lengths!
　　
　
(End of this chapter)