F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 59 The Key to the Gray Zone (4K2)

"How did it fall to 12th place? It was pretty fast yesterday!"

"A new fan here? Don't you know that you can just look at the practice lap times and leave it at that?"

"Yesterday all the teams were hiding, but one person was pushing hard, so of course he was fast. Now that everyone has figured out how to adjust their cars, their true colors are being revealed."

If yesterday's comments on social media, both domestically and internationally, were overwhelmingly positive, then after the second practice session, less friendly sentiments like the ones mentioned above began to surface one by one.

Suddenly, a large number of users commented in either simplified or traditional Chinese on Red Bull's official Twitter and Instagram accounts.

Underneath the supporting arguments, there was a large number of sarcastic and gloating comments, as well as many people banding together to uphold justice, all of whom were very polite in their greetings to the other's parents.

The main area affected by the online battle was Weibo, which had been officially handed over to the management team by Shulong.

Underneath his latest post featuring a photo of him sitting in a Toro Rosso race car looking at data, every few paragraphs there's a lengthy, seemingly rational analysis arguing from various angles why Shulong suddenly slowed down.

The Little Red Bull car is inherently slower than the Big Red Bull.
What do you mean by finishing third in your first practice session in a car that can compete for the championship? Anyone with hands can do that.
They can always find a whole host of reasons to support their point, and whenever someone brings up Verstappen's lap times in Q1, Q2, and Q3 at the Japanese Grand Prix as an excuse, they can also offer a whole host of reasons to justify it from the perspectives of coaching, weather, and strategy.

Not everyone has a thorough understanding of F1. In fact, even long-time fans who have followed the sport for many years are mostly just watching for the spectacle and only have a superficial understanding.

In addition, many new car enthusiasts were drawn in by Shu Long, and seeing that he had written such a long and well-reasoned article, they couldn't help but doubt their own judgment—"Could he be right?"

That's how the sentiment in the comments section was gradually swayed.

Some people seem to really enjoy this feeling of being the only one who is sober while everyone else is drunk. The appearance of one "rational and objective person" instantly spawned a whole bunch of new fake "rational and objective people".

If Shu Long had the leisure to pay attention to public opinion at this moment, he would probably find the comment section very familiar.

So many Zhang Jinhuas!
You can clearly see several very familiar templates in their rhetoric. They pick out a few empty words and then smugly show off, making you want to get angry at them but also feel sorry for them from the bottom of your heart.

Forget it, no need.

Of course, I won't list all the mindless and purely insulting comments. There's always someone better to deal with those. To quote the most upvoted comment below:

"Dude, after you say that, do you like to turn your phone's notification vibration to maximum and secretly shove it in your ass for some private pleasure?"

Of course, there are also the most inexplicable comments. It might be understandable for people abroad, who are more familiar with Hartley's racing career, to make such remarks, but it's truly baffling that there are still such people in China.

There are actually some weirdos who say that Shulong should stop occupying the bull's spot and quickly return the race car to Hartley.

The reason given is that Chinese people don't engage in such underhanded tactics; if they're capable, they should use legitimate channels to become official drivers instead of aiding and abetting Red Bull's wrongdoing.
The key point is that what these people are saying actually makes a lot of sense. Even Shu Long himself can't find any reason to refute it, because the reason he is sitting in the ox's car is actually similar to the process described by these people.

This is actually somewhat of a consequence of being bombarded with news a while ago; too much positive rhetoric has inadvertently overshadowed Shulong's potential.

Most of the people who came here because of his reputation thought that Shu Long was already the world's number one driver. It would be easy to become a fan of such a person. But seeing that his performance was so mediocre today, they would naturally feel a great sense of disappointment.

I want to buy the biggest house, the best car, and naturally, I want to be the most awesome idol.

Admiring the strong and pitying the weak are human nature ingrained in our bones. The current Shulong clearly doesn't feel strong enough, and has already done all sorts of bad things and started bullying the weak.

However, compared to English-speaking users on foreign websites, the attack power from within China is negligible.

Many people have dug up Hartley's recent social media posts, which, although not explicitly stated, subtly accused him of internal oppression within Red Bull.

This article was probably published shortly after the summer break and has absolutely nothing to do with the current Shulong incident, but many people are using it as a weapon to attack him.

The wave of criticism surrounding Shu Long gradually shifted from whether he could score points in the first main race to whether he could finish the first main race, and finally some people even cursed him to crash and retire from the race.

Shu Long hadn't looked at these social media platforms for a long time, but judging from Gan Mengning's several worried probing questions during their video call that evening, he could guess what the current situation was like outside.

The other side of the internet is too far away, and these external voices can hardly affect his mood anymore; out of sight, out of mind.

At least on the way from the hotel to the hunting grounds and up to the pit room, there must be some familiar compatriots cheering me on in familiar Mandarin, right?
Expressing goodwill is too costly and too quiet, while venting malice is simple, cheap, and loud.

If you don't believe me, try saying "Good" and "Fxck" and see which one you shout louder.

The wind and rain outside the track were unlikely to blow into the track walls during the competition. The third practice session on the second day started as planned, and everything seemed calm on the surface.

It rained once in the early morning, and there are still some water stains on the track, but the main driving lines are almost dry, and the cars are still using dry tires on the track.

The Brazilian and Japanese Grand Prix use the same tire compound: red supersoft, yellow soft, and white medium.

The only valid fastest lap in the three-training session was achieved using yellow tires, and it still placed him 12th, just like yesterday.

The first sprint lap on red tires was interrupted by the yellow flag. After that, Shulong did not try to reach the single-lap limit again. He only pushed slightly on the track in each segment, and each time he failed to cross the finish line, he was called back by the team.

Shu Long and Hamelin, who is currently serving as his race engineer, already have a general idea of ​​where the fastest lap time is. In the remaining time of the third practice session, they also have some other shady things to do.

Besides wanting to prove himself in this opportunity to compete in the main tournament, Shu Long actually came here with an even more important mission.

Although to everyone else it might seem that the only difference between Toro Rosso and Red Bull is the color of their pants, they are officially recognized as two completely independent teams.

In reality, the concept of "first team" and "second team" has long been accepted by the public, with names like Red Bull and Toro Rosso, Ferrari and Arroyo, Mercedes and Williams. However, the FIA ​​has specifically established rules to strictly prohibit the existence of such affiliated teams. In other words, even if the cars both bear the Red Bull logo, two independent teams are not allowed to share technology.

Red Bull cannot openly send people to help Toro Rosso build cars, nor can it recklessly collect data from the Toro Rosso racing team. Conversely, Toro Rosso cannot act like a sycophant and voluntarily provide its racing car data to the Red Bull factory in Milton Keynes.

Therefore, Toro Rosso's racing car design layout concept is only similar to Red Bull's, not completely the same. No matter how great Newey is, it cannot openly hand over the design drawings to Toro Rosso. At present, it can only be said that it has barely copied the design and achieved about 70% similarity.

The Red Bull Group is not yet under Marco's sole control. Their agreement to this reckless personnel change plan is an attempt to walk on the edge of the rules and cheat. Shu Long, who has been helping Red Bull factories with data simulations, is the key that opens the door to this gray area.

So to everyone's disappointment, Shu Long's attempts to advance through several circles during the final three training sessions all came to nothing, and he was eventually pushed down to seventeenth place.

Even the five stars suspected that there might be a problem with the car tuning at Shulong, because it is extremely rare for a car to be called back to the pit after only half a push in each lap. Most of the time, it is because the car has some tuning flaws that are not convenient to disclose to the public.

"Okay, the red light on the starting straight is on, the third training session has officially ended."

"We see that Shu Long is unfortunately ranked 17th, but it doesn't matter. After all, it's the first Grand Prix for a young man. Hopefully, he can adjust his form in time and have an excellent performance in the qualifying session this afternoon."

"That's right, it's great that you've officially entered F1. We've also noticed a lot of overly extreme comments lately, and we need to give the kids more patience and opportunities."

It's not just Shulong; viewers who follow lower-level competitions might be aware that it's truly remarkable how far each of these children has come.

At the end of the third training live broadcast, Bing Ge and Fei Ge, who were relatively senior in the five-star studio, held back for a long time but decided to say a few good words for Shu Long despite the pressure.

After all, the public opinion outside has indeed been escalating recently. It's one thing for foreigners to be so malicious, but if our own people can't unite against the outside world and start fighting amongst themselves, wouldn't that just make us a laughing stock for outsiders?
Eighteen years old does indeed mark the stage when a person enters adulthood and can take responsibility for their own actions. In the past, they could have been fathers, but for most young people today, eighteen years old is still just a child.

The afternoon qualifying session was a standard part of the program, and the opening remarks from the three regular commentators were accompanied by the theme song of "F1 Theme".

Shu Long was not featured in the opening credits of the twenty drivers in turn. After all, he was a last-minute replacement driver. Unless Red Bull decides to let Shu Long continue in the next race, there is no need to reshoot an opening credits.

It was 2 p.m. in Brazil, but it was already 1 a.m. in China, and the commentator's voice sounded a little tired.

Those who can stay up all night to watch a qualifying match that doesn't award points, and who can ignore the temptation of Singles' Day after midnight, whether they are new fans or longtime fans, can mostly be considered true fans.

Of course, most young people today are night owls. Just because of the hype surrounding China's first official F1 driver, many people stayed up until 1 a.m. to join in the excitement.

Finding viewing resources for F1 races is indeed difficult, but there are always some enthusiastic experts out there. In the past few days, many resourceful people have started sharing tutorials on how to get free access to F1 racing, how to use video software like Potplayer to capture live stream signals, and so on.

Even on the fringes of major live streaming platforms, there are quite a few people who boldly broadcast match footage directly in their live streams.

It can be said that F1 is the most popular sport in the world but the least popular in China. In the past few days, the level of discussion across the country has reached its peak since F1 was introduced to China. For a time, the burden on Shu Long's shoulders was also unprecedentedly heavy.

Because he once set the fastest lap time in practice while driving a Red Bull, Shu Long's supporters might outwardly say, "Ah, as long as he finishes the race safely," but inwardly they might have already started to harbor unrealistic fantasies.

Now that the race is over, aren't you going to try and get some points? And since you've already got points, why not go on the podium? You've already been on the podium, haven't you?
Cough!

Forget it, after all, Mavericks are only the second-to-last team in the entire paddock. Just getting a point is good enough!

The camera once again focused on Shu Long in the P-room of the Niu, who was now half-dressed in his racing suit, with the upper part hanging down like a skirt.

I don't know where he brought a small stool from, but now he's sitting behind his car, lost in thought.

"The young man seems to be in pretty good shape, maybe a little nervous. Looking forward to it."

"Ahhhh!"

Bing Ge was interrupted again halfway through his sentence, and Fei Ge quickly steered the conversation to shopping on Singles' Day.

It's one thing to be casual about it normally, but if they happen to be right again today, the passionate car enthusiasts might turn all their anger towards them.

It'll be funny if Shulong reports water in the cockpit via TR in a little while. What will the engineers say? "It must be milk?"

Gasly, who had gone to the toilet to empty his bladder, returned at this time. He saw Shu Long and walked over. The two bumped fists and greeted each other.

"How are you feeling? Are you nervous?"

"Why would I be nervous, I'm just a newbie? What if you can't outrun me later? Then Dr. Marco will give you a piece of his mind!"

That's absolutely true. Compared to Shulong, Gasly is clearly much more nervous right now.

Since Ricciardo officially announced his departure, Red Bull has been looking for a teammate for Max next season. The appearance of Shu Long made the team's management hesitate for a long time, but they finally confirmed Gasly's seat at Red Bull next year not long ago.

Regardless, Red Bull's ultimate goal is to win both the annual team championship and the individual driver championship. Directly promoting a complete newcomer like Shu Long is an extremely irresponsible act for both the team and Shu Long personally.

Furthermore, the Red Bull system isn't completely devoid of talent. Even former player Vettel and current player Max both genuinely passed the tests at Toro Rosso before being eligible for promotion. Suddenly making an exception for an Asian player would likely generate some dissenting voices within the group.

　Still available today.

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(End of this chapter)