F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 61 So-called Teammates (4K2)

The rain during today's qualifying race was a bit unpredictable, coming in bursts and then stopping.

In Q2, most teams were trying to make their second flying lap, but the ground was so slippery that it was impossible to enter the corners properly. Now there's not enough time, and the rain has stopped again!

Mercedes is the most infuriated right now. They feel like smashing the steering wheel, but even if there's not enough time, they have no choice but to stay on the track.

Several other drivers who have already secured a spot in Q3 are also remaining on the track, including Shu Long.

However, their goal was not to try to break their own fastest lap record, but simply to make the most of the remaining time in Q2 and use the temperature of their tires to dry out the racing lines on the track as much as possible. For this purpose, he even changed out of the red tires he used in Q1.

After Q2 stopped and returned to the maintenance area, Shu Long had just been pushed into the P room by the mechanics when Tost came over and tapped his helmet.

"Where do you think your best lap time will rank?"

Shu Long glanced at the two screens mounted on the HALO, which displayed the lap time leaderboard for all drivers in Q2, and made a silent assessment in his mind.

"It's probably around the sixth or seventh position."

"Can't it go any faster?"

"Yes, but it would be difficult for me to make a breakthrough in my ranking on my own. At most, I'll be fifth."

In Q2, both Mercedes cars achieved a time under 1:07 using red tires, with Bottas taking first place in Q2.

It's unclear whether they have some kind of mysterious little button that can quickly enhance the performance of the race cars, but once there were no other Mercedes-engined customer teams left on the track, the Silver Arrows team seemed to have regained their former terrifying dominance.

Of course, the most terrifying car was Ferrari. Vettel's yellow tires achieved the same lap time as Mercedes' red tires, with all three cars breaking into the 1:07.7 mark. Kimi and the Red Bull duo followed with lap times of 1:08.0, which were roughly at the same level.

Shu Long estimates that he can still achieve a lap time of around 0.5 after switching back to the red supersoft. This fifth place is an optimistic estimate. Nobody knows how many Red Bull has hidden away. How many he can finish in is purely a matter of luck.

However, after getting the answer, Tost did not rush to leave, but suddenly said out of the blue, "Pierre will not be getting new tires this section."

"What do you mean?"

"He just approached me and offered to help you boost the wake in Q3."

Shu Long was somewhat surprised and turned to look at the race car next to him. Gasly did not look up, but quietly stuck a thumb out from the car.

It wasn't that Gasly didn't want to change to new tires, but that he really didn't have any new red ones left.

The tires he returned to Pirelli during the three practice sessions were the same as those for Shulong: one white, two yellow, and three red. This means that he originally only had three brand-new sets of supersoft tires left before the start of qualifying.

In Q1, two sets were used. In Q2, due to rain, only one flight lap was completed, but one set was still used up. This means that Gasly actually has no new reds to unlock now.

Gasly's best red tire setup right now is the one from Q2, but he needs to leave enough room for the main races. It's safe to say that Gasly has virtually no chance of climbing the ranks in Q3.

Of course, that's not necessarily true. Haas's Grosjean and Sauber's Leclerc actually have the same tire consumption as Gasly.

However, judging from his previous lap times, Gasly felt it would be difficult for him to get past these two, so he might as well save some tires and maybe even be able to turn things around in the race.

Moreover, Gasly felt that he had always adhered to the principle of fair competition, and that Shu Long's help in breaking his lap time was a great favor, so he would feel uneasy if he didn't return the favor.

He's about to be promoted to Red Bull, but it's uncertain whether he'll even be promoted to Shulong next. If he falls into debt, who knows when he'll be able to pay it back?

Shu Long wasn't one to be coy, and immediately gave Tost a positive answer.

Conversations in TR can be received by the back-end systems of other teams, which is why the team principal, Tost, had to come to the car in person to relay the message.

To avoid other teams following suit, and with some time to go before Q3's odometer was up, Shu Long simply jumped out of the car and gestured for Gasly to come along as well. They planned to find a place where the media wouldn't be able to film them and discuss the specific plan for creating a slipstream.

Creating a wake blast isn't possible throughout the entire race; it's usually done on main straights where downforce requirements aren't high, in order to minimize drag and maximize tail speed.

For example, on winding roads, forcibly following the car in front is purely a side effect; in such situations, clean air is more important.

Because Interlagos Circuit is relatively short, the slipstream strategy is relatively fixed, usually starting from Turn 13 and continuing all the way to the finish line.

Sometimes I choose to start pulling before the flight circle, and sometimes I pull the last section during the actual flight circle.

Generally speaking, the first option is preferred for slipstreaming because it makes it easier to time the timing. The second option not only sacrifices more of the car in front, but the TR with a certain delay may also cause problems in the coordination between the two drivers.

But Shu Long wanted to push things to the limit; he wanted to eat the last bit.

Since you already need your teammates' help, there's no need to be coy and pretend to be virtuous, saying things like "I'd rather rely on my own hard skills." You might as well squeeze every last bit of value out of Gasley.

The first method yields too little benefit; you have to slow down as soon as you get going into a corner. In contrast, with the second method, you can go all the way from Turn 13 to the finish line at full throttle.

There was only an eight-minute break between Q2 and Q3 of qualifying. The two drivers, who had quickly finalized their slipstream strategy backstage in the pit, soon returned to their cars.

The first lap of Q3 is crucial; the timing of your entry must be perfect. Either get out early to catch the clean air, or wait for the track conditions to improve and take advantage of the gaps left by slower cars charging on the track.

Because of the rain earlier, most teams actually preferred to leave the pits a little later. Of course, there were some reckless ones, namely the two Ferrari cars.

Besides the fact that the car was fast at this station, it's also possible that the two drivers were too distrustful of the strategy team.
If you hurry up and get on the track, at least your lap time is still within your control. But if the strategy team gets confused and puts you in a slow car at the back, that's just %￥@#&!

Shu Long and Gasly went out very late. He only gave himself one chance to advance, which was to seize the best time after the first wave of flight laps.

Using a wake traverse is not entirely without risk.

Besides the difficulty in controlling the timing of the lap, which can easily backfire, using the slipstream to push the tires for a single lap will also increase tire wear, making it virtually impossible to achieve a faster second lap.

In other words, it indirectly reduces the margin for error for drivers in qualifying to some extent.

Most teams on the field now only have one new red car available in Q3.

But Ferrari is different; they have two sets, which is why they dare to be the first to take to the track. Shu Long now has the same advantage in tire reserves as Ferrari; he also has two sets of new red tires. However, based on the results of his long-distance tire wear assessment during practice sessions, it is very likely that he can finish the race using a yellow-red tire strategy.

In other words, regardless of the final qualifying results, it is essential to reserve a brand new set of red tires for the race.

"Oh? We see that Toro Rosso's two race cars have finally chosen to leave the pits. They're really patient."

"Actually, I think I can stay calm too. We're already in Q3, right? The team that's second to last has no pressure at all. It's all good no matter which position we get. We might as well wait for the track conditions to be better and drive comfortably."

Upon seeing the outlap next to Shu Long and Gasley's names on the left side of the screen, the few people in the Five Star Studio who had been gossiping for a while straightened up and perked up again.

Ran is doing a little better, but Fei and Bing are not young anymore, and it hasn't been easy for them to get to where they are now.

Since only the two Mavericks cars are currently flying on the track, after they have crossed the timing point on the starting straight, the cameras will naturally start following them throughout the entire race.

The distance between Shulong and Gasly in front of the car is about three seconds. At this distance, the effect of the wake is negligible, so no one noticed anything was wrong at first.

Gasly's first timeout was actually faster than his time in Q2; he was now running like his life depended on it in order not to create dirty air around the bend for the Dragons behind him.

However, when a yellow light appeared in the second time slot, Ran, who had been relatively quiet due to a sore throat, finally noticed something was wrong.

The appearance of yellow tires is not surprising, as everyone knows that Gasly is currently running on tires that have completed two flight laps. However, if this yellow tire directly causes him to be caught up by the two green tires behind him by about two seconds, then that would be a bit unusual!
"Hmm? Is Gasly waiting right now? Yes! He's waiting, he's waiting! They're going to pull the wake!"

Gasly's exit from Turn 12 was ridiculously slow; if you can't see the problem, then all those years of commentary have been for nothing.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw in the rearview mirror that Shu Long had already started to exit the turn at turn 11, and Gasly also started to accelerate at low gear and high revs at the same time. When Shu Long rushed into turn 13 at full throttle, he was about one and a half car lengths away from Gasly in front of him.

perfect!

Although it was a continuous full-throttle stage, it was still three consecutive high-speed corners defined as bends on the map. Getting too close at this point would actually affect Shulong's acceleration on the bends.

Overtaking mode activated, unleashing full power!
Turning on DRS before the steep 15th turn, Shulong was almost touching Gasly's rear end.

About twenty meters after entering the straight, Gasly, who had been keeping an eye on the rearview mirror, didn't need any reminders from the team's TR. He and Shu Long almost simultaneously moved to the left and right, watching the yellow T-class car number two drive across the finish line at full throttle.

Third purple lap! Total time: 1:07.751!

"P5!"

The commentator's voice was no longer audible in the live stream; the high-decibel roars had even caused the microphone to crackle, and only faint noises of banging on tables and chairs could be heard.

It's no wonder they were so excited. In fact, not only the domestic media, but even the English commentators seemed to have suddenly forgotten their mother tongue, repeatedly shouting the awkward name of Shulong.

Little Red Bull! Outperforming Big Red Bull!
Max's first lap time was 1:07.778, while Ricardo's was 1:07.780. The difference between the two was more a matter of luck than skill.

This seems to be precisely what Verstappen possesses that only Ricardo lacks.

Putting all that aside, the Q3 rankings are crystal clear: the two who were originally ranked fifth and sixth have both been pushed down a place by someone.

In Q3, the top three teams truly demonstrated the foundation for their current success.

It seemed like they were almost struggling in the middle of the pack, until they entered Q3 and revealed to the world what the words "Mars rover" really meant.
Hamilton's pole position lap time was 1:07.281, which is only 0.175 seconds behind Kimi, who is currently in fourth place.

On the other hand, Shulong is only one place behind Kimi in fourth place, but the difference in their lap times is a full 0.295!

Logically speaking, the actual performance of Little Red Bull in Shulong's hands should be around 1:08.00. To enter the 1:07 range, it would require some luck, such as some tailwinds.

It can be said that the 0.25 seconds that Shulong managed to squeeze in front of the two Red Bull cars on this lap was entirely due to Gasly's almost perfect slipstream. The cost was that Gasly's final lap time didn't even reach 1:10, a clear Q3 reverse pole.

"I never expected to see something like this happen within the Red Bull system. According to industry rumors, shouldn't they all climb to the top by stepping on their teammates?"

Not only did the commentators not expect it, but no one in the teams present, including Red Bull, could have predicted it.

Can you imagine Max honestly sacrificing himself in a qualifying match to give Ricardo a slipstream?

This example is a bit extreme.

Even if it were Ricardo, it would be unlikely to happen, unless he made a mistake somewhere earlier that made the flight circle invalid, in which case he might be able to pull back when returning to the starting circle.

The two Ferrari owners are somewhat competitive and neither is willing to concede to the other. Perhaps only Bottas, who has been completely outmaneuvered by Mercedes, would do something like this.

Ferrari, with its new tires, was already ahead of Shulong, while the tire resources for those behind them were extremely scarce. Although they managed to set another flying lap, it didn't affect their rankings at all, and they couldn't even break their own fastest lap record.

Afterwards, I tried to fly the dragon solo again, but I still failed to achieve a breakthrough. As expected, my second flight time was only 1:08.033.

Q3 ended quietly while he was still making his charging loop around the track.
"P5, congratulations! We will be starting from the third row tomorrow."

"Wow! Thank you everyone for your hard work, haha~ This thank you is for everyone in the team today. This ranking is well-deserved."

Please give a special message to Pierre: it was a fantastic tactical play, and I'll order him a big cake for his next birthday!

"Copy, bring the car back safely."

　Still available today.

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　　Extra chapters please!
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(End of this chapter)