F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 77 Both Little Ox and Big Ox are Oxen (4K6)

Leclerc's lap times were roughly the same as Vettel's throughout the weekend. Given that Vettel had such a large margin of speed, it's likely that Shu Long's actual ranking was behind Leclerc.

As expected, Vettel took the lead and used a set of new red tiles to create a 1:21.190 score.

Verstappen followed closely behind, scoring 1:21.320 and pushing Shulong down one place.

Because Leclerc had already used a new set of yellow and a new set of red tires in Q1, he used a set of old red tires for his second lap in Q3. Shu Long, who climbed out of the car, didn't even bother to take off his helmet and kept staring at the three green sections that belonged to Leclerc until he finally gave up.

1:21.442! That's almost 0.03!

Wow! The Mars rover is amazing! It's going this fast even on old tires!
I was at P6 before the run, and I'm still at P6 now that I've finished. Did I just waste my time by wearing these underwear?!

Get your money back!
Just as Leclerc's final lap time was announced, an interesting scene unfolded: Ferrari and Toro Rosso, both Italian teams, were seen holding their heads in the pit lane.

However, on one side, people were holding their heads, raising their hands, and cheering to the sky, while on the other side, people were holding their heads, bowing their heads, and wailing. The director mischievously edited the footage from both sides together.

The pressure from the dragon was immense, regardless of the team. Who would have thought that a Ferrari would almost be defeated by a Toro Rosso?

On Toro Rosso's side, the younger mechanics haven't had much experience yet, and the veterans have almost forgotten what it felt like to be forced by drivers to fight for the front row.

I felt both excited and nervous. Seeing Shulong being pushed back to P6 to start the train, I simultaneously felt a mix of regret and relief – two contradictory and complex emotions.

Alben, standing to the side, was now somewhat conflicted.

He had just wanted to go over and congratulate Shu Long, but seeing how focused Shu Long was on the final results, he didn't feel comfortable disturbing him. Would it be a bit like kicking someone when they're down if he went over to shake hands now?
Fortunately, the culprit who caused all this came in person to break the awkward situation.

After weighing himself, Leclerc passed by the Toro Rosso pits and, the moment his eyes met Shu Long's, he pulled out a gun like a Western cowboy. The two of them tacitly grabbed each other's forearms and bumped shoulders at the pits door.

"How could you be so fast?! Our two teams are located at opposite ends of the pit lane axis! Do you know how much pressure I was under when I was running that last lap?"

Leclerc felt that probably no one would believe it if he told them, but he was driving a car that finished second in the team last year and was actually going toe-to-toe with a car that finished second to last in the team last year.

"That's just how racing is. Sometimes a single part or a slight tuning change can create a completely different competitive advantage."

"Don't change the subject! I saw you driving like that over in the pit lane just now. How exactly do you control the tire temperature?"

"It's nothing, just coaxing when you need to coax and scolding when you need to scold."

"."

Leclerc punched Shulong's deltoid muscle in annoyance, then turned around and saw Alben watching expectantly, so he called him over and greeted him.

Leclerc only glanced at the replay of Shulong's ingenious maneuver, but in terms of sheer shock, Albon, who had been closely monitoring Shulong's data curves and the car's camera footage since being eliminated early in Q2, probably felt it the most deeply.

The difficulty of the understeer technique lies not only in tire temperature control, but also in the fact that the most dangerous aspect of this technique is that the vehicle's center of gravity will rapidly shift to the front of the car in a very short time the moment the front wheels regain traction.

At this point, the dynamics of the car's rear end are actually very unstable, and understeer can easily turn into oversteer.

A driver must have a rear end that is extremely sensitive to the car's condition. At the moment when the front and rear wheel slip angles of the car are re-coordinated to complete a neutral turn, the coordination between the steering and throttle opening must be accurate to the millimeter level.

There's a reason why only Alonso has mastered this technique over the years. In fact, under the current racing regulations, even if Alonso himself were there, he might not be able to replicate it, and even if he brought out his younger self, it probably wouldn't work.

After all, when Renault's high-tech mass shock absorbers were banned, Alonso, who had just won two championships at his peak, could no longer continue his miracle and was forced to change his driving style.

And Shulong, who learned this trick, even dared to use it directly in ranked matches.
Albon and Leclerc, these two former teammates, exchanged a glance, likely understanding the meaning behind each other's eyes at the same time.

The species standing next to them now, perhaps it really isn't human?
In the post-qualifying interview, Shu Long was once again bombarded with the same questions by reporters, who asked him whether he was confident of creating the same miracle this time, starting from P6, after he had secured a podium finish starting from P5 last time.

This kind of question is very easy to offend people. Which race car driver who pursues speed isn't arrogant on the track? Saying such harsh words is tantamount to not taking the other person seriously.

However, Shu Long has now become cunning, neither affirming nor denying directly, only saying that he is still quite close to the cars in the front row, and the Albert Park circuit is so crowded, no one can predict what might happen.

Since the top ten drivers in this race all start with red tires, the strategy is relatively simple since the possibility of white tires has been eliminated. It's just a matter of choosing between a red-yellow one-stop or a red-yellow-yellow two-stop, and the choice will be made on the spot based on the situation on the track.

Therefore, the team's tactical discussion about Shulong after the race was quite brief. They talked for less than ten minutes before letting Shulong go home early to rest. On the contrary, Albon, who started from P14, had to rack his brains to try and score points.

Dinner was eaten at the team's restaurant. With the main race just around the corner, Shulong dared not enjoy local cuisine at such a time.

If we were to discuss the most frightening unexpected situation a race car driver might encounter on the track, an upset stomach would probably be something no one wants to face.

The extra burden that high temperatures, bumpy rides, and intense G-forces place on internal organs is enough to send chills down your spine just by imagining it.

Although Shu Long has never encountered a similar predicament since he started racing, this fear is directly engraved in human genes, and even physical strength cannot erase Shu Long's worries.

Talk about it.
This permanent passive ability not only provides the dragon with physical attributes at the theoretical peak level of humans, but it also seems to have a side effect such as being immune to all diseases. It seems like the last time the dragon was sick and had to get a shot was more than ten years ago.

Perhaps due to the deep psychological trauma of pain from his childhood, Shu Long is now not only somewhat afraid of injections, but he also has a similar fear of all people wearing white coats.

It's about reverence!

He doesn't need injections if he's not sick, but he hates the annual physical exams that Red Bull arranges for him, which, as everyone knows, require blood tests.

Some people have special advantages, yet they often live like ordinary people. Because of his fear of doctors, Shu Long sometimes lives even more cautiously than ordinary people.

I reluctantly declined Leclerc's invitation to dinner that evening and returned to the hotel alone, intending to wash up and go to bed early. I didn't expect there would be other extra meals tonight.

Around 8 p.m., there was a knock on the door of Shu Long's room, and a deliberately hushed voice outside mumbled something about "hotel service".

The man immediately sprang from the bed, utterly shocked. He never expected to encounter such an adult-only scenario in a luxury hotel like the Crowne Plaza. He tiptoed to the door and cautiously peeked through the peephole, but saw nothing.
This isn't right, what's going on?

Shu Long quickly conjured up more than a dozen eerie ghost stories about the hotel. Suddenly, he felt uneasy about the emptiness of his room. Just as he was considering whether to ask the convoy for help, a message popped up on his phone:
"Open the door quickly!"

Tsk~ Gan! Meng! Ning!
"What are you doing, spooking me with all this nonsense? You're scaring me half to death!"

Shu Long couldn't finish his rant because the person standing at the door wasn't Gan Mengning, but a green-haired, legally-loved loli from some invincible bald anime.

He quickly looked around and saw no suspicious cameras nearby, only a few onlookers with wicked smiles squatting in the corner at the end of the corridor.

A quick glance revealed Leclerc, Gasly, and Alben, who had just gone out for a big meal, and Norris, who somehow ended up in the group.

Gan!
He scooped the girl up by the waist and pulled her into his arms. Before finally hiding behind the door, Shu Long didn't forget to give her the middle finger.

Several car convoys are stationed at the hotel. Shu Long's parents and grandfather have also been staying here recently. They paid for their own rooms, but the car convoys helped them contact the hotel to reserve the rooms.

Because Gan Mengning's family hadn't confirmed whether they would come, only two rooms were reserved. In fact, Gan Mengning's parents were "involved" in China and couldn't get away, so the girl came alone this time.

Although Shu Xiong and Zhang Xin left their room key with Gan Mengning after picking her up and went out to play, there were only three rooms left for their family in the hotel, and two of them were definitely not suitable. The hints from both families were very clear.

So it wasn't that Gan Mengning delivered the goods herself; it's just that she didn't have many options left.

As for her outfit...
Probably? Maybe? Perhaps? These were the compensation measures she came up with after much deep thought.

Gan Mengning had paid attention to Shu Long's usual preferences. Generally speaking, it was either Naruto, Bleach, One Piece, Dragon Ball, Fairy Tail, or One-Punch Man.

The girl looked around and realized that there seemed to be only one character that suited her figure for cosplay, and judging from the current results, the accuracy of the cosplay was extremely high!

Otherwise, why would people say voice actors are all monsters?
Although Shu Long is unaware of this matter yet, the fact that she was chosen on the first try proves that the girl has an exceptionally talented voice.

Especially when the tempting and delicious Miss Tornado in front of him let out her signature haughty "Hmph~" followed by the classic line "If you're not happy, get out!", the young Shu Long almost fainted on the spot while pinching the bridge of his nose.

I don't love lolis, it's just that the person I love happens to be a loli.
It's unclear how much determination it took for Shu Long to leave his room the next day, but the few bastards he encountered outside were openly mocking him, making him somewhat absent-minded all morning.

Gossip is something that can't be kept secret; it seems like everyone knows about it after just one night.

While the drivers were parading, the group of old and young didn't bother talking about the upcoming races. The younger ones all gathered around Shu Long, paying attention to his romantic escapades. The older guys seemed indifferent, but in reality, they were all listening intently. Ricciardo, who was always eager for gossip, was even more out of line.

I don't know which bastard spread this nonsense, but Max, who was playing simulators until midnight yesterday, initially thought that Shulong had arranged special hotel services in the area. He looked surprised, as if he was regretting missing out on this good show.

Shu Long wasn't quite sure who the culprit was, but he knew that as his murderous gaze swept over everyone, Lando was pretending to be nonchalant, leaning against the armrest, whistling, and waving to the fans in the stands with an awkward smile on his face.

Compared to the restraint and awkwardness at last year's Brazilian Grand Prix, this year's driver lineup suddenly includes several familiar newcomers, making the overall atmosphere much more relaxed.

Before the race, they joked and played around, but once they got in their cars, completed the warm-up lap, and parked their cars in the starting grid, the pre-race harmony vanished in an instant.

With thirty seconds left before the start of the race, the crew members who received the command began to evacuate the track.

Shulong finished his last Red Bull, fully absorbing the special effects of the "Energy Special," and after the lights came on, he followed the rhythm of the car in front of him to warm up his tires before stopping early in his starting grid.

It's not that he didn't want to slow down the car behind him.

However, this track is narrow and long, and everyone is being careful when warming up the tires because of the temperature sensitivity of this year's new tire compound. If he presses down on one side and then lingers for a while, his own tires might be cold by the time he starts.

As Kubica, who was in last place, drove his car into the starting grid, the five red lights lit up one by one.

Compared to the drivers on the track, the media and official commentators off the track were even more focused on the starting results of Shulong this time.

As everyone saw in Drive to Survive a week ago, Shu Long admitted in a dark room interview that his start in the Brazilian race was not accidental, and asked the audience to wait and see. Now is the key moment to prove that what he said is true.

The organizers of the event may have had the same idea, because this time the lights went out completely unpredictably. The fifth red light only flashed symbolically once before all five lights went out at the same time.

This move caught all the drivers off guard, and their average reaction time at the start was as fast as 0.3 seconds. Only Shu Long stood out. He overtook Leclerc in one start and squeezed into Verstappen's inside line before Turn 4, going wheel-to-wheel with him.

"This start looks really rushed! But we can see that Shulong's performance is still very stable!"

"Let's see how many spots he can squeeze into. Side by side?! Oh dear! Verstappen blocked the line at Turn 2, and Shulong chose to play it safe and didn't continue to fight head-on with his teammate who had the right-of-way."

"What teammates?"

"Oh, sorry, there were two Red Bulls in front of me, I accidentally mistook them for a team."

Gasly, who started at P16, was very impressed and silently gave a thumbs-up.

Five-star's side is still the same familiar place; once they start talking, they begin to ramble on and on.

But it doesn't matter. The audience wasn't there to listen to their analysis of the situation. At least this flustered expression has given Shu Long's performance enough emotional value.

Bottas actually had a pretty good start; starting from P2, he overtook his teammate Hamilton right away.

But at this moment, the intense battle in the front row seemed to have been ignored by everyone. Everyone was waiting for the race organizers to be a little more sensible and quickly announce the start reaction time for each car.

Finally, as the front row cars entered the second lap, the long-awaited overhead slow-motion replay arrived late. Shu Long, who looked even more like he had a false start than at the last Brazilian Grand Prix, had his reaction time at the start highlighted in bold red in the lower right corner of the screen.

"0.117!"

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　　Don't question my integrity, damn it! My eyes have been so busy lately they're practically purple. I even managed to finish this chapter on my phone today. I can finally relax after tomorrow.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)