F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 79: Time and fate
Gasly's speed in the race is actually not slow.

In the three practice sessions, whether it was the long-distance race or the lap times simulated in qualifying, his overall level was more than capable of placing him in the top ten.

Red Bull's cars may be a bit difficult to handle, but they have the foundation to back it up, so even at their slowest, they shouldn't be unable to get into the Q2.

The main reason Gasly had such a bad starting grid position in this race was that Red Bull's strategy team focused most of their attention on Max during qualifying, leaving Gasly waiting for clean air in the pit lane, which ultimately backfired.

The Mars rover is, after all, a game-changer for the Earth-based racing team.

Overtaking is difficult at Albert Park, but that's only true for cars with similar speeds. In just twenty laps, Gasly has managed to rise from P18, where he was battling with Williams, to P8.

However, considering that Gasly and Stroll have not yet entered the station, their actual location should still be around P11 or P12.

Actually, it's quite good. On this track, the factors that determine the race results have always been ranking > strategy > driving, but clearly, under the dual pressure from Marco and Shulong, Gasly's goal in this race is not limited to that.

He and Shu Long were among the closer friends in the Red Bull system, but that didn't stop him from showing no regard for the blue car in front of him on the track.

It's true that it's hard to break through the train formation, but he's overtaken countless DRS trains along the way. You have to earn your seat through your own strength to make it secure.

However, he soon realized that Shulong was fundamentally different from the others.

Those subtle lane changes, seemingly imperceptible, can often catch him off guard at the most delicate moment when his center of gravity shifts, leaving seemingly plenty of space but no chance to intervene.

Shu Long had difficulty breaking through the train formation earlier, but we need to see what kind of people and trains he was facing.

Those were Red Bull's former No. 1 driver, current No. 1 driver, and Ferrari's future No. 1 driver, all driving top-tier Martian cars that could snatch points from Mercedes's head during its heyday. This kind of Starry Sky Railway is not something just anyone can keep up with.

Who's in front of us now?

It's Lance Stroll, the inspirational young master who was driving a specially tuned version of Dad's Power in F3 and was still beaten senseless by Shu Long.

The young master is quite an interesting person. He has been driving in F1 for two years now, and this is his third year.

He was criticized for relying on his father to buy his seat, but after entering the paddock, he quickly achieved good results, proving that he was not only a qualified F1 driver, but also a talented F1 driver.

In his first year as teammates with the uncrowned "tragic Massa," Stroll was indeed thoroughly outmatched by Massa in the first few races when he hadn't yet adapted to the pace of F1 racing.

Not only were they completely outmatched in qualifying, but their consistency in the main race was also abysmal, constantly colliding with one opponent or another.

Just when everyone thought this guy was nothing special...
Good guy!
Following his first career points in P9 at the Canadian Grand Prix, Stroll started in P8 at the next race in Baku, Azerbaijan, and finished in P3!

In just 8 races, he accomplished what Hulkenberg hadn't achieved in 8 years, earning himself a podium finish!

In the end, his total points in his rookie year were almost the same as Massa's, only three points behind.

But if you were to say he's truly exceptionally talented based on these results...
Hmm~ But the young master's performance often gives the impression that this guy is really bad.

Give him a fast car and he seems to be able to run it too. When the car is fast, the young master's fighting spirit will also rise. But once the racing is no longer competitive, the young master's spoiled temper will come out, and he will show a "I'm done, you can do whatever you want" attitude.

This is the first game of the season. After a winter break, the young master's fighting spirit is still high. When he finds that the familiar old rival is following behind him, he can't help but feel a little itchy to play.

Shu Long, who was following behind, couldn't help but chuckle in the TR. He felt that the young master was working hard to guard against him, but from the line to the braking point, it revealed a strong academic style of Ferrari youth training. Every move was very easy to guess. Shu Long knew what he wanted to do just by moving his butt.

How should I put it? It's kind of cute.

In comparison, Gasly's presence behind him was even stronger. Shu Long could now only use his peripheral vision to pay attention to the movement of the race car in front, focusing his main attention on the rearview mirrors on both sides.

Unfortunately, Shu Long doesn't have time to waste here with them anymore. The most important thing about the undercut is that he needs to make a lap time that is enough to overtake the car in front during the window between his own pit stop and Verstappen's pit stop, instead of dawdling behind the slower cars.

Now that Ferrari has tricked him, if Shulong doesn't get out of this train of cars as soon as possible, he might end up giving up his position to Leclerc for nothing.

Although Stroll's defensive moves are easy to predict and understand, getting past him in a short time is not an easy task.

Shulong had already figured out this guy's driving style back in F3.

The routines he learned were relatively standardized, but perhaps because Stroll had invited Montoya, the famous man who used to dare to go head-to-head with Schumacher on the track, to be his tutor for a while, his offensive and defensive moves were still quite fierce.

That is, if he had looked in the rearview mirror.

Sometimes Shu Long really can't tell whether this guy simply has a tough driving style or doesn't know how to use the rearview mirror.

If you say it's the former, then this guy completely ignored all the feints that Shu Long painstakingly made behind him.

However, if we say the latter, then the person did indeed take the necessary defensive measures.

From lap 21 after his pit exit until lap 25, Shu Long spared no expense in using up some tires and attempted four laps of attack before finally finding a weakness in the pink-colored car ahead of him at turn 11.

The section between Turn 10 and Turn 11 is not defined as a corner on the track, but it is actually a high-speed section consisting of two short straights and a long left turn.

Because there is no DRS (Driving Speed ​​Assist System) and the two consecutive corners, Turn 11 and Turn 12, are high-speed sharp corners where drivers have to endure considerable lateral G-forces, these are generally not considered regular overtaking points.

Strohl hadn't expected there to be such a madman in the world, so he relaxed his pace a little.

Without the speed advantage provided by DRS, the only way to overtake here is to withstand lateral pressure exceeding 5.5G on the curve, provided the speed exceeds 250 km/h.

is it possible?

In any case, it is theoretically possible, because someone did it.

Shulong seized this brief opening! The reason why it's difficult to overtake here is not only because there isn't enough tail speed to keep up, but also because on the narrow track, to ensure cornering speed, you need to pull out as large an entry angle as possible.

The greater the angle of entry into the corner, the higher the maximum cornering speed will be.

That's the theory, but in practice, it's not something that can be simply summarized as "sticking to the edge".

On other tracks, the sidewalks are shoulders, but on the outside of Turn 11, there's a wall!

Even when pushing a single lap in qualifying, almost all drivers will leave enough safety space in that area, let alone when fighting for position with opponents in the race. Which driver would be so reckless as to do that?
On a low-speed track like Monaco, you might just scrape against the wall and that's it. But here, at over 250 kilometers per hour, even a slight bump will shatter the car!

The concept of G-force is not simply about straining your neck or making the steering wheel feel heavier. It applies a comprehensive load to the driver's body from the inside out and from top to bottom. You can keep your body stable and prevent it from swaying, but can you control the blood flow and prevent it from rushing to one side of your body due to inertia in a short period of time?
Even seasoned F1 drivers will experience a significant impact on their fine motor control under such high G-force corners. Symptoms such as blurred vision, blackouts, or numbness and loss of control in the hands and feet are common.

But Shulong is determined to be such an outlier.

The young master's racing line was still the same as always. He slowly shifted to the outside of the track between Turn 10 and Turn 11, braked quickly to reach the lowest speed, pulled up to the position closest to the wall, and quickly entered the left turn of Turn 11. Then he tried to position the car on the left side of the track, trying to give himself enough angle to enter Turn 12.

This short section of maneuver was extremely physically demanding, involving a series of complex and rapid turns at small angles. The average speed of the race car throughout the entire section exceeded 260 km/h. When the driver passed through this section, all the air in his chest was trapped in his trachea, and he could only take deep breaths after he had passed through.

It wasn't just because of the tension, but more so because in a high-G environment, there was a short period of time when my internal organs even stopped functioning.

Under such harsh conditions, when Stroll discovered a car blocking his inside lane before entering Turn 12, his brain almost gave out due to hypoxia.

Watts?!
That means we need to ask what exactly Shu Long did just now.

Before entering Turn 11, he stepped on the brake pedal about 20 meters in advance. Although the force was not heavy and it was only a slight braking, the sudden increase in the clearance made Stroll feel that the threat behind him had been greatly reduced.

This is not only to avoid Stroll's braking point and prevent him from affecting his cornering rhythm, but also to pave the way for higher cornering speeds to cut into Stroll's cross line.

Generally, before entering Turn 11, the driver will downshift from seventh to sixth gear, reducing the top speed from 290 to around 265. Then, upon entering the turn, the driver will reach the lowest speed of 251 at the apex. After that, the driver will adjust the center of gravity by slightly releasing the throttle by about 20% and then push the throttle into Turn 12.

Although Shu Long braked early, he maintained a speed of around 275 km/h and entered the corner about one car length ahead of the usual entry point.

The key to achieving such high speeds into corners lies in the fact that the racing line is 20cm more aggressive than that of a regular racing line, allowing for extreme wall-hugging.

This is no longer a matter of the driver needing to control the precision in centimeters, because the tires on the outside of the rope are indeed rubbing against the advertising foam board pasted on the guardrail, but it is only an ambiguous yet gentle touch, like fingers brushing the surface of water.

A lateral force of 5.5G is nothing; the overall physical fitness that is close to the theoretical peak of human beings is just that unreasonable.

His taut muscles were like those of a fighter pilot in high-pressure anti-G suits. While others struggle to overcome physical limitations to maintain operational precision, Shu Long was practically immune to any negative physical conditions.

An earlier entry point and higher cornering speed do not necessarily mean that Shulong's overall speed is faster in the combination of corners 11 and 12.

In fact, this line choice will cause Shulong to fully utilize the shoulder of the road at the exit of Turn 11. The cost of not being able to create a sufficient entry angle for Turn 12 is that he not only cannot enter the corner at full throttle, but also has to brake to compensate for the loss of front-end grip due to the center of gravity.

But that doesn't matter. Wheel-to-wheel battles have a different focus than pursuing the ultimate lap time. The key to overtaking is the battle for position. Shulong only needs to be faster than Shao Ye in the first half of Turn 11.

Choosing a completely different line of intersection from the car in front means that when he cuts into the inside of Stroll's corner, no matter how advantageous the other car's cornering angle is, all the initiative is now in Shu Long's own hands.

No matter how good the angle is, if someone is blocking your way, how can you get past?

The answer is no, you can't get past it.

Not only could he not get through, but the young master, whose mind had suddenly gone blank, also accidentally accelerated a little too much as he exited the turn. The sudden loss of traction caused the car's overall trajectory to drift outwards, and the left rear wheel directly hit the outer gravel buffer zone.

Gasly, who was watching the fight from the sidelines, was surprised by Shulong's boldness and precision, but the opportunity to overtake was right in front of him. Before he could even make a decision, his body followed the instincts of a driver.

Fuck him!

The young master, who had intended to return to the track immediately, had only just turned the steering wheel slightly when he was forced back by a second speed machine that roared past behind him.

"Man! How could he?! How could they... What the fxck?!"

"Copy, Lance, we've seen it. So, this lap, stop, repeat, this lap, stop!"

With 25 laps on yellow tires, they are still quite a distance from their pre-race pit stop window, but the tires this season are particularly sensitive. After so many laps and being tormented on gravel, the tires are basically ruined.

Unlike the young master, whose race was essentially a waste, after passing Stroll, Shulong was ahead of Vettel, who was a full fifteen seconds behind him and had already completed a stop. This was the so-called clean air window that the team had originally planned.

It's a pity it was just a little short. If Shulong had been positioned right in front of Stroll after exiting the pit, then this pit stop, even though Ferrari had outmaneuvered him, could still be considered a perfect strategy.

To be honest, this so-called window was calculated on the spot by the strategy team in the P room. There are many dynamic variables involved, and it can't be calculated so accurately every time. It can only be said that it depends on the timing and fate.

Conversely, Verstappen and Leclerc, who did not pit, maintained a pace that was almost entirely in clean air for the past five laps.

This is where Shulong suffered the most strategic disadvantage in this incident.

Verstappen was the first to pit on lap 26, and Leclerc completed his only tire change of the race on lap 28. As expected, he emerged from the pits ahead of Leclerc, officially marking the complete failure of his undercut tactic.

Shulong, who had pushed hard for three laps in clean air, was informed of this cruel result. In the remaining thirty laps, his most important task has changed from chasing position to keeping the tire in good condition.

　The track layout was changed after the 21 season, and the fourth section of DRS was added between Turn 10 and Turn 11.

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(End of this chapter)