F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 86 Riding Horses with Old Lai (5K)

P9 did not last long.

The Ferrari and Mercedes race was so fast it felt like it came from another dimension. Leclerc was overtaken by Bottas not long before he quickly caught up with DRS on the next lap and regained his position.

For Mercedes, Ferrari in this race seemed to come from another dimension. After Bottas was overtaken by Leclerc, he couldn't even catch up with Leclerc's DRS and could only watch helplessly as the matte red car drove further and further away, chasing his teammate in P1 at an astonishing speed.

With no time to worry about anything else, wheel-to-wheel has always been Bottas's weakness, and soon the attack from his five-time world champion teammate behind him left him sweating profusely.

Ferrari is fighting itself, Mercedes is fighting itself.

The two teams each created their own romantic little world for two, strolling hand in hand on the track, making the single people next to them look out of place.

Oh wait, Verstappen, fighting alone, soon received ardent pursuit from his old teammates.

The claim that Mercedes can't catch Ferrari's DRS is like saying Red Bull can catch Mercedes' DRS.
Hamilton's overtaking maneuver was decisive and precise. The brief exchange did not affect the overall lap times of the two cars. Before long, they were hand in hand, leaving Verstappen more than a second behind.

This put Red Bull's No. 1 car in a very awkward situation.

You say this is clean air? Actually, the Mercedes-Benz Arena isn't that far away.

You said you could catch slipstream? On this high-speed track, having DRS and not having DRS are two completely different things.

Especially with the significant increase in the size of the forewing and tail fins this year, even a Mars rover would struggle to withstand the enormous difference in tail speed on a straight road.

Just like how even if Usain Bolt had an open umbrella hanging behind him, he still might not be able to outrun an average sports student.

Even though his former Toro Rosso teammate Sainz was driving a mid-range car that wasn't particularly competitive, he still managed to pull past Verstappen side-by-side on lap four before turn four using the first DRS.

However, Verstappen anticipated Sainz's moves and moved his defensive line ahead of time, forcing Sainz to only be able to get past him on the outside. At the same time, he widened his line on the outside when entering Turn 4 to squeeze Sainz's driving line.

Sainz on the outside is no pushover either, simultaneously forcing Verstappen to adjust his exit angle from the corner.

The strategy of overtaking on the outside of the lane is to create a wider acceleration line. By squeezing Verstappen's space, he forces him to reduce his turning radius, which means he can accelerate earlier and with greater force than Red Bull.

The two Red Bull-trained bulls clashed head-on at Turn 4, with Sainz ultimately suffering a complete defeat.

During the scramble for position, his right front scraped against the sharp edge of the side panel of the Verstappen. The next turn, Turn 5, was a full-throttle left turn. The right front, which had just been scraped, instantly bore a load that its crippled body could not withstand, and it split open on the spot.

This is bad news for Sainz. He still has a long way to go before reaching the pits, and even if he can hold on and not retire, the remaining 53 laps are essentially meaningless garbage time for him.

The black and gold-colored Has led a line of little trains past, and Shulong also got a great deal and went up to P8.

Just as Shu Long was about to launch a trial attack on Raikkonen in front of him, Hamelin's voice in TR calmed him down in time.

"Let's hold our position for now and try to overtake when we're absolutely sure we can do it. I think we're in a position to try plan B now."

Plan A before the race was to maintain a relatively consistent race strategy with opponents who had direct competition for positions, preventing them from taking advantage of the situation by pitting early to change tires and gain an advantage.

But now there is a problem: the red tires that Shulong is using to start the race are actually newer than the tires of Haas and Arro in front of him, and the same as the tires of Renault's Ricciardo behind him.

Because of their overall lap time advantage, Haas and Arroy, who were basically guaranteed to finish in Q3 before the race, both did two flying laps, but they were using the same set of tires at the time, and both wanted to use more new red tires in Q3 to try to push forward as much as possible.

Including warm-up laps, push-ups, and return laps, their tires already had 6 laps' worth of mileage at the start of the race.

Especially on a track like Bahrain, which puts a lot of stress on tire wear, starting with red tires basically confirms their overall strategy: to complete their first pit stop about ten laps in advance.

Let's analyze Renault again.

Because Hulkenberg was eliminated in Q1, he started with yellow tires, so his first stint will definitely be very long.

This year, the white tires are in very poor form. Whenever the tactics include white tires, the predicted time for the entire game is longer than that of other yellow and red tires with multiple stops.

Of course, considering Hulkenberg's starting position and current position, and the high frequency of overtaking and close battles on the Bahrain circuit, it's possible they might insist on stopping the yellow and white cars to finish the race and wait to collect their wallets.

Ricciardo, who entered Q2, knew he would have difficulty entering Q3, so saving on tires was pointless. Like Shulong, he also used two sets of new tires to create his flying laps.

This means they have at least three more laps of leeway than Haas and Arroe ahead of them on the first stint. It would be a waste to simply follow suit and pit early as a precautionary strategy.

This so-called Plan B is actually about maximizing the advantage of the tire's remaining capacity and attempting an overcut.

Verstappen is now 3 seconds ahead of Magnussen. Once Haas and Arro pit, Shulong will have about five seconds of clean air ahead of him, allowing him to overtake the lead car while its tires warm up after changing tires.

Of course, this is only a temporary decision, and the specific implementation will depend on the specific circumstances.

The most crucial data comes from Grosjean and Sainz, who pitted and switched to yellow tires due to tire blowouts. The team's strategy group needs to analyze the evolution of their actual lap times to determine the feasibility of this tactic.

These two drivers happen to be using different engines, one a Ferrari and the other a Renault. This data greatly helps Shulong's team determine whether they need to take strategic precautions against the Renault behind them.

Another player who has entered the pits is the young star of Racing Point, but he is using a Mercedes engine and his tires have been changed from yellow to red, so he is basically not of any reference value.

The initiative is now in Shu Long's own hands. Regardless of which plan is ultimately implemented, what he needs to do now is to restrain his offensive desires and preserve his tire condition as much as possible.

With the race reaching lap eight, after engineers calculated and analyzed the actual remote-sensed lap times of each team, they finally decided to adopt Plan B.

Perhaps because they pitted too early, Haas and McLaren instructed Grosjean and Sainz to extend the stint of this tire as much as possible. In short, their lap times looked quite bad in the first few laps.

On the other hand, Shu Long's tire protection during those four laps was extremely thorough. His [Friction Control] and [Tai Chi] techniques made him treat the tires as gently as if he were a baby.

And one more thing.
"Magnussen's lap times have shown signs of declining since the last lap."

"I noticed that too. His rear wheel must be overheating; his rear end is wobbling a bit now."

Kimi has already started making moves to surpass him. What should I say? Should we look for an opportunity to overtake him?

"Let's overtake him when it's safe to do so, and see if we can use him to widen the gap with Renault."

"Copy!"

It was to be expected that Hass, as the locomotive, would collapse first.

The Bahrain circuit is not like the Albert Park circuit, which is narrow and difficult to overtake. Here, the threshold for becoming a locomotive is very high, and the cost of defending against the cars behind is extremely high.

You can either disrupt the cornering rhythm of the car behind you by making exaggerated lane changes, sacrificing your own cornering rhythm, or strategically move forward to try and regain position within the three DRS (Driving Speed ​​Regulator) zones. The first option results in higher tire wear, but the unknown risks are relatively small.

The second type of tire wear isn't much better, but whether you can overtake and come back after letting the car pass is another matter.

I don't know how Magnussen evaluated it. Maybe the original plan was that the first set of red tires would have a short stint, and it didn't matter whether the tire wear was high or not. Anyway, it seems that he chose the first option.

His defensive style has been his signature since his debut. He's willing to go to any lengths for victory and team orders. Considering the qualifying mileage, it's not surprising that his old red tires, which only lasted a dozen laps, deteriorated so quickly.

But neither Raikkonen nor Shulong, who are behind him, are good people.

If you can block one dragon with your drawing, do you think you can block two?
After a lap of probing attacks, Shu Long and Raikkonen, belonging to the two teams respectively, vaguely discerned each other's intentions and tacitly decided to cooperate temporarily.

The opportunity lies in the combination of the ninth and tenth corners on lap ten!
Magnussen, another talented driver who also made his debut on the podium, even ranked higher than Hamilton and Shulong in the first race. At that time, Ricciardo's result was cancelled due to a fuel line violation, and he was even promoted to P2!

Although he kept moving between small teams for various reasons before finally settling down at Haas, his career seemed to have started strong but ended up going astray.

But that experience at least shows that Magnussen is definitely not bad. In fact, if we ignore his somewhat unsportsmanlike behavior, when his racing competitiveness is good, we can even say that Magnussen is actually very strong!

The attack intentions of Aro and Little Red Bull behind him were very obvious, and he had noticed them long ago and had a preliminary plan to deal with them.

The team's instructions told him to pit on the next lap, which meant that regardless of whether he could hold this position or not, he would be making a profit if he could replace even a little bit of his opponents' tires with these tires that had little value left!

However, he underestimated the inexplicable level of understanding between the old man and the young man behind him, and he also underestimated the extent to which Shulong had preserved the condition of the tires.

Turn 9 is a downhill corner with a slight leftward tilt and a negative angle, requiring extremely high braking force and precise tracking.

Based on Magnussen's assessment of the vehicles behind them, it would be very difficult for them to overtake by braking late here; they could easily lock up their tires if they weren't careful.

However, just to be on the safe side, he braked a little earlier before Turn 9 and chose a relatively narrow lane to block the possibility of cars behind him cutting into the inside lane.

He wasn't sure about the condition of the car behind him, but Magnussen's own tires were almost worn out, so this early braking and slow entry maneuver put less strain on his brakes and tires.

However, he never expected that this young man, Shu Long, would be so reckless. He took the lead from the outside of Turn 9, riding on the shoulder of the road, and pulled away from two racing cars in the middle of the turn.

Let alone the old red tires that have accumulated more than ten laps, not many people would dare to play like this even with brand new red tires.

Unfortunately, the concept of "holding on to death" is practically obsolete in Shulong's vocabulary.

With the existence of [friction control], as long as it doesn't want to, the chance of the tire locking up can approach zero.

Magnussen now has two options: either continue with his usual defensive strategy against Raikkonen, or completely shut down the dragon.

Judging from his delayed entry into Turn 10, Magnussen's choice was clearly the latter.

Whether analyzed rationally or emotionally, Magnussen's choices in this round were completely sound.

First of all, his strategy is clearly the same as Kimi's. The similar pit stop timing means that there is not much point in defending against Arro here. Instead, it is more beneficial to reduce the tire life of Shulong.

Another one, can you guess where the nicknames "Ma Hualong" and "Paddock Killer" came from?

For spirited drivers, most have a mentality on the track like, "You can overtake me, but you can't beat me!" They can't help being overtaken on the straights, but they will try to struggle in the corners no matter what.

Magnussen goes to an even more extreme position: "You can neither beat me nor surpass me!"

In that instant, no thought of weighing options crossed his mind. His first reaction upon seeing Shu Long's actions was, "Go to hell, don't even think about it!"

However, this left Raikkonen with a very wide opening on the inside of Turn 10, and the old man didn't hold back at all, even if it meant locking up the tires to force the front of the car in.

Isn't the opportunity here?

Shulong had no intention of confronting Magnussen head-on. With its tracking front end swerving inward, it crossed lines with Haas, then turned and caught up with Aro's wake, both activating DRS for a thrilling ride.

The camera panned to the pit lane of Toro Rosso, where the crew members who had just helped Albon complete a parking maneuver were jumping up excitedly as soon as their butts touched the chairs, cheering and giving everyone they met a bear hug.

The second DRS zone is quite long, which is why both Raikkonen and Shulong choose to use it as an overtaking point, allowing them to gain a significant advantage.

Kimi hadn't expected Shulong to make a move right at Turn 9, but since the opportunity had come, there was no reason not to seize it.

Hamelin, who witnessed the entire process through the vehicle's camera, swallowed hard. Although he didn't entirely approve of Shulong's actions, he still offered an encouraging remark: "Well done, keep it up."

The commentators didn't understand why Shu Long made this choice either. In their view, since there were strategic differences between the two teams, it was only a matter of time before the cars in front entered the pits earlier, and there was no need for Shu Long to make such a risky move here.

"Wow~ It's so beautiful! But aren't the young people being a little too impulsive here?"

"It was indeed a bit impulsive, but I think that for a young man who is clearly on the rise and has talent, being a little impulsive is a good thing. At least it can send a positive signal to the team."

"Speaking of this, I'm reminded of when Verstappen first joined Red Bull. Back then, he often made some basic mistakes, but he didn't give people the feeling that 'he's not good enough.'"

Some things may not be deeply felt by those who are not in the cockpit, but Shulong has his own considerations in doing so.

Firstly, if you want to try to overtake on the long straight in the second DRS zone, the tire wear will be considerable, both during acceleration and in the heavy braking zone at the end of the straight. In comparison, corners with lower speeds are easier to monitor tire wear.

Furthermore, the gap between him and Magnussen is greater than that between Raikkonen and Arro. Raikkonen may be able to easily accumulate enough speed to overtake on the straight, but for Shulong, not only is the distance longer, but the required speed is also higher than that of Arro.

In other words, if Magnussen makes any defensive move against him, then Shulong's chance to overtake him will likely be postponed until the next DRS zone, which is a complete waste of tires.

Moreover, it's said that Kimi and Shulong have some chemistry, but let alone the fact that they're on different teams, their teammates often fight amongst themselves. Who knows if the cunning old man, after overtaking Haas, will turn around and help Magnussen defend against Shulong behind him.

After all, from a macro perspective, Raikkonen and Magnussen, who have similar strategies, are not only rivals, but also share highly aligned interests regarding the issue of Shulong.

Shulong, who was sticking close to Aro, didn't rush to continue his attack. Instead, he first checked with the team to confirm the time difference between himself and Renault Riccardo.

“Ricardo is 1.3 seconds behind you now, but he has Haas’s DRS, so he can close the gap very quickly.”

"Copy!"

We were delayed a bit at Turn 10, and the gap that Renault had created by following the train line was quickly closed again.

To make matters worse, Magnussen pitted right away on that lap, giving Ricciardo a final stretch of DRS and clearing him up with a fairly clean push.

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　　Still no change. My head is throbbing from trying to figure out the strategy logic, and I'm still stuck at 5K today.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)