F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 251 On-site Investigation of Monaco
The Monaco Grand Prix and the Spanish Grand Prix are once again scheduled to be back-to-back on the calendar.

Moreover, because there was a charity football match on Tuesday, the schedule after the match was actually very tight. Basically, I had to get to the venue with the convoy as soon as I turned around, and there was hardly any time to rest.

Shu Long originally wanted to hitch a ride with Alonso, but Horner didn't agree, saying there were things they needed to discuss.

Why can't we discuss this after it's been finalized?

In the end, Shu Long took Alonso on Horner's private jet, while Verstappen left on Sunday night in his own Soda Falcon 900 EX.

Thank you very much.

Even if Shu Long had the thickest skin, he would probably wait a few weeks before he felt comfortable hitching a ride, provided that Max's father wasn't on that plane.

This is exactly what Horner wanted to say, or rather, it's one of several things he wanted to say.

After Shu Long left the meeting yesterday, Horner had another private conversation with the father and son. His first words were to bring up the two major shareholders behind Red Bull Racing to put pressure on Pan's father.

If Lao Tapao continues to interfere with the team's decisions without restraint, it's possible that Tai Niu might send someone to intervene directly. In that case, there might really be a problem with resource allocation within the team. Let the whole family weigh the pros and cons themselves.

After the initial reprimand, a gesture of goodwill was expected, and Horner, on behalf of the team, naturally apologized to Verstappen and his son.

The reason why the conflict on the track yesterday escalated to that extent was largely due to the fact that the teams had significant problems coordinating the situation on the track.

Whether it's Shu Long's red-red-yellow-yellow or Verstappen's red-yellow-red-yellow, these were actually ideas that the drivers came up with on the spot and had nothing to do with the race strategy planned in advance by the team's strategy group.

The only role of strategists and race engineers is to quickly determine the feasibility of implementing a driver's idea once it has been put forward.

If that's the case, why is the car team getting involved?
Let them compete freely. Once they start talking, biases are bound to arise, because the fundamental purpose of strategy is to defeat the opponent, which of course includes teammates.

I must have been out of my mind yesterday to get myself into this mess. I even managed to set off the explosives on Shu Long's body with a single sentence.

Horner brought Shu Long here with this intention: on the one hand, to apologize for the chaos caused by the team yesterday, and on the other hand, to discuss with Shu Long how to improve their current free competition rules.

Asking Shu Long such a question is pointless; he hasn't really studied it at all.

Horner naturally offered his opinion, hoping that the two drivers would have more trust in the team's strategy group during the race.

As he said this, Horner glared at Alonso with feigned displeasure. He always felt that this old guy had corrupted Shulong, and that he was full of ulterior motives as soon as he got to the field.

Alonso was immediately displeased and glared back at him.

What do you mean by him leading people astray?

If it weren't for the factions within Red Bull's team a couple of years ago, Shu Long, a clueless kid with no connections, might have been sold out and even helped count the money if he hadn't been more cautious!
Whose fault is this?

Well, in the end, both Red Bull and Alonso are a bit wronged in this matter. After all, Shu Long was known for his many tricks back in the day when he was driving go-karts.
In short, that's roughly the gist of it. Horner's attitude is that he understands the driver's desire to win with unconventional tactics.

However, if a team lacks trust in its own team, it becomes too passive even if the team is willing to coordinate, which inevitably leads to oversights that dissatisfy both sides.

Monaco is a good testing ground because the difficulty of overtaking there makes team strategy particularly important, especially given the weather forecast that this weekend will likely be a rainy race.

In addition to the drivers' performance in qualifying, the teams' ability to judge and make decisions in the situation is put to the test.

Therefore, Horner hopes that Shu Long might take this opportunity to try to have more trust in the team and see the effect, which would be a good thing for both the driver and the team.

The flight from Spain to Nice Côte d'Azur Airport in France takes less than two hours. Alonso saw that Horner's attitude was quite good, so he didn't mention his past with Alpine.

Let's discuss this with Marco; the old man has almost absolute authority on matters related to youth training.

Moreover, the current negotiations are basically only related to Toro Rosso, so contacting Horner is not very useful. Unless Piastri also showed undeniable potential during his time at Toro Rosso, it is not really Red Bull's team principal's place to worry about it.

Besides, you can't put all your eggs in one basket. You have to give old man Marco some incentives to keep him motivated and keep Horner in check, right?
The rest of the time was mostly casual conversation, related to tomorrow's charity football match.

Horner fooled Shulong last week, or perhaps the race organizers fooled Shulong as well. They pulled out a huge promotional poster covered with drivers' names, making it seem like almost every active and retired driver in the paddock had a chance to be featured.

But actually, that was an invitation list. What was written on it only meant that the person had received an invitation letter, and did not mean that they had actually confirmed their participation.

For example, Kimi, the guy in the poster, is busy preparing to participate in the Watkins Glen tournament of the NASCAR Cup in the United States.

Although the competition won't be held until August, and Project 91 is a project that specifically invites internationally renowned drivers to expand its influence, it doesn't stop Lao Lai from being willful and not wanting to socialize, and then using this excuse as a shield.

Both Red Bull members were on the shortlist at the time, and when Shu Long saw that everyone was so uniform, he reluctantly agreed.

It turns out that Verstappen suddenly cancelled the event after the Spanish Grand Prix due to unforeseen circumstances. A significant number of other racing celebrities on the list also opted out, leaving only Leclerc, Gasly, Sainz, and Alonso confirmed to participate.

Oh, and there's also Stefano Domelicali, the current head of F1, who quite naturally took the goalkeeper position that Shu Long had reserved.

It's understandable that the CEO might have some difficulty running and engaging in intense competition, but...
"Then why would I go? Everyone knows that our area is practically a wasteland of football culture, and besides, I really can't play!"

They had hoped Alonso would put in a good word for him, but instead, Tou and Horner exchanged glances and patted Shu Long on the shoulder with a serious expression.

"It's okay. Before you came along, I always thought China was a wasteland of racing culture. Just consider it as you coming to keep me company, okay?"

Faced with his agent's rare plea, Shu Long found it really hard to say "No".

Okay, but isn't this forcing someone to do something they're not comfortable with?
Fortunately, everyone involved got along quite well. They weren't particularly close to Sainz, but because of Norris and Leclerc, they interacted quite a bit. Having acquaintances to talk to might make things less awkward.
Bullshit! So embarrassing!

Aside from top-tier F1 drivers and a few relatively unknown socialites, the remaining vacancies are filled by a bunch of former French national team legends, former AC Milan legends, and former Monaco legends, in addition to a few current players.
After rambling on and on, he still didn't recognize any of the names in Shulong!
What else can be done?
I don't usually pay much attention to football. My memory is good enough to match all the names and faces on the spot. It's really making things difficult for each other to praise each other's glorious deeds!

But for Shu Long, who is currently enjoying great popularity, these so-called celebrities seem to know him inside and out. They showered him with endless compliments, almost making him dizzy. When he tried to reciprocate with polite words, he could only rack his brains to come up with a bunch of useless nonsense.

Fortunately, the only people present were the broadcasters; there were very few spectators. Without spectators, there was no pressure.

Moreover, it's less of a competition and more of a test of human relationships and social skills.

For some reason, Rekkvyat, who had joined the All-Star team, was not spoiled at all. He even kicked off the glasses of F1 boss Domenico. Everyone else was trying to feed the F1 drivers the ball. After getting the hang of it, Shu Long found that it didn't seem too difficult.

Aside from Gasley's rainbow tricks and fancy techniques.

But in other aspects, it seems that as long as you can run, jump, keep running and jumping, even if you have no dribbling skills at all, you can be invincible as long as you kick the ball out and then chase after it.

The rest of the process becomes very simple; just make sure your legs don't give way when you get to the opponent's goal.

Summary – A game of numbers!
Alonso and Gasly each scored a goal, while Leclerc and Sainz, the Ferrari brothers, were completely slacking off. Gasly was the only one who started to put up a fight, but he was soon outmaneuvered by his former teammate and ended up squatting on the sidelines, straining the bellows.

It wasn't until the second half that he finally regained some form, and then Shu Long ran around the field like a rabbit, seemingly oblivious to social niceties despite his supposed social skills, and ended up scoring 7 goals by himself.

Even after the final whistle blew, they seemed a little reluctant to leave; if Alonso hadn't been holding them back, they might have even wanted to play another half.

Putting aside his ball skills for now, his stamina is truly beastly!

Elena, the strength and conditioning coach at Shulong, is thinking of calling the police. This is the same as the last time they organized the Miami bike ride. Red Bull always seems to be arranging useless and unnecessary activities.

Having squandered so much energy before the competition, she still needs to figure out how to manage her diet and supplements these next few days.

Especially after such strenuous exercise, the loss of a large amount of body fluid requires more scientific and precise replenishment of water and electrolytes to restore the body's osmotic pressure balance, thereby ensuring that the dragon can have the best physical function during the competition.

In addition, magnesium, which maintains muscle function, and Omega-3, which controls inflammatory responses, are also essential.

Even though Shu Long had repeatedly emphasized to Elena that he wasn't really that delicate, this older sister, who had been working with him for almost seven years, still insisted that this troublesome little brother strictly follow the "scientific recipe" for a few days.

Even though the entire Shulong family arrived at the scene, they didn't get any leniency during the family dinner, and their mouths were practically watering at the seams!

I really want to eat hot pot.
Fortunately, the next stop is Baku in two weeks, so Shulong should be able to sneak in some time to indulge himself.

This time, the whole family was mobilized. Apart from Gan Mengning, who had already finished her graduation defense and only had to receive her graduation certificate and degree certificate, Shu Long's parents and even his grandfather came to the scene.

It's been a long time since I've been to a live match to support Shu Long. Also, I should probably go to Monaco to get some advice on buying property there. Putting taxes aside for now, since we're planning to buy a house, the location and layout naturally need to be considered. For this, my family even hired a well-known feng shui master to walk around with a compass.

Shu Long didn't really understand the intricacies of this matter, and he didn't know if feng shui still made sense in foreign lands.

However, seeing how serious they were about it, it wouldn't hurt to just seek some psychological comfort and join in Grandpa Shu's antics.

Wednesday was a fairly fulfilling day with my family. We finalized a few decent locations, and now we just need to confirm if there are any properties available in those areas.

Monaco is a very small country. The 3.337km-long racetrack covers almost the entire country. As a well-known tax haven, many wealthy people would rather leave a house vacant and have someone live there than not retain their Monaco residency status.

This means that while this small country has a relatively high population density, the number of available homes is not as plentiful as it appears.

Moreover, it's too extravagant. A simple slice of pizza at an ordinary small restaurant can cost twenty or thirty euros, which is equivalent to more than two hundred yuan for a meal that doesn't taste very good and doesn't even fill you up. It's fair to say that it's not cost-effective at all.

After walking around, Grandpa Shu's eyelids twitched with heartache. Shu Long, whose diet was restricted by the physical trainer, could only watch from the sidelines, drooling and grumbling about wanting to eat hot pot, but this gave the family a new inspiration.

For Monaco, with a land area of ​​only 2.08 square kilometers, it doesn't take long to cycle around. Some things there were already explored by Shulong back in 19.

There is only one Chinese restaurant in the entire country!
The Shu Long family had dinner there, at a place called "Songqi". From the decor and storefront, you would never guess that it was actually a Chinese restaurant.

The business is actually quite good; it's a well-known hotspot for socialites and socialites in Monaco.

To say that the dishes they offer are Chinese food is not quite right. Looking at the Chinese names on the menu, you can tell that they are typical "Westernized Chinese food." The target audience is clearly very specific, and they are, in a sense, highly praised "foreign delusions."

Oh no, the saying "when in Rome, do as the Romans do" should be considered "Chinese nonsense".

Shu Long's mother's current idea is to see if she can find a way to take over a shop here and open a Chinese restaurant.

Even if Shulong lives overseas, he will still be able to enjoy some familiar flavors. Whether he can make a profit is another matter. Having an industry in the local area will make tax-related operations much simpler. Even if he loses money, he will still make a profit.

For example, the most common type is the BVI leather case.

That's a good idea. Shu Longjia even has businesses in the catering industry in China, so it's not like they're completely without experience. They don't lack supply chains or personal connections.

Unlike Mr. Shu, who made his fortune in the automotive industry, Gan Mengning's grandfather started his business in the catering industry. He had his own supply chain and had no shortage of connections.

Even if it's lacking.

With a signboard like Shulong here, it's not really necessary to lack anything.

As for the properties, it would be best to acquire them from existing locations. If that's not possible, the area outside the Portier corner of the track, where buildings have already been constructed on reclaimed land, could be considered as a potential entry point.

Let's put aside the off-site matters for now; by Thursday, we'll officially be back to work.

Aside from a brief driver and media briefing, the rest of the work mainly revolved around team-related tasks, with occasional trips to Hot Laps.

Red Bull always has a lot to do at the Monaco circuit. To ease the tension between Shu Long and Verstappen, they arranged a bunch of interactive games for two, and even invited Shu Long's parents to ride in the car and experience their son's driving skills.

It wasn't just a simple car ride; the convoy also assigned Mr. and Mrs. Shu a lot of interactive tasks, such as asking questions and giving interviews.

Previously, Verstappen had also experienced a fright from Max. Rather than being a task to complete a question, it was more like a prank on Shu Xiong and Zhang Xin.

DJI cameras, which were installed all over the car, recorded everything exactly as it happened. The title of the video they posted on their official account was already prepared for them.

Red Bull driver speeds through the streets, scaring his dad half to death.

Then there were no practice matches.

Shu Long has only participated in the Monaco Grand Prix once so far, in 19. There is a very unique tradition here that the first two practice matches are held on Thursdays.

This tradition stems from the fact that Monaco's earliest tournament dates coincided with religious holidays, and Thursdays were usually a public holiday.

The organizers seemed to think that moving the competition to Thursday would have a greater impact, so they moved the original Friday schedule to Thursday. Even though the influence of religion has diminished over time, they have still preserved this tradition.

However, for some reason, this tradition was completely abolished this year.

Perhaps to make it easier for the FIA ​​to add more races to the calendar, and because holding back-to-back races on Thursdays would be too much of a burden for drivers and teams, the decision was made to end this tradition, which was actually unnecessary long ago.

By Friday, most teams had finally realized exactly where the challenges of the new regulations lay for them.

This is especially true for Red Bull.

The Monaco circuit is notoriously difficult, with narrow sections, low margin for error, and a significant number of slow corners.

Red Bull's front-pull, rear-push suspension design this year already lacked mechanical grip, and in order to allow the car to enter corners properly, the team even had to make additional adjustments to the steering ratio of the car's steering wheel.

This means that the driving experience of the race car is completely different from that of other tracks.

In addition to the differences in driving experience between ground effect cars and aerodynamic cars, this year's tires have been replaced with 18-inch tires, and ballasts have been added above the front wheels. These are additional factors that will greatly affect the driver's visibility on the narrow Monaco circuit.

Let alone pushing the limits of wall-hugging driving, the apex of many corners is completely invisible, making it almost like the drivers are running blindfolded.

Ordinary people may never understand how terrifying this feeling is; it's something you can't easily experience just by sitting in a simulator.

Even Shu Long was so excited about this track that he trembled uncontrollably.

So exciting!
As mentioned earlier, Shu Long only participated in the Monaco Grand Prix once in 19, and even going back further, he only ran an F2 race once in 17.

He skipped levels so quickly, perhaps second only to Verstappen, which meant that Shu Long actually lacked a lot of racing experience before entering F1.

This year, there are 20 people in the paddock. Even if we include the complete rookie Zhou Guanyu, Shu Long is the driver with the least experience in Monaco racing, apart from Kakuta.

But perhaps it is precisely because of this that, while others are still trying to get rid of the influence of past habitual judgments on this year's new driving style, Shu Long has already quietly pushed the lap time to the top of the entire field in the first practice session with yellow tires, even 0.089 seconds faster than Leclerc, a local driver, with yellow tires.

With yellow tires and everyone searching for the right setup for the new racing cars, these results aren't really that valuable for reference.

In practice, a fast car may not necessarily be fast in qualifying, but a slow car will definitely not be fast. Shulong's extremely rapid adaptability speaks volumes.

For example, Mercedes, who thought they had solved the dolphin jump problem, suffered an even more severe dolphin jump this weekend than at any previous race, and were extremely bumpy even in low-speed corners.

However, this time it seems that the problem wasn't with aerodynamics, but rather that Mercedes' entire suspension system was set up incorrectly. Russell believes that their car frequently experienced situations where both tires were lifted off the ground simultaneously during bumpy rides, making it impossible to perform normal push laps.

Can you really expect them to suddenly have a burst of good performance in ranked matches like this?

That's really difficult!
During the second practice session, Shulong fell back to P3, but was flipped up by the Ferrari, which gradually began to exert its power.

This is a disadvantage in terms of racing, and it's not easy to solve, but Red Bull doesn't seem too worried.

The charm of Monaco lies in the fact that racing performance is not the sole determinant of everything.

Similar to the rain race, finding the perfect limit by the smallest margin is not easy. Even though this is Ferrari's absolute advantage track this year, they cannot guarantee that their two drivers can consistently deliver a perfect lap at crucial moments.

Leclerc's many years of racing experience from F2 to F1 seem to have proven something. This Monaco native driver seems to be cursed by his home field, as every year his races here end in various bizarre and unfortunate ways.

In 17, he retired from the F2 race due to a broken suspension while on the same team as Shu Long.

He retired from the race in 18 due to brake failure.

In Q1 of 19, the team unexpectedly failed to advance from the main race due to a tire blowout.

After 20 years without Monaco, mechanical failures brought it back to prominence in 21.

Those 22 years.
(End of this chapter)