F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 252 Large Go-Kart

After the second practice session, half of the riders in the paddock could go home, while Shu Long still had to stay at a hotel.

I didn't think much of it before, but now I suddenly realize how sinister these capitalists are!

How about getting a yacht to soothe your wounded heart?

Houses in Monaco are much more expensive than yachts, but in Shu Long's subconscious mind, these are the true symbols of luxury, even surpassing private jets by half a mile.

In Shu Long's view, private jets are a complete waste of money. Their only value is as a means of transportation, and their use is quite limited. The key point is that he can't even fly them himself.

Since you're flying on someone else's plane anyway, the sense of ownership you get from buying it is about the same as from renting it. Wouldn't it be better to just hitch a ride on a convoy of planes or take a private business flight?
The travel expenses can be reimbursed by the transportation company.
While yachts have significant limitations in terms of transportation, they are not primarily designed for commuting; they are mainly for enjoyment.

Moreover, the price of a yacht is not as high as you might imagine; Shu Long can afford it with half a year's salary.

The main problem is the exorbitant parking and maintenance costs, even more so than for a private jet. A single day's parking in Monaco Bay costs no less than €2000, and during F1 races, it can exceed €8 per day. Parking there for a year would be enough to buy a nearly new jet.
It's too materialistic! It's too decadent!
It all seems like unnecessary and trivial expenses, completely contrary to the values ​​of not being extravagant and wasteful that Shulong was raised with. Just thinking about it makes me want to give up. It's definitely better to stay in China.

It's comfortable, relaxing, and I can live in a big house.

The only downside is that the schedule doesn't allow it, especially since I heard that there will be 24 Grand Prix races crammed into the calendar next year, and I simply don't have the energy to travel back and forth.

Actually, what Shu Long really wanted to buy was a car; it's a hobby ingrained in his bones. However, land in Monaco is too expensive, and houses only come with one or two parking spaces at most, so there's nowhere to park even if he wanted to.

However, you could consider customizing a yacht domestically. Not only can you get higher specifications at a lower price, but maintenance and management will also be much easier and the cost will be significantly lower.

I'm already tired of living in Europe all year round, so it's definitely more comfortable to go back to China for a rare holiday.

That evening, Norris organized a paddleball game in the group chat. Shu Long, who was interested in discussing Monaco property purchases, surprisingly raised his hand and then went to borrow a racket from the young master, Stroll.

The young master is quite skilled at this, but he had to accompany his super-rich father on his super-rich private cruise ship for social engagements, so he reluctantly entrusted his beloved treasures to Shu Long.

Before leaving, he asked if I needed any protective gear, saying he had a lot of brand new spares and could throw in a few sets if needed, but Shu Long waved his hand and refused.

Pad tennis, also known as paddle tennis.

It's actually quite popular among drivers, and it's one of the very few social light sports activities that can get Verstappen, this super lazy guy, to come out on weekdays.

Shu Long felt that the focus of this thing was on social interaction rather than exercise.

It's similar in form to a tennis ball, but the court is much smaller. The racket is made of a hollow composite material with holes, and the ball isn't as bouncy as a real tennis ball, and its speed is much slower.

It doesn't require as much strength as tennis, and the intensity of the game is also very low. Compared to tennis, Shu Long thinks this thing is more like playing ping-pong on the ground, and it's a leisure and harmonious version for senior activity centers with almost no skill required.

It's just the right time to work up a light sweat, and take the opportunity to chat about topics we don't usually have the chance to discuss.

Because Gasly, who was traveling with us, was French, Monaco's special tax-free policy did not apply to him, so he naturally didn't have much to say about buying a house.

Norris only bought a property in Monaco last year, and after a period of renovation, he finally moved in this year.

The timeline was closer to the market that Shulong needed to understand, so he was the only one talking non-stop during the two-hour event that night.

Arnold's new house isn't very big, but it still cost him nearly 1000 million euros.

Vestapenna bought the house even earlier, after all, he was earning a top salary in the paddock several years ago. Shu Long had visited it a few times, but the less than 200 square meter house still cost nearly 14 million euros.

The cheaper houses, which are only 30 or 40 square meters, are generally no less than four million euros. They are not comfortable to live in and have low cost performance. Norris's opinion is that it is better to buy a slightly larger house from the start.

"Why not eat meat porridge?" That's an easy way to put it!
Even if he weren't an F1 driver, Norris is still a top-tier rich kid, so of course he would think that a little bigger or smaller makes little difference.

Shulong's salary prices have been high in the past two years, but the tax authorities have also cut them down significantly. If it weren't for the large sponsorships they secured this year, they would have been reluctant to give them up.

However, he has already earned nearly 130 points in six races this year. If there are no further changes to the 22 Grand Prix races in the season calendar and no more unexpected incidents occur during the races, then he should be able to reach 400 points this year. The points and prize money alone will not be a small amount.

Max's past experience seems to offer some lessons, such as considering having the racing team directly convert a portion of his income into real estate as a gift, thus indirectly avoiding a large wave of losses in between.

Makes sense!
Verstappen is usually very reliable off the field, and I'll remember this favor.

But on the racetrack, it's a different story, especially on a special track like Monaco, where the importance of qualifying results to the final race results and team strategy is self-evident.

Shulong showed no signs of holding back during Saturday's third practice session. Apart from his engine output being partially limited by the team, he was able to go all out throughout the session, and his fastest lap of the day, 1:12.376, once again beat Leclerc by 0.141 seconds.

This result was a huge reassurance for Red Bull, but it also put Verstappen under considerable pressure.

Verstappen is relatively weaker in street racing, and even though he was the eventual champion of last year's Monaco Grand Prix, his qualifying time was 0.230 seconds slower than Leclerc's. He ultimately won the race only because of a mechanical failure in Ferrari's car.

Including last year's game against Azerbaijan, which was also the only game in which Perez won against his teammate before being replaced by Shulong.

Going back to the Monaco Grand Prix each year, he only showed a clear advantage when he was teammates with Gasly. During his time with Toro Rosso, he couldn't even outrun Sainz, who was also a rookie at the time. Perhaps he really has a slight "weak wall" attribute in his almost perfect hexagonal ability panel?

His best lap time in the three practice sessions was still not as good as the two Ferraris, and the gap between him and his teammates was even greater than that between Bennez and Leclerc. Towards the end, he sat in the car and stared at the data curve of the Shulong for ten minutes before finally going out at the last minute to find his feel for the car with the old tires.

There's no need to look at the tuning, because both cars used almost entirely solutions proposed by Verstappen himself.

It's not that the team is allocating resources to this process, but rather that Shu Long isn't particularly picky about this step. His own highly adaptable tuning proposal is just too general.

The advantage is that even if a situation like Miami Verstappen missing two consecutive practice matches occurs, the teammates trained by Shu Long can still be used immediately.

Verstappen is equally adept at adapting, and he was indeed able to quickly grasp the root cause of why the dragon was faster.

The downside is that Shulong's mindset tends to overlook the potential for further exploration in racing, subconsciously relying on his driving skills to compensate for it.

At this point, Verstappen's pickiness and clear demands for racing cars became apparent, perfectly complementing Shu Long's personal abilities.

Sometimes the car's potential may be higher, and sometimes it may not, but it certainly won't lower the car's potential. When it's handed over to Shulong, he can quickly figure out the limits of this system.

Through the experience gained from the second half of the 2021 season and the few races in the 2022 season, the team has roughly figured out a more efficient way to coordinate during practice sessions.

In layman's terms, Vestager was responsible for solving the problems, while Shulong was responsible for verifying the calculations.

If Verstappen is faster, then the tuning should be geared towards him; if Shulong is faster, then the driving style should be geared towards Shulong.

But Monaco is special because simply understanding the key points of speed doesn't guarantee that you can actually achieve speed.

Especially after enduring a 51G impact last year, Verstappen has had some minor but persistent vision problems.

In areas where visibility is obstructed by the new regulations, he can hold his own thanks to his excellent driving feel, but there are also many corners where it is really difficult to be as adept as Shu Long.

For example, the new deceleration curve after exiting the tunnel.

Even though the tunnel has been illuminated by a lighting system, there will still be a significant change in brightness when you exit the tunnel, and the stimulation of light will cause the driver to experience temporary blindness.

The last time Shulong competed here, Lao Mi hadn't released a new work yet, but after several broadcasts from vehicle and helmet first-person perspectives, many young car enthusiasts who are fans of both have started calling this place the "Genshin Impact Start-up Tunnel".

That's quite fitting.
Changes in light have a particularly severe effect on Vestapan.

The particularly steep downhill terrain requires drivers to judge the braking point before the deceleration corner with great precision. They then need to navigate precisely between the protruding right-angle guardrails and the killer kerb. For Verstappen, who relies on his car feel for 80% of his judgment, this alone can create a gap of nearly 0.14 seconds between him and Shulong.

Ferrari, having seemingly pulled out all the stops, appeared as relaxed as Red Bull yesterday, with the most important evidence being that team principal Binotto's public statements were not particularly enthusiastic.

This is highly abnormal!
The louder the voice, the less confident one is. Otherwise, look at the Ferrari's huge advantage in the first few races this year; even the cauliflower on the teacher's head exuded humility.

Something's fishy, ​​there's definitely something fishy going on!
Red Bull's doubts persisted until Q2 when the clock stopped, at which point Leclerc set the fastest lap of the race, with Shu Long 0.133 seconds behind in P2.

As expected, everyone has been holding back quite a bit. Now, including Norris, the top five drivers on the track have lap times that are more than 0.15 seconds faster than the fastest lap set by Shu Long during the third practice session this morning.

The most interesting thing is that, apart from Shu Long, four of the top five drivers in the race currently live in Monaco.

It's true that locals gather in large numbers.

As for whether such results are meaningful, they should be somewhat relevant, but we'll have to wait and see the results of the first round of flight laps in Q3 to draw a conclusion.

Imagine cramming 20 large cars onto a tiny track; you can imagine how chaotic the traffic and clean windows would be.

Q1's Shulong wasn't even as fast as Kakuta. He ran a full ten laps on the softest C5 compound red tires, and was so exhausted from being blocked that he barely managed to get a time that allowed him to advance. In the end, he barely made it to P10 with a low score.

However, in Q2, with five fewer cars interfering, Shulong, who was released by the team first, still improved his time by 1.2 seconds on the first flying lap, even though his line was still affected by two slow Mercedes cars in the first lap.

Unfortunately, one of these five cars belongs to Zhou Guanyu.

Arro was initially very confident in the mechanical grip of their double pushrod suspension, but due to a series of MGU-K malfunctions this weekend, they, who already lacked testing time, were unable to find the best tuning solution.

Even Bottas, a regular in Q3 of the season, only barely made it into Q2 before disappearing from the scene, let alone Zhou Guanyu, whose weakness as a "weak wall" is even more obvious than Verstappen's.

In Q1, due to traffic conditions, he only managed one valid lap and even blocked Verstappen once, for which Alfa Romeo was fined 1 euros. After setting a lap time in Q2, Shu Long kept the old red kit on the track looking for a window, but due to frequent congestion, he was unable to improve his best time and remained in P2 to secure a place in the next round.

The pole position situation may still be unclear, but anyone with a clear head can see who in the team has a better chance of winning pole position.

The strategic shift that was supposed to occur only in the main race had already unknowingly fallen on Shulong, who put Red Bull's number two car into the track in the first push window.

Finding a clean window in Q3 is much easier. With half the cars off the track, by analyzing other teams' pit stop times using TR (Tracking and Analyzing) tools, everyone can basically calculate a window of opportunity where they can confidently push forward.

Shu Long was one of the last drivers to be released from the pit lane by his team. At that time, Mercedes, Ferrari and Verstappen had just finished their first round of flying laps and were about to consider pitting for new tires and looking for another opportunity after a lap to recharge.

Meanwhile, the two Alpine riders and Norris had just entered the tire warm-up phase, so if Shulong followed at this time and controlled the pace properly, he wouldn't be affected by any other car.

Of course, the window is clear now. The previous four minutes of doing nothing is equivalent to wasting a round of flight time. Other drivers may have three chances to improve their times, but by the time you get to Shulong, you basically only have two chances left to push forward.

In a way, it can be considered fair; at least Joss Verstappen, standing behind the pit room, can't be found to have any faults, nor does he seem to want to.

Perhaps it also has something to do with Shu Long's father, who was standing not far away with his arms crossed.

Its stature was even taller and more imposing than Shulong himself; just standing there was quite intimidating.

Horner showed Joss the photo of Shu Long punching a thick soundproof door panel and creating a dent last week. Even though Mr. Chao Xiong, who has a criminal record for domestic violence, used to beat up his own father, he was still a little intimidated by Shu Xiong's physique.

These two fathers met almost ten years ago.

Ten years later, Joss had gained a lot of weight, while Shu Xiong was still in his prime. Apart from a few slight signs of aging on his face, Asian faces generally don't show signs of aging.

My son is a size smaller and already this fierce, I can't even imagine how terrifying my much bigger father could be. If he really wanted to demolish my house, I'd probably send him sprawling on the ground with just one punch.
However, Shu Xiong didn't think that much about it. Shu Long didn't even mention the minor conflict that happened in the team last week to his family.

My grandfather and father were both tough guys who got into many fights when they were young. Their battle record was so impressive that it could be considered a nuclear deterrent. Under normal circumstances, there was no need to bring it out into the open.

At this moment, Shu Xiong was keeping a close eye on Shu Long's starting lap, and occasionally glancing at the traffic situation displayed on the track map, busy explaining the current situation on the track to the old man.

"The conditions on this lap are pretty good. If Xiaolong can make it out, I think he won't be bad."

At the very least, they can secure second place. Sainz and Verstappen's performances this weekend were significantly worse than their teammates', so the pole position should be decided between Shu Long and his F2 teammate.

The last time I saw this scene was five years ago, and recalling those days inevitably brings a touch of melancholy.

As for Gan Mengning, she stood with Shu Long's mother.

The broadcast cameras in the paddock seemed to have a particular fondness for focusing on the drivers' female partners. Whenever there was a gap in the push lap, they would like to film in that direction, so that the girls would often see their own faces in the frame when they looked up, and they didn't know whether to smile or act more demure.

Shulong is about to start running, so why don't you focus your attention on the right place?!

"Norris has already started pushing. I just noticed that Ferrari seems to be preparing for a second round of flying laps. The timing of when they get into the rhythm is crucial!"

"It's possible that Ferrari came out specifically to block them, since only the Shulong could keep up with Leclerc's pace throughout the weekend. But I also think Red Bull could have sent Verstappen out to hold them off in advance."

As they were talking, the commentators couldn't help but laugh.

This is Verstappen's eighth season, and the commentators have watched this troublemaker grow into the world champion he is today. When have they ever seen him do this kind of wingman job?
It's obviously impossible, but that doesn't stop us from having a laugh.

"Shulong is starting to accelerate. Oh dear, Turn 1 seems a bit slippery!"

"Stay calm, stay calm! We really need to hurry here. It seems the team informed him that Ferrari is leaving the pits, but he's still a little rushed!"

From Turn 1 to Turn 3 (Masnay), including the fake Turn 2, this is probably the longest full-throttle section in Monaco. If you get blocked by a Ferrari coming out of the pits, this lap is basically ruined.

However, Shulong had to move Norris a little further away, otherwise chasing the dirty air on such a track that emphasizes downforce would not do any good for lap speed.

Of course, the trade-off was that Shulong took in too much speed at Turn 1, resulting in a slightly larger tail slide when exiting the corner, which meant he must have lost some speed.

As you begin to track the car at Turn 3, before the front of the car is fully straightened, you need to seize a short opportunity to accelerate and then immediately brake again, scraping against the guardrail at the apex of the turn while opening the line outwards to clear the large bump in the road surface at the apex of Turn 4.

Shulong's driving in this section looked very smooth, and his precise control of the protective wall space, down to the centimeter level, meant that he was hardly affected by the terrain.

It feels great!
While Ran was still analyzing that Shulong's slip at Turn 1 might cause a loss of about 0.1 seconds, Shulong plunged into Turn 5 and had already completed his first sprint, with a green stripe appearing below his name.

This color doesn't actually represent anything.

The results from Q2 will not carry over to Q3. This means that every driver will be guaranteed a green line on their first flight lap in Q3, indicating that they have set their personal fastest time within this valid timed session.

However, above the green section is a purple section for the fastest lap time. Fans who can see the lap time data will notice that this section of purple still belongs to pole-sitter Leclerc.

However, in addition to color, Ran Ge, who also pays attention to specific data, also noticed that Shu Long's green in the first timeout of this lap was only 0.054 seconds behind the pole position time.

This is really fast. You have to know that even Leclerc in P1 has a lead of 0.25 seconds over his teammate Sainz, while Verstappen is 0.029 seconds slower than Sainz.

Whether they can secure pole position depends on the second timeout, which is also the part of the track where Red Bull has the least trouble.

In particular, the No. 6 Grand Hotel turn, where Shu Long even frees his left hand to press the steering wheel, is an extremely slow hairpin turn where the speed is less than 60 km/h. It is a long-standing problem that Red Bull has been racking its brains all weekend but has been unable to make an effective improvement on.

Before entering the corner, you need to take a false left turn, and then quickly move to the right and close to the guardrail on the rugged line to make the most of the track space and get the maximum turning angle.

It was truly used to its fullest potential; there wasn't a single flaw to be found in the footage. However, viewers who are sensitive to data might notice that the time deficit to pole position for just this one bend was already 0.13 seconds.

Besides the inherent disadvantages caused by the characteristics of racing cars, it was also because Shulong, knowing that he was slower than his opponent here, strategically chose to give up and instead of rushing to accelerate, continued to turn left and opened up a wider angle after the corner.

Then, with a slight touch of the brakes, the weight is quickly shifted to the front wheel to provide full front axle grip. The steering wheel is turned onto the right-hand sidewalk, and the inner corner of the wall is used to straighten the acceleration line as much as possible. After a sudden burst of acceleration, the car is kept in 2nd gear and swung into the Portier turn.

That is, the location of the newly built building that the Shu Long family chose as one of the locations for their restaurant business.

It's unclear how much of the losses caused by the Grand Hotel Bend can be made up for by taking this alternative route, but when Shu Long finished his second timed leg after passing the cigarette shop at Bend 12, the color bar under his name, indicating his lap time, was still green.

At the same time, the time difference between Shulong and the current pole position also appears. The yellow +0.144 indicates that Shulong has actually lost some time somewhere.

It's unclear which part it is, but the most likely suspect is the new deceleration curve after exiting the tunnel.

This bend places extremely demanding requirements on the angles of continuous steering for large vehicles in the hybrid era.

Especially for Red Bull's cars, compared to other teams with front pushrods, they are more prone to understeer here. As a result, the team had to set the front of the car to be quite sensitive, based on Verstappen's advice.

The commentators didn't have time to examine the details; the broadcast camera quickly switched to the opposite side of the pool bend, first showcasing the clearest high-speed footage of the cars' sliding angles, and then swiftly switching to the view from the opposite side of the combination bends 15 and 16.

You can tell whether a driver is conservative or aggressive here by how close they are to the guardrail at Turn 15.

And what about Shulong?

The first time there was no slow-motion footage, the commentators noticed that the guardrail seemed to be swaying slightly and felt something was wrong, as if Shu Long had not controlled the distance well and the car had hit it.

Who knows how much time this will cost, and they might even fall behind Verstappen in one fell swoop.

The camera then inexplicably cut to the vicinity of the finish line, capturing Norris sprinting into the new P4 with three green stripes, achieving a time that also broke the 1:11 barrier.

A pessimistic mood filled the studio. Could it be that in the end we couldn't even outrun a McLaren?
Finally, Shu Long arrived late, and after crossing the line, his score of three green-green-purple segments immediately caught his eye, instantly elevating his name to P2.

1:11.425, the gap from 0.144 seconds behind pole position has been reduced to 0.049 seconds!
Nearly 0.1?

Where did they draw the line between two worlds in Formula 1 racing?!
Just as the commentators couldn't understand where Shulong lost time in the second timing segment, they also couldn't figure out why Shulong was so much faster in the third timing segment.

The students in charge of broadcasting the footage couldn't figure it out either, but they found a slow-motion video that looked quite impressive, so they simply cropped it and projected it onto the broadcast screen at 0.25x speed.

The vibrations of the guardrail were not the commentators' imagination; Shulong did indeed come into contact with it.

But it doesn't look like a misjudgment of the entry point. In fact, the first half of the dragon was so precisely attached to the wall that the first word that comes to mind is "scalpel".

The problem seems to lie in the process of him quickly transitioning from Turn 15 to Turn 16.

For some reason, Shu Long seemed to have chosen to turn the steering wheel ahead of time, but at this time his tires were still grinding against the guardrail. The sudden outward swing of the tires looked like he was elbowing the guardrail outward.

Next came the rear wheel, which also lightly bumped against the guardrail.

Perhaps it's not that light?
These two consecutive combos don't seem like mistakes; rather, they seem more like Shulong using the reaction force between the tires and the guardrail to compensate for the car's understeer performance deficiency?
Will anyone believe this if I tell them?

Whether anyone believes it or not is unknown, but the moment Fei Ge voiced this guess, even he himself couldn't help but laugh.

But while laughing, he suddenly fell into a brief silence.

Could it be that the guess was actually right?

Otherwise, that extra 0.1 seconds that was suddenly gained couldn't have been achieved by spending money to create a double-shot kill. That would be too ridiculous!
(End of this chapter)