Chapter 211: The Complexity of Monaco
As the jewel of street circuits, the Monaco Grand Prix naturally possesses the most prominent characteristics of a street circuit: winding, narrow, and treacherous.
Almost the entire circuit is enclosed by barriers, and even a slight mistake by an F1 driver can lead to minor scrapes or, worse, an early exit from the race.
Numerous elevation changes and variations in light and shadow across the track further elevate the difficulty of this circuit.
Wu Shi was naturally very familiar with this circuit; hadn't he just raced it on the sofa with Louise?
However, familiarity alone means nothing; a good car is also required.
Monaco has always been rich in commercial activities, and many F1 drivers reside there, so Wu Shi arrived as early as Wednesday.
He visited Leclerc's home; at that time, Hervé Leclerc seemed to be in good health.
Later, he went to Hamilton's house.
Hamilton's fashionable attire at home always made people overlook his profession as an F1 driver.
"You can't touch this thing this year," Hamilton said, patting his Mercedes simulator at home.
"Haha, I was hoping to come and learn how you guys do your setups," Wu Shi joked.
That evening, the F1 drivers held a yacht dinner, attended by sixteen F1 drivers. Ricciardo took selfies of the whole event with his phone, flashing his characteristic big grin, and posted them on Instagram.
This picture attracted many shares, as it was a candid group photo of almost all the F1 drivers, making it a valuable keepsake for many fans.
The relaxed and enjoyable days ended on May 21st, as the F1 drivers arrived at the prepared circuit to begin practice sessions.
"It's a bit cold today," Massa said, waving his hand in the air.
"After all, it just rained," Wu Shi said, looking at the circuit with some concern in his eyes.
Monaco is different from other circuits; it doesn't allow for much room for error.
Some F1 drivers, who are precise on larger circuits, frequently make mistakes when they come to Monaco.
It's like being asked to walk in a straight line along the grout lines between floor tiles; a normal person can do it.
But when the path underfoot becomes only the width of a foot, even though the difficulty is similar, most people will wobble.
This psychological effect is very pronounced on a narrow circuit like Monaco.
Even the local F1 driver, Leclerc, often loses control of his speed, leading to understeer and hitting the wall.
Furthermore, the circuit also has a certain deceptiveness. Some corners have run-off areas, which can easily give F1 drivers the false impression that they can brake later, when in reality, the braking distance is already insufficient.
Even Wu Shi had to admit that fully extracting the car's performance on this circuit was an extremely difficult task.
"It seems nothing we say now will help much; let's just prepare well for the practice session," Massa said, clapping his hands.
The difficulties with car setup over the past two weeks had, to some extent, already affected the drivers' mindset.
Wu Shi shook his head, holding back a thought: "The narrow Monaco circuit is no longer suitable for the increasingly large F1 cars to race on."
However, as a public figure, he couldn't just say that freely.
As he sat in the cockpit and drove onto the circuit to begin the practice session, he increasingly felt that his view was correct.
The extremely long downhill sections and various blind corners were quite taxing on one's mental state.
Of course, what was most taxing was the Williams Team car; the steering was incredibly difficult!
The slight rain on the ground and the low temperature made the situation even worse than imagined.
Wu Shi experienced several rear-end slides during long-run tests and had no choice but to adopt a more conservative driving style.
After driving for half an hour, he brought the car back, got out immediately, and said to Jonathan:
"It's just too slippery. It's not an issue of overall downforce, but rather a collection of small issues that make the whole car struggle."
This statement gave all the engineers and mechanics present a huge headache; they knew the problems, but how to fix them?
Wu Shi didn't have many ideas either and could only observe the other drivers on the broadcast.
As he watched, he saw Rosberg run wide, his car scraping against the barrier as it slid past.
"Hiss, he almost wrecked the car," Wu Shi inhaled sharply. Watching others race was indeed more nerve-wracking than racing himself. Why was that?
"Were you here last year?" Jonathan suddenly asked.
"What?"
"Qualifying, Rosberg's mistake," Jonathan said.
"Hmm, that should have just been an accident?" Wu Shi shrugged; there was no need to speculate on such meaningless things.
"I'm just telling you, the qualifying window might be shorter than you think," Jonathan reminded him.
"This Grand Prix is a challenge."
The two chatted for a few moments, then began to adjust the car.
After the initial uphill section, the Monaco Grand Prix quickly enters a long downhill, causing the braking to naturally shift forward.
This shift in brake balance occupies a large amount of front-wheel steering grip, leading to the most unpleasant understeer on a street circuit.
The current issues with the Williams car all stemmed from this: insufficient load on the rear wheels disadvantaged the front wheels, ultimately preventing faster corner entry.
This problem had been on the table for days, yet there was no good solution.
The engineers discussed for a long time and finally decided to start with the suspension and tyre pressure, as these were currently the easiest areas to find brake balance.
After the adjustments were complete, Wu Shi drove onto the circuit again. The car still struggled to navigate the corners, especially on downhill sections, where the front wheels almost turned into sliding friction, making him realize it still wasn't right.
The supersoft tyres did not provide the desired grip on the wet surface, and their wear rate was not optimistic.
"The new asphalt is too slippery," Wu Shi complained over team radio.
The result was that throughout the entire hour-and-a-half practice session, Wu Shi entered the pit lane seven times, using up two sets of supersoft tyres.
Massa was no better; his speed also remained at a midfield level, and he was struggling significantly.
When the clock stopped for Free Practice 1, Hamilton's Mercedes was still competitive, taking first place with a time of 1 minute 18.750 seconds.
Second place went to Verstappen, with 1 minute 18.899 seconds, which put the Red Bull driver in the spotlight.
However, what the Williams Team observed was that after the aerodynamic upgrade, their car was no longer as competitive as Red Bull's in Monaco.
Wu Shi was ranked 9th, with a time of 1 minute 19.666 seconds, and Massa was even lower, in 11th place.
Such a poor practice session performance immediately attracted the attention of reporters, so as soon as Free Practice 1 ended, reporters stopped Wu Shi and Massa in the paddock.
"Hello, Wu Shi," the reporter greeted in Chinese, then asked in English:
"This is your first Monaco Grand Prix, and it seems the team is encountering some issues; your pace is far less sharp than in previous Grands Prix."
Wu Shi pressed his tongue against his cheek before saying, "Yes, we are still looking for the right setup balance. I believe our car has pace, it just might not be well-matched with this circuit."
"You introduced an aerodynamic upgrade at this Grand Prix; has it brought sufficient benefits?"
"Uh, well, I believe the upgrade brings long-term benefits. As for the specific situation here, we still need more time to evaluate it properly."
After Wu Shi finished speaking, the reporter turned to ask Massa.
His answer was largely similar; the FW37 was somewhat out of its element in Monaco.
After the Williams Team interviews concluded, Verstappen was again surrounded.
Just like when he was a child, his face always made people think he was pouting during these interviews.
After congratulating him, the reporters changed tack and asked:
"Max, your Free Practice 1 results are quite good. We see that you performed better than your teammate, but you know that's not our main focus.
"You've been competing with Wu Shi since your karting days. This weekend's Grand Prix, your car seems more competitive. Do you think you'll achieve a better result in your competition with Wu Shi?"
Verstappen paused, then said, "This is just Free Practice 1; you know we are all adjusting our cars and testing different things. A temporary lead doesn't mean anything for the race."
Wu Shi smiled knowingly when he heard this from the periphery. If it were in private, Verstappen might have directly said, "Just wait, this victory is mine."
Unfortunately, this was in front of the media, so he had to speak carefully and avoid getting carried away with overly enthusiastic remarks.
In the afternoon's Free Practice 2, the weather turned bad. It started raining shortly after the session began.
Then Merhi of Manor hit standing water at the exit of the tunnel and crashed into the barrier, triggering a red flag.
Subsequently, even after the circuit was cleaned and the session resumed, most drivers were no longer willing to risk going out to run, with limited dry line available and low grip levels.
"Perhaps I should go out and try some intermediate tyres," Wu Shi said to his race engineer.
"Rainy weather data doesn't have much reference value for qualifying or the main race if it's dry – we'd be better saving the tyres and focusing on setup simulations back at base," Jonathan advised.
"Hmm," Wu Shi nodded in agreement.
Free Practice 2 ended early in the rain. Perhaps it was because of his victory in the previous Grand Prix, but he had become extremely eager for success in this round.
It should be said that human hearts are greedy; even though he had coincidentally become a race winner and touched the top of the points standings, he now found himself wanting to maintain that position.
Jonathan saw the anxiety on Wu Shi's face. This Grand Prix had presented major challenges from the start, so it was no wonder the young man was feeling the pressure.
The team was also very troubled. After a mix of strong and difficult race weekends, they now faced another potential struggle. If the problems Wu Shi raised couldn't be solved, then this Grand Prix would be a tough one.
Reporters seized the opportunity and stopped Wu Shi, who was preparing to return to the team's hospitality area.
"This rainfall is truly unfortunate; most teams did not complete the tyre and setup tests they had planned. What is your situation?"
"We are the same; the wet track and the red flag disrupted our FP2 programme," Wu Shi answered honestly.
"Will you be able to complete a competitive setup before qualifying tomorrow?" the reporter pressed.
"God knows," Wu Shi said, blinking.
"Do you mean if it stops raining, you'll know the answer?" the reporter asked.
"God knows," Wu Shi repeated, letting the phrase speak for itself.
Now the reporter understood.
Subsequently, that evening, reports indicated that Williams was encountering development difficulties and might be in trouble in Monaco.
"The Williams Team's high-downforce package is useless on complex street circuits."
"Being good on a street circuit is what really counts! Wu Shi doesn't seem to be adapting well!"
"Have you forgotten Wu Shi's strong performance in Singapore last year?"
"He's just an opportunist who got lucky with a win."
Perhaps because he had become famous, there was an increasing amount of extreme commentary online.
Wu Shi didn't have the leisure to read these idle remarks, but things from social media always reached his ears in various ways.
"This is the inconvenience that comes with being a highly-watched F1 driver. When I went back to the Netherlands a while ago, I was recognized everywhere I went – I definitely don't think that's entirely a good thing," Verstappen shared his thoughts on the matter during dinner.
"Don't pay too much attention to them; there will always be people who try to belittle you. They're just armchair experts who think they know everything," Vettel consoled him.
Outside the circuit, most F1 drivers' relationships were calm and friendly.
After dinner, almost no one chose to rest; instead, they all returned to their respective garages for evening setup adjustments.
At Williams, many engineers didn't even eat dinner. They were working overtime, using the real-world data collected during Free Practice 1 to calibrate the simulator and adjust aerodynamic and mechanical models.
"Let's start testing the revised suspension settings," Jonathan said directly when he saw Wu Shi approach.
Wu Shi nodded and stepped into the simulator.
With the new parameters inputted, the car on the simulator felt just as difficult to drive as the one on the circuit – this was a good thing, indicating that the models closely matched real-world conditions.
Almost every half hour of driving, Wu Shi would participate in a video conference with engineers from the UK headquarters.
Every problem he reported would be discussed, and at the same time, engineers constantly asked him why certain corners felt different from their simulated predictions – was it a driving limitation, a parameter miscalculation, or an inconsistency between the model and reality?
Constant attempts, constant improvements, constant communication, constant adjustments.
This was the brutal reality of race weekends – normally, test drivers would handle much of this work, but the team's test drivers lacked the pace to push for ultimate performance, only able to provide data on stability during development.
Wu Shi and Massa worked with the team until very late.
When the simulation work ended and they walked out of the garage, white lights were still visible through the windows of several other teams' facilities.
This wasn't just for one Grand Prix; it was like this every single race weekend, with most teams tirelessly pursuing every tenth of a second, yearning for higher grid positions and race results.
"We're actually leaving quite early," Wu Shi said self-deprecatingly.
"Of course! You're still growing, so you need to go to bed early and wake up early – that's how you'll be sharp for qualifying," Massa joked.
"6," Wu Shi said, using his casual catchphrase.
This piqued Massa's interest again, leading to a series of questions about what the phrase meant.
When he saw the Brazilian driver enthusiastically learning the usage of "6," Wu Shi was a little worried that his occasional catchphrase might spread through the paddock.
The next morning, the rain finally stopped, and track conditions rapidly improved. By eleven o'clock, the circuit was completely dry, with the track temperature starting to rise.
Free Practice 3 began.
Because the heavy rain during Free Practice 2 had delayed many teams from testing different tyre compounds and setup variations, this session was extremely busy.
Monaco's complex layout has seen many crashes over the years, with incidents commonly occurring after Turn 10 at the Portier corner.
As Wu Shi drove his warm-up lap, he felt that the adjustment of the steering arm allowed for a greater maximum cornering angle, but it also made the front wheels extremely sensitive and prone to losing grip at the limit.
The driving window is getting narrower and narrower, he thought silently as he prepared to start his flying lap.