Chapter 410: Race Weekend | Saturday | Qualifying in Monaco

"1:12.400 is going to be the cutoff time for Q1, but we need to be up by about three-tenths to be safe and commit to not returning to the track. Any lap time below 1:12.100, and we will send the driver out again to try and improve on their time.

For Q2, the cutoff is expected to be around 1:11.850, but depending on track evolution, the time can get lower, and we will update you if it does.

If possible, we want to use a single compound to go through each session, but with the track evolution improving by over 0.150 every four minutes, the difference between the first five minutes of a session and the final two minutes can be around a 0.25 to 0.35 leap in track speed. For Q1 and Q2, we will be on a two-fill strategy.

The cars will be loaded with the exact fuel needed for four laps per run: one out-lap, two consecutive push-lap attempts in case of traffic interruptions, and one in-lap. For mode, we will be running the engine on Strat 2 for the out-laps to manage harvesting, but you will have to switch to Strat 1 the moment you are on the final corner before the push lap.

To maximize peak RPM and the deployment before you hit the heavy braking zone at the Nouvelle Chicane, you have to avoid short-shifting when coming out of the tunnel..." Marco Perrone, Head of Race Strategy, started going through the details of what was required of both the drivers and the team during the upcoming qualifying session in the pre-qualifying briefing.

With both drivers going to the same track, he started with the general and some even obvious bits of information as a courtesy to Fatih, who was new, but also to avoid someone not knowing the obvious for any number of reasons, which had happened before.

The two drivers kept listening while looking at the laptops in front of them, containing the details of everything Perrone was talking about, until he was done with the general briefing and finally focused on Fatih, whose situation was slightly different.

"For Fatih, we currently have only two brand-new soft compounds that we can use, with the third one being locked for Q3 by FIA mandate. So our current target is to go through to Q2 and qualify as high as possible for possible points through strategy tomorrow.

But if possible, we want to go through each of those sessions with a single compound, so we will start Q1 with a used compound from FP3 and then move to a new compound for the second half of the qualifying session to benefit from track evolution. In case we run out of new soft compounds at any point in time, we have..."

He started detailing what their expectations of Fatih were, which were set very low, for him to just move to Q2, to reduce the amount of pressure he would be feeling as much as possible, before finally moving to Gasly, who looked to be in deep thought, contemplating something that no one in the room seemed to have a solution for.

CLAP! CLAP! CLAP!

Franz clapped to gather the attention of everyone in the room as the meeting was approaching its final minutes, with qualifying being only a few minutes away.

"Okay, guys. The entire week we have been building up to this moment, so let’s make sure we do our best because, as everyone already knows, in Monaco, track position is king, with overtaking being nearly impossible. So, let’s give it our all and good luck," he said, trying to motivate everyone in the room for what was coming before the meeting was brought to an end as the drivers left to go and do their final preparations.

.......

"I think you are the only one who doesn’t have a ritual, while everyone else has their own," Alex said as Fatih finished putting on his racing suit and shoes before he picked up his phone and started using it as he waited until there were about ten minutes to the session starting to go downstairs.

"Talking with my friends and family is my ritual," Fatih said with a chuckle as he continued typing, replying to the answer he had received from Seraphina, who was very enthusiastic in her messages.

"Do you have antifreeze for blood? Because even I, who am not going to be the one driving the car, am shaking from nervousness, but you don’t seem that nervous at all, as if you are about to go on a stroll," Alex said as he raised his hand to show that it was shaking from the nerves he was feeling.

"I had enough time to digest everything, so I can keep the excitement and nerves at bay for a moment," Fatih said, but deep down, he was feeling extremely thankful for Invictus, which he knew without it he would have been sweating buckets.

"Okay, it is time," Alex said while looking at his watch.

-Talk to you once I’m done with qualifying- Fatih typed on the phone and sent the message.

-Good luck.- came as a response, which he "hearted" before handing the phone back to Alex and heading out of the driver’s room, down to the garage, full of excitement as he was finally going to put all of the training Apollo had put him through in the simulation into practice. But just as he was coming out of the tunnel to enter the garage, he couldn’t help but pause as his eyes looked to be focusing on something invisible.

"Sorry," Alex said, having bumped into Fatih’s back due to his abrupt stop.

"It’s alright," Fatih answered a few seconds later with a bright smile on his face, as what he had gotten couldn’t help but make him smile openly. He greeted Lisa before walking towards the table where his helmet was, a tribute to his mother and his brother and sister who were still in her womb.

.......

[ZONE HAS BEEN TRIGGERED]

[Invictus (Limit Break)] → [Invictus (Limit Break)]

[Sponge Brain (Limit Break)] → [Sponge Brain (Limit Break)]

[Sponge Body (Limit Break)] → [Sponge Body (Limit Break)]

[Aquaman (Ultimate)] → [Aquaman (Limit Break)]

[Catlext (Genius)] → [Catlext (Ultimate)]

2

[Racecraft (Genius)] → [Racecraft (Ultimate)]

[Setup Mastery (Genius)] → [Setup Mastery (Ultimate)]

[Hypervigilance (Genius)] → [Hypervigilance (Ultimate)]

[Mirror (Genius)] → [Mirror (Ultimate)]

Fatih looked at the still-hanging system interface in front of him as Lisa tied and tightened his seatbelt. He was already in full focus for the upcoming session as he assimilated the new sensations he was feeling following the triggered Zone.

It had been quite a surprise for this ability to be triggered in his first race because after Apollo beat him for the second time during the 300km drive in Istanbul Park, the chances of Zone being triggered had been halved.

"Thanks, Seraphina," he said in his mind, attributing it to her wishing him good luck just a few minutes ago.

"Why is she being thanked when it was the system that triggered it?" Apollo, who heard him giving thanks, immediately chimed in for the sake of the system, as it couldn’t defend itself.

"Thanks, system, as well," Fatih, in too good of a mood to try and argue with him, thanked the system as well before his radio finally crackled.

{Radio check?} James asked.

{Loud and Clear,} Fatih answered as he adjusted the balaclava under his helmet on the nose section that had been protruding slightly.

{We will head to the pit lane with thirty seconds on the clock to the start of the session, and we’re about thirty seconds from it.}

{Okay.}

.......

"Welcome, ladies and gentlemen, it’s qualifying day here in Monaco. The most important qualifying of the season, they say, and why is that when pole has only won 30 out of 66 previous runnings of this Monaco Grand Prix?

Well, it is because the last two have been led from start to finish by the pole-sitter, and the winner has come from the top three on the grid here 56 times in the history of this Monaco Grand Prix.

We have held 67 of them, a record for the highest number of races on a street circuit in the Formula One World Championship.

The fans are back, and the boats are lining the harbor. This is the street circuit we are interested in today. 2 miles long, 19 corners, 8 to the left and 11 to the right. Your lap time at full throttle around this track is just 45% compared to 78% at Monza, and this is filled with undulations everywhere.

On the run down to Sainte Dévote, there’s a chance of an overtake there if you’re late enough on the brakes, and Lewis Hamilton managed to get past Michael Schumacher in the 2011 Grand Prix.

Let’s go forward to the Nouvelle Chicane, where Max Verstappen had one chance to get past Lewis Hamilton, and he didn’t quite make it and eventually got a five-second penalty for an unsafe release, and ended up finishing fourth in that race in 2019.

And 1992, and what a finish this was! Nigel Mansell, after a late pit stop, chasing down Ayrton Senna and just losing out by two-tenths of a second.

The three tire compounds for this week are the softest in the Pirelli range. It’s the C5, C4, and the C3. That hard tire was the softest tire at the last two races, with the difference being the asphalt and the grip that the drivers have been getting, which is plentiful according to Lewis Hamilton. Plenty of this circuit has been resurfaced since we were last here in Monaco, and boy, did we miss it, Martin Brundle, last year. Isn’t it great to be back? And what a qualifying session this could be?"

David Croft went through his intro as the feed showed the graphics of the track before showing different battles that happened at different parts of the track in previous Grand Prix races. The feed finally returned to the track with a one-minute timer on the lower right side of the screen for the start of the session.

The timer kept going down until, with thirty seconds to the pit exit being opened and the session about to start, cars finally started leaving the pit lane to rush to the pit exit to wait for the opening of it there. The third among them was Fatih Yıldırım, heading out for his first-ever qualifying session with his eyes in full focus and everything as optimal as it could be for him, thanks to Zone.

Everything he had done in his life was nothing but a journey to be here, and as a result, he was giving it his full attention, knowing anything was possible.