F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 16 Zhou Guanyu

The Bahrain Grand Prix ended abruptly after the return lap.

Steiner still has a lot of things to arrange with the team, and there's another race to prepare for in five days. Fortunately, it's on the same track, so there's no need to deal with the equipment transportation issues.

But after such a major upheaval in the team, the subsequent media interviews are the most troublesome issue.

As the team leader, Steiner basically had to shoulder all these responsibilities, and in the short term, he could only try to avoid interviews with Shulong.

There are also some that are impossible to refuse, such as the Netflix "Drive To Survive" crew. Not to mention that the car team itself has signed a cooperation agreement with them, any producer with a brain would not let such a story-driven and thrilling scene go for free.

Steiner had already warned Shu Long that this matter had both advantages and disadvantages, and Shu Long naturally had no reason to refuse. It may seem like he was blatantly digging into the driver's sore spot, but it's foreseeable that the show will bring Shu Long considerable attention after it airs.

With strong financial backing, attention is often tied to commercial value, meaning that many potential sponsors, especially in a highly commercialized global sport like F1, could become the capital for Shulong to maintain its position in the future.

Slipping on his slippers, he stepped into the small garden outside, where another young man was already there, kicking small pebbles along the way and looking quite restless.

"Oh my, why do you smell so strongly of your father? Is your wife giving birth in there? I'm not dead yet!"

Upon hearing this warm Mandarin, the visitor immediately relaxed completely, radiating a soft, relaxed aura.

However, now that she felt relieved, she became quite blunt: "Not dead? If you hadn't told me, I would have thought you were cosplaying a mummy. Don't come to the desert for a competition and expect to immediately integrate into the local culture!"

"Are you kidding me?! Does Bahrain have mummies?"

Just as he was about to retort, Zhou Guanyu felt a stinging pain in his eyes and nose, and his voice choked with sobs, making it difficult for him to continue speaking. However, he still turned his head away out of pride.

The atmosphere was really awkward. Shu Long didn't know what to say to break the silence until he saw the black and yellow racing suit that the other person was still wearing.

"Oh right! I haven't had a chance to congratulate you on winning the championship at the end of this race, have I? What was your overall ranking at the end? I think it was third?"

"I'm third, a minor third place. How can I compare to you, a monster who jumps one level every year?"

"Huh? Someone's being sarcastic?"

"Shut up! Go to hell!" Zhou Guanyu laughed and cursed after being rebuked, and pretended to kick Shu Long in the butt.

The shameless guy jumped back in shock, then immediately froze on the spot like a big frog, gasping for breath, his expression filled with indescribable regret.

"Thank goodness you're alright in the end. Huber went through such an accident last year, and now you've had it again. I almost thought I was just not cut out for being a race car driver and would only bring bad luck to the people around me."

"Ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh ooh!"

How cheesy!

I wonder if this guy has lived in the UK for too long, or if he expresses his feelings so frankly?

Shu Long felt the atmosphere was terribly awkward. If they had just found a screenwriter to polish the lines, they could have easily created a dozen melodramatic scenes.

After blowing his nose several times, Zhou Guanyu tidied himself up in front of the hospital's glass wall [he really cared about this]. His baseball cap and mask covered most of his face again, but his signature dark circles still made him stand out.

It has to be said that his current image is much more pleasing to the eye than before. He is clearly a very handsome young man, but during his two years of training at Ferrari, I don't know who influenced his aesthetic sense, his strange hairstyles were simply too awful to look at.

Weird, right?

Drivers, especially young drivers like them who aim for F1 as their career goal, generally start from the lower classes of karting, where everyone around them could be a competitor threatening their future career.

After all, there are only so many resources in total. Logically speaking, even if they are not mortal enemies, they should not be as harmonious as they are now.

But they are generally aware of how difficult it has been for each other to get to where they are today, so they have a tacit understanding of mutual appreciation.

Especially those who all came from China: Shu Long; Zhou Guanyu; and Ye Yifei, who has recently emerged as a rising star.

We all embarked on this unfamiliar land for the same dream. Just seeing the familiar skin color and hearing the familiar language made us feel more at home than other foreigners.
-
(The train conductor reminds you that the next stop is 2008.)

I remember the first time I met Zhou Guanyu, he hadn't fully grown up yet; he was a chubby little boy.

[It was our first time competing in a national tournament. He was a year older than me, but among all those older kids who didn't look like they were going to mess with me, he seemed the least threatening.]

I didn't greet him.

Perhaps because I'm a "commuter student," my schedule is always extremely tight, and I rarely interact with other cyclists my age. Let alone Zhou Guanyu, who represents the Shanghai AGF team, I haven't even exchanged more than ten words with my other two teammates from the Sanshui club.

"Nervous? It's your first time competing in a national competition of this scale." Shu Xiong looked at the people coming and going around him and swallowed hard, feeling quite ashamed.

"well enough."

Shu Long felt that his father's performance was somewhat embarrassing. The people in the competition hadn't said anything yet, and the competition seemed to only have a big name. The number of participants was only slightly more than the monthly competition in the club, so it was really hard to feel nervous.

However, Shu Xiong wasn't completely free of tasks these past two days. Considering the technical skills and familiarity with the game, Shu Long's mechanical engineer was temporarily filled by his own father during the competition, and he was not separately commissioned from the club.

In the spring of 2008, the National Karting Championship kicked off at the Shenzhen Speed ​​Circuit.

Not long ago, Shu Long, who had been officially involved in go-karting for half a year, finally obtained his racing license during the winter break before the Lunar New Year, thanks to the club's arrangements. Basically, there were no difficulties or barriers; in Shu Long's view, the whole process was more about formality than substance, with the real focus being the final step where his parents swiped their cards to pay.
The category that Shu Long is currently participating in is NCJ-A, which has an age limit of 8 to 12 years old. This means that Shu Long, who has not even officially celebrated his 8th birthday, is definitely the youngest driver on the field.

During the period when children develop most rapidly, a second-grade elementary school student stands with a group of fifth and sixth-grade elementary school students, and almost everyone present is one or two sizes larger than him.

Therefore, when there was another person on the scene who was only half a size bigger than Shu Long, he naturally noticed him at first glance.

The boy standing quietly beside his mother seemed to possess a maturity far beyond his years, forming a stark contrast with his teammates who were clearly overly excited. As if he had discovered a kindred spirit, he smiled at Shu Long, who was staring straight at him, and then lowered his head again.

Oh dear, it seems a bit awkward after all this time.

Today is practice day on the track. Although he hasn't run on the track yet, just looking around, Shu Long feels that he has a great advantage.

What's the use of being tall?

It's not like we're going to fight in a ring. Being taller means being heavier. The only person who's about the same height as him is a little chubby. The car's advantage in power is already obvious before we even start!

Shu Long tugged at his father's sleeve, intending to share his recent discovery to ease his mind, but the muscular man now acted like a little girl seeing Jay Chou, his eyes practically sparkling.
Following his father's gaze, he saw the chubby boy who had greeted him with his eyes earlier—the man beside him.

"Who is this?"

"This is—oh wait, the photo in the newspaper was too blurry for me to be sure, but it still happened in a place like this."

"Who is it?"

"Ma Qinghua! Currently, our country's driver is closest to F1!"

I always felt that such an impressive title seemed more suitable for an older man, but when it came to F1, Shu Long couldn't help but pay more attention to it.

At first glance, it seems rather ordinary and hard to make any special impression, but its eyes are exceptionally sharp, as if there is a hidden depth wherever it looks.

Having confirmed Shu Long's talent in racing, after a resounding victory in a monthly race last National Day holiday, Zhang Xin finally couldn't resist the father and son's pleas and the whole family took an extra day off to watch the Shanghai F1 Grand Prix at the end of the holiday.

Standing far away in the stands, Shu Long couldn't say he particularly supported any particular driver, but no matter which car was whizzing past him, he would subconsciously immerse himself in the driver's experience.

Unlike when he was almost a complete novice when watching racing, this time watching the race brought Shulong a different feeling.

In the past, he had thought more than once that these skeletal race cars were ugly, and that race cars should look like the ones parked in his own garage!
But now, after his mindset has changed without him realizing it, Shu Long suddenly realized that a race car with an open-wheel structure, where you can pay attention to the state of the four thick, large tires around you at all times while driving, is exactly what kind of sexy thing it is.

Okay, let's get back to the main topic!
The first day of practice went smoothly. The car was in excellent condition thanks to the club's maintenance, and Coach Han's recommended car settings were also sound.

As for whether further training was needed, Shu Long thought about it and still felt it was unnecessary.

It wasn't that he lacked the sensitivity to racing as others, or that he couldn't find the sweet spot in the car's settings, nor was it that he was deliberately trying to be strong and felt he didn't need these external conditions to help him.

However, with so many corners on the track, sometimes in order to accommodate the feeling of cornering in a certain corner, the car's performance in other corners may be sacrificed. Most of these can be avoided by choosing the car line and adjusting the driving style.

Shu Long is a bit lazy and hates trouble.

Shu Xiong wasn't lazy, but he was so idle that he felt a little uneasy. Apart from pretending to tighten a few screws for Shu Long during a break, he had no idea what the purpose of his existence as a mechanic was.

Anyone who has been to school knows that no matter how ignorant you are, you'll always feel something's not right if you don't pretend to flip through your textbooks a few times before an exam.

This is probably the most direct reflection of the mentality of Shu Long and his father before the upcoming ranking matches: one is restless, while the other is confident.

The qualifying race is similar to the kind of race that clubs usually offer to tourists. The drivers choose when to start based on the traffic conditions on the track. They usually have about three or four laps in a session, and the best lap time is used as the starting order for the qualifying and final races.

Yesterday, everyone was familiarizing themselves with the track, and few would be foolish enough to reveal their secrets during practice. However, Shu Long had already gained a general understanding of everyone's situation while leisurely cruising around the track.

Apart from the chubby-faced guy I noticed yesterday, there was a rather strange atmosphere among everyone else on the track. They were wary of each other's scrutinizing gazes, while secretly hiding in corners to observe their competitors' route choices.

Although they are not very old, their scheming and murderous intent, which they both desperately want to tear a piece of flesh from each other, have already been clearly revealed.

What really bothered Shu Long wasn't the other relatively unfamiliar players, but rather the two other "teammates" from the Sanshui Club who always gave him a chilling feeling.

"Are these guys going to mess with me on the track?"

Don't blame Shu Long for his dark thoughts; unless players from the same club have a good relationship, it's hard to associate them with the concept of "teammates."

To put it bluntly, everyone here is a customer who pays the club for services, and apart from the logos and racing car designs, they are practically unrelated.

One of the competitors from the Sanshui Club was Louis, the one who was pulled back by more than 20 seconds by Shulong in the rain. The other, Wu Xu, usually ranked around fourth in the monthly competition.

Because the teams also need to compete for team rankings, each team can only have two slots to represent the club. The Japanese team went back to Japan to participate in the competition there, so Shulong naturally moved up one place.

Considering they all carry the club's name, even if the young foreigners from the UK don't consider teamwork, they're unlikely to do anything too obviously sabotaging behind the scenes.

For Wu Xu, it was different. Although everyone paid their own way to participate in the competition, being able to represent the club not only allowed him to obtain more resources, but also provided him with various preferential rewards such as fee reductions or exemptions once he achieved results.

Louis has been the club’s core player for a long time, and Wu Xu originally had no interest in his position. However, another position should have been reserved by him a year ago. Who would have thought that a newcomer from another place would suddenly appear and interfere?
Grass!
But Han Li and the other coach couldn't control these things. The racing environment in China was quite different from that abroad. Overseas, if you didn't get good results, the coach would scold you. In China, you were lucky if some rich kid was willing to pay.
He couldn't afford to offend either side, as they were both clients. Giving them a heads-up before the match was already more than enough.

　My current contract status is exactly the same as the title of this chapter.
　　It's a real struggle, very much depends on performance, but then there's another one, Vassal, Vassal!
　　I can't say too much about the rest.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)