F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 31 The Stress Monster Marco
Entering youth training means a lifestyle that's different from simply racing go-karts.

Previously, he could be considered a student whose main job was to participate in races as a side job. Now, after signing the contract, his main job is to be a full-time race car driver, and what he does has changed from a hobby to a job.

It's definitely impossible to balance domestic studies. Based on the email exchanges with Marco these past few days, the youth training model is more like a sports school with racing as the main subject, with fixed teaching courses and fixed training tasks every day.

In essence, it's not much different from the school model, except there aren't many classmates, and people can be expelled at any time.

The reason I only took a leave of absence from school in China instead of dropping out is partly because I wanted to leave myself a way out. If I get eliminated in the next couple of years, I might come back and take the college entrance exam again.

On the day of completing the formalities, Shu Long went with Zhang Xin. Besides being somewhat curious about the classmates who would have spent three years with him, he also wanted to see his former close friends and acquaintances.

Just like before, from the best junior high school to the best high school, there are still many classmates that Shu Long knew before in this school, but the proportion has been diluted a bit.

Yu Mujie and Shen Qian are both there, but they're in different classes now. I heard that the two of them have been dating steadily ever since.

Chen Tingya was there too; Shu Long happened to run into her on his way to his classroom, but it seemed that She Haitao hadn't been accepted.

It seems this couple has broken up.

During the holidays, Chen Tingya's family moved to a place near the high school. After the high school entrance exam, when they were estimating their scores and filling out college applications, the young couple had a fight on the playground. Later, after the graduation dinner, when everyone made plans to go to the Shulong family's racetrack, She Haitao didn't come. In the end, it just fizzled out.

Graduation season is breakup season. It really proves that saying: "Those who flaunt their love will break up quickly."
Shu Long didn't have any particular thoughts. There were just too many so-called couples who broke up and got back together during his three years of junior high school. So many that he didn't feel heartbroken, but just used to it.

It may seem like a carefree attitude towards past memories, but in Shu Long's view, it's mostly just an excuse for his immaturity.

He observed this for three years and concluded that if you don't have the courage to go all the way, it's best not to start at all.

You could say he's just a coward, but that's the most plausible explanation Shu Long could come up with.

Seeing Shu Long's miserable appearance as a wounded soldier, Chen Tingya took the initiative to greet him and led him to Class 2 of Grade 1, where she called out Teng Weifeng.

"Oh my god, my racing god! Who am I supposed to copy my homework from without you? And what happened to you? Did you crash your car into a mountain?"

"You're the one who crashed into a mountain! I got crashed into during the race! And I even won the world championship! Aren't I awesome?"

"Don't look! You still only have one hand left, that's enough for going to the toilet!"

This guy started spouting dirty jokes right away, and Chen Tingya could hardly stand it anymore.

He raised his hand to give Teng Weifeng a slap, but then thought that the two of them weren't that close. He turned to look at Shu Long, whose arm was in a sling, and felt that it wasn't appropriate. He then turned his energy into a stomp of his foot in embarrassment and anger.

You think she was embarrassed and annoyed because of the dirty joke?
No, no, no!

These days, girls can be even more ruthless than boys when it comes to telling dirty jokes. She was just annoyed that she couldn't keep up the act, trying to act innocent but failing to control her own sensibilities.

As fate would have it, the class assignment list put Shu Long and this nemesis classmate together again. In the notice sent by the school in August, Shu Long was a student in Class 2. Unfortunately, this time there was no chance to continue their relationship.

At noon, Teng Weifeng invited a few friends from junior high school and treated Shu Long to a meal at the school cafeteria, as a farewell feast for the future racing god.

Even though Shu Long was a real classmate of theirs, the life of racing was too far removed from their own. Hearing good news, they could only echo his awesomeness and offer little support beyond emotional value.

But for Shulong, these are already enough.

Fortunately, Shu Long has always had these friends who can crack jokes around with him. During his years of studying in China, he was neither an unknown "loser" like Lu Mingfei, nor was he surrounded by "the sorrow of blood" like Chu Zihang.

Time flew by, and Shu Long's injuries healed even faster.

I don’t know if it has anything to do with the ever-present phrase “strong and healthy”, but the mere bone fracture was almost completely healed in less than a month. The wound on my forearm that was scraped by the go-kart chassis didn’t leave much of a scar, only a faint white mark to record its glorious past.

Without having to go to school, Shu Long now spends a lot of time in the gym and on the track every day, and his height has unknowingly exceeded 180 cm.

Besides the daily lifestyle that a race car driver needs to maintain, what Shu Long looks forward to most every day is his rest time and meeting with his "wives".

Through Bilibili, which he had previously stumbled upon, Shu Long accidentally came across a game that required sacrificing one's integrity to play, which immediately opened the door to a new world for him.

Real-life girlfriends are nowhere near as fun as this! This 2D character is just too amazing! Kiana is the best!
Days passed by, and finally in early December, shortly after the Abu Dhabi event ended, Shu Long received a summons email from Marco.

In Salzburg, Austria, Shu Long was picked up by people in bright Red Bull uniforms as soon as he landed and taken to the base.

The person in charge first introduced the facilities and environment of the base to the Shu Long family, then explained the curriculum arrangement and competition evaluation standards of the youth training program, and finally arranged accommodation for the family of three for the next few days.

Everything felt rushed, and the next morning, Shu Long met Dr. Marco, whom he was somewhat familiar with.

Is your arm better?

"I think there's no problem, I'm even stronger than before."

"That's good. We still have a lot of work to do, and many decisions need to be finalized before the Christmas holidays. I hope you haven't let yourself slack off during your recovery period after signing the contract, have you?"

Taking advantage of the moment when Marco walked ahead without turning around, Shu Long, whose expression had been frozen for a while, quickly made a few funny faces.

He now felt that Dr. Marco was not as easy to deal with as before. Was it because Red Bull's performance this year was not satisfactory?
Marco then told him about the plans for the next few days. Today's primary task was to complete the assessment of various physical indicators. There would be a series of track tests afterward, including but not limited to go-karting and lower-class Formula racing.

"First question, what was the name of the person who received you yesterday?"

ha?
Shulong was completely stumped by this old geezer right from the start. What does this have to do with racing?

And if I remember correctly, the person in charge who was in such a hurry yesterday didn't seem to have introduced himself at all, right?
Because of the existence of the term "empty mind," unless it's something urgent, Shu Long is now even less willing to use his brain than before, and even his "photographic memory" doesn't work.

Seeing Shu Long's stammering manner, Marco's face immediately darkened, and his attitude was far less friendly than when they first met.

If that harsh tone can be called friendly, then...
"Max will remember! Even if others haven't introduced themselves, everyone's name and position are clearly written on their name tags."

I hope I won't see you so careless again. Let me be clear from the start, I'm easily disappointed!

Then Marco, as if picking a fight, quizzed him on the physical tests to be done today. Fortunately, Shu Long had memorized these crucial details, and old Marco's expression improved somewhat.

What are you doing?
At one point, Shu Long actually had some doubts. Would he be kicked out on his very first day, without even touching the Red Bull steering wheel? It would be so embarrassing to be sent home so slinkingly for such a stupid reason! Fortunately, the physical fitness test that followed was probably the part that Shu Long was most confident about, apart from his driving ability.

3D:

[Bone and muscle strength: 70%]

Endurance/Tolerance: 90%

[Neural reflexes, recruitment speed: 97%]

With his body growing rapidly during its developmental period, coupled with persistent exercise, Shu Long's physical attributes have now reached an somewhat exaggerated level.

The price of growing up is that weight is hard to control. Even though I've been deliberately reducing heavy weight training and increasing the proportion of aerobic exercise, my muscles are still growing like crazy.

Shu Long sometimes even wonders if he will eventually be transformed into a "Chinese Captain".
In the current physical tests, this is probably manifested in the doctor's muttering of "inhuman" in the old man's ear when he handed Marco the analysis report.

Forget about low-level formula racing; with that kind of physical condition, even doctors doubt if Shulong could single-handedly break down a car in an endurance race.

Marco received the result without showing any emotion, only slightly pursing his lips before quickly reverting to his usual sour expression.

This is a really good prospect. Good prospects need to be put under a lot of pressure from the very beginning. The more pressure they are under, the more they will produce.

The next day, at the Salzburg circuit, less than 20 kilometers from headquarters.

Marco immediately showed the lap times that Max and other trainees had supposedly set using the KZ, pointed to the third-place position, and told Shulong to give him one session to warm up the tires. If he couldn't set a better lap time within ten laps in the second session, he would be fired immediately.

This is actually the second-place result; the first place was achieved by a man named Alben.

Max joined Red Bull halfway through his F3 season, so strictly speaking, he can only be considered a Red Bull player now, but not a Red Bull youth academy player, and therefore doesn't have the so-called youth academy lap time.

This line of text was added by Marco on the spot today.

Despite the pressure, Marko, a former racing driver, at least knew how to behave and gave Shulong ample time to familiarize himself with the track. Moreover, the lap times he produced were comparable to those of younger drivers in the spring when the temperature hadn't yet risen.

However, none of this mattered to Shu Long. Even though he had gained weight recently, he was confident that he was invincible in the KZ go-kart event.

What else? Try winning a championship with one hand if you're not convinced?
Austrian winters are quite cold, and tires are as hard as rocks, so it takes a bit of effort to warm them up.

After feeling that the tires had enough grip, before the first lap of Marco's time was even over, Shu Long began to test the tire limits on several of the steep corners. After two laps, he had overtaken the string of numbers Marco had written after his name, Max.

This might be a common problem among the Sword Gods of Shili Slope.

Shu Long, who practices on his home track, may already know how tires perform in most conditions through friction control, but he lacks experience in this area when there are different terrains on the track.

Ignoring the lap time records on the dashboard, Shu Long knew from his own perception of the car's dynamics that there were many flaws in his lap.

Instead of gloating and going to Marco to prove himself, Shulong optimized his track model almost as soon as he crossed the finish line and immediately plunged into the next push.

站在赛道边的马尔科不动声色，只是淡定地用手指头抹去了维斯塔潘“跑”出来的那个1：27.631中的7，把成绩改成了1：26.631。

Hmph~ You think you can mess with me?
Two laps later, Marco's freshly achieved time was once again ruthlessly surpassed.

On the next lap, after less than two seconds of hesitation from Marco, the number after Verstappen's name had changed to 1:26.231.

It just covers one end, not too much and not too little.

At this point, Shu Long's lap time is unlikely to improve any further, as he has gained a lot of weight compared to a few months ago, and his current KZ performance may not even be as good as it was at the beginning of the year.

But it was a really enjoyable run.

The Salzburg circuit is over four kilometers long and can usually provide racing conditions for GT3 cars. The paperclip-shaped track has at least five super straights where you can floor the accelerator. The engine noise once made Shulong wonder if it would run out of gas and choke on its own.

After estimating that he had made about seven or eight laps, Shulong obediently drove back to the pit lane.

From the beginning until now, he felt like he hadn't figured out Marco's temperament at all. What if Marco thought he was deliberately showing off on the track? Who knew if he would be kicked out tomorrow for something like stepping into the gate with his left foot first?

However, when he saw the whiteboard with everyone's lap times written on it, he realized that he was probably worrying too much.

Yesterday I was careless and didn't remember the brand name, and today I'm on edge all the time, how could I not remember a lap time? Do you think "photographic memory" is a joke?
"I think I ran pretty well, Doctor?"

"Not bad? Hmm, I think it's barely passable, but still not as good as Max! He did this on his first lap when he came to test drive the car, now he knows the gap?"

"Ah, yes, yes."

Those who can become leaders are probably all thick-skinned. Marco said this with great seriousness, completely ignoring the dark ink stains under the string of numbers.

Fortunately, he's older and has more wrinkles on his face, plus he injured his eye when he was a race car driver when he was young, otherwise Marco might not have been able to keep his joyful expression to himself.

His insistence on signing Shu Long was partly due to the incredible feat of winning the championship with one hand despite his injury, and also because Ferrari had signed Zhou Guanyu.

As a rival in F1 racing, Ferrari thinks it can conquer the Chinese market? Aren't Red Bull's sugar water easier to sell than your cars that cost millions each?
In retrospect, even without considering the underlying business factors, this deal is a win-win situation based solely on merit.

Putting aside the fabricated lap times, Shu Long's skill level is a full second faster than other young drivers who were able to enter the youth training program, even in cold weather and poor track conditions.

Previously, most industry insiders believed that Shulong's points advantage throughout the year was likely just due to the overall decline in the level of the younger generation in Europe. Now it seems that it was simply because one person was too fast.

This naturally made Marco even more dissatisfied with those unlucky guys.

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(End of this chapter)