F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 66 The End
"Okay, come in from that side. Mr. Horner will invite you to sit down first. Try to appear confident and assertive."

"But was I very flamboyant back then?"

Shu Long turned to look at the Red Bull team leader behind the office, while Horner made a nonsensical face and shrugged.

"So what were your true feelings at the time? Were you nervous? Well, that's fine, but we'll have to slightly change your character and emotional trajectory in the later part of the story."

"I'm not that nervous. I actually got the news from Dr. Marco before coming to Mr. Horner's office. If I had to say, I'd say I'm looking forward to it."

The director of this scene, Nonuk Walter, called a pause and went outside to hold an online meeting to discuss the plot with the other script directors.

Just when Shu Long thought the production team was about to take his opinion and respect the facts a little, Nonuk returned and said:

"We'll film both versions once, and then we'll selectively edit them according to the needs of the story."

Yes, I understand!
This means you don't care how the film turns out; we're about to start talking nonsense!

The general direction of the plot has already been determined. At the Toro Rosso factory in Italy, another crew is responsible for reshooting scenes involving Brenton Hartley. It's obvious that this character is a victim of some kind of tragic and resentful situation.

The reason why the schedule is being rushed now is because most of the team members will be on vacation next week. Strictly speaking, Hartley is no longer part of the Toro Rosso team, and he has no obligation to continue rubbing salt into his wounds with the crew.

After three days of filming, Shu Long, who had been repeatedly tormented by his conscience, finally found relief.

It's not that filming is finished; it's just that the team has to head to Abu Dhabi to prepare for the next race.

After piecing together the information gleaned from previous snippets, Shu Long felt that his own storyline would likely follow the "dragon-slaying boy becomes the dragon himself" trope. The dialogue felt somewhat unappealing because it didn't quite fit his personality, but overall it seemed pretty cool.

Horner's assessment was, "You should be content!"

He had a premonition that once he was released next season, he might be in a state of being universally condemned for a long time.
The three days in Abu Dhabi were rather dull. Although Shu Long basically stayed in the Red Bull pits the whole time, he was actually more concerned about the lap times on the Toro Rosso side.

After all, it's the place he'll be working next year, so it's really hard for him not to care. He even blatantly ignored the crew members who were trying to take pictures of him from different angles.

Should we say we're glad we didn't put him in as a substitute for this team?
Just like Red Bull's internal assessment of the car, Toro Rosso's competitiveness in this race can't be said to be worrying, but it's probably close to the bottom.

The poor imitation of Red Bull's high downforce characteristics may not be too noticeable on short tracks like Interlagos in Brazil with its high camber angles, but its shortcomings in aerodynamics and suspension balance are immediately exposed on long tracks like Abu Dhabi.

Moreover, due to the increased lap distance, the nearly twenty horsepower that Honda engines now lack compared to Mercedes and Ferrari engines has amplified the weaknesses of the race car.

From practice to qualifying, Gasly and Hartley hovered around 15th or 16th place. During qualifying, Gasly's engine simply stopped working, and he wasted a great lap and was eliminated in Q1.

In contrast, Ferrari's cars continued their strong performance from the previous race, with Haas and Sauber from the midfield group putting up a fierce battle against the Martian cars in Q3.

Help!

I was initially quite happy to have signed a seat as a full-fledged driver, but now I suddenly feel like I can't smile anymore. What should I do?
"He worked tirelessly for a year developing the race car using simulators, and now he hasn't even reaped the rewards of his hard work, and next year it's going to be thrown to Red Bull?"

The version of this vehicle next year has absolutely nothing to do with Shulong.
Tost has revealed some design directions for next year's Toro Bull.

This year, the team's car design went to extremes multiple times because they were helping Red Bull test and learn from their new engine.

However, as a team that primarily trains young drivers, Toro Rosso will naturally not design its cars to be as difficult to drive once it returns to normal next year. The overall goal is to broaden the tuning options, improve the car's adaptability to different tracks, and reduce the difficulty of driving.

The problem is that Shulong isn't afraid of the cars being difficult to drive; what he's afraid of is that there's no limit to how many cars can be driven. You can't even get into Q2 with these two cars, so why are you thinking about all this nonsense?

The drivers were supposed to have a wonderful vacation after the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, but now that Toro Rosso's car still has so many flaws, if it weren't for the FIA's rule that all teams must close their factories and stop research and development during the winter break, I suddenly wouldn't want to release this fake Toro Rosso.

How could you sleep in this car?!

He knew Gasly's capabilities all too well. Before the engine wore off, his first two lap times should have been just enough to get into Q2. In other words, if Shulong were to drive this car now, optimistically, he would only be around the Q3 cutoff.

Let alone hoping to score big points like last time, even getting a single point will probably depend on luck.

Putting aside this discouraging topic, there are many other noteworthy news stories surrounding this tournament.

First and foremost, of course, is the two-time F1 world champion, Zhou Guanyu's childhood hero and idol, Fernando Alonso, who is about to officially leave the paddock.

How could someone who is both a racing junior and a fan be absent from such a big event as their idol's retirement? Unsurprisingly, Shu Long was caught red-handed by Zhou Guanyu, who had come specifically to ambush him, in the paddock.

"Damn it! You're really good at holding back when you go on stage and get a podium! You just stay silent like this unless someone comes to you."

"I have no choice. These past two weeks have been torture for me because of those cameras. I'm even afraid to look up and see a camera pointing at me when I'm taking a dump."

Because Ferrari's junior training program and the Prema team are both located in Italy, Shu Long, who has been living in the UK for a long time, has met with Zhou Guanyu very few times this year. In addition, the F3 calendar and the F1 calendar have almost no overlap. This is the first time they have met in eight months, apart from chatting online.

"Speaking of which, have you decided where you're going next year? Are you still staying with the Prema team? If that's the case, and I'm also going to Italy next year, wouldn't we have more chances of running into each other?"

"Huh?! Are you sure you signed with Red Bull?"

"Shh!"

Shu Long nervously looked around, and only relaxed after confirming that there were no suspicious people around who appeared to be from the DTS crew.

"It hasn't been officially announced yet, so take it easy! I just played a game for Brandon, and he hasn't officially left the team yet. It wouldn't look good in the public eye if we rushed to make an official announcement now. I was just talking about you, so what's going on with you?" "Um, actually... I'm not keeping Prema anymore. I should also leave Ferrari's youth academy at the end of the year, and if there are no surprises, I'll join Renault's youth academy."

"Is it still because of Mick?"

"Ugh, don't even mention it! Just thinking about that lump makes me angry!"

Unlike Shu Long's epic start, Zhou Guanyu's season in F3 was a typical case of a strong start followed by a chaotic run; all his experiences can only be described as difficult to manage.

He won the championship in the first game of the season, and even led the standings for a time. Before the end of the summer break, he had 130 points, just one point behind the leader with 131 points!
In contrast, the son of a racing champion only scored 64 points after the first four races, ranking ninth.

The turning point of the season came at Spa-Francorchamps after the summer break. After retiring from three consecutive races due to tire blowouts caused by crashes, Zhou Guanyu finally couldn't help but vent his frustrations about his incompetent and crash-prone teammate on Chinese social media.

Originally, I just wanted to find a place where everyone was on my side to vent my emotions that foreigners couldn't understand. But there are always some sycophants in China who are addicted to sucking up to the old white man. They turned around and translated it and went to complain to the official accounts of Ferrari and the Prema team.

After that, Zhou Guanyu's car suddenly started acting strangely.

Not only him, but Armstrong, who was also in the Prema team and was originally leading the points standings, also began to lose his speed around the same time, while Mick Schumacher began his triumphant advance.

It was as if an F2 car had suddenly crashed into the F3 circuit, winning every match and taking the championship in the second half of the season, making a stunning comeback to win the F3 individual championship.

It is said that geniuses are all traceable. Mick was only twelfth in the European F3 last year, so it is normal for him to start this year in ninth place with a slight improvement.

So what's the situation when someone suddenly has an epiphany after a summer break? Is it possible that the car they keep insisting on isn't a custom-tuned one?

Zhou Guanyu once thought that he had the experience of being teammates with wealthy and well-connected people like Stroll, so even if the son of the racing king were to be his teammate, it shouldn't stop him from his determination to win the championship. After all, judging from last year's experience, this son of the racing king was actually not that great.

Little did I know that my youthful ignorance had ultimately led to my naiveté.
Stroll's motivation for racing was always his son, so after his son entered F1, his investment focus naturally shifted away from lower-level formula racing. In fact, he only started holding shares in the Prema team during those two years.

He would indeed allocate certain resources to the team to ensure his son's championship, but he was by no means stingy in allocating resources to the other two drivers.

Putting everything else aside, at least they know how to maintain their dignity and won't give up the team championship just for the sake of an individual title, so every car is quite competitive.

On the other hand, since Lawrence Stroll withdrew his investment, the remaining drivers in the Prema team have been living a miserable life due to the arrival of a certain person.

At least the young master has his own money, so he can share some soup with his teammates.

But the only valuable thing about Mick Schumacher is his surname; he not only doesn't share with his teammates, he even tries to steal their bowls.

There are two privileged classes in this world—those with connections and the wealthy.

You can at least understand why rich people have special privileges, but you can't even figure out why someone with connections has such privileges.

The team and the junior academy went to great lengths to produce another Schumacher in the paddock. When they discovered that the main factor preventing Mick from winning the championship was not outside but rather the other drivers in the team, they were even willing to risk losing the team championship to trip up their own people.

This is why Zhou Guanyu ultimately chose to leave Prema, to leave the red Prancing Horse that was like a faith to him, because next year Mick will also be representing the Prema team to advance to F2.

Mick is different from the young master; Zhou Guanyu sees no hope of winning the championship when he's on the same team as Mick.

The hunting grounds are not an absolutely fair world, and all Shu Long can do now is listen silently, after all, his experience of climbing up the ranks is indeed quite lucky.

However, after Zhou Guanyu's explanation, many doubts seemed to be resolved.

From this perspective, Renault's recent attempt to poach Zhou Guanyu's driver wasn't simply an attempt to annoy Red Bull. If they could acquire Shu Long, who also has the advantage of being a Chinese driver and has already secured a top prize, then Renault might not necessarily accept Zhou Guanyu, who is currently looking for a new team.

Of course, at the same time, the reason why Mercedes came to contact Shulong may also be solved.

Williams has officially announced another driver for their next season: Robert Kubica, a once-promising driver who was almost on par with Hamilton, but whose right arm was severely damaged in a car accident, forcing him to retire from F1 but still active in various racing events.

The reason he was able to return to the paddock this time was because Williams, after losing the sponsorship of Stroll, had raised ten million euros in sponsorship and wanted to come back to make up for the regret of his F1 dream.

The deal was almost finalized, but Mercedes stopped it for a few days to confirm that Shulong wasn't very interested in it before reopening the transaction.

Fortunately, someone doesn't want to switch jobs right now, otherwise Williams' financial pressure will be huge next year, and they might even have to borrow money from their factory team, Mercedes, or even just borrow some parts.

On the final day of the race, the Abu Dhabi course was filled with helplessness, regret, and emotion.

Kimi Räikkönen, Ferrari's last world champion, was forced to retire from the race in his final race wearing the red racing suit and driving the red car due to engine malfunction, thus failing to bring his Ferrari career to a perfect end.

Ignoring the sadness for the red Prancing Horse, Shu Long's next challenge was Gasly, who was already on the edge of the points zone, but whose car suffered another engine failure at a crucial moment.

A driver can have boundless fighting spirit, but if a race car keeps breaking down at crucial moments, even a miracle can't save it.

Aside from these random incidents, the most touching moment was the starting straight after the race.

Five-time world champion Lewis Hamilton and four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel joined two-time world champion Fernando Alonso in drawing a donut on the track to pay farewell to the track legend and to bring this dramatic season to a close.

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　　I think I've thanked you all, right? I really tried my best...

　　
　
(End of this chapter)