F1: Absolute Car Feel

Chapter 128 Familiarizing Yourself with the Track (4K Bonus Chapter for Alliance Leader Hp_Lovecraft!)
Wu Shi was somewhat surprised. Was it because Martina was a Ferrari employee that she didn't have any biases about Ferrari and was able to give the most rational answer?

Martina seemed to sense his thoughts and said with a smile, "Ferrari is not stable internally. Montezemolo gave you this position to take advantage of you. He might not even make it through this year. If he resigns then, it will put you in a difficult position."

If Montezemolo leaves, then Wu Shi will essentially be a remnant of the old party, and he will certainly not have an easy time at Ferrari.

Moreover, if he signs a driver contract with Ferrari today, it will naturally sever his ties with Mercedes completely.

Driver contracts are not comparable to the previous letters of intent or agreements; they contain strict restrictions and requirements.

"I understand, then let's refuse." Wu Shi sighed.

"it is good."

Martina went outside and called two employees in.

"Gentlemen, after careful consideration, I do not intend to sign this driver contract," Wu Shi said.

Both of Lafa's employees were somewhat taken aback. This young man had rejected Lafa's contract?! How could anyone reject Lafa's contract?!
They instantly understood what was happening and looked at Martina. One of them said, "Martina, you are interfering with Wu's normal judgment. I will inform the Chairman of this matter truthfully."

"Gentlemen! This is my decision, and it has nothing to do with Martina," Wu Shi said firmly. He naturally knew that his private meeting with Martina and his immediate rejection of the contract would definitely have a negative impact on Martina.

However, since Martina has already advised him in this way, it means that Martina has already thought about the issues involved, so there is no need for him to hesitate any longer.

"Phew! Very good." The two packed their things, slammed the door, and left.

After the two left, Martina teased them with amusement, "Tsk tsk, you've become quite a big shot! When you go out and introduce yourself, you can add that you turned down a driver's contract offer from the Ferrari F1 team."

"Hey! Stop teasing me, there's nothing I can do about it."

"Yes, there's nothing we can do about it, but once you're in the hunting grounds, everything becomes possible for you, doesn't it?"

After Martina finished speaking, she stood up and waved her hand: "I'll head back to Italia now."

"Yes, Auntie, have a safe journey." Wu Shi stood up to see her off.

"Alright, I'll go down by myself." Martina ruffled Wu Shi's hair again at the corner and said, "You're already taller than me."

"Hehe~" Wu Shi chuckled.

"Bye~"

Martina withdrew her hand, waved it, and turned the corner.

"bye"

Wu Shi was still waving his hand when Martina suddenly turned around, stretched out her body, and said:

"By the way, regarding the letter of intent you signed with Ferrari, given your winning streak, it's basically time to breach the contract. However, I'll have Sid talk to Mercedes. After all, they're the ones who poached you, so they should at least pay half of the penalty for breach of contract, right?"

"Okay." Wu Shi's hand froze, then he nodded in realization.

"Well then, bye-bye~" Martina waved and turned back.

Looking at the empty corridor, Wu Shi felt a wave of loneliness wash over him.

But before she could get into the mood, Martina's footsteps approached, and she turned around and said:

"Oh, by the way, Louise asked me to pass on a message, saying that she hasn't seen you in a long time and misses you very much."

"Uh, okay." Wu Shi was startled by this sudden turn of events.

"Well then, goodbye for now~"

"Bye~"

Martina eventually left the Netherlands and returned to Italy.

Wu Shi returned to his room and saw a group photo of the four of them on the coffee table next to the sofa. It was a photo taken when they were children in Pengcheng Bay.

Rest periods are always short.

After calming himself down a bit, Wu Shi rushed to the motorcade.

The next stop is the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in Belgium, which is very famous, mainly because of its high-speed characteristics and the Erling Corner.

El Rog Bend is a combination bend consisting of bends 2, 3, and 4. After exiting bend 1, there is a slightly curved acceleration section, which is downhill with a total elevation drop of 40 meters.

The drop is terrifying, equivalent to the height of a dozen or so stories.

How long does it take an F1 car to navigate this corner?

Approximately 2 seconds.

This process will generate 4G of force, which will severely test the driver's ability to withstand it.

Many videos circulating online show F1 cars going full throttle through the Erling Corner; the roar of the engines and the fleeting figures are truly exhilarating.

Of course, most people can just look at it and not actually sit in the driver's seat; they probably wouldn't be able to handle it.

“I am very familiar with this track.”

After finishing his physical training, Verstappen came over to chat with him.

“I understand what you mean, you want to win the championship here,” Wu Shi said with a smile.

“Haha, you really understand me.” Pan Zi patted Wu Shi on the shoulder and said, “You know, I was born in Belgium, which is also my hometown.”

“It seems you are indeed very familiar with that place. But coincidentally, I am also very familiar with the Spa circuit,” Wu Shi said with a grin.

“I don’t see a track you’re unfamiliar with.” Pan Zi shrugged, already immune to Wu Shi’s playful grin.

The three races at Spa will begin on June 20th, giving the drivers a full twenty days of non-stop activity.

Since Hamilton has revealed that he may have a car test at the Neon Grand Prix, Wu Shi will also incorporate Suzuka Circuit practice into his daily training.

Besides that, the most important thing is to strengthen physical training.

Among physical training exercises, neck training is the most important.

Unlike F3, if your neck isn't strong enough, you won't be able to withstand the terrifying G-forces of an F1 car in corners, which will ultimately make it impossible to concentrate on controlling the car.

Thanks to intensive training, by the time the Belgian Grand Prix opened, Wu Shi's neck had become much thicker, almost exceeding the width of his cheeks.

The schedule at Spa-Francorchamps is very straightforward: Friday, June 20th, there will be two free practice sessions in the morning and two qualifying sessions in the afternoon.

On Saturday, June 21st, there will be one match in the morning and one in the afternoon.

The final match will be held on Sunday morning, June 22.

The F3 Championship is paired with the WTCC (Fédération Internationale de l'Automobile Championship) Belgian round.

Wu Shi's passion for motorhomes is not as deep as his passion for F1, but Pan Zi is different; he even wants to drive one.

"When I get to the future, I will definitely form a touring car team," Verstappen said, putting down the WTCC schedule.

“Okay, if I can’t make it in F1, I’ll join your team. Don’t look down on me, boss.” Wu Shi wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about forming a team. “Haha, then we can just be teammates and race together.” Pan Zi was very excited, clearly he really had this plan in mind.

The morning practice session passed quickly, and the Spa circuit was familiar to most drivers.

After all, apart from Wu Shi and Verstappen, who skipped a level, the other drivers had all driven Formula Renault before, and that's when they would have been on this track.

As the afternoon qualifying rounds approached and darkness fell, the team leader quickly gathered everyone for a meeting.

"According to the weather forecast, it may rain after 3 o'clock."

“Hmm, I think the rain might affect the second qualifying race,” Wu Shi said.

The first qualifying match will be held at 2:10 PM, and the second match will be held at 5:20 PM.

"Yes, but we can't rule out the possibility of a sudden change in the situation, and it could happen right now," the team leader said.

All four drivers in the team understood what was meant: to get a good result as soon as possible so that the weather wouldn't affect their racing.

After the meeting, Verstappen asked Wu Shi, "Where will you squeeze out time on this track?"

Before the competition, Pan Zi would often ask Wu Shi this question.

Wu Shi was not stingy, because his running style was something that others could not imitate; if they tried to learn it, they would only be able to spin.

"I can keep the throttle on at the Errog bend."

"???" Pan Zi looked completely bewildered and asked, "Can't you just fly away?!"

"I can manage not to fly away," Wu Shi said with a mysterious smile.

Verstappen looked preoccupied when qualifying began.

Seeing his appearance, Wu Shi was also a little worried that this guy might try it just because of his words.

Given the downforce of the F3, not easing off the throttle in this corner would definitely lead to an accident.

The first qualifying match officially began at 2 PM.

Given that the team mentioned the weather here might be unpredictable, Wu Shi, as usual, warmed up the tires and familiarized himself with the environment in the first three laps before starting to do laps.

In the car camera footage, Wu Shi sped across the starting straight, then smoothly entered the first turn after shifting to second gear. He then floored the accelerator and shifted up gears.

On the next long downhill section, car number 32 did not brake at all.

"We need to slow down a bit here." Alan clenched his fist as he saw the vehicle.

However, the real-time data showed no sign of Wu Shi easing off the throttle, and everyone immediately tensed up. In F1, you can go full throttle on this corner because someone else has more downforce!
With your F3 downforce, how can you expect to corner at full speed?

But Wu Shi just charged straight through.

Ignoring whether it would disturb the driver, Alan said directly in the TR: "Slow down, slow down."

Swish!

Wu Shi's ears were filled with the roar of engines. Even though the F3's performance was not as good as the F1, the G-force brought by this downhill section was still quite terrifying, and his body experienced the strange feeling of weightlessness.

However, his mind was perfectly clear, and he heard Alan's voice.

As he approached Turn 2, under intense pressure, he said, "I know the uphill ahead is a blind turn, the route is in my head, no need to worry."

Wow!
As Wu Shihua's suppressed voice echoed back, car number 32 had just reached the bottom of the bend. At this moment, the car needed to suddenly turn, followed by an extremely steep uphill section.

Because you can't see the exit point in the middle of the curve, and you don't know where the car will end up, you have to rely entirely on your memory.

But this was not the biggest challenge Wu Shi was facing at this moment. He needed to control the car's grip to the limit. If he was not careful, the whole car would go out of control and fly away instantly.

The tires seemed to be groaning desperately, but even under these extreme conditions, car number 32 "whooshed" through turn 2 and then precisely entered turn 3 after exiting the turn.

As Wu Shi himself said, the curve was completely imprinted in his mind, and he knew how to drive it even with his eyes closed, so the blind curve was not a problem at all.

A while after the race car passed the Errog bend, Alan's voice came through the TR:
"Whew. Yeah, I didn't mean blind corners, I meant we need to slow down here."

In the repair area, everyone, including Alan who had been silent for a while before speaking, couldn't believe how this was done.

However, the data analyst quickly discovered the problem, saying, "His handling of this corner caused significant wear and tear on the tires, almost resulting in a skid, which caused severe granulation of the rubber."

The group looked at each other in disbelief. What kind of audacity would dare to carry out such an operation in this place?

You know, if you're not careful, the entire race car will fly off at top speed.

"Incredible." Alan didn't know what to say.

"Haven't he created enough incredible things?" the team leader retorted.

With just this one move, Wu Shi's lap time is already unmatched.

他拿到个2分09秒567的成绩就直接收官回到维修区，而等到比赛结束时，其余车手中，最快的奥康也才仅仅2分10秒049。

Wu Shi didn't seem to care much about Ocon's performance. Instead, he put his arm around Verstappen's shoulder and laughed, "It seems you're not as familiar with this track as Ocon is."

Pan Zi remained silent for a moment, then pursed his lips before saying, "Yes, we're not familiar enough yet, but I'll teach him a lesson in the main competition."

"Then do your best!"

Around 5 p.m., the sky grew increasingly gloomy, and sure enough, when the second qualifying race began, it started to rain heavily.

Now, Wu Shi didn't dare to drive the F3 at full throttle through turns 2, 3, and 4 anymore. He was just being brave, not trying to die.

Ultimately, the results of the second qualifying race were affected by the heavy rain, resulting in a full fifteen seconds slower!

Wu Shi still secured pole position, but the second place went neither to Ocon nor Verstappen, but to his Americana teammate Gustavo from Van Amersford.

“It seems you’re not as familiar with this track as Gustavo is,” Wu Shi joked with Pan Zi again.

Verstappen pursed his lips, feeling his fist harden, and after a long while said, "Yes, we're not familiar enough yet, but I'll show him in the main competition."

This sentence seems familiar.

The next day, the sky cleared up, and by the time of the race, the track was so clear that rain tires were no longer needed.

Wu Shi started from pole position for all three races, and with the car in excellent condition, he easily maintained his PTW (Pole Position Wing).

Verstappen, on the other hand, actually did just as he said, and he made those drivers ahead of him see it, taking second place in three consecutive races!

Wu Shi couldn't help but admire Pan Zi's resilience. Although the safety car factor contributed to his rise from sixth to second place in the third race, he ultimately cut through four opponents with ease.

"Looks like you're familiar with this track now," Wu Shi said with a smile after watching the race replay.

“No, I’m still not familiar enough with it, not as familiar as you are.” Verstappen shook his head.

　Thank you so much to Hp_Lovecraft for your support! Thank you so much!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)