F1: Absolute Car Feel

Chapter 134 Post-match Interviews
"Wuhu!"

Verstappen parked his car in front of the number one sign, excitedly climbed out of the race car, stood and cheered, waved his arms vigorously twice, then jumped off the car and rushed towards the team members who had come out to celebrate in the rain.

After giving a tight hug to several crew members, he turned and walked to the No. 32 race car that had just been parked.

He tilted his goggles up, ignoring the heavy rain, and shouted, "Hey! I won!"

Wu Shi climbed out of his car and nodded: "Yes, you won! Congratulations!"

The two clapped hands, then hugged and patted each other on the back.

“I knew you would deliberately brake,” Wu Shi said.

“That’s quite a coincidence. I knew you definitely knew I would deliberately brake,” Verstappen laughed.

"Hahaha! Because I used this method to get rid of the people behind me."

Wu Shi laughed loudly, "Your schemes didn't work on me, but the same schemes I used worked very well. This shows that I'm still better at choosing the right time to use a scheme!"
After Verstappen weighed himself, he took off his helmet and balaclava and said, "Actually, you don't need to do this. You'll be able to distance yourself from them after a few turns."

"Of course, I just wanted to try it out so I would know how to avoid this situation when I'm in the rear."

Wu Shi said that he wasn't simply trying to stop Jordan; the man wasn't worth wasting 0.2 seconds doing that.

“You’ve already considered all this? Controlling the vehicle under these circumstances would be quite difficult,” Verstappen said.

"Yes, I just overused my brain, and now my head hurts." Wu Shi shook his head.

At this point, reporters swarmed in and began conducting interviews in batches.

Verstappen won the championship, so naturally the reporters asked him first.

"Hey Max, your lap times were pretty fast today. You completed a fantastic PTW and got the win. How are you feeling right now?"

"Yes, the track conditions were very complicated today. The rain was heavy later on, so I had to control the car carefully. In the last three laps, Wu Shi caught up, and I felt a lot of pressure."

"Yeah, but you withstood the pressure and held your position, that's fantastic! Is this the first time you've beaten Wu Shi on the track?"

The reporter's questions became quite offensive, always asking hurtful things. However, Pan Zi's good quality is his honesty; he said:
"It shouldn't be the first time, but beating him is really difficult. Anyone who races against him should be prepared to lose the championship, even if he doesn't start from the front row."

"It seems you think Wu is stronger? You seem to highly regard him," the reporter continued.

"Of course I highly approve of Wu Shi. He is the strongest driver of our generation. He can set lap times that none of us can. If anyone says I am better than him now, then he must be a guy who doesn't care about racing at all and only cares about race."

Pan Zi's words were so sharp that the reporter paused for a moment, but being a reporter, he was thick-skinned enough to quickly reply:
"Max, congratulations on your victory today!"

After thanking him, Pan Zi took a towel and wiped the sweat and rain off his face.

The reporters then shoved microphones in front of Wu Shi.

"Wu, you started from tenth place today and made it to the podium. Your overtaking was a sight to behold, but it's a real pity you didn't win the championship."

"Yes, Max is incredibly strong in the rain, and I can't find a way to surpass him. His performance today was truly perfect."

After speaking to the reporter, Wu Shi turned to Verstappen and said, "Max! Congratulations!"

"Thank you," Pan Zi said cheerfully. Seeing their interaction, the reporter knew their childhood relationship was special, and several attempts to sow discord yielded no major news.

It's not that they like doing this, but the recent saga between the two Mercedes F1 drivers has escalated, and with each additional Grand Prix, the rift between them seems to widen further.

"We saw you launch an attack on Verstappen at the very end. If you had a few more laps, would you have been able to overtake Verstappen?" the reporter asked nonchalantly.

“These ‘ifs’ and ‘assumptions’ are meaningless, aren’t they?” Wu Shi replied with a smile, though he couldn’t bring himself to utter Pan Zi’s ridiculous remarks.

"There are 33 games in total this season, and 17 games have been played so far. You have won 15 of them, getting closer and closer to your goal of 21 wins mentioned at the beginning of the season. Can you reveal anything about the seat?"

The reporter raised the question that everyone is most concerned about right now.

Wu Shi paused for a moment, then said, "I think it's still too early to talk about these things now. It's more important to finish the rest of the race."

"Oh? Is it because the other party is no longer honoring the agreement? Or is it as rumored in the paddock, that you will be joining the Mercedes-Benz team?"

"You should ask my agent about this, not me, a kid who's not even sixteen yet," Wu Shi politely declined the reporter's follow-up questions.

After the interview, Wu Shi let out a long sigh of relief. These reporters are asking increasingly tricky questions, but they will become even more terrifying after F1.

He recalled that one year, a reporter from the Los Angeles Times asked Verstappen, Perez, and Leclerc some very sensitive questions at the Saudi Arabia station.

Lock & Lock fell into the trap and didn't give a perfect answer.

Many journalists like to set traps in language and then publish a news article titled "Take Things Out of Context" based on the theory of "Don't Take Things Out of Context".

It's just routine media hype.

“It might rain during the rest of the match,” Verstappen said on his way to the podium.

"Then it seems I can catch up with you soon."

“No, I think that would be very difficult; being trapped in a traffic jam is quite dangerous,” Verstappen shook his head.

“Yeah, they don’t seem to know how to drive in the rain,” Wu Shi said with a hint of helplessness.

Racing is not simply about setting lap times; it's the result of a multi-party game. Even Wu Shi wouldn't dare say that starting from the front row guarantees him the F3 championship.

His current stability, far exceeding that of his peers, is merely a legacy from his past life.

The weather forecast was wrong; the rain gradually stopped during the awards ceremony.

Under a gloomy sky, the melodious tune of the Dutch national anthem echoed through the stadium.

At 3:30 p.m., Norrislin's last match began.

At this point, the track surface was almost completely dry, except for a small amount of water remaining on some of the outer tracks.

This is undoubtedly worse news than rain. As Wu Shi said before, not many of these F3 drivers are capable of driving their cars well in the rain, making them completely different from their counterparts on dry ground.

The semi-dry, semi-wet track will undoubtedly cause these people to make more serious misjudgments—they mistakenly think they can run, but in reality, the grip is far less than usual, and they cannot control the balance in the middle, and what awaits them is loss of control.

(End of this chapter)