F1: Absolute Car Feel

Chapter 152 Typhoon & Suzuka
Wu Shi's schedule for October has been basically finalized. He will be going to Japan in early October, not to participate in the first training session, but just to stand in the pit room of the Wei team.

Even if Westbrook hadn't invited him, he would have gone anyway, and he also invited Leclerc along.

At this time, Leclerc's financial situation was not good, but it didn't matter. Wu Shi was already worth tens of millions. Heide even considered buying a house in Monaco so that Wu Shi could live there for a long time to avoid taxes.

In addition, the salary offered to him by the West Bromwich Albion was not low, at 300 million euros per year.

With a salary only €100 million less than his partner Massa next year, he became the ninth highest-paid driver in the paddock – besides him, Lotus's Grosjean and Maldonado, and Force India's Perez all earned €300 million a year.

Wu Shi was satisfied with this starting annual salary, which already surpassed that of many drivers, not to mention the additional bonuses agreed upon.

Magnussen's annual salary at McLaren is only 100 million euros, and the salary of Bottas, whom he replaced, is also only 100 million euros.

Ricardo, for example, only had an annual salary of 75 euros at that time.

Not to mention the drivers who came after them.

Although he was considered a high-income earner at this time, Wu Shi still booked economy class for his trip, and his companions Verstappen, Bianchi, and Leclerc had no objections.

However, during the layover and waiting period, Panzi couldn't help but complain: "We wasted too much time on the way to catch our flight."

"When you have money, buy one yourself." Wu Shi promptly instilled the idea of ​​buying an airplane in Pan Zi.

"It's too early to talk about that now."

Verstappen rarely thinks about unrealistic things; his contract with Toro Rosso stipulates an annual salary of only 27.75 euros.

This also shows that Wu Shi's annual salary is ridiculously high for a rookie driver.

But who made him famous in Singapore?

Upon arriving in the island nation, the group learned that Typhoon Pakhong was approaching.

Upon seeing this, Wu Shi immediately said, "The main competition is expected to be severely affected by the typhoon, and there will definitely be heavy rain. Bianchi, you need to be careful."

Bianchi patted him on the shoulder and said, "Don't worry, I'll handle the rain battle well."

Wu Shi nodded and added, "In typhoon season, you not only face heavy rain, but also cutting winds. Race cars need to overcome severe lack of grip and also face strong crosswinds, which makes the vehicles very unstable, even at relatively low speeds."

"It seems you know this environment quite well?" Bianchi laughed, not paying any attention.

It's just that he has a mild personality; otherwise, any F1 driver, when faced with a rookie—even one with immense potential—would be unable to resist laughing at such didactic advice.

As the Chinese proverb goes, "I've eaten more salt than you've eaten rice," which is why seniors in the field rarely listen to the advice of juniors in their professional field.

Even Leclerc was puzzled at this moment. Wu Shi was not the kind of person who was so indecisive in the past. When faced with his idol of the same age and his godfather, he did not hesitate to side with his godfather.

"Wu Shi, don't worry. Brother Bianchi has been running this for almost a season, so he knows all about it."

Wu Shi said helplessly, "My hometown is in the typhoon belt, and we often encounter typhoons. The feeling is completely different from ordinary storms and rain."

"Don't worry, I'll remember your reminder," Bianchi said with a smile, putting his arm around Wu Shi and Leclerc's shoulders.

Friday, September 10st.

At 10:00 AM, the first practice session of the Japan Grand Prix at Suzuka Circuit officially began. Wu Shi, wearing a Williams team jersey and headphones, stood in the pit lane watching the race, and the director gave him quite a few shots.

In addition, the director also focused the camera on Verstappen, filming him almost the entire time he was conducting the test.

Unlike Wu Shi's relentless pushing at the Singapore Grand Prix, he focused more on finding the car's braking point, cornering speed, and power response, repeatedly adjusting his racing line as he entered and exited corners.

Many people nodded in agreement upon seeing this, saying that this was exactly how a rookie should behave when adapting to racing!

The weather conditions during the first practice session were fairly good, but the wind was a bit strong. Several drivers reported that there would be sudden wind shear at turns eight and nine, which could easily cause the vehicle to lose control if the speed was too high.

This situation made the teams realize that the track conditions were very complex under the influence of the typhoon, and the engineers of each team reminded the drivers to pay attention to safety to varying degrees.

With just over six minutes left in the race, Verstappen, driving car number 38, veered off the racing line and into the run-off area.

Shortly after, smoke and flames erupted from the rear of the race car.

His practice match had to end prematurely.

In this practice session, Pan Zi's best time was 1 minute 38.157 seconds, placing him twelfth, about 0.44 seconds slower than his teammate Kvyat.

Back in the pit lane, Toro Rosso team principal Graham Watson encouraged him, saying, "You did very well today, but unfortunately the car's problems made this practice session less than perfect."

Verstappen, with his usual dry humor, said: "Yep, I think it's pretty good too. Everything went smoothly, and I was well aware of when the fire started to break out."

In this practice session, the top two positions were unsurprisingly taken by Mercedes drivers, with Rosberg and Hamilton finishing half a second ahead of Ace in third place.

When the second practice session started at 2 PM, the gloomy sky had been overcast, and the rain stopped after a while.

Seeing this, I thought it would rain tomorrow, but unexpectedly the rain stopped during qualifying, the track dried, and the drivers were able to proceed with the qualifying race as normal.

However, this positive trend did not last until Sunday's main event.

At 10 p.m. on October 5, a strong wind swept through the area, followed by torrential rain.

"Wu Shi, you seem very worried?"

Vestager asked, noting Wu Shi's situation more keenly than Lock & Lock, a situation that had existed since their arrival in Japan.

"Well, the match should be canceled in this weather," Wu Shi said, making an unpleasant remark.

In later years, many F1 races were suspended due to red flags caused by weather conditions, which led to criticism from veteran fans that F1 was becoming increasingly fussy.

Only those who actually drive race cars on the track know that driving an F1 car in bad weather is like dancing on a knife's edge.

“You just reminded Bianchi to pay close attention to the red and yellow flags, and said to be especially careful at Turn 7. This doesn’t seem like the guy Norrislin who was sticking so close to me in the rain,” Verstappen said.

"Maybe that's because people in different positions feel differently. Your mother would pray for you and light a candle before each of your races, but you wouldn't think about that much on the track."

Wu Shi said that he only regretted that his memory was not good enough. He only remembered the corner where Bianchi had the accident, but he couldn't remember the exact time.

　Chapter Two will be a little later.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)