F1: Absolute Car Feel

Chapter 288 Torpedo
With the Bahrain Grand Prix concluded, Rosberg started the season with two victories, establishing a competitive edge for the rest of the season, and he scored a maximum of 50 points.

Mercedes thus achieved a perfect start, leading Ferrari by a full 50 points.

Of course, even now, some members of the Iron Buddha Temple still believe that they have a chance to win the championship this year.

After all, Ferrari has shown considerable competitiveness, and their current points deficit is only due to two minor accidents.

Those familiar with Ferrari can't help but think back to last season.

When Ferrari was initially competing with Williams for second place in the standings, it was always the same: either Vettel faltered or Kimi faltered.

As a result, with Wu Shi consistently scoring points, the gap widened further.

The good news for Ferrari this year is that with Williams' competitiveness declining, Wu Shi is no longer a regular on the podium, making it much more difficult for Williams to accumulate points.

Therefore, they will secure second place and strive for first.

But if you actually calculate it, the two teams are only 5 points apart at most.

After leaving Bahrain, Wu Shi finally had a chance to have a private chat with Brother Tou.

"Oh! I see."

After listening to his story, Alonso stroked his beard, pondered for a long time, but instead of sharing his experience, he said:

"We might be able to collaborate in certain areas."

After a moment's thought, Wu Shi said, "Wouldn't this cause chaos in the business?"

They're all in the racing field, and many of the projects they do are direct competitors.

"It does."

Alonso nodded and continued:

"However, you should know that our companies are still in their early stages and cannot be compared with those companies that have been developing for more than ten or even decades. In the early stages, sticking together for mutual support is a good choice."

"Your main operating area should be in your home country, right?"

Wu Shi shook his head and said:

"That's just one of our divisions. In fact, it's very difficult to recruit talent there. Motorsports isn't a popular option."

"We are also currently focusing on the French and Italian markets, but of course, the main focus is on France. There are countless racing clubs in Italy, so it's too difficult to find a piece of the pie."

In France, they mainly operate in partnership with Bianchi, while Itali leverages Martina and Sid's relationship and Hpeng Management's long-standing background in scouting drivers.

This is very difficult, but fortunately, starting this year, Hpeng has a huge advantage: the agency has produced a world champion!
Even though most of the effort came from the world champion himself, it cannot be denied that the management company provided various forms of support and assistance during the process.

Outside of the racetrack, drivers have many other things to deal with, such as sponsorships, financial management, and team selection.

This is why drivers all choose to join a management company.

For most drivers, they lack connections.

Hpeng now has connections with a world champion.

Alonso pondered for a long time before finally saying:
"Actually, these are not contradictory. I am also paying attention to the Spanish market. Although I have ideas to expand my influence, it is a long process."

"The likelihood of our businesses having specific conflicts is not high, and cooperation in the early stages is a good option."

"If I were to give you any advice, I could only say that you must find trustworthy people in the relevant professional field to run your company."

"You definitely still have shortcomings in this area."

Wu Shi scratched his head. That's right. Hpeng's establishment and improvement relied on Martina and Sid.

His control over the company stemmed entirely from his controlling stake and his relationship with Martina and Sid.

"However, I don't think you should be too distracted by these things right now. You still have a long career ahead of you. Wait until you're as old as me before shifting your focus."

“But I think we can work together,” Alonso said.

Wu Shi accepted Brother Tou's suggestion, saying that they would discuss the specifics later and take things one step at a time.

While Wu Shi was considering his business empire, Toto also made his move.

He sold his last 5% stake in Williams to Brad Hollinger.

Since this was not a sale of shares by the Williams family, Wu Shi had no way to participate.

Furthermore, Toto had been preparing to sell his Williams shares as early as 2013 after joining Mercedes.

He must avoid any conflict of interest arising from his stake in Williams that relates to his role in the Mercedes team.

From 2014 to this year, over three years, Toto sold 5% of its shares each year, all to Brad Hollinger.

Now, Toto has completely severed all shareholding ties with Williams.

Williams' equity structure is now very clear.

The major shareholder is Sir Frank Williams, who owns 52%, meaning the Williams family still holds the most controlling stake.

Secondly, co-founder Patrick Hyde holds 10%.
After acquiring Toto's shares, Brad Hollinger's stake has increased to approximately 17%.

The remaining 20% ​​or so is mostly in the stock market, with a small portion going to minority shareholders.

As time went by, the third leg of the race calendar soon arrived.

Williams announced that they will be bringing a brand new blue and white porcelain paint job to welcome Wu Shi to play on their home court.

Well, after seeing it in advance, Wu Shi thought it was actually pretty good?
Because of the numerous arrangements at his home stadium, Wu Shi had to return to China ahead of schedule.

When I got off the plane, I saw advertisements for him all over the airport, and I was immediately horrified.

Every so often there is a hanging painting, and the images are quite unique. There are photos of Wu Shi in formal attire, photos of him in racing suits, and many more of the exciting moments of toasting.

It's easy to imagine the level of publicity that Shanghai has adopted this time.

As soon as I arrived at the terminal, staff members came to ask me questions.

"Excuse me, are you Mr. Wu Shi?"

"Yes."

"Hello, this is a receptionist from Jiushi. We have communicated with you before and arranged a fan meeting at the airport. Please follow us."

"it is good."

Wu Shi nodded and followed along with Sid, Jennifer, and the others.

Someone will help collect the luggage, and important small items are carried with you at all times.

He walked through the long corridor lined with advertisements, feeling somewhat embarrassed despite wearing a mask.

Many onlookers were already taking pictures with their phones, probably thinking they had encountered some celebrity.

When he arrived at the exit, Wu Shi realized just how many fans he had accumulated in China over the past year.

In a specially designated area at the airport, a large group of people stood, almost all wearing Williams' baseball caps, and holding a banner that read something like "Welcome home, world champion."

As he emerged, the crowd gradually stirred, attracting many travelers to turn their heads frequently.

Many foreigners visiting China participated, and photos from the event quickly appeared on Instagram and Twitter.

"Oh! It's a pity I can't go, otherwise I would also like to go to the home stadium to cheer for Wu Shi!"

"As expected, a powerful world champion will have a solid fan base wherever he goes!"

"Oh no! I missed such a great opportunity!"

Did you ask him for an autograph? Could you get me one for me? Please!

The post quickly garnered numerous comments.

Wu Shi waved to the car enthusiasts who had come to the event.

To avoid occupying public facilities or causing chaos, the final fan meet-and-greet was held in an open area specially organized by the airport.

Here, the leaders of Jiushi are present, as are Bingge and Feige.

Clearly, the reception was of a high standard from the very beginning.

This is the prestige of being a world champion.

After greeting the others, Wu Shi took the microphone and interacted with the car enthusiasts who had come to support him.

I didn't have a prepared speech; my main point was to thank everyone for their support.

"Wu Shi! I want to have your babies!"

Suddenly, a shout came from the crowd of car enthusiasts.

"Ooooooooo!!!"

Immediately, some people started to jeer.

Wu Shi scratched his head. Why are people still using last year's jokes this year?

However, these kinds of questions are much easier to answer than the traps set by the reporters in the paddock.

He laughed and said, "Ahem, I'm not an adult yet, that's illegal!"

"Hahahahaha!!!"

After a brief sharing session, the signing took place, and Jiushi even prepared a special gift for the guests.

This is a way of giving back to the loyal fans who came.

As a result, Wu Shi's hand ached from signing so many lots of lots.

However, this campaign did indeed fire the first shot in his surge in popularity in China.

Most of the fans who participated in the airport meet-and-greet became promotional machines, and images of them immediately appeared on social media platforms such as Big Eye and Bilibili.

"Phew, signing these characters is exhausting." Wu Shi shook his hands.

"Won't this affect your driving later?" the soldier asked immediately.

“No, not at all.” Wu Shi shook his head.

"There are still quite a few activities to come, so I'm sorry to trouble you with that," the soldier said.

"Not at all, this was something we agreed on in the first place," Wu Shi said with a smile.

Of course, a sponsorship of ten million euros a year isn't given out casually.

The small fan meet-and-greet at the airport was just the beginning; many other activities were planned after the race.

To ensure Wu Shi's competitive form, Jiushi wouldn't be foolish enough to organize a bunch of commercial activities before the competition.

Upon arriving in Shanghai, the FIA ​​and F1 finally abandoned their new qualifying format, returning everything to the 2015 system.

However, it is said that Bernie still has plans to make some changes next year. Who knows what will happen?
The practice and qualifying matches were going very quickly.

Mercedes and Ferrari took the fastest time on Friday, leaving the other teams far behind.

On Saturday morning, a torrential downpour silenced the third training session.

Fortunately, the driving lanes were dry by the time of the afternoon qualifying session, but the asphalt edges were still wet, making it easy to slip and cause accidents if you are not careful.

No sooner had the soldier finished speaking than Pascal Wehrlein, the rookie of the Manor team, crashed headfirst into the guardrail.

A red flag appeared in Q1.

Fortunately, most drivers advanced steadily, with Hamilton being the only one who encountered problems.

Of course, the problem wasn't with the old man himself, but with the car.

He was eliminated because the kinetic energy recovery system malfunctioned, causing him to lose speed in Q1.

Ultimately, Rosberg was the undisputed winner of the qualifying round.

However, in Q2, whether intentionally or unintentionally, he achieved his fastest time on soft tires, meaning he will have to use soft tires at the start. The other drivers are using supersoft tires, which means Rosberg may be at a disadvantage at the start.

Wu Shi's consistency and limits did not fluctuate because of playing at home.

Without Hamilton, he successfully finished second with a time of 1 minute 35.797 seconds.

Although he was nearly 0.4 seconds behind Rosberg's pole position time, this result still drew thunderous cheers from the crowd.

Ferrari wasn't fast enough at this race; Kimi and Vettel were slower than Ricciardo.

Before the official race the next day, Wu Shi still enjoyed the driver parade at his home stadium.

So a very interesting scene unfolded: fans of all teams were now cheering for the same driver.

Wu Shi enjoyed this feeling.

Because of the unprecedented popularity of F1 in China this year, a large number of celebrities and big names gathered at the P-room.

However, all of this was meaningless to Wu Shi. He didn't care. Even when international stars like Fan Bingbing came to him, he would only respond politely.

The official race was fast approaching, and Wu Shi cherished the opportunity to start from second place overall.

Moreover, this is his home turf, and he has his sights set on winning the race.

Just like Ferrari always goes all out at home every year, Wu Shi also hopes to achieve the feat of winning the championship at home this time.

Unfortunately, Williams did not have any special tuning data for the Shanghai International Circuit; the car was still the same.

Soon, the five red lights went out.

Wu Shi continued his previous quick start, while Rosberg continued his previous sluggish start.

Wu Shi quickly overtook him at just the first turn, which immediately drew another round of enthusiastic cheers from the crowd.

Even the official F1 commentators couldn't help but sigh:
"I feel that Chinese fans are far more enthusiastic than Mexican fans this year. Perhaps the only difference is that their enthusiasm is focused on Wu Shi alone."

However, shortly after taking the lead, the situation on the track changed immediately, and the Kvyat collided with two Ferraris.

He first blocked Vettel in the paint, causing Vettel to collide with him.

Vettel then collided with Kimi, causing damage to Kimi's front wing and forcing him to pit early.

Hamilton, who started from the back, was also not spared from the accident. His front wing was hit and detached, forcing him to pit for tire changes on lap 1.

Wu Shi is in a very safe position now, because Ricardo is behind him blocking Rosberg.

But Ricciardo was also unlucky; on the third lap, he ran over debris and punctured his tire, forcing him to pit for a change.

On lap 4, the race organizers deployed the safety car for safety reasons.

The safety car incident caused even greater chaos, with a large number of vehicles damaged in the collision trying to enter the pit lane, making the repair area extremely chaotic.

Now, only the three cars in the front row remained on the track.

They are Wu Shi, who is in the lead, and Rosberg and Massa, who are in second and third place respectively.

On lap six, Hamilton also pitted for supersoft tires under the safety car.

But they then pitted on the next lap to change to soft tires.

"What is Hamilton doing? Is he addicted to stopping at stations?"

The soldier smiled when he saw it.

"Do you think Wu Shi can maintain his lead?" Fei Ge asked.

"I think..." He paused for a moment before continuing:
"It's hard to say. Mercedes has moved too fast this year, and Williams hasn't shown any advantage so far."

On lap 9, the race restarted. The top three did not make any moves, but Kvyat easily moved from the back to fourth place.

Wu Shi stood in front of Rosberg.

It was obvious to everyone that Rosberg could quickly catch up with Wu Shi, but despite such a huge racing advantage, Rosberg did not choose to overtake.

"Is he waiting for DRS? How cautious he is!" the soldier couldn't help but exclaim.

Sure enough, after DRS restarted, Rosberg launched an attack on Wu Shi using the simplest and most direct method.

He pulled out from the DRS area and then used Mercedes' superior cornering performance to overtake on the way into the corner.

Wu Shi only fought Rosberg for half a round before giving up.

"The performance gap is too big!" The soldier shook his head.

Once Rosberg gets ahead, he can immediately create a gap, making it impossible for him to overtake.

Moreover, Rosberg was using soft tires, and if he continued to push them, Wu Shi's supersoft tires would wear out quickly, making it impossible for him to reach the expected lap time and resulting in even greater losses.

Kvyat, behind him, also performed exceptionally well, overtaking Massa on lap 12 and beginning to target Wu Shi.

On lap 15, Rosberg led Wu Shi by 4 seconds, Kvyat by 8.9 seconds, Massa by 12.8 seconds, and Vettel by 15.9 seconds.

On lap 17, Wu Shi's supersoft tires could no longer work, so he pitted at the pit window to change tires, leaving him behind Vettel.

However, on the next lap, Vettel also pitted to change tires, falling further back in the standings.

On lap 19, Hamilton overtook Ricciardo and Perez, and Massa pitted for tires.

On lap 20, Kvyat pitted for soft tires, falling behind Verstappen but ahead of Vettel.

Wu Shi has now returned to second place.

On lap 21, Rosberg pitted and came out still ahead of Wu Shi, but the time difference between the two had narrowed to only 2 seconds.

However, Rosberg immediately widened the gap again after switching to new tires.

On lap 28, Rosberg led Wu Shi by 8 seconds and Kvyat by 20 seconds.

Kvyat was currently struggling against Vettel's attack.

“Wu Shi is perfectly safe now!” the soldier said.

"Yes, that's good. Mercedes is too fast, but Red Bull and Ferrari behind it aren't slow either." Fei Ge nodded.

Amid the initial chaos, Rosberg, Wu Shi, and Massa all benefited.

The top two maintained their positions, while Massa had fallen behind Vettel.

Starting on lap 32, the second wave of pit stops began.

Vettel and Kvyat pitted on lap 36.

On lap 37, Wu Shi and Rosberg pitted for tires on the same lap. Both were very steady, but slow, and each took 3.5 seconds to change tires.

However, once they emerged, they maintained their previous advantage and remained in the lead.

On the track, a fully charged Vettel launched an attack on Kvyat in the DRS zone, reclaiming third place.

But at this moment, facing Wu Shi, he still had a full 12 seconds of difference.

This huge gap is very difficult to close in the final stretch.

Everyone looked at Hamilton again, the old man who had struggled up from the back of the line was now blocked by Ricardo.

On lap 43, Ricciardo, while keeping an eye on Hamilton, overtook Massa at the hairpin turn.

On lap 46, Hamilton was able to attack Massa, but Massa fought back very hard.

On lap 49, the two Toro Rosso cars overtook Perez and both entered the points zone.

Ricciardo wanted to chase Kvyat, but his tires were too bad, and he missed his chance.

Vettel did close the gap to 4 seconds behind Wu Shi, but it's already lap 52, and the race is nearing its end, so there's no point in trying to catch up by even one second per lap.

Hamilton also gave up on attacking Massa on this lap, as the tires no longer supported any aggressive maneuvers.

Williams' improved performance after light oiling allowed Massa to stubbornly hold off his old rival.

On lap 56, Rosberg crossed the finish line 34 seconds ahead of Wu Shi, securing his third consecutive championship of the new season.

Wu Shi also stood on the podium for the first time in the new season.

"This is an improvement over last year," the soldier said at the end of the competition.

"Yes, there has been progress in the individual races, moving from third to second place," Fei Ge said with a smile.

After Wu Shi circled the track once, he parked his car behind sign number 2, just as the other drivers were parking their vehicles.

Vettel got off the car, and not far behind him was Kvyat, who was in fourth place.

He tilted his head and walked over without any hesitation.

Kvyat then asked, "What happened while you were driving?"

"You're asking me what happened at the start? If I hadn't swerved to the left, you would have crashed into us, and all three of us would have had to retire!" Vettel said angrily.

Well, that's what I did back then.

"No! No 'well,' you charged at me like a fish!"

Kvyat couldn't help but laugh and say, "That's just how the game is. I just found an opportunity."

"If I continue on that route, we'll crash!"

Koviat could only give an awkward laugh: "Then don't lay the lines like that."

“But there was another car to my left at the time,” Vettel said immediately.

“It’s as if I can see all the vehicles. I only have two eyes and I can see two race cars,” Kvyat continued.

Wu Shi and Rosberg stood to one side, watching the two arguing in front of the media after the weighing was completed.

Rosberg couldn't help but laugh, but didn't join the argument.

Vettel continued in a whisper, "You'll crash if you do that."

“But I didn’t crash,” Kvyat said calmly.

“Yes, you didn’t hit me.” Vettel had given up on arguing and turned to leave.

Rosberg patted Wu Shi on the shoulder and asked, "What do you think?"

Wu Shi shrugged and said, "Kvyat is right, this is the game."

“So it seems that if it were you, you would also go in like Kvyat,” Rosberg said.

"I have to consider the situation," Wu Shi said with a shake of his head and a smile.

“Haha, but I have to watch out for you. I don’t feel safe with you behind me.” Rosberg laughed along.

“Oh, I see. But I won’t be like a torpedo,” Wu Shi said.

"torpedo?"

"Yes, Sebastian has developed a new use for this word."

"That's a fitting word; you used to torpedo me like that all the time last year."

Rosberg applied what he learned in a practical way.

"No, no, you've misunderstood." Wu Shi waved his hands repeatedly, refusing to admit it.

Vettel was still in a bad mood in the lounge.

Today, the big boss Marchionne also came, and as a result, Ferrari almost had to retire twice, which naturally made him emotionally unstable.

Perhaps this is what often happens when Germans and Russians meet?
　There's a daily limit to the number of images I can post, and I used up my limit yesterday, so I can only post it today. The error in the Bahrain station integral image from yesterday has been corrected. Thank you for pointing it out, fellow readers. Thanks (ω).

　　The pace of 2016 will be faster. The first race and the home race are of great significance, so they will be covered in more detail. In the future, apart from briefly mentioning the development and changes of F1 and famous moments, most other situations will be covered in a brief manner.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)