F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 110 The Driver's Life (5K1)

The content produced by Filmstorm had absolutely nothing to do with racing before. The reason these two companies came together was thanks to Asheng, who was acting as the photographer today, who helped to connect them.

This person is a seasoned car culture enthusiast. Ever since he learned that Shulong had officially signed with Toro Rosso, he has been trying to persuade their boss, Tim, to plan a program about F1.

That's Formula 1, one of the world's top motorsport events! It's bound to produce some blockbuster movies, right?
Well, I have to admit that this reason did indeed sway Tim.

In short, after obtaining several paddock tickets through various connections and channels, they also went to great lengths to rent a high-speed camera at their own expense for 20,000 yuan a day.

Simply presenting the visuals and content like this is a bit dry, and they are not professional drivers. The finished product, which cost so much, may not even recoup its costs.

It just so happened that Wang Jieke had already planned a post-match segment on the aftermath of the game, so the two sides put their heads together and decided to collaborate on a high-quality long video.

Compared to the previous shoots where Shulong himself was almost sick of repeating the same things, this shoot was undoubtedly much more comfortable in terms of both atmosphere and pacing.

After getting to know each other a little, it felt like a group of old friends who had known each other for a long time were chatting together.

This outcome can be considered a two-way street, right?

Shu Long himself doesn't need to be so formal when answering questions, and Wang Jieke and his team don't need to be too afraid of offending people when planning program content because they know the boundaries. They don't have to be as cautious as other self-media, like writing an undergraduate thesis and having to follow a template.

Many others only know how to ask, and only dare to ask, things like: How difficult is it to become an F1 driver? (Yes, it's that kind of question again) How is the support from the home fans? What are your thoughts on the journey during the race? And what are your views on the future development of motorsport in China?

Even if it weren't Shu Long sitting there, and someone else gave the answer, the content would be pretty much the same.

Wang Jieke's prepared questions were even more gossipy and, equally, more explosive.

For example, questions like, "Which driver did you get along better with in the paddock?" or "Did any interesting, little-known stories happen between you and them during the race?"

We no longer focus on Shu Long's achievements during this period, nor do we want to portray him as a lone hero carrying a heavy burden. Instead, we want the audience to understand the paddock from the perspective of a driver who is actually in the thick of it.

Of course, most of the content is gossip, commonly known as "eating melons" (a Chinese slang term for gossiping or gossiping).

Shu Long is very interested in this. He's always on the front lines of gossip and has indeed got a lot of juicy gossip about other drivers.

Unfortunately, some things are easy to offend people if said out loud, so he only picked out a few things that were worth talking about to satisfy his urge to speak.

Drivers like Verstappen often install a simulator in his driver's lounge and play it until 1 or 2 a.m., even if he has a race the next day.

This guy is crazy. Shu Long himself likes to touch the simulator whenever he has nothing to do, but he would never make a living by driving.

Driving can be his pastime, but driving cannot be his only pastime!
Let's put aside the Ironblood Autobot for now and talk about some gossip that viewers might be more interested in after the video airs.

For example, Leclerc, widely recognized as a rising star in the paddock.

At the beginning of this year, he finally confirmed his relationship with Charlotte Sean, his neighbor in Monaco and also his childhood sweetheart, which earned him a lot of teasing from Shu Long and his friends.

He used to say that Shu Long was only interested in finding girlfriends near his own family, but when it came to his own situation, he did the same thing.

And then there's Toro Rosso's current reserve driver, Daniil Kvyat, who, after winning over Kelly Piquet, the daughter of F1 world champion Nelson Piquet, last year, is about to become a father this year.

Of course, besides these tidbits, there's also the fact that the old man and Lando are still two die-hard singles.

Lando is probably going to spend his whole life with his game console. When there are no competitions, he's addicted to Call of Duty every day. Shulong only found out that the old man was actually a veteran gamer when he was invited to play online with him once!
That's right.

That's Lewis Hamilton, who has won five world championships, started to stick to a vegetarian diet, and gives the impression that he is extremely self-disciplined and single-minded in his pursuit of fashion, racing, and fitness!

Their skills are just so-so, but they're really addicted to the game. These two often need Shu Long to exert his strength if they want to win.

In reality, Shu Long's skills and strategies in COD are just so-so. He relies on his superb eyesight, abnormal reaction and aiming abilities, and wins by shooting and killing.

Thanks to this opportunity, Shu Long and the old man became so familiar that they could call each other by their first names without having to worry about their age difference.

In comparison, although Shu Long's relationship with the other two world champions in the paddock, Uncle Wai Tou and Old Lai Tou, has become much more familiar after this season, he doesn't seem as casual with them as he is with Hamilton.

The reason is also related to the personalities of the two. Uncle Wai Tou sometimes seems a bit serious. He's a nice person, but he often makes Shu Long feel a strange sense of déjà vu, like he's talking to an elder in his family.

Old Lai is a super likable person in the paddock. If you really talk to him, you'll find that he's also a seasoned old comedian. But for Shu Long, who is also not good at breaking the ice in social situations, it's really easy to get awkward when the two of them face each other, except for greeting each other.

At least the old man and the other man shared a common interest in games, while the other man preferred parties and alcohol. It's fair to say that they had absolutely nothing in common except for driving.

Perhaps we could add Magnum?

Many of the things were paddock secrets that ordinary car enthusiasts rarely get to hear, and Wang Jie listened with great interest.

But for Tim, who hadn't had much in-depth experience with the racing world, this information was just something he could only vaguely understand.

Knowing he was going to be doing F1-related content, he actually did his homework thoroughly, such as the names and functions of various parts of the race car, the results and history of several teams in the paddock, etc., because he was afraid that he wouldn't have anything in common to talk about.

But looking at it today, I feel like I've been working in the wrong direction. What should I do?
The focus of the content is less on motorsports itself and more on a large-scale reality show in the paddock with F1 as its theme.

The fact that Tim can have this feeling means that he has gradually come to understand.

Aside from the three days of racing each weekend, the main attraction of F1 is watching all the random, entertaining things happening in the paddock.

However, after finding amusement in others, Wang Jieke, who had been leading the conversation, suddenly changed the subject and turned the conversation to Shu Long.

"I'm sure you've been following the online discussions these past few days to some extent. Many people are saying that you and Verstappen might have a strained relationship for various reasons, but it didn't seem like that after the match that day?"

"Huh? Of course not!"

"So, is there a kind of 'social etiquette' in the hunting grounds that you are forced to adapt to?"

How should I put it? Actually, this question has already touched on a bit of the wrong front.

I've actually been paying attention to the amazing rhythm of Shu Long online these past few days. Many people believe that he is currently the most suitable driver for the Red Bull seat, saying that he has suffered a lot of unknown grievances while racing abroad.

Some even say that if Marco had shown the same determination he had in the past, Shu Long might already have several championships by now.

Wang Jieke originally wanted to ask these same questions, but since it involved team politics, Shu Long, as a driver, couldn't just point fingers. So he could only try to subtly probe Shu Long's attitude towards those comments.

This question is easy to answer, but it's not easy to answer it well.

There's a saying that goes, "One fan is worth ten haters."

It's true that playing at home has greatly boosted Shulong's commercial value as a driver, but allowing overly enthusiastic fans to speculate and stir up trouble online will eventually make things difficult for him as well.

Shu Long felt that there was nothing to avoid about some things, and he took this opportunity to respond slightly.

"Well, the paddock is basically a workplace. The drivers are like working in different departments of a large company. There are definitely interpersonal relationships involved, but the relationships between them are not as complicated as outsiders think."

"Oh? How exactly?"

"It's a bit like a colleague and a bit like a classmate. I didn't experience my senior year of high school myself, but I think it should feel similar to the feeling of being in the same class as my senior year."

"What a subtle description. Now that you put it that way, I think I understand a little better. What about you, Tim?"

Tim, who had been smiling and hanging up for quite a while, gazed affectionately at Wang Jack, who had thrown the question at him. Finally, there was a topic he could join in on. "It feels kind of familiar, doesn't it? Suddenly, I feel like race car drivers aren't so far away from us. Back in senior year of high school, the top students and the underachievers could actually hang out together as long as they weren't talking about studying. But when it came to grades, the fact that someone else had good grades would put a lot of pressure on us."

"So, Shulong, do you ever have some dark thoughts, like hoping your opponents will underperform?"

"Ha! You're torturing me, aren't you?" Shu Long chuckled. "Do you want to hear the truth or a lie?"

"Generally speaking, people would want to hear the truth, but right now I really want to hear what the lies are."

"The lie is that I hope everyone can perform at their best; to put it more dramatically, a victory gained through the opponent's mistakes is not worth celebrating!"

"That truth"

"Human nature is such that I wish everyone was behind me. It's not easy to accept that there are people in this world who are better than you. It feels like you're no longer the protagonist in the story."

The atmosphere suddenly seemed to become a bit heavy, quite different from the tone that had started the recording. Wang Jieke himself regretted asking such a thoughtless question.

For a moment, no one spoke, leaving Shu Long completely bewildered.

"Why is everyone suddenly so serious? Emotionally, I still hope the opponents can be a bit challenging. Nobody wants to play against bots all the time in any game that's even remotely competitive. What's the point of taking down a training dummy? It's more satisfying to outplay real players with your skills, isn't it?"

Now that you mention it, it sounds like I'm asking you, bro?

Wang Jieke turned to look at Tim, a young man who resembled a certain League of Legends star jungler, and sighed helplessly.

"Yeah, yeah, there's not much of a sense of accomplishment in kicking the ball into an undefended goal, right, Son Heung-min?"

A victory that was never in doubt is indeed quite boring. Hamilton probably didn't get more than ten shots throughout the entire race. For him, the result of the race was probably already over before Turn 1.

Perhaps years from now, when someone asks, "How did it feel to win the 1,000th Grand Prix in Formula 1?"

Aside from a subtle sense of disorientation, as if he were an outsider, the old man probably couldn't recall even a tenth of the details of this game.

It's just running around the track in circles, what other details could there be?
Winning his 1,000th Grand Prix is ​​nothing compared to the fact that he got stuck in Hamilton Corner in his very first race, shattering the myth of winning the World Championship in his rookie year.

Cough!

The conversation naturally turned to the racetrack, and the second half of the content took center stage, with Tim and Shu Long discussing the artistic footage they had captured.

The content following the video is said to be their voice-over combined with footage collected by Film Hurricane from the track over the past few days that could be edited into a high-energy highlight reel. To be fair, Shu Long did contribute quite a few highlights during the hour and a half main race.

Just when Tim and Shu Long were running out of things to say, Wang Jieke suddenly discovered another key point in these photos.

"Speaking of which, Shulong, your helmet at your home stadium must be a redesigned special edition, right? Could you share a bit about it with us?"

Wang Jieke really has a sharp eye; even Shu Long himself almost forgot about this.

This is mainly because Red Bull has strict requirements for the style of helmets worn by riders within its system. The main elements must emphasize the Red Bull and team logos, leaving very little room for riders to customize their helmets.

This resulted in his home-field special edition helmet being described as a special edition, but at first glance, it looked almost identical to the one he usually wore.

"Actually, there aren't many changes. This helmet was mainly designed by my family. The two coiled dragons on top were drawn by my mother, and the cute go-kart in the middle was drawn by my girlfriend."

"You actually have a girlfriend?!"

It wasn't just Tim that day; when he finally had some free time to take Gan Mengning to meet up with his old classmates, those familiar yet somewhat unfamiliar faces had pretty much the same reaction.

"Good heavens! I was wondering why you never bothered to tell us about Zhang Jinhua's gossip back then, no matter how much she spread rumors about you. You had such a high-quality childhood sweetheart, why didn't you tell us?"

"What am I telling you? Back in school, we were nobody!"

Yu Mujie was more reserved, while Shen Qian, who was much more lively, immediately joined in the teasing.

"You're definitely being too polite! Back then, you and Yu Mujie were the only two people teased as being like two wooden stakes. Who knew you were the one who had been hiding your true abilities!"

"Exactly, exactly, are you being too formal with us guys?"

"What's with the formality? What are you trying to do, kid?!"

Shu Long glared at Teng Weifeng with his dead fish eyes and slapped him across the face, shoving him aside.

Chen Tingya, the female protagonist of the gossip back then, is still standing on the side. Now she is holding hands and chatting with Gan Mengning. The scene feels a bit awkward.

There wasn't any of the usual tension or conflict. Chen Tingya's feelings for Shulong were mostly just childhood fantasies, similar to wishing for her husband to be Eddie Peng—more like joking wishes.

For these old classmates, the now-grown Shulong was undoubtedly distant and mysterious, and Gan Mengning was also full of curiosity about her student life in Shulong.

Shu Long herself doesn't talk much about these things, and most of what she found online was just about her competition experiences. It was rare to find a girl of similar age with whom she could talk, so Gan Mengning wanted to see if she could get some juicy information out of her.

For example, does Shulong, who claims to be my first love, have any unknown romantic history?

The answer is: "A whole bunch! There are about ten in total, including elementary and middle school students!"

Young Gan was immediately dumbfounded. Even Chen Tingya in front of him had once been one of them. However, considering Teng Weifeng's initial "gossip," he quickly realized it must have been a joke.

As for the threat...
It wasn't that this girl was confident; even though the other girls present were all beautiful, none of them could rival her.

Looking at Shu Long, who hadn't spoken to any other girls since they met, aside from the usual greetings, and recalling how clumsy he was at driving school, he didn't seem like that kind of person.

When meeting his old classmates, Shu Long was much more relaxed than when he was with Wang Jieke and the others.

Aside from everyone being a size bigger than I remembered, it suddenly felt like I was back in the days when we used to go to the go-kart track at Shulong's house together.

Unfortunately, their schedule today wasn't for Shu Long to use his alternate account to fry fish and show off. To apologize for the delays of the past few days, Shu Long specially paid out of his own pocket to treat a few people to a luxurious day trip to Disneyland.

Besides
"Stop teasing me all day long. Tell me, what's going on between you and Chen Tingya? I've been feeling something's off between you two for a while now!"

"Oh, it's nothing really. We're all connected by fate. Are we good friends?"

Shu Long raised an eyebrow and gave Teng Weifeng a look that said, "You'll understand."

"Okay, okay! There is a bit of that, but actually I haven't thought it through myself, and I don't know what other people think."

"I don't care about you. I'm not here to match you up today. My girlfriend just wanted to come here to have fun. You know what I mean."

Teng Weifeng's parents were both university teachers. He lacked parental companionship during his childhood, but his family education was very strict.

So he's the kind of person who's all talk and no action, but he's actually very clear-headed about many things, yet he pretends to be nonchalant.

The fact that Chen Tingya had an ex-boyfriend wasn't really a big deal. What he cared about was Chen Tingya's past attitude towards Shu Long, always feeling like he was the third party.

However, upon seeing Shu Long's girlfriend appear today, he was actually the most relaxed, and unknowingly let go of many of his worries.

　Then I started to analyze the game storylines between the Mavericks and Haas. I briefly described a few games to explain the story, but for most of them, I just gave a quick overview. I also painstakingly analyzed the details of each game.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)