F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 111 My teammates come with a mountain of five fingers.
Since everyone was still a college student, we went out and had a few meals together over the weekend, and then went back to our respective schools to do what we needed to do.

As for the affair between Teng Weifeng and Chen Tingya, it was basically an unspoken understanding. Even if Shu Long hadn't pointed it out that day, no one present could have missed it.

Except for Shu Long, all of them were top students and basically intelligent people, so even Shen Qian, who loved to stir things up the most, had no intention of matchmaking them up.

They're all adults; they should know exactly what they want. Relationships are a matter between two people. If they break up later, what was originally a well-intentioned act will turn into something that pleases neither side.

Since both of them studied at Fudan University, things will naturally fall into place.

That's not the point.

Teng Weifeng also took a lot of photos over the weekend of the competition. Before leaving, he asked Shu Long if he could use Shu Long's influence to create some exclusive content.

We are currently in a phase of rapid development of self-media, and Teng Weifeng is actually the kind of person who has a natural talent for being a content creator. He has both high IQ and EQ, and he can come up with a whole repertoire of witty remarks.

In fact, his current range of interests is already quite broad, but most of them are related to games.

It's the kind of show that audiences love to watch, but it's always a bit embarrassing to present to relatives.
The online game section mainly focuses on editing content from League of Legends and PUBG. Other sections include commentary and walkthroughs of single-player games, live-action horror game series, and a segment called "108 Mini-Games to Torture You," among others.

However, given the current trend, he feels that simply producing game-related content is far from fully realizing the potential of self-media. In the future, he also wants to try adding lifestyle content and develop in as many dimensions as possible.

The incentives currently offered by the platform are mostly in the form of traffic fees. The platform's generous investment in content creators in the early stages is not because the platform is stupid; it's just that this is the time when the platform is buying a lot of traffic for itself.

The most direct way for a platform to monetize traffic is through advertising. Once the platform's traffic reaches saturation, the video incentive program is likely to be drastically cut.

If that's the case, why not take advantage of this period to expand your audience as much as possible?

Advertisers may soon discover that instead of spending a lot of money to deploy ads on platforms that have almost no promotional effect, it would be more profitable to spend less money to directly find content creators with their own traffic.

Many content creators haven't realized this yet. Most of them just think that making money as a content creator is so easy. They think that just by posting a few videos and doing a few gigs, the platform will pour money into their pockets. Isn't that much easier than going to work?
However, a few people with a longer-term vision have already started to develop in this direction.

For example, there's Wang Jieke's Speedy Partners Studio, and Tim's Hurricane Studio.

Tim and his team actually have even bigger ambitions. In addition to producing videos to attract traffic, their studio also produces products.

Now that Teng Weifeng also wants to develop in this direction, Shu Long doesn't mind giving him a hand. So his answer is that as long as it doesn't involve team secrets and related endorsement brands, and as long as they don't criticize him too badly, then they can basically give him the green light all the way.

If Teng Weifeng's content production requires it, he can even ask the team's accompanying reporters for material that others can't get.

Actually, it wasn't just Teng Weifeng. Just a few days ago, after filming a program with Film Hurricane, Shu Long also struck a business deal with them, which was not too big or too small.

The works Tim and his team displayed that day, especially those captured by ultra-high-speed cameras, were quite impressive. However, the fact that they required a rental fee of over 20,000 yuan per day made such masterpieces quite rare.

"So why don't you just consider buying one directly?"

"Because I don't have money!"

Just like GOAT, Film Hurricane is still in the early stages of its studio development. Currently, it only has around 300,000 followers, which is less than Gan Mengning's personal account.

However, due to the content production segment, his actual income is much higher than Gan Mengning's own; otherwise, he wouldn't be able to support the studio.

But despite their seemingly good profits, the studio needs money for everything it does to grow, so the amount of profit they can actually use for video production is not much.

A single ultra-high-speed camera costs hundreds of thousands of yuan, not to mention various taxes and fees, which are simply too much for the current film and television industry to handle.

Just then, the video recording was almost finished, and Shu Long had a brief chat with Tim about the commercial value of this ultra-high-speed camera. The conclusion was that it "has great potential and the revenue is very stable."

With such a machine, Tim's studio would instantly become one of the top advertising production companies in the country, and the scope of their business would be much broader than it is now!

Moreover, even if there are no production demands in this area, renting this out when it's not in use can generate income comparable to that of a landlady, especially for properties in prime locations like Beijing and Shanghai.

Shu Long had recently been accumulating a lot of random income, and he had a lot of idle funds that he didn't know what to do with, so he called his mother to confirm the feasibility.

Zhang Xin's response at the time was: "Not bad, not bad. My eldest son is starting to use his brain. I'm just afraid you'll end up like your father."

From the background noise, Shu Long's father immediately complained, "Why do you always have to drag me into this?"

"How dare you say that! Your son can't drive race cars for the rest of his life, can he? What will he do when he retires and doesn't learn how to manage these things?"

“good good”

Ignoring the henpecked husband on the other end, Zhang Xin told Shu Long on the phone to go ahead and do it himself. Success would be a good thing, and even failure would give him some experience.

Even if Shu Long hadn't become an F1 driver, the family could still afford the cost of this level of trial and error. Moreover, although they failed to reach a sponsorship agreement with domestic car companies this time, they still managed to connect the Shu family's original auto parts business with several major manufacturers.

Since his mother, who was the most knowledgeable about managing money in the family, had no objections, Shu Long no longer hesitated and immediately decided to make his first investment.

"How about this? I'll provide the funds to buy the best one you can think of, and that will be considered as me actually investing in it, okay?"

It's not about investing through an account, but rather about directly investing in the studio, just like Shu Xiong invested in Speed ​​Partners.

then
"Holy crap! Boss, you're showing favoritism!"

Don't get me wrong, Tim is actually quite reserved; it was Wang Jie who yelled.

He stared longingly at Shu Long's hand, which seemed to be about to hand over money, practically rubbing against his lap.

"We automotive media photographers, especially sports cars, really need this kind of equipment!"

"Don't come to me for that, go to my dad! I heard he has some savings that could buy a GTR-R35. Ask him if he's willing to lend you the money."

Tim was initially hesitant, but Wang Jieke's witty remarks softened his attitude considerably. However, he was still unsure whether to accept the investment.

"We are still very grateful for your support, but..." "But?"

Tim's hesitation was not without reason.

Because Tim's family is not short of money; in fact, they could be said to be very wealthy.

However, he has never been one to rely on his family's resources. When he went abroad to study, he earned most of his expenses through part-time jobs. Now, he has started his own business with this account, hoping to make a name for himself through his own efforts.

Shulong's investment could take away a large portion of the equity for their fledgling studio. Tim's concern was that his creative work would be influenced by the will of others, which felt like his own son being fed a piece of candy and then running off to call someone else "Dad."

To be honest, Tim was just overthinking things. Shu Long simply didn't care about all that nonsense; he just wanted to lie back and wait for his money to grow on its own.

Look at his grandfather, Mr. Shu, and his own father, Shu Xiong. Countless examples tell Shu Long the same truth: it's really great to be a hands-off boss!
Finally, after several explanations and assurances, and with Wang Jieke's encouragement, Shu Long acquired an 18% stake in Film Hurricane Studio with an investment of 1.8 million yuan.

The agreement clearly states that the person will not participate in management and will simply be a priority shareholder responsible for distributing profits. The only additional condition is that when there are any shooting needs in Shulong, the studio will try to accept the orders at cost price.

That's right, in principle, Shulong will still pay out of pocket, since the employees in the studio need income to work hard.

But don't underestimate these terms. If they actually succeed in doing this in the future, the price for a single shoot could very well be in the hundreds of thousands or even millions.

However, for Film Hurricane, which currently only receives orders worth a few thousand or tens of thousands of yuan, such terms are practically free, so they naturally agreed without hesitation.

As for Wang Jieke's desire for an ultra-high-speed camera, it ultimately came to nothing. Their studio's content production was different from Tim's, and the benefits of spending a lot of money to get one were indeed limited.

Even if there is a real need, we can just borrow it from Filmstorm, right?
Since there's already this connection, might as well use it.

The specific investment matters were handled by the lawyers and the appointed managers. Shu Long didn't have the extra energy to continue paying attention to the follow-up details, because he had been summoned by the team to the factory in Faenza, Italy, as early as Tuesday.

During the time that Shu Long stayed in China and indulged himself, Albon seemed to have come up with an upgrade plan for the team on the simulator.

The main goal now is to have Shulong test it out to see if there are any major problems. If not, the Spanish Grand Prix team will consider installing the new upgrade kit on both cars at the next race.

Shulong arrived at the factory on Tuesday noon. After taking a short nap, he ran tests from 3 pm to 7 pm. He continued running tests all morning the next day, and then rushed to Baku by plane in the afternoon.

The test results were very satisfactory. In addition to making an overall assessment of various types of corners, the simulator mainly chose the Circuit de Catalunya, the track to be tested for lap times.

The lap time is about two seconds faster than Gasly's record from last year, and the handling is a leap forward compared to the winter testing at the beginning of the year.

The reason for choosing this time to introduce upgrades is mainly because the Circuit de Catalunya had already been tested during winter, and each team made upgrade plans to varying degrees to address the problems that were exposed in the cars at that time.

That's how Formula 1 racing is: if you don't move forward, you fall behind.

Especially for smaller mid-table teams, if they don't compete with other teams, they might be aiming for the podium one race but not even make it into the points zone the next.

Shu Long, who was still jet-lagged and listless, had just returned to the team when he met Alben, who was working hard and had dark circles under his eyes.

"Hello, Dragon, how's the new upgrade?"

"That feels great! You've worked so hard these past few days!"

"It's nothing, it's nothing. It's just part of my job."

Seeing how exhausted Alben looked, Shu Long felt a little embarrassed.

Originally, team leader Tost rented a small villa near the team for Shu Long, hoping that Shu Long could use his support skills, which Red Bull had almost praised to the skies, to help the team with more research and development work when he had free time.

As a result, this is already the fourth Grand Prix this season, and so far almost all the upgrade plans seem to have been devised by Albon working extra hours to help.
Now that he's been turned into this grotesque mess, let's hope it doesn't affect his performance in the game this weekend.

"Why don't you go back and rest for a bit?"

"Oh? No need, no need, let's start the meeting!"

So hard!
I feel like Alben has been overly stressed lately, and his mental state is even more worrying than when he was preparing for the home game against Shulong the week before last.

However, since they had already made such a statement, Shu Long couldn't say anything more. He simply returned to his seat, squinted his eyes, and took a short nap, waiting for the team's engineers and strategy team to arrive.

Looking at Shulong, who was leaning back in his chair across from him, a hint of envy flashed in Alben's eyes.

I envy Shu Long's talent that allows him to act with impunity, and I also envy his complete ignorance.

He's been under a lot of pressure lately, and that pressure comes from many sources, not just from the mess within Red Bull itself.

The fourth-place finish at the previous race in Shulong, a home race, greatly hindered the progress of the Thai team's affairs. Fortunately, Albon's own performance from P20 to P9 was impressive enough, which gave him a little breathing room.

This arrangement to return to the factory to assist with upgrades was also the result of Tai Niu's behind-the-scenes maneuvering.

The unspoken rule between the two sides is that they can't resort to underhanded tactics, but there are some small favors that aren't too excessive, such as helping Albon to make the Toro Rosso race car's characteristics more in line with his style in terms of design. These are things that Tayniu can easily do within its sphere of influence.

Therefore, Alben naturally had no complaints about such an opportunity.

But it's great that the results of your hard work are recognized by others. If it's also useful for Shulong, then it's still like you've worked for nothing!
This guy was already good enough to compete for the podium with his Earth car, and with this upgrade, wouldn't he be ready to take off?
Sometimes Albon even doubted whether the team's upgrades were a bit unnecessary. Every driver's most direct competitor is his own teammate, so it can be said that the better Shulong performs, the more disadvantageous it is for Albon.

Actually, compared to making the car's style more suited to itself, wouldn't it be easier to directly guide the car to undergo negative upgrades?
Instead of struggling to catch up with a monster-like teammate, it might be easier to drag both of them down so that neither of them can score any points.

But Alben didn't want to do that. He carried the responsibility of setting an example as the eldest brother, and he also had his own bottom line.

He has a bunch of younger siblings waiting for him to make something of himself, and a mother who was recently released from prison and regained her freedom.

Alben carried too many expectations on his shoulders, expectations that weighed him down, yet he still didn't want to disappoint anyone behind those gazes, which was precisely the source of his greatest pain.
(End of this chapter)