F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 154 Season Resurgence
With Azerbaijan also announcing the postponement of its race, the entire first half of the season has come to a complete standstill. Even the organizers of the last remaining Canadian Grand Prix have declared that the race may be postponed at any time.

Then came the cancellation of the Monaco Grand Prix, marking the first time this legendary circuit with its long history has been suspended since 1954.

In order to minimize the impact of this global disaster, the FIA ​​announced that the summer break shutdown period, originally scheduled for July and August, will be moved to March and April, and the shutdown period will be extended from 14 days to 21 days.

Meanwhile, following a vote by the teams, the major rule changes originally scheduled for 2021 will be postponed until 2022. All parties agreed to continue using the old rule baseplate from this year and to freeze the development process of related new rule components.

This is indeed good news for Shulong. If the new regulations are to be introduced hastily next year, then his adaptation to the new regulations for racing cars may have to be done at Hasri, whose R&D capabilities are extremely weak.

Being inherently a step slower than others is not a good thing for a sport that pursues the limits of speed.

However, the budget cap will still be introduced in 2021, and each team's season spending cannot exceed $1.75 million.

This is also good news for Shulong.

The biggest significance of the budget cap is that it limits the endless investment of top teams in car performance, making the competition among the top teams relatively closer and greatly limiting the situation of one team dominating.

Moreover, $1.75 million is actually a very delicate figure. Last year, Toro's total expenditure was around $1.811 million, which is very close to this budget cap.

So, how to maximize the car's performance within this budget cap? Relatively speaking, Shu Long may have a lot more experience than other drivers.

Considering that the resumption of the competition is far away, Shu Long, who has completed his quarantine in Australia, thought it over and decided to return to China to stay during this period.

Steiner initially thought it would be better for Shulong to stay in the UK or Italy, but compared to Europe, where people are still swaggering around naked on the streets, it seems safer to stay in China, where the lockdown is already very strict.

Moreover, it's rare to have a respectable excuse to stay home and not go out, so Shu Long also wanted to take this rare opportunity to spend quality time with his family.

This reason is quite convincing. Anyway, there's not much the team can do during this period, so Steiner naturally didn't insist.

On the contrary, Shu Long from Red Bull was given a few special instructions by Marco, who said not to slack off during the holiday and to run simulators like Max to maintain his feel for the game.

There were also things to be careful about, like not running around and getting infected with the virus, and that we would definitely try to get him into Red Bull as soon as possible when the opportunity arose.

Last year, Shu Long might have scoffed at this statement, but according to some information gleaned from Alonso's side, support for Alben within the Thai Bulls has actually begun to waver.

The reason is actually quite simple. Since Red Bull announced in the middle of last year that it would promote Alben instead of Shulong, a wave of "anti-Red Bull" sentiment suddenly swept across the country, and Red Bull energy drinks, which were already expensive, lost a lot of customers.

At the same time, domestic energy drinks such as Dongpeng, Zhanma, and Lehu, relying on larger serving sizes and more affordable prices, instantly swallowed up most of the market left by Red Bull.

In fact, back in 2016, Thailand's T.C. Pharmaceutical Industries Co., Ltd. requested to terminate its cooperation with the Reignwood Group, which had initially formed a joint venture to establish Red Bull Vitamin Beverage Co., Ltd., citing the expiration of its trademark license.

It was at that point in time that Red Bull had the idea of ​​signing a Chinese driver due to a series of opportunities. This was indeed partly the reason why Marko personally visited Shulong to inspect the area.

After the cooperation expired, T.C. Pharmaceutical Industries filed lawsuits against Reignwood Group and its affiliated companies in multiple locations in China, demanding that they cease using the "Red Bull" trademark and seeking substantial compensation.

Huabin Group naturally couldn't sit idly by and wait for its demise. War Horse Energy Drink was launched at that time and became a meme and a hit among young people by relying on the most popular e-sports project at the time, League of Legends.

In 2018, Red Bull's factories in China were ordered to cease production, but Wahaha Group suspended the order through legal procedures.

In 2019, last year, Thailand's T.C. Pharmaceutical Industries Co., Ltd. won the first instance of a trademark infringement case, and the Huabin Group appealed.

The final ruling is likely to be announced this year, and the Thai T.C. Pharmaceutical Industries Co., Ltd. has a greater than 99% chance of winning. If either Ao Niu or Thai Niu wants to take this opportunity to re-expand their market in China, then Shulong itself could be a very crucial move.

Alben was already under a lot of pressure last year, and he may be under even more pressure this year.

If he cannot quickly catch up with or even surpass Verstappen in terms of performance, then the Thai team may strategically abandon their support for Alben.

If Albon is eliminated in this competition, there is a high chance that he will not even be able to drive a car, even though Red Bull currently holds four F1 seats, which is already a case of too many applicants for too few seats.

Even if he goes to another team, given the potential that Alben has shown so far, he is actually far less sought after than Shulong, and is highly replaceable.

This extended break not only gave Shulong a much-needed respite, but it also gave Alben a real chance to wipe the sweat from his brow.
The direct flight landed at Guangzhou Baiyun International Airport, but did not return directly to my home in Yunnan as originally planned.

Besides the fact that the simulator equipment Shu Long purchased was only located in Midea Luhu, his mother also advised against Shu Long contacting his grandfather during this special period, since the virus seems to be particularly deadly to the elderly, given the current situation.

Although Shulong himself seems to have shown no signs of infection so far due to his inherent attribute of being "strong and healthy," he travels back and forth by plane every day, so who knows if he might bring back some unclean things on his person.

Shu Long had originally planned to attend the F1 Virtual Bahrain Grand Prix with Zhou Guanyu and Norris. He heard that Hulkenberg, who unfortunately failed to secure a seat this year, and Latifi, who just replaced Kubica and signed with Williams, would also participate. Unfortunately, he had to cancel his plans due to quarantine issues.

However, he had been watching the live broadcast of the match the whole time, and in the end, Zhou Guanyu actually won the championship.

Also, when I was playing F1 19 online last year, I noticed that Norris doesn't seem like an F1 driver; he's a live-streaming genius.

He first promised during the live stream that if viewers could donate more than $10,000 to fight the virus, he would shave his head live in front of everyone.

Upon hearing this, Shu Long was overjoyed. He immediately clicked on the transfer channel and transferred three thousand yuan.

The final tally came to a total of $1.2. Shu Long, the mastermind behind it all, grinned slyly and immediately sent a message saying, "I'm all set."

This guy was a man of his word; a few days later, he actually took out electric clippers and cut off his curly hair.
When the online F1 virtual Bahrain Grand Prix started, Lando's game crashed as soon as he entered qualifying, and he was able to reconnect during the race.

At this point, he started making calls everywhere. First, he called Max, and Verstappen said, "Simple, quit and shut down, and you'll find that you have no worries at all."

Norris then called Russell, meaning he wanted to learn from the experience of the person who started last last year with the most starts.

Russell raised three question marks, indicating that if Norris also wanted to finish last, he could share some experience; if he wanted to overtake, he should ask Shu Long.

Finally, the call reached Shu Long, who had vanished for over a week. For the first time, he appeared before the public with his voice. Having spent the entire time in Norris's livestream, he was now completely speechless, and his opening line was:
"Don't brake when you start, or you'll scare everyone off course, or just turn around and drive backwards along the track, giving a kiss to everyone you meet."

"Are you serious?" "Yes!"

After putting down his phone and doing some basic exercises, Shu Long was about to go into the bathroom for a shower when he thought, "This isn't right. Now that I'm back, if I just stay here alone, wouldn't it be a waste of my trip?"

So he asked Gan Mengning if she wanted to come and live with him for a while.

Because of the delayed start of school, her girlfriend, who could only take online classes at home, readily agreed. She packed her personal belongings and the equipment she needed for the live stream, and waited for Shu Long to drive to pick her up.

Of course, it's impossible to drive the tiny 86 to move things, so Shu Long asked his father and found the keys to the Porsche Cayenne in the garage.

As he's gotten older, Shu Xiong no longer drives his sports car around like he used to when he was younger. Now, unless he's going to the racetrack, he prefers more practical models for everyday family use.

However, looking at the logo on the steering wheel reminded Shu Long of his red and black 991 that he still had parked in Italy, and he suddenly felt itchy to drive it again.

It was completed before the end of last season. At that time, Shu Long even went to the factory to film a promotional video of receiving the car, took it for a spin on the test track, and then waited for Porsche to deliver it to his home in a big truck.

However, due to various reasons, I haven't been able to properly touch the steering wheel of my car even once this year, which is a bit disheartening. I can only wait until I go back and find a substitute on the simulator to satisfy my craving.

Less than a day later, Shu Long was back to living together without supervision.

Every day, I complete my morning workout in the gym that I set up last year, and in the afternoon, I sit in the simulator for four or five hours. After that, I enjoy my vacation as I please.

Does he seem quite self-disciplined?
There was no other way; Gan Mengning had to attend classes during the day, and that damned DingTalk required her to keep her camera on at all times.
However, besides the most commonly used iracing and ACC, Shulong has recently become obsessed with running DIRT RALLY 2.0, a rally simulator that can be considered very realistic and hardcore.

Shu Long took it to heart when Alonso invited him to participate in the Dakar Rally last year. He had been involved in open-wheel formula racing on paved tracks since he was a child, and now he wanted to practice in advance so that he might have the opportunity to cross over and have fun like Alonso in the future.

It's not just Alonso; quite a few F1 drivers have crossed over to rally racing, such as Kimi and Kubica, and Bottas also participated in several local rally races in Finland after the end of last season.

Challenging oneself is likely a book that these drivers will never finish reading in their lifetime.

Aside from racing, Shu Long has spent most of his time either playing League of Legends with Teng Weifeng or appearing as a silent, mysterious substitute player in his girlfriend's live stream.

Because Teng Weifeng was a friend he knew in real life, Shu Long could openly chat with him, indirectly attracting a lot of attention to his former deskmate.

However, he can't go there too often, lest he leave a reason for fans to say he's not doing his job properly. Besides, Shu Long prefers to see a certain little guy sitting in his lap in real life and being so bad at it that he breaks down.

Because Gan Mengning prefers shooting games, Shu Long has been playing this type of game with her most of the time.

Compared to League of Legends, the reason why Shu Long is tired of shooting games like CF and CS is because, with his reaction speed and precise body control, it won't be long before he turns the nature of the game from a contest of gun skills to a simple mouse click.

In other words, if the gameplay cannot break through the simple "click the left mouse button to receive a headshot gift pack", then no matter what kind of shooting game it is, it will all be the same in Shulong. After playing for a while, it will become a match-3 game, and it may not even be as good as Zuma.

However, the gameplay cannot be too hardcore. People are already busy with work and training, so if they have to use their brains to play a game, it is impossible for them to play it.

Of course, it would be even better if the characters in the game were more attractive.

Based on the above conditions, apart from COD, Gan Mengning's main live streaming content during this period was PUBG, Overwatch, and the Battlefield series.

Shu Long hates PUBG the most. He just experienced the frustration of starting over from scratch with Red Bull and Haas. What he hates most now is this kind of game format where he has to collect equipment again every game.

Watching is something he enjoys, but Shu Long is a little embarrassed to play it in front of his girlfriend because his screen is always drawn to some indescribable things.

It's safe to say that as a woman who has personally experienced her boyfriend's sexual desires, she has a pretty accurate grasp of this aspect.
So, after some consideration, I think the most addictive game right now is Battlefield 5 from the Battlefield series.

It wasn't just because he could shoot the Japanese. His favorite way to play wasn't to charge in with a rifle, but to first use a reconnaissance telescope to aim from behind, and once he determined the enemy's location, he would raise his iron sights sniper rifle and take them down from a great distance with a headshot.

Although you can't get many kills in a game, each kill is accompanied by a strong sense of accomplishment and is highly entertaining to watch.

Seeing this kind of gameplay for the first time, not only was Gan Mengning, who was still nestled in someone's arms, amazed, but even her fans in the live stream were astonished.

By relying on his overall sense of space, he makes an advance prediction of the speed and drop of the ball. There is a reason why Shu Long is so obsessed with this kind of driving style. It is very similar to his feeling of judging the limits of a race car every time he drives a race car.

Although the two types may be vastly different, their methods of utilizing their talents and their thought processes are actually very similar.

Ultimately, what Shulong truly loved most was probably driving.

The days passed by in a daze yet with a sense of joy. The FIA ​​extended the shutdown period from 14 days to 21 days, then from 21 days to 35 days, but as the virus situation worsened, it was extended directly to 63 days.

And those tracks that had previously decided to postpone their races eventually decided to cancel the Grand Prix altogether.

A whole bunch of F1 drivers have people streaming every day. If they weren't racing, they'd practically become full-time game streamers. They're all incredibly good at creating entertaining content.

For example, Leclerc first cosplayed their team leader Binotto in a live stream, and then cosplayed his character in Fortnite, becoming famous as "Banana Lock & Lock".

They're obviously so bored they're practically rolling on the floor!
Shu Long himself had no intention of streaming, but he still frequently appeared in other people's streams in a ganking manner, and also participated in many online virtual Grand Prix races of F1.

Although he always started each game in a silly, chaotic way, then started doing commentary on Lando's livestream, he did take the last game seriously and brought home a championship as if to make up for last year's disappointment.

It wasn't until the end of May that the season finally showed signs of officially starting.

The Austrian government approved the two Austrian Grand Prix races scheduled for July 5 and 12 at the Red Bull Ring, and by June, the teams' factories had begun to gradually resume operations.

After a semester that was extremely abstract for her, Gan Mengning welcomed another holiday and finally had time to spend with her boyfriend during the day.

But at this point, Shu Long had no choice but to leave his comfort zone and return to the team ahead of schedule to prepare for the chaotic 2020 season.

(End of this chapter)