F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 169 A major project under preparation?
"Uh, no, I didn't! I didn't! It was for self-defense, you know what I mean."

"I know!"

Shu Long was a tall driver, and having just gotten off the race car, the fire marks on his neck extending to the side of his chin were frighteningly red.

The photographer, who was looking at the huge demon god with a wrench and "fierce eyes" through the lens, almost screamed.

"And another thing! Don't cut that clip into Drive to Survive. We are all good people who advocate civilization and peace!"

"Uh-huh!"

"Good, peace and love!"

Can you say no?

Anyway, he was only responsible for filming, and whether or not it was included in the final cut was not up to him. The situation forced him to agree first.

Drive to Survive was not originally intended to cover endurance racing, since Liberty Media produced this documentary series to promote F1. WEC is not within their scope of operations, so why should they advertise for the other side?

However, DTS plans to create a separate storyline for Shulong, a highly dramatic and legendary return, which perfectly aligns with their value system of eye-catching individual heroism.

Since learning that Shulong would be making a limited-time return at the Hungaroring circuit, the production team has set up a special production crew, which not only has a dedicated photography and recording team, but also executive producer Paul Martin who accompanied and guided the entire process.

However, Shu Long didn't pay much attention to who was specifically responsible for what in the team. He just emphasized that it was fine to take pictures during work hours, but not to have to chase after them around during rest time.

When you're relaxing, you absolutely must relax!

Shortly after Shu Long left, Martin, who had been supervising another camera position across from the P room, quickly gave the photographer a wink.

"Hurry up, stop filming! Go back to the car and transfer that footage to the work library, as well as the footage from this machine!"

删？
If such a scene that perfectly showcases the character's contrasting personality is cut, he'd probably tear the camera apart and eat it on the spot!
On the other side, Shu Long had just finished a bowl of meat sauce noodles at the convoy's rest area and was walking towards his RV when a middle-aged blond-haired man who looked rather frail stopped him.

"Sorry, I don't have a pen with me for signing autographs."

"I didn't come here to ask for an autograph. But please sign one anyway. I have a pen here, could you please write it here?"

As the man spoke to himself, he handed over a small notebook filled with dense notes, along with a ballpoint pen clipped to the back of the notebook.

Why are you being so mysterious?

Shu Long's eyes twitched speechlessly, but he still obediently took it, flipped through the pages a few times, found a clean blank page, and began to sign it.

"Excuse me, are you a novelist?"

"Huh? Why do you say that?"

"Uh, my eyes were a little quick. I just saw something in the beginning of your notes that looked like plot inspiration or something, like racing?"

"Ah, you could say that, but it's not quite accurate. In fact, my job is screenwriter and producer. I've also worked as an actor before, but I mainly focus on screenwriting."

Shu Long paused, somewhat warily.

"If you want to film something, I may not be able to cooperate. You may need to consult Red Bull and my management team for specifics. If you don't have their contact information, I can give it to you."

"Oh no, no, no! It's like this, Apple has obtained licenses from Liberty Media and F1, and is currently planning a new project. I just finished producing another movie and received the invitation. We're currently doing preliminary preparations."

Upon hearing that it was related to the Liberty Media Group, Shu Long lowered his guard slightly. After all, the copyrights for these large-scale commercial series are always very expensive, and no one dares to infringe on them and produce them casually. Ordinary production companies would not dare to easily take up this banner.

"So you're preparing for a movie? Oh, by the way, I haven't asked who you are yet?"

"This is my problem, I'm so sorry. I'm Ellen Kruger, you should have heard of me."

The man who called himself Iren became somewhat insecure as he spoke. He looked at Shulong, who raised one eyebrow with a puzzled expression, and awkwardly adjusted his glasses.

"No? I've written screenplays for movies like 'Perfect Match' and 'The Skeleton Key'."

Shu Long opened his mouth slightly and made an "oh~" gesture, but he couldn't say it out loud no matter how hard he tried. He couldn't figure out what he was trying to say.

"I was also the lead writer for the recently concluded 'Top Gun: Maverick'!"

Then Iren noticed that Shulong's eyebrows were raised even higher, and he seemed to have never heard of it before, which really hurt Iren. In the middle of the conversation, Shulong even took out his phone right in front of Iren, as if he was going to go online and do some research.

There was nothing he could do about it. After all, Shu Long's schedule was usually quite full, and his experience with movies wasn't particularly extensive. He hadn't seen any of the movies that the man had mentioned.

Moreover, even if someone occasionally has the leisure to watch a movie, they generally don't pay special attention to who the screenwriter is, right?
"Okay, okay, I give up! I was also in charge of writing the scripts for Transformers 2, 3 and 4."

"Oh, you should have said so earlier!"

Shu Long finally showed a look of sudden realization. Just then, the search results on his phone popped up, and he immediately compared them with the awkward yet polite, forced smile of the man in front of him.

"Sorry, sorry, those three Transformers movies were pretty good, but the fifth one was a bit... uh."

Seeing Shu Long suddenly become enthusiastic, Illumi was speechless. Sure enough, you should be more direct when communicating with children. So you've only ever watched Transformers, huh?

However, since he needed a favor from him, as a mature adult, Ellen naturally skipped that topic and began to discuss the important point that he had specifically sought out today.

This is roughly the main plot of the current F1 movie. They want to create a story about a legendary driver whose career was interrupted by an accident, and then, in a moment of confusion, he returns to the paddock by chance and finds his original passion again.

It sounds a bit simple and old-fashioned, and it even has a bit of that "Urban Dragon King Returns" vibe.

However, considering that in addition to racing fans, Liberty Media also wants to use this project to expand F1's audience to other groups, the simple and direct plot and the protagonist's character design that is easy to evoke emotional resonance are indeed quite appropriate.

In general, Iren is currently gathering material from all over the place, and he did indeed follow Shulong here after hearing about his story, wanting to talk about Shulong's journey as a race car driver, so that he can create a more three-dimensional character for the movie protagonist.

This is a bit too complicated, and it's obviously not something that can be explained in a short time. Shu Long just left him his and his management team's contact information and told him to find an opportunity to contact them after the competition.

The most urgent thing now is to hurry back and catch up on some sleep, and then wait for the team to notify me around 2 a.m. to go on the field and complete the three to four-hour night race.

After 7 p.m., it was basically completely dark, and the 24 Hours of Le Mans officially entered the most chaotic stage of the event. The frequency of driver mistakes on the track increased dramatically, and the yellow flags in each section were almost constantly flying.

In the LMP2 group.

Franco Crapinto, who is only 18 years old and driving the G-Drive Racing No. 26 car, was trying to overtake the No. 1 car of Richard Mille Racing Team, which is also the only all-female car in the LMP2 class. His left tire went into the grass, and then the car spun out of control and ended up sideways in front of the No. 1 car.

Not only did it take both cars down with it, crashing them onto the wall and destroying them together, but it also caused car number 1 to lose power and become stuck on the track. Then, it was violently rammed to the side by car number 74, which was speeding from behind.

What else can be done? Crashpinto has caused immense harm. There were also incidents like the Ferrari GT class duo fighting, with car number 32 veering off the track and rushing back without looking, followed by car number 23, who was busy adjusting car settings and also not looking, heading in both directions.

The whole thing was incredibly dramatic and chaotic.

Toyota stood out among them, truly befitting its status as the current Le Mans leader. By the fifth hour of the race, cars number 7 and 8 had already lapped all the cars, including the Alpine Hypercar, which was currently third overall.

Shu Long's two teammates in car number 8 had each completed about three hours of racing sessions. When the team notified Shu Long to prepare to go on the field at around 1:15 a.m., the gap between him and car number 7 had already reached one and a half minutes.

Leading still provides a significant advantage. Hartley and Nakajima were simply running at a typical endurance race pace, maintaining their pace for the long distance and minimizing their mistakes.

In an attempt to close the gap set in the first quarter, car number 7 rushed off the track and onto the gravel area several times, losing more than ten seconds in the process.

As expected, Alonso's words made a lot of sense.

Slow is steady, and steady is fast. Endurance racing is not about who can go the fastest, but about who makes fewer mistakes.

However, the team arrived a little earlier than planned. At first, Shu Long thought that the team might have encountered a problem and he needed to come and fix it.

Fortunately, it was just a false alarm. It was simply because a new round of precipitation had started on the track, and the team thought they could take advantage of this opportunity to further solidify their winning position.

Of course, there's no need to arrive that early. The main reason is to allow time for Shulong to empty its stomach, so that the race rhythm won't be disrupted by unforeseen circumstances once it's on the track.

At 1:42 a.m., Shu Long officially got on the car and replaced Nakajima Kazuki. After changing the tires and refueling, he drove off the track.

Cars 7 and 8 could no longer be grouped together, and the other three Hypercars were almost two laps ahead of Toyota's two cars, so they were basically not in the same competitive group.

Of course, car number 8 is not alone in leading the pack.

After nearly ten hours of competition, although many cars have retired from the race, there are still more than 50 cars on the track, with each group relatively evenly distributed across different sections of the track.

Cars with their headlights blaring sped past everywhere, illuminating every part of the track.

However, this does not mean that visibility on the track will be good. In fact, the edges of the halos produced by these headlights will create some blind spots in human vision, resulting in glare and blurriness.

The strong light source in the dark leaves a large visual residue, which is likely to distract the drivers who are already extremely fatigued. Therefore, this period is almost the stage with the most accidents and yellow flags on the track.

However, Shu Long had already thoroughly memorized the complete model of the track. With his innate sense of space and speed, if he wasn't afraid of crashing, he could even close his eyes and complete a full flight lap on the track.

Of course, humans are the creatures that receive the most information through sight, so their speed will definitely be much slower than running with their eyes open, but he is not completely blind now, is he?
That's the charm of night games – they're full of unpredictability.

It's not the uncertainty about my own driving skills, but the uncertainty about the skill level of the drivers around me. Who knows if I might get caught in a slow car malfunctioning while overtaking and end up taking them both down with me?

Such things are not uncommon in endurance racing. Ferrari's GT class was once known as the "mastermind" of Le Mans, often taking down higher-class cars that were vying for the championship and directly influencing the race results.

H.P. Lovecraft famously said, "The oldest and strongest emotion of mankind is fear, and the oldest and strongest fear comes from the unknown."

The uncertainty surrounding the outcome of each overtaking maneuver created a subtle, indescribable sense of fear, which ironically made Shu Long somewhat addicted to it, finding it no less stimulating than the sensory stimulation of extreme speed.

Under such perfect stimulation, someone was like a man possessed, overtaking others with great enthusiasm, as if using the lower-class GTE and LMP2 cars as AI training targets, making good use of them to practice close combat for several hours in a row.

Where else in F1 can you find such abundant opportunities?
Most of the time, it takes a long time to lay the groundwork and operate before you can seize one of those rare opportunities to overtake others.

Along the way, Shu Long also encountered Magnussen, who was driving car number 49. Kevin first greeted Shu Long with his signature dragon-drawing technique, and then Shu Long gently leaned against him as he overtook him to show his friendliness.

On the dark track, the two looked at each other from a distance, shook their heads and laughed, and soon went their separate ways to run at their own pace.

As expected, experiencing the night race is an essential part of running Le Mans.

There was only one thing that made Shulong a little unhappy.

He could certainly ensure he wouldn't make mistakes on the track, but he couldn't stand other drivers trying to pull off some stunts to get some screen time. The intermittent yellow flags really affected his mood, and the frequent need to slow down to get through actually had a significant impact on Shulong's pace.

从凌晨1：42跑到凌晨4：30，等车队通知他进站换人了也才将对7号车组的领先优势扩大到2分钟出头一点而已，远远低于他在心里给自己建立的成绩预期。

Even after this leg is completed, for the sake of protecting the race car, the subsequent race sessions for Shu Long may be very short.

After leaving the race car, Shu Long was wide awake and stood in the team's pit garage for a while, watching the race unfold.

For the first two hours after Nakajima Kazuki got in the car, everything was relatively peaceful. Shu Long stared at the fluctuating lead time on the data board for a while before his eyelids started to droop. He went to the rest area, made himself a bowl of rice porridge mixed with protein powder, ate it, and then went back to the RV to rest.

When Shu Long woke up at 10 a.m., he found that car number 8's lead over car number 7 was only about 20 seconds.

"What happened? Was anyone in an accident? Are you alright?"

Shu Long swallowed the rest of his sentence. If he could turn a two-minute advantage into 20 seconds, he would have liked to throw a couple more punches to make things worse for the other person if he was alright!

However, the fall behind was not due to mistakes. In fact, with a huge advantage, Hartley and Nakajima were just running long distances normally and rarely made any unforced mistakes.

Just as dawn was breaking, the Toyota No. 7 car next to them experienced several tire deflations, forcing them to make several unplanned pit stops and falling behind the No. 8 car by more than a lap.

However, the joy of the No. 8 crew was short-lived. In the 16th hour of the race, their hydraulic system failed again, and they now need to frequently visit the pits to replenish fuel in order to continue the race.

After a quick calculation, it was roughly around the time when Shu Long had just gone back to sleep, the time when Nakajima Kazuki was driving the race!

"Why did this happen? Didn't we just check everything during the fourth practice game?"

"I don't know. We replaced several potentially faulty parts at the time, but given the long duration of an endurance race, there might be other problems elsewhere?"

"Me! You! Tsk!"

Shu Long didn't know what to say. Endurance racing is bound to have all sorts of unexpected situations, and the Hypercar, which was just restructured this year, did indeed have reliability issues in the first few races.

Does that mean that every time car number 8 has a chance to win early, Nakajima Kazuki's "kneeling at the finish line" debuff will take effect?
"How much time is left in Hartley's section? Let me go up and think of something?"

"There are still about forty minutes left until the original plan, but okay!"

What else could happen?

If this trend continues, it's only a matter of time before car number 8 is overtaken by car number 7. So we might as well try anything, even if it seems hopeless.

Anyway, Shulong has already broadened their understanding of many things since he came here, so who knows what kind of miracle might happen this time as well.

(End of this chapter)