F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 181 Zhou Guanyu's Opportunity
On Thursday's media day, Shulong, who had already returned to the court for a three-peat, still couldn't escape this ordeal—a press conference.

Shu Long and his group were in the first wave, along with Kubica and Leclerc.

Fortunately, it was Ferrari's home turf in Italy, so the host didn't pay too much attention to Shu Long. Apart from jokingly asking if he and Max had gotten into a fight in the pit room last weekend, he didn't ask any particularly aggressive questions.

As for Kubica, he's mainly here to fill in for Kimi.

Actually, before the third training session at the last stop, Lao Laitou had already tested positive for nucleic acid, so Aro temporarily grabbed Kubica, who was working part-time as a reserve driver for the team.

A back-to-back race week is obviously not enough time to recover, and Kimi, who already has only a few races left, can only wait for the Russian Grand Prix to meet his fans, who are eager to see him again.

After a brief appearance, Shu Long and his team got up and left to make room for the team leaders of the next round.

Verstappen and I were racing iracing together last night and made plans to go cycling on the track together today. We also have a team photoshoot scheduled for this afternoon, so we'll just combine our work.

Just as Shu Long greeted Toto, who was preparing backstage, and was about to leave, Aro's team leader, Fred Vasser, patted Shu Long on the arm.

"Shu? I wonder if you'll have time later?"

"There are activities and filming tasks after 4 o'clock, but it seems there are no other arrangements for the time being."

"If you don't mind, could you wait here for me for a moment? I have something I'd like to ask you."

"Here?!" Toto asked, feigning surprise, and pulled Shulong back to his side.

"Don't tell me you're planning to poach Long for your remaining spot? I'm telling you, that's impossible. We haven't been able to poach him before!"

Surprisingly, Vaselle didn't argue, but playfully gave Shu Long a rather substantial wink: "Of course! As long as he's willing to come, I'm confident I can turn Alfa Romeo back into a Ferrari team!"

This was pure fabrication, and the media reporters nearby, who had initially thought they had heard some major news, quickly withdrew their ears.

However, Toto's words gave Shulong some inspiration. He seemed to know what Vasel wanted to talk to him about. Since he didn't have anything else to do for the time being, he found a chair outside, took out his phone, and started to relive the long-lost joy of Dragon Ball.

Although the champion's celebration in the last station was a bit embarrassing, it seemed to have opened the door to a new world. Shu Long is ready to have a good lesson with the members of Team Ginyu and Gohan.

A couple of days ago, Teng Weifeng recommended a popular and addictive anime to him, saying that Shu Long should check out JoJo.
Let me clarify beforehand that I'm not really interested; I just wanted to satisfy my curiosity!

The press conference for the team leaders was not very long, only about twenty minutes, and soon after, the sound of people leaving could be heard.

Of course, it wouldn't be possible to discuss anything in this place where reporters are most concentrated. Vasser gave a wink and led Shulong to a quiet teahouse where they sat down.

"Just like Toto said, I've been looking for another suitable driver for our team recently."

He only got halfway through his sentence before Vasser stared intently at Shulong with a meaningful look, as if he desperately wanted to get some definite answer out of him.

However, Shu Long was not fooled at all and went straight to the point.

"I think Zhou Guanyu is perfect for the job!"

Vasser looked extremely disappointed. He snatched the untouched coffee from Shulong and gulped it down, making a face from the bitterness, while tightly guarding his own cup.

"I thought I'd see a more interesting expression on your face, pshaw~ Consider this your compensation for me!"

"But I'm serious!"

"Of course I know you're serious, but yes, I do want to talk to you about 'Zoo'."

It's 'Zhou'!
Shu Long still had a lot of complaints he wanted to vent, but after thinking about it, he decided not to say anything. After all, Zhou Guanyu was a potential future boss, and if he ruined things, he would become a sinner.

However, Vasser clearly sensed something from Shulong's expression.

"Currently, there aren't many drivers in the paddock who know Zhou well enough and are also capable of handling him, so I'd like to hear your specific thoughts on him."

Shu Long's eyebrows twitched, and he frankly admitted that his evaluation might be highly subjective, but he would certainly stick to a realistic approach.

Then Vasel clapped his hands, looking very pleased, indicating that if Shulong wasn't worried about someone entering the paddock and taking away the attention that should belong to him, then what he really wanted to hear were compliments.

Of course, it would be even better if you could include a sentence or two of objective analysis.

Shu Long didn't participate in the first half of the season. When he was free, he often met up with Zhou Guanyu to play simulators, and sometimes he would help him analyze the car's curve data.

Finding a lap limit is relatively easy in the standard F2.

For the new generation of drivers who have been raised on simulators, in addition to using their buttocks to find the limits of the race car like the older generation, high-precision data-driven driving is also a shortcut for them to improve their lap times.

Aside from providing some assistance in single laps, Shu Long mainly engaged in high-intensity offensive and defensive drills with Zhou Guanyu on the simulator.

Shu Long always felt that Guan Yu was very good at finding opportunities in close combat, but his driving style never really made people feel his ruthlessness.

It's probably related to Guanyu's mother's educational philosophy when he was young.

Even though Shu Long's family was far less well-off than Zhou Guanyu's, his father, Shu Xiong, had always spared no expense to ensure that Shu Long always had the best racing car on the track, except for a period of "suppressive" education when he was in China to prevent him from becoming arrogant too early.

Zhou Guanyu's family seems to have a more traditional educational philosophy. They seem to firmly believe that only by teaching children to overcome difficulties and then achieve victory can they truly develop a driver's driving skills.

Therefore, Zhou Guanyu's go-karts often needed to be repaired and patched up for a long time until they were really beyond repair before he would be given a brand new race car.

Prioritizing the safe and stable driving of the race car, and seizing opportunities to strike decisively and accurately when attacking, these driving styles are likely habits that Zhou Guanyu was forced to develop due to his vastly different upbringing compared to Shu Long.

It's hard to say that this kind of technical style is worse than others, but if you can't force yourself to be truly ruthless in your mindset, then you will be at a natural disadvantage when you get into a grueling fight.

If you let your opponent win once, and twice, they'll know you'll let them win every round from now on. How can you compete like that?

However, style isn't something that can be changed overnight, and Shu Long didn't recommend that Zhou Guanyu completely abandon his strengths. His main focus during this period was helping Guanyu learn how to exert pressure on opponents while still utilizing his strengths. Overall, Zhou Guanyu, now a third-year F2 player, has performed very well, consistently leading the points standings for almost the entire first half of the season.

However, Zhou Guanyu has a very strong competitor this season, namely Piastri, a rising star from the Renault youth academy who won the F3 championship last year and was promoted to F2 this year.

While he may not have the same god-like performance as Shu Long in the lower categories, he's still at least a rider of Norris or Russell's caliber, so he's definitely worth looking forward to.

Zhou Guanyu originally seemed to have a great chance of winning the annual championship this year. If he could continue to maintain this momentum, he might actually be able to get an F1 seat next year.

As a result, I've had a string of bad luck lately, either due to mechanical failures or being unwittingly involved in accidents when trains were departing in reverse order.

On the other hand, Piastri, with his good speed ceiling and exceptionally consistent long-distance performance, has overtaken Zhou Guanyu to become the leader in the standings after the last race.

Despite some unexpected factors, Piastri, who already meets the age requirements for a super license and seems to have a higher potential, is obviously more attractive to many F1 team principals, and Zhou Guanyu's chances of obtaining a seat were once precarious in the public eye.

Aside from offering assistance and making some introductions to the convoys within the paddock, Shu Long doesn't really know what other help he can provide.

At best, he now has some say in Red Bull. It's better to rely on Zhou Guanyu's own management team than on him. That's a top-tier agency that's also working with Hamilton, and their connections are much better than Shu Long's.

"To be honest, I've wanted to introduce him to you for a while now. I thought you wouldn't start a formal evaluation until after this Giovinazzi home game."

"Ah, you're right! Gio is indeed a very good driver, but the team always needs fresh blood if it wants to go further. Remember, don't tell anyone else!"

There were some things Vassell didn't say explicitly, because saying them would make the paddock seem too cold-blooded and ruthless, and making dangerous remarks on someone else's home turf would inevitably invite criticism.

Giovinazzi has indeed made remarkable progress over the past three years, but he is simply too old, and there is almost no hope that he can bring further development to the team.

Previously, being mentored by the forty-something Raikkonen could be considered a veteran guiding a newcomer. Bottas, who will join the team next year, is only three years older than Giovinazzi, yet he has already won several Grand Prix races. It would be really unnecessary for him to continue to drag Giovinazzi, who is nearly thirty years old, along.

Furthermore, Giovinazzi's position as an Italian is actually quite awkward. Almost all the valuable commercial sponsorships have been snatched up by Ferrari and Toro Rosso, leaving Arro mostly with scraps.

In contrast, in recent years, the presence of Shulong has attracted many Chinese investors to the paddock, especially after Shulong won several sub-championships in succession. Its appeal to investors who only value championships has increased exponentially, and now many companies are scrambling to get into the paddock.

Including Ambrosial, which is still with Arro this year, if it loses the prestigious brand of Raikkonen next year and still cannot reach an agreement with Zhou Guanyu, Ambrosial will have to consider rejoining the competition for sponsorship of the Red Bull team.

Hmm. There's still competition!

Red Bull, as one of the absolute top teams in the paddock, has sponsorship slots that are not only more expensive than those of smaller teams, but also in much higher demand and less supply. Brands with limited budgets are willing to pay you a pittance.

It's true that most sponsors from China will focus their attention on Shulong first, but there are always some brands that can't get a chance. When they can't get a chance from Shulong, won't they turn their attention to other places?

Therefore, some decisions may not be finalized and announced in the short term, but Zhou Guanyu is indeed a very attractive option for Vassar.

Shu Long and Vassel summarized that Guan Yu is a skilled driver with a high potential, and most importantly, he has extremely high stability, which allows him to control vehicle damage to the maximum extent during the season.

However, Lao Zhou is a bit slow to start, and it's unrealistic to expect him to compete for the championship in the short term, but he is definitely very suitable for any team that has a high demand for stable development.

Isn't this exactly what Alfa Romeo should look like in Vassel's plans?
Of course, Arro had already done the necessary assessments. Besides the fact that only the driver could sense certain things about the driver, Lao Wa also wanted to take this opportunity to tentatively send some signals to the outside world.

Giovinazzi is Italian, after all. As a Ferrari reserve team driver who replaced Ferrari, they are under considerable pressure. Letting the outside world speculate and prepare themselves will make the official announcement less abrupt.

But just as Vassil was about to leave, he suddenly seemed to remember something and made a 180-degree turn.

“I was really not joking just now! Are you sure you're not thinking about leaving Red Bull? I have a very comprehensive 3-year plan, with a champion-level second driver like Bottas assisting us, we can definitely build a championship team around you!”

Based on that shitbox that's not even as good as Williams this year?

Having already been burned by Has, Shu Long's eyelids twitched a few times. He wondered if he should be very direct in his assessment, and after hesitating for a while, he came up with a more dignified way of saying "politely declined."

"If given the opportunity, I would actually be willing to be a piece of the puzzle for any team that is determined to win the championship."

Upon returning to motohome, the first thing Shu Long did was to confirm the details of his negotiations with A Luo with Zhou Guanyu.

Judging from Vasser's tone, it seemed that most of the projects, big and small, had been finalized. After walking the track this morning, Shulong even shared some details that we should pay attention to this year, but we didn't hear a word about it from Guanyu.

They really know how to cover themselves up!
Of course, they also lived up to expectations, successfully taking pole position in qualifying by a narrow margin, and then starting in reverse order in the first sprint race on Saturday, they overtook from 10th to P2.

After the second training session, Shu Long was discussing the transportation issues of his 991 with Horner when Vasser, that sly old man, deliberately circled around in front of them and even pretended to secretly give Shu Long a thumbs up.

"That one from the day before yesterday."

"Yes, Mr. Vaselle and I discussed how to get out of this predicament."

Horner had a feeling that the kid was being sarcastic or sarcastic, but he just laughed it off and started discussing the afternoon's ranking sprint race with Shu Long.

As for the rumors that Shu Long would be transferred, which suddenly started yesterday, they are completely unfounded. As a veteran in the paddock, Horner could actually guess what Vasser's intentions were at the time.

Putting aside all the other issues, the afternoon's qualifying sprint will definitely be a tough battle for Red Bull.

Mercedes' rocket engines are ridiculously fast on this track. In yesterday's practice session, Hamilton dominated the two Red Bulls by nearly 0.4 laps, taking P1.

Because qualifying was right after the first practice session, most teams didn't hold back much during this session. Sure enough, even though both Red Bulls created slipstreams in qualifying, they were still 0.3 seconds behind Mercedes.

The good news is that Bottas will be penalized and start from the back of the grid for Sunday's race because he needs to replace his fourth power unit.

The bad news is that Bottas will start from pole position again in the afternoon sprint qualifying session, slightly ahead of Shulong who starts in P3. He will likely have to shoulder the heavy responsibility of attacking the two Mercedes cars.

The top three finishers in the sprint qualifying not only earn points, but the starting order for Sunday's race will also be determined by the final sprint rankings, which is crucial for Verstappen, who is now fighting for every point.

Bottas can indeed be strategically ignored, but if given the chance, Red Bull means that Shu Long should at least help Max take down Hamilton.

(End of this chapter)