F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 211 Big Job
"Hey Bilibili, I love you!"

"It's 'hello'! ni-hao!"

"Nutty—oh?"

"Hahaha~ I can't take it anymore! Someone save me!"

Shu Long banged his head on the table, making a loud thud. The whole room was filled with his suffocating laughter, which sounded like he was about to need an oxygen machine. He was almost about to collapse.

Verstappen looked at the small piece of paper in his hand with the pronunciation marked in English twice more, then awkwardly rubbed the back of his head and adjusted his baseball cap.

"Why are you all laughing at me? I read it exactly according to the standards in this book!"

“Max,” Horner said, pinching the bridge of his nose hard, barely managing to suppress his smile, “I don’t know if your pronunciation is standard or not, but it certainly sounds very different from Long’s version.”

What does it mean to talk without understanding the situation? Verstappen quickly gave his rebuttal:

"Then why don't you give me a demonstration, Christian? I remember you have a line that's exactly the same as mine?"

"Oh no, no! I'm still practicing."

Shu Long also started fanning the flames, urging everyone to send the boss up to embarrass himself.

Horner first turned to look at Marco, who was watching him make a fool of himself in the corner, and gestured to the old man that he should go first. As a result, the old man simply patted his butt and left.

What else can be done?

Marco wasn't originally given any screen time, so forcing him into it wouldn't make any difference.

Horner shook his head with a wry smile, took out his little note from his pocket, muttered a few words to himself, then cleared his throat and stepped forward.

"Mud howl."

The first two words, which sounded exactly like Verstappen's, had barely been uttered when the room erupted in laughter twice as loud as before, especially Verstappen, who seemed to want to knock out his back teeth.

"Oh, come on! Your native language is so hard to learn! Why do we keep making things difficult for ourselves here? Can't we just finish this dialogue in English?"

"Accept reality, boss. This is a task assigned by the big boss. Using Chinese will show more sincerity, won't it?"

When things finally quieted down a bit in the room, Shu Long finally crawled out from under the table, clutching his stomach, and began to diligently act as the team's temporary Chinese teacher again.

Why can't this damn "Language Proficiency" skill be shared with other people?
I'm so tired.
Because of this entry, Shu Long always felt that mastering a language was a natural process; basically, you could learn it by listening to it a few times and comparing it with the text.

So even if he wanted to work backwards from the language learning process, he was completely clueless.

If Zhou Guanyu hadn't been still at Alfa Romeo learning and adapting to the F1 team's operations, Shu Long would have wanted to bring him over to help him. He seemed to recall Zhou mentioning that learning English was quite difficult at first.

During the lunch break, I painstakingly taught it several more times.

Although the pronunciation still sounds a bit strange, at least I can read the script from beginning to end without any hiccups.

After the afternoon tire tests, Verstappen and most of the team will return to their headquarters in Milton Keynes to prepare for the FIA ​​year-end awards ceremony on the 16th.

This year's awards ceremony was still held in Paris, but Shu Long had to stay in Abu Dhabi until the tire test on the 15th was completed, at which point he and Aro's duo flew to the venue.

Although Bottas is already wearing Arroy's clothes, he is still going as a Mercedes driver this season.

Zhou Guanyu has an F2 championship trophy to his name, along with his friend and rival from Alpine youth academy, Piastri, who won this year's FIA Rookie of the Year award.

Shu Long mainly attended as a driver for the championship team, and he also received his own small trophy.

After only half a season back, he finally overtook Bottas in the final race, finishing third in the F1 driver standings with a total of 216.5 points.

As it turns out, one of the unluckiest members of their group was the one whose flight was delayed!

In the end, I completely missed the press conference at the beginning of the ceremony, but I made it to the awards ceremony and banquet. Uh—that seems like a good thing?

What's so interesting about a long, tedious press conference? Nothing's more important than a good meal!
However, everyone in the venue was dressed in suits and ties, unlike in the paddock where everyone can easily find their group by looking at their team uniforms. The group was all confusedly led by Bottas into Mercedes' team.

It's a bit awkward.

If there is such a person, not only causing someone to lose the individual driver's championship, but also causing someone to lose the team's annual championship.

Now this person has been brought into the center of this group of suckers. How would you all define this scene?
Bottas, you did this on purpose, didn't you?!

Fortunately, the scene of being sought revenge and devoured alive did not occur as expected. Toto seemed quite happy to see Shu Long arrive. In fact, he not only had no complaints about Shu Long now, but also sent a message to Verstappen to congratulate him on the second day of the match.

It was a rather long essay, which Verstappen proudly showed to Shulong at the time.

That's the skill of these legendary team leaders in the paddock.

During the season, everyone was still a competitor, and their remarks to the media were often aggressive.

However, once the season ended and the competition was over, they were able to put aside their hostility and greet each other with smiles.

Who knows if two people who are rivals today will have the chance to become allies fighting side by side in the future?

The latest news about Verstappen is that he has been extended to 2023, which means that his relationship with Red Bull is likely to undergo a major change in two years. If he insists on staying with Red Bull, it is possible that Verstappen will seek development with other teams.

Two tigers cannot share one mountain, and Toto at least has high hopes for this.

Furthermore, it's not certain that Shulong will stay within the Red Bull system. Currently, it's hard to say that there are any teams in the paddock that are not interested in him, and Toto is someone who is well-known to Mercedes.

The contracts for Shulong have always been kept relatively confidential. The only information the media could reveal was that it was a "multi-year contract".

However, based on the information channels Toto has, it can be judged that the duration of this multi-year contract will definitely not be too long, and at the latest it will not exceed 2023.

After all, the news of Red Bull renewing its contract with Toto came shortly after the Bahrain accident in 2020. Any rational team would not offer a particularly long contract to a driver whose future condition is unknown. Given the opportunity, Toto would definitely extend an olive branch as soon as possible.

Unfortunately, the conversation didn't last long. The cameras seemed to capture Shu Long sitting with the Mercedes players, and Horner, seeing this, followed the camera's directions and came over, intending to bring Shu Long back to the Red Bull's table.

Toto found it both amusing and somewhat helpless.

Is this place meant to deter thieves? Is it really necessary?!
Absolutely! It's absolutely essential!

Horner's idea was that since you've provoked my driver, I'll retaliate. He shook hands with Hamilton right under Toto's nose and whispered a few words in his ear.

It's just bragging to your face, acting like no one can do that!

Although the old man regrettably missed out on this year's world championship, he returned to the UK on the 15th to complete the awarding ceremony that had been delayed due to the pandemic, and has now officially become the Sir Lewis that most of the British upper class have been longing for.

Especially when facing Horner, who was also British, he was surprisingly calm and didn't mind playing along with Horner to tease his own team leader. He even went over and whispered a few words to him, which made the only Austrian in the middle so angry that he was crooked in the nose and mouth.

The jokes should stop now; Horner's main purpose in coming here was to take Shu Longxian away.

Furthermore, since a sense of crisis has already arisen, it's a good opportunity to probe Shulong's willingness to renew the contract with the team.

Following the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, the contract status of many people within Red Bull will undergo another round of changes.

The first person to bring the news was Horner. This time, the driver and team championships have added a lot of leverage to him, allowing him to extend his team principal contract to 2026 ahead of schedule.

At least on the surface, Horner and Marko, the two most influential figures in the team right now, have reached a reconciliation, provided that their interests are not currently in conflict.

Horner skillfully navigated the relationships between both Auden and Tyronn, and his position as the team's leader was quite secure for the time being.

In addition, the Verstappen family's management team also had a new round of close contact with the team after the race. Judging from the hints revealed by Horner, Max seems to intend to extend his contract with the team until 2028.

Verstappen had some reservations about this, after all, there was still Shu Long in the team.

Although Shu Long made a crucial contribution to his son's world championship in the final race, considering Shu Long's overall performance in the second half of the year, keeping Verstappen in the Red Bull system for a long time may not be a good thing.

Currently, due to Vestager's insistence, they want to first determine the contract details for Shulong, and even if a long-term contract is signed, a corresponding no-fault exit clause needs to be added.

Agreeing to renew the contract with Red Bull shows that Tapan respects his son's choice, but as a father, he still needs to consider his son's future more carefully.

So the crux of the problem still lies with Shulong.

Although Shu Long did not have immediate plans to renew the contract, he still gave Horner a somewhat reassuring answer.

Considering the paddock's resources, R&D capabilities, and team cohesion, Red Bull absolutely deserves this year's team championship.

Furthermore, the terms Red Bull is currently offering are indeed quite favorable, so even if Alonso were to suggest that Shu Long continue to renew his contract with Red Bull, it would still be the most reasonable and advantageous option.

In particular, Red Bull's series of business plans surrounding Shulong are entirely beneficial to Shulong at present.

For example, their collaboration with Bilibili's annual New Year's Eve gala this time is aimed at leveraging Shulong's market appeal to re-enter the energy drink market that Red Bull has lost in China.

This part alone can bring Shulong a sky-high endorsement fee in addition to the driver contract. Leaving the Red Bull system at such a critical juncture would be a huge loss.

The previous lawsuit between Thai Niu Tiansi Group and Guoniu Huabin Group was a lose-lose situation. Fortunately, the name Red Bull is still a deeply rooted symbol of energy drinks in many people's minds, and what Red Bull needs to do is much simpler than starting from scratch.

Otherwise, is there anything irreplaceable about Red Bull's energy drink formula? Absolutely not!
Red Bull's success lies in their extremely successful marketing of the Red Bull brand.

They found their ideal target audience and increased their acceptance of the Red Bull brand and their extreme culture, thus making them willing to accept products that cost tens or hundreds of times more than their production cost.

They don't need to pay attention to local cheap energy drink brands like War Horse and Dongpeng, since neither Tai Niu nor Ao Niu products are cheap, and their target consumer groups don't overlap much.

What Red Bull finds most intolerable is Monster Energy, a direct competitor that snatches meat from their mouths and even tries to capitalize on the symbolism of extreme sports!

Although Monster Energy has heavyweight endorsers like Hamilton in the paddock, do you have an F1 team? No, right?
Hey~ We have it! We even have a Chinese driver! What can those little devils do against us?

Good wine still needs to be discovered in a hidden alley.

Therefore, when choosing domestic media platforms for promotion, Red Bull naturally prefers those with strong user cohesion and more representative content production.

Therefore, during the market research process, Blibili's New Year's Eve gala, which had the widest reach and broadest impact, came into Red Bull's view.

The first New Year's Eve gala of 19 burst onto the scene and quickly garnered over 1 million views, which has now reached over 1.3 million.

The second year, 2020, saw "The Most Beautiful Night" surpass its predecessor, with total views exceeding 1.7 million, effectively becoming a nationally popular program with official backing.

For Red Bull, which urgently needs to expand the influence of motorsports, such a niche sport, the allure of this product is so strong that it doesn't need to be described in detail; in short, it's unbeatable!
This was one of the reasons why Shulong's sponsorship agreement with Douyin did not go smoothly at the time.

TikTok's audience is indeed very wide, but their audience is also too scattered, and the content they can produce is even more fragmented than their audience.

At the same time, Douyin creators are too independent, unlike Bilibili where they can quickly build a highly sticky fan base through interaction and cooperation.

The fact that Shulong's account, which only has 130 million followers today despite being sponsored by Douyin 19 years ago, is the most powerful proof of this point.

In contrast, a Bilibili account that posted nothing but dynamic photos gained 240 million followers after collaborating with rapidly growing accounts such as Teng Weifeng, Captain Lao Li, Speedy Partners, and Film Hurricane.

So, after Red Bull confirmed its summer break and its return to the team, Shu Long and his team held relevant discussions and contacts with A-B's officials.

With a reverse sponsorship from Red Bull paving the way, the collaboration went incredibly smoothly. In October and November, both sides finalized a program schedule, and Shulong even cooperated in doing a lot of filming work.

The recording of the show was actually completed in three days at the end of November. However, the season had not yet ended at that time, and Ah B made sure to leave enough blank space during the recording so that they could add new material to the show before it was released.

Early the day after the year-end celebration, Shu Long returned to the Milton Keynes headquarters with Horner and the others.

I spent a week there, and besides continuing the much-anticipated task of "torturing foreigners into speaking Chinese," the main task was to complete the simulation work for next year's ground effect racing before the winter break.

As for the renewal and contract, there's no rush. Verstappen is prepared to wait until after the new year, and Shu Long doesn't want to trouble his family and Alonso, who is taking a break, to go through both. They agreed to discuss it together before the winter test.

On the 24th, after spending Christmas Eve with the team, Shulong finally embarked on his journey home on Christmas Day, a day when everyone was on holiday.

(End of this chapter)