F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 255 Extravagant Spending
He kissed his girlfriend, then his mom kissed him, and then his dad and grandpa rubbed his head together.

Then Shu Long was completely overwhelmed by the Red Bull crew members who swarmed him, and countless slaps were slapped on his back and buttocks.

A bunch of despicable perverts!
Gan Mengning has never taken advantage of anyone so blatantly before. She'll definitely slap him a few times back at the hotel tonight!
The team was undoubtedly very excited. Even though Shu Long had calmed down a lot during the return lap, these adorable and simple-minded guys were still immersed in a frenzied atmosphere.

Monaco's comeback victory was truly hard-won.

Rather than Shu Long's solo carry performance, this match was a victory of teamwork. Everyone was fully involved in winning the championship, and naturally, everyone felt proud.

This is a wonderful sense of accomplishment, with a deeper and more profound feeling compared to the somewhat commonplace championships of the past.

The person in charge of the interview was former F1 driver David Coulthard, who is also a legend and founding member of Red Bull. At this time, when he stood in front of Shu Long as the host, his eyes had a different look in them.

The opening was filled with praise and compliments, but since Verstappen was standing right next to him, Coulthard didn't try to rub salt into the wound of this young driver whom he also greatly admired.

The most crucial issue was Shu Long and the team's pit stop decision on lap 19. Coulthard stated that he did not hear any communication between Shu Long and the team regarding this matter in the radio broadcast, and inquired about the key to their understanding.

How to answer this?

Is it because of the bond between hearts?
In fact, most industry insiders know what the process is like. This question was specifically asked to those car enthusiasts who weren't particularly experienced and were watching the live stream. Shu Long naturally catered to their needs and gave them a long, rambling explanation.

Verstappen will be the next to be interrogated, while Leclerc, playing at home, will be deliberately left to be interrogated until the last minute.

The questions asked of Verstappen mainly focused on whether he regretted that the differential strategy on the field did not achieve the desired effect, and whether he felt that bad luck was the main reason for losing his chance to compete for the championship.

Verstappen feels he has done everything he could in the game and has now largely recovered from his frustration.

To be frank, luck is part of the game, and Shulong has been performing better since Friday's practice match, so he certainly deserves this championship.

The final part of the interview was naturally reserved for Leclerc, the home team hero.

In the eyes of most fans, Leclerc's performance this weekend was absolutely perfect; if it weren't for Ferrari's phenomenal execution, he could have easily secured pole position and brought home a championship.

Indeed, Red Bull's strategy was executed too perfectly from start to finish, which only highlighted Ferrari's incompetence.

During the interview, Leclerc wasn't very willing to say much when faced with questions from Kurthard. To summarize, the main points were:
The race was tough, his opponents were all running great, and like in previous years, he was almost used to going home disappointed.

Although no one could bring themselves to condemn Ferrari, it did evoke more sympathy and indignation among fans for this tragic home engine, with countless people calling for Binotto's immediate dismissal.

Ferrari, of course, couldn't just sit idly by, so they turned around and lodged a protest with the race organizers against Shulong.

The reason is that this race is dangerous due to its narrow track, so the FIA ​​has made more detailed provisions for the pit stop procedures. The most important provision is that cars are not allowed to cross the solid yellow line in any way when entering or leaving the pits, and cars must always stay to the right of the solid line.

The point of contention was the feint by Shu Long that lured Sainz into the box on lap 3.

Ferrari believes that Shulong violated the rules by crossing the line, while Sainz was forced to continue into the pits after his car's front end crossed the line because he was following the rules. Therefore, Ferrari is requesting at least a 5-second penalty for Shulong.

That's quite a clever plan. Leclerc finished the race 1.4 seconds behind Shu Long. If Shu Long could just get a penalty time, wouldn't he be able to take the championship back?
Moreover, if it weren't for the initial feint that caused one of Ferrari's drivers to lose touch with the strategy, Ferrari's strategy for this race wouldn't have been so difficult, and Sainz could have easily been used to counter Red Bull's risky behavior.

According to the race officials' analysis of the replay footage, Shu Long did indeed cross the solid line at the entrance.

However, the cross-line standard in international sports regulations is triggered only when "one tire is fully on the other side".

It's hard to say whether Shulong's judgment on the scale was too precise, or whether he just happened to be lucky and missed it by a tiny bit. In any case, the final judgment was that he was only on the line and did not cross the line.

Ferrari's protest was thus rejected outright, and the costs of the protest were not refunded.

It would have been better if he hadn't made a scene; the more he did, the more like a clown he looked. It made Leclerc seem like he had a tyrannical parent at home, and he was even too embarrassed to meet the eyes of the two Red Bull drivers when he was downstairs preparing to receive his award.

The protest was ignored, and the process continued.

The Prince of Monaco, accompanied by his young son, presented the championship trophy to Shulong. The trophy's overall design is based on the layout of the Monaco racetrack, which is a bit too rugged for a trophy.

However, the two long straight sections between Turn 1 and Turn 3, and between Turn 9 and Turn 12, do provide a convenient grip for the trophy.

Then, the Princess of Monaco, accompanied by her young daughter, presented Leclerc with the runner-up trophy.

Princess Charlene was known worldwide for her beauty in her youth, but also for her tumultuous life.

Judging by domestic values, the Prince of Monaco definitely meets the standard of a rotten person, to the point that Shu Long almost suffered from psychological fastidiousness when shaking hands with him.

The contrast between the two only accentuates the tragic aspect of Princess Charlene's character, creating a unique and fitting match for Leclerc today.

When he saw the two men shake hands, the name "Les Misérables" suddenly popped into Shu Long's mind for no apparent reason.
What else can be done?

Let's make up for it by giving it a couple more champagne sprays!

The Monaco Grand Prix victory is of special significance, so Horner, who was chosen to receive the team's victory trophy, was naturally the first to step up. As a result, when three people in leather jackets came up on stage, he only picked on the one in red and gave him a good scolding.

What's with that long face? I'll get revenge for you later!
Don't ask how to get revenge, it has nothing to do with Ferrari anyway.

Red Bull has a tradition of jumping into the pool when they win the title in Monaco.

The starting point should be a promise made by Horner himself at the beginning of Red Bull's founding, saying that if any of their drivers could get on the podium, he would jump into the pool naked.

In 2006 in Monaco, David Coulthard, the Red Bull legend who was interviewed after the match today, finally secured third place in the P3 category.

After the race, Horner naturally kept his promise and jumped into the pool wearing only a Superman red cape.

Since then, whether it's Mark Webber, Sebastian Vettel, or Daniel Ricardo, whenever anyone wins the championship in Monaco, there's always this team celebration.

The location was on the top floor of the temporary energe house. When Shu Long arrived here surrounded by reporters, a number of news media were already waiting by the pool to watch the excitement.

At this time last year, Shulong was preparing for Le Mans and couldn't be there. But I heard that the race organizers were concerned about epidemic prevention and control, so when Verstappen won the championship last year, they didn't continue this tradition. The team was a little disappointed when they came.

This year, due to the easing of restrictions in various aspects such as the pandemic, this regular activity has finally been revived once again.

First, he took a group photo with the team by the pool, holding the trophy. Then, under everyone's watchful eyes, he walked to the open space cleared for him by the crowd. Before the team could even start cheering him on, Shu Long took two quick steps and then performed a spectacular deep-sea torpedo-like somersault, diving into the water.

As if signaling the start of the carnival, the entire rooftop instantly descended into chaos.

Champagne and fireworks flew everywhere. The first thing Shu Long did after climbing ashore was to wink at Max. The two of them grabbed each other by the arm and leg, swung them around a couple of times, and threw the team leader overboard. Then Shu Long turned around and gave Verstappen a move reminiscent of Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's signature move, the "Rock Bomb."
Kill like crazy! Kill like crazy!

The second time the dragon emerged from the water, it immediately set its sights on Marco, who was watching the commotion from the shore. The old man was so frightened that he turned and ran away. No one had ever realized that his legs could be so nimble.

However, this person is too old, and we don't want him to cause any problems later, so we'll let him off the hook for now.

Then Shu Long turned to look at Hannah Schmitz, the absolute hero of the game. Without any extra supervision, Red Bull, which always loved to watch the drama unfold, had already clamored for the chief strategy engineer to be pushed into the water.

Or rather, these bastards weren't going to let any of them off the hook. Anyone who had already gotten wet once would immediately set their sights on their colleagues whose clothes were still relatively dry once they got ashore.

Horner also snatched the microphone from the host and kicked David Coulthard, who was just there for the fun, into the pool.

Within five minutes, almost everyone on the shore was caught in the attack. Shu Long then naturally turned his attention to the family area, where people were hiding in the side, trembling with fear and gloating.

Kelly's dress was rather inappropriate, and Verstappen seemed to be trying to persuade P to participate in the team's special celebration, which frightened the little girl so much that she hid behind her mother. Gan Mengning watched and giggled.

Still laughing here?
Shu Long's mother was also dressed in a dress today. After realizing her son's ill intentions, Shu Xiong hurriedly pulled his wife and father to retreat. Gan Mengning, such a silly girl, was completely unaware that disaster was about to befall her.

Because it was raining and a bit chilly today, Gan Mengning specially chose a long-sleeved shirt and trousers before going out, and also wore a Red Bull hat with the brand "Shulong 69" on her head.

When she heard a soft cough and was patted on the shoulder, she looked up at her boyfriend with an innocent expression. Then, the next second, she exclaimed in surprise as Shu Long scooped her up and tucked her under his arm, launching a self-sacrificing charge towards the pool!
Then he turned around and put it back on the edge of the pool.

Forget it.

It's a bit chilly today. I probably didn't bring any spare clothes when I went out. I hope I don't catch a cold.

But the Red Bull crew wasn't happy about it.

They were saying, "Why is Shulong, that henpecked husband, suddenly so tough? If you back down halfway, where are the guys going to make up for the excitement they've been waiting for?"

So they swarmed forward in a great wave, grabbed someone, hoisted them onto their shoulders, and jumped into the pool like dumplings being dropped into boiling water.

A bunch of childish kids
I don't know how the party ended that day. I only know that when it was over, the pool was almost half empty. I don't know if more of the water was splashed out or swallowed.

The next day, they weren't in a hurry to leave. Since the period leading up to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix was essentially a holiday, the Shu Long family decided to stay a few more days and consider buying a house there.

Finally, I settled on a top-floor apartment in a building near the coastal straight road in Pool Bay. It's a little over 200 square meters, has a small swimming pool and garden, and comes with three parking spaces.

It looks quite beautiful, and the view downstairs is also nice, but I asked about the price and it's around 1700 million euros.

It's not exactly a new property, but there's no owner yet. The feng shui master said the place is quite good, but I'm hesitant about whether to spend so much money just for a place to live.

The base salary alone this year is enough, but considering that he already has 154 points plus five championships, the prize money alone is more than 10 million euros, and with sponsorships, it is close to 25 million euros.

There doesn't seem to be any need to be so stingy.

This is only the income from less than a year. By the end of the year, it may be enough to double. Since the money has already been spent, they might as well live more comfortably. So the Shu Long family contacted Horner, who had not yet left, and began to coordinate the possibility of acquiring the house as a gift.

Apart from the $8 million after-tax amount from Lao Mi, even after the company's apportionment, the actual amount that ends up in our pockets will be at least 30% to 40% less.

If Shu Long were to buy the house out of his own pocket, he would have to wait for the driver's income to be cut and put into his own pocket before using that portion of his salary to purchase the property. The cost would be more than 4200 million yuan before tax, which is basically equivalent to working for nothing for a year.

However, if the house was purchased through Red Bull's name and some kind of unexpected personal income tax, then the actual purchase of the property would only require an additional 20% unexpected personal income tax, bringing the total to less than 2000 million, which is a double discount.

Horner quickly understood what the Shu Long family meant and said that they would take care of this small matter and would coordinate a special team to help with it.

It's kind of an emotional appeal, but it doesn't really matter.

The key point is that the house is in a good location, not far from Verstappen's apartment building. The area is a small but densely populated area of ​​F1 drivers, with many retired and active drivers residing there.

Another thing is that I'm making arrangements to open a restaurant. Many future operations will likely revolve around this industry, which is even more important than buying a house in Shulong.

I found a shop near the park that I liked. It didn't have much business, but the owner was a car enthusiast from Shulong and was quite easy to talk to, so the negotiation went smoothly.

The initial investment alone is estimated to be around 2000 million.

He can afford to pay, after all, this is Shu Long's fourth year driving F1. Although he only drove for half a season last year, he still received the full salary for the whole year, so he still has some savings.

However, since a significant portion of the revenue has been invested in other industries, the biggest drain on funds is still the go-kart brand they recently planned to develop. Buying it out completely at once is somewhat of a blow.

So we need to work even harder to earn money.
To be honest, Shu Long himself doesn't understand these things in detail. His mother and the team she brought are basically in charge of handling everything. In addition, Gan Mengning's family will also get involved in the restaurant business. To put it bluntly, he is just a hands-off manager.

Shu Long had his family help with business matters, and on the second day of the competition, he took Gan Mengning and a group of friends to celebrate Zhou Guanyu's birthday.

Arro's two cars scored points in Monaco yesterday, setting a new team record for their best performance on this track.

The reason why these two unfortunate brothers, one eliminated in Q1 and the other in Q2, were able to squeeze into the top 10 is inseparable from the fact that Shu Long completely messed up the situation on the field, and A Luo's key strategy of taking action and remaining still based on Shu Long's movements.

First, they were tricked into entering the station by Shulong's telecom fraud and changed to semi-rain tires, thus avoiding the most chaotic window and being able to push forward with all their might. Then, because of Shulong's insistence on semi-rain tires, they finally got a red flag, which can be said to have completely licked the benefits of the change in the whole game.

The result is certainly something to be happy about.

Especially since he achieved such great results just before his birthday, Guanyu's family, who had come specifically to cheer on their son, brother, and boyfriend, were overjoyed.

Not only Zhou Guanyu's parents came, but this was also the first time that Shu Long had seen Zhou Guanyu's sister in the hunting grounds. It was also the first time that Shu Long had seen Zhou Guanyu's girlfriend in person. Previously, Shu Long only knew of her but had never met her.

However, out of consideration for the privacy of his family, Guan Yu's girlfriend and sister did not actually appear in the P room yesterday.

Shu Long had previously considered protecting Gan Mengning's identity in this way, but the couple were both public figures, and as long as they continued to be active in public, they would eventually be exposed by the sharp-eyed netizens.

Looking back now, it wasn't so bad after all.

At least Shu Long doesn't have to sneak around like a thief every time he goes out on a date. His girlfriend can openly appear in the P room, which will give him more motivation on the track.

Moreover, because of her undergraduate degree, even though Shu Long's parents and grandfather are preparing to return to China soon, Gan Mengning can stay by her boyfriend's side for at least the next seven Grand Prix races, which is a first in many years.

How do I say it when I feel like I'm already looking forward to it?
(End of this chapter)