F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 262 Heading Towards the Rare
"Whoosh—whoosh! Hello?"

After fiddling with the action camera and microphone for a while to make sure everything was working properly, Shu Long finally let out a hearty yawn.

"It's 6:33 in the morning, and Mengmeng is still sleeping, so let's keep our voices down a little."

As if to prove that what he said was true, Shu Long turned the camera around and swayed it towards his girlfriend who was still fast asleep on the bed behind him.

Last night, in order to make up for the live streaming hours that Gan Mengning missed, the two played a two-player game together until after 1 a.m. The whole process was both infuriating and funny. They finally ended the live stream in a hurry before Gan Mengning started to cry.

In fact, Shu Long was even more inclined to cry than Gan Mengning.
Everything was fine at first, except that Shu Long's mocking voice was a little louder. However, there were constant comments on the screen putting pressure on Gan Mengning, and the girl seemed to start blaming herself for holding her boyfriend back. Her eyes were red and her little nose was twitching.

It was just a small matter.

But as the girlfriend of an F1 driver, especially someone like Shu Long, who holds a very special position in the sports world, particularly in China, Gan Mengning faces immense pressure from public attention.

She may have managed to resolve these emotions well in the past, or at least on the surface, but the cumulative impact on a young girl's thinking and cognition is not something she can easily digest on her own.

It's like a bomb buried deep underground; one day, just a tiny, insignificant spark might drift onto the fuse.
boom!
Fortunately, the bomb's impact is still relatively small. It only created a small crater, and we can fill it back in with a couple of handfuls of soil. Maybe we can even plant a small flower in it, and then let time beautify it into a sweet memory.

It took about half an hour of coaxing before she finally fell asleep in my arms, still crying. The girl was sleeping very peacefully, her graceful curves outlined by the thin blanket rising and falling gently with her soft breathing.

A few pink, jade-like grapes were mischievously peeking out from under their feet, but Shu Long noticed them and helped tuck them away to cover them up again.

Don’t show it!
“Normally I wouldn’t get up this early, but the team’s flight was moved up a bit today, and we need to get to the Goodwood Festival of Speed ​​which is about to open, so I think we should start early, otherwise it’ll be hard to find an excuse later!”

She tiptoed out of the room and gently closed the door behind her.

Shu Long then brazenly flashed a malicious smile at the camera, opened the refrigerator, and began tinkering with it.

80g whey protein, 300ml unsweetened yogurt, two tablespoons of oatmeal, a pan-fried sole fillet, a banana, and a handful of fresh blueberries.

Oh right, there's also one whole egg and two egg whites.

However, Shu Long prefers to eat eggs alone. To avoid wasting them, he pops two yolks into his mouth and finishes them off. Then he throws everything else into a juicer and blends it into a puree. He pours it into a delicate glass bowl, puts the lid on, and a "molecular gastronomy" meal is ready.

Molecular gastronomy is defined as creating new flavors, textures, and dining experiences through physical and chemical changes. This messy mixture is so undetectable that no one can tell what it originally was, which perfectly meets the standards of "molecular gastronomy"!

"OK! It's about time to go wake her up!"

Time to get up, you little lazybones?
It wasn't as gentle as the lines that Shu Long was humming at that moment.

He lowered his head and pressed his lips to her slightly parted, soft lips, but it wasn't a sweet good morning kiss. Instead, Shu Long pinched his girlfriend's nose and sucked hard, his monstrous lung capacity instantly creating a negative pressure vacuum. With a "slurp," he sucked Gan Mengning's smooth, sticky tongue into his mouth and held it with his front teeth.

"Woo!"

The girl's eyes widened in terror. A flurry of Foshan Shadowless Kicks slammed down from Shu Long's stomach all the way to his face, before Shu Long confiscated both of her "tools of the trade" from her.

"What are you doing so early in the morning?!"

After two unsuccessful attempts to break free, Gan Mengning wiped away the transparent thread left on the corner of her mouth and glared angrily at the eccentric and childish boy in front of her with her beautiful almond-shaped eyes.

Then, she noticed the miniature camera hanging around her boyfriend's neck, and instead picked up her phone from beside her pillow, turned on the screen, and glanced at the time.
"It's only six o'clock!"

"To be precise, it's almost seven o'clock."

Shu Long didn't answer directly, but kissed each of her two pink soles, making the girl giggle with ticklishness. It seemed that her resentment at being forced to turn on had dissipated by more than half.

Then came a meticulous brushing and face-washing service, and it seemed that the remaining half of his resentment had been almost completely dissipated. Only then did Shu Long unfold his map of the Yan Kingdom.

"What do you want to eat in the morning?"

Gan Mengning secretly rolled her eyes. She seemed to understand what Shu Long wanted to do, and naturally didn't mind cooperating a little.

"Judging by your posture, you think you can cook?!"

"I might not be very good at it yet, but if you ask me a few questions, I might be able to learn. I've been watching a lot of cooking videos by food bloggers lately, and I feel that as long as I imitate them exactly, it shouldn't be too difficult."

Uh--

Gan Mengning mimicked her boyfriend's usual lazy demeanor, giving him a nearly identical dead fish-like look. The lifelike expression even gave her and Shu Long a resemblance to a married couple.

I wonder how many cyber chefs felt like they were genius chefs after watching the videos. Only after trying it themselves and seeing what their finished product looked like could they understand the simplest and most unadorned truth in the world: "Mom!"

I have a feeling that things might go wrong if I don't handle it properly.
To avoid tormenting her taste buds with Shu Long's antics first thing in the morning, Gan Mengning tilted her head and thought for a moment before deciding not to make things difficult for herself.

What was left in the fridge?

"How about two slices of toast with a little butter, some fried smoked bacon and a fried egg, and a glass of milk?"

"Are you eating so little?"

"You think I have a stomach as big as yours? You pig!"

Shu Long chuckled and didn't seem to care. He turned around and started getting busy, looking confident.

Gan Mengning sat at the table, yawning listlessly, her eyes glancing at another camera set up not far away.

Suddenly realizing that it wasn't appropriate for her to just wait to be served by her boyfriend, she thought that it might give malicious people a new angle to attack her. Although Shu Long had made it clear last night that there was no need to pay attention to the chattering noise, Gan Mengning really didn't want to always be the one holding her back.

Suddenly, a loud crackling sound of oil splattering came from the stove, startling Shu Long so much that he jumped back two meters away. His slightly exaggerated action also startled Gan Mengning.

and many more!

Is pan-frying still too difficult for him?
"Did you take the eggs out of the refrigerator beforehand and let them cool? If there's water in them, they'll definitely fry in hot oil!"

"what?!"

Shu Long's face showed a clear look of stupidity, but he still firmly refused his girlfriend's offer of help. Before long, she actually managed to make a breakfast that looked quite refreshing and delicious.

The bread wasn't burnt, the bacon wasn't fried into a dry mess, and most importantly, the fried egg didn't end up being scrambled into an omelet. For someone who rarely cooks, that's pretty good!

Why was only one made?
Then, to the girl's astonishment, Shu Long carried the plate of breakfast to the other side of the table, placed it in front of him, and sat down calmly.

"No! You."

"Oh yes, I almost forgot!"

Have you really forgotten?

Could you make that forehead-tapping gesture a little more exaggerated?
The clapping wasn't loud enough for me to hear!

Just then, the microwave oven beeped softly, and Shu Long obediently stood up and took out a steaming, enticingly fragrant bowl of porridge!
When Shulong placed this freshly heated concoction in front of his girlfriend, it was still excitedly bubbling like a swamp, tirelessly shoveling clusters of indescribable mist into the girl's nostrils, which were already refusing to breathe.

It seemed that Gan Mengning's carefully maintained expression in front of the camera was about to completely break down, but Shu Long ignored it and suppressed his laughter, handing his girlfriend a soup spoon and a pre-peeled hard-boiled egg.

The boiled egg was the only thing in front of me that looked like food!

Gan Mengning had already made up her mind that as long as Shu Long dared to utter even half a word about "eating"!

She... she'll just—reluctantly—take a bite or two.
"Ugh—! What is this?!"

The cloying sweetness of the protein powder, combined with the extremely bizarre and sour taste created by heating yogurt and banana, resulted in a sticky, crumbly texture that clung to the tongue and refused to come off! There was also a faint fishy smell that went straight into the nasal cavity, making it even more disgusting than the version Gan Mengning tried last time!

"Pfft~ cough cough! Hmm, this is a suggestion from a fan that got a lot of likes in your comments section. They said they want to see if we can swap recipes for a day."

"So all you could come up with was this lump of sh—this bowl of porridge?"

It's really difficult for Gan Mengning to come up with such a decent term to define this indescribable thing. But Shu Long clearly heard that the word "shit" had almost completely come out of her mouth.
However, Gan Mengning seemed to have shed a lot of the burden that came with their identities in front of the camera. This genuine feeling made Shu Long feel that his girlfriend looked much cuter now, so he decided to stop the joke and switch their breakfast back to him taking care of that pile of shit!

Okay, this is shit!

Shu Long himself doesn't really like eating this stuff, but he's too lazy. Living alone, he really can't muster the passion to treat himself if he can't get a meal from the car team.

Whether or not Shu Long actually films the so-called recipe exchange project is irrelevant. The team's chefs returned to England last night with the plane and supplies. If he's really lazy, he can wait until he gets back to Milton Keynes to do it.

The main reason was that what happened last night reminded Shu Long.

It's unrealistic to expect a quick change in mindset, after all, Shu Long himself went through this process step by step.

I used to be extremely cautious in everything I said and did, afraid that my behavior might be inappropriate and cause some negative impact. Sometimes, when I looked at the person in the replay, I felt so hypocritical that I was a stranger to them.

Later on, I realized I was nothing, and the media was nothing either. As long as you don't go too far and cross the line, who cares about this or that!
However, although it is impossible to change people's perceptions and understandings in a short period of time, Shu Long can try to help Gan Mengning get used to these things step by step. The first step is to gradually get rid of the unnatural coquettishness that the two of them deliberately put on when interacting in front of the camera.

As soon as Shu Long got up, Gan Mengning suddenly made up her mind. She gritted her teeth, steeled her resolve, picked up the small bowl, and without caring about the heat, gulped it all down.

Angry?
No, maybe a little?

In fact, Gan Mengning herself couldn't quite explain her feelings right now, but even if she was angry, it wasn't because of Shu Long's prank on her, but because of her own worthlessness!
They've made countless resolutions to face any difficulties together, yet they can't even accept someone's ordinary breakfast. What kind of resolve is that?
Shu Long was quite frightened by his girlfriend's fierce behavior.

How do we film the rest?
Horner started sending messages to urge him before eight o'clock.

In order to save on operating costs under the budget cap as much as possible, unless they are going on a non-group trip and want to pay for their own travel expenses, a significant number of Red Bull employees will share a flight back to the UK.

This includes the four drivers and Horner himself.

I know that Verstappen and Horner both have private jets, but the journey from Canada to the UK is just too long. Private jets are usually not up to the task of handling such a long distance, and the multiple transfers would be much more troublesome than taking a business flight. No one would be that foolish.

With a journey of over ten hours, lunch and dinner will likely be mostly eaten on the plane, so any differences in menus won't be noticeable.

What does it mean?

This shows that the half-prank plan this morning was really just something Shu Long came up with on a whim last night after putting Gan Mengning to sleep, without any more detailed backup plan.

Then let's delete it.
Gan Mengning, who had just made a huge blunder, couldn't bear to part with it. Even if she didn't plan to use it as material to post on her account, she wanted to keep it so that she could look back and savor it in the future.

Since Shulong had nothing else to do, he decided to treat it as a normal VLOG shoot.

However, after Horner noticed this, he, who had been laughing and joking with the drivers, suddenly became serious and said that he had something important to tell them when they got on the plane.

Even Gan Mengning wanted to listen along.

It's certainly not a trivial matter, but it has nothing to do with racing or competitions. Instead, it concerns the comments made by the drivers and their families on public platforms.

During the Canadian Grand Prix, a Red Bull youth academy player, who is relatively popular, made a reckless remark during a live broadcast, directly using a highly taboo N-word.

This young man is familiar to everyone; his name is Yuri Vips, and Shu Long usually refers to him privately as "The Big Shot (Vips)."

In terms of strength and ability, none of the four drivers present are particularly outstanding. They lack dominance and have not produced any amazing performances. The only thing they have inherited is the Red Bull drivers' reckless and reckless behavior on the track, making them veritable accident-making machines.

The reason he can still get a car under Marco's brutal youth training system is simply because this kid has a decent-looking face that can be used as a selling point.

The person made the boastful remarks at night, and the file was removed the next day. Red Bull's decision was to cut ties decisively and remove the name of Vips from the official website.

Liberty Media, the company behind F1, is an American company, and Americans, under President Deng Xiaoping's leadership, are already extremely sensitive to these kinds of issues; no one wants to create trouble for themselves.

Among the four drivers, Gasly is addicted to TikTok, Verstappen frequently appears in Redline Team's live streams, Kakuta, after moving to Italy, now occasionally streams APEX, and Shu Long has recently been spending a lot of time with his girlfriend taking pictures.

Normally, Red Bull doesn't interfere with the drivers' personal freedom, but when it comes to important matters, Red Bull, known for its ruthless style, will never be lenient.

The easiest case to deal with is Shulong, while Verstappen is definitely a high-risk individual.

His group of e-sports racing friends who follow the live stream are a mixed bag, and who knows when they might blurt out one or two outrageous words. Afterwards, you must repeatedly emphasize what should and shouldn't be said, and if something really goes wrong, don't hesitate to cut ties.

There's not much else to say. Apart from Kakuta, everyone else is a veteran in the paddock, so there's probably no need for Horner to pull their ear and teach them everything.

Another point concerns the schedule for Media Day.

This is actually a minor issue, because after continuous protests and complaints from drivers and teams, many media day activities have already tended to revert to Thursdays.

This time, however, an official document has been issued, stating that starting with the Silverstone Grand Prix, Thursdays will officially resume the responsibility of media day activities.

The rest was just some simple arrangements for the Goodwood Festival of Speed.

Red Bull's trip was basically just to join in the fun, at the invitation of the organizers, to add some buzz and influence to the classic racing extravaganza that is returning to normal after the pandemic.

Originally, Porsche was just going to act as a mascot, interact with fans, and have some Q&A with the host, but at this year's Goodwood Festival of Speed, they made a heavyweight appearance with their newly released LMDh prototype, the 963.

While planning to enter F1, Porsche is also making preparations to enter the highest endurance racing category, the Hypercar, to further expand its brand influence. It's clear that Porsche has big ambitions lately.

There have been recent rumors that Porsche and Red Bull have officially announced their partnership in early July, but based on Shu Long's observations of the atmosphere within the Red Bull team, it doesn't seem quite like that. In any case, the team hasn't revealed any particularly valuable information to the drivers.

Only a few high-ranking officials, including Horner, probably know the current status of the talks between the two sides.

However, shortly after learning that Shu Long had confirmed his attendance at the Festival of Speed, Porsche extended an invitation to him, hoping that he could temporarily serve as their driver and complete a test drive of the 963 prototype.

Shu Long had no reason to refuse something that was entirely beneficial, but Verstappen, who had always been somewhat indifferent, was green with envy upon hearing about it.

There's nothing you can do but envy them.

Even without comparing their achievements in F1, Shu Long's Le Mans 24 Hours overall championship title alone is enough to kill the game, leaving everyone to watch helplessly as Shu Long has a blast on his own.

I stayed in West Sussex until noon on the 26th, and there wasn't much time to rest or relax. I had to pack my bags and head to the middle of England soon.

This is where the FIA’s biggest complaint about the temporary decision to reinstate Thursday media days becomes apparent.

Fortunately, Silverstone Circuit is not far from Red Bull Milton Keynes' headquarters. It's only a 30-40 minute drive, otherwise the back-and-forth trip would have been unbearable.

There was another reason for returning early: besides coordinating some simulator development work at headquarters, the latest annual racing game, F1 22, was also about to be released.

The game's official team specifically booked the drivers' schedules with Red Bull and several other racing teams, requiring them to cooperate with Silverstone in some promotional activities.

The reason it's only a few teams and not all of them is because these kinds of events can actually be declined. For example, Ferrari, which has recently suffered a series of setbacks, and Mercedes, which was in no mood for the dolphin jump, were not on the list of participants.

But Red Bull, a brand that naturally loves to join in the fun, would never choose to miss any opportunity to increase its brand exposure!

Otherwise, why would Shu Long know that the schedule around the time of the British Grand Prix would be very tight when he was still in Baku?

(End of this chapter)