F1: Starting with a Simulator Master

Chapter 114 Poisonous Milk Spellcasting

"Guys, we got first place in the practice match! See you in ranked!"

Xu Zihang has been livestreaming all morning. He just finished showing viewers around Luo Xiu's RV and drove back to Prema.

The P-room live stream ended in its final second.

As soon as he finished speaking, he deftly pressed the end button.

The live stream went black, and Xu Zihang's enthusiastic face instantly fell. He walked past Xu Zihao, who was on the phone handling business, gave a very obvious cold snort, and rolled his eyes dramatically.

He and Xu Zihao have been in a cold war for several months.

Xu Zihang was puzzled. He couldn't understand why he received so many contract offers from F1 teams at the end of last year. Even if he went to drive a tractor for the bottom-ranked Haas or Williams, that would still be a legitimate F1 team!

Given Xiu's terrifying ability to shock Ferrari's top management during his test drive in Imola, it's surprising that he ultimately chose to come and join a group of F...

Two people stealing points?!

In Xu Zihang's view, this was an insult to his brother Xiu, who refused to eat the steak right in front of him and insisted on eating plain noodles.

All around him were the sounds of F2 team mechanics busily removing tires, but to Xu Zihang at that moment, the sounds were making his ears feel like they were going to get sore.

He wiped the sweat from his face in frustration, staring at the red and white Prema F2 race car, his mind filled with those priceless F1 letters of intent from back then.

Growing increasingly angry, Xu Zihang kicked a piece of rubber that hadn't been swept clean.

Because his brother, Xu Zihao, has been very secretive about the contract ever since he met their father.

Luo Xiu simply patted him on the shoulder and said casually, "Don't worry about it."

The feeling that everyone else understood but he didn't, coupled with the misery of having to go back to school for classes during non-competition weeks, made everything go wrong for him.

Therefore, Xu Zihang was extremely irritable.

After the practice match, Luo Xiu was in the rest room in the pit room, wearing a resistance band around his neck, using his spare time to stretch his neck.

Holding the other end of the resistance band was Chen Pengfei, who was now Luo Xiu's personal physical trainer.

Xu Zihang began his daily grumbling and complaining, gesturing and speaking rapidly as he unleashed his incomprehension of their decision to stay in F2.

Luo Xiu, on the other hand, continued to bury himself in his training as always, without uttering a sound.

"F2 is good. There are no big team seats now, and if you stay in a small team for too long, it's hard to get ahead."

Chen Pengfei didn't know the real reason either, but he didn't care.

And now, that's what he really thinks. Anyway, all the big F1 team seats are full. At worst, he can stay in F2 with Luo Xiu for another two years and then fight his way up when a competitive seat becomes available.

After a training session, Luo Xiu and Chen Pengfei exchanged a glance through the mirror.

This silent gaze contained an absolute understanding and unconditional trust between the two.

After all, the news of forming a Chinese racing team is top secret and cannot be known to others, including Chen Pengfei, for the time being.

However, this tacit exchange of glances only made Xu Zihang feel more frustrated.

The thought that Luo Xiu now has a luxury RV just like Zhou Guanyu, with one of the two beds inside being Luo Xiu's and the other being Chen Pengfei's, is very grating.

Xu Zihang felt that his best friend was no longer someone he could have all to himself.

Out of sheer boredom, he silently began his daily ritual of "dark little curses" in his mind.

If you can't get through the normal channels, what about the abnormal channels?

The €1000 million boosting contract has been widely discussed online, and Xu Zihang is so familiar with it that he can recite the entire text.

He chanted in his mind like a monk reciting scriptures, worshipping every Western God and Eastern Bodhisattva he knew in his mind, praying fervently.

"May all the gods protect us! May any current F1 driver, whether they have an upset stomach or acute gastroenteritis—should have an emergency and give Brother Xiu his place for one race, even just one!"

This extremely impolite and childish thought soon became Xu Zihang's proudest and most powerful "poisonous milk" (a term used to describe a prediction that is ultimately wrong or misleading).

But he never told anyone.

After a break, the 30-minute qualifying session for the F2 Bahrain Grand Prix officially began.

The green light came on in the pit lane, and the roar of engines echoed across the track once again.

The broadcast studio exhibited an almost pathological obsession.

For 20 minutes, seven or eight ultra-high-definition cameras at different angles were positioned in front of the Prema 12 garage door.

The director focused 90% of the shots on Luo Xiu's race car, even capturing the moment he secretly drank a Coke in the pit lane.

Meanwhile, the rookies who had already driven onto the track in the adjacent passage didn't even get a close-up shot for a second or two.

Other championship favorites with factory team ties, such as Botoleto and Hajjar, were completely relegated to the background.

The moment Luo Xiu put on his helmet and climbed into the cockpit, pulling down his goggles, the outside noise, along with Xu Zihang's resentful gaze, was completely shut out.

This year, F2 retired the Dallara F2 2018 chassis, which had served for six seasons since 2018, and started using a new generation of cars developed by Italian racing car manufacturer Dallara.

It features a brand-new aerodynamic chassis, a new three-sided front wing, and a modern F1-style unconventional tail wing with a central support beam.

At first glance, it looks no different from an F1 car.

To most people, this new car is a blind box, and everyone is still exploring its maximum operating window.

But in Luo Xiu's mental palace, based on the data collected from practice races, he had already constructed a perfect simulated lap time.

First lap, brushing purple to test the bottom.

He only ran one lap and easily set the fastest lap of the entire event.

Taking into account changes in wind speed, track temperature, road surface conditions, and grip, he pitted for minor adjustments after the flight lap.

He wants to wait for tracks with better grip as the game progresses, and for the best flight window.

Because in the flight path, all the cars will run on the same optimal racing line.

When twenty race cars go through corners at high speeds, accelerate, and brake hard, the surface of the hot-melt tires melts under high temperature, and the peeling rubber particles are stuck to the road surface by high temperature and pressure.

The working window temperature of Pirelli slick tires is around 90° to 110°, with the molten rubber being laid as each race car heats up the racing line.

The grip of melted rubber on rubber is far greater than that of rubber on asphalt.

It's like glue sticking together with glue.

As qualifying progressed, the rubber on the surface of the best driving line on the track became thicker and thicker, leaving deep black rubber marks.

Hajar, who had just cleared two consecutive flying circles, was heard breathing heavily in the TR.

"Huff...huff...am I in first place?! Am I in first place?!!"

The engineer replied in a very fast voice: "Yes, very nice, you've made it to P1. Well done, man."

Meanwhile, Botoleto narrowly beat Rosicky's first lap time and temporarily moved into P2.

Only the two rookies breathed a sigh of relief over the radio, thinking they had finally managed to overcome that obstacle by evolving on the track.

But this was just a fleeting illusion.

In the final five minutes, Luo Xiu changed into a new set of soft tires and returned to the track.

This time, physical fitness level: A.

Fully lifted!

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