F1: Starting with a Simulator Master

Compared to the invisible storm sweeping across Europe.

A brutal physical test is underway in the physical training room of Nanshan Circuit.

In order to meet Luo Xiu's urgent need to break through his physical limits.

Xu Zihao spent over a million dollars in real money.

Following the plan that Chen Pengfei brought back from Europe, they transformed this physical training room into a closed physical training room with a strong cyberpunk industrial style.

Push open the heavy, soundproof door.

There was no sunlight inside.

There was also no upbeat, energetic music like you'd find in a typical gym.

What comes into view are only the stark white, cold, and hard explosion-proof LED tubes and various professional physical training equipment whose names I don't know.

Chen Pengfei now has a brand new identity – Luo Xiu's personal physical trainer.

Drawing on his years of experience in the domestic racing scene, coupled with his intensive exchanges with the top physical trainers of the Prema team and Zhou Guanyu's physical trainer during his days in Europe, he has been working hard to improve his skills.

He tailored a twelve-week training program for Luo Xiu.

According to Chen Pengfei's plan, Luo Xiu should be able to easily complete a 45-minute F3 race in two weeks.

Twelve weeks later, he needs to be able to push his F1 car at full speed for at least one qualifying session.

Otherwise, he would show Luo Xiu what cruelty is.

"Core tightening! Haven't you eaten?!"

Chen Pengfei roared like a tyrant, his harsh voice echoing in the empty training room.

Luo Xiu was hanging from the horizontal bar, undergoing extremely painful "suspended windshield wiper" training.

Raise both legs straight up into a V shape, and pull them to their limit like windshield wipers under the strong control of the waist and abdomen.

This is an advanced core training movement that is very common in physical training, especially in street workout, combat, bouldering and racing, and is extremely difficult.

The starting position is with both hands gripping the horizontal bar and hanging naturally. Then, using your core strength, lift your legs straight up together until your toes point towards the ceiling. The angle between your torso and legs should be at least L-shaped, and ideally V-shaped.

Throughout the movement, keep your back perpendicular to the ground.

Then, like windshield wipers, slowly swing your legs to one side to their limit, and then slowly swing them to the other side to their limit.

The key is to maintain core tightness while resisting gravity throughout the entire process, and not to rely on inertia to swing, but to use the strength of the waist and abdomen to pull the legs.

In addition to this set of movements, Luo Xiu also had a high-strength elastic band wrapped around his forehead.

Chen Pengfei held the other end of the elastic band, and with each swing of Luo Xiu's leg, he pulled hard like a hungry tiger pouncing on its prey, simulating the sudden lateral G-force during high-speed cornering.

"This is a hard brake into the curve! Hold your neck tight!"

"Start accelerating early out of the corner! Lock down your axle!"

Chen Pengfei's roar carried an extremely suppressed sense of anxiety.

After witnessing Luo Xiu's phenomenal performance in Monza, especially when he repeatedly replayed Luo Xiu's car footage and match videos late at night, he realized a cruel truth: he might never reach Luo Xiu's level of performance even after a lifetime of training.

This is a feeling of powerlessness caused by being overwhelmed by both absolute talent and practical skills.

This made him more anxious than when he saw his peer Alonso still competing in F1; he now had to find his own value.

However, he found that there was nothing left for him to learn about driving techniques.

In order to preserve Luo Xiu's dignity as coach and to prove that he was still qualified to participate in this great journey that would be recorded in history, Chen Pengfei set his sights on Luo Xiu's only weakness at present - physical fitness.

He felt that the only thing he could still do for this genius was to help him fill in this last gap in his skills in this square training room.

So during the day, he transforms into an emotionless training machine.

Xu Zihang would come and film from time to time to gather material, but after a few times, even he, who was used to seeing all kinds of prank videos on the Internet, couldn't stand it anymore and secretly gave Chen Pengfei the nickname "Chen the Skinflint".

Despite the nickname, Chen Pengfei accepted it willingly, and he trained Luo Xiu so hard that his skin almost peeled off several layers.

Late at night, this veteran domestic professional player shamelessly made international long-distance calls.

Because of the time difference, this was the only time Prema's strength and conditioning coach had time to talk to him.

Then Chen Pengfei devoted himself to the most cutting-edge theories of muscle threshold and recovery circulation, staying up all night until his eyes were bloodshot.

The more ruthlessly he trained Luo Xiu, the more he could mask the deep-seated fear in his heart that he was utterly useless.

Halfway through another training session, Luo Xiu's movements had changed from the initial standard suspended windshield wiper motion to an extremely bizarre twisted state.

With his suspended posture and the elastic band tied to his head, he looked exactly like a person being tortured on a rack.

Luo Xiu's face was already covered in sweat, and his bangs were sticking wetly to his forehead.

With each extreme swing, the rectus abdominis muscle twitches irregularly.

The muscles on both sides of the neck were stretched high by the elastic band, like an angry cobra with its cheeks puffed out.

Within the mental palace, physiological signals indicating severe physical overload are frantically sounding alarms.

But he remained silent.

Luo Xiu stared at Chen Pengfei behind him through the full-length mirror. Chen Pengfei, who was clearly exhausted from staying up all night and had dark circles under his eyes, tightened the elastic band while observing his own physical condition.

Luo Xiu understood Chen Pengfei's anxiety and was deeply grateful.

This all-out effort was not much less than what Luo Xiu put in, which made Luo Xiu feel that he was not fighting alone.

He doesn't need any simple words of comfort or concern; what he needs is someone who ruthlessly pushes his physical limits with the most brutal training load.

That summer, in the physical training room of Nanshan Circuit, Chen Pengfei's restless anxiety and Luo Xiu's almost pathological training fanaticism perfectly complemented each other.

Years later, even they themselves couldn't believe how they had survived that time.

"call--"

After this training session ended, Luo Xiu actually lasted less than twenty seconds before completely exhausted.

He fell off the horizontal bar and lay directly on the floor, staring at the ceiling and panting heavily.

After a short break, just as Chen Pengfei was planning to give Luo Xiu a pep talk and have him do another round,

Luo Xiu, who was lying on the ground, raised his right hand with trembling hands and pointed one finger at Chen Pengfei in the mirror.

It's not the middle finger. It's the index finger.

"One more...one more set..."

Luo Xiu didn't even have the strength to speak, yet he seemed determined to have another round of matches before he would stop.

Chen Pengfei loosened his grip on the elastic band slightly.

In that instant, he seemed to see again that madman on the Sepang circuit in the pouring rain, who, even with his tires completely dry, stubbornly insisted on pushing for one more lap in the rain.

This is a tacit understanding that needs no embellishment.

The anxiety in Chen Pengfei's eyes slowly faded, and a sinister yet relieved smile appeared on his lips.

Without saying a word, he wrapped the elastic band around his thick forearm two more times.

The elastic band tightened again just two seconds after it had loosened.

"it is good."

Old Chen's voice was deep, "You asked for this, kid."