Chapter 135 - 60: The World Championship Is More Important

Chapter 135: Chapter 60: The World Championship Is More Important

Montezemolo’s situation at Rafa was deteriorating by the day. Since taking office in 2009, he had been pushing a so-called "Latinization" within the organization, leading to the marginalization and even resignation of numerous core technical personnel who were not from Italy. In previous years, the Ferrari F1 Team had managed to maintain its competitiveness by relying on the old engines from the V8 era. However, upon entering the 1.6T hybrid era, they struggled massively to adapt. Leading up to the recently concluded Monaco Grand Prix, Rafa’s best result had been Brother Tou’s third-place finish at the Shanghai Station. Aside from that, they were merely hovering in the points zone—neither improving nor dropping—while being absolutely dominated by Red Bull and Williams.

Well, it seemed Wofa was doomed this season, and Montezemolo’s position was on the line as well. As a result, he grew increasingly desperate. The best way to turn the tide was either for the team to demonstrate astonishing prowess or for him to make concessions to the international faction on the board of directors. Wu Shi happened to be the perfect candidate for this. Behind Wu Shi was the financial backing of Hua Country. Although the international faction desired support from America, Hua Country wasn’t a bad alternative. At the very least, it provided some room to maneuver.

Seeing Montezemolo being so blunt, Martina felt a bit helpless and couldn’t help but say, "The board won’t allow a guy who hasn’t even driven an F1 car to join the F1 team."

"I can try." After Montezemolo said this, he asked, "I heard you secured a massive sponsorship during your trip to Hua Country?"

Martina frowned slightly, then shook her head. "The level of interest in racing is extremely low over in Hua Country. There are almost no companies willing to spend money on it, and I’m sure you know this better than I do."

Montezemolo nodded. He was only probing tentatively. After all, the moment news broke that Mercedes-Benz was demanding a staggering fifty million US Dollar sponsorship from Wu Shi, Martina immediately brought the boy back to Hua Country. There was no need to guess what they were doing there.

"If you agree, I’ll propose it to the board," Montezemolo said, his mind firmly made up.

"I think I need to discuss this with Wu Shi first," Martina replied.

"Alright, I’ll wait for your news." Montezemolo was not in a good mood.

Sometime later, the three races at the Hungary Station concluded without any suspense. With a steady performance, Wu Shi swept all the victories. By this point, he had already accumulated eleven wins. This kind of performance undoubtedly made him the brightest rising star in the racing world, and media outlets everywhere scrambled to report on him. First, multiple media organizations from Italy leveraged various connections to contact Sid, hoping to arrange exclusive interviews. Furthermore, international media outlets were extremely eager to learn about Wu Shi’s plans for the future.

Many people had started hyping up the statement Wu Shi made at the beginning of the season—that securing twenty-one victories equated to obtaining an F1 seat. In fact, this was no secret in the paddock; otherwise, Sauber wouldn’t have contacted Sid earlier. After all, they believed that once Wu Shi completed his twenty-one wins, Ferrari would undoubtedly place him in their team to race for a year and observe his performance. Every single driver from the Ferrari Driver Academy went through this process. It was precisely for this reason that they felt they had a high chance of winning Wu Shi over. It had to be noted that Wu Shi had also grown up in Italy, and his host, Martina, was a Ferrari employee. If he didn’t harbor a childhood dream of driving for Ferrari after all that, it would be downright abnormal.

Faced with the clamor of external voices, Wu Shi told Sid to push everything back. He no longer needed fame or exposure right now; what he needed was to maintain a steady footing. So, whenever he had free time, he figured it was better to go to Hamilton’s house and run the simulator.

However, since his photos had already gone viral within the racing circle, combined with the distinct looks of Hua Country People, he’d probably get caught the moment he set foot in Monaco. He definitely didn’t dare let the journalists catch wind of this mutual arrangement between him and Hamilton. Strictly speaking, it was a violation of team discipline. If kept under the radar, it was fine, but once scrutinized, neither he nor Hamilton would be able to escape the consequences. Therefore, it was better for him to honestly hole up with the team in Holland and continue his day-to-day training.

Yet, even if you didn’t go looking for trouble, trouble would find you. Sometime later, Martina brought Rafa personnel to Wu Shi’s residence in Holland.

"So, Ferrari can directly confirm this seat for me right now?"

Wu Shi’s hands were beneath the table, his clenched fists seeping with sweat as his thumb restlessly rubbed against his index finger. If someone were to ask him, "Wu Shi, surely you don’t have a childhood dream of driving for Ferrari, do you?" he would want nothing more than to shake his head. Yet, even though his neck was now as wide as his head, he still found it incredibly difficult to perform that simple motion. In his previous life, he had sat in that crimson chariot, battling Verstappen for the annual championship!

He remembered very clearly that Ferrari was willing to give him a chance in his past life, even when he wasn’t shining that brightly. At that time, although Zhou Guanyu was no longer among the grid of twenty drivers, the Ferrari Driver Academy path he had taken served as an excellent role model for many racers from Hua Country. Wu Shi had also entered F1 by following the trajectory of the Ferrari Driver Academy.

However, precisely because he possessed the memories of his past life, he was acutely aware of how the future would unfold. It wasn’t that Rafa would be terrible in the coming years; rather, they would be utterly suppressed by an overwhelmingly dominant Mercedes-Benz, unable to rise to the top. The Mercedes-Benz dynasty would rule the paddock for eight solid years! It wouldn’t be until 2021 that a new challenger would emerge—but unfortunately, that challenger wouldn’t be Ferrari. No matter how fierce Ferrari’s championship-winning momentum appeared at the start of 2022, their subsequent performance proved to be just as clownish.

"Yes."

Hearing the affirmative response, Wu Shi lowered his head and didn’t reply for a long time. He wondered which was more important—nostalgia or the World Championship.

"Please give us some privacy. I need to talk to this child," Martina spoke up.

"Understood." The two Rafa employees left the room.

Martina ruffled Wu Shi’s hair and said, "Come, tell me what’s troubling you."

Wu Shi looked up, pondering for a moment before speaking. "You can’t have it both ways."

"Oh, throwing Chinese idioms at me to test my language proficiency now, are we?" Martina laughed, then asked, "So, what exactly do you consider to be these two conflicting paths?"

"I like Ferrari," Wu Shi said.

"Of course. I like Ferrari too. How many racers would actually refuse Ferrari?" Martina agreed.

"But looking at the track conditions this year, the teams using Mercedes-Benz engines generally have good results."

"Do you think Mercedes-Benz will hold the advantage in future competitions?" Martina asked, feeling puzzled.

"It’s inevitable," Wu Shi replied in a low voice.

Although the Mercedes-Benz dynasty was the result of multiple factors, the primary reason lay in its engine. Right now, the various teams in the paddock might not have realized it yet, but by 2015 and 2016, everyone would discover just how game-breaking this Mercedes-Benz engine truly was. And discovered alongside it would be the sordid affairs between Mercedes-Benz’s engine research department and the FIA.

Simply put, fueled by Daimler’s limitless investments, Mercedes-Benz relied on its formidable technical team to develop a hybrid engine that was miles ahead of its time, ushering in the Mercedes-Benz era. This gap in the most fundamental hardware parameters was something Wu Shi couldn’t bridge—not even if he managed to squeeze out the most extreme performance tuning and practically carried the car on his back during the races.

"If that’s the case, then I believe the World Championship is more important," Martina said.

Wu Shi looked at her.

"Think about it. Once you’re covered in glory and accolades, would Ferrari ever turn you down?" Martina added.