Chapter 139 - 63: Norisring

Chapter 139: Chapter 63: Norisring

The F3 Championship was incredibly busy in June. After finishing the race in Belgium on June 22nd, the teams had to immediately rush to the Norisring Track in Nuremberg, Germany, to participate in the sixteenth to eighteenth rounds.

Norisring was also a street circuit with an FIA Grade 2 classification. With a total length of 2.3 kilometers, it was considered a very short track. The track didn’t seem overly complicated at first glance, and in truth, it wasn’t. However, despite its simplicity, the sturdy concrete walls lining the edges of the track served as a stark warning to the drivers: if they weren’t confident, they had better honestly slow down, or else they’d end up in the wall.

The primary design concept of the entire circuit was high-speed straights complemented by sharp turns. Driving on it felt exactly like playing a game of brinkmanship. Turn 2, the left-hander known as the Grundig-Kehre, was highly prone to accidents during the race start as drivers fought for position. Next was the Turn 7 Dutzendteichkehre hairpin. Both entering and exiting the corner involved short straights, heavily testing a driver’s braking skills.

On Friday, June 27th, the weather was sunny, and track conditions were excellent. The two practice sessions at noon proceeded very smoothly, with all drivers completing at least thirty practice laps.

At 5:40 PM, the first qualifying session began. Because the track was so short and qualifying wasn’t divided into groups, there were very few clean laps available to support a flying run. Wu Shi also had to follow the pack, slowly searching for an opportunity. However, when he was on his tenth lap, a small issue occurred.

TR: "Alan, the engine is having problems again. It feels just like last time."

Alan TR: "OK, bring the car back first."

Wu Shi drove back to the pit lane, and the mechanics immediately rushed forward to inspect it. But anything involving the engine wasn’t going to be resolved in a short amount of time.

"Do you think it can still run?" Alan asked.

"If I keep pushing it, there’s a high probability of a cylinder block failure," Wu Shi replied.

If there were no other cars on the track, Wu Shi felt he might still have had a chance to risk the engine failure and set a qualifying time. But right now, the track was heavily congested. Coupled with the rising temperatures and a massive amount of exhaust fumes, he suspected the engine would fail before he could even find an opening for a flying lap.

"I feel like it’s not just an engine failure. This problem has triggered for the second time now, so you guys need to look into it carefully," Wu Shi said, scratching his head. He was also quite puzzled.

"All right, we’ll work overtime tonight to get this sorted out," Alan nodded.

Unable to continue his flying laps, Wu Shi sat in the pit lane, observing the others’ data. His fastest lap time just now was 48.435 seconds. By the time qualifying ended, this result placed him in seventh. Of course, the fastest driver, Rosenqvist, only clocked a 48.082. The gap was a mere three-tenths of a second. This showed that the Norisring Track was indeed simple; the guys couldn’t pull too far ahead of each other. That was just the reality of it. The simpler the track, the smaller the gap in lap times.

"I heard your engine had some issues," Verstappen asked with immediate concern after getting out of his car.

"Yeah. As long as it gets fixed, there shouldn’t be any problems for tomorrow’s race." Wu Shi wasn’t overly worried.

"That’s good. At least it won’t affect the second qualifying session."

Verstappen’s own car had suffered quite a few breakdowns, ranging from gearbox issues to braking problems. He hadn’t seen Wu Shi’s car encounter any mechanical failures all season, and he was beginning to suspect that the team was giving them different parts. "Actually, my brakes felt really weird just now too. I suggest your mechanics check yours as well," Verstappen added.

"Okay, I’ll let them know."

Night fell, bringing another familiar evening of car repairs. However, it wasn’t as smooth as last time. By two in the morning, the mechanics still hadn’t completely fixed it.

"You should go to sleep," Alan spoke up.

"No." Wu Shi shook his head. "Let’s try starting it up again."

This was the reason he refused to leave. He was the only one who could test whether the car still had problems. If the other mechanics started the engine to check it, they would only conclude that the engine was already fixed. However, the moment he tested it, he could immediately sense something strange with the engine.

Given what happened last time, the mechanics trusted Wu Shi completely, which was why they dismantled it again to investigate the situation. Wu Shi’s mechanical engineering skills were decent, but they certainly didn’t reach the level of the top-tier graduates on the team. He could only point out the problem in broad strokes but couldn’t explain the underlying cause. It was like a person knowing they had a headache, but if you asked them why their head ached, they wouldn’t necessarily be able to give you a reason.

The situation with the race car right now was exactly like a headache. Not only did the patient not know why it hurt, but the doctors also couldn’t figure out the cause, no matter how much they examined it. If it were a human, prescribing some Ibuprofen to take the edge off would be fine. But this was a car. Feeding it some Ibuprofen motor oil probably wouldn’t work.

Another half hour passed. Alan stood up and said, "We found some issues with the gearbox as well. The engine failure might be the result of a systemic problem."

"Sounds like things are getting complicated?" Wu Shi understood Alan’s underlying meaning.

A lot of times, when a mechanical failure occurs, it isn’t something that can just be found through troubleshooting, especially when it involves systemic issues. At times like this, the best solution was actually to replace the parts entirely.

Sure enough, Alan’s next sentence was, "My suggestion is that we need to unseal a new engine and gearbox."

"All right," Wu Shi nodded. It was a move made out of necessity. Compared to retiring during the race, it was much safer to take a ten-place grid penalty.

On his way back to the lounge, he recalled that the cars of several other teammates had previously experienced issues with the clutch and gearbox meshing. At the time, he had relied on his unique car-control skills to overcome the negative impact brought on by that problem. Thinking back on it now, perhaps his long-term deliberate manipulation of the vehicle was what led to this abnormal failure.

At 10:00 AM the next day, the first feature race was about to begin. The matter of Wu Shi changing his engine and gearbox had already been approved by the race stewards. In the next three races at Norisring, he would be starting with a ten-place grid penalty. So today, his starting position was seventeenth. Ahead of him was Goddard, a driver who had also fought for points finishes in the past. Behind him was the only female driver, Tatiana.

"This is the sixteenth race of the season. The weather is incredibly hot, but we can’t confirm if tomorrow will be the same."

Before the race started, the commentators gave their routine rundown of the track conditions, then moved on to discuss yesterday’s qualifying:

"Yesterday, one of the two qualifying sessions was held. We saw that the pole-sitter is Rosenqvist, who secured the runner-up spot in the championship last year with eleven race victories.

"But so far in this year’s competition, he has only secured one podium finish. Yesterday, he snatched pole position from O’connor by a margin of three-thousandths of a second."

...

"In seventeenth place is our most formidable rookie driver of the season, Wu Shi from Hua Country. Yesterday, due to an engine issue, he retired from qualifying after running a mere ten laps.

"But even so, his time was still good enough for seventh place. Unfortunately, despite his pit crew fighting through the night, they couldn’t repair the engine.

"Therefore, he was forced to utilize a new engine, which means he’ll face a ten-place grid penalty for this race and the two following it.

"We all know he previously leapt from eleventh place to secure a victory at the Hockenheimring in Germany.

"I wonder what kind of performance we’ll see from him in today’s race?"

Ten minutes later, the formation lap began.

"As everyone can see, the track conditions today are excellent. With a length of 2.3 kilometers, it’s estimated that 42 laps, or roughly 96 kilometers, will be needed to finish the race.

"They’ve completed their formation lap and returned to the starting grid. Right here, the drivers will need to avoid the solid walls..."

Amidst the commentators’ introduction, all the drivers took their positions, and the five red lights lit up in sequence. Because he wasn’t starting on the front row, Wu Shi felt a bit unaccustomed as he stared at the indicator lights. He still wasn’t familiar with the newly swapped engine and gearbox, either. However, the moment the lights went out, he still launched his car rapidly. He had originally thought he could overtake a few cars by relying on his superhuman reaction time off the line.

To his surprise, the driver ahead of him was slow and blocked his path, while the driver on his flank aggressively pulled out, completely shutting down his space to make a move. On top of that, the drivers behind him were in top form today. Their reactions were just as sharp, and they surged forward all at once, immediately forming a tight pack. As a result, before he even had time to fully accelerate, he was deadlocked, trapped in the middle of four or five cars.

He scanned his surroundings but couldn’t find a single gap. Forced to be swept along by the main pack through the wide pseudo-Turn 1, Wu Shi locked his eyes on the apex of Turn 2—it was his only line. But upon reaching Turn 2, the situation became even worse. Everyone wanted to squeeze onto the inside line, which happened to be exactly where he was. He immediately realized he couldn’t stay on the track anymore; he had to cut the corner, otherwise...

BAM! CRUNCH!

Just as he turned the steering wheel, a violent jolt shoved him from behind. Immediately following the impact, his car was sent veering off course, its front wing acting as a shovel straight into another race car that was cutting into the corner.

CRASH!

The number 32 car spun sideways, instantly becoming a roadblock. The cars trailing behind couldn’t dodge in time and slammed into its rear wing with a heavy THUD. In an instant, a four-car collision erupted.

"Oh! We see a crash has happened! Wu Zhenghao is right in it!"

"His front and rear wings have both been knocked off!"

From the moment the collision occurred, Wu Shi knew he was likely going to have to retire.

"Damn it! I just swapped out the engine and gearbox, getting ready for a solid run!" he thought.

Wu Shi’s car came to a dead stop in the middle of the track. Parked alongside him were three other unlucky bastards. He detached his headrest, climbed out, and sat on the edge of the cockpit. On the other side, he saw Tatiana, clad in a white racing suit, getting out as well. After stepping out of her race car, the female driver simply crouched on the track and started crying.

"Aren’t you going to go comfort her?" a familiar voice rang out beside him.

Wu Shi looked over to see Prema’s Antonio Focca. This guy was also one of the unlucky bastards.

"I’m not very good at comforting people. Besides, if everyone goes to comfort her, who’s going to comfort me?"

"You’re a guy who’s practically locked in the championship title, and you still need comforting?!" Focca rolled his eyes.