Chapter 150 - 72: Photogenic

Chapter 150: Chapter 72: Photogenic

With passes hanging around their necks, the actual security check wasn’t very strict.

Before entering the pit room, Antonio Vivaldi took out two caps, looked at Louise, and said, "I think it’d be better if you changed your cap."

Wu Shi then remembered that Louise was wearing Rafa’s red cap. Walking into the Mercedes Pit Room like that would definitely feel a bit awkward.

"Oh, okay!" Louise’s cheeks flushed slightly. She took off the cap, stowed it in her backpack, tore open the packaging of the new one, and put it on.

The two followed Antonio Vivaldi into the Mercedes Pit Room. Wu Shi was already very familiar with this kind of scene, but Louise had never seen anything like it before, so she looked around like a curious child.

Although it wasn’t long before the official race began, Wu Shi’s arrival still attracted a lot of attention. Even the two drivers, who were wearing their helmets and preparing to get into their cars, glanced over.

Antonio Vivaldi led the two of them straight to Toto.

"Hello, Mr. Toto," Wu Shi greeted him first.

"It’s a pleasure to meet you, Wu Shi. Today is just to let you experience the atmosphere of F1. You can watch as you please, as long as it doesn’t interfere with the staff’s normal work," Toto said.

"Got it."

As soon as Wu Shi entered the pit lane, a camera lens immediately focused on him.

Far away in the broadcasting studio in Hua Country’s Shanghai, the two commentators from Six-Star Sports became instantly excited when they saw this scene.

"On camera! That’s Wu Shi on camera! Why is he in the Mercedes Pit Room?" Brother Bing almost yelled in surprise.

"Judging by this, does it mean the previous rumors are true?" Brother Fei added.

"To introduce him to the audience watching this F1 race," Brother Bing said excitedly, "Wu Shi is the domestic new-generation driver most likely to enter F1. He has already secured twenty-three victories in this year’s F3 Championship! This kind of performance is absolutely mind-blowing!"

"Yes, CCTV even did an exclusive interview with him two months ago. According to my estimates, Wu Shi entering F1 is basically a sure thing. His achievements in F3 are simply too dazzling. Whether anyone will surpass him in the future is unknown, but it’s a fact that no one has ever done it before," Brother Fei added.

"Yeah, he was born in ’98, wasn’t he?" Brother Bing asked.

Brother Fei nodded. "Right, December 1998."

"Oh, so that means while his championship records are terrifying, his other records are even more so: the youngest F3 race winner, the youngest F3 three-race winning streak champion, and the absolute youngest F3 six-race winning streak champion."

"Hold on, hold on, if you keep going, it’ll just be a list of winning streaks." Brother Fei hurriedly stopped the slightly overly-hyped Brother Bing and said, "Because Wu Shi is so young, any achievement he makes in an F3 car is destined to have the ’youngest’ title attached to it."

"Man, it’s hard to imagine. He has the potential to enter F1 at such a young age."

"Aren’t there restrictions on that?"

"Not strictly. As long as a team wants him, even if he has to pay out of his own pocket to rent a track, he’ll drive the required mileage to get his Super License! If he doesn’t have the money, I’ll be the first to donate! This is our very first F1 driver, after all!" Brother Bing continued exaggerating.

"Who is that next to him? To be able to enter the pit room, she might also be the child of some big shot. They look pretty intimate."

"That’s probably his girlfriend, right? Still, it’s quite unbelievable that Mercedes-Benz let them go to the pit room together."

"Does that count as underage dating, then?" Brother Fei asked rhetorically.

Meanwhile, back in the Mercedes Pit Room, Wu Shi and Louise had no idea they were being broadcasted; they just watched the constantly busy crowd.

The strategy engineers stared at the constantly changing simulation data on their screens, pondering how to make decisions when encountering variables during the race. The vehicle engineers were performing final inspections on the cars and feeding previous data back to the drivers once again.

"They’re all so busy. Everyone looks so tense," Louise said.

"Yeah, the period right before the official start is the busiest and most nerve-wracking time. Even with ample preparation, unexpected situations always pop up. That’s when things get truly chaotic," Wu Shi said.

"Oh, I see." Louise watched these people, feeling as if she were seeing the work environment Wu Shi experienced as a driver. She found the sensation quite wonderful.

"Put on your earmuffs." Wu Shi took the earmuffs handed to him by a staff member.

Louise took them and put them straight on. When they first came down, she was too excited to notice anything amiss, but after a while, she realized just how loud and chaotic the noise inside really was. But in reality, wearing earmuffs at this time was primarily to protect their hearing from the soon-to-be-started engines.

VROOM!!!

People always complained that the engine sounds after the new regulations weren’t pleasing or punchy enough, but standing right next to one, you could still feel the surging power contained within.

The scent of various oils diffused through the air at that moment. As the engine revved high, hot flames shot out of the exhaust. The atmosphere in the pit lane instantly became lively—and heated up in a very literal sense.

As the indicator lights at the end of the pit lane turned green, the various teams began releasing their cars in an orderly manner. Once all the cars had left, the engineers and mechanics dragged their carts and sprinted toward the starting grid. They would make their final adjustments to the cars when the drivers completed their reconnaissance laps and parked on the grid to prepare.

In fact, most of the time, no adjustments were necessary. The primary goal was to put tire blankets on the tires to maintain their temperature.

Over twenty minutes later, all personnel cleared the track. After a formation lap, the race entered its final countdown.

"I feel like I’m getting nervous," Louise whispered. Everyone around them was staring intently at the starting screen in silence.

The sounds in the entire pit lane became harmonized at this moment, with only the muffled roar of the engines suppressing the impending explosion of speed.

BEEP!

Following an alert tone, the first red light lit up. Louise’s hand, clutching Wu Shi’s arm, squeezed even tighter.

The five red lights illuminated one after another. Even for Wu Shi, it was as if only those five red lights existed in his eyes at this moment.

CLICK!

The lights suddenly went out, and Wu Shi’s fingers twitched subconsciously.

VROOOM!

The Italian Grand Prix had officially begun!

Starting on the front row were the two Mercedes-Benz drivers. Rosberg’s start was incredibly swift; in barely a single second, he had broken out to establish a dominant lead.

Meanwhile, Hamilton’s start was a complete disaster. Despite starting from pole position, he plummeted straight down to fifth place before Turn One!

Hamilton TR: "I have some problems with the car."

Team TR: "Mode 3. Mode 3."

Wu Shi and Louise were able to hear all of the Mercedes-Benz team’s TRs. From the very start of the race, the voices of the two engineers continuously rang out, constantly directing the drivers.

Hamilton TR: "DRS issue. It should be the DRS."

Team TR: "Copy that. We are checking it now."

In just a single minute, the engineers spoke dozens of sentences, barely pausing for a breath.

"So busy," Louise muttered.

"Yeah, during an official race, the engineers constantly feed all sorts of information to the drivers, including reminding them when to switch to what mode, adjusting brake bias, and so on." Wu Shi didn’t use overly technical terms. For most racing fans, these behind-the-scenes tasks would only make driving seem incredibly tedious and boring.

"Oh! I know this one. When we video-chatted before, the F3 steering wheel you explained to me had those."

On the track, Magnus moved up three positions at the start, advancing to second place. This guy really peaked right at his debut! As for Bottas, who started on the second row, Wu Shi couldn’t even see where he had dropped to.

Although Hamilton’s start was disastrous, relying on the powerful performance of the Mercedes-Benz and a slight mistake from Magnus, he overtook him directly.

"Oh!"

On the ninth lap, everyone in the pit room cried out. At Turn One, Rosberg’s left wheels dipped onto the grass and he failed to brake in time, flying off the track to perform an F1-style moose test. This allowed Massa and Hamilton behind him to close the gap rapidly.

"Ah, how did he...?!" Louise also covered her mouth. From her perspective, it looked as if Rosberg had no brakes at all.

Wu Shi didn’t comment, continuing to watch the race.

The Neon Grand Prix was about to start in early October, and his chance to take the track during the practice sessions would soon arrive, so this kind of spectating opportunity was incredibly precious. Unlike Louise, he wasn’t just watching the racing footage; he was keeping his eyes glued to the data on the screens. He was trying to use these cold numbers to increase his understanding of this vehicle he had never driven before.

Thus, he watched extremely closely—so closely that he hardly spoke to Louise at all.

Louise looked up a few times, but seeing Wu Shi’s tightly knitted brow and unblinking eyes, she didn’t have the heart to disturb him. She simply clung tightly to his arm, feeling that this was quite nice too.

"Hehe," she thought, the corners of her lips curling up.

The Mercedes-Benz car was simply too powerful. It only took Hamilton a few laps to forcefully overtake Massa on a corner. This sight made Wu Shi’s scalp tingle; in F1 racing, the performance gap between cars was already large enough to completely erase the skill gap between drivers.

Everyone thought that Rosberg, driving the exact same car as Hamilton, would lead all the way to the end. But on the 29th lap, in the exact same spot, Rosberg seemingly wanted to test the W05’s moose test score again and ran off the track once more.

Wu Shi took a deep breath. Esteemed as a Fifteen-Time Champion, Rosberg definitely had the skills, but his mindset was arguably the most unstable among all the drivers. It was unimaginable that he could make the same mistake twice in the same position during the same race.

Just look at Verstappen in the future: overtaken by Piastrini on the first lap, but then applying what he learned on the second lap to defend against Norris, blocking him to the point of utter despair, which only made the outside world question Norris’s abilities even more.

But this was normal. For every F1 driver on the track, it wasn’t just as simple as "driving a car." It was about constantly adjusting complex parameters while battling G-forces and sweltering heat, under immense psychological pressure and the potential for various unpredictable variables, all while piloting the car to speed along or overtake opponents as fast as possible. For most people, physical stamina was the initial threshold, but psychological pressure was likely the crucial factor that would ultimately crush a person.

The lead surrendered through mistakes could never be clawed back.

After finishing the race, Rosberg and Hamilton parked their cars. Hamilton stayed inside his car for a long time, only climbing out after Rosberg had walked away.

As the race concluded, Toto stood up and said to Wu Shi, "The Singapore Grand Prix."