Chapter 107 - 37: Where Did That Big Verstappen Go?

Chapter 107: Chapter 37: Where Did That Big Verstappen Go?

"YES! YES!"

"WOO!"

The moment the results came out, the pit garage erupted in cheers. After high-fiving the two people next to him, Alan remained rational and asked over the TR, "Your tires are overheating severely. The qualifying session ends in three minutes. You need to do a cooldown lap before setting another flying lap."

"What was my second fastest lap before this?" Wu Shi asked.

"1 minute 32.636 seconds, which puts you in eleventh place."

"..."

Wu Shi considered whether he should push for another lap. This set of tires was already heavily worn. If he ran another lap on them, using them in the main race would be quite difficult.

"1 minute 32.445 seconds would put you in eighth. That’s the position I’d recommend," Alan said.

"Understood. I’ll give it another try."

During the cooldown lap, Wu Shi paid extremely close attention to how the tires felt. However, after completing the lap, he couldn’t help but shake his head. He spoke over the TR, "If I do another flying lap, this set of tires will be completely ruined. I don’t have full confidence that I can lead the main race if that happens."

"Then come back to the pits."

"OK."

The car drove back into the pit lane. As Wu Shi climbed out of the cockpit, Alan walked over and patted him on the shoulder. "Why didn’t you follow my plan? That way, you’d at least have a chance to start on the front row for the next two races."

"It’s really hard for me to do that," Wu Shi replied.

"You can’t keep it stable?"

"The tires just can’t manage to break into the low 1-minute-32-second range twice. There isn’t enough time for them to cool down," Wu Shi explained.

Alan sighed. The current result meant Wu Shi would start from pole position twice and start from eleventh once. According to his original plan, Wu Shi should have secured pole for the first race, third or fourth for the second, and either pole or third/fourth for the third race. From a points-gathering perspective, that strategy would have yielded a greater harvest.

"I only want victories. Points don’t hold much meaning for me," Wu Shi said.

"True." Hearing this, Alan laughed as well. Wu Shi had accumulated a total of 75 points over the first three races. O’connor, who was in second place, only had 45 points, while Verstappen had less than thirty.

At noon.

The team skipped their break and immediately began preparing for the upcoming first race.

"I’ll use the oldest tires for the first race," Wu Shi told Alan directly.

"Mhm." Alan nodded, not saying anything else.

Wu Shi’s reasoning was very simple. He was on pole for the first race, with Lucas Oil and Antonio Giovinazzi behind him. The pressure these guys could put on him was nowhere near what Bromquist and Verstappen could dish out. Therefore, using the oldest set of tires to deal with them would be perfectly fine.

The race approached quickly.

The starting lights used for F3 events at the Hockenheimring were identical to those in F1, consisting of five red lights. The five sets of lights illuminated one after another. The drivers focused intently, waiting until the red lights suddenly went out. The race officially began!

Wu Shi released the clutch in a split second, and the race car surged forward. After the RPMs rapidly climbed, he upshifted at the absolute perfect moment. Hit the gas, upshift, hit the gas! Following this seamless series of maneuvers, Wu Shi’s car instantly pulled out a 0.3-second gap. Such a sudden and explosive performance naturally caught everyone’s attention.

"To be able to use old tires like this... he’s truly too strong."

"Yeah, and his reaction speed has always been incredibly fast. He’s almost never made a mistake at the start."

"His mastery over the gears and RPMs is just too formidable. His power output curve rises with near-perfect consistency."

"As long as Wu is on pole, there’s basically nothing left to watch."

Wu Shi raced ahead, paying no attention to the situation behind him. His pace was already faster than the others; as long as he pulled away, they wouldn’t be able to catch him at all. However, not long after the race started, Alan TR: "Verstappen and Giovinazzi have been involved in an incident. The track is currently clear."

"Copy that."

The yellow flag mechanism in F3 differed slightly from F1. If a disabled car crashed into the run-off area, race control would generally wait until the race finished before deploying the crane. After all, F3 races were quite short; arbitrarily bringing out yellow flags and safety cars would basically waste enough time for the race to end under caution.

Sure enough, Verstappen’s incident did not trigger a safety car. He climbed out of his car, walked through an opening by the track barrier, and left the circuit. The broadcast cameras caught a quick shot of him.

There wasn’t much to watch at the front of the pack in this race, but starting from third place, the drivers competed fiercely. King fought his way up from tenth place all the way to fourth, nearly securing a spot on the podium. Halfway through the race, Latifi also crashed out and retired. Because the midfield pack was in complete chaos, their lap times were severely impacted. As the race went on, Wu Shi had already lapped the eighteenth-place driver.

At the 35-minute mark of the race, Wu Shi was the first to cross the finish line under the waving checkered flag! He had secured yet another victory!

Since the second and third races were scheduled for the following day, reporters swarmed the paddock, ready to use the ample afternoon time to gather more information. After casually brushing them off with a few perfunctory answers, Wu Shi returned to the driver’s lounge. Today’s schedule had left him exhausted. Whether it was the second qualifying session or the tire management required in the latter half of the first main race, it had all consumed a massive amount of his mental energy.

The next day, Sunday, at ten in the morning.

The drivers arrived at the circuit one after another. Before the reconnaissance lap began, Verstappen walked over and said, "I’m going to overtake you."

"Oh? I’ll be waiting!" Wu Shi laughed.

Verstappen wasn’t trying to play mind games; he was simply reminding Wu Shi of the conversation they had while sitting in the grandstands on Friday. In the upcoming race, he wouldn’t hold back for anyone.

Wu Shi understood Verstappen’s personality very well. In fact, he also agreed that there was no room for sentimentality on the racetrack, especially between drivers in direct competition. In such situations, if one side gave a little too much leeway and the other side didn’t return the favor, their relationship would inevitably start to go downhill. It was better to establish the ground rules right from the start: once they hit the track, they were complete strangers.

Wu Shi was using the tires from the first qualifying session. The condition of this set was much better than the ones he had used yesterday, and he didn’t think Verstappen had a chance to creep up behind him. The current Verstappen still had quite a gap to close before becoming the championship-winning Verstappen of the future; he couldn’t possibly pose a threat right now. Besides, even with similar car performance, prime Verstappen wouldn’t be able to threaten him either.

Because of this unwavering confidence, Wu Shi showed absolutely no signs of nervousness or panic in the F3 arena. You might ask why his hands sometimes shook before a race started? Wasn’t that just from sheer excitement and the pre-race adrenaline rush taking over?

However, before the race officially began, Alan brought him another piece of news. "Bromquist has changed his engine."

"Huh? He’s starting on the front row for this race. Why would he change it..." Halfway through his sentence, Wu Shi roughly guessed the reason. Engine replacement penalties were severe, so all teams tried their best to limit engine output during races to preserve their lifespan. But there were always special circumstances where a team would overclock the engine to secure a specific victory.

"So, Verstappen will be starting right behind you," Alan added.

"I understand."

After finishing his communication with Alan, Wu Shi climbed into his cockpit. The reconnaissance lap began, but when he pulled into his grid slot, he noticed there was no one beside him.

Eh? Where did that huge Verstappen go?

Alan TR: "Verstappen’s car has encountered some issues. He’s still sitting in the middle of the track."

Wu Shi TR: "What kind of issues?" His own car didn’t seem to have any problems.

"His clutch won’t fully engage, and there’s something with the engine too. Oh, he has no choice but to retire from the race."

"Why won’t it engage? And what’s wrong with the engine?" Wu Shi pressed. Since their cars used identical parts, if Verstappen’s car had problems, it was highly likely that his own car would run into issues as well.

"Well, we don’t know the exact cause of the problem yet. Just focus on your driving," Alan replied.

"Alright."

Wu Shi furrowed his brows slightly. The condition of his race car was stable, which might have had something to do with his proper maintenance. He had originally thought that in the second main race, he would face immense pressure from behind and have to fight tooth and nail before claiming the fruits of victory. But now, the second-place driver had changed his engine and taken a ten-place grid penalty, and Verstappen—who had inherited second place—had retired before even finishing the reconnaissance lap.

While Wu Shi sat there in speechless disbelief, the five red lights lit up one by one, every second. Once all five red lights illuminated, they abruptly went out. The second race of the weekend officially began!

Because his direct competitor behind him, O’connor, was starting from third position, Wu Shi’s launch was completely unhindered by anyone. In the starting phase alone, he carved out a lead of over 0.6 seconds. If he just ran one more lap, he would easily stabilize a gap of over a second.

Wu Shi TR: "I think I know what might have gone wrong with his clutch."

Alan TR: "Yeah, just focus on driving. We’ll solve this problem. Pay attention to your engine."

Wu Shi TR: "Alright."