Chapter 127 - 52: Post-Race Aftermath

Chapter 127: Chapter 52: Post-Race Aftermath

After the race in Boc City, the next event was at the Hungaroring Circuit in Hungary, scheduled to start at the end of May. This left a full twenty-day break.

Wu Shi had some free time, so he could return to Italy to rest for a few days.

Although the Boc City race was over, the public discourse surrounding it continued for quite some time.

This was because Wu Shi had lost a race win—the only one he hadn’t secured since entering F3.

And the biggest reason for this loss was Verstappen’s aggressive driving.

On top of that, Verstappen was involved in another incident in the third race, and it looked as if Wu Shi had deliberately cut him off.

This led to all sorts of claims flying around on social media. The headlines from sources with at least a shred of a moral compass were still relatively conservative.

For example: "The Open and Underhanded Rivalry Between Van Amersfoort Racing Team’s Wu Shi and Max Verstappen!"

But most of the social media landscape consisted of unscrupulous independent content creators, so plenty of bizarre headlines started popping up.

"Max is Jealous of Wu! He’s Trying to Destroy Wu’s F1 Seat!"

"Wu Shi Calls Max Arrogant and Utterly Clueless!"

"Teammates Out for Blood! Will This Lead to Non-Stop Crashes in Future Races?!"

Wu Shi was left speechless by these headlines. Especially after Sid reminded him on Friday about hiring a social media manager, he decided to take a look at his own public accounts.

The comments section was full of idiotic remarks. It was mainly a chaotic war between rabid fans and trolls, and they were fighting so hard it felt like they were going to crash the whole platform.

There were plenty of personal attacks mixed in, but Wu Shi’s assessment remained the same: ’These insults have less bite than the average forum troll.’

"Doesn’t this make you angry?" Louise asked.

"What’s there to be angry about?" Wu Shi shook his head.

"They’re being so nasty," Louise said, unable to stand it. She wanted to start deleting comments or banning users.

"Lies can’t hurt you. The truth is what cuts like a knife. For example, this person says I ’can’t drive at all, just got lucky with a specially-tuned car.’ Do you think that would make me angry?" Wu Shi retorted.

"I suppose so. After all, you work so hard, but they just think it’s because the car is good," Louise said, frowning as she thought it over.

"..."

’Alright, it seems Louise and I don’t really think the same way.’ In his view, a person who has a mother wouldn’t get angry if someone cursed them out for not having one, because they know they do. Only someone who actually doesn’t have a mother would get angry, because the insult hits on a truth.

Wu Shi had understood this logic a long time ago, which was why he paid most of the comments no mind.

"Oh, by the way, I heard you’re going back home for a few days?" Louise asked.

"Yeah, I have to meet with some sponsors from back home," Wu Shi nodded. He wasn’t originally supposed to go, but someone had specifically requested to see him, so he had no choice.

"Aww! I want to go too!" Louise flopped dramatically onto the sofa, the picture of utter despair.

"Heh, good students should just stick to their studies," Wu Shi chuckled.

"Hey! Look! TGCOM24 just published a story about you!"

Louise shot up and scurried over to Wu Shi, shoving the iPad Air in front of him. The familiar scent of her perfume wafted over.

Wu Shi stared at the bold text on the screen:

"F1: Mercedes Team Reaches Seat Agreement with Wu Shi, Involving $50 Million in Sponsorship Fees"

His brow furrowed. He immediately picked up his phone and called Sid.

"Hey, have you seen the news on TGcom24?" Wu Shi asked.

As one of Italy’s top national news outlets, TGCOM24’s 24-hour news channel was extremely influential—it was basically the Italian equivalent of a major nightly news broadcast.

"Hang on."

Wu Shi waited patiently. He glanced over the article; it had been published just a short while ago. Sid was supposed to be in Germany today meeting with Toto, so he probably hadn’t seen it yet.

"Damn it! The contract from Saturday in the Mercedes Pit Room has been completely leaked!" Sid’s angry voice came through the phone.

"The new contract we just signed?"

Wu Shi asked. Sid had gone to Spain specifically to deal with a contract leak, but Wu Shi hadn’t asked for details after learning it wouldn’t affect the seat agreement.

"No. Back then, Toto was the only one who signed the contract. He didn’t have me sign it," Sid said.

As soon as he said that, Wu Shi understood.

"You mean Toto did that on purpose?"

"Yes. He suspected an internal leak, so he didn’t sign a new supplementary contract then. Instead, he was planning to finalize things with me today."

Sid continued, explaining that Toto must have wanted to use this as an opportunity to see who the leaker was. ’This is also why Martina said Toto can be a bit ruthless,’ he added.

But regardless, it seemed someone inside the Mercedes Team very much wanted this contract to fall through.

Wu Shi noticed that besides the sponsorship fee, the article had also leaked the details of his seat agreement with the Mercedes Team. This meant everyone would now know that he was supposed to get into a Mercedes-Benz car during a practice session at an upcoming Grand Prix and attempt to set a qualifying-pace lap time.

The comments under the article were lively, with most of them expressing skepticism about the report.

"As a legacy media outlet, you shouldn’t be publishing unconfirmed rumors as news!"

"Wu Shi isn’t even 16 years old! There’s no way the Mercedes Team would sign a kid who’s still wet behind the ears."

"Your lack of journalistic integrity is shameful!"

If the comments on the news site were the epitome of gentlemanly outrage, then Twitter and Facebook had completely lost their minds.

Louise quickly found the story on the trending list, where the opinions were even more varied.

"Whoa! I knew it! Wu Shi is that good! It’s only natural for him to join the Mercedes Team." — From Italy.

"Get ready to be dominated by Wu Shi, F1!" — From Italy.

Many of the highly-liked comments were short words of praise, most of which came from Italians.

"Isn’t this contract just a ploy by the Mercedes Team to scam Wu Shi’s sponsorship money? Have you ever seen a rookie set a qualifying-pace lap in a practice session? It’s an impossible task!"

"Yes, I agree. The gap between F1 and F3 is huge. Even someone like Wu Shi can’t just hop into an F1 car and be fast. It’ll be impressive enough if he can just avoid crashing!"

"What’s the point of hyping up one of the Hua Country People all day?"

"Everyone above is full of shit! I was there when they signed the contract. Wu Shi said for sure that he would absolutely fulfill the conditions and get the seat."

"Yeah, and I was the pen he signed it with."

Wu Shi sighed after scrolling for a bit. ’Netizens really know it all.’

"Is the news real? Are you really going to be an F1 driver?" Louise asked, her eyes sparkling.

"The news is fake," Wu Shi said, pinching Louise’s cheek.

"Aww..." Louise instantly deflated, but she continued to scroll through the comments, eating up the drama.

...

Sid looked somewhat grim, but Toto, by contrast, appeared relaxed.

"I see you’ve achieved your objective," Sid said.

"No. A lot of people had access to that contract, so we don’t know who was responsible for the leak. I’ve only been able to use this as an opportunity to optimize our procedures for handling confidential agreements."

Toto waved his hand dismissively. He wasn’t about to reveal the inner workings of the Mercedes Team to an outsider.

When he first heard about the leak, he had blown up at a board meeting. If such a highly confidential contract could be leaked by someone with an agenda, what did that say about their team management?

Thanks to his little maneuver, he already knew who the culprit was, but without direct proof, he couldn’t deal with the leaker just yet.

But now, he was more concerned with the aftermath of the leak than the leak itself.

The existence of this contract was already severely impacting the team’s internal stability.