Chapter 133 - 58: Engine Failure

Chapter 133: Chapter 58: Engine Failure

In the final week of May, Wu Shi took a leave of absence from the team and stayed in Monaco.

Inside Hamilton’s house, he lapped the Suzuka Circuit again and again, gradually finding his rhythm.

He didn’t reluctantly board a flight to leave until the 29th, as the practice sessions for the F3 Championship’s Hungary Station were set to begin the following noon. Although he was already extremely familiar with this F1-level track, participating in the practice sessions was a matter of respecting the competition, so naturally, he had to hurry over. It definitely wasn’t because skipping the race without a valid reason would result in a hefty fine.

Sitting alone on the plane and staring at the overcast sky outside the window, he suddenly thought about how great it would be to have a private jet. That way, he could have just flown over tomorrow instead.

The next day, after two layovers, Wu Shi finally arrived in Budapest, Hungary. The entire journey had taken a grueling seventeen hours! This only strengthened his resolve to urge Verstappen to buy a plane. Flying back and forth on commercial airlines was sheer torture!

Since he arrived just after seven in the morning, Wu Shi headed straight to the circuit early. Once he reached the Van Amersfoort Racing Team’s lounge, he lay down and immediately fell fast asleep.

By the time he woke up, it was already eleven o’clock, with just over an hour left before the practice session began.

"You’re finally awake. I heard you only left Monaco at noon yesterday?" Alan asked.

"Yes."

"Then get ready. The session is about to start," Alan reminded him.

Wu Shi nodded, got up, and got dressed. When he stepped outside, Verstappen was talking with his engineer.

"Wu Shi, you’re up. Why were you held up in Monaco for so long?" Verstappen asked.

"Just had some things to take care of."

Wu Shi knew it wasn’t appropriate to make his F1 practice sessions at Hamilton’s house public, as it would cause a lot of negative fallout. After all, regardless of the circumstances, he wasn’t a Mercedes-Benz driver. Using the simulator that Mercedes-Benz had specifically prepared for Hamilton was undoubtedly a breach of protocol. Furthermore, Hamilton hadn’t let him practice on any other tracks—only the Neon Grand Prix. If he couldn’t guess the underlying reason for that, he might as well quit racing and crash his car straight into a brick wall instead.

"Oh. Well, everyone is unfamiliar with today’s track. I’m afraid you’re going to widen the gap even further," Verstappen said, no longer dwelling on Wu Shi’s time in Monaco. Friends were friends, but there was no need to pry into certain private matters.

"Why do you say that?" Wu Shi asked instinctively.

"Your adaptability is always stronger. On a track like this that nobody has raced on before, your advantage is just too massive," Verstappen replied, shaking his head. Even he couldn’t figure out how Wu Shi managed to pull off such feats.

"Uh."

Wu Shi was a little embarrassed to admit the truth. While he might not have been familiar with all those old karting tracks, he was actually more acquainted with this particular circuit than anyone else present. As an F1 driver, it was impossible for him to have never raced on the Hungarian Grand Prix track!

"Alright, time to get ready." Verstappen yawned.

"YAWN," Wu Shi followed suit and yawned as well.

Out on the track, the drivers began their warm-ups.

"Wu Shi, this is a completely new track, and you didn’t participate in the simulator practice during the week, so please be mindful of how well you handle it. I suggest you use the first practice session to familiarize yourself with the circuit, and then push for the track’s limits during the second session," Alan advised Wu Shi over the TR.

"Copy."

Wu Shi earnestly took the advice. This approach perfectly aligned with his usual practice session strategy, which was never to fight for first place. From the first round up until now, he had never taken P1 in a practice session. Therefore, he took his time meandering around the circuit, feeling out the grip levels across the entire width of the track and committing the undulations of the surface to memory.

"Oh, this perfectly fits Wu Shi’s style! He has never driven fast during practice sessions, but things will be entirely different once qualifying starts. He will use his sheer speed to show everyone who the true king of this year’s F3 Championship is!" The commentator, Yorkson, had already begun singing Wu Shi’s praises. He continued, "Wu’s track record is so dazzling that everyone is already guessing how he will win the race before it even begins."

After driving a full fourteen laps, Wu Shi confirmed that he understood the circuit well enough and left the track along with the majority of the drivers.

At 1:30 PM, during the second practice session, the drivers began to slowly pick up speed and churn out laps. However, judging by the sector times, the unfamiliarity of the track was still affecting everyone, and improvements in their lap times were extremely limited.

Alan TR: "How fast can you go right now?"

Wu Shi TR: "1:34."

Alan fell silent for a moment before replying over the TR, "Keep practicing. I don’t think anyone else here could manage a time like that."

Since team orders hadn’t instructed him to push at full speed, Wu Shi naturally drove some bizarre racing lines just the way he wanted. Many drivers wouldn’t do this, fearing it would mess up their rhythm for the optimal racing line. Wu Shi, however, loved driving like this. Only by getting intimately familiar with every inch of the asphalt could he intuitively know the best possible lines when pursuing an opponent.

When the practice session ended, O’connor took first place with a time of 1:35.801. Everyone else was outside the 1:36 mark.

Once the drivers parked their cars back in the pit lane, they naturally heard from their respective teams that Wu Shi had claimed he could run a 1:34. The drivers all had a good measure of the situation, but O’connor couldn’t resist coming over to ask, "Can you really get under 1:34?"

"Yeah, I should be able to," Wu Shi nodded.

"Then why did you only run a 1:36.456 in practice? You should have at least tried to clock a 1:35," O’connor stated.

"Don’t tell people what to do. Have you never raced in a major competition before? Who goes for the fastest lap during a practice session?" Verstappen chimed in.

O’connor fell silent. Who would aim for the fastest lap during a practice session? Well, that would be him.

Seeing O’connor’s reaction, Verstappen hadn’t expected his casual remark to hit the nail right on the head. His expression turned slightly grim; it was also quite difficult for him to break into the 1:35 range.

Wu Shi just shrugged.

When the first qualifying session began at 5:35 PM, Wu Shi easily set a time of 1:34.981 on his sixth lap before returning to the pit garage.

After parking the car, he sought out Alan amidst the celebrating crowd. "Did you see where I pressed the ’Mark’ button on the track just now?"

Alan nodded and pulled up the telemetry data. Looking purely at the graphs, nothing seemed abnormal. "What did you notice?" he asked.

"I felt like the engine was under an immense amount of stress right there," Wu Shi explained.

Alan carefully studied the data again. Frowning, he said, "I don’t see any issues, but I’ll have the engineers inspect the engine tonight."

"Yeah, that’s what I was thinking too. We need to see what’s causing it."

Even as Wu Shi said this aloud, he internally knew that the engine’s exhaust port seemed to be showing early signs of a malfunction, leading to an exhaust flow issue. If pushed to top speed, it could result in an engine blowout. He planned to wait until that evening to "study" the issue closely with the engineers.