Chapter 152 - 74: Doing My Best

Chapter 152: Chapter 74: Doing My Best

On September 8th, the day after the Italian Grand Prix, Mercedes-Benz held a press conference, stating that they had signed Wu Shi. He would be a member of the Mercedes driver development program.

They also announced that on Friday, September 19th, Wu Shi would drive Nico Rosberg’s car during the Practice 1 (P1) session.

The moment the news broke, it sent shockwaves through the racing world.

Many questions about Wu Shi’s age and nationality surfaced, with his age being the main point of contention.

Strictly speaking, it wasn’t so much a criticism, because Wu Shi was indeed too young. Historically, no one had ever driven an F1 car at his age.

Thankfully, the current Super License regulations didn’t have a points system; as long as you were exceptional enough, you could make it to the track.

As for Wu Shi, even if he skipped the remaining races, he would still be the Continental F3 champion for the year—a dominant force, hundreds of points ahead of second place!

The news quickly spread back home to Hua Country. The official media reacted swiftly, immediately contacting Wu Zhenlin and stating they would be sending a crew to Singapore to cover the story.

Meanwhile, online outlets like Big Eye Sports Media were also planning their trips to the Singapore Grand Prix.

The news was just too sensational!

An F1 driver from Hua Country—it was an unimaginable prospect, especially today, with the F1 system becoming more and more structured and the demands on drivers growing ever higher.

Social media naturally exploded. A video montage by the AC Station creator "Tranquil Summer" shot to the top of the trending charts and was reposted hundreds, even thousands of times by fans on platforms like Tianyan, Tianya Forum, and Tieba.

Not to mention, when several official sports media outlets reported on the matter via their new media channels on September 9th, they also referenced the video. This instantly put Wu Shi on many people’s radar.

The sports scene in the country was like that. The 110-meter hurdles wasn’t a popular sport, but because of the "Huaxia Flying Man" Liu Xiang, it instantly became known nationwide and turned into an event that everyone followed with great interest.

Wu Shi’s situation was now incredibly similar to Liu Xiang’s, all thanks to the extraordinary talent he had displayed.

Six-Star Sports even published a lengthy opinion piece, suggesting that if Wu Shi successfully joined the Mercedes Team, he could potentially become Hua Country’s first-ever F1 World Champion!

Of course, Six-Star Sports also analyzed the information from the Mercedes-Benz press conference in their conclusion. They believed Wu Shi’s chances of joining the main Mercedes team weren’t high. After all, it was impossible for someone who had never driven an F1 car to get a top-three qualifying result on their very first attempt.

To those in the know, this was a complete fantasy.

However, those in the know were mostly celebrating. Just being given a chance by Mercedes-Benz to test a car in a practice session, an exceptional promotion, was already a huge success and a great honor in itself.

Besides, how old was Wu Shi? He hadn’t even reached his peak yet!

To everyone, it was Wu Shi’s future that was truly exciting and full of promise!

While some rejoiced, others worried. As almost all the fans in the country were celebrating, the creator "Tranquil Summer" remained silent, offering no opinion.

In the comments section of that viral video, a recent comment read:

"Mystery solved! My bro’s studying abroad in Italy, and he said the foreign media already dug it up. The foreign girl next to Wu Shi in the Mercedes Pit Room is named Louise, and the creator’s avatar is the heroine from *Zero’s Familiar*, who’s also named Louise!"

This comment was upvoted like crazy.

Meanwhile, the creator herself, Tranquil Summer, was sitting in a room with the curtains fully drawn, looking at this comment in the glow of her computer screen, the only source of light.

After a long moment, Tranquil Summer slammed her fist on the desk. In the end, all she could do was type a reply beneath the comment: "That’s not it~ I’m from Hua Country."

After posting the comment, she immediately changed her avatar.

...

"Louise, you’ve gone viral," Wu Shi said. He was lounging on the sofa after a workout, with Louise leaning against him.

"What?" Louise was engrossed in the TV.

"You haven’t checked your phone?"

"Not yet."

Louise shook her head, picked up her phone, and scrolled through platforms like Twitter and Instagram. Her face instantly flushed red. "No! How could they be so..."

"So what?" Wu Shi chuckled, looking at Louise, who looked like steam was about to pour from her ears.

"Hey! Stop looking!" Louise yelped, pouncing on him to snatch the phone.

"Oof!"

Wu Shi felt an elbow dig into his chest. Luckily, Louise was slender and soft, or he might have had the wind knocked out of him.

He let her snatch the phone away and said helplessly, "But I’ve already seen it all!"

"Wuuu..." Louise buried her face in his chest, letting out a series of muffled whimpers.

...

For Wu Shi, his rest time was becoming increasingly scarce.

On Tuesday, he left Italy for Holland. Louise, still on her summer break, was naturally reluctant to see him go, but there was nothing to be done about it.

He went to Holland mainly because Van Amersfoort had a simulator, allowing him to familiarize himself with the Singapore circuit ahead of time.

Wu Shi actually wanted to go to Hamilton’s home in Monaco; that simulator would have been a massive help.

Unfortunately, he was too conspicuous now. If he went to Monaco, he would definitely get photographed by the paparazzi. If it were discovered that he was using the simulator Mercedes-Benz had provided to Hamilton, it would likely stir up unnecessary controversy.

Then, even if he fulfilled the terms of his agreement, Mercedes-Benz could use a clause to void the contract.

Some things were fine as long as they weren’t brought into the open, but once they were, you were done for.

Wu Shi had driven the Singapore circuit plenty of times in his past life, but the track layout changed so frequently that he doubted its current version was the one he was familiar with.

Besides, after so many years, his memory of the circuit had grown hazy.

After just a week and a half in Holland, he packed his bags and headed to Singapore with Sid.

The two of them arrived in Singapore on Thursday, September 18th.

"Don’t be nervous. Just focus on driving well."

Sid had also been keeping an eye on the online chatter. It was a mixed bag, and someone who wasn’t mentally tough could easily snap after reading some of the nasty things people were saying.

"Yeah, I’ll do my best," Wu Shi said. "Speaking of which, the two Mercedes-Benz drivers have been surprisingly good to me."

"Oh? How so?" Sid asked, curious.

"After the Monaco Grand Prix, Hamilton invited me to his home to use his simulator, letting me get familiar with the driving ahead of time. After Monza, Rosberg also got my contact info and has been giving me pointers on how to drive an F1 car."

Wu Shi couldn’t help but chuckle. ’This is so damn weird!’

’I mean, I might be taking one of their seats, and yet here they are, helping me.’

Sid frowned, but he quickly put the pieces together. "They each think their teammate is the one getting replaced?"

Wu Shi nodded. "To be precise, Hamilton thinks I’ll replace Rosberg, and Rosberg thinks I’ll replace Hamilton. But Rosberg probably thinks it’s more likely I’ll fail to meet the conditions and end up at Williams."

"Hmm, good analysis," Sid said, then immediately realized he shouldn’t have put it that way and tried to backtrack.

Wu Shi spoke first, "I know. No one thinks I can pull it off. That’s normal. After all, I can only say I’ll do my best."

As he spoke, he rubbed his neck. The physical demands of an F1 car were on a completely different level than an F3 car. Other drivers went through the crucible of F2 or GP2, allowing them to transition naturally to F1.

But he had only been driving an F3 car for a little over half a year!

"You need to keep a level head," Sid reminded him. "I should also warn you, the people inside the Mercedes Team might not be as welcoming as they seem. They probably don’t want you to displace either of their current drivers."

Wu Shi nodded. He knew that neither his nationality as someone from Hua Country nor his young age would make him popular in the paddock. He would be careful.