Chapter 62 - 26: Where Is the Solution?

Chapter 62: Chapter 26: Where Is the Solution?

After Jos finished his lesson, he had Wu Shi and Verstappen get on the track to try it out.

Verstappen had already been exposed to shifter karts back in Holland, so he picked it up quite quickly and drove straight out of the pit lane.

Wu Shi noticed this and realized that Jos’s recent lecture was very likely meant specifically for him.

"Kid, pay attention to the clutch engagement!" Jos shouted. "The feeling is completely different from a direct-drive kart! The engine RPM, the gear, and the speed of the kart—if even one of these three doesn’t match, you’ll lose power or speed at best, and stall the engine at worst!"

"I know!"

Wearing his helmet, Wu Shi could only shout back. He gradually released the clutch, and the kart lurched forward, driving out of the garage and onto the track.

The last time he had driven a shifter kart was exactly that—the *last* time, back in Shanghai, Hua Country. Even without fully sensing the vehicle back then, he had completely crushed Chen Lin. At the end of the day, he was a former F1 driver in his past life. Not just anyone could challenge him.

VROOM!

The engine roared as he started in first gear. The kart was a bit aggressive; the resulting acceleration was much more intense than that of a direct-drive kart.

On the other side of the track, after a warm-up lap, Verstappen began his flying lap.

WHOOSH!

47.011 seconds.

The time was posted, falling quite short of the CRG test track’s fastest KZ2-class lap time of 45.987 seconds. Even a driver as immensely talented as Verstappen needed a full season of practice in the shifter racing category before he could join the ranks of championship contenders.

"What do you think he’ll run?" Jos asked Rosa.

"I feel like he’ll be faster than Max," Rosa replied.

"His handling is quite smooth. I just want to know—are you sure he’s never driven a shifter kart before?" Jos felt somewhat puzzled.

"He shouldn’t have," Rosa shook her head, unaware of the actual situation.

"Let’s just watch."

The kart weaved left and right. Before entering the final corner, the tire temperatures reached their optimal working window.

Wu Shi licked his lips. The flying lap had begun!

CLACK CLACK!

The gears shifted rapidly as he rocketed out of the final corner and onto the starting straight. Quickly shifting up to sixth gear, the kart howled past.

VROOM VROOM!

Approaching Turn 1, he braked heavily, downshifting straight to second gear. After riding the curb, he held the throttle at thirty percent, steadily clipped the apex, and began to accelerate.

Third gear, fourth gear...

VRRROOOM!

Even without absolute vehicle perception, and even though it was his first time driving this particular shifter kart, Wu Shi still handled it perfectly.

SWOOSH!

He flashed across the finish line.

46.758 seconds.

Jos looked over at Rosa.

Rosa met his gaze and spoke first. "You’re a former F1 driver. Please draw on your career experience and tell me what the actual pace of someone driving a shifter kart for the very first time should be."

"Wu Shi, he..."

Jos originally wanted to declare that if Wu Shi had never driven a shifter kart before, he would go back to Holland and tie himself to a windmill for a whole day. However, considering the terrifying talent Wu Shi had previously displayed, he felt he shouldn’t say that.

In truth, it wouldn’t have mattered if he had said it. After all, Wu Shi really had driven one once in Shanghai. Even if it was only that one time, it still counted as driving one.

"I think most drivers wouldn’t be able to start a flying lap on their second time around in a shifter kart," Jos evaluated. "At this stage, most of them are just trying to match the gears to their speed, completely overwhelmed by the extra shifting operations."

"My, my, that’s high praise. It seems our previous worries about his form slipping were actually overthinking," Rosa laughed. As Wu Shi’s engineer, she was under a lot of pressure as well.

In the eyes of the public, if Wu Shi could no longer maintain his dominant level of performance, it definitely wasn’t Wu Shi’s fault—it was the kart’s fault. Yes, it was just that absurd. In Italy, Wu Shi had already amassed a horde of die-hard fans. After all, besides driving fast, he was incredibly good-looking. This was especially apparent every time he stood on the podium next to Verstappen; the contrast made his divine looks all the more striking.

"No, you’re wrong." Jos, however, shook his head sternly. "If he were in last year’s form, that so-called fastest lap of 45 seconds would be nothing more than his cruising speed."

"Huh?"

Rosa opened her mouth in shock. Wasn’t that evaluation ridiculously high?! But since a former F1 driver said so, had Wu Shi truly lost his previously invincible form?

"Don’t give him any feedback in a moment. Let me talk to him." Jos walked over to the door to wait for Wu Shi to drive back.

A few laps later, both Verstappen and Wu Shi returned to the pit lane.

Verstappen saw his own time, and then he saw Wu Shi’s. Recalling his driving just now, he knew he had made too many mistakes—such as mismatched gears, or forgetting to upshift quickly after exiting a corner, resulting in lost speed.

However, he wasn’t met with Jos’s harsh scolding. Instead, he watched the strict Dutchman walk over to Wu Shi and say, "Too slow."

"Uh."

"Wait, old geezer, why are you putting pressure on me instead of Verstappen? I obviously know that failing to break into the 45-second range and smash the track record is my fault. But top-tier records on various tracks aren’t something you can just break at will. Some of those track records were set by people driving the exact same kart setup for four or five years on the same track, basically touching the absolute limit. Even if you brought in an F1 driver, they wouldn’t be able to achieve it right off the bat," Wu Shi thought, taken aback.

"Before, when you drove a direct-drive kart, you were even able to control the engine’s precise RPM through minute throttle adjustments to bring out the car’s peak performance," Jos said. "But now, driving a shifter kart, you fail to operate it in the most appropriate gear. Do you know where the problem lies?"

"Dad, why are you being so gentle? If it were me, wouldn’t you have dragged me straight to the track to review and practice over and over again?" Verstappen silently grumbled on the sidelines.

Wu Shi was just about to retort when he froze. Jos was absolutely right. Because he hadn’t fully perceived the vehicle, he hadn’t even bothered to meticulously search for the kart’s limits. For a racing driver, this was shameful laziness!

"Can I really forget the vehicles from my past memories?" he thought.

Instead of answering Jos, he silently walked over to the honor-laden KF3-class Number 398 kart hanging on the wall. Reaching out, he touched its front nose cone. In an instant, the entire vehicle seemed to turn into flesh and blood, etching itself into his mind.

Absolute vehicle perception.

It was precisely because this perception existed that he could perform at a level beyond human limits, maintain absolute consistency, and completely dominate races in his class.

"I believe I’d still be a top-tier driver even without this ability, but a heaven-sent gift must not be spurned, lest I invite misfortune," he thought.

Formula 1 had never lacked prodigies; every era had top-tier geniuses serving as a footnote to the sport’s history. He, Wu Shi, was merely another footnote in its sixty-plus years of history. If he was lucky enough to drive a competitive car, perhaps he could also become a multi-time world champion.

However, he possessed a limit-breaking advantage that surpassed ordinary humans. Lately, instead of trying to quickly solve his current issue, he had been trapped in the complacent belief that he could still be a top driver without it. Jos’s repeated reminders weren’t because Wu Shi was driving slower than everyone else, but because Wu Shi was driving slower than *himself*.

"I should have understood Jos’s mindset a long time ago," he realized.

Why was Jos so harsh on Verstappen? As Jos himself had once recalled, it was because he had discovered Verstappen’s immense racing talent. Only through such harshness could that talent be properly nurtured. And why did Jos constantly say that Wu Shi had a problem when his recent lap times were clearly quite good? It was because he recognized that Wu Shi’s lap times shouldn’t have plateaued there. That was why he felt so frustrated and wanted to make Wu Shi realize his own flaws.

Wu Shi took a deep breath.

"My recent desperate practice sessions are necessary, and figuring out how to overcome my lack of perception is also necessary," he thought. "Forgetting is not something that can be done actively. The way to break this deadlock must be found elsewhere."

He pulled his hand back from Kart 398, walked over to the shifter kart, sat in the driver’s seat, and attempted to perceive it.

The outline of the kart slowly formed in his mind, but the speed was sluggish—far inferior to when he perceived the domestic shifter karts back in 2007. The problem remained unresolved. Where was the solution?

Before he could figure out the answer, this year’s racing season had already begun.