Chapter 119: Post-Match Aftermath
After the Pau weekend, the next race would be at the Hungaroring in Hungary—scheduled for the end of May. A full twenty days away.
That meant Wu Shi could finally return to Italy for a few days of rest.
Though the Pau round had ended, the discussions around it refused to die down.
Because of that chaotic battle, Wu Shi had lost a championship—the only championship he had failed to take since entering F3.
And the core reason was Verstappen's aggressive driving.
Worse, in Race 3, Verstappen was involved in yet another crash, one that looked as if Wu Shi had intentionally cut off another driver. The combination ignited a storm on social media.
Those who still retained a shred of journalistic integrity at least tried to stay neutral:
> "The ongoing rivalry between Wu Shi and Max Verstappen of Van Amersfoort…"
But the majority of platforms were run by independent media with zero ethical limits, producing headlines utterly detached from reality:
> "Max Jealous of Wu! Attempts to Ruin Wu's F1 Seat Opportunity!"
"Wu Calls Max 'Arrogant, Conceited, Blind to His Own Weaknesses'!"
"Teammate Civil War! Will Max and Wu's Feud Trigger More Accidents?!"
Reading these, Wu Shi was speechless.
After Sid reminded him on Friday about hiring PR staff, he checked his public socials—and was instantly greeted by an avalanche of idiocy.
Die-hard fans and trolls were clashing so fiercely it looked like the platform might go up in flames. Personal attacks were everywhere.
Wu Shi's reaction remained unchanged:
> "Their attack power isn't even close to the guys on Tieba."
Louise, horrified by what she read, asked, "Aren't you angry?"
"What's there to be angry about?" Wu Shi shrugged.
"The things they say are awful!" Louise protested. She looked ready to mass-delete comments herself.
"Lies don't hurt people," Wu Shi said calmly. "The truth is the sharpest knife. For example—if someone says I 'can't drive and only look good because the team gave me a special car,' do you think I'd get angry?"
Louise frowned, thinking it over.
"Well… yes? You work so hard, but people would think it's just the car."
"…"
Right.
He and Louise clearly saw the world differently.
From his point of view, people who have mothers don't get angry if someone says they don't—because they know the truth.
Only those who don't have mothers get angry—because the insult lands.
He had understood this logic long ago, so most online opinions didn't even register.
"By the way," Louise asked, "I heard you're going back to your country for a few days?"
"Yeah. I need to meet a few domestic sponsors." He wasn't supposed to go, but someone had insisted on seeing him.
"Oh! I want to go too!" Louise collapsed onto the sofa in despair.
"Hehe. Good students should go to school obediently," Wu Shi teased.
"Hey! Look, TGCOM24 posted a news article about you!"
Louise shot upright and rushed over, handing him her iPad Air. Her perfume drifted across as he glanced at the headline.
His brows furrowed instantly.
"F1: Mercedes Reaches Seat Agreement With Wu Shi—$50 Million Sponsorship Involved"
Without hesitation, he grabbed his phone and dialed Sid.
"Did you see TGCOM24?" Wu Shi asked.
As a major Italian national news outlet, TGCOM24 was practically the country's nightly news. If it published something, the whole nation would hear it.
"Hold on."
Wu Shi waited. The article looked freshly published. Sid was on his way to Germany to meet Toto, so he probably had no idea yet.
A few seconds later, Sid's furious voice exploded through the earpiece:
"Damn it! The Saturday contract for the Mercedes pit—someone leaked the whole thing!"
"Our new contract?"
"No. Toto drafted and signed it alone. He didn't let me sign."
In that instant, Wu Shi understood.
"You mean… Toto did it on purpose?"
"Yeah. He suspected an internal leak. So he refused to sign the supplementary contract that day—planning to discuss it again with me today."
Sid explained that Toto likely wanted to use this incident to identify the mole, which matched what Martina had hinted at earlier: Toto wasn't being transparent.
Either way, it was clear someone inside Mercedes desperately wanted this deal to fall apart.
The article didn't just reveal the sponsorship fee—it even exposed Wu Shi's seat agreement.
Meaning: the whole world now knew he would drive a Mercedes in free practice to attempt a qualifying simulation lap.
The comment section under the article was overflowing with skepticism:
> "As national media, you shouldn't publish unverified news!"
"Wu Shi isn't even sixteen. Mercedes would never sign a kid!"
"Your journalistic standards are embarrassing!"
If news site comments were at least polite outrage, then Twitter and Facebook were absolute warzones.
Louise quickly found the article trending. Comments varied wildly:
> "Knew it! Wu's too strong. Mercedes is the obvious choice." —Italy
"F1 is about to be ruled by Wu!" —Italy
These high-upvote reactions were mostly short, enthusiastic compliments from Italian fans.
But others were vicious:
> "Mercedes is scamming Wu for sponsorship. No rookie sets a quali lap in FP! Impossible!"
"Yes! Even Wu can't jump straight to F1. He's lucky if he doesn't crash!"
"Why hype a Chinese kid?"
"Nonsense! I was at the signing. Wu promised he'd fulfill the agreement!"
"I was the pen that signed the document."
After scrolling for a while, Wu Shi exhaled deeply.
Netizens really did know everything.
"Is this news real? Are you really becoming an F1 driver?" Louise's eyes sparkled.
"It's fake," Wu Shi said, pinching her cheek.
"Ugh…" Louise deflated but kept scrolling through gossip.
Sid remained tense. Toto, however, looked calm.
"So you achieved your goal?" Sid asked.
"No. There are too many people who handle contracts. We still don't know where the breach happened. I can only use this chance to improve our confidentiality procedures."
Toto waved a hand dismissively—he wasn't going to reveal internal Mercedes issues to outsiders.
When he first heard about the leak, he'd erupted during the board meeting.
A secret contract leaking so easily? How was he supposed to manage the team?
After the earlier investigation, he already knew who the culprit was.
But without solid proof, he couldn't move yet.
And more concerning than the leak itself…
…was the chaos that would follow.
The existence of this contract had thrown the team into instability.