Car Racing without Money-Chapter 140 - 97: Breakthrough of the Chinese Rookie (5K)
For the Super Dream Team, the other team engineers in the pit garage didn’t pay much attention. Especially when they saw the number 13 on the front of the car, knowing it was a rookie from China practicing, they were even less interested.
In the past two years, a few Chinese drivers have appeared in the European Formula paddock, like Cheng Congfu who participated in F3 events at the Alton Park Circuit in the United Kingdom last year.
However, Cheng Congfu participated in the F3 "National Class" category, and various reports claimed he won the championship, being touted as the closest Chinese driver to F1.
In fact, the champion of this category could only rank 14th overall in F3, and Cheng Congfu was already 23 years old, leaving him with virtually no hope of entering the F1 Paddock.
Precisely because Chinese Formula drivers show visible gaps in European events, these participating teams didn’t take Chen Xiangbei seriously, thinking he was just another runner in the Renault European Cup making up numbers.
But after two warm-up laps, some engineers observing their own team’s driver surprisingly found a Renault race car speeding visibly fast on the track!
"Sawano, report the speeds at Turn 3 and Turn 4."
Odetto was still sitting on the stand with a pair of binoculars, he actually didn’t hold out much hope for Chen Xiangbei’s improvement this lap.
After all, "cautious" isn’t some technical flaw that can be pinpointed and immediately corrected.
Instead, it’s a psychological barrier that even if identified still requires time for correction.
Even if Chen Xiangbei wanted to take risks aggressively, he needed to change his style through one race at a time, not transform overnight by the second practice session of the same day!
So even Odetto didn’t bring a laptop, purely with a "leisure" mindset to watch Chen Xiangbei’s timed practice lap.
"At Turn 3, Xiangbei braked 0.2 seconds late, judging from the trajectory he’s already used the entirety of the kerb, the cornering speed increased from the previous 70km/h to 79km/h."
"The speed at Turn 4 increased from the previous 60km/h to 67km/h, which was equivalent to Schumacher’s cornering speed back then!"
Odetto’s previous "mockery" about wetting pants was aimed at these two slowest combination corners at the Silverstone Circuit, where Chen Xiangbei was afraid of rushing out of the track and slowed down too much.
Now the cornering speeds at these two corners have shown a significant improvement.
Don’t underestimate this mere few kilometers per hour of improvement, if the entire 18-corner track could achieve this level, then Chen Xiangbei’s average speed could increase by at least 5km/h.
Converted to lap time, that’s 0.2 to 0.3 seconds!
And the increase in cornering speed means a faster exit speed, which chains into a faster tail speed on the straight.
If everything is done perfectly, Chen Xiangbei’s lap speed could increase by 0.5 seconds!
This gradual attention to detail improvement can ultimately lead to a qualitative change in lap time, which is where the "Lap of God" for many drivers comes from.
On the track, Chen Xiangbei was gradually regaining that street racing spirit, where he put his foot down on the pedal at 7200 rpm, with the daredevil attitude of going against anyone.
Back then, he dared to risk his life; now, running on the track, sitting within a professional racing car’s cockpit with ample run-off areas ensuring safety, would he still fear death?
Just like the words advised to Fatty Wang back then.
The moment you fear, you’ve already lost.
This fear includes not just the fear of death, but the fear of crashing and compensating for it, all forms of terror!
On the track, ART Team’s Vergne, was warming up tires when he heard the full-throttle roar of a race car engine behind him. Before he had time to check the rearview mirror, a Renault race car marked with number 13 whisked past him.
He had a deep impression of this number that no one in Europe chose, it was that Chinese driver from the briefing, who had once bumped into him while walking the track. 𝒇𝒓𝒆𝒆𝙬𝒆𝒃𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝒎
Vergne didn’t know how fast Chen Xiangbei was going now, but he was extremely familiar with the Silverstone Circuit, having run countless laps since his karting days.
Just based on the cornering lines he saw before him, it couldn’t possibly be slow!
"Tod, did you see the number 13 car just now?"
Vergne knew the team’s race engineer’s eyes were undoubtedly fixed on his own car, so they must have seen the Chinese kid who whizzed by.
"Yes, I saw it."
"Can you estimate his speed?"
"No data, the only certainty is that it was very fast!"
The track monitoring was not open, ART Team engineers had to rely solely on visual estimates.
"Tod, we need to pay attention to this Chinese driver."
Vergne and Magnussen belonged to two extremes, he leaned towards long-distance steady types, so even his temperament was like this.
Chen Xiangbei wasn’t originally on his list of competitors, but the speed just now gave him a sense of crisis, perhaps this Chinese rookie wasn’t the rookie he thought he was!
As Chen Xiangbei speed through, members of the Super Dream Team had already gathered in front of the racing data monitoring computer, including members of Kobayashi Shuji’s crew.
Based on the current data, Chen Xiangbei’s lap speed had already improved by 0.3 seconds, and finishing the whole course could likely reach over 0.5 seconds.
Note that his previous fastest lap time was 1 minute 58.889 seconds, while the track pole position record was 1 minute 57.582 seconds.
If Chen Xiangbei can improve by 0.5 seconds, it would mean he’s less than a second off Schumacher’s pole position record!
And this was just practice, not yet reaching the full PUSH during qualifying.
If things continue this way, Chen Xiangbei’s fastest lap speed might not just merely enter the top ten of the qualifiers.
He has a significant chance to take the pole position at the Renault European Cup first station!
OH MY GOD, a Chinese rookie taking the pole position at the Silverstone Circuit in the European Cup, something many in the paddock wouldn’t even dare to imagine.
Even Odetto himself hadn’t thought that Chen Xiangbei could break through his psychological barriers in such a short time to push at full speed, challenging the limits of the track and the car.
Amidst the expectant gazes of the crowd, the final lap time finally appeared on the computer screen.
minute 58.482 seconds!
