Car Racing without Money-Chapter 156 - 102: Overseas Battles for Chinese Racers (5K)
Team spirit is often cultivated this way.
"Bei, you have a unique personality, completely different from other Asian racers."
"Although I don’t agree with your goal, I acknowledge your confidence, so let’s wait and see for tomorrow’s race."
Hank maintained his usual politeness in words, but his tone revealed a trace of disbelief.
Pole position is indeed a good result, but it doesn’t equal a championship.
The long-distance battle in the main race more prominently tests whether a racer’s foundation is solid and if their hard skills are strong.
Hank absolutely didn’t believe that a Chinese rookie, who only started karting training last year, could outperform those European racers who have been competing for more than a decade.
Even with a talent like Sato Takuma, it’s still far from enough!
After a few simple questions, the interview hastily ended.
Honestly, for Hank, such interviews are merely a work process to complete a task, and it’s still questionable if it will be aired on TV.
After all, the Renault European Cup level is too low and doesn’t have much heat in the sports news field. If the pole position wasn’t taken by a Chinese rookie, Sky Sports probably wouldn’t even bother to interview.
"GOOD, your answers were great, that’s the kind of confidence and toughness we need!"
Odetto came over and patted Chen Xiangbei on the shoulder, very pleased with the interview just now.
He had seen interviews with Chinese athletes in other events before, and the answers were all "playing Tai Chi" official nonsense, which not only failed to provide the hot topics and attention needed by the news but also couldn’t showcase even the most basic personal style.
In the commercial field, "personal charm" has a big bonus, and arrogance and vigor are also a style.
Chen Xiangbei merely smiled in response to Odetto’s praise. He actually wasn’t that strong and flamboyant type of person.
However, in the European formula field, being a hard stone is better than being a soft target.
...
The end of the qualifying race doesn’t mean they can relax. In the P-room, the team’s engineers and mechanics have already started their busy work.
They need to complete a comprehensive check of the race car today because the extreme power demand on the engine during the qualifying race can likely lead to excessive wear and tear on parts, so they must be more detailed and careful than in practice to avoid omissions that could cause race car failures in the main race.
Otherwise, if Chen Xiangbei managed to secure a pole position with difficulty, a race exit due to failure would equate to returning to square one overnight.
Meanwhile, Chen Xiangbei changed out of his racing suit, took a shower, and prepared to return to the Super Dream Base for training.
Can’t deny, Lu Xiaoman’s therapy and massage yesterday had indeed a good effect. Compared to the usual continuous high-intensity driving training, today’s muscle state felt noticeably relaxed, and Chen Xiangbei planned to try it again after returning.
Just as he and Odetto were leaving the P-room, preparing to head to the parking lot, they saw a familiar yet unfamiliar face appear in the service lane.
For a moment, Chen Xiangbei froze; it was none other than Ma Qingye, who almost became China’s first official F1 driver.
"Hello Chen Xiangbei, I’m Ma Qingye."
Seeing Chen Xiangbei’s stunned look, Ma Qingye knew that he had recognized him and extended his hand with a smiling face in greeting.
"Hello, Brother Ma."
Coming back to his senses, Chen Xiangbei replied politely with a respectful title.
Although Ma Qingye had an average performance on the formula track, as a pioneer for Chinese racers venturing abroad, he deserved respect and admiration from the juniors.
"Xiangbei, congratulations on getting pole position in the first round of the Renault European Cup. This is definitely a historic moment for us Chinese racers."
Ma Qingye’s tone was somewhat excited, as a formula racer, he understood the worth of this pole position better than the outside world.
He had never heard of Chen Xiangbei’s name before and didn’t expect such a top-notch rookie driver to exist in the country!
"Thank you."
"Brother Ma, what brings you here?"
Full of doubts, Chen Xiangbei asked back. Although he won the Renault Touring Championship in Japan, given the influence and heat of domestic automotive events, it probably wasn’t even passed over there, and he could say he had no fame at all.
In theory, Ma Qingye shouldn’t have heard of his name or be waiting in the service lane just to meet him.
"I’m competing in the British F3 Championship, which happened to coincide with the Renault European Cup, and saw your name on the entry list."
Just as Chen Xiangbei guessed, Ma Qingye indeed hadn’t heard of his name in the country.
But at this time, the British F3 Championship is about to start soon, and it will also be a curtain-raiser for the F1 event next week. Ma Qingye thought of walking the Silverstone Circuit and additionally watching the Renault European Cup.
He was pleasantly surprised to discover that this year’s European Cup actually had a Chinese racer participating!
Since 2005 when Ma Qingye represented the China A1 team to the UK for test training, except for meeting Cheng Congfu once, he hadn’t seen any other Chinese racers on the track for nearly four years.
Seeing Chen Xiangbei’s name this time, he got very excited and immediately came to the service lane after the race hoping to meet him.
"So that’s how it is, I didn’t expect such a coincidence to be competing in the UK at the same time as Brother Ma."
"Yes, I also didn’t expect such a coincidence, having two Chinese racers competing in the UK at the same time."
Ma Qingye was quite emotional; just having one Chinese racer’s shadow on the Silverstone Circuit isn’t easy, let alone two.
"Brother Ma, I’m about to return to the Super Dream Base, why don’t you come along?"
Chen Xiangbei extended the invitation; meeting an old acquaintance in a foreign land is said to be one of the four great joys in life, not to mention the other party is a senior in the racing world, of course, they should chat more.
"Next time, I still have something to do right now, I need to go to the broadcasting room to get a copy of the qualifying race video."
"Brother Ma, what do you need the qualifying race video for?"
Confused, Chen Xiangbei asked back. The Renault level racing cars are very close to F4 and are a lot slower than F3, using them for research and study wouldn’t be useful at all for Ma Qingye.
"I have a student in the country, he has a very high racing talent, maybe he can make it."
"There’s no TV broadcast for the Renault European Cup qualifying, so I have to get a copy from the broadcasting room to let him learn from the racing line techniques of top foreign drivers so he won’t lose at the starting line again."
This kind of race video, just like the materials Odetto previously gave to Chen Xiangbei, if not for someone like Ma Qingye manually copying, domestic racers simply couldn’t learn from them.
Indeed, in many cases, Chinese racers directly lose at the starting line.
"What student is it, getting Brother Ma’s attention?"
Curiously, Chen Xiangbei asked, regarding someone who could go to the broadcasting room just for video copying, obviously, Ma Qingye was very focused on them.
"Hehe, just a kid, his name is Zhou Guanyu."
Ma Qingye smiled as he spoke, knowing that Chen Xiangbei wouldn’t recognize the name.
