Car Racing without Money-Chapter 535 - 208: Only the Mediocre Escape Envy

This is the nature of competitive sports: a driver without skills will find it hard to earn respect.

Upon checking into the hotel this time, Chen Xiangbei did not rush to train. Instead, he took a bath, had a good sleep to adjust his time zone, and ensured his physical recovery to a good state.

On the following Wednesday, theoretically, this was the drivers’ free time, but Chen Xiangbei felt a bit restless in the hotel, so he simply went to the Albert Park Circuit to help the team assemble the garage and the car, while also observing the track environment up close.

It’s important to know that during non-race periods, each garage slot in the pit area is like a bare shell, which teams have to build and assemble based on different types of events.

This is not as simple as setting up a temporary shelter, placing the equipment, and installing a few monitors.

The F1 garage framework is just the most basic thing; the real difficulty lies in linking and wiring various devices, ensuring data and signal stability!

Not to mention the number of devices, just the weight of the computers and cables alone is incredibly several tons.

Of course, there is specialization in every trade. As a driver, Chen Xiangbei was more involved in car assembly.

Car No. 13 had only a bare chassis parked in the garage, while the shell and various aerodynamic components were placed aside.

During the assembly process, Liang Chi and other technical team members also had to inspect various components.

F1 car inspection is entirely different from the "maintenance" understood by the public, almost akin to disassembling the parts to the component level for a major overhaul!

For instance, to inspect the power unit, they have to completely disassemble parts like the pistons, connecting rods, and bearings, and then use equipment to check the cylinders for flaws to prevent any defects from causing engine failure during the race.

The need for such thoroughness is because these cars are born purely for racing, requiring power to be maximized and weight to be minimized.

In F1 cars, this requirement does not conflict at all.

Designers are forced to make the engine cylinder walls very thin and use various lightweight materials.

A famous saying about drivers is that they drive on the edge of control.

Only by achieving that can you fully unlock the track’s potential.

The paddock also has a famous saying about cars: the best F1 car is the one that blows up its engine right after crossing the finish line!

Indeed, only when the engine fails right after crossing the finish line can it be proved that the engine’s performance has been fully utilized.

Otherwise, it indicates there’s still some reserve capacity left in the power unit.

While Chen Xiangbei and Liang Chi’s team were busy with vehicle assembly, test engineer Mazzola arrived from the hotel.

Seeing Xiangbei there surprised Mazzola.

Mazzola was originally a member of the Ferrari Team, joining the HRT Team after Maranello’s second-hand wind tunnel was sold to them, thanks to Bob Bell’s invitation.

We can say Mazzola had no prior interaction with Xiangbei; all his knowledge came from teammates and media reports.

From his colleagues, he knew Xiangbei trained hard and consistently at high intensity every day.

But Mazzola didn’t expect Xiangbei to be involved in car assembly.

At that moment, Xiangbei seemed to embody the spirit of Schumacher.

Among the twenty drivers in the paddock, only Schumacher would work alongside team engineers to complete car assembly and tuning.

Of course, Xiangbei also noticed Mazzola and stood up to ask: "Mazzola, there’s a significant difference between the upgrade and old components. Can you introduce their characteristics?"

Xiabei had seen the documents, but he much preferred direct communication with engineers over simplistic descriptions.

"Okay, no problem."

Mazzola nodded, appreciating the hardworking driver.

"This time, the aerodynamic package upgrade on the TF110 focuses mainly on the front wing and the rear wing."

"We’ve adjusted the front wing’s adjustability, referencing the Mercedes W01’s design, aiming to improve the car’s understeer in corners."

Xiabei had already provided feedback on understeer issues during winter testing. However, due to the intricate aerodynamics of F1 cars, it’s often a case where changing one thing affects everything else, making it difficult to eliminate completely.

Much like how the famous oversteer of the Red Bull Racing in later years became well-known, yet the team couldn’t entirely solve the problem, only mitigate it as much as possible.

Though results seemed ineffective.

This era belongs to the "aero" era, meaning aerodynamics were focused entirely on the aero kits, with less participation from the chassis, unlike the later times.

So fixing it was relatively easier.

Because changing both the aero kits and chassis would be like rebuilding the entire car.

After introducing the front wing upgrades, Mazzola pointed to the rear wing and said: "We took inspiration from the McLaren Team’s rear wing design from the last race to create a similar stalled wing. This reduces the rear downforce provided by airflow, increasing top speed on long straights and further mitigating understeer."

F1 car development is essentially a process of teams learning from and "copying" each other.