Car Racing without Money-Chapter 548 - 213: Man Prevails Over Machine

Whether you like his style or not, you must admit his driving skills.

In terms of pure strength, Verstappen and Schumacher are the only two hexagonal warriors in F1 history among the G.O.A.T. level drivers.

Senna is not stable enough, Prost is not fast enough, Alonso is too independent, Hamilton is too showy, Vettel is picky about cars.

These two might not reach world number one in some aspects, like not being as fast as Senna or as stable as Prost.

But the top F1 drivers follow the principle of the barrel—having no weak points is what makes them the strongest!

Chen Xiangbei had watched almost all of Verstappen’s F1 races in his previous life and was more than familiar with his driving style and handling techniques. Since the Red Bull Racing’s oversteer couldn’t be corrected, he would rely on his absolute strength to continuously rectify it.

Man may not triumph over fate, but he can triumph over the car!

"If you rely solely on correction, you will lose a lot of time in the corners."

Sawano Hiroyuki frowned as he replied, having won the Japan Super Formula Championship, so he was well aware of corner correction.

Every movement of the steering wheel, even if it affects just a thousandth of a second, could accumulate to a loss of tenths of a second in the end.

At this moment, Odetto’s voice sounded from behind.

"There is never an absolute optimal solution in car tuning; we need to make trade-offs based on driver feedback, real-time data, and specific car characteristics."

"Sawano, trust Xiangbei."

Odetto had experienced Schumacher’s car-tuning era, and now Chen Xiangbei gave him the same feeling as during Ferrari’s Prancing Horse dynasty.

His intuition told him that Chen Xiangbei already had the answer!

"I understand, Team Leader Odetto."

Sawano Hiroyuki nodded; while he could have concerns, it was indeed inappropriate to raise doubts at such a moment.

In another garage, Trulli, who was present, looked at Chen Xiangbei, who had completely overhauled the car setup, with a somewhat complex expression.

"Sote, do you think I should share the long-distance data?"

From the current situation, it was clear that Chen Xiangbei couldn’t conduct long-distance testing.

Normally, team data is shared, and teammates can provide data as a reference. However, this time, Trulli and Chen Xiangbei were in an absolute competitive relationship and had agreed beforehand to test independently.

Yet Chen Xiangbei responded strongly to Sutil on the track, even though Trulli knew it had little to do with him, he still felt a sense of relief in his heart.

Last year’s crash incident, facing Alonso and Sutil’s media accusations, nobody stood up for Trulli; the feeling of being the object of public criticism was akin to Chen Xiangbei’s situation today. 𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Similar experiences made Trulli empathetic, stirring a strange impulse to help Chen Xiangbei.

"Trulli, don’t be naive. If the roles were reversed today, would the Chinese rookie share data to help you in your time of need?"

"Don’t forget, you are competitors!"

Race engineer Sote immediately interrupted Trulli’s naive thoughts. Being a veteran in the paddock, countless incidents of two teammates fighting each other for internal resources and team seats have occurred.

Even Trulli himself was once kicked out of the team by his teammate Alonso!

There are no saints in the paddock, only the victors get to write history.

Upon hearing this, Trulli didn’t answer. He understood the logic.

He just didn’t know why he had a premonition that perhaps Chen Xiangbei would act that way.

Of course, speaking about something that hasn’t happened is pointless; in the end, self-interest still takes precedence in the paddock.

The third practice session soon arrived as scheduled. Compared to the second practice qualifying test, the speed with a heavy fuel load was noticeably slower, and the lap time competition among drivers was not as intense.

Chen Xiangbei did not push to the limit in the early laps of the third practice session, mainly running a lap and returning to the pit for adjustments, while also changing to new compound tires to collect data.

"Professor, during today’s third practice, all drivers are testing long distances. Based on yesterday’s second practice results, who do you think will take the pole?"

"Hamilton."

Prost replied with great certainty. Although the McLaren Team clearly held back something yesterday, both of their drivers’ sector times were at the top among the twelve teams.

Clearly, besides the function of the F-duct, McLaren’s car also emulated the essence of the exhaust diffuser from Red Bull Racing Team, making their absolute speed not inferior to Red Bull Racing Team.

Additionally, Prost highly regarded Hamilton, believing this British driver had the potential to surpass Alonso and, given time, would become the next superstar in the paddock!

"Indeed, Hamilton was very fast yesterday, overall surpassing Red Bull Racing Team’s Vettel."

"Another rapidly advancing team is the HRT Team. As a new rookie in the paddock this year, they managed to get both cars into Q3 in the opening race, and this time Trulli has even moved up to eighth position."

"However, with the upgraded setup, Xiangbei’s lap times this race were slower than his opponents. Professor, do you think this suggests the HRT Team has a negative upgrade, or is it that Xiangbei hasn’t managed to harness the new car characteristics?"

Red directed the question towards Chen Xiangbei, this Chinese rookie being considered the "popular driver" currently in the paddock.

Regardless of his speed performance or his "arrogant and flamboyant" personality, he has drawn plenty of attention.