Why race if you don’t have money?

Chapter 172 Driving Skills That Overturn Common Sense
Challenging the best is an essential part of a driver's professional career.

If you can't defeat the strong, you can't become the next strong one!
During Chen Xiangbei's time as a test driver for Brawn GP, ​​Jason Button and Rubens Barrichello, the two official drivers, were, to some extent, his targets and competitors.

Unfortunately, with the entry of Daimler Group and Schumacher, Ross Brawn lost the decision-making power of the team, and Chen Xiangbei naturally lost the opportunity to compete with Button on the same team.

The ROC Nations Cup made up for this regret. Chen Xiangbei really wanted to experience the feeling of standing on the top of F1 as the "new king" and see if he could fight against him!
Two Solution F motorhomes drove out of the pit lane and parked side by side on the starting line of the track.

This racing-grade touring car is mid-engined and rear-wheel drive, equipped with a five-speed sequential gearbox, with a maximum horsepower of 310 hp and a maximum torque of 390 Nm.

Judging from the figures alone, it seems to be at the level of a regular performance car.

In fact, after being modified for lightweighting, the Solution F weighs only 950 kilograms, and its power-to-weight ratio and acceleration are astonishing, surpassing most supercars.

The ROC National Cup also features the usual warm-up lap, but the severe cold of Beijing in November, coupled with the road surface lacking grip, meant that the Pirelli full slick tires could not actually reach the operating temperature.

This means that drivers need to instantly react to and make decisions regarding vehicle dynamics and surrounding spatial distances while driving.

This not only tests your skills, but also your driving sense!

A legendary genius driver, even if the car slides like a soap bar soaked in water, can still control this beast with unwavering composure.

With the roar of the race car engine, Chen Xiangbei and Button started their warm-up lap.

Compared to the left-right swaying warm-up method used in Formula One racing, the two drivers on the track unanimously opted for the quick warm-up method of tapping the brakes, while simultaneously feeling the changes in the grip of the tires and the road surface.

This ensures that the engine torque during the initial start is in perfect ratio to the tire grip, preventing any tire burnout, wheel spin, or slippage.

"Manager Ye, does Xiang Bei really have a chance of winning with this tactic?"

Race engineer Wang Xiao asked team manager Ye Yong a question with a serious expression.

Just now, Chen Xiangbei was in the repair station. He didn't dare to raise such questions, fearing it would "disrupt morale."

Watching Button's extremely skillful warm-up tire test grip maneuver, he realized once again that F1 world champion level drivers are all-round warriors with no weaknesses. Changes in the vehicle and road conditions cannot hinder them at all!

Wang Xiao racked his brains but couldn't figure out where Chen Xiangbei had a chance of winning.

"Back then at the Haizhu International Circuit, could you have predicted that Chen Xiangbei would beat Han Han?"

"Manager Ye, these two situations are different."

Wang Xiao shook his head, feeling there was no comparison.

Although Han Han was strong at that time, he was ultimately just a domestic RV champion.

Moreover, Han Han did not actually give it his all in the Haizhu International Circuit competition. It wasn't until Chen Xiangbei caught up with him that he seriously considered the high school student as an opponent.

It's the main tournament of the ROC National Cup now, and Jason Barton will definitely not hold back in this situation!
"Nothing is different."

Ye Yong directly rejected Wang Xiao's answer.

Then he turned to look at him and said, "You forgot one thing: back then, Chen Xiangbei was an amateur enthusiast, yet he beat professional champion racer Han Han!"

Upon hearing this answer, Principal Wang was stunned.

He only noticed Jensen Button's F1 World Championship title, but forgot that Chen Xiangbei was just a high school racing enthusiast.

The gap between professionals and amateurs is far greater than that between F1 rookies and world champions of the same level.

Chen Xiangbei could win back then, so why doesn't he have a chance of winning now?
Chen Xiangbei wasn't just saying he was 100% certain; there was a real probability of it happening!
The warm-up lap was completed quickly, and the two Solution F motorhomes were once again parked on the starting line.

There were also five starting lights above the track. Chen Xiangbei and Jason Button kept their eyes fixed on the lights above, and then gently pressed the accelerator to increase the engine speed of the race car.

The moment the five indicator lights went out, both race cars simultaneously launched themselves off, shooting off like arrows released from a bow!
"The race has officially started. Chen Xiangbei's starting speed is very fast, which is consistent with his usual advantage in reaction and the precision of his clutch and accelerator coordination."

"This time, however, Chen Xiangbei failed to take the lead, as Button demonstrated his formidable F1 world championship prowess. The two cars were almost indistinguishable to the naked eye, and the testing equipment showed that Button was slightly ahead by three-thousandths of a second!"

Li Bing was providing commentary almost simultaneously. He had been following Chen Xiangbei's matches and activities since the Australian Grand Prix, and was well aware that this young Chinese player had a strong start.

But his opponent was F1 world champion Jenson Button.

Even with a consistently quick start, they still failed to take the lead.

However, Li Bing was not disappointed; on the contrary, his tone contained surprise.

The reason is also that the opponent is F1 world champion Jenson Button!

Faced with such a formidable opponent, only instruments with millisecond-level precision could detect the gap in Chen Xiangbei's abilities.

This would have been unthinkable in the past Chinese motorsport scene.

Even Chen Xiangbei's staunchest supporters, while emotionally believing he would win, rationally felt Barton would be far ahead.

To everyone's surprise, Chen Xiangbei was almost at a disadvantage.

However, the ROC National Cup uses two parallel tracks, unlike Formula One racing where there is no direct competition between drivers.

Gaining an advantage at the start, but only by three-thousandths of a second, is not enough to seize the best cornering line and overpower the opponent.

The final decision on the race outcome will depend on cornering speed!

The starting straight at the Bird's Nest circuit is very short; in the blink of an eye, the two race cars arrived at Turn 1.

Chen Xiangbei was on the inner circle of the track, so theoretically his cornering radius was smaller, and he needed to brake and slow down in advance.

However, Chen Xiangbei delayed his braking point, almost simultaneously slowing down with Button on the outer track. He hugged the inside of the corner to the extreme, then used a standard outside-inside-outside tangent to corner.

The so-called "corner cutting" is actually about using the width of the curve to make the driving path as straight as possible.

If the speed is too high, or the turning angle is too small, the race car will understeer and fail to turn.

Chen Xiangbei's cornering speed was fraught with the risk of losing control and crashing into the wall, yet he executed it flawlessly. With extremely precise line control, he passed the apex point at the apex of the corner at high speed, completing his overtake of Jason Button!

"Teacher Sha, am I seeing the numbers correctly? Xiang Bei is now 0.1 seconds faster than Patton?"

Looking at the lap time displayed on the instrument, Li Bing asked Sha Tong in an incredulous tone.

In running, the inside line is faster than the outside line, but in racing, the outside line is often faster than the inside line.

Furthermore, cornering tests a driver's skills even more, hence the famous saying that speed in corners is the true measure of speed.

Not only did Chen Xiangbei not fall behind Patton, but he was also able to overtake him on the curves.

"No, Chen Xiangbei is currently in the lead. Even when facing the newly crowned F1 world champion, the Chinese driver still shows fierce fighting spirit and a strong desire to win."

"Chen Xiangbei has made a comeback!"

Chen Xiangbei's brilliant cornering maneuver instantly ignited the passion within commentator Sha Tong, whose voice was filled with barely suppressed excitement.

Upon receiving a definite answer from his commentator partner, Li Bing swallowed hard.

The best prediction before the race was that Chen Xiangbei would win if he was within 0.2 seconds slower in each corner against Jason Button.

It's worth noting that Han Han, the strongest Chinese driver in history at the time, averaged more than five seconds slower per race when facing world champion-level F1 drivers using super karting and touring cars!
Chen Xiangbei was not only not slower, but actually faster than Patton?

This bizarre scene actually happened in real life.

Li Bing was speechless at this moment; he could only hope that this was not a coincidence or an accident!
The race was still going on, and after Turn 1, the two cars went their separate ways, driving independently along the inner and outer lanes respectively.

Chen Xiangbei sped past the second inner corner, his speed still astonishing. The smoothness of his cornering and the precision of his control were so impressive that even a novice could appreciate the "beauty" of his driving skills.

Upon witnessing this scene, the British team of maintenance engineers lost their previous relaxed expressions.

One cornering maneuver could be described as an exceptional performance.

Two times is just normal performance!

Could Chen Xiangbei, a paid driver who skipped levels through sponsorship, really have the ability to rival an F1 world champion?
No one would agree with this fact, even if what they were driving now wasn't a Formula One race car, but a modified touring car.

But for an F1 world champion, that's no excuse.

Is it possible for Patton to lose?
Without a direct before-and-after comparison, no one on site dared to give an answer.

The Solution F RV continued speeding along, and soon the two race cars switched lanes.

Chen Xiangbei moved to the outer circle, while Barton ran on the inner circle.

At this point, there will be a real cornering lap time comparison to verify whether Chen Xiangbei can really match Jason Button's speed!

At this moment, the large screen above the Bird's Nest displayed a speed comparison between Chen Xiangbei and Jason Barton, allowing the audience to make a more intuitive judgment.

As they passed Turn 1, Chen Xiangbei was faster on the outside, while Button failed to reach the speed he had on the inside.

On that one turn, Chen Xiangbei widened the gap with Button by 0.2 seconds!
Emotions can be deceiving, but numbers don't lie. Chen Xiangbei's rapid progress is not some fleeting illusion.

Even after switching tracks, Chen Xiangbei still managed to outpace Button.

"Ladies and gentlemen, Chen Xiangbei, a driver from China, has maintained his faster speed and leading position even after switching tracks."

"This match wasn't decided from the start. If Chen Xiangbei can maintain this form, the Chinese team has a great chance of winning, and we can take the game!"

When Li Bing uttered that last sentence, it almost became a shout.

My emotional journey throughout the match was like a rollercoaster ride, from hell to heaven.

If there was any expectation before the competition, it was nothing more than winning a small round by using the strategy of Tian Ji's horse racing.

Chen Xiangbei's performance on the spot ignited the hope of victory.

The Chinese team is not a weakling that gets eliminated in the first round!
"Go Chen Xiangbei! You are also the world's strongest F1 driver!"

"So what if you're a world champion? Our Chinese drivers can win too!"

"Go, Car God Bei! Let the world witness the speed of China!"

The roars of encouragement echoed throughout the Bird's Nest National Stadium.

The Chinese audience at the scene was incredibly excited. Even the middle-aged leaders who were accompanying Peng Sheng to watch the game were caught up in the emotions and stood up to cheer and applaud for Chen Xiangbei.

They truly hadn't imagined that Chinese rookie drivers had reached such a level of skill. Although UnionPay and Sinopec are state-owned enterprises, they still have to consider investment and advertising revenue.

A small sponsorship of a few million is fine, but with F1's world-class influence and the broadcast of nearly twenty races throughout the year, it can still play a certain promotional role.

However, once the sponsorship amount reaches tens of millions of US dollars, a few lenses are far from sufficient to meet the demand.

F1 also has a winner-takes-all scenario. Apart from overtaking and accidents, almost 80% to 90% of the broadcast footage of each Grand Prix focuses on the leading group, while the cars in the back row are basically invisible throughout the race.

To get the footage, you have to at least go to the midstream group.

Another point is that even if you don't perform well in the main race, you should at least make a name for yourself in the qualifying rounds.

If we say that the results of the main race are 70% determined by the car and 30% by the driver.

The ratio of racers to drivers in qualifying is about 50/50.

Even the worst-performing teams can still make it into Q3.

Just like Russell with Williams, Leclerc with Sauber, and Verstappen with Toro Rosso.

They were recognized as super geniuses and promoted to the main team.

It's not about how many points they can get; on the contrary, Russell had a year with zero points at Williams.

But it was precisely this bottom-ranked tractor that Russell shut out his teammates in qualifying throughout the year, making multiple appearances in Q3 and getting plenty of screen time.

If Chen Xiangbei can maintain this performance in the ROC Nations Cup, then he shouldn't be too bad in the F1 Grand Prix, and will meet the standard for "national team" sponsorship!

In contrast to the jubilation of the Chinese audience, the race engineer at the British pit station couldn't help but press the voice call button at this moment.

"Button, you need to speed up. Chinese driver Bei is currently in the lead."

The British engineers never imagined before the race that they would have to remind Button to accelerate.

Based on the normal course of the game, Barton should have dominated the entire match and won with an absolute lead.

However, the situation turned out to be that Chen Xiangbei was faster!

In the history of the ROC Nations Cup, there have been instances where F1 world champions have been defeated.

In fact, due to the different driving events and the presence of a certain "entertainment" mentality, even champion-level drivers such as Schumacher, Alonso, Hamilton, and Häkkinen have lost.

But the opponents they lost to were also dominant drivers in other motorsports.

Chen Xiangbei has the second-worst record in the history of the ROC National Cup, with the first being his teammate Han Han.

How could Button, a complete F1 rookie, be outpaced?

Patton was somewhat shocked when he suddenly heard the instructions from the engineer.

He certainly wasn't taking it too seriously; at least he didn't bring the same level of effort he would have in an F1 race.

But this doesn't mean that Patton went easy on them.

In fact, aside from not taking risks and pushing the limits, Button delivered the performance expected of an F1 champion driver.

Patton truly never imagined that Chen Xiangbei could be faster than him!

Although for an accomplished champion like Barton, winning or losing is not actually important in the ROC National Cup.

But it also depends on who you lose to.

Losing to fellow champions Schumacher, Hamilton, and Raikkonen is fine, as is losing to legendary drivers like Loeb and Christensen; it's still acceptable.

If they lose to newcomer Chen Xiangbei, the situation will be quite embarrassing.

Upon learning the result, Barton did not show much emotional fluctuation, which is consistent with his usual calm style.

It's worth noting that most of Button's contemporaries idolized Senna, while he idolized Prost.

It's a pity this isn't an F1 paddock.

On tracks where drivers directly compete, Button's victory is based not only on his terrifying consistency but also on his ability to continuously put pressure on his opponents.

Imagine you think you're driving fast, but there's always an opponent following you that you can't shake off.

As your tires wear down and you slow down while your opponents speed up, an invisible pressure and sense of oppression will come over you, leading to some pressure-induced mistakes.

Button was unable to put pressure on Chen Xiangbei at the ROC circuit, and his lack of extreme lap speed became a fatal flaw at this point.

If Patton had pushed with all his might from the start, he might have been able to slightly outperform Chen Xiangbei with his overall stability and speed.

When he is in a disadvantageous position, he has almost no chance of catching up with a driver like Chen Xiangbei who takes extreme risks!
This is why Chen Xiangbei did not adopt the "Tian Ji's horse racing" strategy, but instead chose to challenge Patton and declare a 100% chance of winning.

With the ROC track and format, Chen Xiangbei's style has given Button a run for his money.

Even if the opponent is an F1 world champion!

As the two race cars passed the final corner, the inner and outer tracks became parallel again.

This time, Chen Xiangbei, who was on the outer circle, did not run alongside Barton, who was on the inner circle, but instead ran ahead!
The frantic acceleration on the long straight, the roar of the engines gripped the hearts of every Chinese spectator. When the race car crossed the finish line and the lap times of the two drivers appeared on the big screen above, the scene remained completely silent.

1 minutes 58 seconds 012.

1 minutes 58 seconds 518.

Following the shorter lap time above, the pinyin initials of Chen Xiangbei's name appeared.

The time below, which is a full 0.5 seconds slower, actually comes from Jenson Button of the McLaren team.

Even watching Chen Xiangbei cross the finish line first, even watching the rankings appear on the big screen.

The audience was still staring blankly at the big screen, mouths agape, unsure how to celebrate. It was a miracle they couldn't have imagined before the game!
"Won?"

Someone murmured a question first.

"Won!"

This time the answer is affirmative.

"That's right, we won!"

Only at this moment did the 80,000 spectators at the Bird's Nest remember the thunderous cheers and applause.

"Ladies and gentlemen, the opening race has ended. Chinese driver Chen Xiangbei has defeated British driver Jason Button."

"This is not just a duel between two drivers, but also a duel between a rookie and a world champion!"

"Let's give Chen Xiangbei the loudest cheers!"

Li Bing's slightly delayed commentary reminded the audience to cheer for Chen Xiangbei.

The reason is that the impact of that result on him was far greater than when Chen Xiangbei won the Grand Prix.

Chen Xiangbei not only won, but he was also 0.5 seconds faster!
Amidst the deafening cheers from the crowd, Chen Xiangbei rolled down his car window and waved as he returned to the lap.

To be honest, compared to the commentators and the audience, he wasn't too surprised by the result.

When a lion fights a rabbit, he also uses all his strength.

From the first bend, Chen Xiangbei realized that he needed to be faster than Button at cornering speed.

He already had a mental expectation that Patton's conservative approach wouldn't win.

Meanwhile, Button, in another race car, was filled with turbulent emotions.

Back when Button was in the pit lane for the Brawn GP team, he watched Chen Xiangbei's F3 support race, which left a deep impression on him.

At that time, Button had a vague feeling that this Chinese kid was very fast and had the potential and possibility to enter the F1 paddock.

He just hadn't expected that this young Chinese man would grow up so fast.

In just a few months, it has reached a level where it can rival, or even defeat, itself!

Even if you're driving a modified campervan and you don't take any risks, it's still not an excuse for a world champion to lose to a rookie.

How terrifying would it be if Chinese kids had the same speed and adaptability in the F1 paddock?
The future is unpredictable. As Chen Xiangbei and Patton returned to the pit stop, Han Han and Andy, the king of motorhomes, drove onto the track.

The entire ROC tournament cycle lasts only two days, meaning the pace of the competition is extremely fast, providing viewers with excitement almost constantly!

Han Han's result in the competition was both unexpected and reasonable.

He defeated the touring car king Andy using his best rally car, which can be said to be the price that the British team paid for their "arrogance".

They thought it was a "slaughtering game" and didn't care about the type of race car, but they never expected to be slaughtered by the "pig"!
But this was not the end. What happened next once again exceeded the understanding and imagination of the audience.

The Chinese team, widely considered the worst, delivered a humiliating defeat to the Australian team.

Han Han defeated Du Han, the crossover motorcycle king, using ROC-specific racing cars (super go-karts) in the BAN PICK mode.

Most people only know that Han Han won both circuit and rally championships, but they don't know that he was once a Formula One driver and participated in Formula BMW in Malaysia.

Du Han is no match for Han Han when it comes to go-karting.

As for Chen Xiangbei, he surprised everyone even more.

He actually drove a rally car and used drifting to carry out a "massacre" of the Australian V8 World Touring Car Champion.

This scene overturned the outside world's perception.

Chen Xiangbei, this Formula One driver, actually possesses world-class rally and drifting skills. Where did this kid learn his driving skills?

Not only the audience at the scene, but even the professional opponents in the competition felt that they needed to re-evaluate the Chinese team.

These two Chinese drivers may seem to have mediocre results, but they unexpectedly possess true crossover all-rounder attributes, as if they can drive any kind of race car!

(End of this chapter)