Why race if you don’t have money?

Chapter 216 The Hidden Enemy of the Track

Saturday afternoon at 2 pm, qualifying for the Australian Grand Prix.

Compared to the 80,000 spectators in the practice session, the number of spectators in the qualifying session is close to 100,000, which is almost reaching the limit of the track's capacity.

Chen Xiangbei had a simple hamburger for lunch and spent the rest of the time reviewing the practice matches with the strategy team.

Two hours is not a long time, but it greatly improved Chen Xiangbei's skills.

There is a Chinese saying that goes, "Among three people walking together, there must be one who can teach me." In the past, Chen Xiangbei would study track data on his own, memorizing things such as the best braking point, the normal racing line, overtaking routes, and defensive strategies.

With the full involvement of Odette and others, Chen Xiangbei was presented with many different perspectives, which gave him a more thorough understanding of the characteristics of racing cars!
However, Odette made a special point before the qualifying session began.

Data is static, video recordings are static, only people are dynamic.

With the same racing line and handling, Schumacher could easily get past, while other drivers might have to crash into the wall.

Chen Xiangbei has no time or resources for trial and error. Whether he can apply the data and racing lines he has learned to the race depends entirely on his adaptability and control over the car and the track.

Just like the name "driver," only the car and the driver are Chen Xiangbei's most steadfast partners!
Before the qualifying race started, Chen Xiangbei walked out of the pit lane. His intention was to experience the weather and wind speed changes firsthand, but he heard several red flags waving at him from the opposite guardrail grandstand, which was directly opposite the pit area.

To be honest, the sight of fans waving national flags at the scene wasn't too surprising for Chen Xiangbei.

He is, after all, China's first F1 driver, and the number of overseas Chinese is quite considerable. Even in Renault-level junior formula racing, there are still supporters who uphold the spirit of camaraderie.

But this time, Chen Xiangbei saw many faces that were clearly foreigners.

"Keep it up, driver Bei! You'll be a rising star!"

"Bei, I think you are the strongest rookie, no less than Raikkonen."

"Bei, a driver from China, will dominate the F1 paddock!"

Various accents of English conveyed almost the same message: support and encouragement for Chen Xiangbei.

F1 is ultimately a competitive sport that values ​​strength. Historically, many drivers, including Verstappen, did not have a good reputation in their early days, but won over the audience with their performance and results.

Chen Xiangbei is now following in the footsteps of his predecessors!

"Brother Bei, we also have quite a few foreign supporters."

Ah Yong came to Chen Xiangbei's side at this moment, his tone filled with surprise and excitement.

It's worth noting that Chen Xiangbei encountered a lot of hostility and abuse as soon as he got off the plane, which reached its peak at the pre-match press conference.

To the point that A Yong never imagined that such a group of foreign supporters would appear on the track.

"As long as you achieve results, you will naturally have supporters all over the world; that's the law of competitive sports."

Briatore appeared out of nowhere and calmly replied.

In terms of insults and accusations, Hua Bu suffered more than ten times more than Chen Xiangbei, yet he still managed to gain the trust of the team and the favor of the drivers.

The root cause lies in the team's performance!
"maybe."

Chen Xiangbei replied with a smile.

He didn't know when it started, but he felt that he and Huabu had more in common.

From the outside perspective, both of them might be seen as "villains" within the paddock.

This feeling didn't last long; soon Odeto instructed Chen Xiangbei to change into his racing suit and get ready.

As the countdown to qualifying began, a tense atmosphere filled the paddock, with each team member executing their pre-race strategy in an orderly manner.

Chen Xiangbei didn't pit first this time; he sat in the cockpit and waited for his chance. The Albert Park circuit is inherently slippery, and with the occasional crosswinds from the lake, the cars that pit first often don't achieve good times, only wasting tire and engine life.

Only when enough rubber particles accumulate on the track's running line can the best grip be achieved.

Of course, the downside is that twelve teams and twenty-four drivers have exceeded the capacity of a "semi-street" environment.

Starting in the final quarter of qualifying will result in severe traffic congestion, and you might not even be able to complete a single flying lap.

"North, have you memorized all the track data?"

Before departing, Odeto asked a question.

"I've memorized it, every single bend is exactly the same."

Chen Xiangbei pointed to his head, perhaps he couldn't reach the top level of academic excellence in studying.

However, he has absolute confidence in all kinds of track data and racing lines.

All his past flaws, as well as Schumacher's control and line details, were deeply etched into his mind like a brand.

"very good."

Odette had no doubts; he had witnessed Chen Xiangbei's imitation of Schumacher's running line at Spa.

When this guy gets serious, he can do pixel-perfect copying!
"The race center is constantly updating the weather data. There is a high probability that the wind will pick up during qualifying, so you need to be constantly aware of the car sliding and swaying."

"clear."

Odeto has emphasized the importance of "wind" more than once, which is what makes the lakeside circuit special.

In addition, there are some "high-altitude mountain" tracks in Europe, such as the Nürburgring and Red Bull Ring, where sudden mountain winds may occur.

Legendary driver Niki Lauda once experienced a loss of control due to mountain winds at the Red Bull Ring.

After receiving confirmation from Chen Xiangbei, Odeto said nothing more and turned his gaze to another garage of the team.

Trulli's No. 14 car has started, and he will be the first to step out of the pits and complete a flying lap.

The advantage of the old kit is that the team and driver are familiar with its characteristics and tuning direction, making it easier for Trulli to find the "balance point" that suits him.

At the same time, its high downforce characteristics are also well-suited for the complex weather conditions of the Albert Park circuit, so there is no need to worry about the effects of slight turbulence.

With the roar of the Toyota engine, Trulli left the pit garage and headed toward the maintenance lane. The crew members instinctively focused their attention on the onboard camera footage and the data monitoring screen.

The competition within the team is more limited to the two drivers and their respective engineering teams. For most HRT team members, Chen Xiangbei and Trulli are equally important.

Their results all belong to the HRT team's victory. The black and orange TF110 race car sped by, and whether it was spurred by the competition within the team or Trulli's truly excellent form, his first flying lap was incredibly fast.

It directly surged to third place with a time of 1 minute 24.995 seconds!

This is also the first time a driver has broken the 1 minute 24 second barrier.

"OH MY GOD, HRT driver Trulli has overtaken Ferrari and Mercedes drivers and moved directly to third place in the qualifying session."

"Does HRT team really intend to challenge the dominance of the top four teams in the paddock?"

The race commentator, Redd, had a very impressive voice. Although last year saw some smaller teams make a comeback, with Toyota, Willems, and even Force India all challenging the dominance of the "Big Three" teams.

As a result, all ten teams in the paddock scored points at the end of the season!

Keep in mind that these were results before the points system reform, where only those who finished in the top six could earn points, so you can imagine how difficult it was.

However, HRT's performance of having two cars in Q3 in the opening race and then achieving a qualifying third place in the second race was somewhat unexpected by Reid.

This already has the feel of the Brawn GP team from last year!
"Many people underestimate the strength of the HRT team and the speed of their cars."

"Don't forget, HRT inherited Toyota's legacy and has the capability to challenge the four major teams in the paddock!"

Prost gave an affirmative answer, having founded a namesake F1 team after retiring, and has a deep understanding of the words "foundation" and "legacy".

The Prost team's performance results were drastically different due to a single decision: whether to choose a Peugeot engine or a Renault engine.

If only they had chosen the established Renault team instead of the "newcomer" Peugeot.

The Prost team might have had a completely different fate.

F1 is ultimately a game where three parts depend on the driver and seven parts on the car. HRT, with the support of Toyota technology, cannot be viewed as a mere "newcomer" to the paddock.

"The second HRT bus has left the station. I wonder if driver Bei can continue his teammate's amazing performance."

To truly understand the strength of Toyota's heritage, we need to look at the performance of the two drivers from the same team.

If Chen Xiangbei can also achieve the top lap time, then the rise of the HRT team will truly be unstoppable.

On the track, Chen Xiangbei was doing his warm-up laps. Just before he left the pits, he saw Trulli's lap time, which had already surpassed his fastest lap time during the third practice session.

Chen Xiangbei was not too surprised by this.

Trulli is similar to the later Finnish driver Bottas; given a good car, he has top-notch qualifying ability, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to defeat his rival Alonso.

After getting used to the opening race and becoming familiar with the Albert Park circuit, it's no surprise that Trulli was able to set an amazing lap time.

Chen Xiangbei needs to maintain a calm mindset and face his opponents squarely.

"Xiang Beijun, there are fifteen cars on the track. Pay attention to the timing of the flying lap."

During the tire warm-up process, Hiroki Sawano provided information about the race track.

With improved track grip, many teams have released their cars, causing traffic congestion.

Chen Xiangbei needs to maintain a sufficient distance from the car in front to avoid being blocked during the flying lap.

The problem is that others think the same way. With fifteen cars evenly distributed across the track and the number constantly increasing, finding the perfect moment for a flying lap is not easy.

“COPY.”

After giving a brief reply, Chen Xiangbei slowed down.

Watching the car in front of him gradually disappear into the distance, he stepped on the gas pedal to the floor, and instantly the deafening roar of the engine filled his ears. The TF110 race car rushed across the starting line like a black lightning bolt!

Compared to the difficulty of controlling the car during practice sessions, after several rounds of adjustments, Chen Xiangbei felt that he had resonated with the car and gradually regained that sense of ease in handling it.

With heavy braking into the T1 corner, Chen Xiangbei doesn't need to worry about tire wear or brake cooling during qualifying. He only needs to push the car to its performance limits and increase his speed.

The immense G-force of braking at the end of the straightaway swept in, but Chen Xiangbei had gradually adapted to this impact. He gripped the steering wheel tightly, downshifted, and smoothly found the apex point to take the corner.

Any turn that is slightly too early or too late will cause the car to go off the track or miss the best cornering line.

Chen Xiangbei did not make such a mistake. His cornering line was extremely precise and smooth. At the same time, he linearly stepped on the accelerator to accelerate out of the corner, keeping the car in the strongest mechanical grip and cornering traction state at all times.

It can be said that Chen Xiangbei achieved the perfection of his current driving skills on the T1 curve!
"Team leader Odeto, compared to the third practice session, Xiang Beijun's cornering speed at T1 has improved by a full 0.1 seconds!"

Looking at the real-time data displayed on the monitor screen, Mizutani Sho's eyes widened in utter shock.

Theoretically, it's difficult for a driver to achieve such a tenth-second improvement if they don't make any mistakes in the previous lap; a hundredth or even a thousandth of a second would be considered quite good.

After all, the track has more than a dozen corners, and each one can improve the time by 0.1 seconds, which would be more than 1 second per lap. How exaggerated is that?
But the reality is right in front of us. Chen Xiangbei's push to the limit in the third training session was flawed in many ways, but it cannot be described as a mistake.

With such an improvement in qualifying, Mizutani Sho thinks Chen Xiangbei must have achieved the fastest T1 cornering speed in the entire race!

However, Mizutani Sho did not receive a response from Odeto. The in-vehicle monitoring footage showed a slow-moving car appearing in front of Chen Xiangbei.

This was the car Chen Xiangbei had deliberately kept a distance from earlier. He didn't expect to be overtaken after just one bend. The other car had already completed the warm-up lap. Did it mean that it wasn't planning to speed on the second lap?
No one knows what the car in front is thinking, and this situation is common in the first qualifying round when traffic is congested.

The only thing to be clear about is that the car in front wasn't blocking the driving lane on the curve, so Chen Xiangbei only needed to overtake on the short straight section.

Although changing lanes will result in a loss of speed, it will not have a significant impact on the final lap time.

This scene didn't just happen once. Soon, at the T5 bend, another slow car appeared in front of Chen Xiangbei. This time, the other car was occupying the driving lane and showed no intention of giving way.

Chen Xiangbei, who was speeding along, naturally couldn't afford to rear-end it; he could only take the initiative to avoid it.

This overtaking maneuver on the curve resulted in a noticeable loss of speed.

But similar situations didn't end there. When Chen Xiangbei encountered a slower car for the third time on the speed lap, the other car didn't deliberately block him, but it also didn't make any move to give way to him.

Even the track commentators noticed something was wrong when this happened.

Reid said with a surprised tone, "Something seems off on the track today. On this lap to the north, we encountered several slow cars, and they all chose to occupy the lanes."

"This situation is very rare in Formula racing. Could it be some comments he made before the North Coast race, or his overtaking style in the opening race, that angered many drivers in the paddock, leading them to choose this silent response?"

(End of this chapter)