Why race if you don’t have money?

Chapter 229 The Black Ghost on the Track
"Wonderful!"

"I simply can't find the right words to describe Bei's overtaking maneuver. His movements were extremely sharp and swift, giving the impression of a desperate, all-or-nothing decision."

"His ability to widen the cornering width by riding on the kerb, his precise finding of the apex point during the second acceleration inside the corner, and so on—every single one of these maneuvers is beyond the reach of a novice, let alone considering that his opponent is Massa from Ferrari!"

"Is driver Bei really going to reach the podium?"

Red described the overtaking scene at a very fast pace, his tone filled with amazement and passion.

He thought Chen Xiangbei could catch up with Massa purely because of the yellow flag slowing him down due to the track accident.

Now it seems I greatly underestimated new talent in China!
Driver Bei is not just fast; whether it was the "pendulum" save at the beginning or the extremely precise overtaking on the shoulder just now, it completely exceeded the level that a rookie should have.

This is not just a matter of technical factors, but also of mindset and experience.

The timing was so masterful that Massa was left completely defenseless!
"Massa, what happened? How did you get overtaken by a newbie?"

A voice from the Ferrari team came through the headset, sounding surprised and accusatory.

Under normal circumstances, when their own driver is overtaken, the team management will at most be frustrated in the pit lane, but will not publicly question them via radio, as that would only affect the driver's mentality and be meaningless.

But the current situation is not normal!
Ferrari's strategy team simply couldn't understand why Massa would be outpaced by a newcomer on the track after just two laps in the rain.

Even though Massa is known for being a "landlubber," his poor performance in the rain is relative to historical GOTA drivers.

It's not shameful to be inferior to Senna or Schumacher!
Just like the skills of F1 drivers, they are only compared to the top 20 in the world.

If we were to run other professional competitions, even if the worst player, Yuuji Ide, were to compete, it would be a crushing defeat, like a dimensional reduction attack.

But Massa was overtaken...

This is just as absurd as Senna being overtaken by Massa in the rain!
"I……"

Massa pressed the call button on the steering wheel, instinctively wanting to explain something.

He had barely uttered the word "I" when he could no longer speak and could only silently let go, unable to hear anything more.

Once you lose, any explanation seems weak and ineffective.

What's more, even Massa himself didn't understand how he lost!

It's important to know that road shoulders are already slippery compared to asphalt surfaces, and when they get wet from rain, they have almost no grip at all.

In this situation, to overtake using the curb, you must ensure that the center point of the tire and the curb are perfectly aligned, relying on the car's own weight and air pressure to prevent the tire from slipping.

To achieve this standard, centimeter-level control is required.

It's not like a dictionary that's ten or so centimeters thick; it's only one centimeter thick!

Without slipping or losing control, Chen Xiangbei did just that.

Massa asked himself honestly, if he ran like this ten times, his chances of success wouldn't even be more than 50%.

Are Chinese newlyweds just lucky enough to win a 50% chance?

Hearing Massa's abrupt stop, his race engineer, Smedley, wanted to continue asking questions.

Team leader Domenicali turned off the team's voice chat and shook his head at Smedley.

There's no use in rushing things. To figure out what really happened, we'll have to wait until the game is over.

In a sense, Ferrari's management already knows the answer, but they are just not willing to accept it yet.

"Holy crap, Chen Xiangbei is awesome! You took down Massa!"

"Is the once-unrivaled Ferrari team now unable to outrun HRT?"

"Rainy conditions are the only true test of a driver's skill, and driver Bei will undoubtedly be the strongest newcomer this year!"

"North, I witnessed Senna's madness back then, and today I'm witnessing the speed of a new Chinese talent!"

The audience went wild. This was no longer just a problem for Chinese fans; more than half of the European and American fans, including those from Australia, switched sides and erupted in cheers and thunderous applause.

If Chen Xiangbei's "skip-grade" entry into the F1 paddock is indeed possible, there is still a possibility of capital manipulation involved.

Now, by chasing Massa twice in a row and finally overtaking him in the rain, he has demonstrated his real driving skills and talent.

The title of "genius driver" is common in the F1 paddock. Basically, whoever wins a regular driver's seat has never been known as a prodigy?

At this moment, the F1 paddock will finally welcome a Chinese racing prodigy!

Sitting on the outdoor command platform, Hiroki Sawano listened to the cheers for Chen Xiangbei and said to Oddo with great excitement, "Team leader, did you see that? This is the strength of Xiangbei Junyu Zhan."

Odeto was at a loss for words when faced with Hiroki Sawano's words.

At this moment, the unexpected actually outweighs the joy.

As the former team principal of the Super Aria team, Odeto had long been in contact with Japanese engineers. He knew very well that these people were conservative and pragmatic, or to put it another way, they had a strict professional hierarchy and dared not "speak out" in front of their superiors.

So much so that when Hiroki Sawano uttered the phrase "showtime," Odeto felt more skeptical than anything else.

Now he understood that Hiroki Sawano had not exaggerated at all.

No wonder Chen Xiangbei had been looking forward to the rain match since the practice games started. His aggressive and extreme maneuvers were reminiscent of a young Senna.

The same brilliant driving, the same adventurous challenges!
Of course, having spent half his life in the paddock, Odette had seen all sorts of things, and he wasn't so shocked as to lose his composure.

He took a deep breath to calm himself down and then spoke to Chen Xiangbei to let him know.

"North, the driver ahead is Red Bull Racing's No. 6 car, Webber, you are 3.1 seconds behind him."

Now that they have surpassed Massa, they should identify their next opponent.

He is Australian driver Mark Webber!
Webber, in his thirties, is already considered a veteran in the F1 paddock.

Webber is a standard top-tier driver. Give him a good car and he can drive at the corresponding speed without dragging the team down.

Conversely, if you give him a crappy car, don't expect him to achieve results beyond expectations.

The 10 season was Webber's last competitive season. On the one hand, the young Vettel had not yet established his dominance and had not received full support from driver resources.

On the other hand, his condition did not decline significantly.

In terms of a driver's condition, it's actually quite similar to that of an e-sports player.

They might have been as fierce as a tiger last year, dominating everything in their path.

The following year, he performed terribly, instantly plummeting to the brink of retirement.

Perez, who came after, was known as the "King of the Streets" at the beginning of the season, and showed signs of being able to compete with Verstappen for the title.

He was so bad at the end of the season that he couldn't even qualify for Q2. He's definitely a third-rate driver and doesn't deserve to stay in the paddock.

Even at his peak, Webber was still only a first-class driver, not a top-tier one.

Just like the current track situation, Webber relied on the performance of the Red Bull car to get third place, while his front row competitors were Hamilton, Vettel, Alonso and Schumacher, four historic WDC drivers with a total of twenty world championship titles.

How do you expect him to play?
Despite his best efforts to stop them, and with the game in the rain, Webber still couldn't withstand the combined attack of Alonso and Schumacher, and could only fall to fifth place.

If Chen Xiangbei surpasses him, he will equal the opening match result. As for going any further, he will enter the realm of the "battle of the gods".

"receive."

With a concise and economical reply, Chen Xiangbei sped up and headed forward.

Raindrops fell on the helmet visor, forming streaks of water that slid down, but they did not hinder Chen Xiangbei in the slightest.

On the contrary, he felt like a fish in water at that moment.

There's no difference in racing car performance, so there's no need to worry about brake overheating or tire maintenance issues.

The pure and fair handling and driving experience is truly exhilarating!

"North is very fast. Although Schumacher broke his fastest lap record, he is still much faster than Webber."

"One lap, just one lap is enough to catch up to their attack range!"

"My God, that's a three-second difference!"

Commentator Reid felt stunned. Before the match, probably no one could have imagined that Chen Xiangbei would be so formidable in the rain, with such incredible speed.

Upon hearing this, Prost, who was standing nearby, murmured with emotion, "To be honest, this pursuit around the north reminded me of the Seine in the rain."

"Yes, a lap in the rain takes almost 4 seconds."

Commentator Red chimed in with a comment.

Anyone who lived through that crazy era where speed was everything will forever have admiration and respect for Senna's rain-soaked battles.

It's uncertain whether another legendary driver will emerge in the future.

Webber of the Red Bull Racing team on the track was unaware of the commentators' remarks, let alone the fierce battle between Chen Xiangbei and Massa.

His attention had been entirely focused on battling with the front row riders.

When Webber caught a glimpse of the black and orange HRT race car in the rearview mirror out of the corner of his eye, he felt as if it were a black phantom that had suddenly appeared.

How did Chen Xiangbei, who was ninth in qualifying, manage to catch up to his own car before the race was even halfway through?
"Did the North successfully use the rain-induced undercut (tactical overtaking)?"

Webber asked via voice message that Trulli, Rosberg, and Massa were no rookies, and that on the Albert Park circuit, where overtaking was difficult, he would be doing quite well if he could overtake even one person.

The only way to surpass three others is to seize the opportunity of rainfall and achieve a tactical overtaking.

Otherwise, it's impossible to explain how he ended up behind me.

When Webber asked him a question, Horner and Webber's game engineer, Pilbim, exchanged a glance.

Then he pressed the call button and replied, "No undercut, North has overtaken several times and moved into sixth place."

"Massa couldn't stop it?"

Webber's tone was full of surprise. He knew Massa's strength very well; it was impossible for him not to be able to stop a newcomer.

No, focus on defense.

"Going north, it was almost three seconds faster than you."

Horner didn't say much irrelevant information, but simply told Weber about Chen Xiangbei's speed on the previous lap.

Being able to get close to three seconds, and possessing such rain-soaked ability, Webber should understand what defensive stance to adopt.

Three seconds?

Upon hearing this number, Weber gasped.

I'm afraid even if Schumacher were to try and catch up, the difference in speed would be about the same.

Before Weber could recover from his shock, Chen Xiangbei had already caught his wake, and the distance between the two cars had closed again.

Upon seeing this, even the most clueless spectators knew that Chen Xiangbei was ready to attack.

As the home driver, Webber naturally received cheers from the crowd.

"Go Webber, get rid of those Chinamen already!"

"This is Australia's home ground. No one knows Albert Park Circuit better than you. Don't give the driver any chance!"

"Show your true strength, Webber, and teach the new Chinese players a lesson!"

"Webber, take down driver North!"

The home field is the home field after all. Instantly, tens of thousands of spectators stood up excitedly, and Australian flags were waving all over the track.

Even if you can't hear anything, just looking at this blue ocean gives you an invisible sense of support.

[Challenge me?]

[Chinese newcomer, you're not qualified!]

Webber silently repeated this sentence to himself. Compared to Massa, who was somewhat "weak" and nicknamed "Baby," this Australian driver was much tougher.

With a press of the accelerator, the Red Bull race car began to accelerate, displaying its powerful acceleration capabilities and instantly leaving Chen Xiangbei, who was preparing to turn around and attack, behind.

Rain can indeed bridge the gap in absolute performance between race cars, but it cannot completely eliminate the gap in relative performance.

At least in terms of engine torque and power, Renault completely outperforms Toyota.

In that instant, Chen Xiangbei felt what it meant to be "demoted" by a "Mars rover". As long as Weber was willing to accelerate, even if the TF110 stepped on the accelerator to the point of the engine, it could only barely catch up with the other's tail on the long straight!

What followed shocked Chen Xiangbei even more: the Red Bull race car demonstrated an overwhelming advantage in terms of grip in the corners.

Both sides are equipped with exhaust diffusers of the same technical direction. Even if Chen Xiangbei's newly upgraded aerodynamic kit reduces downforce, there shouldn't be such a significant difference.

Is it a problem with the car, or is it that his own skills are lacking, allowing him to only beat "landlubbers" like Massa?
If it were the former, Chen Xiangbei could accept it.

If it's the latter, how freakish must Alonso and Schumacher be to be able to overtake Webber?
"Mazzola, can you monitor Red Bull racing data?"

Chen Xiangbei asked a question through the team's voice chat system, feeling that the other party was moving ridiculously fast.

"Red Bull has a new chassis for this race, with a slight reduction in the height of the lower control arm on the rear suspension. I suspect this will increase the efficiency of the Webber diffuser's F-channel exhaust and improve downforce in the corners."

"Before it rains, this highly efficient and hot air will cause the Red Bull race car's brakes and tires to overheat, so they cannot accelerate at full speed and are constantly overtaken."

"Rainy weather provides additional cooling assistance, allowing the new chassis to fully demonstrate its capabilities."

Red Bull Racing has always been a focus of HRT research, and Mazzola has an excellent understanding of the changes in car characteristics.

Upgrade kits are often like this; they're rarely perfect when you first install them, and they have both advantages and disadvantages.

The rain-soaked game allowed Red Bull's new chassis to perform at its full potential, making it even more difficult for Chen Xiangbei to surpass Webber than to surpass Massa.

He will face not only driving skills, but also the performance of the race car!

(End of this chapter)