Why race if you don’t have money?

Chapter 303 F1 is a team game
As soon as commentator Reid made the announcement, the audience fell silent.

Although Lingyan Circuit is hosting the F1 Grand Prix for the first time, it does not include various track and corner records.

But this does not mean that the outside world knows nothing about the limits of the track.

The reason is simple: those who have raced in qualifying sessions here often find that the fastest lap time in qualifying is the fastest speed to get through the corners of the track.

During Saturday's qualifying session, a rain shower occurred at the Lingyan Circuit, which indirectly affected the overall lap times of the qualifying session.

Even if there is an impact, it won't reach close to 20km/h. Chen Xiangbei's cornering speed of 327km/h is already a significant lead, and Barrichello was instantly overtaken in one corner!

The best second-best driver in history, the Brazilian who once kept pace with Schumacher, even though many know he is quite old and no longer at his peak, Barrichello's "last gasp" last year shows that he can still compete.

So, not only can he not overtake, he can't even keep up with a Chinese rookie?

"Shit, Barrichello dragged his feet and applied pressure for three or four laps, and this is all he got?"

"He got outmaneuvered by the Chinese on just one bend; no wonder he was only fit to be a wingman back then!"

"It was one thing that he couldn't keep up with Barton last year, but now he can't even outrun a rookie?"

"Barrichello, you should just retire!"

Often, the shift from love to hate can happen in just a second. When Chen Xiangbei dumped Barrichello, countless South Korean viewers at the scene were completely overwhelmed.

In fact, not only the audience at the scene, but even the people at the Williams team's outdoor control stand, instantly turned very ugly.

Sir Williams was not blindly optimistic beforehand; on the contrary, his intuition had already vaguely told him that Barrichello might not be able to surpass Chen Xiangbei.

But people have a psychological tendency called "taking a chance".

Consider that Barrichello is a well-established top driver, and he also has an advantage in tires at this race. The cars are evenly matched in performance, and the cars behind can absorb the slipstream of the cars in front for acceleration.

Even if he gets older and his performance declines, his chances of overtaking others are still very high.

The scene dealt a heavy blow to the Williams team. When Chen Xiangbei really put his strength into it, Barrichello couldn't even keep up with him in a single corner and was directly thrown out of the slipstream.

Without the boost from the wake and the slingshot effect, Barrichello, with his tires worn out, has no hope of catching up.

"Barrichello, prepare to enter the station."

Sir Williams pressed the call button on his headset and gave Barrichello the order to enter the station.

"Boss, postpone the entry. I want to try again."

Barrichello did not heed the order to enter the station immediately, his heart filled with resentment.

He was forced to retire from the race after Chen Xiangbei punctured his tires. To be honest, he didn't think he had lost; he was more angry!
The reason is simple: the fully upgraded and super-powered HRT car from the previous race was undoubtedly the "Mars Group" in the paddock. It was only natural that Chen Xiangbei would overtake the Williams team, whose car wasn't even considered a top contender in the Earth Group.

Moreover, the Chinese driver's actions were not clean; his overtaking maneuver was extremely reckless.

At this point, both sides are evenly matched, and the only problem is that Chen Xiangbei can't surpass him.

Barrichello was certainly unwilling to admit that he was inferior to Chen Xiangbei. Going to the pits to change tires would mean defeat, and he wanted to try one more time.

"Barrichello, stop!"

Without any room for negotiation, Sir Williams repeated himself firmly.

With defeat now a foregone conclusion, Williams' goals should be changed.

Instead of surpassing Chen Xiangbei to improve their ranking, they now aim to maintain their ranking within their points zone.

The soft red tires had already passed their peak grip, with Kamui Kobayashi of the Sauber team chasing behind, and his teammate Hulkenberg, who was employing a tire-preserving strategy, even further behind.

Barrichello could no longer stay on the track and had to pit for tires to prevent his opponents from executing an undercut.

“COPY.”

Faced with Sir Williams' tough stance, Barrichello had no courage to resist.

He could only respond with extreme reluctance before driving into the maintenance lane.

"Barrichello's pit stop for a tire change means he has officially given up the chase."

"No one could have imagined that the top veteran's aggressive pursuit would be so easily broken by the North. F1, like racing cars, is ultimately moving forward, and the era of a new generation of drivers has arrived."

Reid said this with great emotion: Hamilton, Vettel, Kubica, Chen Xiangbei and other new generation drivers have gradually become the backbone of the paddock, and some have even won world championships.

Barrichello was indeed very strong, but his era has passed.

Just like the end of the Ferrari dynasty.

Hearing Red's words, Park Dong-wook was at a loss for words.

His judgment that Barrichello would overtake Chen Xiangbei in a maximum of three laps was not only out of dislike and prejudice against Chinese drivers, but also because he genuinely believed in Barrichello's ability!

Reality, however, slapped him hard in the face.

"Damn, Chen Xiangbei!"

"FUCK, driver Bei is too strong, how can he corner so fast?"

"There are no weak drivers who skip a level; after all, he's a man who's one of the twin stars alongside Raikkonen."

"Chen Xiangbei was accused of extortion back then, but now I think he deserves it!"

In contrast to Park Dong-wook's silence, the Chinese audience at the scene erupted in cheers.

Putting aside the question of whether they won or not, defeating Barrichello at least proved two things.

The first thing is that Chen Xiangbei's mental fortitude is terrifying. Despite making a mistake at the start, he didn't show any weakness in the face of the veteran's aggressive attack, and even took the initiative to put on a show.

In the history of F1, there are very few drivers who possess this level of stability.

The second thing is that Chen Xiangbei has officially been promoted to the middle and upper ranks of drivers!

There's a famous saying in Formula 1: "Only when you're driving a bad car can you prove the value of your performance."

Even if you win the world championship for driving the Mars rover, many people will still question whether you're a fraud.

HRT racing cars have a very good foundation and are ranked among the top groups in the paddock. In addition, Chen Xiangbei, as the number one driver, has priority in resources and parts, and there are various rumors circulating outside that he cheated.

He needs to demonstrate his true strength in adversity!

In this race, Chen Xiangbei's racing speed and absolute performance were clearly inferior to his teammate Perez.

Furthermore, this was Perez's first paid substitute race, and his public image was also not very good. The fact that he couldn't even beat a driver with such financial resources is enough to prove that Chen Xiangbei's car is indeed not very good.

But driving a mediocre race car, he achieved a speed that left Barrichello in the dust at the T11 corner, crushing him in the dust.

This means that even without the car, Chen Xiangbei still possesses the hard skills of an upper-middle-class driver!

The future of Chinese drivers no longer needs hype and hype; he is the rising star of the F1 paddock in 10!
With Barrichello's pit stop for a tire change, Chen Xiangbei entered a safe "gap period".

Logically, he should be maintaining a full-on tire-preserving pace; otherwise, with his current energy expenditure, he wouldn't be able to last more than twenty laps, and his speed would drop dramatically in the later stages, by as much as one second per lap.

However, the track lap time leaderboard showed that Chen Xiangbei had not entered cruising mode. He was still slowly and steadily improving his lap time, quickly closing the distance with the car in front of him, Perez.

"What is driver North doing? Is he planning to overtake his teammate Perez?"

Seeing Chen Xiangbei's unusual behavior, Renault team leader Buril muttered something incomprehensible.

He wasn't concerned about Chen Xiangbei, but rather that Renault driver Kubica was ahead of Perez, and given Chen Xiangbei's past behavior, he was definitely not the type to stay put and follow the car.

To be honest, Renault's current team manager, Brill, no longer has the same absolute confidence that Kubica can stop Chen Xiangbei as he did back then.

“In Briatori’s team, infighting is a tradition. He would even actively provoke conflict, forcing drivers to fight each other to determine a winner or loser, so that he could sell official seats in the team.”

The sports manager, Nelson, standing nearby, replied with a dismissive tone.

The current management of the Renault team consists mostly of individuals who previously disagreed with Briatore's philosophy or opposed him.

It was precisely because of their opposing relationship that they were not implicated in the "crash incident." After Briatore and the original Renault management were ousted from the paddock, this faction took over the reins of Renault.

As the saying goes, those who have different views cannot work together, so it's normal for Nelson to criticize Briatore.

"No, I don't think it's internal strife."

Burrell shook his head. If Chen Xiangbei wanted to instigate internal strife, he wouldn't have let Perez go so easily in the first place.

"Who cares if he is or not? Judging from Perez's aggressive and tenacious style before, this Mexican newcomer is no pushover either. It won't be easy for driver North to overtake him."

"With their tires worn down like this, they simply won't pose any threat to Kubica."

Nelson didn't bother to guess at the psychology behind it; he only knew the theoretical data.

Kubica had actually reached the pit stop point on the soft red tires, but his long-distance rhythm was very good and the tire wear was much lower than expected, so he delayed his pit stop and stayed on the track.

As long as the two HRT cars race for three to five laps, even if a winner is eventually determined, it is unlikely to pose a threat to Kubica.

Even if the worst-case scenario occurs and the winner is decided quickly, Kubica should pit for a tire change after three to five laps.

Since the soft red tire lasts longer than expected, the tire compound strategy for the second stop can be changed from the initial red-yellow-yellow (white) to red-red-yellow (white).

Using an extra set of soft red tires will allow you to achieve faster speeds and better finishes!
"You're right."

Burrell agreed with Nelson's assessment, admitting that he had been worrying too much and should have given Kubica more confidence.

This Polish driver had never raced Chen Xiangbei before, so to be honest, it wasn't his fault. The facts have already proven that Renault cars are not as good as HRT cars, and it's normal for a car with a disadvantage to not be able to outrun it.

Chen Xiangbei quickly caught up with Perez's car. Looking at the same black and orange race car in the rearview mirror, and the conspicuous number 13 on the front, Perez felt a little uneasy.

After all, only his teammates truly understand Chen Xiangbei's strength.

Even if he was unwilling to admit it, Perez acknowledged that under absolutely ideal circumstances, he couldn't outrun Chen Xiangbei.

However, admitting defeat is not the same as admitting defeat.

The former refers to character, the latter to psychology.

Chen Xiangbei's acceleration team did not give any instructions, nor was it part of the pre-race strategy. As a professional F1 driver, Perez has his own pride and dignity.

Just as he launched an attack on Chen Xiangbei before, he will defend firmly this time as well!
Just as Perez was fully prepared for the close-quarters battle, he noticed that after Chen Xiangbei entered his wake zone, he did not use the slingshot effect to overtake, but instead simply followed closely behind.

Almost instantly, Perez understood Chen Xiangbei's intention.

The initial collision with the gravel buffer zone and the subsequent two close-quarters battles caused Chen Xiangbei's tires to wear out too quickly.

No matter how hard he tried to save the pregnancy, he still couldn't meet the pit stop criteria for the one-stop tactic.

To change this situation and minimize tire wear while maintaining speed, the only remaining option is to "drive a train" to catch the taillights of the car in front!
Chen Xiangbei chose to accelerate his advance in order to exploit Perez's slipstream.

If it were an opponent or enemy, and the car behind wanted to ride the taillights, they certainly wouldn't let the other party have their way.

You either have to speed up and increase the distance between vehicles, or you have to change lanes multiple times to create turbulence.

If Chen Xiangbei had previously treated Perez as an "enemy," preferring to harm others rather than let his teammate pass, then Perez would most likely treat Chen Xiangbei the same way at this moment.

This is the principle that what goes around comes around.

However, Chen Xiangbei let Perez pass and even gave him a friendly thumbs-up in praise.

Even if it's just to reciprocate a favor, Perez should still return the favor to Chen Xiangbei.

Without the slightest hesitation, Perez made his decision. He ran ahead using the standard line, trying to keep Chen Xiangbei in his wake for the entire race.

Meanwhile, Perez, whose tires were better, stopped maintaining his full-speed pace to protect them. Instead, he gradually increased his speed, taking Chen Xiangbei with him as he chased after Kubica, who was further ahead.

Perez knew about the criticism Chen Xiangbei had faced at the Korean Grand Prix, and he also knew that his Chinese teammate was harboring a grudge and hoped to retaliate against those racist remarks by conquering the track.

Since that's the case, I don't mind lending a hand.

While maintaining a consistent pace might lead to more stable results, it makes it difficult to overtake pole position and win a race. Chen Xiangbei needs faster speed and a more aggressive approach.

As the HRT convoy of two cars created a wake, and the car in front of them quickly closed in on the car, the crew members in the maintenance lane immediately understood why Chen Xiangbei had accelerated ahead.

It's surprising that the two HRT drivers, who had previously been fiercely "fighting" each other, would join hands under these circumstances. The change is so dramatic that it's quite unexpected.

"Briatoli, you didn't expect this to happen, did you?"

Odeto then asked Briatore a question.

His tone contained neither the joy of a victor nor any sarcasm, but rather a sense of感慨 and 穩穩.

To be honest, even he himself did not expect that Chen Xiangbei's decision to give way would lead to HRT's two-vehicle strategy.

F1 is ultimately a team game; meticulous self-interest cannot overcome teamwork!

(End of this chapter)