Why race if you don’t have money?

Chapter 319 Only Vegetables Are the Original Sin
Chen Xiangbei turned around and went downstairs into a spacious basement, where two racing simulators were set up. Perez was sitting in front of one of them, practicing on the Monte Carlo circuit in Monaco.

Because the Monaco Grand Prix circuit is so seamlessly integrated into the streets that spectators can practically watch the race from the balconies of the houses on either side, the HRT team's strategy team didn't stay in a hotel this time. Instead, they rented a villa right next to the track and put the racing simulator in the basement.

This reduces the time spent traveling between hotels and repair shops, allowing drivers to choose to train at any time.

The HRT team's funding problems have now been largely resolved. They no longer need to worry about the transportation costs of racing simulators, nor will there be a situation where two drivers share a single racing simulator.

In addition, influenced by Chen Xiangbei, Perez has been working extremely hard during this period, and he also believes in the saying "Heaven rewards diligence".

Besides Perez training, there was another familiar face in the basement: Trulli, the official driver for the HRT team.

After several months of rest, Trulli's injury has healed and he is currently in the physical rehabilitation phase.

It's important to know that F1 drivers require extremely high muscle strength; otherwise, they cannot accurately control the throttle or brakes. Even a one percent speed error in any corner will exponentially increase the risk of going off the track.

After all, there is no room for redundancy when it comes to F1 tracks. Every corner is like dancing on a knife's edge, pushing the limits of speed, which requires drivers to have absolute control over their cars.

No one can escape the erosion of time. Even a seven-time champion like Schumacher has experienced a precipitous decline in his competitive form after a serious motorcycle accident. How much more so Trulli?
Trulli's return also presents the team with an awkward choice: who to field in the race?

Who will even sign next season?
Perez is somewhat of a beneficiary of the decline in HRT racing competitiveness.

He is not an aggressive driver who pushes the limits. When the team sets up the car to score points over long distances in the race, Perez’s tire-holding ability and long-distance stability are fully demonstrated.

At the same time, although the HRT race car has relatively weak absolute performance, it has no obvious shortcomings; in short, it is easy to drive.

A race car that is easy to drive means it is easier to learn and push its performance limits!

Take the Red Bull racing cars of later generations as an example. In terms of absolute performance, the Red Bull RB20 and RB21 were not weak. Otherwise, Verstappen would not have been able to win pole position or even race wins with them.

It's like a weak tractor; even with Verstappen's superior performance, he couldn't possibly overpower the McLaren duo to reach the top.

Wasn't Alonso strong at his peak in the 10s?
Driving a Honda engine race car with a GP2 level engine, I was being outmaneuvered by my opponents in all sorts of fancy tricks on the straightaway. Even when I stepped on the accelerator into the engine, it was no use!

The reason why the Red Team saw extreme scenarios like Verstappen taking pole position and drivers like Perez, Lawson, and Tsunoda being eliminated in Q1 is largely due to the car being too difficult to drive and the drivers' varying levels of adaptability to the car.

The HRT car, in terms of both research and development design and track setup, is now very well suited to Perez's driving habits. He has now reached tenth place in the overall standings, even surpassing Williams' veteran Barrichello!

This performance is absolutely outstanding for a substitute. Considering his age, potential for growth, and future prospects, it's clear that Perez will surpass Trulli.

Not to mention that Perez also has top sponsors like Telemex, with tens of millions of dollars in funding from the Americas Consortium every year, which is an irresistible temptation for any driver.

The choice of who will become an official HRT driver is clear, at least with Briatore.

The problem is that Trulli's season contract has not yet expired, and resolving the issue prematurely would be seen as discarding him after he has served his purpose, and would also make the team management seem somewhat cold-blooded and ruthless.

Of course, this is not a big deal in the F1 paddock.

Competitive sports are all about survival of the fittest. There are countless cases of F1 paddock eliminations and driver replacements. At most, the audience and fans feel a little regretful, but no one thinks there is anything wrong with it.

The real reason Briatore and the team owner hesitated was the hefty penalty for early termination of the contract. Additionally, Trulli had connections with Ferrari, and HRT, as a customer team, often had to consider the feelings of the engine supplier.

Just like the Ferrari team in later years, which actually had control over its two customer teams, Sauber and Haas, it could even do the opposite, for example, Sauber team principal Vassell was directly promoted to Ferrari team principal.

"Perez, how's training at the Monaco circuit going?"

Odette then walked in and asked a question.

"no problem."

Perez nodded confidently, his tone even carrying a hint of excitement.

He has played nearly ten races as a substitute so far. Although his overall performance is quite good, he has not shown any obvious speed talent. He relies more on his long-distance consistency in the race.

In the F1 paddock law, absolute speed represents a driver's upper limit, while long-distance stability is merely a guarantee of the lower limit.

When selecting drivers, average mid-tier teams often choose the latter for their long-distance stability.

Because speed and risk go hand in hand, pushing your limits recklessly will increase the probability of a crash exponentially. Small and medium-sized racing teams have limited annual budgets, and excessively high repair costs will overwhelm their R&D budgets, resulting in increasingly uncompetitive race cars and creating a vicious cycle.

The Haas team later fell into a vicious cycle, signing drivers who were all known for crashes for several years in a row, with repair costs reaching several million US dollars per season, to the point that they couldn't even supply spare parts.

The small team's annual budget is only a little over 100 million, which includes various personnel salaries and marketing expenses. The actual investment in research and development funds must be carefully calculated. Suddenly losing several million dollars would be fatal!

However, for championship-contending teams, they place more emphasis on a driver's potential.

The reason is simple: large fleets or factory fleets have the money to repair vehicles.

Especially for those engine supplier fleets, the cost of developing their own chassis and power units is much lower than that of private fleets that need to purchase them from outside.

As long as the driver's skill level is high enough and their speed is fast enough, the losses from car repairs can be fully compensated through points, ranking bonuses, and sponsor revenue.

For the same advertising campaign, Ferrari's price is at least several times higher than Haas's!
Today, the HRT team has firmly established itself as a championship contender in the paddock, and naturally places even greater emphasis on the absolute speed of its riders.

In terms of pushing the car to its speed limit in a single qualifying session, Perez is not as good as Trulli.

Theoretically speaking, drivers with insufficient potential would find it difficult to perform well on a highly challenging track like Monaco. However, for some reason, Perez felt he was very comfortable driving on the street circuit, and his simulator lap times were even very close to the track record.

It's important to understand that Monaco, as one of the three crown circuits in motorsport, has already exhausted all the potential for exploring the limits of the track after decades of hosting F1 races, making it extremely difficult to push the boundaries further.

"is it?"

Odette was somewhat surprised by Perez's inexplicable confidence.

However, when Odette saw the number 1 minute 13.583 seconds on the simulator screen, his expression changed slightly.

The current fastest pole position lap record in Monaco is 1 minute 12.791 seconds, set by Schumacher in 2005 driving a Ferrari Mars Rover. Last year's pole position lap time was only at Perez's level.

Although the simulator lap times are somewhat distorted, if Perez can maintain this form, getting into Q3 in qualifying shouldn't be a problem.

For a rookie to finish in Q3 on his first run at the Monaco circuit is an outstanding achievement, exceeding Odeto's expectations for Perez.

"The speed is quite good."

Odeto nodded in approval.

Then he turned to Chen Xiangbei and asked, "Bei, aren't you going to run a couple of laps?" "Forget it, the pre-race press conference is about to start, I need to get ready to go to the track media center."

Chen Xiangbei smiled and shook his head.

To be honest, he has driven the Monaco circuit countless times on track simulators, both in this life and the past.

Given the existing quantity, running the test once or twice more wouldn't make much difference.

Compared to the track simulator, Chen Xiangbei is more looking forward to the real-world experience of practice races!
The biggest difference between street racing and professional racetracks is that the road surface is extremely complex. Various asphalt elevation differences, roughness, potholes, and even the reinforcement errors of manhole covers will all affect high-speed racing cars.

If you're unlucky enough, you might even face unexpected punishment.

For example, in the 23 season, Ferrari's Sainz ran over a manhole cover, which shattered the chassis. The team had to work overnight to repair the car and was forced to replace the power unit, resulting in a ten-place penalty in the race.

It's fair to say that the Monaco Grand Prix is ​​the race with the biggest discrepancy between the actual race and the racing simulator, bar none!

"OK, go ahead."

Odeto shrugged and didn't press the issue.

He knew that with Chen Xiangbei's diligence, he wouldn't lack a couple of laps of simulated practice.

The HRT team's underground training room was quiet, but in fact, the area near the track's media center was already packed with people.

The small town of Monte Carlo, which originally had only 30,000 residents, was flooded with nearly 100,000 spectators on Friday morning because of the F1 Grand Prix, not counting the many tourists who couldn't get tickets.

It's important to know that the Monaco Grand Prix is ​​the only race in F1 that doesn't have to pay any fees to the FIA. It brings more than just a track to F1; it's a gathering place for countless of the world's top billionaires to indulge in extravagance and luxury.

European royalty, top socialites, business tycoons—basically any capitalist extravaganza you can imagine can be seen during the Monaco Grand Prix.

This also allows the winning driver to gain huge exposure and recognition, which is one of the factors that made it the crown jewel of motorsport.

The five drivers selected for this pre-race interview happen to be the top five contenders in the current standings: Alonso, Webber, Vettel, Hamilton, and Chen Xiangbei will all be together again.

Wearing a baseball cap with the HRT team logo, Chen Xiangbei walked towards the track media center. Before he even reached the entrance, he was already surrounded by a dense crowd of fans.

Even when security personnel formed a human wall by holding hands, they still couldn't stop the enthusiastic fan group.

Furthermore, compared to the past when his fans were mostly Chinese and overseas Chinese, Chen Xiangbei's fans are now mostly blond-haired, blue-eyed foreigners. He has gained countless admirers with his strength and achievements!
"Bei, I will always be your supporter!"

"Bei, please sign your name for me!"

"You will definitely become a world champion and make F1 history!"

"The undisputed world's strongest rookie, the racing god Bei!"

"HRT will be the future king of F1!"

Faced with a massive, enthusiastic crowd of fans, Chen Xiangbei could only smile and wave, not daring to linger for long.

He was afraid that if he stayed any longer, he would be "devoured alive" by the car enthusiasts in front of him.

However, at the same time, I also felt a bit emotional. Back then, on any track in Europe, I was basically met with cold stares and ridicule. No one believed that a Chinese driver could achieve good results, let alone fulfill the various wild claims made by the media.

Now, times have changed, and in less than a year, Chen Xiangbei has gained countless supporters.

And many of them exhibited a fanatical devotion.

As it turns out, in competitive sports, being bad is the only original sin; the strong will never lack admiration and respect.

Of course, Chen Xiangbei is not without his haters.

Even players as strong as Schumacher and Verstappen have received a lot of criticism, let alone someone whose achievements are far from those two.

Amidst the fervent fanbase, many opponents couldn't resist offering sarcastic remarks upon witnessing this scene.

"The Chinese are only in fifth place and have a chance to win the championship, but they are acting like they are world champions."

"With each stop the rankings falling further behind, only die-hard fans probably believe that North can win the championship."

"I dare say that driver North's ranking will only drop further, and after this race he will be completely out of the championship race."

"That's for sure, no rookie can conquer the Monaco circuit!"

Most Formula 1 circuits with over 30 years of history have a history of rookie season champions, but the Monaco Monte Carlo circuit is unique in that it has been dominated by famous drivers for almost 60 years, with even upsets being extremely rare.

If Chen Xiangbei fails to win the Monaco title, his lead over the top four drivers will widen further, until he loses any theoretical chance of winning the world championship.

Chen Xiangbei naturally couldn't hear these discussions in the noisy environment.

Even if he heard it, he wouldn't care.

He never broke down when the support and opposition ratio was 99:1. Now he can achieve at least a 50/50 split. What more could he ask for?

After all, I'm not money; I can't expect everyone in the world to like me.

Even when it comes to money, there are exceptions in this world who don't like money.

When Chen Xiangbei walked into the studio, the other drivers who were being interviewed were already sitting on the sofa.

When they saw Chen Xiangbei enter, they merely nodded politely as a greeting, without making any further moves, making the atmosphere somewhat cold.

On the one hand, the world of F1 racing is filled with the loneliness of top drivers; becoming a champion is destined to be a solitary endeavor.

Senna was like that, Schumacher was like that, and Hamilton is the same.

Even the friendship between Verstappen and Norris in later years developed many cracks as the two became rivals for the title.

On the other hand, as a rising newcomer, Chen Xiangbei is bound to become a challenger to the old order.

Indifference, to some extent, implies tension and importance. Only when there are no threatening newbies can a harmonious scene emerge!

(End of this chapter)