Car Racing without Money

Chapter 798 - 325: Let Me Teach You How to Run (Part 2)

This means that half the drivers may retire due to various issues.No one can guarantee whether Chen Xiangbei or Perez will crash again, at least give the drivers a reminder.

"Then hurry up and repair, thank you for your hard work."

Odetto patted Liang Chi’s shoulder; accidents often can’t be avoided, so naturally, no guarantees can be given.

In the drivers’ lounge, Chen Xiangbei sat expressionless on the sofa, his eyes watching the practice session broadcast hanging on the wall.

The second practice continued as usual, with overall lap times getting faster as drivers grew more skillful. Particularly the two Red Bull Racing Team drivers, Weber and Vettel, both reached slightly over 1 minute and 13 seconds, extremely close to Chen Xiangbei’s lap time.

The stable performance throughout the season has proven that Red Bull Racing’s speed isn’t just based on some black technology; more importantly, it’s Newey’s brilliant design concept, which brings about a balanced overall performance.

It can be said that the Red Bull RB6 of the 2010 season is not significantly superior, already halfway belonging to the Mars Rover category.

It’s just that the McLaren and Ferrari cars are equally strong, preventing a scenario of complete domination.

Now, on the Monaco Circuit, which highly values vehicular mechanical quality, Red Bull Racing’s advantage is fully displayed—even Weber, known for weaker absolute speed, still achieves astonishing lap times.

Chen Xiangbei knows very well that his practice session results can’t stop the Red Bull Racing Team, and can’t even stop Rosberg’s 1 minute and 12.791 seconds!

While watching the broadcast video, Trulli pushed the door open and came in.

After experiencing teamwork at the China Station and visiting the hospital afterward, Chen Xiangbei and Trulli’s relationship improved greatly, at least no longer utterly competitive adversaries.

However, neither of them is particularly sociable or warm-hearted, and with men’s natural distaste for sentimental gestures, they still maintain a superficially distant gentleman-like relationship.

"Frustrated about the crash?"

Trulli asked.

"It has nothing to do with the crash."

"What then?"

"I’m too slow."

Chen Xiangbei finally voiced his inner thought to Trulli.

That is, he is too slow!

From the first practice, while others were validating their technical setups, Chen Xiangbei was mostly running at full speed.

Even so, he still didn’t break into the 1 minute and 12-second domain.

Objectively speaking, it was Chen Xiangbei’s first time racing on the Monaco Circuit; despite having two lifetime experiences, it merely amounted to simulator training. Moreover, after ten-plus years, track conditions differ greatly, making it hard to completely bring past experiences onboard.

Failing to run top-tier lap times is indeed understandable.

Yet the problem is, within the F1 Paddock, no one cares whether you are understandable!

Or expanding to the entire competitive sports arena, losing means you’re weak; no excuses can be accepted!

Regarding the recent accident, while Chen Xiangbei didn’t intentionally close in for the crash, his actions indeed had a hint of closing in.

Of course, Rosberg also had a "torpedo" suspicion.

Neither party can be said to be right or wrong, but with the same conditions in qualifying, Chen Xiangbei would not be able to block again.

With such speed, in the best case, Chen Xiangbei might enter Q3 but grabbing pole position or even a front row start is impossible.

Currently ranked fifth in the standings, for Chen Xiangbei’s championship aspirations, he must win the remaining two races, and the leaderboard’s top-ranking Alonso can’t afford two second-place finishes, nor can Weber and Vettel secure podiums.

The conditions are highly demanding, almost only theoretically possible.

But Chen Xiangbei still wants to give it a shot.

No one can resist the allure of being a world champion; just look at Rosberg and Hamilton as examples.

Both have admitted that the world championship is more important than friends, not to mention childhood friendships!

Chen Xiangbei is now at the pinnacle of the racing pyramid; that car crown is within reach, and it also carries the potential for a rookie season’s historic champion record. He profoundly yearns to take this final step.

Thus, he sat dejectedly in the drivers’ lounge.

The pressure at the crucial moment of competing for the championship is far greater than imagined!

"You indeed are pretty slow."

Trulli said with a mocking smile and then sat on the lounge sofa, casually flipping through the data on the Monaco Circuit.

For hot-tempered young drivers, they might consider Trulli to be deliberately kicking them while they’re down, not to mention that this old guy couldn’t run faster than him, yet dares to say "slow"?

But Chen Xiangbei merely chuckled; he already acclimated to Trulli’s annoying style, no wonder he caused public disputes with management and got booted out from both Jordan Team and Renault Team.

His mouth alone bears at least half the blame.

"Do you know why you are slow?"

Trulli asked again.

"Conflicting driving style and circuit characteristics lead to too many corner corrections."

"Not just that."

"What else?"

Chen Xiangbei countered.

"You don’t fully understand the Monaco Circuit."

This statement left Chen Xiangbei speechless.

Pure nonsense, if he understood, wouldn’t he be faster?

As Chen Xiangbei was about to dismiss this, Trulli pointed to the circuit data and said, "You made a mistake from the starting T1 corner; this corner appears to have expanded slightly for safety, allowing better utilization of track width."

"In reality, once you ride up the curb, you instantly face a shrinking circuit protection wall and must return to the inside of the line. Isn’t it equivalent to correcting twice with a back-and-forth?"

Is there?

Chen Xiangbei paused to listen to Trulli, beginning to frantically recall the actual track condition in his mind.

Indeed, the T1 corner curb width didn’t match the protection wall setup; a section of the wall was directly placed on the painted curb, necessitating coming down from the curb to round it, otherwise, the left front tire would scrape the wall, causing damage.

Chen Xiangbei’s mistake lay in exploiting the driver’s instinct to fully use the curb for faster speeds.

Adding to this, the correction’s amplitude was extremely slight; it was unclear whether taking the curb and coming down was faster or staying off it was quicker!

"After exiting T1, there’s an uphill section that appears to have many corners; actually, there’s a straight line within which requires no steering. You slightly switched lanes twice within this winding section."

This point just mentioned by Trulli was known by Chen Xiangbei, yet he didn’t realize he had moved the steering wheel.

"You noticed my control?"

"Of course, why else would I stand at the P-room?"

Saying this, Trulli’s face showed a trace of mocking smile.

"Xiangbei, I still might become a formal driver for the HRT Team."

"To defeat a teammate, understand them more."

"And don’t forget, I am still a Monaco champion."

Monaco champion?

Hearing this statement, Chen Xiangbei paused again; truth be told, Trulli isn’t particularly renowned in F1 history.

Or to phrase it differently, from a ten-year dimension in F1, drivers who remain memorable are either top-tier WDC or those who left behind iconic scenes.

For instance, Chen Xiangbei’s initial deep impression of Trulli was more about his road battles on track with Sutil.

After all, genuinely engaging in post-race fights is rare.

Yet, in fact, the 2004 Monaco Station champion driver came from the Renault Team’s Trulli, this is his sole race victory, also his career highlight!

Thanks to this Monaco victory, Trulli gained high appraisal.

Unfortunately, soon after in 2005, he faced the truly GOAT-level driver Alonso, akin to Barrichello facing peak Schumacher.

Whoever faces him suffers!

"T6 Hotel Corner needs to drop to 1st gear, your rpm is too high, and the tail-end sway is substantial."

"T9 is a full-throttle tunnel bend, requiring no special handling; mainly pay attention to the sunshine’s light transition, causing instinctive delayed deceleration in humans."

"For T12, you need..."

Trulli meticulously explained to Chen Xiangbei about specific corner handling and his controller shortcomings.

The comment about wanting to defeat his teammate served more as a self-esteem shield.

Trulli truly wanted to find an excuse to impart his experience, teaching Chen Xiangbei how to navigate Monaco Circuit!