Car Racing without Money-Chapter 460 - 183: F1 New Season Highlights

As the days passed, the eight-day F1 Catalonia Circuit winter testing arrived on its final day.

The testing during the entire winter was extremely complex and tedious, including but not limited to tires, engines, fluids, and cooling.

Of course, the most important aspect was still the effect of the aerodynamic package.

This effect is not just observed on a single straight or curve; any dynamic vehicle adjustments, suspension layout tuning, or car weight distribution would affect the aerodynamic performance.

The task for the team was to consider all situations to ensure that no matter what unexpected events occur during the main race, there are ample contingency plans.

However, many things cannot keep up with changing plans, and just the coordination of engine output modes with torque curves and aerodynamic packages nearly made Bob Bell’s hair fall out.

Discovering the direction of car calibration is one thing, but fully applying it is another matter entirely.

Especially with the TF110, it was not even originally designed by Bob Bell himself, making it even more challenging to crack the genius thoughts of the Toyota designer.

Meanwhile, after so many days of testing, some drawbacks of the TF110 car were gradually becoming apparent.

The problems of excessive tire wear and overheated brake discs were still unresolved.

The effects brought about by temperature are almost no less significant than the differences in engine performance, sometimes even deciding the championship’s outcome.

For example, with brake discs, if cooling and ventilation are insufficient, the maximum temperature for a warm-up lap can reach an exaggerated 1200 degrees, causing visible flames on the car when it’s stationary on the starting grid!

Furthermore, one reason McLaren led far ahead in the 2025 season was due to their entire braking system’s exceptionally low temperature, almost requiring no deliberate cooling.

To solve this mystery, the Red Bull Racing Team secretly used thermal imaging to scan the whole car when McLaren pitted for a tire change and found that the brake disc temperature was alarmingly low, beyond the effect that air cooling could provide.

Thus, Red Bull Racing Team reported to the FIA, suspecting that McLaren might be using "water cooling".

However, after multiple inspections by the FIA, they concluded that McLaren’s car was not in violation and had adopted a clever and compliant design.

Regarding what this design actually is belongs to McLaren’s black technology.

This is how F1 racing is; under the constraints of formula regulations, whichever team can develop black technology that others do not have can achieve a groundbreaking "Mars Rover" effect with a leading advantage.

"Our aerodynamic shape still has flaws, and there’s not enough intake air guidance to cool the braking system."

"The design philosophy of the TF110 is more about directing airflow to the diffuser, with the maximum downforce reaching an astonishing over five thousand pounds."

Formula car design is like this; it’s challenging to achieve complete perfection.

Choosing downforce and cornering speed sacrifices airflow through the brake ventilation ducts and the chassis.

The problem is that simply adjusting is not enough to improve these flaws; new aerodynamic packages need to be tested in a wind tunnel.

Unfortunately, the wind tunnel for the HRT Team is still under construction, stalling the improvement to some extent.

Listening to Bob Bell’s description, Briatore remained silent, his attention focused on the winter testing lap time leaderboard.

Currently, Vettel from the Red Bull Racing Team is leading far ahead, pushing the lap time to 1 minute 17.239 seconds over the eight days of testing.

And there’s no guarantee that Red Bull Racing Team doesn’t have something "up their sleeves."

Undoubtedly, the speed of the Red Bull Racing Team proves that combining a similar design philosophy with an exhaust diffuser indicates that the overall direction of the TF110 prototype is not wrong; it merely needs to optimize its aerodynamic shape.

With this foundation, improvement is relatively simpler.

However, Briatore also received intelligence that major teams like Mercedes, McLaren, and Ferrari have already pre-emptively modified their mid-season upgrade packages.

Given their capital strength and development speed, they might "COPY" successfully by the new season’s opening race, employing this black technology of the exhaust diffuser.

Just like last year when the double diffuser from Brawn GP became a trend among other teams during the race, almost costing them the championship.

With last year’s experience, the imitation speed will only be faster this time!

"Is there any good news?"

After a moment of silence, Hua Bu countered with a question.

He didn’t quite understand the development aspect, taking it in stride, and listening more might only add pressure on himself.

"The good news is that our car’s calibration and matching are done very well, whether it’s Xiangbei or Trulli, both are providing optimal solutions under various racing conditions; meanwhile, the engine performance output has been dialed back by ten horsepower."

"If we let Xiangbei or Trulli push to their limits on a single lap, I’m confident we can match Red Bull’s current speed!"

When Bob Bell said this, a hint of pride naturally appeared on his face.

A formidable car must be matched with a good driver.

Of course, there’s no need to elaborate on Trulli; he has already proven himself in single-lap speed, besting renowned drivers like Alonso and Ralf Schumacher.

What surprised Bob Bell even more was Chen Xiangbei!

Throughout the seven days of winter testing, the Chinese rookie outperformed Trulli comprehensively, whether in single-lap or average lap times. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

Although considering power unit reserves and engine longevity issues, there was a forced temporary suspension between the numbers one and two drivers; many times, they did not deliberately push and mainly followed team instructions to conduct test projects.

But under the same conditions, being able to lead Trulli in itself speaks to Chen Xiangbei’s formidable strength.