Car Racing without Money-Chapter 476 - 187: You Think You Deserve to Play the Victim? (3)

Chapter 476: Chapter 187: You Think You Deserve to Play the Victim? (3)

Only by allowing Chen Xiangbei to have sufficient awareness can he make cautious judgments in the race.

"Odetto, do you need me to conduct a test program?"

"No need, just get familiar with the track."

Odetto refused Chen Xiangbei’s suggestion; many things cannot be rushed.

F1 is not a lower-level formula; it leaves no room for error, and even the audience’s tolerance for drivers is extremely low.

A rookie’s status is not a get-out-of-jail-free card. Once there’s a collision with the wall, they will face overwhelming ridicule and mockery, much like a famous "director" adjective from home.

Many rookie drivers can’t withstand the pressure and desperately want to redeem their image with good results. Often, this mindset leads to crash after crash, falling into a vicious cycle from which they cannot extricate themselves.

Until they are abandoned by the team and quietly exit the F1 Paddock.

Similar situations are not isolated, even experienced drivers cannot avoid them.

Take Perez and Ricardo, once renowned drivers, whose mental states crumbled before leaving the paddock, resulting in disastrous performances.

Competitive sports won’t give them time to adjust, naturally leading to a complete collapse.

Chen Xiangbei couldn’t hear the boos and jeers from the crowd, but Odetto standing in the team pit could hear them loud and clear.

Although he knows Chen Xiangbei is not thin-skinned, those talented young people who exited the F1 paddock — who was born thin-skinned?

Ultimately, they were crushed under pressure after a severe setback.

F1 offers ample practice sessions, and the team has Trulli to share the test programs. Odetto’s requirements for Chen Xiangbei for the opening race were simple.

Which is to experience the real track!

It’s not just rookies; even those veteran drivers who have raced for over a decade, despite having practical driving experience and extensive simulator experience, need time to adapt to and familiarize themselves with a track they haven’t raced on for a year.

There’s a famous saying in the F1 paddock—Nothing beats the real data.

Translated roughly, it means nothing beats real data.

A simulator is ultimately a simulator; only by racing on the track can you appreciate its characteristics and differences.

"Roger."

Chen Xiangbei straightforwardly responded; most of the time, drivers follow instructions.

The TF110 continued to lap the Bahrain Circuit, and with the increase in mileage, Chen Xiangbei gained a lot of track experience,

For example, Chen Xiangbei watched Trulli’s first-person video and didn’t understand why he performed a light car sway on the start straight, making a move similar to lane-switch correction.

At the time, Chen Xiangbei thought, could it be that Trulli’s hands shook a bit?

Now he understands that the start straight driving line on the Paris Circuit has a bumpy section that can easily bump the car’s undercarriage.

To prevent the undercarriage from being too low to withstand the rough and complex track environment affecting the driver’s safety, FIA rules specially installed a laminated "skid block" made of resin and fiberglass at the lowest point.

Once the undercarriage scrapes the ground, it will wear down this skid block.

This is why, when watching an F1 race, you often see cars sparking; it’s indeed the scenario created by this special skid block rubbing against the ground.

If a team sets the car’s undercarriage too low, it will cause excessive wear on this skid block.

If the car monitoring detects it exceeds the warning threshold, they will cancel the results for that station.

Therefore, during the race, to pursue speed, a team’s setup plan will let the car rest on the ground as much as possible.

However, to avoid excessive wear on the skid block that might cancel results, one must navigate the track to avoid raised and bumpy sections as much as possible.

These detailed experiences, the simulator cannot provide; only real track experiences can.

While Chen Xiangbei was familiarizing himself with the track, Trulli was getting ready to head out.

"Trulli, after you complete your technical verification lap, proceed with a long-distance simulation test and pay attention to tire wear."

Although Odetto "downgraded" to Chen Xiangbei’s race engineer, he was actually the chief race engineer of the team with authority to instruct both drivers.

Yet usually, Trulli’s team instructions are given by his own race engineer Sote.

Now, during practice sessions, team collaboration is emphasized, so Odetto is overseeing the big picture.

"Roger."

Compared to Hua Bu, an Italian rascal, Trulli has a decent impression of Odetto.

Being Italian too, this old engineer’s style is very fair and convincing.

During the entire Grand Prix, according to FIA regulations, drivers will prepare up to twenty sets of tires.

Thirteen sets of dry tires, seven sets of wet tires.

The thirteen sets of dry tires include two sets of white hard tires, three sets of yellow medium tires, and eight sets of red soft tires.

Although there seem to be a lot of tires, after three practice sessions and three qualifying rounds, drivers entering the top ten in qualifying are only allowed to keep six sets of tires for the race.

Exactly two red, two yellow, two white.

As for drivers not entering the top ten in qualifying, they will have one more set of red soft tires.

Just that FIA regulations specify that teams keep no more than six sets of tires, but do not enforce keeping at least six.

This means that if drivers waste them, they could potentially consume all tires during practice and qualifying sessions.

Tire wear at the Bahrain Circuit is exceptionally high, which is why Odetto especially reminded Trulli to watch for tire wear.

As Trulli’s car hit the track, other teams also exited to begin their practice sessions.

Compared to Odetto who let the rookie go first, other teams, to avoid risks, initially conducted track tests with experienced drivers, whose overall lap times were significantly faster than Chen Xiangbei’s.

Although most F1 spectators understand that lap times during testing are meaningless.

Understanding doesn’t equate to being idle, so many people still couldn’t resist taunting Chen Xiangbei.

Exactly on the section of the track facing the main stand, Chen Xiangbei saw some inappropriate gestures, prompting him to curiously press the voice call button.

"Odetto, seems like lots of spectators are somewhat unsatisfied with me on the track."

However, this time the answer in the headphones wasn’t Odetto’s voice.

Hua Bu replied first: "Don’t just feel it; indeed, many spectators are dissatisfied with you."

"Bei, congratulations, your press conference provocation has worked!"