Car Racing without Money-Chapter 496 - 194: A New Era in the F1 Paddock (Part 2)

Chapter 496: Chapter 194: A New Era in the F1 Paddock (Part 2)

James threw the question to the guest Emil in the studio, wanting to know if the performance after the second practice has changed his stereotype of the Chinese rookie.

"I think it’s very difficult. Currently, those pushing flying laps are veterans from big teams."

"Obviously, they don’t want to lose to a Chinese rookie."

Emil casually replied.

Just like James said, you can feel the improvement in lap times in the Paddock and the drivers getting more serious.

In any case, he doesn’t believe a rookie from China can snatch a ranking spot from the ’Big Three’.

Snatching the positions of Sauber or Williams is far easier than taking Ferrari’s or McLaren’s ranking!

"So where do you think Xiangbei can place?"

"At most ninth; he can’t compete with any of the four big teams."

This time Emil gave a definite answer.

With Mercedes joining and Renault falling behind, Ferrari, McLaren, Red Bull, and Mercedes have essentially become the four big teams in the Paddock.

The top eight positions are as stable as gold!

While the two were chatting, Rosberg crossed the line with his car, surpassing Chen Xiangbei, moving to fourth in the lap rankings.

Seeing this, a victorious smile appeared on Emil’s face.

In his view, the veteran drivers would reproduce this scene!

It’s just unfortunate that the picture Emil imagined did not appear—Schumacher was beaten by his teammate, placing seventh.

Jenson Button was even worse, dropping directly to tenth.

Only Masa was fast enough, surpassing Chen Xiangbei to take second place.

With the countdown for the second practice reaching zero, Chen Xiangbei fell two spots to sixth, while Trulli dropped to ninth.

"Chen Xiangbei is amazing, moved up in rankings during the second practice!" 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

"Debut qualifying into Q3, once again making history for Chinese racing!"

"I feel Xiangbei’s strength far exceeds expectations; maybe he can really achieve what he boasted about at the press conference—finishing in the top six in the race!"

Chen Xiangbei’s fans and supporters on the stands were very shocked.

The most optimistic prediction before the race was just that Chen Xiangbei could qualify for Q2.

Yet, not only did Chen Xiangbei qualify for Q3, but he steadily advanced to the sixth position.

Could it be that the next talented rookie is truly coming from China?

Inside the HRT Team’s pit room, the team members were equally excited.

As a new team, having both cars qualify for Q3 let them see their competitiveness.

It’s important to know that other than some Super Aguri members, the team’s members come from Toyota and Renault.

Last season, Toyota already stepped into the mid-tier, and Renault can be considered an old ’Big Three’.

People aim higher, water flows lower, and no one wants to stay in a bottom-tier team for long.

To put it a bit realistically, engineers coming out of Ferrari Team will be looked at more favorably.

If teams like Caterham, Virgin, or Super Aguri were to collapse, it would be tough for their members to find new jobs in other teams.

With both cars in Q3, undoubtedly, they have the strength of a mid-tier team!

Within the team members, only the strategy group remained relatively calm; they could see more remote sensing data from the car and the drivers’ performance in each corner.

Between Chen Xiangbei and Trulli, the speed in many corners overlapped, meaning both had reached the same bottleneck.

Additionally, after completing the second timed lap, the car’s temperature reported alarms across the board upon returning to the track.

It means that even with the cooling fan, the brakes can’t cool down during the tire change.

More importantly, the brake temperature transfers to the tires through the wheel hubs.

Conversely, the tire temperature also affects the hubs and brakes.

This is why previously, in the early spring chill of the United Kingdom, Chen Xiangbei would take a braking strategy to heat the tires quickly, instead of weaving on the track.

The reason is that constant friction with the brake discs transfers heat to the tires.

Every seemingly ’inexplicable’ move by an F1 driver is backed by a careful grasp of details and strategic games.

Never underestimate this group of the world’s strongest drivers!

The short break ended, and the third practice session immediately began, this time reducing the race time to 10 minutes.

At the same time, only the last ten drivers were left on the track.

Besides Chen Xiangbei and Trulli, Renault driver Kubica and Indian Force’s Sutil were the current dark horses in the Paddock, both making it into Q3, placing seventh and eighth, respectively.

Kubica was quite familiar to Chen Xiangbei, as he had been a third driver at Sauber Team in later years, looking after the water bottles for Zhou Guanyu for a year.

Of course, that was the older Kubica who later became known as the ’one-handed racing god’.

In his peak, he had the strength to contend for the championship!

Additionally, even though Renault Team was heavily traumatized by the ’Crashgate’ scandal, a thin camel is still bigger than a horse, so it’s not surprising for a driver to make it into Q3.

However, Sutil from Indian Force surprised Chen Xiangbei a bit.

Is Indian Force racing also set to explode this year?

There was no time for Chen Xiangbei to indulge in wild thoughts. Quickly, the lap rankings for the third practice showed him what real competition and pressure meant.

In the first and second practices, many drivers limited their performance to preserve the car’s engine life or encountered traffic, affecting their performance to some degree.

By the third practice, many teams pushed the power units to full power mode to strive for the best possible ranking, even at the cost of engine life!

After all, this is the opening race, and the teams have ample power unit reserves, with a certain margin for trial and error.