Car Racing without Money-Chapter 511 - 200: Offense Is the Best Defense

"Weber, how’s the car doing now?"

Red Bull Racing Team principal Horner, watching Weber lose positions, immediately pressed the voice chat button on his headset.

At 34, Weber in the F1 paddock is already considered a veteran driver, with only Trulli and the returning King of Cars Schumacher also in the same age bracket.

At his peak, he had the ability to contend for the championship. In his 2002 debut, he managed to rank fifth while driving the bottom-tier Minardi car, and he maintained competitive results against teammates like Heidfeld and Coulthard, even beating "rookie" Rosberg in his first season.

However, physical skills and professional condition inevitably decline over time. Not everyone can maintain a top-level driver status in the paddock close to forty like Alonso.

After joining Red Bull in 2009 and becoming teammates with Vettel, Weber’s strength and condition began to decline.

When compared to the Red Bull Racing Team during its four-championship dynasty, he was generally slightly weaker than Perez at his peak.

After all, even though Master Perez was often outperformed by Verstappen, he could secure the annual runner-up thanks to performance advantages, whereas veteran Weber could at most aim for third place.

This underwhelming performance from veteran Weber led many to question Vettel’s four-time championship strength.

After all, winning while driving a Mars Rover is expected; to have more credibility and persuasiveness, performances must be compared with contemporaneous teammates.

Vettel defeating veteran Weber was far less impressive than the epic battles between Senna and Prost.

It’s also far less notable than Schumacher repeatedly overpowering world champions like Piquet, Damon Hill, and Hakkinen.

Of course, Vettel wasn’t a four-time champion just yet, and Weber didn’t believe he would be easily defeated by the younger talent. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

Still, being beaten by Vettel in the team last year put a lot of pressure on Weber, and with the qualifying failure at the season opener, he desperately hoped to reclaim victory in the main race to avoid becoming the second driver.

After all, an older driver whose speed, potential, and performance fall short of a new talent would see their evaluation drop considerably in the team management’s eyes!

To win the main race, Weber proposed to run the engine at overcapacity, a suggestion the team readily agreed to.

Chief designer Newey also wanted to know where the performance limit of Red Bull RB6 lay!

The fact proved that the overpowered output made the Red Bull RB6’s performance soar, as Weber launched off the starting line like a rocket.

Unfortunately, the opponent Weber wanted to eventually defeat was his teammate Vettel, who was driving the same Red Bull RB6. Several laps of frenzied pursuit pushed the engine to its limits, spewing black smoke as it threatened to blow up.

Yet, it must be admitted, as the first championship car in Red Bull’s dynasty history, RB6 had extreme speed and performance advantages and also exceptionally strong stability.

After easing off the throttle to relieve the car, the engine seemed to return to normal.

Hearing Horner’s inquiry, Weber pressed the steering wheel’s chat button and replied, "No problem, the car’s power output has stabilized."

"Then hold off the cars behind, don’t lose any more positions."

Horner cautioned, ideally, if the Red Bull Racing Team had smoothly controlled the situation, both cars could have reached the podium to kick off the new season spectacularly.

Now, with Weber’s car issue, results became suspenseful again.

Fortunately, Weber only fell to fifth, still with a chance to catch up, and he couldn’t let a small team like HRT overtake!

Chen Xiangbei couldn’t hear the internal Red Bull communication, and naturally didn’t know that Weber’s Red Bull Racing car had recovered.

From Chen Xiangbei’s perspective, Weber seemed to be deliberately blocking.

F1 paddocks often encounter such information gaps; drivers from both sides don’t understand each other’s intentions, resulting in plenty of curses and sarcastic greetings heard over the TR communications.

With advanced voice communication later on, TR team communications during broadcasts appear delayed, with curses filtered or omitted, making race drivers seem "more civilized."

"North, Weber’s speed is back, Kubica has reached the overtaking zone, be aware of defense."

Odetto’s information came through, as he had been watching the speed changes of Weber and Kubica. Now that the offense and defense positions have changed, it’s very challenging for Chen Xiangbei to overtake at his current speed; he should focus more on defending his position.

"Copy."

Chen Xiangbei replied concisely, then turned his attention to Kubica behind him.

Compared to the bland career of veteran Weber, Kubica’s career can be described with the word "legendary."

However, his "legendary" status isn’t about his results.

Hailing from Poland as a prodigious young talent, he won the world championship with Renault and broke the single-lap record at Australia’s East Ocean track, demonstrating astonishingly high absolute speed.

He directly jumped from F3 to F1, excelled during his BMW Sauber period, and became the only new driver Ferrari Team confirmed in advance in twenty years, highlighting his potential and the big team’s recognition of him.

Unfortunately, Kubica’s fate was troubled. During his transition from Renault to the Ferrari Team, he suffered from a serious rally accident with multiple fractures, especially the injury to his right hand which left it with nearly seventy percent functional loss.

This meant that from then on, he could only control the steering wheel with one hand, with the other hand merely assisting with positioning and balance. Even with such an injury, Kubica returned to the paddock some years later.