Car Racing without Money-Chapter 570 - 223: Hesitation Means Losing Everything (Part 2)

Chapter 570: Chapter 223: Hesitation Means Losing Everything (Part 2)

He was well aware of the young German driver’s weakness, which was a slow start!

Using the fastest and most aggressive attacks to cause Rosberg to make pressured mistakes is the correct way to shake off Chen Xiangbei.

At this moment, it wasn’t just Trulli who was thinking of making a move; the fifth-ranked Schumacher was also launching attacks on McLaren Team’s Button.

What reigning champion or new king?

They were nothing in front of Schumacher!

As for the fight at the front row, it was even more intense. Both Hamilton and Vettel, the top new generation drivers, wanted to become the paddock’s next decade rulers.

Being drastically deprived of pole position in the third qualifying session, Vettel couldn’t accept such a result.

He wanted to prove he was the strongest!

The track was chaotic like soup, but due to the narrow terrain of Albert Park Circuit, and the complicated wind direction, overtaking proved increasingly difficult.

Often wheel-to-wheel racing was intense, yet always just fell short of overtaking. To avoid losing out to trailing cars, they could only reluctantly choose to give up.

Compared to the front row drivers who could still engage in tactical battles, the mid and lower tier drivers lacked the skill to control the cars, or rather, the minor teams’ car performance and tuning skills didn’t support them playing all sorts of clever maneuvers.

Just after the first lap, Virgin Team’s Glasi collided with Red Bull Junior Team’s Aguizu, and Indian Force’s Riu shot off the track and into the wall, leading to the retirement of three cars.

Fortunately, all the cars could still operate and left the track through the escape route by themselves, with the FIA marshals merely deploying a single yellow flag for speed restriction.

As the race proceeded to the third lap with speed restriction lifted and restarted, Rosberg’s slow start and inexperienced disadvantages were fresh in sight, failing to manage car speed suddenly accelerating; trailing car Trulli relied on his rich experience to anticipate the front car’s acceleration timing beforehand!

Trulli stepped on the accelerator, directly changed lane to Rosberg’s left side and just locked the inside line into the corner.

"Old ginger is hotter than fresh, race restart with Rosberg’s speed management mistake, trailing car Trulli seized the opportunity to grab the inside line for overtaking."

"According to the HRT Racing Car’s excellent cornering traction from the previous round, Mercedes W01 is likely unable to defend Trulli’s overtaking; does it mean Rosberg will face a showdown with driver Bei again?"

Red explained the race situation unhurriedly, and just when the spectators thought it was a lull, suddenly they heard his increased volume shout through their headphones.

"Car number 13! Driver Bei of car number 13 took advantage of Trulli holding Rosberg’s corner line and accelerated right after to surpass both ahead."

"And to prevent Rosberg from changing lanes to block, both HRT cars were extremely close; front nose and rear wing distance could literally be measured in centimeters!"

"Is it that driver Bei seized the timing accurately, or is it HRT Team’s pre-prepared double car strategy?"

Red’s question, for the time being, had no answer, not even the four-time champion Prost could respond.

After all, right in front, Chen Xiangbei and Trulli were still "at each other’s throat," with the offensive and defensive battle showing double wheel lockups that almost ran off the track.

If you say three laps went by and they quickly "forgive and forget" to cooperate with each other, it would look quite unrealistic.

Yet both HRT racing cars, one after the other, overtook with great synergy, as if pre-agreed upon!

This sudden change was not only puzzling to the track commentator, but even surprised Rosberg to some extent.

He hadn’t expected Trulli to capture the acceleration timing so precisely, nor had he thought Chen Xiangbei could keep up.

In this round, Rosberg was actually prepared for driver Bei’s wheel-to-wheel duel.

His slow start and lack of attack and defense skills were only slightly inferior relative to world-class champion standards when compared to Hamilton’s GOTA level and didn’t mean Rosberg could be easily manipulated by other drivers.

Even as a rookie who hadn’t reached his future peak performance, the GP2 Champion’s talent and achievements were right here to see, so there was no way he was a weakling!

There was virtually no attack and defense battle as Chen Xiangbei’s "opportunistic" overtaking left Rosberg speechless.

"WHAT?"

Outside the Mercedes Team command booth, Rosberg’s race engineer Clir gestured in disbelief.

Though Rosberg was of racer lineage, receiving guidance from a world champion father, experiencing countless lower-tier formula competitions, and having run two years in the F1 paddock, theoretically, he wasn’t a complete novice without coping experience.

How could such a major mistake happen?

Bear in mind that in the previous race, Chen Xiangbei’s torpedo overtaking, although eventually unpunished by the FIA, the public sentiment was still on Rosberg’s side.

If he managed to defend this race, no one would question Rosberg’s driving skills, only disparage Chen Xiangbei’s dangerous driving methods.

As it stands, failing to defend means public opinion will develop in a totally opposite direction!

In competitive sports, sheer power is the sole "evidence."

Winning means anything’s possible, there’ll be great minds defending your stance.

Losing means even reasonable becomes unreasonable!

"Brown Manager, Bei’s timing was spot on."

In contrast to the race engineer, the test engineer Field, having been long in touch with Chen Xiangbei, spoke this sentence in a tone of admiration.

Perhaps when Chen Xiangbei was still in the rookie test stage, he was already awestruck by the Chinese rookie’s talent, and looking now, his growth speed somewhat exceeded expectations, no wonder Brown Manager had such foresight back then, believing in his potential to leap ahead!

Hearing this, Ross Brown’s heart was mixed with emotions.

One could say he united with Staler to nurture and promote Chen Xiangbei’s F1 entry.

Yet due to team development constraints and the then championship situation, Chen Xiangbei couldn’t be provided a full-time driver seat.

Not until Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Daimler Group’s shares came in that Ross Brown selling his shares marked a full relinquishment of team controlling rights, losing the ability to select signing drivers.

Feeling Ross Brown’s slightly off mood, the command strategy group members didn’t continue discussing Chen Xiangbei further instead issued follow-up and tactical overtake instructions to Rosberg.

Chen Xiangbei’s tires already experienced lockups, regardless of how well they nursed them later, the weak spots still held high blowout risks; the peak grip would come quickly.

Rosberg’s long-distance stability was exceedingly impressive, top-tier in the paddock wasn’t an exaggeration.

Moreover, compared to other rookies, Rosberg’s mindset and emotions were very stable, readily adjusting even amidst adversity, unlike Kubica’s earlier impatience and impulsiveness.

The race was only just beginning; dwelling on being overtaken was meaningless.

Upon receiving the team directive, Rosberg instantly regained his calm, tightly following Chen Xiangbei without making any aggressive moves.

Because from the start, he had already seen from the rear-view mirror Chen Xiangbei’s fierce battle with Trulli, Rosberg trusted these two drivers from HRT Team surely couldn’t maintain peaceful co-existing states.

Whether it was Trulli’s fiery temperament or Chen Xiangbei’s eagerness to prove himself, internal competition within the team was bound to happen.

The front car was Ferrari Team’s Masa, Trulli wanted to create a distraction, it was practically impossible!

The situation trajectory was like Rosberg predicted, Chen Xiangbei again closing on to Trulli’s rear without hesitation or regard for teammate camaraderie, swiftly catching the slipstream to narrow the gap to the front car.

Facing Chen Xiangbei’s renewed proximity, Trulli equally showed a firm stance, decisively abandoning the pursuit of Masa, directly taking defensive lines to block Chen Xiangbei, giving no chance for the trailing car to overtake.

Admittedly, Trulli’s all-out defense ultimately demonstrated his strength and experience as a veteran.

Following behind him, Chen Xiangbei experienced a kind of "hard progress" enveloping him, every time he tried to pull out, Trulli’s car precisely appeared on the overtaking trajectory, even resorting to "illegal" actions such as lane shifts in the braking zone and double lane changes.

What is meant by the teammate being the greatest rival, Chen Xiangbei surely felt it.

This guy never defended other drivers this wholeheartedly as he did against himself!