Car Racing without Money-Chapter 579 - 227: This Time I Want to Be Even Faster! (2)

On the other side, Briatore was dumbfounded, swallowing his saliva. He had never noticed that the Japanese engineer had such a "radical" and "humorous" side, making decisions based solely on tire speed?

Even he wouldn’t disregard the drivers like this, right?

If it were someone else, Sawano Hiroyuki might seriously explain the reason.

Facing Hua Bu, this Italian old rogue, even though the other party was his BOSS, Sawano Hiroyuki’s attitude, in a sense, was a "retaliation" to Briatore’s style.

In the pit lane, the whole line of cars was limited in speed as they came in for a stop. Chen Xiangbei began to enjoy the treatment of a number one driver, getting in for a tire change before Trulli, who had to endure the queue time for both cars and a higher error rate.

The TF110 car stopped precisely in the starting grid. This time, due to the dual-car pit stop, there were significantly more technicians prepared, positioning themselves ahead of time for Trulli’s stop.

Often, pressure in work brings motivation. Influenced by Briatore’s kicking incident, the cooperation among the tech crew for tire changes was noticeably more precise and meticulous, showcasing the aesthetics of teamwork on Blue Star.

During this brief tire change, Chen Xiangbei glanced at the tire pattern, noticing that the team switched him to semi-wet tires, with all the drainage grooves handcrafted.

Many people may not know that, in order to absolutely match the car’s setup and characteristics, and adapt to the track’s drainage, F1’s wet tires are all carved with aid grooves by the team’s engineers within the rules, taking one or two days.

Even though there are specialized tire carving machines in later years, many teams haven’t abandoned the handmade standard, just to pursue the ultimate in tiny performance improvements!

This is why F1 is the undisputed king in the racing field.

It’s because every bit of its body is born for the track!

The green light for safety release lit up, as the jack dropped, Chen Xiangbei roared out of the pit, the entire tire change taking just 2.8 seconds.

For the 2010 season, this is definitely considered a qualified, even excellent time, with the crew not wasting the positions that Chen Xiangbei gained by overtaking!

However, right after Trulli’s pit stop, his tire change significantly exceeded Chen Xiangbei, directly up to 6.4 seconds, nearly doubling.

HRT Team is ultimately a mid-to-small team with little foundation. No matter how the tech crew improves, they can only ensure the pit stop time for one car in such a short period, with dual car stop inevitably leading to errors and delays.

Once becoming the number two driver, one is doomed to gradually lose competitiveness within the team, unless possessing overwhelming speed and potential.

Of course, these matters have nothing to do with Chen Xiangbei now. How to allocate resources and schedule within the team is for the management to ponder.

The only thing he has to do now is to catch up to Masa in front!

The Ferrari crew’s tire change speed is also 2.8 seconds, meaning the gap between Chen Xiangbei and Masa hasn’t changed.

"OH, the thrilling rain battle hasn’t arrived yet, but many changes have already occurred on the track."

"Riu from the Indian Force Team and Agüsu from Red Bull’s second team have rushed off the track, Bruno Senna from the Lotus Team even went into the wall."

"The Brazilian driver Senna was once known as the rain god, it seems his nephew didn’t inherit his uncle’s talent in rain battles."

Listening to Ross’s commentary, Prost showed a look of regret.

A laugh burying enmity, these words couldn’t be more fitting for his relationship with Senna.

Without the competition in the paddock, the two went from life-and-death enemies on the track to friends appreciating each other’s talents.

Prost even became Senna’s pallbearer in the end.

He hoped within the paddock that Bruno could inherit Senna’s will, to carry on this great surname.

But unfortunately, Bruno Senna is ultimately not Ayrton Senna.

While Prost reminisced about the past, he noticed on the broadcast room monitoring screen that HRT Team’s rookie driver Chen Xiangbei once again chased Masa into the 1-second slipstream zone!

Since Chen Xiangbei’s previous failed attack, almost losing control and rushing off the track, the broadcast cameras hadn’t focused on him and Masa.

Spectators and professionals in the paddock assumed the Chinese rookie hadn’t reached the level to challenge Masa.

Unknowingly, Chen Xiangbei was catching up again?

"Ross, the driver Bei has bitten Masa again, the Chinese rookie has something, his rain battle speed is quite fast."

Prost reminded Ross with a sentence, also allowing the broadcast camera on the track to refocus on Chen Xiangbei.

"It might not be speed, but the track accidents and various slowed yellow flags allowed the driver Bei to catch up, right?"

Ross responded doubtfully.

Chen Xiangbei’s earlier skidding and loss of control had widened the gap with Masa to 3 seconds.

Now, in less than two laps, he’s back at the tail. It’s simply unimaginable.

The rookie’s rain battle level can be 1 second faster than Masa per lap?

"A single yellow flag only lightly limits speed, and it was quickly canceled, Bei is indeed fast."

Prost gave a confirmed answer, even sensing a vague premonition that Chen Xiangbei’s rain battle might be astounding.

Meanwhile at the HRT Team’s command station, the monitoring data gave a clearer view of how fast Chen Xiangbei was. He wasn’t just 1 second faster per lap than Masa; in fact, he had been almost two seconds faster just now!