Car Racing without Money-Chapter 595 - 234: Growing Ambitions

"FUCK, can it be that the Chinese guy really can’t be stopped?"

Various voices of anguish arose. If even Alonso can’t stop Chen Xiangbei, the audience on-site can’t think of anyone who can block car number 13.

"New king" Hamilton, or the "King of Cars" Schumacher?

In fact, Hamilton’s situation now is already on the verge of being unstoppable.

Of course, what he can’t stop is not Chen Xiangbei but the ever-pursuing Schumacher!

In the past 10 seasons, Mercedes’ performance could only rank the fourth fastest on the grid, with a steep points gap from the top three, Red Bull, McLaren, and Ferrari.

The returning Schumacher showed quite an average performance due to the lingering old injuries and need to adapt to the brand-new tire and power recovery system, not even surpassing his teammate Rosberg.

But the rain battle at the Albert Park Circuit leveled the performance gap.

Moreover, facing the championship tantalizingly close, Schumacher seemed to invoke his former self, unleashing speed beyond his current state and matching the unstoppable edge of a seven-time champion.

Even the "new king" Hamilton still fell a bit short!

The pressure from chasing and attacking made Hamilton’s defense increasingly difficult. Several times Schumacher had completed the maneuver but chose to give up under the threat of Hamilton’s "all or nothing" defense.

Hamilton has always been a driver with historic speed, displaying a very tough and not so clean style, and there’s almost no driver who gains cheap on him in wheel-to-wheel combat.

This included Schumacher now and Verstappen in the future.

The equally tough Schumacher remained calm this time; the point of being aggressive and adventurous was to seek greater gains.

Now that he had secured the second position on the podium, a crash would mean zero points.

Moreover, he noticed the change in Hamilton’s mentality, expecting him to make a pressured mistake under continued assault.

Lap 53, lap 54, lap 55...

The Albert Park Circuit spans 58 laps in total, meaning the race was down to the final three laps.

The desperately struggling prey would eventually reveal its weakness, and the hunter Schumacher awaited his overtaking opportunity.

At turn T7, defending, Hamilton overdid the steering angle slightly in pursuit of speed, causing his wheels to skid onto the kerb.

Just in the moment of correcting the line, Schumacher in the car behind seized the opportunity and completed an overtake with lightning speed, taking the lead.

When this scene unfolded, the entire audience was in an uproar.

Whether you were a fan of Schumacher or not, one cannot deny he had become an F1 icon, with countless awaiting the king’s return!

Schumacher~~! Schumacher~~! Schumacher~~!

Thunderous chants echoed across the Albert Park Circuit, even overshadowing the roaring engines inside the track.

But, at this moment, some sharp-eyed individuals noticed Hamilton’s crisis wasn’t limited; a "black specter" closely appeared behind him as if the Grim Reaper watched over its prey.

Undoubtedly, this car was the approaching Chen Xiangbei!

"He caught up, Chen Xiangbei took advantage of the battle period to catch up with Hamilton!"

"From ninth in qualifying, all the way to the third, now it’s time to attack for second, where does Driver Bei’s limit lie?"

"Chen Xiangbei, you didn’t let me down. China is destined to spawn a world-class driver!"

"Bei, overtake one more, let the world witness your speed!"

"That’s right, overtake one more!"

The mania ignited by Schumacher’s overtake hadn’t yet subsided when the scene was set alight again by Chen Xiangbei’s speed.

Even if you let people brag wildly before the race, apart from Chen Xiangbei himself, no one dared to boast he’d make it to the podium, let alone chase the second spot on the podium.

But when this goal was reached, the fans’ inflated ambition was developing in an uncontrollable direction, hoping Chen Xiangbei could go one step further, to take down the strongest new generation driver in the paddock, Hamilton.

The "new king’s" crown, a Chinese driver can try to wear it too!

"Hamilton, give up chasing Schumacher, focus all out on defending Driver Bei."

McLaren’s team order quickly came through the earphones.

Now Hamilton wasn’t thinking about the championship anymore; he needed to keep hold of his second place in the next three laps.

Behind, Chen Xiangbei’s soft red tires were very quick, and having just been overtaken by Schumacher, Hamilton’s mentality was certainly in an unstable period, making it easy for someone to overtake him consecutively.

Listening to the race engineer Lazam’s instructions, Hamilton reluctantly shifted his focus away from the Mercedes ahead to the HRT Racing Car in his rearview mirror.

Honestly, before Chen Xiangbei caught up from behind, Hamilton never really noticed this Chinese rookie.

Not due to any discrimination, as he too had faced much discrimination being a black man.

But after entering the paddock, Hamilton had been smashing all sorts of F1 records like slicing through butter, and the outside world had basically viewed him as the next superstar driver, needing just more championships to solidify his throne’s foundation.

In his eyes were only Schumacher and Alonso.

Only after thoroughly defeating the past and present kings could the future belong to him!

Who would have thought, the one behind his car would be a rookie named Chen Xiangbei.

Holding his breath and concentrating, Hamilton quickly adjusted his state. As one of only two seven-time championship-winning drivers in history. 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

You can question his character, his words, his actions, even his orientation.

But when it comes to driving skills, devoid of prejudice, there is no doubt he is a six-sided warrior.

Hamilton’s comparison has always been against drivers like Senna, Schumacher, and Alonso.

In some way, placing him on the historical GOTA comparison list signifies Hamilton himself is of this caliber, where even Vettel’s four championships fall slightly short.

It can be said his only shortcoming is the state fluctuation caused by a lack of self-discipline.

Among the historic GOTA tier drivers, Hamilton is perhaps the least self-disciplined one, channeling too much energy into entertainment, fashion, and even political correctness unrelated to racing.

If it weren’t for meeting his mentor Dennis, who utilized prestige and power to enforce training, he might have merely flashed in the pan or declined from high, far short of achieving the seven championships.

Of course, that’s all history’s digression. The Hamilton now is not the peak seven-time champion of the future.

In contrast to Hamilton adjusting his mindset, at this moment, Chen Xiangbei could be described with the phrase "focused mind."

Achieving the top three was already his pre-race goal, fulfilling the wild words he uttered.

Having reached this point, Chen Xiangbei purely enjoyed the race and challenging the strong.

Oftentimes, only a singular focus allows a one-hundred percent performance.

Add to that the passion and fervor brought by challenging the strong, Chen Xiangbei’s state could already be described as over-performing.

He displayed an extremely fierce, even no-holds-barred attack, letting Hamilton feel what a storm means, what it means for the new waves of the Yangtze River to push the old.

"Team leader, the tire gap is too significant, Hamilton might not hold for the last two laps."

McLaren’s data analyst Miller, with a worried look, reported to Team Leader Whitmarsh.

Soft tires have a dominating advantage over mixed-condition tires, and if it weren’t for Chen Xiangbei’s persistent pursuit and the attack-defense battle with Alonso that worn down the tire life, now likely beyond the grip peak.

He might have already completed overtaking by now.

Faced with the data analyst’s reminder, Whitmarsh didn’t mention the track’s situation but instead asked, "Miller, I remember during the rookie test phase, you once said there was a very fast rookie from the Brawn GP Team, who outpaced our test driver Paffett on a single lap."

"That was Driver Bei, right?"

Last year during the rookie test phase, Chen Xiangbei used an old Honda model to topple McLaren’s famous "Silver Arrow."

At that time, the data analyst Miller onsite submitted the test report to the team management; Whitmarsh only glanced over it slightly.

Back then, he was just a bit surprised and didn’t pay much heed.

Little did he expect that merely a year later, the rookie in that report could already challenge the ace of his team!