Why race if you don’t have money?

Chapter 75 Only strength can break it!
Matsumoto Brown on the track had already learned the time of his second lap from the race engineer Sho Mizutani.

As a student at the Honda Racing Academy, he naturally knew very well what this lap time meant, but in a sense it was not safe enough.

Only by running under 2 minutes and 25 seconds can you lay a % guarantee of victory in advance.

Thinking of this, Matsumoto Brown, who had been nervous all the time, couldn't help but smile.

At this moment, he was full of confidence in his driving skills. He felt that driving in the rain was not as difficult as he had imagined, and it was not impossible to improve the lap time by more than two seconds.

On the third lap, Matsumoto Brown's speed was getting faster and faster, and his lines on many corners became bolder and bolder. He was ready to push hard into 2 minutes and 25 seconds in this lap, directly sentencing the Chinese guy to "death"!
The split-second timing on the wall-mounted screen in the P-room showed that Matsumoto Brown's first-half lap time had improved by a full second compared to the previous lap. Given the track layout, which featured many high-speed corners in the second half, he should have been able to achieve even faster times.

"It seems that Matsumoto-kun is serious. This is his full effort."

"I was able to run under 2 minutes and 25 seconds in my first rainy track training session. That's really impressive."

"I wonder who is faster, Matsumoto-kun or Hoshino-kun."

The racing students in the P room completely forgot about Chen Xiangbei at this time and simply discussed Matsumoto Brown's strength.

After all, there is no point in discussing or mocking a Chinese rookie who is destined to be kicked out.

Not to mention the racing trainees, even the Honda team members in the P room no longer paid attention to Chen Xiangbei's bet, and all expressed their admiration for Matsumoto Brown.

This sixteen-year-old Formula One rookie showed his good adaptability and potential in his first rainy track experience. If he keeps up the momentum, he will definitely have a bright future!
Soon Matsumoto Brown arrived in front of Turns 12 and 13 of the track. Turn 12 is just a long arc right turn at high speed, which can be said to be not difficult.

However, the next Turn 13 is a small left turn without any straight transition in the middle. The driver needs to brake throughout the turn and change lanes continuously to find the center of two corners in order to pass the turn perfectly.

Think about the slippery road environment. What does it feel like to drive at high speed while stepping on the brakes and changing lanes to enter a turn?
If you can't imagine it, you can recall what the driving school instructor often reminds you: Don't turn the steering wheel suddenly to change lanes on the highway on rainy days, and don't step on the brakes while turning the steering wheel. If you do this, you will immediately lose control!
Matsumoto Brown has been training at the Suzuka Circuit for a month or so, so he is naturally very familiar with how to run these two corners. However, he needs to perform tracking braking on rainy days, and the braking force must be extremely precise.

The reason is that rainwater will form a lubricating layer on the track, which will extend the braking distance by 30 to 50 percent.

It’s like if you’ve played the computer game KartRider, and suddenly one day you set the drift distance to be 30% longer, you would definitely feel uncomfortable and crash into walls everywhere.

Matsumoto Brown is now facing this problem. He wants to break the lap time and achieve tracking braking, but he finds that the car is still slow to stop when turning.

He had no choice but to increase the force and step on the brakes hard, but the braking effect of the Formula One car is very strong. Once the force exceeds the critical value, the tires will lock on the spot!
Once the tires are locked in the rain, it means that there is no way to drain water by rotation and grooves. A layer of water film will immediately form between the road surface and the wheels, causing the car to completely lose grip.

"It's over."

In the P room, the moment Hiroki Sawano saw the change in the braking curve, he silently muttered these two words. In the end, Matsumoto Brown was still unable to control the "out of control".

Just as Hiroki Sawano judged, the moment Matsumoto Brown stepped on the brakes on the screen, the car immediately spun out of control and slid off the track, then got stuck in the gravel buffer zone outside the road shoulder.

The appearance of this scene stunned all the members in the P room. No one expected that the accident would come so suddenly.

Even Matsumoto Brown himself was sitting in the cockpit at a loss. He had never thought that he would run off the track, nor had he expected that in rainy days, as long as the critical value of the car was exceeded, he would be completely out of control without any defense.

In a sense, this is the charm of playing in the rain. You never know which will come first, victory or loss of control.

"Go push Matsumoto's car back. 2 minutes 27 seconds is his fastest lap time."

Hiroki Sawano broke the silence in the racing room. It is a common scene for racing cars to lose control in rainy days, which only proves that Matsumoto Brown does not have the ability to run under 2 minutes and 25 seconds.

But even so, it is still impossible for the Chinese newcomer to run a lap time of 2 minutes 22 seconds. The consequence of forcing full speed forward is to repeat the scene of running off the track!

"Chen Xiangbei, get in the car and drive."

"Yes, Director Sawano."

When replying this sentence, Chen Xiangbei actually breathed a sigh of relief.

You should know that under normal circumstances, the lap time of F1 full rain tires is 15 to 20 seconds slower than that of dry tires.

Because the Renault car has a lower speed limit, the lap time difference between dry tires and rain tires is not that big. In theory, it should be within 15 seconds.

If Matsumoto Brown really runs under 2 minutes and 25 seconds, it means that Chen Xiangbei must run under 2 minutes and 20 seconds to win.

To be honest, Chen Xiangbei was not absolutely confident about this lap time.

The reason is simple, he has never run at the Suzuka Circuit.

In his previous life, after Chen Xiangbei finished racing karting in China, he received sponsorship from the team's youth training program and went to Europe to receive Formula One racing training.

Events such as F3 and F2 do not fly around the world like F1, taking into account the transportation and operating costs. In most cases, they choose to race on European tracks.

This means that Chen Xiangbei's familiarity with the Suzuka Circuit comes entirely from the racing simulator.

Driving a racing simulator is an essential part of Formula One racing, but even the most advanced simulator technology can only simulate about 70 to 80 percent of the actual state of the car.

For Formula One racing, a one percent mistake will result in nearly a hundred percent accidents.

If you want to avoid this kind of scenario, the remaining 20 to 30 percent of error will have to be filled by the driver's personal ability!

Although Chen Xiangbei had never actually run on the Suzuka Circuit, the map of the entire Suzuka Circuit was imprinted in his mind like a carving.

And it wasn't just Suzuka Circuit. As long as there were any tracks that had hosted an F1 Grand Prix, Chen Xiangbei would practice frantically on the racing simulator, memorizing every single one of them. Chen Xiangbei did this because he wanted to seize the last chance to enter F1, which was an unexpected opportunity to "play as a substitute."

When an F1 official driver encounters an accident, illness or other unexpected circumstances, the team will let a substitute driver take the field to "take his place". At this time, you have to conquer everyone through a race to prove that you have the ability to control the car.

Kamui Kobayashi of this era and De Vries of later generations both scored points in their first race as a "substitute" and thus obtained a formal driver contract for the next year.

Opportunities are reserved for those who are prepared. Chen Xiangbei was always prepared!

In addition, Chen Xiangbei dared to say that he would give up 5 seconds, which was the courage given to him by the rain battle.

The more severe and complex the track environment is, the easier it is to magnify the gap in strength between drivers.

Facts proved that Chen Xiangbei's judgment was correct. Matsumoto Brown could not control the limits of the car and eventually ran off the track.

But this guy's strength was a little beyond Chen Xiangbei's expectations. He didn't expect that he would really have a chance to run under 2 minutes and 25 seconds.

However, not having absolute confidence does not mean having no confidence.

As long as he sits in the cockpit of the racing car, Chen Xiangbei will put aside all distractions. Even if Matsumoto Brown runs in 2 minutes and 25 seconds, he will use a more crazy and aggressive running method to surpass the converted track record until he is 5 seconds ahead!
If you want to be an F1 driver, you can't take karting or Formula track records seriously; they are just numbers to be broken.

Or to put it another way, every F1 driver has swept the karting or Formula One events and become the one who crushes everyone else.

Drivers who cannot do these are destined to be unable to open the door to the F1 hall!
After putting on his helmet and sitting in the cockpit, a familiar feeling came over him. Chen Xiangbei had driven a Renault racing car of the same model for a whole year.

Compared with Huasai's CFR2000, this Renault racing car actually has 10 less horsepower in terms of horsepower.

But the speed and upper limit of a car are determined by more than just horsepower.

Renault racing cars benefit from global popularity, and countless driver data provide it with room for improvement and optimization.

Whether it is lightweight, maximum speed, chassis tuning, power response, etc., it can be said that it crushes the CFR2000 racing car in the handmade workshop model.

As the Renault racing car ignited and started, the roar of the engine rushed straight into Chen Xiangbei's brain, giving him an indescribable pleasure and excitement, and he once again experienced this feeling of blood boiling.

"Xiangbei, are you ready?"

Sawano Hiroki asked.

"OK."

Chen Xiangbei nodded and lowered his helmet visor.

After releasing the clutch and shifting into gear, the Renault car slowly drove towards the track until it stopped on the same starting grid as Matsumoto Brown.

At this time, Chen Xiangbei's eyes were fixed on the starting light above the track. At the same time, he pressed the clutch paddle with his left hand to shift into first gear, and lightly stepped on the accelerator with his right foot to increase the engine speed.

In the P room, Hiroki Sawano and Sho Mizutani were closely watching the changes in the racing data. They discovered a very unusual point almost at the same time.

That is Chen Xiangbei's starting speed, which is a thousand revolutions higher than Matsumoto Brown's before, and the speed remains extremely stable, with the numerical fluctuation range only in double digits!

"This Chinese rookie, Chen Xiangbei, has very precise throttle control, but starting at such a high rpm, I think he's bound to spin."

Mizutani Sho didn't mince words and gave his judgment directly!
The thrust-to-weight ratio of a Formula One car is very exaggerated. Even if the speed exceeds the critical value by one or two hundred revolutions, there is a high possibility of idling and slipping at the start.

Matsumoto Brown had previously experienced a slight slip at the start, and now Chen Xiangbei had increased the rpm by a full thousand. How could he control it?
Hiroki Sawano did not reply, but in his heart he tended to agree with Sho Mizutani.

Chen Xiangbei started at too high a speed. He guessed that the possible factor was that the bet also affected the mentality of the Chinese newcomer.

In order to win, Matsumoto Brown chose an extremely conservative posture, since he had a 5-second advantage anyway.

If Chen Xiangbei wants to win, he must take aggressive risks, otherwise conventional running will have no chance of winning.

The two people are on opposite sides, so it depends on who has the better skills.

As the track indicator lights lit up one by one, Matsumoto Brown, who had returned to the P room, looked at the track screen and subconsciously held his breath.

The moment the red light went out, the roar of the Renault racing car sounded, and Chen Xiangbei rushed out like an arrow. The torque curve showed that he did not slip at all.

No slipping?
So fast?
Two completely different thoughts popped up in the minds of the Honda team members and racing trainees in the P room.

One side was amazed at the racing data, while the other side could see with the naked eye on the screen that Chen Xiangbei was far ahead of Matsumoto Brown at the start.

It can even be said that, taking into account the acceleration due to upshifting, the Chinese guy can be 0.5 seconds faster in starting alone!
Even the knowledgeable Hiroki Sawano was a little confused by this scene. If Chen Xiangbei had not been still running, he really wanted to go to the track to see what the difference was between the starting positions?
But what shocked them even more was yet to come. Also in his first run, when Chen Xiangbei entered the No. 1 and No. 2 turns, he took the conventional curve line and drove on the curb, as if he had not considered the smoothness of the rainy day at all.

Is this due to strength, or is it ignorance that is fearless?
"Mizutani, pull up Matsumoto's split lap times for comparison!"

The best way to get the answer is to compare the two people's track data.

Hiroki Sawano already had a vague premonition in his heart that based on the speed at the start and in Turns 1 and 2, Chen Xiangbei might have been ahead of Matsumoto Brown by more than 1 second.

Could it be that the driver data transmitted by Huasai is really not false at all?
(End of this chapter)