Why race if you don’t have money?

Chapter 76 Why not send you home first
Chen Xiangbei, who was driving the racing car, naturally had no idea of ​​the doubts in the minds of Zeye and other Honda team members.

If he knew, he would be happy to answer and would also like to "thank" Matsumoto Brown.

Without his spinning and skidding at the start, there would not be a layer of "burned" rubber left on the starting grid, which Chen Xiangbei could use to enhance his grip.

This principle is similar to the F1 line-tracking method in the rain, where it is best to follow the track of the car in front of you. This is because the long driving of the car will dry up the water in the lane on the track, and at the same time, it will more or less leave behind rubber particles from the tires.

If you take this route, your grip will be greatly improved, and your speed will naturally be faster.

In the P room, Mizutani Sho heard Hiroki Sawano's instructions and immediately called up Matsumoto Brown's segmented lap time and compared it with the speed Chen Xiangbei was running.

Since the first split timing point had not yet arrived, Hiroki Sawano still could not know in advance how much faster Chen Xiangbei was, but when he saw the Chinese newcomer running in a series of S-bends, he had a basic idea in his mind.

No wonder Chen Xiangbei dared to say that he would give up 5 seconds. He had only seen such smooth and silky line cornering in entry-level Formula One drivers of the same level in Sato Takuma and Kobayashi Kamui.

Even the first time I ran on the Suzuka Circuit, I was probably a little inferior!
"How did they manage to take this curve? It's like driving through the Suzuka Circuit."

When Sho Mizutani next to him saw this scene, he couldn't help but exclaimed.

It's really exaggerated. Chen Xiangbei's proficiency in taking the curve is so amazing, let alone a newcomer who just arrived at the Suzuka Racing Academy for trial training.

Even among the "old" drivers who have been running here for a year or two, few can have such precision.

You have to know that this is a rainy track. If there is a slight mistake or if you hit the curb too much, you will immediately slip and lose control.

Chen Xiangbei seemed to do it very easily, which was really unbelievable.

"Mizutani, do you still remember Chen Xiangbei's driver data and resume?"

Hiroki Sawano responded silently, and this sentence made Mizutani Sho stunned on the spot.

He thought of Chen Xiangbei's driver data and resume. When he first saw it, he felt it was impossible, just like he does now.

It’s just that one is a text description, which is quickly judged as unreliable after the surprise, and does not have much psychological impact.

But now, seeing is believing. Mizutani Sho witnessed with his own eyes the speed at which Chen Xiangbei was speeding on the track. This cannot be faked through words or data.

The psychological shock it brings is completely incomparable.

The track data sent by Shio Miyamoto showed that Chen Xiangbei's Formula One resume was blank, and it was only speculated that he might have had karting training experience.

The following scene was just like what Mizutani Sho experienced today. Miyamoto Shio and others couldn't understand why Chen Xiangbei could learn it by himself and drive the CFR2000 Formula One car skillfully.

Today, Sho Mizutani also doesn’t understand why Chen Xiangbei can run so skillfully on the Suzuka Circuit!

"Director Zeye, are you saying that this new Chinese driver is really a talented driver?"

Huasai’s data can be questioned, but the facts before us are irrefutable.

Now Sho Mizutani has understood what Director Sawano wanted to express, which is not to easily judge things based on prejudice if you have never seen them.

"It's not my intention. It's Chen Xiangbei who wants to prove himself."

After saying this, Hiroki Sawano turned his attention to the surveillance screen.

The time for the first timing section has come out, and the lead is even more exaggerated than expected, reaching 2.131 seconds.

"impossible!"

Looking at the data on the screen, Matsumoto Brown immediately questioned it.

He knew that he made some small mistakes at the start of the first lap and his line in the corners was rather conservative.

However, in the low-speed cornering section of the first timing section, Chen Xiangbei was more than two seconds faster than himself. In the next high-speed aggressive section, facing the conservative section, he might be able to get ahead even more.

At this rate, will Kamui Kobayashi's track record also be broken by this Chinese newcomer?

If I tell these things to others, I'm afraid no one will believe it!

"Director Zeye, is there something wrong with the monitoring equipment?"

"How is it possible to win by two seconds after only seven slow turns? The gap between a Super Kart and a Formula One car isn't that dramatic, is it?"

"There must be something wrong with this lap time, otherwise only a driver of historical level could have achieved it."

The students in the P room also couldn't help but talk about it. They could accept a slight lead. After all, Chen Xiangbei's speed did not need to be detected by equipment. It was already fast enough to be seen by the naked eye.

But now they are more than two seconds ahead, which no one can accept. It was beyond their comprehension at the time.

"Hideo Watanabe, you and the electronics engineer will test the equipment."

Everyone's suspicions and speculations also made Sawano Hiroki's thoughts waver. Chen Xiangbei's lap time was indeed a bit too fast. Remember, this was only the first lap, which was always the slowest lap. If he ran the second and third laps, would he really be able to break the track record?
"Yes, Director Sawano."

Without any hesitation, the Honda team engineers in the P room began to check whether the functions of various monitoring equipment on the track were normal.

Hiroki Sawano's gaze returned to the wall-mounted screen. He wanted to rely on his own experience to judge Chen Xiangbei's driving skills.

The characteristic of the Suzuka Circuit is that the car speed increases towards the latter half, and the control difficulty increases accordingly.

If Chen Xiangbei can crush Matsumoto Brown even in high-speed corners, then it becomes meaningless to doubt the track monitoring equipment.

Chen Xiangbei is concentrating on driving on the track. Due to the road conditions on a rainy day, he must improve his driving feel to the extreme and capture any slight slip and spin of the tires, otherwise he may lose control in a few tenths of a second at night.

Turn 9 of Suzuka is the "8" intersection of the track. Since it has to pass under the overpass, it is a long downhill straight road and the car speed can reach an exaggerated 230km/h.

But what follows is a quick right turn followed by a sharp left turn. There is not even a conventional center of curvature here, and the side tilt when turning is very large, so you have to choose the middle route of the curve throughout the process.

When Matsumoto Brown was passing this sharp left turn, he reduced his speed to 60km/h, for fear that he would go too fast and run off the track.

Now Chen Xiangbei also came to this curve, but his car speed was as high as 100km/h. This speed has exceeded the limit of the physical grip of the racing tires. Hiroki Sawano judged that Chen Xiangbei could not keep the center of the curve no matter what.

"Is this new Chinese guy a bit too aggressive? Is he planning to run off the track here?"

When chief technician Hideo Watanabe was debugging the equipment, he happened to notice the speed of Chen Xiangbei's car.

There is absolutely no problem with the speed display. Indeed, the Chinese newcomer was turning at a speed of up to 100km/h.

No one could answer Watanabe Hideo's question. Everyone's eyes were fixed on the screen. The answer would be revealed soon as to whether he could make the turn or rush out.

Chen Xiangbei, riding in the Renault racing car, immediately felt the pull of the inward G-force after entering the corner. Not only did his body feel the drag, but even the car he was driving seemed to show signs of sideways movement.

Chen Xiangbei chose the middle line when turning, but he could not withstand the inertia brought by the speed and the reduced grip due to the slippery road surface.

Faced with this situation, many new drivers will instinctively step on the brakes to try to slow down after noticing that the car is showing signs of being out of control.

However, few people know that stepping on the brakes at this time will cause the car to lose control immediately.

Chen Xiangbei showed no sign of panic. He held the steering wheel firmly with both hands and lightly pressed the accelerator, attempting to break the "water film" between the tires and the road surface through tire rotation, thus allowing the car to regain a brief period of grip.

However, since this is a downhill section, the water accumulation on the track is far more serious than other sections, and the Renault car still slid sideways uncontrollably towards the shoulder of the road.

As a result, Chen Xiangbei's cornering trajectory showed a strange parabola, moving sideways from the original middle line of the track to the edge of the track!

Just when everyone thought that Chen Xiangbei would repeat the same mistake and slide into the gravel buffer zone on the outside of the road shoulder like Matsumoto Brown before, Chen Xiangbei's Renault car miraculously regained its grip, and took advantage of the situation to quickly cut from the outside to the inside, and smoothly entered Turn 12.

What is going on here?

There was a dead silence in Room P. Most people stared at the wall-mounted screen in amazement, wondering what the reason was.

Why in a similar situation, Matsumoto Brown lost control and ran off the track, while Chen Xiangbei's speed and operation were obviously more aggressive, but he managed to make a thrilling turn at the last moment.

Is it true that driving a Formula One car also means being blessed by God?
Not to mention ordinary students and Honda engineers, even Hiroki Sawano, the double champion of Japan's Super Formula and Super GT, was extremely surprised at this moment.

As Honda's chief test driver, in addition to his usual runs on the track, he has also tested Honda production cars on the Suzuka Circuit countless times. This is also the first time he has seen such a strange "drifting" cornering method.

"I know why!"

At this moment, Mizutani Sho shouted.

"Come on, tell me why?"

Chief technician Hideo Watanabe urged impatiently.

"The road from Turn 9 to Turn 11 is downhill, but Turn 12 is uphill. The road here is relatively dry and there is no water. This is where the Renault car found its grip!"

As a race analyst, Sho Mizutani's driving skills are not as good as those of the drivers, but when it comes to track data, he is not inferior to anyone.

When hearing this answer, many people's first reaction was not to suddenly understand, but to gasp.

How familiar must one be with the height differences of the Suzuka Circuit to dare to do such a thing?
To be honest, even Hiroki Sawano himself wouldn't dare to play like this!
While everyone was discussing "drifting" around corners, Chen Xiangbei had already quickly passed the next few high-speed corners on the track, and his fastest lap time popped up on the screen.

2 minutes 22 seconds 417!

Looking at the lap time number, Matsumoto Brown felt a black screen in front of his eyes.

The Chinese guy's first lap, which was theoretically the slowest, was 5 seconds faster than his fastest lap.

Is this going home?
(End of this chapter)