F1: I was born to be useful, and you are all destined for greatness.

Albon's face flushed red, veins bulging on his forehead, as he argued, "A quotation doesn't mean it lacks substance... A quotation!... Can something about a race car driver be considered lacking in substance?"

Then came the phrase he'd learned from Tang Che, something like "A scholar should be looked at with new eyes after three days' absence," which made everyone laugh, and the private room was filled with a joyful atmosphere.

Amidst the laughter, Zhou Guanyu said to Tang Che, "You've taught him quite a bit."

"You know," Toncher mimicked the player's signature move, "reserve drivers sometimes have nothing better to do than sit around and brag."

When the official drivers are racing on the track, the reserve drivers are probably the least needed people in the paddock. Last season, during such moments, fellow Red Bull reserve drivers Toncher and Albon would sit there and brag.

Not only did Alben learn a lot from Thonchul, but Thonchul also learned a lot about Thai things from Alben. However, Thonchul has not yet encountered a situation where he can apply these skills.

Tang Che's incredibly lifelike imitation of that player made Zhou Guanyu burst out laughing.

This naturally puzzled the others in the private room, and Alben spoke up directly: "What are you muttering about? Did you secretly curse us a few times?"

Tang Che's face hardened: "We've been here for ages and no one's even offered us a seat. Guan Yu and I are furious and ready to storm off!"

Anyway, no one else could understand the Chinese that Tang Che and Zhou Guanyu were speaking, so Tang Che could make up whatever he wanted.

Anyone could see that Tang Che was just making up a joke. If he were really angry, would Zhou Guanyu be smiling like that?

Alben, feigning trepidation (his acting was extremely exaggerated): "Oh dear! Seven-time champion, please have a seat! Please have a seat!"

"Soup," Norris patted the chair next to him, "sit here with me."

"Your place is too far away." Tanger didn't dare sit next to Norris; he always felt that Norris's gaze was a bit off. "Alexander is closer to me."

Tang Che and Zhou Guanyu sat between Verstappen and Alben.

Norris was incredibly, immensely, and utterly enraged, his anger boiling over. (crossed out)

Norris was already used to it. They had dined together more than once, and Norris had invited Townche to sit next to him more than once, but Norris was always refused.

"So," Russell, the racing legend, elegantly picked up the menu, "what shall we order? Would you like some drinks?"

"No need for alcohol," Ricciardo said. "I don't want tomorrow's F1 headlines to be about the losers in Bahrain drowning their sorrows in alcohol."

"I'm not a loser." Verstappen couldn't stand those words. "No matter what, I'll win the next race."

"Oh my god! I can't stand Max anymore!" Alben joked. "Tom, you'd better get promoted to Red Bull soon, then you're definitely going to beat Max up!"

Ricardo interjected quietly, "Checo wouldn't be happy about that."

Russell laughed: "Speaking of Cheko...didn't Max invite Cheko?"

Verstappen: "Of course I invited Cecco, but he didn't want to come."

"Wow! Wow! Wow! This could be tomorrow's F1 headline! I've already thought of the headline—" Russell waved his hand in the air, as if displaying a large banner, "Shocking! Cheko rejected Max for him!"

As expected of the "Little Chengdu of Europe," Dai Ying's opening move as the "Union Jack Ma" was a stunning debut.

Apart from the two parties involved, Tanger and Verstappen, everyone at the table couldn't hold back.

Tang Che: "Come to work at The Sun tomorrow."

The Sun, a famous British newspaper, is known for its extremely exaggerated, sensational, and emotional reporting. It often uses capital letters, exclamation marks, puns, slang, and even sensational statements to grab attention.

"George would definitely be a good fit for The Sun." Norris smirked, a wicked idea forming in his mind. "Especially page three of The Sun; George's image would be perfect for it."

The third page of The Sun is filled with impressive photos, with an artistic quality at least three or four stories high.

Not to mention others, even Russell himself couldn't hold back.

Russell needs to retaliate, right?

"Remember what those fans said? Tom was the sexiest man in the paddock." Russell grinned. "Obviously, Tom..."

"Gentlemen! Gentlemen!" Vestager interrupted the spellcasting, "I'm starving!"

-----------------

"The Latest Masterpiece of Five-Star Poisonous Milk"

Tang Che, who had just woken up, clicked on the video link sent by Jiang Zhiyu in a flash!

"This is a great training opportunity for Zhou Guanyu!" — Hamilton slipped, and Zhou Guanyu easily overtook him.

"Tom is going to create a miracle!" — Tom Che's race car engine explodes.

Tang Che couldn't hold back: "I'm getting better too, I can't believe I was jinxed by Five Star Sports."

Jiang Zhiyu: "Aren't you afraid of being cursed again at a crucial moment?" "I've heard that the sports world is very superstitious, full of curses and taboos."

It's true, and some of them are really quite eerie.

For example, there's the Guttmann curse—before being sacked in 1962, Benfica's legendary manager Guttmann cursed that "Benfica will not win a European title for 100 years," and subsequently, Benfica lost all eight of their European final appearances.

Tang Che: "I'll believe what's in my favor, and I won't believe what's not in my favor."

It's not about disbelief, but about believing cautiously, prudently, and selectively, always prioritizing maintaining a positive mindset.

Jiang Zhiyu: "As expected of you."

Tang Jingqing knocked on the door: "Ache, are you awake? Get up quickly, I have something to tell you."

Tang Che: "My aunt said she needs to talk to me, we'll chat later."

Tang Che got up, left his bedroom, and went to the living room of the hotel suite: "What's up, Auntie?"

Tang Jingqing: "After your engine blew out and you retired from the race last night, many domestic fans went to attack the Alfa Romeo team's official account, and some even used VPNs to go to Instagram and Twitter to curse you."

Tang Che: "Auntie, what are you planning to do?"

Tang Jingqing: "I have already issued a statement using your account, advocating that fans watch the races rationally."

Tang Che's social media accounts are managed by Tang Jingqing, and Tang Che basically doesn't even glance at them.

Fun fact: Most public figures' social media accounts are not managed by the individuals themselves.

Tang Che: "So what did your aunt want to tell me?"

There's no need for Tang Jingqing to call Tang Che over something that's already been resolved.

"After your engine blew up and you had to withdraw from the race last night, there have been a lot of negative comments about you both domestically and internationally," Tang Jingqing said. "What I mean is, could you be more careful with your public statements in the future, and avoid saying things that are likely to cause controversy?"

Tang Che: "Who can avoid being criticized as an F1 driver? It doesn't matter how much or how little criticism I receive, I don't care anyway."

No matter how well an athlete performs, they can't escape the haters, because there are many gamblers among the sports audience. Once these people lose money, they will point at the athlete and curse, and even threaten the athlete's personal safety.

Last night, Tang Che discussed this topic with Verstappen and the others at the dinner table. It turns out that no one has ever been immune to private messages from gambling addicts threatening their personal safety.

Furthermore, why should an F1 driver care about the opinions of people who may never even have touched a car? Tang Che's concern for the comments of professional drivers regarding their off-field activities is clearly ill-conceived.

"It's alright now. I was worried that those haters might affect your mindset, but it seems I was overthinking it." Tang Jingqing smiled. "Go wash up, and then we'll go to the restaurant for breakfast together."

Tang Che took two steps, then suddenly stopped as if electrocuted, and turned around abruptly: "My mom reads information about me. Won't she be upset by the haters' comments?"

"If a 19-year-old kid like you has this mentality, how could your mother, a domineering CEO who has been in the business world for twenty years, not have it?" Tang Jingqing said. "Relax, your mother has the best mental fortitude in our family."

-----------------

Alfa Romeo announced that the core of the malfunction that caused Gasly to retire from the race was a failure of the stator winding insulation of the MGU-K (kinetic energy recovery motor) in the ERS system, which triggered a short circuit in the high-voltage electrical system, ultimately leading to a complete loss of power and a fire at the rear of the car.

The core malfunction that caused Tangcher to retire from the race was a high-voltage leakage in the ERS system's energy storage battery, which burned out the internal combustion engine's electronic control unit (ECU), ultimately leading to the engine malfunctioning.

The team has now resolved the relevant issues.

-----------------

There's no time to feel empty after the Bahrain Grand Prix ended; the next race to arrive is the Saudi Grand Prix!

Because the Bahrain and Saudi Arabia race weeks are back-to-back, the teams immediately headed to Jeddah, the host city of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, after the Bahrain Grand Prix.

The drivers usually arrive a little later, around Wednesday, and after adjusting to the time difference, they attend media events on Thursday.

No major news broke on the day of the media event, but big news broke the next day.

On Friday, Saudi Arabia was caught in the crossfire of the Yemeni civil war when an oil storage tank located just 11 kilometers from the Jeddah coastal racetrack was attacked by Houthi missiles and exploded.

Subsequently, the Yemeni government forces and the Houthi rebels announced a three-day ceasefire, allowing the Saudi Grand Prix to proceed as scheduled.

Upon seeing the news in China, Tang Jingning made a phone call, stating directly that he did not want Tang Che and Tang Jingqing to remain in the area any longer.

Tang Che had difficulty even speaking to Tang Jingning, so how could he possibly appease Tang Jingning? It was only after Tang Jingqing's persistent persuasion that Tang Jingning was able to calm down a little.

Aren't Tang Che and Tang Jingqing afraid at all?

Tang Che and Tang Jingqing: We've been flying around all over the years and have been to dangerous areas before, so we're used to it.

Tang Che: Let's not worry about these off-field factors and focus on the game.

As usual, let's first take a look at the track.

The Jeddah Coastal Circuit, at 6.174 kilometers long, is the second longest F1 circuit (after Spa) and the longest street circuit.

The track has an average speed of 252 km/h, second only to Monza's "Hall of Speed", with a very high percentage of full throttle usage.

With 27 corners per lap (16 left turns and 11 right turns), it has the most corners of any F1 track, and the vast majority of them are medium to high speed corners with very few low speed corners. Only Turn 2 is the slowest corner on the track (80 km/h).

The track features three DRS zones, making it one of the tracks with the most DRS zones in the F1 calendar. The long straights combined with DRS can significantly increase the top speed of the cars, providing ample overtaking opportunities for the cars behind.

However, the turbulence caused by high-speed curves has a strong impact, making it easy for the car in front to create distance and extremely difficult to follow. Ultimately, most overtaking occurs in the heavy braking area of ​​Turn 1, resulting in a very low margin for error in both offense and defense.

Asphalt pavement has low roughness, resulting in minimal longitudinal wear on tires. However, continuous high-speed curves bring extremely high lateral loads, placing very high demands on the strength and thermal management of the tire sidewalls.

The track is only 10 meters wide at its narrowest point and 15 meters wide at its widest point. There are almost no buffer zones on either side of the track, and the concrete retaining walls are right next to the edge of the track. There are also a lot of high-speed blind corners, and drivers cannot see the apex of the corner or the exit line. Even a 0.1-second mistake could result in crashing into the wall and retiring from the race.

Those who frequently drive F1 cars know that the tuning of cars for this type of track is centered on high aerodynamic efficiency with low to medium downforce/low drag, achieving an extreme balance between top speed on straightaways and downforce requirements in continuous medium to high-speed corners, while also taking into account handling tolerance, steering precision, and tire load management.

Since there was still no simulator available, Townche and Gasly could only drive the car onto the track and test and adjust it little by little.

Like the Bahrain circuit, the Jeddah circuit also had the best track conditions for both qualifying and the race during the second practice session.

Although the temperature difference between practice sessions 1 and 2, and between practice sessions 3 and 2, is not as large as that between the Bahrain circuit, the wind difference is significant. Therefore, the track conditions of practice sessions 1 and 3 are not very useful for qualifying and the race.

Kakuta, start!

There's another reason why we gave Kakuda another practice match opportunity, in addition to the reasons mentioned before.

Tang Che: This B-class car's dolphin jump is too severe; driving it is truly a torment. Let Kakuta suffer this ordeal instead; he should thank us!

Tsunoda: Arigado!

Tang Che: See, what did I tell you?

During Friday evening's second practice session, Tontatta personally installed the upgrade kit the team had prepared for the Jeddah circuit and began the intense and exciting no-reference setup:

"The dolphin jump was almost out of control. We need to raise the chassis, level out the pitch angle, and make the suspension stiffer."

"This track doesn't have as many hard braking zones as the Bahrain circuit, and the brake cooling requirements aren't as high, so the brake ventilation ducts can be made a bit smaller."

"I need to increase the camber angle of the front tires and decrease the camber angle of the rear tires to accommodate high-speed driving."

……

Without studying the data in detail, but only glancing at Towntcher's lap times in the second practice session, Gasly understood that Towntcher's car setup maximized the car's performance while adapting to the track characteristics.

Gasly's own car setup not only failed to fully adapt to the track characteristics, but also failed to maximize the car's performance.

This isn't because of Gasley's cooking style, but because the AT03's tuning window is too narrow, making it difficult to find the perfect tuning option without a simulator.

Gasly: ​​That makes Tom seem even more perverted!

Gasly couldn't hold back any longer and asked, "Tom, how did you do that?"

Tang Che: "Just go to the track and experience it carefully."

Gasly: ​​Encountering a genius, he couldn't defeat him despite his best efforts.

Tang Che: "If you need it, you can use my tuning."

Tanger doesn't mind sharing setups with his teammates because he's confident he can beat anyone under equal conditions.

Gasly accepted Towne's training without much hesitation.

Gasly had a clear understanding: Towntcher would definitely be promoted to Red Bull in the future, and no matter how much he competed with Towntcher, he would no longer have the opportunity to be promoted to Red Bull.

Instead of fighting to the death with Tanger, it would be better to build a good relationship with him, learn a trick or two to improve one's performance, and perhaps have a chance to join other big teams.

During the third practice session, Gas took advantage of Toncher's adjustments, and then... lost control and climbed onto the wall.