Car Racing without Money

Chapter 826: Chapter 338: Millimeter-Level Blade Overtake (Part 2)

"Chen Xiangbei, you are the hope of China and even Asia’s motorsport, hold on!"

"No matter how much they hope, it’s useless, don’t dream of keeping the position."

"The Chinese guy is finally paying the price for his actions. Does he think Alonso is some rookie?"

"Weber has already exited the championship contention, next it’s Driver Bei’s turn."

The audience’s voices rose one after another, with encouragement, anticipation, wailing, and sarcastic remarks.

Even the personnel from various teams in the pit lane were discussing Chen Xiangbei’s predicament, with the vast majority not optimistic about his ability to control the damaged race car. Only the observing Trulli did not draw conclusions prematurely.

Compared to the staff, as an active racer, he is more familiar with the Monaco Circuit, and Chen Xiangbei is not completely in a desperate situation.

The reason is simple, the Monaco Circuit doesn’t rely much on aerodynamic components.

For any vehicle’s aerodynamic components, including many civilian cars with showy big spoilers, the premise for them to work is speed.

The faster the speed, the more airflow passes through the aerodynamic components, thereby generating overall aerodynamic downforce.

Conversely, the slower the speed, the effect of aerodynamic components becomes minimal, relying more on the vehicle’s own mechanical quality.

The critical speed threshold for conventional aerodynamic components is generally around 200km/h, while the average speed of the Monaco Circuit is 161km/h, making it the slowest circuit in F1, bar none.

This means in most cases, F1 cars do not rely heavily on aerodynamic components, including the front nose wing!

However, this is merely a theoretical value, and no one would use a damaged car to test it. Besides, the damage condition of the front nose wing can be different every time, and whether there is an impact, or how great the impact is, depends on Chen Xiangbei’s real situation.

But at least one thing is certain; Chen Xiangbei is still fiercely defending!

At Turn 17, Chen Xiangbei kept a close eye on the rearview mirror while tightly holding the middle line, not leaving any room for overtaking on either side.

After exiting the corner, Chen Xiangbei also completely gave up on speed and the optimal racing line. He firmly stuck to the center line of the track, relying on the narrow geographical advantage of the Monaco Circuit to defend Alonso behind him with all his might.

Under extreme pressure and concentration, even with just ten degrees of temperature, his forehead was still covered with beads of sweat.

No matter how confident, arrogant, or wild Chen Xiangbei once was, at this moment, he could only maintain a humble attitude and give his 110% concentration to stand against this Spaniard behind him.

At Turn 18, Chen Xiangbei was still holding his defense, even though the car started to shake noticeably, indicating a disturbance in aerodynamic balance.

"Mr. Xiang Bei, hold on!"

"Xiangbei, keep going!"

"Bei, victory is right in front of you!"

Many members of the HRT team in the pit lane had subconsciously clenched their fists.

Past the last Turn 19, the entrance to the pit lane would appear, meaning Chen Xiangbei had held Alonso off from danger.

Honestly, if you include the time lost changing the front nose wing, Chen Xiangbei was inevitably going to fall to the tail end of the grid.

But for now, the team was more concerned about whether Chen Xiangbei could maintain his fighting spirit and mental state rather than tactics and positioning. Undoubtedly, holding Alonso off would greatly boost morale, which is the foundation of victory!

"Alonso, take down Driver Bei!"

On the outdoor command post of the Ferrari Team, Domenicali couldn’t help urging Alonso.

It’s worth noting that, in most cases, Alonso was revered like a deity in the team. Even the management communicated with him politely since he was the flagbearer after Schumacher.

But at this moment, the Ferrari Team was running out of patience.

The double-car strategy sacrificed for Alonso, yet Alonso couldn’t even overtake the damaged Chinese rookie car, which could be considered a massive failure.

Even though the narrow characteristics of the Monaco Circuit were the main factor, it couldn’t justify Alonso’s failure to overtake. As the strongest active driver in the paddock, with the team’s resources prioritized for him, he had to deliver excellent results and performance!

Upon hearing the team’s audio urging, Alonso’s expression was extremely stern.

It’s not that he didn’t want to overtake; it’s just that Alonso didn’t expect the Chinese kid to be so tenacious, nor the HRT Racing Car to possess such excellent mechanical quality.

No wonder the outside world believed that the HRT Team replicated Brawn GP’s miracle from last year, with Toyota presenting its final dance before leaving!

But the entanglement would end here; at Turn 19, Alonso would not give Chen Xiangbei any more chances. He pulled out with an extreme late brake. Even though the opponent occupied the center line and left no overtaking space, the Ferrari still slipped through the gap like a needle.

Blade overtaking!

There wasn’t a movie-like scene where the car’s side lifts, but the Ferrari genuinely rode the curb in the corner, with the whole front wheel and sidepod tightly against the guardrail.

At the pinnacle, the distance between cars on the Monaco Circuit is in centimeters; Alonso achieved the millimeter level this time.

Looking at the red Ferrari next to him, Alonso squeezed into a zero-space gap, and Chen Xiangbei truly felt what terrifying strength was.

This was Alonso in his perfect, peak state!

Seeing this scene, exclamations rose automatically both inside and outside the paddock.

Nobody mocked Chen Xiangbei; instead, many felt regret.

The Chinese kid’s defense was actually excellent; anyone else wouldn’t have held up for so much cash. Unfortunately, his opponent was the non-human level Alonso, destined to enter the F1 Hall of Fame.

Even so, when Chen Xiangbei snapped out of the shock, he still didn’t yield to Alonso. The two cars maneuvered the corner side by side like walking a tightrope, then slowly widened the distance on the long straight after Turn 19.

But before Alonso completely overtook Chen Xiangbei, the HRT Racing Car made a steering wheel turn, heading into the side pit lane entrance.

[Not letting me overtake?]

Seeing Chen Xiangbei exit, Alonso’s lips curled into an amused smile.

He wasn’t mocking Chen Xiangbei. On the contrary, only he knew how excellent the Chinese kid’s defense was.

This duel showcased the rookie’s true growth into a competitor!

In the pit lane, Chen Xiangbei activated the speed limiter and drove towards the pit box. Even having disengaged from the duel, his heart was still pounding hard.

Honestly, the wheel-to-wheel with Alonso just moments ago had already reached a level of pure luck.

The entire car hovered on the brink of losing control, and the steering wheel didn’t allow for precise direction control—a full embrace of improvisation.

The only thing Chen Xiangbei could do was to avoid steering as much as possible to prevent collision incidents with Alonso.

Now being a contender for the championship himself, Chen Xiangbei was no longer the barefooted rookie who feared nothing. A double-loss result was unacceptable to him, just as it was to Alonso.

At the pit box, Liang Chi led the timing team, standing by. Unlike a routine tire change, this time included a rapid front wing replacement.

In normal circumstances, the qualified time for changing an F1 car’s front wing is within 12 seconds. This includes disconnecting and reconnecting the complex internal components and adjusting the position of the front jack.

The team of pit technicians also practiced emergency front wing replacement during drills.

However, it’s clear that in-race front wing replacement situations are relatively rare, and the technician team’s practice frequency couldn’t be high. The unfamiliarity combined with more complex positional adjustments adds unknown risks to the entire component replacement process.

Therefore, the qualified standard for front wing replacement is relatively lenient, with completion in 12 seconds.

But for a championship contender, 12 seconds of time is clearly unacceptable. Especially after Chen Xiangbei re-enters the track, he’ll have to navigate the traffic jam. Even with very smooth overtaking and great cooperation from slower cars, each car overtaken theoretically costs him a fraction of a second in speed loss.

Combined for four or five cars, that accounts for about a two-second gap, increasing the overall gap with Alonso by 14 seconds.

The frightening strength Alonso showed just now, even if Verstappen came over to drive, he couldn’t close a 14-second gap, let alone the current Chen Xiangbei.

Liang Chi’s goal is to compress the front wing replacement time to 8 seconds!

The 4-second recovery time is the final ripple the team can offer to Chen Xiangbei!