But he didn’t dare to bet...
No matter how perfect Chen Xiangbei’s previous performance was, or how high his talent, it was just an F3 race.
In the realm of Formula racing, only GP2 can be considered a preparatory race for F1; the gap with F3 is indeed quite large.
Even those historical prodigy drivers who skipped levels never pushed the limits on their second lap.
With things developing to this point, Odetto could only say that he wasn’t wrong about Chen Xiangbei.
"Conservative" was just an illusion on the surface; deep down, he was filled with madness!
During the process of Chen Xiangbei advancing at full speed, the actual driving experience was not as easy as he anticipated.
If a perfect F1 control score is considered 100 points, it is easy to improve from 60 to 80 points, but wanting to improve from 80 to 90 or 95 points, the difficulty changes qualitatively.
What Chen Xiangbei is encountering now is the scenario of trying to reach a 90-point performance.
He sowhat overestimated his talent and strength and underestimated the difficulty of fully mastering an F1 car.
As speed increased to the grip limit, Chen Xiangbei needed to hover on the edge of losing control, aning he had to maintain extrely precise control without any room for error.
But Chen Xiangbei only had the foundation of driving an F2 car, and he didn’t have ti to understand the characteristics of the RA108, nor did his physical condition withstand the G-forces of high-speed turns.
It must be noted that the RA108 is not an easy car to drive, even Jenson Button and Barrichello, both F1 legends, could only rank third from the bottom in the 08 season driving it.
In so ways, RA108’s third-from-last position is genuinely thanks to the poor performance of Indian Force and Super Aguri. If either team’s drivers exerted a bit more effort, or invested more money in developnt, they might have knocked Honda off!
In the words popular in later generations, the third-from-last of RA108 is not due to its strength, but purely because the competitors are even worse.
But no matter how difficult it was to drive, Chen Xiangbei still did not slow down.
An F1 car is like a wild horse, only by continuously probing its "limits" can it be truly "tad."
Chen Xiangbei was trying his best to engage with the car, and as he once again sped past the starting line, he imdiately pressed the communication button on the steering wheel.
"Odetto, how long was this lap?"
"1 minute 23.891 seconds."
"So slow?"
Hearing the lap ti, Chen Xiangbei subconsciously replied.
He knew that the pole position record for the Catalonia Circuit was set by the King of Cars, Schumacher, with a 1 minute 15.022 seconds.
The track condition in this lap was basically similar to qualifying, yet he was a full eight seconds slower than Schumacher, the King of Cars!
In the realm of Formula One, true masters often decide victory in milliseconds.
Eight seconds is the distance between heaven and earth.
"This is slow?"
Even the usually "reserved" Odetto, who didn’t like flattering people.
Upon hearing Chen Xiangbei’s muttering, couldn’t help but retort in the team communication.
Was this kid trying to "humblebrag"?
Only considering how much slower he was, but not realizing how much faster his lap ti was?
Chen Xiangbei’s second lap was nearly four seconds faster compared to his first!
"I feel the gap with Schumacher’s pole lap is too big, it seems unreachable."
Chen Xiangbei casually replied. Theoretically, with RA108, such a tractor compared to the "Mars Rover," the sa driver might be a second slower.
Adding a second or two for tuning, a second for driver strength difference, and a second for familiarity difference, Chen Xiangbei’s ideal lap ti should be around 1 minute 21 seconds.
Now at 1 minute 23 seconds, he was slower by two seconds than projected, leaving him dissatisfied with this result.
"FUCK, you’re just a rookie and you want to compare lap tis with Schumacher?"
"Also, do you know that in 2004 Ferrari built a historically fast car using a 3.5L V10 engine!"
Odetto couldn’t hold back anymore; he even suspected Chen Xiangbei was playing dumb.
In the evolutionary history of F1 cars, they generally go faster, but at certain key points, it doesn’t always follow the logic of technological progress and era developnt.
Just like the forr V12 era, F1 cars could remarkably output up to 1350 horsepower.
Even the 3.5L V10 engines from 2004 still neared the threshold of 1000 horsepower, far exceeding the 2.4L V8 engines of this era.
The only technical directions for small-displacent engines to catch up and surpass large-displacent multi-cylinders are turbocharging or hybrid systems with electric motor assistance, which is the foundation of modern F1’s faster speed.
The F1 V8 era’s advantage is not in horsepower size, but in car lightness.
"Got it..."
Feeling Odetto’s "anger," Chen Xiangbei wisely refrained from speaking further.
"The tire wear is nearing its peak, Xiangbei-kun, are you planning to co in for adjustnts?"
Sawano Hiroyuki at this ti glanced at the monitoring data and interrupted the "bickering" between Chen Xiangbei and Odetto, asking the driver’s opinion.
The tire wear on F1 cars is far greater than on Renault Formula or F3.
On one hand, it’s due to differences in speed and car weight; the faster the speed, the greater the weight, naturally causing more tire wear over the sa mileage.
On the other hand, F1 cars’ aerodynamic kits provide a downforce value as high as a terrifying 2.6.
Simply put, when the Honda RA108 car weighs 600 kilograms and runs at a speed of 300 km/h, the downforce will reach an astounding 1560 kilograms, almost three tis the car’s weight.
In fact, for straight-line acceleration alone, F1 cars aren’t the fastest on planet Blue. However, with astonishing downforce, F1 cars’ cornering grip leads by a significant margin.
User Comments
0 comments from readers