After gently closing the small eting room door, Mizutani Sho muttered to himself.
"It’s more serious now, right?"
"Yeah."
Mizutani Sho nodded, indeed Chen Xiangbei no longer had the "haha" attitude typical of Renault races.
"Because Xiangbei might just be one step away from entering the F1 paddock."
Sawano Hiroyuki spoke in an exceptionally emotional tone.
He had won the Japan Super Formula championship, which is the world’s second fastest formula race after F1, with average speeds reaching just above 90% of Formula 1.
After experiencing the speed of Super Formula, the only way to go faster is undoubtedly F1.
Yet, Sawano Hiroyuki never managed to cross that threshold, and it remained a permanent regret in his heart.
He could perfectly understand the feelings of Chen Xiangbei at this mont; the opportunity to advance to F1 was right before him, and naturally, he had to do his utmost to seize it!
On the surface, Chen Xiangbei was still maintaining his composure, but there was no way he wasn’t feeling pressured inside, which was reflected in the absence of his usual "haha".
...
Chen Xiangbei was putting all his effort into preparing for the race, and his F3 competitors, feeling his pressure, dared not relax in the slightest.
The anticipated low-tier arms race officially kicked off, with Bottas and Ricardo also having the idea of skipping GP2 and jumping straight into the F1 arena.
This ant that they couldn’t let Chen Xiangbei steal the spotlight.
If a substitute driver suddenly erged and could easily defeat the regular drivers who had competed in several races,
even if Ricardo or Bottas ultimately won the championship, they would inevitably be compared to Chen Xiangbei by the outside world, questioning the gold content of their results.
To be honest, Chen Xiangbei’s substitute behavior really gave them and the teams a headache.
The Chinese kid was only racing once, and if he lost, he wouldn’t even have a chance to make a coback, a true case of a mute eating bitter dicine, unable to speak out!
To prevent this from happening, Ferrari, Red Bull, and Williams all sent engineering teams to their F3 teams to assist in testing and tuning the cars.
This was not just to help their rookie drivers but also to verify Chen Xiangbei’s strength.
Is the Chinese rookie fast, or is it the car that’s fast!
The night quickly passed, and Saturday marked the first round of the F3 main race, coinciding with the F1 qualifying session.
Compared to the 70,000 spectators who arrived at the track yesterday, today the organizers opened a temporary stand area, increasing the total audience number to 80,000!
Even so, the tickets and seats still couldn’t et the spectators’ demand, and outside the track, many fans who couldn’t buy tickets gathered, hoping to catch a glimpse of the entering F1 drivers, and if they were lucky, take a photo or get an autograph.
But while the idea was beautiful, reality was harsh.
F1 drivers had exclusive access to the venue, and the sa was true for this batch of F3 drivers, including Chen Xiangbei.
Chen Xiangbei’s qualifying lap tis from yesterday, publicized by the dia and spread online, had already stirred a wave of public opinion.
Those who supported him believed this demonstrated overwhelming strength; after all, Chen Xiangbei had dominated the Grand Prix in Australia, signaling he was set to beco the next F3 dominator.
Opponents, however, claid Chen Xiangbei was rely "cheating," with a new engine and a quasi-F1 team tuning the car, naturally making him 0.5 to 1 second faster than competitors, and now only being 0.3 seconds faster, he had the nerve to claim victory?
The external noise and debate inflated the heat of this F3 event.
Even many spectators who usually didn’t pay much attention ca today with a curious mindset to see if the Chinese kid could win the main race!
In the Campos Team P room, as Liang Chi led the technician team while tuning the car, Odetto returned from a lap around the pit lane.
With an amused smile on his face, he teased Chen Xiangbei, "Interesting, I just saw so F1 team engineers in the ART and Puma Team P rooms."
"Looks like today’s main race is going to be a war of the ’specialized cars’!"
"So, what do you say, still confident to beat them?"
Odetto couldn’t care less that Chen Xiangbei’s opponents were getting stronger; in his eyes, if you couldn’t even beat opponents at the F3 level, why are you fit to race in F1?
"You shouldn’t be asking if I’m confident, but whether you are."
Facing Odetto’s teasing, a slight amused smile appeared on Chen Xiangbei’s lips as well.
He should have proven through the qualifying that his speed was faster than his opponents.
Now that they’ve brought in F1 engineers to tune their cars, it equates to a showdown between the two teams’ engineering squads.
As the Super Dream Team Leader, Odetto was the one primarily responsible!
"Kid, I’ve lived through the craziest era of F1, this challenge is hardly impressive."
Odetto’s smile faded, replaced by an aura of absolute strength and confidence in his voice.
In his nearly 40-year career, he had witnessed the fierce rivalry between Nicky Lauda and Jas Hunt in the 70s.
Experienced the fatalistic duel between Prost and Senna in the 80s.
And saw Schumacher defeat nurous rivals throughout the 90s to gradually ascend to the throne of the King of Cars.
In the 21st century, Odetto also witnessed the "red-blue war" between Ferrari and Renault firsthand.
Chen Xiangbei really underestimated him.
While the two were at a bit of a standoff, Sawano Hiroyuki ca over and said.
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