Car Racing without Money

"Costa, Plan B, Plan B!"

Manor Team witnessed the unexpected situation on the track, and the race engineer urgently issued the Plan B directive.

Normally, when teams formulate strategies, they do not rely on a single "succeed or die trying" tactic; there is usually a backup plan in case of failure.

Manor Team prepared three different schemes for Costa's start overtake.

The first is to cooperate with Magnussen to execute the "double ghost shoot" maneuver, forcing Chen Xiangbei to brake and yield to seize the lead position.

The second plan is to, in case of a failed overtake, prevent a crash by going directly to the buffer zone, letting the Chinese guy and Magnussen entangle or collide.

The third plan is for the situation where Costa couldn't surpass Chen Xiangbei, but instead used the inner line advantage to overtake Magnussen.

Magnussen, being a celebrity in this Renault European Cup, is certainly the primary research target for various teams, as his goal is to win the first race championship, not letting himself stay behind for long.

Now, what Costa needs to do is to fully speed up and catch Chen Xiangbei's slipstream, minimizing tire wear. Avoid falling into a battle with Magnussen and getting left further behind by the Chinese kid!

Facing the team's TR instruction, Costa was still in a dazed state; he hadn't anticipated Chen Xiangbei employing such tactics, using lane changes to provoke and swap positions with Magnussen.

As if the Chinese kid had somehow learned his thoughts and the team's strategy ahead of time.

Could it be that even basic Formula racing involves TR tracking?

It's known that in Formula races, each team's communication system is internally encrypted, but the common channel accessible to the FIA is completely open. Meaning the Red Bull Racing Team can hear the Mercedes Team's communication, and the Ferrari Team can hear Sauber's internal communication.

Later, it even happened where a major team of the same camp directly issued orders to the drivers of smaller teams.

For instance, in 2018, the Mercedes Team's leader Toto Wolff publicly admitted to the media that during the Monaco Grand Prix, he issued cross-team orders to Force India's driver Ocon, directly requiring him to give Hamilton behind him a position.

Conversely, teams from different camps chose to use codes like Plan A or Plan B to replace the content of tactical instructions, preventing opponents from knowing their plans.

Or even, if opponents liked "eavesdropping," they might spread false messages in TR to mislead – a famous "telecom fraud" incident in the paddock.

But the problem is, even within the public channel that allows mutual listening, it's still segmented into over ten smaller channels to prevent crossover in voice communication. Listening to all communications requires positioning over ten people on it.

Such "eavesdropping" costs cannot be maintained even by F1 teams, let alone small teams in basic Formula racing.

Costa couldn't understand why a Chinese newcomer with nearly a blank karting record was so astute. Not only did he see through his plan and intentions, but also deceived Magnussen, which was beyond comprehension!

"Costa, are you ok?"

Seeing that their own driver hadn't responded for a while, Manor Team's engineer asked again.

"I'm fine."

Costa regained his composure and replied to the team.

"Execute Plan B!"

The race engineer emphasized again, and the team shared the same suspicion with Costa, believing that the Super Dream Team had overheard their internal communication.

This time they used a code to indicate their plan, instead of directly describing the tactic in voice like before.

"COPY."

Costa responded briefly, then fully accelerated to catch Chen Xiangbei's slipstream.

Now, Costa's biggest worry is Magnussen launching an attack on him, which would result in the two battling more and more behind Chen Xiangbei, ultimately benefiting the Chinese kid.

Luckily, Magnussen seemed to have suddenly calmed down, merely trailing behind in slipstream, entering a tire-conserving rhythm.

"The drivers of the first echelon on the track are now maintaining a peaceful tacit understanding, with Chinese driver Bei leading at the front, Costa and Magnussen closely following to conserve fuel and tires."

"We all know Renault is a standard formula car, often running at the front isn't necessarily an advantage, but rather a disadvantage."

"It is unclear how Bei's long-distance stability is; if he continues at this pace, under the same conditions his tire wear will be far more severe than those behind!"

Track commentator James noticed Magnussen and Costa's intention; since they couldn't surpass Chen Xiangbei from the start, they restrained their pride and arrogance, adopting a conventional "war of attrition" strategy.

They let the Chinese newcomer be the locomotive, trying to wear down his fuel and tire!

"Odetto, Magnussen hasn't attacked Costa, which isn't good news for us."

Sawano Hiroyuki's expression grew solemn.

Although he couldn't understand European rookie drivers as thoroughly as Odetto, Sawano Hiroyuki also reviewed the same driver records Chen Xiangbei saw.

Kevin Magnussen comes from a racing family, his father Jan Magnussen was once an F1 driver, though he didn't achieve results, he later participated in the Le Mans 24-hour endurance race.