Car Racing without Money

The bar celebration only ended at dawn. After such a "booze-fueled camaraderie," the team members' relationships became significantly closer. On the way back, everyone was already linking arms.

It's important to know that there used to be a hidden barrier between the Chinese, Japanese, and the former Super Aguri's European members.

Even though everyone was nominally a member of the Super Dream Team, in reality, there wasn't much communication, especially between the two car groups, which was particularly divided.

As the team leader, Odetto was clearly aware that this was not a good phenomenon.

There can be healthy competition among drivers, but the car group members cannot be divided; otherwise, it would replicate the "spy gate" between Alonso and Hamilton in 2007, leading to the internal collapse of the McLaren Team, thus losing the championship to Ferrari Team's Kimi Raikkonen.

Despite Odetto's rugged and strong exterior, the fact that he could survive in the politically charged F1 Paddock for decades means he must have the meticulous and shrewd mind of an "old hand."

There's nothing that brings men closer than having a drink together.

After a night of revelry, everyone had a great time, and Chen Xiangbei established himself as a core figure and leader.

Of course, except for A Yong, who looked completely depressed...

Returning to the Super Dream Base and lying on his bed, Chen Xiangbei, perhaps still mentally active, didn't feel much like sleeping.

Odetto's words echoed in his mind: The tracks may change, but the essence of technology remains constant. As long as one can thoroughly understand the car, one can race their style on any track!

With this in mind, Chen Xiangbei opened a video on his phone, which was a recording of the 1993 Donington Park F1 Grand Prix.

That afternoon in the meeting room, Chen Xiangbei had gotten Kobayashi Shuji's track notes and didn't plan to seriously watch this video due to a lack of significant reference value; he simply copied it onto his phone's memory card.

Now settling down, he believed he could gain deeper insights.

As the video started playing, the most famous scene of this F1 Grand Prix appeared, which was the legendary "Senna" overtaking four cars in the rain on the first lap, completing a comeback from fifth to first, earning the title "Circle of God."

Many know Senna was strong in the rain, having heard the title "Rain Master Senna," aware of the incredible feat of overtaking four cars in one lap. But they are unclear why this lap was elevated to the level of the "Circle of God."

The reason was that Senna treated the wet conditions as dry and ran aggressively!

Back then, the McLaren car driven by Senna could only be called the third fastest in the paddock.

First place belonged to the Williams car with its active suspension, ABS, EBD, power steering, and 80 horsepower advantage—the embodiment of super black technology.

Second place was held by the Benetton car, with a 40 horsepower advantage.

Merely from the gap in car performance, one might not feel the shock of the "Circle of God."

But considering the drivers of these cars were the seven-time champ Schumacher, the four-time champ Prost, and the one-time champ Damon Hill, it all becomes clear.

Using a slower car, Senna diced through the strongest F1 drivers like slicing through butter, turning a battle of gods into a man-machine showdown. It was an image almost impossible to replicate in F1 history.

This is why some believe it's the greatest lap in F1 history, a speed only God could achieve!

Chen Xiangbei just kept watching the scenes of Senna dashing through the rain over and over on his phone screen, analyzing the opponent's line strategy and overtaking timing in his mind. Almost every time, he gained new insights.

Incredibly powerful!

The more meticulously he watched and analyzed, the more he could feel the ultimate level of "human and car as one," completely surpassing his previous understanding of racing.

To be honest, in his past life, Chen Xiangbei's learning from the top F1 drivers was indeed at a stage of imitation and study.

Often, with the racing line trajectories carefully crafted by the team's engineers, he would practice countless times on the racing simulator, achieving the closest line and cornering speed.

This isn't actually wrong, as every novice goes through an imitation phase, especially for a Chinese driver like Chen Xiangbei, whose fundamentals were lacking.

However, at higher levels, true genius drivers can develop their style. For example, Verstappen's "oversteering" drift style, which countless drivers attempted to learn, yet none could match his extreme speed.

As a result, several second drivers in the Red Bull Racing Team couldn't adapt to the Verstappen-specific car style, leading to external labels of "uniquely tuned freak cars."

In a sense, such claims aren't wrong, as the Red Bull Racing was indeed built in line with Verstappen's oversteer style.

But competitive sports are brutal; there is never absolute fairness.

When your teammate's strength and results surpass you, they become the team's core number one driver, and the development of the car focuses on their direction, receiving resource preferences, which is reasonable.

The only thing a second driver can do is adapt to the car style as perfectly as possible, then defeat your teammate.

If not, you will forever be a wingman like Barrichello or Bottas!

In his past life, Chen Xiangbei couldn't break through his technical "ceiling," collapsing at the threshold of the F1 altar.