"FUCK, is the lap speed really that fast?"

The first person to make a sound was Briatore, who was eagerly hoping for Chen Xiangbei to achieve an astonishing speed.

He knew very well that Chen Xiangbei hadn’t participated in the simulator test, nor had he raced the East Sea International Circuit with a Formula car, so logically, he shouldn’t have achieved such amazing results.

In that case, extreme measures had to be taken.

For example, extreme car adjustments or stimulating Chen Xiangbei’s mindset.

Humans aren’t machines, even someone as close to a machine as Verstappen experiences fluctuations in form, and may even crash intentionally if their mindset collapses.

Especially those T1, T2 level drivers, who possess good speed, rely heavily on their state to perform well.

Take Ricardo, Albon, and Perez for instance; when they’re in good form, they can compete for podiums, but when they’re not, they might as well be on the sidelines, experiencing significant ups and downs with different cars over different periods.

Briatore was holding a do-or-die attitude, hoping to either extremely squeeze out Chen Xiangbei’s potential to either reach the podium or even the top, or just fail to control the car altogether.

Finishing around tenth place offers little commercial benefit, as mid-grid drivers often hardly get any screen time in a race, better to create grand drama!

Like Mazepin and Latife, who leave a much stronger impression on fans than many mid-grid drivers.

Sometimes to increase influence, you don’t necessarily need positive feedback, "black and red" is still red.

Just like Chen Xiangbei faced various criticisms in Europe, even becoming the "track villain" in many people’s eyes, yet he became increasingly famous to the point everyone knows him, even the haters focus their attention on him.

However, the result completely overturned Briatore’s expectations, it was more of a fright than a pleasant surprise!

As a super manager in the paddock who personally nurtured two GOAT-level drivers, Briatore had seen all kinds of super talents.

No matter how extraordinarily talented, they still shouldn’t transcend the bounds of logic.

To achieve Hamilton-crushing lap times with a car never driven before, on a track never raced before, relying only on previous simulator training, seems a bit beyond the realm of human talent.

Briatore said unreservedly, that during their debut, Hamilton’s performance even surpassed Schumacher and Alonso, that guy was the true undisputed historically super talented driver.

And yet Chen Xiangbei delivered a pole position level performance on the first practice lap, truly unbelievable!

"Mizutani Sho, confirm the data with the track command center."

After a moment of daze, Odetto instructed Mizutani Sho, feeling that such lap times were abnormal, likely due to an error in the monitoring equipment.

"Understood, Team Leader Odetto."

Mizutani Sho immediately contacted the track command center, asking them to recheck the monitoring equipment signals, the response was that there were no issues!

"Team Leader Odetto, the track equipment is perfectly fine."

Hearing this response, Odetto gulped heavily, unsure of what to say.

Luckily, Sawano Hiroyuki beside him spoke up: "Trulli has completed his warm-up lap and is starting his first flying lap, his results can provide some reference."

Indeed, in the F1 paddock, the best comparison has never been with any competitor.

Because even by Formula standards, two teams couldn’t build absolutely identical cars.

Only teammates can provide reference value!

Trulli’s delayed adjustments led to a slower start, only now dynamically beginning his flying lap.

This lap he’s also pushing to probe the borderline performance of new upgrade kits; as long as both lap times are not too drastically different, it’s highly probable the TF110 car achieved an unexpected performance breakthrough.

Simultaneously, on the other side, McLaren team leader Whitmarsh was left speechless by Chen Xiangbei’s lap time.

No one knew better than him how valuable a 1:32.799 was.

Hamilton’s fastest simulator lap was barely a second quicker!

One must know simulator lap times are often noticeably faster than actual track lap times.

Because the simulator doesn’t fear car speed, nor does it have injury risks, mistakes can be undone anytime just like playing a video game, drivers have no extra psychological burden.

Many corners they wouldn’t dare to take flat out in real life; in the simulator, you can open DRS no problem, after all, a crash just leads to the next round.

"It can’t be this fast..."

Long after, Whitmarsh murmured these words.

Seeing his old friend’s shocked expression, Ross Brown revealed a wry smile and said.

"Your reaction’s just like mine back then."

"Back in the day, Xiangbei drove the never-driven BGP001 parameter virtual car on the simulator, ran a few laps on the East Sea International Circuit map, and his speed was on par with super rookie Vettel."

"You know, back then he was still a Renault-level driver!"

"What?"

Hearing this from Ross Brown, Whitmarsh could hardly believe his ears.

Vettel and Hamilton are known as the twin super rookies of recent years, many of F1’s long-standing rookie records were crazily broken by them, leading to era-defining progress.

Undoubtedly, the first decade of the 21st century was the F1 talent boom decade.