Car Racing without Money-Chapter 509 - 199: Historic Driver Strength

"Xiangbei’s speed is incredibly fast, completely beyond the expectations of many spectators before the race. Taking advantage of Rosberg defending against Kubica, he immediately sped up and caught Alonso’s slipstream."

"And judging by Xiangbei’s maneuvers, he intends to attack Alonso."

"OH, Xiangbei really is youthful and reckless!"

James expressed amazement in his words, even though he relatively understands Chen Xiangbei, he also believed before the race that the Chinese rookie was definitely not at the so-called "pay driver" level the outside world perceived.

Still, he couldn’t have expected Chen Xiangbei’s speed to be to such an extent.

Overtaking Rosberg at the start, catching up to Alonso by the second lap, it’s challenging for any rookie to accomplish this.

After all, F1 Paddock racing cars and drivers complement each other. Many times, even if a rookie has the capability, they cannot withstand the car’s sluggish speed.

Historically, very few rookies have driven fast cars in their debut season. Chen Xiangbei having this speed proves the TF110 prototype Toyota car is at least not slow. Could it be that the Chinese driver is truly going to overturn external perceptions?

Faced with James’ praise, this time Emil did not agree.

On the contrary, in a slightly sarcastic tone, he said: "The Chinese Kid seems a bit overconfident, actually daring to challenge the strongest driver in the paddock in the first lap, he’s prematurely using up the potential of his tires."

Compared to normal cruising, offensive and defensive maneuvers wear tires severely.

Or, to put it another way, any unnecessary lane change, acceleration, or braking action is a premature depletion of an F1 car’s tire life.

This is why during F1 broadcasts, you hear the term "train driving," and many drivers get trapped in their vehicle pack unable to get out.

It’s because tire management standards are very strict; without absolute overtaking certainty, drivers would rather stay back in the slipstream to preserve tires than to risk consuming their tires.

If your tire wear is excessive, you’re not just behind the front-runners, you’re behind every driver in the vehicle pack!

With Chen Xiangbei’s consecutive advances and offensive maneuvers, his soft red tires might not last beyond eight laps. An extra pit stop would cost 22 seconds of window time, and it could be even more if there’s tire change error.

Additionally, the Alonso of the 2010 season is unanimously recognized, both inside and outside the paddock, as the strongest driver, without exception!

While Hamilton and Vettel are in their rise, Schumacher returned from retirement after three years, deemed past his prime.

Button seems unremarkable, Masa and Weber have obvious weaknesses.

The only one "in his prime" and capable of contending, Raikkonen, has left the F1 paddock for WRC to run rally races.

Many have heard of Verstappen’s saying carrying a 0.5-second advantage, but don’t know this boast originally came from Alonso.

At Alonso’s peak, as long as he’s given the third fastest car in the paddock, he’d go for the championship!

Emil really couldn’t understand who gave Chen Xiangbei the courage to attack Alonso in just the second lap?

With usual sarcasm, James might have retorted a few words.

Faced with Alonso, who ended the Ferrari Prancing Horse dynasty and took down the peak Schumacher, the "Dragon Slayer," no matter how much James believed in Chen Xiangbei, he thought the Chinese rookie had no hope of challenging.

"Alonso, watch the rear car closing in."

Ferrari race engineer Stella provided Alonso with an alert according to the track car positioning information.

During this era, Ferrari Team still retained the "elite" essence of the Prancing Horse dynasty period, with the management and strategy team being relatively competent, not tossing out constant bad moves and "clowning" behaviors.

However, the Ferrari cars in this era were consistently poor, often reduced to "tractor" levels, fighting evenly with mid-field teams in the paddock, utterly not meeting the championship contention standard.

Otherwise, with the peak Alonso’s ability, if only given a stable third fastest car in the paddock, he certainly would have more than two world championship titles! 𝕗𝗿𝕖𝐞𝐰𝗲𝕓𝐧𝕠𝕧𝗲𝐥.𝚌𝐨𝚖

Though the Ferrari race engineer did not believe Chen Xiangbei had any capability to challenge Alonso, the paddock was filled with many unpredictable variables.

Especially since Alonso was entangled with Hamilton, it could easily let a third party gain the advantage.

Listening to the team audio transmitted through the headset, Alonso glanced at the rearview mirror with the corner of his eye, his expression unchanged, still focusing on Hamilton ahead.

In his mind, the black driver in front of him was his biggest adversary!

Like the "Dragon Slayer" turning into a dragon himself, when the once-invincible King of Cars Schumacher fell, Alonso became the target young drivers in the paddock aimed to challenge.

Hamilton was the only young driver who succeeded!

But unlike Schumacher opting for retirement returning to family disheartened after the "red-blue war" losses, Alonso believes he is still at his peak, not losing in terms of capability, but because of the car performance gap.

Give me a fast car, and I can still dominate the paddock, standing on the highest podium!

As such, he absolutely couldn’t allow Hamilton to become the next "Dragon Slayer."

Their attack and defense lines were spectacular, representing the highest driving skill of the F1 era, making the tens of thousands of audiences in the stands extremely thrilled, with the broadcast cameras locked entirely onto Ferrari and McLaren cars.

Even Vettel leading the Red Bull Racing Team ahead couldn’t compete with this spotlight.

While everyone’s attention was fixated on Alonso and Hamilton, unnoticed by the camera, a black and orange race car unknowingly had arrived behind Ferrari.