Car Racing without Money-Chapter 537 - 209: Racing Against the Wind

Facing Chen Xiangbei’s inquiry, this time Trulli did not answer directly, showing hesitation on his face.

In the past, he was "generously selfless," willing to share tuning data and provide onboard footage from his first-person perspective.

With the pride of a veteran, Trulli felt it was fine to guide a rookie, especially when putting aside Briatore’s influence; the hard-working attitude of this newcomer from China suited him well.

But now, the situation was a bit different.

Chen Xiangbei had become a rival capable of defeating him!

Informing an opponent about track characteristics would undoubtedly increase the difficulty of winning.

Seeing the hesitation on Trulli’s face, Chen Xiangbei could understand his mindset and politely smiled before intending to continue walking down the track.

Just as Chen Xiangbei had walked about five meters, Trulli spoke up: "The difficulty of Albert Park Circuit doesn’t lie in the corners; it’s more about the changing external conditions."

Hearing Trulli’s words, Chen Xiangbei stopped in his tracks.

"What external conditions change?"

"Wind, rain, temperature!"

Trulli succinctly stated three words, feeling that he had repaid Chen Xiangbei with a friendly gesture of fair competition.

As for whether the opponent could comprehend them, that was the problem of the Chinese kid himself.

After speaking, Trulli turned and left straight away.

[Wind, rain, temperature?]

Chen Xiangbei mouthed these three words to himself. He was not entirely unfamiliar with Albert Park Circuit; it was just that many things needed to be addressed through experience.

Temperature was easy to understand. The Southern Hemisphere was in the transition period between spring and summer, and Albert Park Circuit shared the high-temperature conditions like the Bahrain Sakhir Circuit, especially posing great pressure on the tires and braking systems.

In the last race, Chen Xiangbei relied on a three-stop strategy, coupled with his tire preservation ability. The impact of tire graining was not very noticeable; the pressure was more concentrated on the braking system.

Due to its "semi-street" nature, Albert Park Circuit makes overtaking more difficult compared to Bahrain Circuit, implying that multi-stop strategies would not be mainstream. Teams would mostly opt for one or two stops.

This increased the demands on drivers’ tire preservation and rhythm control!

Regarding "rain," Chen Xiangbei had reviewed the weather records of the track over the years, aware that Melbourne’s spring-summer season had unstable weather, with sudden rainfall often disrupting the race, making intermediate and full wet tires decisive factors.

Rain racing is a standard that determines if an F1 Driver has the ability to contend for championships; Masa, Bottas, and others are destined to be second drivers because of their glaring "duck flat-footed" weakness.

Until this point, Chen Xiangbei had only raced once in wet conditions during academy testing at Suzuka Circuit.

Except for early members like Sawano Hiroyuki and Mizutani Sho, no one externally knew about Chen Xiangbei’s rain racing ability, including Trulli.

Mentioning the term was, to a certain extent, a reminder.

As for "wind," the concept is relatively more elusive.

Yet, the destiny of an F1 car is actually contending with "wind"!

For an F1 car, the speed it can achieve is not solely dependent on power; grip and stability represent the car’s speed limit, and these depend on aerodynamic components guiding the "wind."

Albert Park Circuit, built surrounding a lake, offers scenic beauty but also brings lake winds.

In a hot environment, a cool breeze feels very pleasant for people, but for the car, sudden sideways crosswinds may be "fatal" to its handling.

The same corner, the same driving style, the same steering angle, with or without wind can cause deviations in the car’s racing line.

This deviation is not substantial; possibly just one or two centimeters, and almost imperceptible to the outside world except the driver.

But for an F1 car challenging control limits, one or two centimeters can determine whether a corner is passed smoothly!

At worst, it scrapes the guardrail, at best, loses control and crashes. 𝒻𝑟𝘦𝘦𝘸ℯ𝒷𝑛𝘰𝓋ℯ𝘭.𝘤𝘰𝘮

Compared to temperature and rain, which are at least within controllable range, wind speed is entirely unpredictable.

One moment there might be none, and no one can guarantee the next moment it won’t happen.

Contending with wind often doesn’t solely depend on driving skills but more on drivers’ perception and experience.

The high lateral load of Albert Park Circuit is also triggered by various "winds," demanding high tuning requirements for car stability.

Trulli merely said a few words partly due to his competitive relationship with Chen Xiangbei and didn’t want to elaborate.

The other reason is that it cannot really be elaborated.

Whether the problem can be solved depends entirely on the driver’s intuition.

After realizing this point, Chen Xiangbei didn’t continue walking the track but returned to the hotel.

Immediately requested historical meteorological data of Albert Park Circuit from Odetto, also shifted focus from drivers’ racing lines to managing lateral slides while watching race footage.

Many aspects indeed require rich experience to handle, but there are ways to learn!

On Thursday’s track walk, Chen Xiangbei didn’t go, instead stayed in the hotel studying the data.

Witnessing this unusual scene, Briatore asked puzzledly: "Odetto, what’s up with Xiangbei?"

Hua Bu belonged to the type who strictly differentiated between management and technology; even though he was strong-willed expecting to control everything, he wouldn’t meddle in driving skills, leaving that entirely to Odetto’s racing engineering team.