Chapter 101: Chapter 85: The First Professional Race (5K)
Chen Xiangbei really wasn’t kidding; he would watch Schumacher’s race videos when he had free time to learn how to drive.
The reason is simple, Schumacher at his peak was like a god, with perfect lines without any flaws, possessing the most balanced single lap and long distance.
Rain battles and street circuits were no weaknesses for him, and he was equally strong in both offense and defense. Of his seven championships, at least three to four were won while driving the second or third fastest car in the paddock, beating opponents to stand on the top podium.
This is why, although Hamilton is also a seven-time world champion, some people always feel he’s slightly inferior to Schumacher, because Mercedes’ cars are almost "Mars Rovers", making championship wins seem inevitable.
Of course, this doesn’t mean Hamilton is no good; at his peak, he was equally unbeatable.
Moreover, the videos Yamamoto Naoki saw were from when he first came to the racing academy and raced in the rain. The data was not very much of a reference, as he had already corrected many flaws on the Suzuka Circuit.
Even if the leaked ones were the latest race videos and data, Chen Xiangbei still wouldn’t have any psychological fluctuations.
If a driver can’t even respond to being targeted, what can you win a championship with?
However, while changing into his racing suit, Chen Xiangbei remembered who Yamamoto Naoki was; no wonder the name sounded familiar.
As a future double champion of Japan’s Super Formula and Super GT, his achievements have already surpassed Chen Xiangbei, a mid-level F2 driver, making him the first driver Chen Xiangbei encountered who was "better" than him.
Facing such a formidable opponent as Yamamoto Naoki, at this moment, Chen Xiangbei felt more excited; masters are often lonely, and it only gets more interesting and motivating when a worthy opponent appears!
After changing into his racing suit, Chen Xiangbei came out, and everyone in the P-room looked at him, sinking into another bizarre atmosphere.
Originally, Sawano Hiroyuki had prepared some encouraging words, but now he couldn’t say a word.
The Chinese Kid wasn’t nervous at all, so why nag?
After hesitating for a while, Sawano Hiroyuki just glanced at the time on the wall and then said, "Get in the car and get ready."
Since this was only a touring selection race and mainly to ensure pay-per-view ratings, the FIA adopted special rules, putting the qualifying and the race on the same day, so the live audience could have a better viewing experience.
Meanwhile, the rules of this era’s Renault entry-level formula were also quite simple; the qualifying was only a single half-hour session.
This means that in this half-hour, the driver who sets the fastest lap time will earn pole position, with the starting positions for the main race decided according to lap times.
As for the main race rules, unlike F1’s around 60 laps, the Renault race was also shortened to 20 laps.
The reason is that Renault cars are slower, so even running 20 laps would take about 50-60 minutes, and this kind of long-duration high-intensity driving puts significant physical strain on some entry-level formula drivers.
If a driver starts to struggle and experiences performance drops, it will significantly increase the accident rate.
Though Renault cars aren’t as fast as F1, they can still reach speeds of 260 km/h, and their body structure and strength are considerably less.
If a serious collision occurred, survival chances might be even lower than in F1.
During the oil and liquid warming phase, many drivers couldn’t hold back and directly drove their Renault cars up to the pit lane to queue up.
The reason being that there were over a dozen participating teams in this Renault winter tour race, with more than just a dozen drivers. Often, a team would send two drivers to compete, with some large teams sending even more.
According to the standards and levels of the Honda Racing Academy, sending two drivers to compete wasn’t excessive, but the Japan Automobile Federation (JAF) considered balancing the race since Honda had the home track advantage, so they limited the number of entries.
Plus, for some reason, Hoshino Yoshi didn’t seem very concerned with professional racing and didn’t apply actively, so the Honda Racing Academy couldn’t insist, ending with only Chen Xiangbei participating.
The published entry list included 29 drivers, meaning 29 cars would be on the track.
Thinking about the future F1 qualifying for 20 cars, even going out in batches often caused severe traffic congestion, with some drivers not having a good chance to set a flying lap and thus not achieving a good lap time.
Having 29 cars running at the same time now, the congestion on the track would be unimaginable.
However, it wasn’t the most exaggerated; F3 events had scenarios of over 30 cars in qualifying, leading to absurd three-car wide tracks.
As a result, the FIA had to make a rule, splitting qualifying into two rounds and reintroducing the qualifying knockout system, which F1 had canceled, to prevent "traffic jams" on the track during the main race that could affect safety.
At this moment, Chen Xiangbei noticed a label with the number 13 on the front of his Renault car.
"Director Sawano, is this the competition number?"
Before Sawano Hiroyuki could answer, Mizutani Sho awkwardly replied, "Yeah, I drew it for you, bad luck..."
Japan also has number superstitions, like 4, 9, and 13.
and 9 are because of their sound, respectively corresponding to death and suffering in Japanese.
As for 13, it was influenced by the West, viewing it as unlucky.
After Mizutani Sho drew this number, he didn’t intend to tell Chen Xiangbei, fearing it would affect his racing mindset, but he noticed it after all.
"Good luck, I like this number very much."