Car Racing without Money

Chapter 781 - 318: Only Inexperience Is a Sin_2

The coexistence of speed and risk means that the more you push the limits, the exponentially higher the chances of crashing will be. Smaller and medium-sized teams have limited budgets each year, and excessive repair costs can crush the development budget, leading to increasingly uncompetitive cars, forming a vicious cycle.Latterly, the Haas Team had been caught in such a vicious cycle, signing drivers who were all known as Kings of Crashes for several consecutive years. Repair costs for just one season soared to several million US dollars, to the point where even spare parts couldn’t be supplied.

Small teams have annual budgets that barely exceed a hundred million, which also needs to cover various personnel salaries and marketing expenses. The funds for development must be carefully calculated, and suddenly losing several million US dollars can be fatal!

However, for championship-contending teams, they focus more on a driver’s potential.

The reason is equally simple; big teams or factory teams have the money to repair cars.

Especially those teams supplied by engine manufacturers, which can develop their own chassis and power units, resulting in low costs compared to private teams that need to purchase externally.

As long as a driver’s potential is high, with enough speed, they can compensate for repair losses through points, rankings bonuses, and sponsorship revenues.

The same advertisement price for the Ferrari Team is at least several times higher than Haas!

The current HRT Team has firmly entered the ranks of championship-contending teams, naturally focusing more on a driver’s absolute speed.

In single-lap qualifying, which pushes the car’s speed limits, Perez is not as good as Trulli.

Theoretically speaking, a driver with inadequate potential finds it difficult to drive on the exceedingly challenging Monaco Circuit. Yet, for some reason, Perez feels at ease on street circuits, with simulator lap times very close to track records.

Bear in mind, Monaco is one of the Triple Crown circuits in motorsport. Decades of hosting F1 have exhausted all explorations of the track’s limits, making further advances extremely difficult.

"Oh, really?"

Faced with Perez’s curious confidence, Odetto was somewhat surprised.

But when Odetto saw the number 1:13.583 on the simulator screen, his expression shifted slightly.

The current fastest pole lap record at Monaco is 1:12.791, set by Schumacher in 2005 driving the Ferrari Mars Rover. Last year’s pole lap was just at Perez’s level.

Though simulator lap times may be somewhat distorted, if Perez can maintain this state, getting into Q3 during qualifying should be no problem.

A rookie making it into Q3 at Monaco in their first run is indeed an outstanding achievement, beyond Odetto’s expectations for Perez.

"The speed is quite good."

Odetto nodded in approval.

Turning to Chen Xiangbei, he asked, "Bei, aren’t you going to run a couple of laps?"

"Forget it, the pre-race press conference is about to start, and I need to prepare to head to the track’s media center."

Chen Xiangbei smiled and shook his head.

Whether in this life or the previous one, to be honest, he had already run the Monaco Circuit numerous times on simulators.

The foundation is already there; running a couple more laps would not make much difference.

Compared to the simulator, Chen Xiangbei looks forward more to the practical sessions in practice!

The biggest characteristic of street races compared to professional circuits is an extremely complex pavement environment. Various asphalt height differences, rough patches, and even reinforced discrepancies from sewer covers, cause impacts on the ultra-fast cars.

If unlucky enough, you might face unexpected penalties.

For instance, Ferrari Team’s Sainz in the 23rd season once ran over a sewer cover leading to a shattered chassis. The team had to repair the car overnight and was forced to change a power unit, resulting in a ten-place grid penalty for the race.

One can say that the Monaco Grand Prix’s live action belongs to the event with the greatest discrepancy from the simulator, without exception!

"OK, go ahead."

Odetto shrugged and did not insist.

He knew that with Chen Xiangbei’s level of diligence, he did not lack one or two simulated practice laps.

HRT Team’s underground training room was very quiet, but near the track’s media center it was already bustling and overcrowded scene.

The small city of Monte Carlo, with originally only over thirty-thousand residents, had already drawn in nearly a hundred thousand spectators due to the F1 Grand Prix, and this without counting many tourists who couldn’t get tickets on a Friday morning.

Keep in mind, the Monaco Grand Prix is the only one not required to pay any fees to the FIA. Its offering to F1 encompasses not just a track, but more like countless global top-tier affluent gatherings.

European royalty, elite social celebrities, various business magnates; whatever capitalist spectacle you can think of, you’ll witness during the Monaco Grand Prix.

This also lets the winning driver gain significant exposure and flaunted riches, which contributes to it becoming a crown jewel in racing sports.

This time, the selected five drivers for pre-race interviews are precisely the current top five contenders on the leaderboard, with Alonso, Weber, Vettel, Hamilton, and Chen Xiangbei set to reunite.

Wearing a baseball cap with the HRT Team’s logo, Chen Xiangbei walked to the track’s media center, but before reaching the entrance, he was already engulfed by sprawling crowd of fans.

Even though the site security formed a human wall hand in hand, it did not obstruct the fervent fan base.