CHAPTER 196: CHAPTER 111: THE COLLISION OF IDEALS AND EMOTIONS (DOUBLE-LENGTH)

During this period of contact, Odetto noticed Chen Xiangbei’s emphasis on physical training, but it was obvious that the efficiency of his physical improvement couldn’t keep up with the speed of his driving skill advancement.

For a moment, Odetto didn’t know whether to praise Chen Xiangbei for his high talent or to lament his poor foundation...

"Hmm, I’ll change my clothes and head back to the hotel."

Chen Xiangbei nodded, walked calmly into the lounge, and changed into his racing suit.

Watching Chen Xiangbei’s back disappear from view, Mizutani Sho finally spoke: "Leader Odetto, Xiangbei-kun has a strained shoulder muscle. Completely recovering in two days is difficult and may affect his performance in the qualifying and main race."

Muscle strain is considered one of the occupational diseases in the racing world. Mizutani Sho knows that over time, the swelling and pain reach a peak before subsiding and gradually recovering.

With the high precision control requirements during high-speed racing, how could Chen Xiangbei, racing while injured, manage to control the car as if it were part of his own body?

"If there’s a problem, then overcome it."

Odetto simply replied and turned his gaze to the monitor screen.

Such a discussion is pointless; it ultimately depends on Chen Xiangbei’s own performance!

The Donington Park Circuit is about two hundred kilometers from the Super Dream Base, and to ensure sufficient rest, the team chose to stay at a hotel next to the circuit.

Back at the hotel, besides icing, Lu Xiaoman also prepared both topical and oral anti-inflammatory medications for Chen Xiangbei, to avoid inflammatory reactions caused by the swelling as much as possible.

"Sister Xiaoman, it’s not that serious, just a mild strain."

Chen Xiangbei felt that Lu Xiaoman was a bit too anxious. In fact, he had experienced such levels of injury multiple times in his previous life.

"If you don’t take it seriously, it could get worse. The qualifying race is in two days; don’t you want to achieve a good result?"

"Kubica can drive an F1 with one hand, driving a Renault Formula is no big deal for me."

"You’ve got a muscle strain, not a brain injury. When did Kubica ever drive an F1 with one hand?"

Lu Xiaoman couldn’t help but retort. This kid Chen Xiangbei sure could talk nonsense!

This retort left Chen Xiangbei momentarily speechless. The accident affecting Kubica’s career hadn’t happened yet by this time point, so naturally, there was no one-handed F1 driving feat.

"It’s nothing, I just said it casually."

Chen Xiangbei immediately changed the subject and obediently accepted Lu Xiaoman’s recovery arrangements.

At this moment, as more and more teams arrived for practice, the pit lane at Donington Park Circuit gradually became lively. Amid the equipment adjustments by the team engineers, the team leaders were more curious about their rivals’ lap times.

Among them, the reigning champion Chen Xiangbei became the focus of inquiries within the paddock!

However, other teams quickly discovered that not only was Chen Xiangbei absent from the track, but he was also nowhere to be seen in the Super Dream Team’s pit garage.

Only Super Dream’s other driver, Japan’s Kobayashi Shuji, was training as usual.

It must be noted that although the FIA divided the practice into two days for safety reasons, teams could only apply to practice on one of the days, meaning the overall time was not extended at all.

The Chinese Kid couldn’t even make it to the practice race; could it be that he was that confident about the Donington Park Circuit?

Only the ART Team noticed Chen Xiangbei’s early departure; they had already shifted their focus to Kobayashi Shuji.

The race engineer Tod even stood directly beside the track, stopwatch in hand, timing the lap speeds of Super Dream driver Kobayashi Shuji!

ART Team was paying such close attention because they paid the price in the last round for underestimating their opponent.

With Chen Xiangbei having left early, how fast his last lap was became a temporarily unsolvable mystery. But a sense of foreboding in Tod and Vergne’s hearts lingered and could not dissipate, prompting them to search for clues from Kobayashi Shuji’s performance instead.

There’s often competitive tension between teammates, influencing and spurring each other, leading to simultaneous improvements in lap times.

If Kobayashi Shuji ran a very impressive time, then based on Chen Xiangbei’s performance in the first round, he was likely to be even faster!

With a "vroom" as he zipped by, ART race engineer Tod almost simultaneously pressed the pause button on the stopwatch, recording a time of 1:08.951 on the black and white screen.

A hand-timed stopwatch would have errors compared to electronic timing, especially in a sport as precise to thousandths of a second as racing. The measured full speed certainly can’t be entirely accurate.

However, Tod intentionally slowed his stopping action, believing his timing error rate should be around 0.1 seconds; Kobayashi Shuji was very likely to have run into the 1:08 range, the pole speed achieved on the same track last year!

Though last year’s overall driver level was relatively weak, and a light rain before qualifying led to slippery curb white lines, preventing any extremely fast times.

Entering the 1:08s is still not an easily achievable result.

More importantly, after timing the lap speed, Tod immediately turned around to observe the reactions of the Super Dream Team pit crew. They were very calm about Kobayashi Shuji’s lap performance.

This led to one conclusion: either Kobayashi Shuji had achieved an even more amazing single-lap time, or Chen Xiangbei, who had left the track, did.

Tod inclined towards the latter in his mind.

And Chen Xiangbei’s lap time was significantly faster, otherwise, Kobayashi Shuji’s team members wouldn’t be so "indifferent."