The TR voice feedback of the practice racing team cannot be heard by the live audience; they can only judge the drivers' skill levels from the lap time leaderboard.

"What's going on with Chen Xiangbei? Why is he lingering in the lower ranks in the first few laps?"

"Even though practice races often hold back a bit, as an F1 driver, he shouldn't be performing like this."

"Please add the word 'test', this is fundamentally different from being an official F1 driver!"

"Didn't you see Xiangbei's lap times are steadily improving? He's essentially skipping up to F3, and it's at the most challenging East Ocean Circuit, so not performing well is quite normal."

"Raikkonen jumped from Renault to F1; did he perform poorly?"

Many on-site spectators haven't followed the formula racing events, just as many understand the sport of racing.

After all, the Grand Prix has been held for over fifty years, considered the longest-standing car racing event in Asia, cultivating many loyal fans and audiences who know very well what kind of lap times should be achieved in practice stages on this track.

Just like in F1 practice races, even if the 'Big Three' teams keep a hand in the tryout process, under normal circumstances, they wouldn't fall outside the 15th place.

This year's Grand Prix F3 has 26 participants, and Chen Xiangbei was outside the top 20 in the first few laps, only recently breaking into the top 20, falling short of many spectators' expected scores.

Keep in mind, Chen Xiangbei is branded as the top F1 test driver, currently considered China's number one racer in name.

If you rank low in F3, how do you play in F1?

Not only the on-site audience, but even the engineers from the opponent racing teams focused on Chen Xiangbei are puzzled by this lap time performance.

As professionals, they are naturally aware of the prestige of consecutively winning the European Renault Cup, Chen Xiangbei is seen as one of the key contenders for the championship.

Only inferior to Keiyo Kokumoto from the TOM'S team and Motana from the ST team, even the local driver from Hong Kong, considered a rising star, Fang Junyu is ranked behind Chen Xiangbei.

Keiyo Kokumoto and Motana are the last session's champion and runner-up drivers, highlighting the emphasis on Chen Xiangbei.

Yet the practice lap times are like this?

For a moment, all the teams were unsure whether Chen Xiangbei was pretending or if he was truly inexperienced!

The Chen Xiangbei on the track naturally couldn't hear the outside's opinions or doubts, but even if he did, he would still not care.

He has grown numb to similar doubts in Europe; comparatively speaking, the audience in Australia is just a lack of understanding, considered quite 'friendly' to him.

Now he has adapted to the control characteristics of the Mechanical Era, the next period will have Chen Xiangbei fully matching this F3 car to the East Ocean Circuit attributes.

"Sawano, the front wing angle needs to increase downforce to counter understeer at sharp turns."

"The rear wing angle seems to need lowered downforce; East Ocean Circuit is narrow and has many turns, high aerodynamic downforce adjustment isn't much help for cornering, instead, it may affect the top speed on two long straights."

Chen Xiangbei communicated through TR and first fed back to the team the air pressure adjustment scheme for the aerodynamic components.

It's known that aerodynamic components, especially the rear wings, to be effective and produce powerful aerodynamic downforce, require the car to have sufficient speed.

If the car speed isn't fast enough, the airflow speed is equally slow, at this point the aerodynamic components can only serve a decorative role.

Many street-style 'auto parts city' modifications like to add a large wing to the trunk lid, appearing very imposing. In fact, if the speed doesn't reach around 200 km/h, the downforce produced by this kind of wing can be considered negligible.

Its most significant use might be serving as a dining table, sitting on the trunk lid eating box lunch...

The narrow and winding nature of East Ocean Circuit ensures that the cornering speed can't go high, at this stage the car needs more mechanical downforce rather than aerodynamic downforce, better to directly change the vehicle's aerodynamic adjustment.

"Got it."

Sawano Hiroyuki replied briefly, then looked at Odetto.

Surprised, he asked, "Leaders, does Xiangbei know aerodynamic detail adjustments?"

Keep in mind Renault Formula Racing Car doesn't have such complex aerodynamic kits, adjustments are more made in modifications and settings on the mechanical structure.

For example, simple low, medium, high downforce settings.

The team's voice communication from Chen Xiangbei suggested precise adjustments to the front and rear wing angles, completely beyond the level of a first-time F3 driver.

Chen Xiangbei's previous 'struggling' performance in driving the car also corroborates his unfamiliarity with this F3 car, theoretically incapable of understanding aerodynamic component adjustment feedback!

This leaves only one possibility, did Odetto teach him?

"I didn't teach him."

Regarding Sawano Hiroyuki's puzzled gaze, Odetto knew what looks the other wanted to inquire about, straightforwardly answering.

[Then how does he know?]

Sawano Hiroyuki's expression was full of disbelief, reminiscent of the first time seeing Chen Xiangbei racing in rainy weather and using a racing simulator at Suzuka Racing School.

The problem is that back then, Chen Xiangbei still had Huasi Sports backing, possessing underlying driving experience with CFR2000 racing cars, at most just suspected of hiding professional training time.

Now Chen Xiangbei's familiarity with F3 cars is even more exaggerated, completely reaching a 'born with it' level, while entirely excluding the possibility of previous exposure to them.

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