Being fast in the curves is what truly counts, after all, anyone can press the accelerator on a straight.

The high downforce forces the racecar onto the ground, indirectly increasing tire wear.

Under normal circumstances, when pushing to the limit, the peak grip of an F1 car with a set of new soft tires might only last for about one to two laps.

If you want to achieve a more extreme lap time, you need to pit and change tires.

"I'll push for another lap and come in after this cooling lap."

Chen Xiangbei didn't follow Sawano Hiroyuki's advice and decided to push for another lap while in good form.

Compared to lower-level formulas, F1 cars, in most cases, cannot continuously push at top speed.

Because pushing fully puts a lot of pressure on the operating temperatures, the fluids, brakes, tire temperatures, etc., all reaching high temperature critical points.

Take the common understanding of brakes for example, if the temperature gets too high, it can cause thermal degradation, greatly reducing braking performance. Under these conditions, it's impossible to push out extreme speed, and you can only do a slow lap to cool down through air cooling.

This lap is called a "cooling lap."

Furthermore, after F1 entered the hybrid era, just like the principles of hybrid systems in household cars, to achieve maximum acceleration performance, you need to ensure the battery level stays above eighty percent.

What if not?

Of course, run another lap, using the engine to charge the battery, and this lap is often called a "charging lap."

But the current era's F1 energy recovery system uses a flywheel to store energy, not a battery, so a "charging lap" isn't necessary.

Yet under hot track conditions, a "cooling lap" remains indispensable.

"Copy that."

Sawano Hiroyuki didn't block it, the level of tire wear on Chen Xiangbei's car, pushing for another lap would only impact speed, not pose much of a threat to safety.

The engineers in the testing rooms along the pit lane locked their gaze onto the screens. They wanted to see to what extent this Chinese rookie, Chen Xiangbei, could push his lap times on his first day.

F1 has spawned numerous talented drivers over the years, but there has never been a genius from China!

One corner after another passed by, and Chen Xiangbei had already forgotten the pursuit of lap times, entering a "selfless" state, with his mind only on the racing line and car control.

In "Initial D," Fujiwara Takumi's improvement was that he discovered the images he saw while driving were increasingly slow.

At this moment, Chen Xiangbei felt as if even time had stopped.

"Odetto, I seem to see the next Hamilton."

Staring at the lap time numbers appearing on the screen, Field murmured.

Among the F1 rookies tested in recent years, only Hamilton had given him a similar shock!

Even the "triple jump" genius Kimi Raikkonen wasn't as fast as Chen Xiangbei in the testing phase.

Of course, Kimi Raikkonen's leapfrog results were even more dramatic; he truly didn't even handle an F3 car before stepping directly into F1.

The absurdity of it equals asking an ordinary person, fresh from obtaining a driver's license, to go racing on a track!

This foundational rookie, if he doesn't crash in the first few laps of handling an F1 car, already shows an overflow of talent, and one can't realistically demand astonishing lap times from him immediately.

"Hamilton ran GP2, while Bei only ran one F3 race."

Odetto replied with a complex expression.

During Hamilton's era, even though his test speeds were faster than Chen Xiangbei's, considering their differing backgrounds.

Chen Xiangbei's performance places him as a super rookie among testing rookies!

"He can't really be the next Senna, right?"

Test engineer Field voiced words that even he didn't quite dare believe.

In history, there was one person's test result, which could only be described as "terrifying," and that was the legendary Senna!

In 1983, Senna, driving a McLaren car at the Donington Park Circuit, where he achieved the "Circle of God," recorded the fastest speed out of forty-timed laps, not only crushing those of the same year's rookies but also surpassing that year's world champion Kirk Rosberg.

Oh, and this Kirk Rosberg is the father of the future F1 champion jokingly called the "Fifteen-Time Champion," Nico Rosberg.

"Not that exaggerated, just adaptable."

Odetto shook his head, his tone appearing calm, but waves roiled within.

Chen Xiangbei, indeed, can't be compared with Senna, but the meaning isn't that he's inferior.

Conversely, the speed on his last lap was just over two seconds slower than last year's official Honda driver Jenson Button, driving the same car!

Jenson Button doesn't have a big reputation among the F1 champions of the past, nowhere near comparable to contemporaries like Alonso, Raikkonen, and Hamilton.

Mainly, he doesn't perform flashy tricks; his driving is a form of great skill without show, stable to the point of being scary.

However, being able to achieve a WDC title means that, at least at some stage, he was at the pinnacle as a top driver!

Moreover, Button's lower-category formula history is impressive; he was the youngest champion in the European Formula Championships, the youngest points scorer in F1 history, and won the FIA Rookie of the Year award.

Odetto understood Button's strong abilities, placing him currently among title-contending drivers on the field.

Chen Xiangbei managing to maintain within three seconds' difference on his first test drive means he's practically stepping into the F1 hall, now just waiting to see how fast he can go once car style preferences and adjustments feedback improve!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.