Car Racing without Money

Chapter 733 - 296: Hesitation Leads to Defeat

"Beep, beep, beep..."The start lights above the track lit up one by one, and the moment they all went out, the cars set off from pole position in sequence to begin the formation lap.

Chen Xiangbei was on the medium yellow compound, which required a higher operating temperature than the soft red, so he could only use a more aggressive braking warm-up, repeatedly dabbing the brakes to increase friction between the tires and the track and bring the temperatures up.

Multiple braking events also helped the brake system heat up quickly, and that heat would then transfer through the wheel rims into the tires.

Right as Chen Xiangbei was working on his tire temps, he suddenly felt the engine note behind his ears grow louder. Before he could turn his head to see what was happening, the corner of his eye had already caught sight of an orange nose cone.

Only two teams in the paddock were running orange-yellow liveries, and HRT Team mainly used it as detailing; black was their primary color.

Only McLaren used orange as their main color!

No doubt about it, the car that had appeared alongside Chen Xiangbei’s at this moment was Hamilton’s from P2 on the grid.

"What is Hamilton doing? He’s right up against Driver Bei’s rear wheels, making a move like he wants to overtake. Is this a deliberate provocation?"

Compared with Chen Xiangbei, who had to rely on his mirrors and looking back, the commentators in the studio had track rail cameras and helicopter overhead shots. They could see Hamilton’s acceleration earlier, and they had a much clearer view of his ’overtaking’ move.

Everyone knows you’re not allowed to overtake on the formation lap, and ever since the precedent of Schumacher provoking Damon Hill in ’94, the penalties for passing on the formation lap have been very severe.

In later years, in the ’18 season, Perez overtook Hartley on the formation lap and got a full 30-second time penalty!

Normally F1 time penalties are just 5 or 10 seconds. Thirty seconds is ridiculously harsh; it basically means that race is a write-off.

"Bei provoking a world champion and getting humiliated is perfectly normal. Hamilton is as tough as ever!"

If Red’s tone held a hint of surprise, then Park Dongxu’s voice was laced with barely concealed excitement.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Hamilton was already the one the South Koreans pinned all their ’revenge’ hopes on, and now that he was striking back at the Chinaman this aggressively, Park Dongxu was more than happy to see it.

Like Alonso, Hamilton loved to complain and ramble, but there was one key difference: he was far more aggressive!

Alonso’s driving style was actually on the conservative side; he rarely went for one-on-one trade moves with rivals, relying more on his sheer pace to diffuse crises instead of taking pointless risks.

Hamilton’s driving personality, on the other hand, was in the same mold as Verstappen’s—overflowing with aggression and a burning will to win. Anyone standing in his way on the road to the title would be swept aside without hesitation.

Back in ’07, as a rookie, he’d dared to fight the paddock’s king, Alonso, to the bitter end, and even got the upper hand, forcing Alonso to leave his old team, Renault Team.

In ’08, while fighting for the world championship, he straight-up crashed Masa off the track in an overtake, showing his ruthless, ferocious side in full.

’09 was relatively low-key for Hamilton, mainly because McLaren’s car was too slow, nowhere near as competitive as Brawn GP and Red Bull, so naturally it was hard for his aggression to show.

In 2010, the arrival of newly crowned world champion Button reignited Hamilton’s fighting spirit, and now, faced with provocation from this rookie in the paddock, Chen Xiangbei, of course he had to show the kid some color.

Otherwise, would the monkey really think he could be king just because the tiger’s not around?

"You can tell Hamilton is furious. That Chinaman picked the wrong guy to mess with!"

"He ran his mouth right before the start saying the win was in the bag. Of course Hamilton won’t put up with that!"

"I’ve got a feeling today’s race is going to shatter Chen Xiangbei’s confidence in his car."

"Nice one, Hamilton. Teach Chen Xiangbei a lesson and show him what it means to keep a low profile!"

Almost instantly, the paddock erupted with loud whistling and cheers.

Setting aside all the grudges between them and Chen Xiangbei, the fact that they were getting to see such a gunpowder-filled scene before the race had even started was already a treat for the fans.

The youngest world champion VS the youngest points finisher!

"Team Principal Odetto, should we remind Mr. Xiang Bei to keep his emotions in check? I feel like this is a psychological offensive from McLaren Team."

Mizutani Sho took the initiative to ask. Hamilton’s driving personality was indeed very tough, and he’d never been one to back down verbally.

But this kind of pointless provocation had never happened before.

And if you really talked about arrogance, Schumacher was the one who had defiance in his bones. Hamilton was clearly a notch below that.

On top of that, back in the days of ’Spygate’ and ’Crashgate,’ McLaren had pulled plenty of shady tricks to support Hamilton, so Mizutani suspected this was some sort of mental game from them.

In a sense, Mizutani’s guess wasn’t wrong.

It was just that this wasn’t McLaren Team’s strategy, but Hamilton’s own attempt to ignite Chen Xiangbei’s anger.

The biggest difference between young drivers and veterans in the paddock is emotional control—youngsters are more prone to losing their heads.

The ’nice guys’ filling the paddock in later years had all once been hot-headed punks. In their early days their driving was as wild and reckless as it gets. Nicknames like ’Turret,’ ’Torpedo,’ ’Golden Left Front,’ ’Dragon Painter,’ and so on—honestly, none of those are exactly flattering.