Car Racing without Money

Chapter 844: Chapter 347: Monte Carlo Night Battle

The Monaco Grand Prix thus ended amidst waves of people shouting "Chen Xiangbei" over and over, and after passing post-race scrutineering, the team engineers began packing up the equipment for shipping; their next stop would once again be the traditional final round back in Asia.

That is the Suzuka Circuit in Japan!

Strictly speaking, the place where Chen Xiangbei first came into contact with formula racing was the Huasi Training Base in the East Sea, but in fact, the bulk of his systematic training and development was done at the Honda Suzuka Racing School in Japan.

This was the starting point of Chen Xiangbei’s professional career, and also the finishing point of his debut season.

Compared with other circuits, Suzuka gave Chen Xiangbei a sense of familiarity that was in no way inferior to a home track.

Not only had he received professional formula training here, in his previous life Suzuka was also, apart from the East Sea, the circuit on which he logged the second-highest number of simulator laps.

His familiarity with it far surpassed that of other circuits, especially his actual driving experience on this track, so that Chen Xiangbei no longer needed to transfer early with the team.

This was precisely why he chose to stay in Monaco and run a race with Raikkonen—he essentially had no worries weighing on his mind!

Staying behind as well were many spectators and socialites; they also planned to seamlessly switch over to the WRC Monaco Station, to watch a group of the world’s top rally drivers conquer the Monte Carlo stages.

This Monte Carlo circuit is somewhat different from F1; although they share the same name, one is a paved street circuit, while the other is an off-road, unpaved course. Because both are located in the city of Monte Carlo in Monaco, they end up sharing the same name.

Moreover, Monaco’s status in WRC is almost the same as in F1; both are among the most prestigious rounds in their respective series.

And the WRC’s Monte Carlo stages are run as a night rally, filled with a thrilling sense of danger.

Bear in mind that even when F1 runs at night, the track is still lined with high-intensity floodlights, trying as much as possible to bring brightness up to daylight standards.

WRC night stages, on the other hand, are a pure, genuine night battle; not only is there no high-intensity lighting, there aren’t even those dim, yellowish streetlamps you’d find on small city roads—this is completely the standard of a rural dirt road.

Just imagine: on a country lane without any cement or asphalt, relying only on the car’s own rather dim headlights, the drivers hurtling along at over a hundred kilometers per hour, practically driving blind, leaving their "vision" and their lives completely in the hands of the co-driver reading the notes beside them.

If the co-driver gets even a single line of the pace notes wrong, car and crew will go straight off the course.

In a competitive sport like motorsport, the more dangerous it is, the more thrilling it is; the more thrilling, the more spectacular; the more spectacular, the more it draws eyes and attention.

The Monte Carlo night stages are, for WRC, a full-blown carnival.

Of course, aside from the allure of the night stages themselves, the reason today’s Monte Carlo stages are drawing such enormous heat, to the point that many F1 spectators and socialites are staying on to watch, lies in the "traffic" brought by two of the very top drivers.

One of them, naturally, is Kimi Raikkonen.

The other is the man known by the title "King of Rally"; his name is Sebastian Leib!

Since winning his first WRC world championship in 2004, Leb has now defended his title six times in a row; if he can successfully defend it again this year, he will become a seven-time champion in WRC.

The number "7" has an almost special definition in the world of motorsport.

In F1, Schumacher is a seven-time champion, and in the future Hamilton will also stop at seven; now the Car God of WRC is likewise challenging for his seventh crown.

The outside world is very curious: can Leb create this piece of history?

Chen Xiangbei, of course, standing from a God’s-eye view, knows that Leb not only succeeds in his bid for seven, he will go on to achieve an unprecedented nine titles.

Under normal difficulty, a nine-time WRC champion almost leaves no room for a successor.

Yet this world refuses to play by common sense, and another driver named Sébastien Ogier suddenly emerges, likewise charging toward the title of nine-time champion.

As it happens, this Ogier is currently Raikkonen’s teammate, and no one yet knows that he will become the next legend.

Splendor fades, night falls.

In his hotel room, Chen Xiangbei put on a full set of racing gear and prepared to head out; Emily was already waiting outside with the Ford team’s mechanics, ready to set off together to recon the stages and record the pace notes.

Compared with F1, each WRC round runs over a longer period of time: every round includes two days of on-site reconnaissance, one day of mechanical inspection, and three days of competition.

At the same time, each round is divided into three sections, each just over a hundred kilometers in length, with the total distance planned at around 400 kilometers—roughly on par with the three-hundred-plus kilometers of a single F1 race.

The difference is that the average speed in WRC is much lower, mostly maintained at around 110 kilometers per hour, and on a night stage like Monte Carlo it’s even slower.

This time, Chen Xiangbei wasn’t taking part in the full round; he was more like a guest performer, running a timed section, so the procedures for recce and the like were simplified.

This is where the role of the F1 Super Driver’s License has to be mentioned: as the highest-level competition license in motorsport, it’s basically accepted across the top categories of any type of car, or at most requires a simple conversion application.

It’s like how the WEC Endurance Race categorizes drivers into platinum, gold, silver, and bronze levels: even if an F1 Driver has never driven a single endurance race, as long as he applies, he can directly be classified by the FIA as a top-tier platinum driver.