As soon as Zhang Guang got off the plane, he was blocked by He Yiming.
"Brother He, why did you come to Singapore?" Zhang Guan asked in surprise.
"The competition in Europe is a bit far away. I can't go there. Singapore is so close. Of course I have to come and watch your competition in person!" He Yiming had a smile on his face and pulled Zhang Guan aside while talking and laughing, and then his voice But suddenly he became serious.
"Did your kid offend someone again?" He Yiming asked.
"Offending people? No! How could I offend someone as a good person!" Zhang Guan thought about it carefully and then said: "In addition to the 500 million U.S. dollars owed to me by the Maria family, there is also Sebastian That guy An was really screwed by me, and by the way, Honda was screwed by me, so no one else resents me!"
"You don't have to offend anyone?" He Yiming shook his head helplessly, and then said: "Someone wants to fight with you."
"A fight? What do you mean? Boxing? Who is it?" Zhang Guan asked several questions in a row.
"Ruslan Chagaev, nicknamed 'White Tyson', have you heard of it?" He Yiming asked.
"I've heard that an Uzbek heavyweight boxing champion and WBA gold belt winner is hailed as Tyson's successor. So people nicknamed him 'White Tyson'. Having said that, I don't think so at all. I don’t know him, so I probably haven’t offended him. Why would he fight me?” Zhang Guan said.
"It seems that what Chagayev said may be true." He Yiming continued: "The reason Chagayev gave is that he wants to see your butterfly step, so he hopes to have a fight with you. It is a friendly match. He knows that you are currently participating in the F1 race, so he said that you can wait. You can decide the time and place. In addition, he also said that you can wear protective gear. From this posture, it seems that you are really going to compete with You play a friendly match."
"Let's think about it again. We have to find out whether Chagaev has other intentions. And even if we really want to fight, we have to wait until the end of the F1 season. The Singapore Grand Prix is a night race, and I haven't raced in a night race yet. Here!" Zhang Guan said.
…
The Singapore Grand Prix that started last year pioneered night racing for Formula One. Before the Singapore Grand Prix, racing had never been held at night.
Considering the size of the racing track, it is obviously very expensive to completely cover a racing track with lights. Moreover, given the usage rate of the racing track, it is not worth the gain to provide street lights for the racing track. The main reason why the Singapore Grand Prix can enable night racing mode is because it is a street race. The competition venue is located in Marina Bay, which surrounds the southernmost tip of Singapore. It is also the busiest place in Singapore at night. Even at night, it is surrounded by lights. In order to adapt to the F1 competition, Singapore has laid a special lighting cable here and installed more than 1,600 floodlights. The brightness on the track can reach four times that of a general stadium.
Since it is a street race, it naturally has the characteristics of a street race. The track is narrow and winding, making it difficult to overtake. In fact, this is also true. The Singapore track has a total of 23 corners, and one of them is a first-gear corner, which is very rare in F1 races. At the level of an F1 racing driver, cornering in second gear is already considered very slow. Except for starting, the driver will not drive in first gear at all. Turn 13 in Singapore is too slow for most drivers. You have to shift down to first gear to corner.
On this kind of multi-curved track, the downforce of the car has become a very important factor in the competition. Obviously, the Haicang race has become a competition between China Force and Red Bull Racing. China Force has the most perfect double-layer diffuser, which allows the car to obtain more downforce and thereby gain an advantage in corners, while Red Bull's car has the most perfect aerodynamics, which is also a huge advantage on this kind of track.
Ferrari, which performed well on the high-speed circuits in the first two races, lost its competitiveness after arriving in Singapore. At least in the practice sessions, the performance of the two Ferrari drivers was very average. Even the car king Schumacher did not show the performance of the first two races. The kind of dominance that stands.
It was Zhang Guan's first time to participate in a race at night, but when he got on the track, he found that it was no different from racing during the day. At least his sight was not affected, and it was even better than the sight in the rain battle. The only thing The difference is that the sky is white during daytime matches, while the sky is black during night matches.
"No wonder people say Singapore's night battle is just a gimmick!" Zhang Guan thought to himself.
For a racing driver, racing at night is no different from racing during the day. Even the road signs on the roadside have become more conspicuous due to their reflections. All that is left in the Singapore Station is just the gimmick of "night racing".
Pre-race predictions suggested that the Singapore Grand Prix would be another two-strong battle between Force China and Red Bull Racing. However, a disruptor emerged during qualifying - McLaren's Hamilton. The recent overwhelming praise for Zhang Guan in the media has obviously stimulated Hamilton. Zhang Guan won the championship four races ahead of schedule, while Hamilton only won the championship by chance in the last race last year, and it was based on Ferrari's mistakes. At the same time, Zhang Guan's record of winning the championship in his first year of competition also broke Hamilton's record of finishing second in his first year of competition. People can't help but compare Zhang Guan and Hamilton, and the final conclusion is that Zhang Guan is better than Hamilton.
Hamilton is always a strong person. He is the kind of driver who can argue with his teammates for his own victory, so he cannot accept the result that he is not as good as Zhang Guan, so he ran very hard in this race. He wanted to Prove yourself with a championship in Singapore.
Hamilton's speed was really fast, and he ran to the limit. There were several corners where he even turned close to the guardrail wall. You must know that this is a street race, and in Singapore, where land is at a premium, there are no roads around. A buffer zone the size of a normal track is basically the wall next to the edge of the track. On other tracks, if you accidentally run off the track, you will at most enter the buffer zone. Although you will lose some time, you can still drive the car back. However, in Singapore, running off the track means hitting the wall.
Hamilton's high-risk running style also brought him high enough rewards. No one dared to run as boldly as him, and he also successfully won the first place in qualifying and will start from pole position.
The second place is Zhang Guan, the third place is Vettel, the fourth place is the young Rosberg of Williams Racing Team, and the fifth place is Webber of Red Bull Racing Team. Barrichello had a crash in qualifying. , fortunately, he has already achieved a low result, ranking sixth, but he has to start ten places back to replace the car parts.
In the race the next day, Hamilton successfully held on to first place at the start, while Zhang Guan encountered Vettel's attack at the beginning of the race. The car on the right side of this track has stronger grip, so the driver starting on the right side will have an advantage. Vettel took advantage of this to overtake Zhang Guan at the start.
Zhang Guan's successful defense prevented Vettel from succeeding, and although Hamilton, who was running at the front, had been running at his own pace, he was unable to get rid of Zhang Guan behind him.
This is the Singapore Grand Prix. There are 23 corners in one lap. You have to brake to prepare for the corner before you even accelerate. It is indeed very difficult to get rid of your opponent. Lapping on this track is faster than other tracks. Came much later.
Similarly, it is not easy to overtake on the Singapore track. The corners are too narrow and defenders can easily hold their own line. The distance from Turn 21 to the end of the straight may be the only opportunity to overtake on the entire track. place.
Zhang Guan also knows this very well, and with Hamilton's character, maybe he would rather fight to lose both sides and retire, but he would also forcefully hold on to his position. Therefore, Zhang Guan was not eager to surpass, but kept doing things like Hamilton. Especially when approaching Turn 21, he tried hard to get closer to Hamilton, giving Hamilton the illusion that he was overtaking.
Of course, Hamilton would not give Zhang Guan a chance to overtake. In order to stop Zhang Guan, his route selection in every lap was very extreme, and this was the result Zhang Guan wanted. Hamilton's running method is actually a running method with a very low fault tolerance rate, and he cannot make a single mistake.
Humans are not machines, so of course they will make mistakes. Zhang Guan was just waiting for Hamilton to make mistakes.
Hamilton was under tremendous pressure, but he was very lucky. An accident on the track on lap 21 caused the safety car to be deployed. The drivers took advantage of this opportunity to pit for tire changes, and Hamilton also took this opportunity to breathe a sigh of relief.
Four laps later, the safety car went back and the race restarted, with Zhang Guan continuing to put pressure on Hamilton. After the 30th lap, Zhang Guan always kept the gap between the two within 1 second. Such a short gap meant that the car in front was almost close to the car behind in some corners.
Hamilton's defensive actions are getting bigger and bigger, and his tires are getting more and more worn because of his too aggressive defense. In the game, the more worn the tires are, the worse the grip is, and the more difficult it is to control the car. .
On lap 33, the team had given Hamilton instructions to protect his tires. However, Hamilton's character was obviously not one to follow the team's instructions seriously. He had a history of violating instructions many times, so he naturally ordered the team to Instructions to him to protect the tires fell on deaf ears.
On lap 35, Hamilton paid the price for his willfulness. During a corner, he made a mistake. Seeing that Zhang Guan was about to pass him, Hamilton immediately wanted to make corrections eagerly, but his overwhelmed tires But he couldn't let the car complete the technical actions he needed.
Hamilton failed to control his line, and his car came into close contact with the protective wall. The front nose and tires of the car directly rubbed against the protective wall. The sparks after the friction were scattered in the night sky. When Hamilton controlled the direction of the car In the end, the price he paid was a front nose, a tire and the first place position.
Hamilton did not give up. He persisted on the track. He hoped to run back to the pit area to replace parts and come back again. However, the Singapore Grand Prix championship had nothing to do with him.
Zhang Guan completed his second pit stop, and a new set of super-soft tires was enough to get him to the end of the race.
…
Zhang Guan finally won the Singapore Grand Prix, and the following Japanese Grand Prix was a back-to-back race. The team flew to Japan non-stop on Monday.
For Zhang Guan, the Japanese Grand Prix will be of special significance, as the FIA will award Zhang Guan the annual championship trophy here.
In the past, the award ceremony was held in Europe, and it was also at the end of the season. However, this year for the first time, a driver championship was born from Asia, and even the team championship has nothing to do with Europe. The FIA is very knowledgeable and will award the award. The ceremony was brought forward and arranged in Asia.
The reason why Japan was chosen this year is because it is relatively close to China, and Chinese fans can arrive at the event in person to witness this historic moment. Of course, Singapore is not far away, but Singapore is a night game, and it is already late at night after the game. The time is not conducive to the viewing habits of Chinese audiences. There is only one hour of time difference between Japan and China. After the Japanese Grand Prix, it happens to be dinner time for Chinese viewers, and it is the weekend, so the ratings are guaranteed.
During the National Day Golden Week, many Chinese car fans flooded into the auditorium. Some travel agencies even launched special "racing tours", and tickets were already hard to get.
Japan is the only country in Asia with a racing history. Firstly, the Japanese automobile industry is very powerful, with two world-class automobile manufacturers, Toyota and Honda; secondly, Japan has a developed economy, so racing started earlier. Asia's only Formula One racing competition also takes place in Japan.
The Japanese Grand Prix used to be held at Fuji Circuit, which was owned by Toyota. It was later replaced by Suzuka Circuit because it was unsafe. The owner of Suzuka Circuit is Honda.
However, this year's Japanese Grand Prix has an indescribable taste for Honda. Zhang Guan will be crowned here, and Force China will also win the constructor championship trophy here. However, Force China, which has won double championships, is exactly the baggage that Honda has thrown away.
It is really ironic for Honda that its own non-performing assets have become a double champion in the hands of others, and they have to be crowned on their own territory.
Zhang Guan also seemed to deliberately cause trouble for Honda. He won the Japanese Grand Prix. Since the Belgian station, Zhang Guan has created another four consecutive championships.
The award ceremony seemed to be a one-man show for Zhang Guan. First, as the champion of the Japanese Grand Prix, he opened champagne to celebrate, and then he had to participate in another award ceremony and hold up the trophy that symbolized the annual championship.
On October 19th, at the Brazilian Grand Prix, Barrichello, who was playing at home, ranked first in qualifying. His good form also continued into the race. However, in the second half of the game, Barrichello took the initiative to take the first place. The position was given to Zhang Guan, who successfully reached the top.
Barrichello is a Brazilian, and his willingness to make such a big sacrifice at his home court obviously has a purpose. After winning the Brazilian Grand Prix, Zhang Guan has won 13 race championships this season, tying the record set by Schumacher in 2004. There is still one last stop left in the F1 race, the final race at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. If Zhang Guanyou can win the championship, he will surpass Schumacher and complete the record of 14 wins in the season!
(End of chapter)