Ma Wang took a swig of wine and said to Daniel across from him.
"Impressive. I've never said he wasn't impressive. If he can stir my desire to challenge, he must be an extremely talented driver."
"Then do you think Ducati will win this year's twenty-four-hour endurance race?"
Suddenly, Ma Wang asked a rather abrupt question.
Hearing this, Daniel on the other side was stunned. He hadn't expected his old friend to ask him to predict the outcome of the race, but he quickly gave a shocking answer.
"Most likely not!"
Two GP riders were on the track, and Daniel actually gave such an answer.
However, what was even more surprising was that Ma Wang on the other side showed no reaction to Daniel's statement, his expression perfectly normal, as if Daniel were correct.
Last year, Suzuki only pitted once, but Ducati pitted three times. The time difference was too difficult to make up with lap times. Daniel's thinking was very normal, as it was his own thinking as well.
A pit stop for repairs usually took about twenty minutes, involving troubleshooting, repairs, and finally testing before rejoining the race. Lap times, after all, were set by professional drivers; even the fastest lap would only be a few seconds quicker. A few seconds was already a significant gap in lap times, but trying to make up minutes with seconds was extremely difficult. With one pit stop, Lin Yan and the others wouldn't be able to catch up even after twenty or fifty laps.
"However, we still have to watch. I think since this guy dared to participate in an endurance race, he must be confident about winning the championship."
"Indeed, I agree with your statement. Let's wait and see."
Daniel strongly agreed with Ma Wang's words. Since this young fellow dared to take on the risk of thankless effort, he should have the confidence to win.
..........................................................................
On the track, the cars were still roaring past. In the last half hour, Lin Yan had caught up to the tail end of the pack. In half an hour, Lin Yan hadn't even managed to lap them once. This performance made the Suzuki team principal feel much calmer.
If this continued, he might not even lap them twice in an hour. In this situation, their advantage was still very significant!
In the Suzuki pit, everyone felt that their previous anxiety was just a false alarm.
It wasn't that they overestimated the GP riders, but rather that they underestimated their own car.
With twenty minutes left until the car's pit stop for tire change, Ren Fei was ready. In the pit, Venarres and Zhang Mingzhi also noticed this. Lin Yan was fast, but his speed had its limits. It would take too long to lap them.
With a lap time of over a minute, nearly a hundred seconds, Lin Yan would need at least twenty-odd laps to make up that hundred-second deficit. How many twenty-lap segments could he complete in an hour?
Soon, the oppressive atmosphere that had been confined to the Suzuki pit spread to the Ducati pit.
Zhang Mingzhi's gaze sharpened. It seemed the situation in this endurance race was even worse than he had imagined.
"Is there any way?"
Zhang Mingzhi looked at Venarres. He usually consulted Venarres on tactical matters.
"There's no way. The focus is still on you. Endurance race cars will definitely encounter problems later on, especially when the temperature drops at night. It depends on how you shorten the time spent dealing with malfunctions."
After a moment of thought, Venarres shook his head. Lin Yan had already achieved the best possible lap times, gaining nearly five seconds per lap, a level that even he found astonishing.
Hearing this, Zhang Mingzhi nodded and turned to give a few instructions to his technicians.
When there were eighteen minutes left until the first pit stop for tire change, Lin Yan caught up to the last car on the track, completely closing the gap. The last car was KT.
Hearing the principal's words, the assistant beside him clearly wanted to say something more, but seeing his boss's firm intention, he could only give up.
"Tell Lauri to defend properly against Lin Shen from behind. If possible, use some subtle tactics, but be sure not to be discovered."
Exiting the pit, the little assistant quietly instructed the team staff responsible for holding the boards. The team staff nodded and hung up a banner with a hidden message on the fence next to the main straight.
The assistant returned to the pit, his face impassive, as if he had done nothing. The Suzuki principal might not have dared to do it, but that didn't mean he couldn't. If Suzuki won this championship, the principal might very well be promoted, and he would be promoted along with him. This was all about performance.