Why race if you don’t have money?

Chapter 108 I'll Give You an F1 Championship Team (Two in One)

"To the north, that's Mr. Starler, the co-founder of Huasai. Go over and say hello."

Liang Chi patted Chen Xiangbei on the back and reminded him.

Staler?
Chen Xiangbei looked over and saw an old man wearing a navy-style coat, with his hair combed back and dressed very formally, much like the old British gentleman in the movies.

He is about the same age as Odetto and entered the paddock at a similar time. They both participated in F1 events in the s.

To be honest, Chen Xiangbei had only heard of Staler but never knew him.

After all, when he entered the Huasai base for training, the entire company was already in the bankruptcy liquidation stage, and Starler had already returned to the UK for more than half a year.

In addition, Starer's investment in the F1 team was a bit too long ago, and Chen Xiangbei had never heard of his name and deeds in this life or the previous life.

But this does not mean that Chen Xiangbei is unfamiliar with Staler.

On the contrary, Chen Xiangbei had been paying attention to Staler for a long time and learned about his investment experience and personality background through various channels.

The reason why Chen Xiangbei did this was that Starler was a crucial part of his huge plan!
"Hello, Mr. Starler, I'm Chen Xiangbei."

Chen Xiangbei came up to Starler and extended his hand to greet him.

"North, congratulations on winning your first race. You ran very well."

Starler shook hands with a smile on his face. He had watched the race in the VIP box for two days, and after the qualifying race yesterday, he also carefully read through the driver information sent by Zhang Zhicong. He already had a preliminary understanding of this Chinese boy.

Track results and training data helped Starler dispel his suspicion that Chen Xiangbei was a hard-pressed "paid" driver. Huasai Sports did find a potential newcomer in the final stage, which made him decide to meet in person after the race.

"Thank you. I will continue to work hard."

Chen Xiangbei replied politely.

"Bei, you're a little different than you appear on the big screen."

Starler joked that he had watched the Sky Sports media reports last night and that Chen Xiangbei in real life was not that arrogant and presumptuous.

Chen Xiangbei smiled slightly shyly at this sentence.

"Bei, it's a bit noisy here, why don't we go upstairs and talk for a while?"

After the polite greetings, it's time to get down to business.

Starler was not just a spectator of the game, he was also commissioned by Zhang Zhicong.

And more importantly, he is the founder of Huasai Sports and has worked with Liang Chi and Zhang Zhicong for a common goal!

"it is good."

Chen Xiangbei responded and followed Starler to the VIP box above the maintenance station. Liang Chi did not choose to come with them.

The dispute between Liang Chi and Zhang Zhicong over their strategies made him realize a truth, that is, it is easy for the technical faction and the management faction to have ideological conflicts.

The content of the conversation between Starler and Chen Xiangbei must be related to future development prospects and business value. He is not good at these things, so he will leave it to Chen Xiangbei to decide.

After spending more than a year together, Liang Chi knew very well that although Chen Xiangbei was young, he was as thorough in considering things as an average adult and could handle things on his own.

The VIP box on the second floor was empty, as Sir Williams did not come to watch the main match today.

For F1 team management like them, the low-level Renault Formula does not value the results, but the upper limit and potential shown by the drivers during the race.

The full-speed advancement and on-the-spot operations in the qualifying round have already made Sir Williams aware of Chen Xiangbei's talent, and there is no need to judge him based on the main race.

This is similar to Odeto's calmness after the race. Chen Xiangbei was very happy to win the championship in the first race, but it was not to the extent of being overwhelmed with emotion. Many things had already been foreshadowed in the qualifying stage.

Standing in front of the huge French windows overlooking the Silverstone Circuit, Starler said, "Bei, you should be very clear about the relationship between me, David (Zhang Zhicong's English name), and Huasai Sports."

"Ah."

Chen Xiangbei nodded in response.

"Actually, David contacted me when you arrived in the UK, hoping to provide help and care."

"But to be honest, Bei, I'm not optimistic."

There was no need for Starler to hide anything in front of a young man. He was not only pessimistic about Chen Xiangbei before, he even questioned him.

"I can understand."

Chen Xiangbei smiled indifferently, and put himself in his shoes. It was normal to not trust an older Chinese driver with no karting results before he got any results.

As for the CKC (China Karting Championship) championship, there is no problem in fooling other foreigners. After all, Starer is one of the founders of Huasai Sports. Doesn’t he know where that thing came from?
But then Starler changed the subject and looked at Chen Xiangbei seriously and said, "But your performance at Silverstone completely overturned my stereotypes and notions."

"Bei, David is not exaggerating. You are indeed a talented driver in China and even in Asia!"

The value of other tracks may not be obvious, but Silverstone, the "cornerstone" track in the Formula One field, can be said to be the "home field" of any European driver. There is no one who is not familiar with it or cannot drive on it.

Without absolute talent and hard power, you can’t get the pole position and championship at the Silverstone Circuit!
"Sir Williams of the F1 team also watched the qualifying race in this box yesterday, and I recommended you to him."

When Chen Xiangbei heard Starler say this, a hint of surprise appeared on his face.

Although Uncle Liang had said before that Starler had a close relationship with Williams, he might get a recommendation opportunity, which would be of great help in his future efforts to secure a seat in the F1 team.

But that was all in the future. Chen Xiangbei never thought that his first race in the Renault Formula would be watched by Sir Williams.

This kind of opportunity is definitely something you can only encounter by chance!

Seeing the change in Chen Xiangbei's expression, Starler shook his head and added, "But I'm sorry, Sir Williams didn't say anything. The minimum requirement for him to promote a newcomer is to win the Renault championship."

Finnish historical genius Raikkonen made the triple jump to become an F2.0 driver by relying on the Renault 1 Formula Championship title.

At the same time, Raikkonen also lived up to his talent. He was not a fake champion who was misjudged. He won the 2007 F1 World Championship title with an extremely clean and beautiful victory!
From then on, the Renault Formula Championship title became the threshold for entering the F1 team's "eyes".

Then Starrer changed the subject again, saying, "But I contacted the director of the Renault Sport Academy yesterday. He might consider offering you a place as a youth driver. That way, you'll have top-notch resources when you enter F3."

Chen Xiangbei was able to get the pole position and championship in the first round of the Renault European Cup, which basically ensures his entry into F3.

According to FIA rules, once a driver enters F3, he will share the same track during the F1 race weekend, which is commonly known as the "warm-up race".

If he could secure a seat as a young driver for an F1 team, Chen Xiangbei would be able to enter the F1 pit lane directly during race week, discuss with engineers and staff up close, watch F1 races, and learn F1-related adjustments and race strategies in advance.

In addition, young drivers can also enter the F1 team factory and have access to the F1 team's dedicated simulator.

In this way, while real F1 drivers are developing and providing feedback, young drivers can stand by and learn from them, gaining valuable racing data and track experience.

If you know how to behave, you might even get personal guidance from a top F1 driver.

Later, when Chinese driver Zhou Guanyu joined the Renault Sport Academy, he made it clear in a media interview that he had received a lot of help from his idol, "Big Brother" Alonso.

They would walk the track together before the race, and Alonso would tell him about the track surface conditions and bumps on the shoulders. He would also generously share the in-car information from the engineer's briefing and explain any unclear points like a teacher.

This is why low-level formula drivers hope to join a big team or an F1 team's youth training camp.

The resources and technical support they can provide are simply incomparable to those of small fleets.

In Starrer's eyes, the Superdream team only bears the title of the former F1 Super Aguri team. In fact, its core assets and equipment have long been sold to Germany's Fengtai Hi-Tech, and only an empty shell is left.

The Renault Group is currently actively promoting events. For example, the Winter Tour in Japan that Chen Xiangbei participated in before was part of their promotion.

Renault Group’s current goal is to create a top Asian regional event similar to the Renault European Cup, with the Chinese track as its main venue.

Chen Xiangbei, a Chinese driver, fits Renault's selection criteria for promoting their image, and they are even willing to pay for a contract seat at the sports academy.

To be honest, this is a two-way clause that benefits both parties. Chen Xiangbei agreeing to it will be very beneficial for accelerating his career development.

After all, Formula One racing has never been a step-by-step upgrade. As long as you have enough experience and strength, you can become the next Kimi Raikkonen and directly "triple jump" from Renault to the F1 paddock.

Or like Vettel and Verstappen, bypass GP2 (F2) and jump into F1.

You have to know that in Formula One racing, age plays a huge role in driver evaluation. An 18-year-old karting rookie is a greenhorn, while a 20-year-old entering the F1 paddock is a genius!

But the problem is that if he does this, Chen Xiangbei will have to abandon the racing team that has developed a tacit understanding and his ideal of building a Chinese formula car team.

At the award ceremony that just ended, the team members were still cheering for winning the championship. Those excited words and excited smiles seemed to still echo in Chen Xiangbei's eyes and ears.

Does it mean that after achieving success, "the first thing I will do when I get ashore is to kill the person I love"?
"Bei, make a decision now. I'll contact the Renault sports director and have you undergo a test and trial as soon as possible."

Stahler reminded him that he didn't think there was anything else to think about.

Not to mention that Super Aguri has collapsed, even if it is still in operation, the youth training value of a factory team like Renault is far greater than that of a private team.

Chen Xiangbei remained silent. Starler's appearance and proposal were too sudden. He could be said to be not mentally prepared at all.

It is difficult to come up with a solution that satisfies both parties in such a short period of time.

"Bei, what are you still hesitating about?"

Staler was a little confused. Is it necessary to consider such a good thing?
If it weren't for his long-term friendship with Zhang Zhicong, and if he wasn't the founder of Huasai Sports, he would never have helped a Chinese driver he didn't know at all to secure such a valuable seat.

If something good happens, you have to seize the opportunity!

But at this time, Chen Xiangbei inexplicably asked a question in return.

"Mr. Starler, do you want an F1 championship team?" What?
Starler was a little confused when he heard this. He could understand that young people had more active minds.

But isn't this Chinese kid's train of thought a bit too exaggerated...

While discussing with him a youth training position at the Renault Sport Academy, Chen Xiangbei suddenly asked if he wanted to get an F1 championship team.

To be honest, Stahler certainly wanted it.

Whether it was investing in the Williams team in the early years, or being persuaded by Zhang Zhicong later to invest in the Chinese Formula One team to open up the blue ocean market, in a sense, it was all for commercial success.

Winning the F1 championship team is undoubtedly the greatest success in the field of formula!

But the problem is that this has nothing to do with Chen Xiangbei. This little guy even had to rely on his own connections and help to get a youth training seat in the F1 team.

"Bei, I'm talking to you about something very serious, don't joke around."

Starler gave a warning, although he had a great change in his opinion of Chen Xiangbei and was willing to help this last spark of Huasai Sports.

But it doesn’t mean that the relationship between two people can be close enough to the point of “talking nonsense” when they meet for the first time.

"Mr. Starler, I'm not kidding. There really is an F1 championship team waiting for investment."

Chen Xiangbei's face was extremely serious. Not only was he not joking, but on the contrary, he had thought about this matter carefully in his mind countless times.

"What convoy?"

Looking at Chen Xiangbei's expression, Starler asked doubtfully.

"The defunct Honda F1 team's prototype car, the RA109, features a cutting-edge double-layer diffuser that promises to give the car unrivalled speed!"

Historically, under the impact of the 08 financial crisis, Honda Group announced its withdrawal from the F12 paddock at the end of December of the same year and would no longer inject capital into the Honda team.

However, the research and development of the racing car was ahead of its time. Honda's F1 sports department had already built a prototype car code-named RA109 and was ready for the upcoming competition. However, the team went bankrupt first.

This gave rise to one of the biggest steals in F1 history: the RA109 prototype car, which, in addition to the high-tech double-layer diffuser, also had the most advanced chassis design in the paddock, and the most efficient front wing and sidepods.

Whoever gets this car, as long as they pair it with two above-average drivers, can become the champion team in 09!

It can be said that Honda's engineers exhausted their technical reserves and talents just to build a Mars rover to turn the tide, but they could not resist the management's decision to give up.

Ross Brawn, the Honda team manager at the time, was unwilling to see the team's hard work die in the womb, so he chose to negotiate with the Honda Group.

It took him three months to personally raise $09 million in funds, and just before the start of the race, he completed the full acquisition and named the team Brown GP.

This Brown GP team became the first legendary team in F1 history to win both the team and driver championships in its first year.

And Ross Brawn's efforts were rewarded handsomely. Mercedes-Benz announced at the end of 09 that it would acquire 75.1% of the team's shares, and the price disclosed later was US$1.757 million.

This is equivalent to Ross Brown's investment of 80 million. Taking into account the shares he retained and the team premium, the annual return rate exceeds 200%, not to mention the additional income from fame and sponsorship.

From the moment Chen Xiangbei came into contact with Honda, he was actually thinking about how to get a piece of the pie.

His initial target was Aguri Suzuki because the success of the RA109 prototype was due to the joint efforts of three design teams.

They are the Honda F1 Team, Honda Motor Co., Ltd.'s sports department, and the Super Aguri Team which went bankrupt earlier and transferred its R&D personnel to Honda!

Unfortunately, Suzuki Aguri didn't have the funds or the resources, and his main business focus was on the local ARTA team. Chen Xiangbei also knew that his relationship with him was not enough to convince the other party, so there was no need to waste time.

Domestic companies Huali Automobile and Jiuli Sports were actually on Chen Xiangbei's list of investment candidates. The reason why he did not take action was that the timing and relationship were not mature.

As for Stäler, he was not Chen Xiangbei's target candidate at first. The reason why he paid attention to and got to know this Huasai investor was that he valued his relationship with the president of Ford Group. In the future, he might be able to accelerate the acquisition of Volvo by Huali Automobile.

But it was precisely this attention and understanding that made Chen Xiangbei realize the gambler mentality and adventurous spirit in Starler's bones.

After all, investing in Chinese Formula One in 03 was something a rational person wouldn't do...

Chen Xiangbei did not want to abandon his team members and his own ideals, but also wanted to obtain the resources and technical support of the F1 team.

In that case, then adults don’t make choices, I want them all!
As the F3 season opener in Bahrain on March 29 approaches, Ross Brawn is struggling with the funding gap in his acquisition of the Honda team.

When Starler extended a "helping hand" at this time, the success rate was close to 100%.

"Bei, how did you know about the RA109's advanced technology and its unrivaled speed?"

Starler sounded surprised. The fact that Chen Xiangbei could say the term "double-layer diffuser" meant that he was unlikely to have made it up out of thin air.

"Mr. Starler, don't forget that in addition to being a Hua racing driver, I'm also a Honda trainee and a former Super Aguri driver."

"You can investigate this matter and it will be easy to verify the truth of what I said."

"But we have to hurry up. Honda manager Ross Brawn is determined and he can raise funds very quickly. If we are slow, we will miss the opportunity!"

Chen Xiangbei and Starer have reached a tacit understanding that they can achieve the same goal through different means. It is like a pie in the sky, so they have to seize the opportunity!

"Bei, why are you saying this?"

Staler would naturally verify the authenticity, but now he wanted to know more about Chen Xiangbei's intentions.

“The success of an F1 driver is never due to himself, but to the entire team that silently supports him.”

“I want to go further and stand higher with my team members!”

In a sense, the success of the Brown GP team is a victory of disguised idealism.

Without Ross Brawn's efforts for his team members, without his unwillingness to give up the hard work of the team's R&D department, and without his revival of the RA109 prototype, such a legendary story in F1 history would never have happened.

If we simply weigh the pros and cons and the benefits, Ross Brawn should have jumped ship earlier, as he might have been able to sell the R&D data for a good price!

"North, I understand."

Starler has invested in Formula One racing for more than 30 years, and no one knows what team spirit is better than him.

Many times, the factor that determines who will win the world championship may be just a few tenths of a second late in leaving the pit.

Drivers who give their all, crews that work together, and technologically advanced research and development are the three pillars of an F1 championship!
Starler originally thought that Chen Xiangbei had only run one race and had no feelings for his team members. Now he realized that he had underestimated the Chinese boy's adaptability and communication skills.

No wonder the crew members in the audience were so excited during the award ceremony.

"Mr. Staler, thank you for your help and understanding."

Chen Xiangbei stood up and thanked Starler.

"If the RA109 prototype is really that fast, I might have to thank you then."

It is clear that Stahler has shown a strong interest in the Honda team.

Chen Xiangbei was not wrong. He was indeed full of gambler mentality and adventurism, and was completely unable to resist the temptation of an F1 championship team.

Having said all that needed to be said, Chen Xiangbei said goodbye to Statler and left the VIP box. Whether he could get a piece of the Brawn GP pie in the future depended on the old man's efficiency and determination, and whether he still had the same passion that had once driven him to invest in Chinese Formula One.

If everything goes well, Chen Xiangbei will be able to obtain the resources and technical support of the Brown GP team in the F3 stage, and even the network of contacts of the Mercedes team in the future!

Back at the team's P-room in the maintenance station, Liang Chi saw Chen Xiangbei coming in, leaned over and asked in a low voice: "Boy, what did you talk about with Starler?"

"Nothing, just getting to know each other."

"That's it?"

Liang Chi was obviously a little skeptical. Logically speaking, under Lao Zhang's entrustment, Starler should provide some resource assistance to Chen Xiangbei.

"Otherwise, Uncle Liang, what else do you want? Starler, get me to the big team?"

"I……"

Faced with Chen Xiangbei's words, Liang Chi didn't know how to respond for a moment.

Of course, he rationally expected Chen Xiangbei to go to F1 youth training. After all, Mewtwo's so-called base now didn't even have the most basic racing simulator. It was just a few empty factory shells.

But emotionally, he hopes to witness Chen Xiangbei's growth and work side by side with the team members towards the F1 hall of fame.

After a moment's silence, Liang Chi replied with mixed feelings, "The big team has better resources and technical support. Of course I want Stahler to get you in."

"Uncle Liang, these things will be available in the future, don't worry."

Chen Xiangbei replied with a smile that if he "gave" Stäler an F1 championship team, the rewards might be beyond his expectations.

At this moment, Odeto appeared from nowhere, holding a thick stack of information and CDs in his hands.

"This is the data for the next race, Donington Park. Most racing simulators don't have this map. You definitely don't have any experience with it."

"Old rules, remember everything within five days, or you won't be able to retain your title."

Odetto was right. For Chen Xiangbei, the Donington Park circuit was a completely blank area.

The reason is that this track only hosted the F93 British Grand Prix in 1, and has been fixed at Silverstone since then.

Naturally, no driver would go to a track that doesn't host the F1 Grand Prix to practice. Otherwise, how could they possibly practice there when there are hundreds of tracks of similar specifications in the world?

However, the only F1 Grand Prix hosted by Donington Park left a historic moment for the world.

That is the "God's Lap" that the racing god Senna drove in the rain!
(End of this chapter)