Why race if you don’t have money?

Chapter 113: Straight into the F1 Field (Two in One)

The old man really has something...

Chen Xiangbei muttered to himself that Odette had quietly obtained the practice data of other teams. This really required some connections and skills.

"OK, then change the tuning settings."

Chen Xiangbei did not insist on his own feedback and chose to follow Odeto's advice.

On the one hand, the opponent's lap time was also beyond expectations. If Chen Xiangbei did not adjust the chassis and suspension to increase the upper limit of cornering control, he could not guarantee that he would take the pole position in qualifying, especially when he had a muscle strain in his shoulder.

On the other hand, Odette has a wealth of experience and knowledge, and his team instructions have proven to be correct so far.

Of course, sometimes rich experience does not mean that the instructions are necessarily correct.

For example, the famous F1 team Ferrari, it seems that Schumacher's five consecutive championships have exhausted its luck. The team's strategies and instructions have become more and more stupid as time went on.

Schumacher once faced complex tire and fuel calculations, which allowed him to create the amazing "four-stop" tactics and rely on the ultimate strategy to defeat his opponent Alonso and win the world championship.

Nowadays, we no longer need to consider refueling strategies, but we can't even figure out the tire strategy alone.

They don't even understand the basic principle that you must use rain tires on rainy days. Their paddock strategy emphasizes "gambling" and making trouble, just like those small teams that rely on luck. Many times they don't feel the foundation of a legendary team.

So much so that it was nicknamed "Italian Circus" by fans.

Although Odetto also came from the Ferrari team, he had experienced the era of the F1 battle of the gods and would not tolerate any tricks or mistakes. Chen Xiangbei still trusted this.

While the teams were making their pre-race preparations, in the Donington Park circuit studio, Renault Series commentator James was interviewing today's special guests.

The person who came was none other than Starer, the former founder of Huasai Sports.

"Welcome to Donington Park, everyone, to witness the second race of the Renault Eurocup."

"Although Donington Park is no longer on the F1 calendar, it is undisputed that it is a great track. In 1993, Senna, the eternal racing god, ran out of the famous God's Lap here."

“I wonder if any new driver today can inherit the speed of the racing god Senna and run a stellar lap of their own!”

James is worthy of being a professional live commentator. He used Senna's great history to easily arouse the emotions of the audience. Many people began to recall the shock and excitement brought by that lap.

"In addition, today I would like to introduce a special guest, Mr. Stuhler, the former sponsor of the Williams team. Famous F1 world champions James Hunt, Jody Schechter, and Keke Rosberg have all received his support and sponsorship."

"Let us welcome Mr. Starler with the warmest applause!"

James' words were still full of passion, but the audience responded coldly, with only some polite and sparse applause.

The reason is simple. The Williams team is now running its own business. Who still remembers the sponsors and investors from 20 or 30 years ago?
Moreover, in recent years, Starler has focused his investment on Huasai Sports, but ended up with nothing.

It didn't cause much of a stir in China, and thousands of miles away in Europe, who knew who Statler was...

Of course, the reason why James introduced Starler so grandly and invited him to be a commentator was not because of his previous sponsorship and investment experience.

Instead, Starler took the initiative to contact the event organizer and announced an important announcement today!
"Mr. Starler, there have been a lot of rumors recently that you, along with your former manager Ross Brawn, have completed a full acquisition of the Honda F1 team. Is this true?"

As James asked this question on the Track FM radio, the audience's interest was instantly piqued.

Compared to sponsors decades ago, fans are obviously more concerned about the changes in the current F1 paddock. The arrival of a brand new team often brings a lot of fun and variables!

"Yes, we have completed the full acquisition of the Honda F1 team and will change its name to Brawn GP Team to participate in the new 2009 F1 season."

Starler openly admitted that this was the reason why he was the guest commentator for today's Renault Formula.

But he has more to do than just this, there is even more exciting news to come!
"WOW, this news is really unexpected."

"I don't know why, Mr. Starler, you suddenly decided to acquire the former Honda F1 team?"

James said something in an exaggerated manner, and the following words were what he really wanted to ask.

In the past ten years, Starler has not made any investment in European Formula One. It is said that he went to China to invest in a company called Huasai Sports.

However, Huasai Sports went bankrupt last year. Starler was disheartened and resigned from the board of directors, planning to live a retirement life in the mountains.

But now he suddenly makes a comeback and makes a huge investment worth tens of millions of dollars. It stands to reason that an old investor like Starler would not act on impulse. Is the Honda F1 team really worth acquiring?

"James, the reason for acquiring the Honda F1 team is simple. I am overwhelmed by the performance of the RA109 prototype. It is definitely the fastest and most powerful car for the new season!"

When he said this, there was an uncontrollable excitement in Starler's tone.

When Chen Xiangbei talked about the performance of the RA109 prototype, Starer was skeptical to put it nicely, and to put it bluntly, he was giving him face.

What kind of double-layer diffuser black technology can provide a racing car with the fastest speed in the field?

If it were so easy for an F1 car to take the lead, it would be an insult to the hundreds of millions of dollars in R&D expenses spent by the team every year, as well as the wisdom and hard work of hundreds of top engineers behind the scenes.

However, as a professional investor, belief is one thing, and verification is another.

Real investors never reject fantastic ideas or suggestions. On the contrary, most investments in incubation projects and startups are based on flashy ideas, and they place more emphasis on whether the founder's eloquence can describe a great future.

Investment failure is very common, but as long as you can successfully invest in a project, the profits brought in can make up for dozens of previous failures!

Starler eventually went to Honda's F1 R&D center in Meadows, England, and met former team manager Ross Brawn and the legendary RA109 prototype.

Team manager Brown was extremely excited about Staller's arrival and investment idea.

The new F1 season is about to begin. If the team acquisition and registration cannot be completed before the opening race, even if it is finally completed, it will not be able to participate in this year's F1 Grand Prix.

Brown showed great sincerity in this regard, and showed the car's development data almost without reservation, as well as their result of 1 minute 19 seconds at the Barcelona circuit.

When he heard the lap time result, Starler was speechless. He felt that Ross Brawn was even more boastful than Chen Xiangbei!

You must know that since the Honda Group announced its withdrawal from F1, the RA109 prototype was not able to participate in the winter test of the new car in Barcelona with other teams. How could it have any results?
More importantly, the fastest lap time in the 09 winter test was 1 minute 19 seconds set by Vettel of the Red Bull Racing team.

You're actually faster than the fastest lap time in the winter test. You must be kidding!

In response to Starrer's questioning, Brown produced the complete video of the test and the original lap data of the Barcelona circuit.

The RA109 prototype was indeed unable to participate in the team's winter test. This data is from a private test conducted by Brown at his own expense.

The reason why he chose to do this was because he wanted to leave no regrets.

Even if the acquisition ultimately failed and the RA109 prototype was unable to race on the track, at least I had witnessed its speed and success, and the hard work and efforts of my colleagues in research and development had not gone to waste.

This is a true uncrowned king of racing cars!

After viewing the footage and data, Statler realized he had a hidden gem before him. Without much hesitation or consideration, he immediately invested $40 million for a 50% stake in the new Brawn GP team.

Starler witnessed the power of the RA109 prototype, but the spectators on the track did not see it. They thought the old man was just hyping himself up.

"Last year, even with Honda in good shape, the team only finished fifth. A prototype car that was withdrawn from bankruptcy development can still be the fastest car in the paddock. What kind of joke is this old man playing?"

"It would be better to believe that I will enter F109 and win the drivers' championship this year than to believe that the RA1 is the fastest and most powerful car in the new season."

"Despite Statler's outrageous remarks, I am very happy that British driver Jenson Button is in the paddock."

"Yes, Jenson Button's ability is worth keeping!"

Compared to the birth of the Brown GP team, British audiences are more concerned about whether local driver Jenson Button can stay in the paddock.

Car fans from every country hope to see their own country's local drivers in the world's top racing track.

It’s a pity that the Chinese fans who came to Donington Park today to support Chen Xiangbei could only feel envy after hearing these conversations.

They don’t know when they can witness the birth of a Chinese F1 driver. Can Chen Xiangbei do it?
The two people in the studio were naturally unaware of the complaints from the audience in the stands.

Even if he knew, James would not point it out.

At this time, he could only smile awkwardly and did not comment on Starler's words that it was the fastest and most powerful racing car.

Then he changed the subject: "Mr. Starler, I remember you said there was an important announcement today. Is it related to the Brawn GP team?"

“It does matter, but the focus is on the driver.”

"Oh, do you have a brand new driver lineup?"

After hearing what James said, the British audience who were celebrating for Jenson Button just now immediately became serious.

If Starler dared to fire Patton, his ancestors would probably be cursed to death today.

“It’s definitely a whole new driver lineup.”

A mysterious smile appeared on Staler's face, which whetted everyone's appetite.

"Today, on behalf of the Brawn GP team, I announce that driver Bei from China will become our test driver!"

As Starrer uttered these words, it was like dropping a bombshell on the Donington Park circuit, sending the entire auditorium into a frenzy. An F1 team is a vast organization, comprised not just of two official drivers but also of a third driver, reserve drivers, test drivers, simulator drivers, and even a reserve team of young drivers!

Among the informal drivers, many positions overlap depending on their roles. For example, the third driver is also a reserve driver, and the test driver also drives the simulator.

Normally, if an official driver has an accident or is temporarily suspended, the priority for replacement will definitely be the third driver, followed by the reserve driver, youth training driver, and so on.

For top teams such as Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull, test drivers and simulator drivers basically have no chance of playing.

Even if there is a rare opportunity that the official driver is absent, the team will urgently promote the youth training driver to take the place of the driver, so as to give them a real practical training to test the potential of these reserve drivers.

Old drivers are often like "lottery tickets" that have been drawn before, with the words "Thank you for your patronage" written on them. It would be better for them to draw a new lottery ticket and try their luck.

Later Chinese driver Zhou Guanyu was initially rumored to be going to Ferrari as a simulator driver.

Because the former Sauber driver Giovina, whose seat he replaced, was also a student of the Ferrari Driver Academy. After he lost his seat, he went to the Ferrari team as a simulator driver. The career paths of the two are very similar.

As a result, Giovina, the simulator driver, completely disappeared from the F1 paddock and could only stay in the factory to drive the racing simulator, with almost no exposure.

Fortunately, Zhou Guanyu is currently a reserve driver. Regardless of whether he will have the opportunity to drive an F1 car as a substitute, at least he can maintain his exposure in the paddock, and there is the possibility of capital and sponsorship support to seek potential seats in other teams.

Chen Xiangbei, the test driver, is between the reserve driver and the youth training driver. Under normal circumstances, he will not stand in the P room with the team to watch the race, but he will be qualified to test F1 cars at critical moments.

You should know that in this era, in order to obtain a super driver's license, in addition to the points requirement for competition results, you must also have at least 300 kilometers of F1 racing driving experience.

This means that if Chen Xiangbei wants to obtain a super driver's license, he must find a real F1 team to test drive their old racing cars to gain mileage and experience.

Under normal circumstances, no F1 team would give Chen Xiangbei this opportunity.

Just like Sir Williams before, Chen Xiangbei must at least win the Renault championship before he will be considered.

Please note that this is just the consideration range. A "three-no driver" who has no automobile giant, sponsor capital and household registration book behind him will still have extremely low competitiveness even if his performance is acceptable.

Chen Xiangbei's journey to get a super driver's license in advance will be long and arduous.

Now Starler has given Chen Xiangbei this opportunity, even if it is just a test driver's seat, and it is a step into the supreme realm of F1!
"Did I hear correctly? A Chinese Formula Renault rookie who just raced one race has become the Brawn GP team's test driver?"

"Is Starler getting senile? How much money has Huasai Sports lost that they need to rely on this method to sell seats?"

"Although the Chinese kid performed well in the first race, the gap between him and an F1 test driver is too far."

"For a junior Formula One driver to become a test driver is something only geniuses like Raikkonen and Hamilton can do. Why would a Chinese guy do that?"

The audience in the stands were full of doubts. Actually, quite a number of these people had already recognized Chen Xiangbei's strength.

After all, in the first race, he beat Magnussen, Vergne and other well-known European talented youngsters, and won the pole position and the championship. No matter how blindly you are, you can't deny it.

But this does not mean that everyone agrees that Chen Xiangbei can become an F1 test driver. There is definitely something shady going on here!
Not only were the spectators at the track unable to understand, even James, who had many years of experience in commentary and hosting, was stunned when he heard that this was the big news announced by Starler.

What a joke, no matter how the Brown GP team is reorganized, it is still an F1 team in the top competition.

Are you so "hungry" that you don't care about what you eat and decide on a new Chinese person?

"Starler, can you explain to me and the audience the reason for signing Bei Cheng as a test driver?"

James had anticipated the audience's reaction; they wanted an explanation.

"There are two reasons. The first is that Bei comes from Huasai Sports. He is a young driver trained under the system I created."

"The second is that Bei has a forward-thinking vision and great potential. I believe he will become the next F1 driver!"

Staler already had the answer to this question. He believed that Chen Xiangbei deserved this seat.

To put it another way, the test driver is not the official driver, and the Brown GP driver also has the capital to trial and error!
At the same time, in the P room of the maintenance lane, Chen Xiangbei changed into his racing uniform and came out of the driver's lounge. He saw more than a dozen pairs of eyes from the entire crew, all staring at him.

The appearance of this strange scene made Chen Xiangbei feel a little uneasy.

He asked with a hint of doubt: "Is there something wrong with me?"

"Xiang Bei-jun, when will you sign an agreement with the Brawn GP team and agree to become their test driver?"

It was Mizutani Sho who asked the question that finally answered Chen Xiangbei's doubts.

But it also brought him greater doubts...

That is, he had never signed an agreement with the Brown GP team, and he didn't know that he had become a test driver.

"No, where did you hear these rumors? That's not true."

Chen Xiangbei looked a little surprised. Logically speaking, racing teams are elite organizations with high education levels. How could they easily believe such outrageous remarks?

"Just now in the track studio, Stuhler, an investor from Brawn GP, ​​announced that you would be their team's test driver. Is this public statement a rumor?"

Hiroki Sawano asked in surprise, why does this matter feel more and more weird.

Hearing this, Chen Xiangbei was also stunned.

He had guessed from the news that Starler and Ross Brawn had completed the acquisition of the former Honda team.

I just never thought that after the acquisition was successful, Starler would announce that he would become a test driver.

Could this be the old British gentleman's way of returning a favor?

Before Chen Xiangbei could react from his confusion, a group of reporters had already rushed to the door of the P room.

When such explosive news came out, of course we had to interview Chen Xiangbei, the person involved, as soon as possible.

I believe everyone is curious about what kind of story happened behind this.

"North, Statler announced that you will be the Brawn GP test driver. Do you have anything to say about this?"

"Bei, was it your ability or your capital that allowed you to become a test driver?"

"Bei, is Staler's decision related to the Huasai Investment back then?"

"Bei, do you think you can drive an F1 car?"

A barrage of questions rushed into Chen Xiangbei's ears frantically.

Indeed, the news about Starler was a bit shocking. In the entire history of Europe, there were only a handful of drivers who were able to sign contracts with F1 teams in the junior formula, and there has not been one in Asia for decades.

Chen Xiangbei, a new Chinese man, inexplicably became the first one!
If it were in the past, facing such enthusiastic interviews, Odette would have accepted them without hesitation.

It is simply an opportunity for exposure that comes right to your doorstep, something that many drivers dream of.

But this time, he saw shock in Chen Xiangbei's expression. It was obvious that this kid didn't know anything about the test driver.

No matter why this scene happened, after learning from the lesson that Chen Xiangbei's body couldn't withstand the high-pressure training, Odetto didn't want to be in a situation where his spirit couldn't withstand the pressure again.

Although in order to become a top F1 driver, one must be a monster who will not be defeated by pressure.

But Chen Xiangbei is indeed too "young" and he still needs some room to grow.

So Odetto signaled to Hiroki Sawano with his eyes, asking him to lead the crew members to stop the group of reporters from asking questions.

At Odetto's signal, Sawano Hiroki immediately led his men in front of the camera and said, "Sorry, qualifying is about to begin. The drivers are busy preparing for the race and will not be accepting any interviews at the moment."

"Bei, would you like to tell me what you are thinking right now?"

"Bei, do you think you deserve the test driver seat at this stage?"

The track reporters were still relentless, as they didn't want to miss this hot news.

At the same time, some sharp-eyed reporters noticed that Chen Xiangbei's expression was different from before, as if this Chinese boy was feeling guilty!

Just when Hiroki Sawano was about to call Takatomo Kobayashi's crew members to come over and block the reporters outside the P room, Chen Xiangbei had already walked over.

"I can answer your question by saying that I think I deserve not only a test driver seat but also a Formula 1 driver seat."

"Remember what I said today, you will witness an F1 driver from China in the future!"

Chen Xiangbei's distraction was not because he felt guilty or panicked, but because he was surprised by the decision made by Stahler and the change in history.

The Brawn GP team now has a new shareholder, Stuhler. Will Mercedes-Benz invest in the acquisition at the end of 09? Can the amazing eighth consecutive championship in F1 history be achieved as scheduled?
If nothing changes, does that mean I will become a Mercedes driver in the future?

It was precisely because of his dream of a chance to ascend to the top and become a driver for a top factory team like Mercedes that Chen Xiangbei stood there in a daze for so long. He never expected that the reporters would mistakenly think he was guilty...

Stop joking. I want to be an F1 driver. How could I be scared by a little test driver?

(End of this chapter)