Why race if you don’t have money?

Chapter 146 The Next Historical Genius? (Two Chapters Combined)

The high-intensity physical training continued in this way, and neither Odeto nor Chen Xiangbei himself would call for a stop or give up.

In fact, Chen Xiangbei had long known the importance of physical training. Even before he got involved in professional racing, he had already been training on his own at home in Guangzhou and Shenzhen.

Unfortunately, there are no shortcuts on this path. The speed at which his physical fitness improved could not keep up with the speed at which he was advancing in the Formula One field. The amount of muscle he gained in just one year was not enough to meet the standards of an F1 driver.

Fortunately, the Brawn GP team has very professional sports recovery equipment that can help Chen Xiangbei repair his muscles after training to the greatest extent possible, including the most advanced liquid nitrogen cryotherapy chamber of the time.

The predecessor of this equipment originated from cryotherapy, where athletes lie in a bathtub filled with ice after a competition. The instantaneous low temperature stimulation accelerates muscle acid removal, improves anti-inflammatory ability, and promotes muscle recovery.

The general public in China learned about this cryotherapy method through the NBA. For example, many media outlets reported in the past that basketball superstar LeBron James would immediately use a liquid nitrogen cryotherapy chamber to relieve muscle fatigue after games.

Private teams of Brawn GP's caliber typically lack the financial resources to afford high-end equipment, and even once-dominant teams like Williams have declined.

Unfortunately, the Honda Group left it a rich legacy, including the Blackley plant, which served as its R&D headquarters and sustained the company for many years until Mercedes-Benz took over.

It's worth noting that in 2005, the Honda Group acquired the BAR racing team entirely, transforming itself from an engine supplier to a chassis manufacturer. Over three years, the company accumulated an astonishing $1.3 billion in investment, ranking first among all F1 teams.

This doesn't even include the R&D costs of his own Honda engine; otherwise, it would be even more outrageous.

This is why Honda's Tokyo headquarters resolutely withdrew from F1, even though the European side had developed the RA109 prototype but abandoned it. It was simply too expensive and they were also hit by a financial crisis, so even a wealthy family like Honda had no surplus funds.

In addition to the high-intensity physical training, Chen Xiangbei also kept busy during the breaks when his physical condition was recovering.

The R&D engineers of the Brawn GP team provided Chen Xiangbei with systematic training on F1 racing.

Motorsport and motorsports engineering are not just two terms; they are also two professional disciplines, just like computer science, civil engineering, and so on, except that they are more specialized.

As the old saying goes, a true top driver cannot be illiterate. Mastering a few foreign languages ​​and having automotive knowledge are basic requirements; otherwise, you will never achieve true "man and machine as one."

To give a simple example, when a driver gives feedback on their race car, they usually just say that their steering is not precise enough, or that the feeling of shifting gears is not good, and ask the team engineer to check where the problem is.

But the team engineers aren't mind readers; how can they accurately define something if they're not precise or have a bad feeling about it?

If the driver cannot provide specific directions, then the team engineers will have a hard time meeting the requirements, resulting in a situation where the car cannot be properly tuned.

Conversely, if the driver has sufficient expertise, he can accurately express how many degrees the steering camber should be set and what the gearbox gear ratio should be. The team engineer will immediately understand upon hearing this, and neither party needs to play a guessing game.

One of the standards for top drivers in the F1 paddock is to have a good understanding of racing knowledge and to be able to work with the team's engineers to fine-tune the car.

In his previous life, Chen Xiangbei drove Formula One race cars and had some exposure to and learning of related knowledge.

This is why his feedback on F3 car setup during the Grand Prix shocked the strategy team, including Hiroki Sawano, as this was theoretically an area that lower-level formula drivers couldn't access.

However, Chen Xiangbei had only driven up to F2 in his previous life, which was still quite different from the complex aerodynamics and mechanical principles of F1.

He needs further study and guidance from top R&D engineers to systematically master the discipline of racing engineering.

Otherwise, you'll just be driving blindly forever, without knowing where the problems lie!
A small portion of the R&D engineers at the Brawn GP team came from the former Super Aguri team, essentially Odette's former subordinates.

Because of this relationship, they taught Chen Xiangbei everything they knew, going above and beyond the treatment usually given to test drivers.

At the same time, Chen Xiangbei did not disappoint them; in fact, he was quite astonishing!

"Team Leader Odeto, have you taught any theoretical knowledge related to North Racing before?"

After instructing Chen Xiangbei for a few days, an aerodynamic engineer couldn't help but ask Odeto a question.

Aerodynamics is a cornerstone technology for F1 teams, and its priority may even be higher than engine development, with the largest number of engineers working on it.

After the Super Aguri team disbanded, there was no longer a need for F1 car development. Their aerodynamics department was almost entirely merged into the Honda team, and now it has evolved into the Brawn GP team.

Chen Xiangbei's basic knowledge of racing theory is nothing like that of a newcomer who skipped F3; he seems more like a rookie who has been exposed to F1.

Even more outrageous is that before the Grand Prix, Chen Xiangbei wasn't even in the F3 class; he was just a Renault Formula driver at the lowest level!
The only possibility the aerodynamic engineer could think of was that Odeto had privately instructed him.

"No."

Odtto shook his head decisively, then added, "Not only did I not have it, but none of the remaining crew members of Mewtwo had it either, and they had nothing to do with the R&D department."

"Where did Bei learn that from?"

"Self-taught".

Odette provided the answer: he often saw Chen Xiangbei reading professional books related to racing in private.

When it comes to hard work alone, that's something Odeto has never questioned about Chen Xiangbei!

Self-taught?

Upon hearing this answer, the aerodynamic engineer was at a loss for words.

The field of motorsports engineering is so vast that it's simply not something that an average high school student can understand.

This is similar to high school students learning college-level calculus in advance.

However, considering the stereotype of Chinese students being "academic superstars," it is not impossible that Chen Xiangbei is a genius in academics.

But soon, Chen Xiangbei brought an even bigger surprise to the engineers of the Brawn GP team.

That's his performance on the racing simulator.

When Chen Xiangbei last visited the Blackley factory, he drove a racing simulator at the R&D center in front of Ross Brawn and Staller.

At that time, Chen Xiangbei completely impressed Ross Brown with his speed, which led to the idea of ​​having him skip a grade to compete.

However, the engineers of the Brawn GP team had never seen Chen Xiangbei drive a racing simulator at such speeds, nor did they know that this Chinese kid was very familiar with the parameters of the BGP001 race car.

The speed demonstrated in this initial setup test was simply astonishing!
Not to mention the engineers of the Brawn GP team, even Odette was seeing Chen Xiangbei operate a racing simulator for the first time, and he was so surprised that he couldn't speak.

This kid's potential and adaptability truly exceeded my expectations.

Is the next F1 legend really driver Bei?

However, given Oddo's proud and arrogant personality, even if he greatly approves of Chen Xiangbei's performance, he won't praise him openly right away.

Instead, they took this opportunity to put more pressure on Chen Xiangbei, demanding that he learn some Italian vocabulary.

Of course, this is not a preparation for Chen Xiangbei to join the Ferrari team.

Conversely, for a long period in the early days of Formula 1 racing, Italian and English instructions coexisted, especially since Italians made up a large proportion of the engineering staff, which led to the development of instructions with distinctive accents.

If you don't learn some basic Italian, you'll be at a disadvantage when you encounter this kind of engineer.

Take, for example, Japanese F1 super driver Yuji Ide. The reason his super license was revoked by the FIA ​​was not only due to his poor driving skills, but also because he had significant language communication problems.

Yuji Ide is a driver forcibly promoted by the Super Aguri team in order to create a "full-time team" dream. He never thought he would go abroad to drive F1 cars. His English level is equivalent to that of a junior high school student in China, and he also has a heavy Japanese accent.

This level of foreign language proficiency has essentially rendered conversational impossible; at most, one can only understand a few simple words.

The more difficult part is that not only can they not understand the team's instructions, but the team's strategy team also cannot understand the replies due to Ide's accent. It's like talking to a brick wall.

Unfortunately, at that time, the team's instructions could only be translated by his teammate Takuma Sato and then dictated to Yuji Ide.

Consider F1 racing, a sport with precision down to the millisecond. Even a team instruction has to be translated and relayed, and by the time it's executed, it's too late.

Furthermore, the driver needs to be highly focused during driving, so Takuma Sato also had to take on the role of translator. Originally, he was only helping Yuji Ide, but now his incompetent teammate has dragged both of them down.

The reason why the Super Aguri team was half-buried is because of this.

This is also why Suzuki Akuri gave up her dream of a "full-day class" and agreed to the cooperation model proposed by Chen Xiangbei.

As the old saying goes, "A fall into a pit, a gain in your wit"...

If they continue to stick to their old ways and try to run a "full-time class," the Chaomeng Racing Team will be finished.

Faced with Chen Xiangbei's astonishing speed on the simulator, Odette had a similar thought to Ross Brown: there was no need to proceed step by step anymore, and the real vehicle testing should be put on the agenda as soon as possible!

On June 9, exactly one month after Chen Xiangbei arrived at the Brawn GP team, Odette convened a "closed-door meeting" with the team members.

"Gentlemen, I personally believe that North should go to the Catalan circuit and conduct a field test in the Honda RA108 race car."

The team's racing car models are mostly continuous. Honda's prototype in 09 was codenamed RA109, and last year's older model was called RA108.

Ross Brawn inherited almost the entire legacy of the former Honda F1 team, which naturally included the older race cars.

"Xiang Bei's body may not be able to hold on."

Lu Xiaoman gave her opinion immediately.

Brawn GP is not a makeshift team like SuperDream; they have the complete system of a standard F1 team, including a logistics department.

Medical care, fitness, diet and other items are all part of the logistics department. Especially in the medical field, the team usually hires three to five top doctors in the industry to ensure the health of the drivers and the entire team.

Just like in the 2024 Saudi Grand Prix, Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz suffered from acute appendicitis, and his emergency surgery was performed by the Ferrari team doctor using local medical equipment.

Sainz was fully recovered and returned to the F1 paddock just 16 days after the surgery.

Currently, the main support staff of Brawn GP are accompanying the team to Grand Prix races. However, Lu Xiaoman still meticulously records Chen Xiangbei's fitness and medical data, sending it daily to the professional team doctor and strength and conditioning coach, who then provide feedback and guidance.

After all, Lu Xiaoman previously held multiple positions, including titles such as "medical therapist" and "physical trainer," which were the kind of titles that no one really had to take on. Apart from being certified as a nutritionist, she didn't have any of the other professional licenses.

Now that there are more professionals, it's natural to listen to their opinions.

Chen Xiangbei's current muscle mass is theoretically insufficient to withstand the intense driving of an F1 race car.

It's not that you'll definitely get injured, but it will at least affect the precision of your control.

“I know, that’s not a problem.”

The old guard of F1 professionals still holds firm to their views; Odette believes that as long as people don't die, they should be used to the point of death.

A driver's results are earned by risking their life, even someone as strong as Senna did.

In comparison, as F1 has developed, it has become increasingly conservative and safer.

Even the once incredibly intense battles fought in the rain are becoming increasingly rare.

"The repair technician team still lacks some experience."

After a moment's hesitation, Liang Chi voiced his concerns.

Chen Xiangbei's ability to quickly skip levels is at least due to his experience from his previous life acting as a "cheat code".

He is essentially an F2 driver, but due to physical and time constraints, he has gradually recovered and returned to his peak performance.

Even surpassing one's former self!

However, the Chinese technicians, including Liang Chi, had never actually worked with cars at the F3 level or higher.

At the level of F1, they hadn't even touched it.

In just a few months, from Renault to F3 to F1, A Yong and others studied at a pace no less intense than Chen Xiangbei.

After joining the Brawn GP team, the Super Dream mechanics team practiced repair and assembly skills intensively around the model car, while the entire engineering team practiced static tire changing.

However, the time was too short. After the physical training, cultural courses, maintenance, and other courses, the Chinese technicians, who had no prior experience, were pushed to their limits.

But Formula 1 racing is a sport that doesn't allow for mistakes, and Liang Chi wasn't confident.

"Experience is gained through practice. You need to demonstrate professionalism. Do you think you're weaker than a part-time engineer?"

Odette's strictness was always applied equally to everyone, not just Chen Xiangbei, but to every member of the crew.

Anyone who has watched F1 races should have this impression: the teamwork and coordination during tire changes and pit stops is exceptional.

In fact, not all of the members who changed the tires were full-time technicians; many were engineers working part-time, and they had their own regular jobs after the competition.

This is to save on labor costs, especially since small fleets often do this.

Take the Sauber team, where Chinese driver Zhou Guanyu once worked, for example. Their tire-changing speed was always a second slower than that of the major teams.

Why is the tire changer so obviously slow, and why isn't the Sauber team making any adjustments?

The reason is that adjustments are useless; tire changers are engineers who do it part-time, and changing the tire again would just mean replacing the tire with an even less professional newcomer.

To improve speed and proficiency, you need to spend money to hire dedicated staff and then work overtime to practice entering the station hundreds or thousands of times, and conduct teamwork training to cultivate tacit understanding.

Labor costs are already high in Europe, so the personnel and racing expenses could easily reach millions of US dollars.

Sauber can't even afford to replace a tire gun with a new one with LED indicator lights, so how can they expect to spend millions of dollars to replace their training personnel?
That's why smaller F1 teams struggle to compete with larger teams; their weaknesses aren't just in research and development or the cars themselves, but in all aspects.

Faced with Odette's question, Liang Chi was speechless.

After spending six months together, he also understood the team leader's personality; he never listened to excuses and only looked at results.

"I agree with team leader Odeto's view that nothing is more effective than actual combat training. The only thing to consider is funding."

Hiroki Sawano, who has always been conservative, has this time sided with Odette's radical stance.

Having raced in the Japanese Super Formula, which is second only to F1 in speed, he knows very well that some things cannot be learned through mere theoretical study.

Just like the most basic tire-changing training, the dynamic pit stop for drivers is completely different from the static simulation training.

Putting aside the coordination issues, imagine a race car traveling at 80 km/h "crashing" towards you and coming to an instantaneous stop. The technician not only needs to overcome the psychological impact of fear, but also precisely position the jack at the front wing. How can such a scenario be simulated in static training?

To be honest, Hiroki Sawano believes that the financial problem is probably more difficult than the human problem.

Using F1 racing simulation training without team funding and relying entirely on self-funding would be incredibly expensive.

After saying this, everyone subconsciously looked at Lu Xiaoman, who was currently responsible for Chen Xiangbei's personal income and team expenses.

Chen Xiangbei's previous small-scale sponsorship fees had already been used up in the Australian Grand Prix, and now his funds come from several large sponsorships he has recently secured.

After deducting the share given to the Chaomeng Racing Team, there was exactly 20 million left.

Twenty million RMB was a considerable sum in 09; investing in real estate there would have guaranteed a comfortable life.

But in Formula One racing, especially at the F1 level, the difference is minimal – just a splash or a bang.

Examples of self-funded F1 test drivers like Chen Xiangbei are extremely rare, and there's no precise data to assess how long 20 million could sustain the effort. However, we can deduce a likely timeframe from the case of another Chinese driver, Zhou Guanyu, in later years.

During his F3 years, Zhou Guanyu was a member of Ferrari's junior team. However, due to the team's resources being entirely focused on Mick Schumacher, he was unable to advance to F2 based on his performance and was forced to leave for Renault's junior team.

Although he is known as a Renault junior driver, Zhou Guanyu is actually a self-funded driver.

His family acquired an F2 racing team and renamed it UNI-Virtuosi, where UNI stands for "UNIVERSE".

Meanwhile, the team's biggest sponsor is the family-owned Hengji Group, with annual spending of around 20 million yuan.

If Chen Xiangbei were to apply for an F2 visa, his savings could theoretically last for a year.

However, the cost of F1 car training is three to five times that of F2 car training. The crew members for pit stop tire changes alone can be as many as 18 to 20 people when fully equipped.

"Three months."

Lu Xiaoman understood the meaning behind the team members' glances and gave the answer directly.

Can you sustain this for three months?

Upon hearing this number, the team members were mostly surprised.

They were unaware of Chen Xiangbei's income, let alone the amount of sponsorship he had secured from China.

Odeto and Hiroki Sawano originally estimated that Chen Xiangbei could attract several million in sponsorships in a short period of time, which already exceeded the commercial value of most F2 level drivers.

Who would have thought he could get 20 million!

"enough."

Odeto nodded and said those words.

It's worth noting that Antonelli, the future heir to the Mercedes F1 team and considered the next super rookie, only had 9000 kilometers of testing mileage revealed by the team's CEO, which translates to about three months.

For a newcomer like Chen Xiangbei, who has nothing to offer, to be able to raise enough money for three months of training is truly beyond expectations.

If Chen Xiangbei can't achieve a good result in F1 within three months, it means he will never be able to get good results in his life!
"Sawano, devise a departure plan for the crew. We'll head to the Catalan circuit in Spain as soon as possible."

"Yes, team leader."

Hiroki Sawano nodded. Now it wasn't just a few people heading to Australia; the entire crew, dozens of people, was heading to the test track, which would greatly increase the amount of preparation work required.

Chen Xiangbei, who was training on a racing simulator at the moment, was unaware of the outcome of the internal meeting chaired by Odette.

Even if he knew, he didn't have much of a choice...

Despite being a "relegated" former F1 team, Mewtwo still demonstrated efficiency and execution, completing all preparations in just one day and boarding a plane from London to Barcelona.

That's one of the advantages of Europe; going abroad is basically as easy as going out of the province.

After a flight of just over two hours, the plane landed at Barcelona's airport.

Chen Xiangbei was unfamiliar with the city of Barcelona, ​​and his limited knowledge of the city came mainly from the football powerhouse FC Barcelona.

However, he is quite familiar with the circuits in Catalonia.

After all, this track is internationally recognized as the closest to a perfect racetrack, and since its completion in 1991, it has become a popular location for F1 teams to test their new cars.

It wasn't until the era of ground effect cars arrived that it fell behind Bahrain's Sakir circuit.

Although the Brawn GP team did not provide financial support to Chen Xiangbei, they did provide basic assistance. A bus was already waiting outside the airport to take the team members directly to the Catalan circuit outside Barcelona.

Sitting on the bus, looking at the unfamiliar city scenery outside the window, Chen Xiangbei felt an indescribable excitement.

Soon he will be driving a real F1 race car, an experience he's never had in his life!
(End of this chapter)