Why race if you don’t have money?

Chapter 64: Vision of the Future F1 Team
Time passed by unknowingly, and soon Chen Xiangbei had been in Donghai for half a month.

The professional training over the past ten days has greatly improved Chen Xiangbei. After all, he had a solid foundation in his previous life, but he lacked rehabilitation opportunities and a professional racing team.

现在陈向北在赛车基地的最快单圈速度，已经刷新到了1分22秒96，相比较最初张榛东跑出来的1分27秒66，足足快了4.7秒。

You have to know that for Formula One racing cars, every improvement of a few tenths of a second in the track record of the same car can be considered an astonishing speed.

The number 4.7 seconds can be described as terrifying.

And there is something even more terrifying, that is, Miyamoto Shio finally confirmed one thing, 1 minute 22 seconds 96 is not Chen Xiangbei's limit, but the mechanical performance limit of this CFR2000!

The reason was that during the last dozen or so laps of Chen Xiangbei's driving, with the tires in good condition, the time difference for each lap was maintained within hundredths of a second.

To judge the level of a Formula One driver, we look not only at his ability to push the limits, but also at his consistency in every lap.

Because F1 is not a qualifying or a single lap game, the winning rule is to complete the entire race of about laps. The driver who laughs consistently throughout the whole process is the champion who stands on the highest podium.

Chen Xiangbei ran almost the same lap time in every lap afterwards, which meant that he had squeezed out every last bit of performance from the CFR2000 racing car.

In order to verify this, Shio Miyamoto even opened a brand new Ford engine from the warehouse and replaced it. In the end, the lap time still remained at around 1 minute 22 seconds, showing amazing consistency.

There are limits when it comes to limits, and there is stability when it comes to stability. In the end, Miyamoto Shio and his group of Honda technicians no longer knew what advice they could offer Chen Xiangbei.

The only thing we can do is send the latest racing data to the Honda Suzuka Racing Academy headquarters every day and urge them to give a reply as soon as possible.

After dinner that day, Chen Xiangbei's cell phone rang, and the caller ID on the screen showed Qin Lianjie's name.

He pressed the answer button and put the phone to his ear. Qin Lianjie on the other end of the phone said directly, "I'm at the entrance of the Huasai base. Do you have time to meet me?"

"Okay, wait for me five minutes."

Chen Xiangbei also likes a simple and efficient style. He gave a specific time and then hung up the phone.

Five minutes later, at the gate of the racing base, Qin Lianjie was leaning against the front of the Civic Type-R with his arms folded. When he saw Chen Xiangbei coming out, a smile appeared on his face.

"How's the vocational training going?"

"pretty good."

"Can you pass the training of Huasai's Japanese partners?"

Qin Lianjie asked. He could actually be considered half a Donghai person, and he had been invited by Liang Chi to join. It can be said that he was very familiar with the selection process of Huasai Sports.

"I think I passed. I'm currently waiting for a response from Honda Suzuka Racing Academy."

Hearing this, Qin Lianjie showed a look of surprise. He knew very well that the best result a Huasai-trained driver could achieve was to get a recommendation from Honda technicians and go to Japan for more professional training.

Chen Xiangbei had only been in Donghai for more than ten days. How could he, a newcomer who had never been exposed to Formula One racing, get the recommendation of Honda technicians in such a short time?

To be honest, Qin Lianjie was a little bit unbelievable.

However, the two are now gradually getting to know each other, and Qin Lianjie knows that Chen Xiangbei is not a person who brags nonsense. In addition, he also defeated the CCC champion Han Han on the Haizhu International Track without having run professionally.

I can only say that as an ordinary person, I cannot understand the realm of racing geniuses!

"Congratulations, that's amazing."

Qin Lianjie said this with full conviction. He knew that Chen Xiangbei was very strong, but he didn't expect that this guy could be so strong in driving a Formula One car.

Facing Qin Lianjie's praise, Chen Xiangbei simply smiled and asked, "Are you here for the East China Sea Underground Competition?"

"Well, the underground world in East China Sea is buzzing with rumors of a mysterious expert who can kill anyone in an Impreza STI. I'm guessing this expert is you, right?"

The Subaru Impreza STI is actually not uncommon among modified models. After all, it has the reputation of being the WRC Twin Stars and still has many fanatical and loyal fans.

However, Qin Lianjie could only think of Chen Xiangbei, who had the ability to kill anyone he saw in seconds.

Seeing that Chen Xiangbei didn't deny it, Qin Lianjie knew he was right. He then said, "Also, I have to tell you something. This year's East China Underground Race has changed the route, and with more top professional racers participating, both the difficulty and the danger have increased significantly compared to previous years."

"I know."

"Lu Xiaoman told you."

"Well, do you know each other?"

Facing Chen Xiangbei's question, Qin Lianjie shook his head helplessly and said, "Our two families have business dealings. Plus, there are only a few female racers in underground races, so it's hard not to know each other."

"What business does your family run?"

Chen Xiangbei asked back curiously, how could these two people have a business relationship?

"My father is an investor at Goldman Sachs Asia Pacific."

Qin Lianjie never talked about his family background with others. Even after returning from studying in Japan, he lived alone in Guangzhou, Shenzhen and Hong Kong Island.

But for some reason, he felt that he and Chen Xiangbei had similar interests and an inexplicable sense of trust.

Goldman Sachs Asia Pacific?

Chen Xiangbei was a little surprised to hear this name. You know, Goldman Sachs is a T0-level foreign investment bank, and its name can often be seen in the equity distribution of many top domestic companies.

At this point, Chen Xiangbei recalled something and deliberately jokingly asked, "Earlier this year, the media reported that Huali Auto was in talks with Ford, intending to take advantage of the financial crisis to acquire Volvo Cars. I heard they were short on funds and were hoping to secure financing from overseas consortiums, including Goldman Sachs."

"Is this matter true or false?"

"It's true that Huali Automobile is indeed raising funds."

Qin Lianjie frankly admitted that this kind of large-scale financing and loan project is no secret in the financial world.

“What does Goldman Sachs think?”

"My father happened to be in charge of this project. Most people within Goldman Sachs Asia Pacific believed the risk was too high. Huali Group relied entirely on debt to finance the acquisition, which was a typical case of using a small amount of money to gain a large sum."

In 08, Huali Auto was still in the stage of following trends and imitating others. It had only RMB 6 million in liquid funds on its books, but it wanted to acquire Volvo, a luxury brand that Ford had offered a whopping US$60 billion for. It was simply crazy.

At that time, public opinion, industry insiders, and investment banks were all pessimistic, and almost no one believed that the acquisition would be successful.

But crises often mean opportunities, and the same is true for financial crises.

As long as the low-value acquisition can survive, the returns will be several to dozens of times.

Huali is currently the only domestic automobile manufacturer with the ambition to compete in Formula One and even F1.

If it can successfully enter the market and wait for a few years for Liberty Media to take over the operation of F1 events, the value of the team will show explosive growth.

You have to know that the F1 teams of this era were all very cheap. The famous Red Bull team in later generations only spent $1 to acquire the Jaguar team to enter the paddock.

If the General Motors Cadillac team also wants to enter the paddock in 24 years, the entry fee alone will have to pay 6 million US dollars, and the overall investment may be as high as 20 billion US dollars.

And participating in F1 is extremely consistent with Huali's development philosophy. The reason why it held the AGF Formula and acquired Volvo was mainly to enhance its own brand value.

After all, in the initial stage, domestic cars could not get rid of the labels of copycat, cheap, low-end and poor quality for a long time.

F1 is not only the highest hall of honor for drivers, it is also the crown jewel of the automotive industry. Many civilian car technologies were once technologies transferred from F1.

For example, ABS, CVT gearbox, active adjustable suspension, variable valve, kinetic energy recovery, etc.

If Huali can secure the blessing of F1, it will quickly shed its negative label. Just like the Japanese manufacturers in the s and s, they also started out by imitating European and American models, but became symbols of technology by participating in various competitions.

If possible, Chen Xiangbei hopes to do his best to push Chinese racing forward!
PS: The cycle has been uploaded to Sanjiang. I promised my brothers that I would update it tomorrow.

(End of this chapter)