Speed ​​God

Chapter 44 Mysterious Visitor
In the early morning, the sun lazily enveloped the earth, making Maranello feel languid and comfortable. Even the slight chill in the air had lost its edge. I couldn't help but want to close my eyes, let the sunlight fall on my face, and enjoy a comfortable and lazy morning, doing nothing at all.

Marchionne was entertaining guests. "So, are you planning to show up directly to increase the competitive atmosphere, or are you planning to hide in the monitoring room and observe their true reactions?"

Fred Wasserl squinted, grinned, and leaned back on the sofa, slumping down like a slug. He jokingly said, "You should ask Nick about this psychological game. He inherited a lot of wisdom from his father."

Marchionne laughed. "You, you know Nick doesn't like talking about his father, but you always like to rub salt in the wound."

Nicholas Todd waved his hand, "It's not really a wound. If you're willing to pay for my father, it would save you a lot of trouble. But obviously, in the paddock, the team doesn't want to treat me any differently, so I can only do as the Romans do."

He paused for a moment, then continued, “But in Maranello, I’d be happy to wear a nameplate that constantly reminds everyone, ‘Hey, another Todd is here.’”

A joke successfully made Marchionne laugh out loud.

Nicolas Todt, son of Jean Todt.

He didn't become a race car driver, but he's still involved in the racing world. He's an agent who manages a large number of promising young drivers, including Leclerc.

But as he said, he did inherit his father’s resources and connections, but he also had to break free from his father’s shadow and carve out his own path. Otherwise, people would always treat him as “Jean Todd’s son,” just a child, and would refuse to treat him as an equal in the business world.

So in 2004, Nicolas Todt partnered with Wasser to establish a racing team and start his own business.

Wasserl is also an excellent team manager, having worked with Mercedes-Benz and Renault before. A seasoned veteran in the industry, he and Nicolas quickly found common ground, officially entering the world of Formula racing, no longer as employees, but owning their own team.

ART car team.

As mentioned before, the formula racing progression path has a clear and well-defined structure, starting from F4, passing through F3 and F2, and finally entering the highest level, F1. However, after being subdivided, each level has numerous races organized by different organizations in different regions, making it chaotic and disorganized.

Over the years, Jean Todt has realized that the global promotion of the event must be more systematic, so he is integrating all the regional events; but this is a difficult problem, involving the interplay of interests among multiple parties, and is a long and arduous process.

就目前而言，F2已经基本整合完毕，2017赛季即将进入全新征程；但F3暂时没有，目前F3具体可以分为F3区域赛和GP3两个部分。

Strictly speaking, F4, F3, GP3, and F2 are the correct progression paths.

F3 is a regional racing series, above F4 but below GP3, including European and Japanese series, etc.

GP3 is a global racing series, superior to F3, very close to F2 but still slightly inferior.

Therefore, generally speaking, drivers often choose between F3 and GP3, participate in one, pass the test, be selected by a team, and then advance to F2.

Zhou Guanyu is currently participating in the F3 European Championship.

ART is a GP3 team that has built a strong foundation and competitive edge thanks to the financial prowess of its two co-founders. In its early years, Nick Rosberg and Lewis Hamilton won their first two championship trophies, which enabled the team to develop rapidly.

Currently, they are the defending champions of GP3.

However, ART is Mercedes-Benz's official partner youth training team.

In F2 and GP3 racing, funding is extremely important. Teams often choose to cooperate with junior academies or financially secure teams that bring in investment. However, these teams need to be open to all financial support, so they do not sign exclusive cooperation agreements with junior academies.

ART will give priority to Mercedes-Benz academy graduates and provide them with more preferential treatment, but they will not limit themselves to this. Last season, they had Red Bull academy drivers in their team.

The same applies to Ferrari. Their GP3 official partner team for their junior academy is the Italian trident, but last season, Leclerc was driving for ART. Today, ART appeared in Maranello—a minor surprise, but nothing to be alarmed about.

Nicolas Todt looked at Marchionne, "Sergio, are you sure you can solve our problems? Our expectations are off the charts."

Marchionne smiled but remained silent, deliberately keeping everyone in suspense. "Did your father mention to you at Christmas that a promising young player had come to the youth academy?"

Nicholas Todd shook his head. "No, we don't discuss work at home. In fact, we don't discuss it outside either."

To avoid suspicion and to maintain professionalism, Todd and his son rarely discussed racing. Nicholas would only consult his father very, very occasionally, unless he really needed professional advice.

However, Nicholas caught the subtext in her words: "Wait, you mean, there are some promising talents among them that my father has his eye on?"

Wasserl, a rather irreverent fellow, started rubbing his hands together. "How long has it been since they've been involved in youth training? Since Michael? Oh, Michael wasn't a product of Ferrari's youth academy either. Right, Ferrari didn't even have a youth academy before. So, what are we expecting?"

These words were clearly barbed, and would have been jarring to hear if someone else had said them; but Vasser’s nonchalant tone and casual expression created a mocking effect.

Marchionne didn't give a direct answer, saying, "Heh, are you guys planning to show yourselves?"

Vasser looked at Nicholas but said nothing.

Nicholas: "Of course we'll show up. Since my father has his eye on them, their potential shouldn't be a problem. The next focus should be testing their mental fortitude; we need to create some difficulties for them. So, do they know our purpose today?"

Marchionne shook his head. "No, it was just an internal team test. But after you guys showed up, those young guys should have been able to see through it."

Nicholas nodded slightly, a satisfied expression on his face. "That's the effect we wanted, to catch them completely off guard. Sergio, can we wait until five minutes before the test starts to go in? We can make a last-minute appearance and disrupt their plans."

Marchionne burst out laughing. "Of course, no problem. Racing is a sport about pressure, right?"

Vasser, standing to the side, shook his head and patted his white belly. "I thought it was about speed."

As the reigning GP3 champions, ART naturally has no shortage of drivers, but the world of motorsports is ever-changing, and every season can completely overturn the situation, so they need to ensure their competitiveness at all times. Cars, funds, and drivers are all indispensable.

Last season, ART performed exceptionally well, taking the top two spots in the drivers' championship. They had the fastest car in the paddock, but one of their drivers only managed to finish seventh overall, which was truly disappointing.

That's why, with the new season just around the corner, all three other drivers in the team have advanced to F2, leaving only this lone survivor in the GP3 class.

Fu lives in Renling.

However, Fukuzumi Jinrei, who came from Red Bull's youth academy and was sponsored by Honda, was backed by a powerful company and had no better options for ART to replace him, so he dared not make any rash moves.

At this moment, a phone call from Marchionne resolved the problem for Nicolas and Vasseur—

If Ferrari has a promising young talent and sufficient sponsorship, ART could legitimately replace Jinrei Fukuzumi.

Of course, this is not an easy task; this talent needs to truly impress people.

　Thank you so much to the Nine Heavens Boundless Mysterious Floating Dawn Heavenly Venerable for the generous donation! Dear readers, this book is extremely close to the top 100 on the new book charts! This young author desperately needs your support! Please continue reading! I desperately need you to continue reading! I'm begging you, I'm really begging you!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)