Car Racing without Money-Chapter 326 - 145: The Next History-Making Genius? (Double-Length)
The only possibility the aerodynamics engineer could think of was that Odetto might have taught him privately.
"No."
Odetto shook his head decisively, then added, "Not only did I not, but none of the remaining team members from Super Dream did either. They have nothing to do with the R&D department."
"Then where did Xiangbei learn from?"
"Self-taught."
Odetto provided the answer. He often saw Chen Xiangbei privately reading professional books related to racing.
In terms of sheer effort, Odetto has never doubted Xiangbei!
[Self-taught?]
Upon hearing this answer, the aerodynamics engineer didn’t know what to say.
Racing engineering, a vast subject, is far from something an ordinary high school student can understand.
It’s akin to a high school student studying university-level calculus ahead of time.
However, considering Chinese students often have the stereotype of being "academic achievers," it’s not impossible for Xiangbei to be a prodigy.
Soon enough, Chen Xiangbei brought even greater surprises to the engineers of the Brawn GP Team.
That was his performance on the racing simulator.
Last time at the Blakeley Factory, Xiangbei had driven the development base’s racing simulator in front of Ross Brown and Staler.
At the time, Xiangbei completely conquered Ross Brown with his speed, which led to the idea of letting him skip grades to compete.
Yet, to the Brawn GP Team engineers, they hadn’t seen Xiangbei drive a racing simulator or knew that this Chinese kid was very familiar with BGP001’s parameters.
The result of this setup test was astonishingly fast!
Not just the engineers of the Brawn GP Team, but even Odetto saw Xiangbei controlling the racing simulator for the first time, and he was too shocked to speak.
The potential and adaptability of this kid truly outrun my understanding.
Is the next historical F1 genius really Xiangbei?
But with Odetto’s "tsundere" personality, even though he greatly admired Xiangbei’s performance internally, he wouldn’t be the first to praise openly.
Instead, he took this chance to keep pressuring Xiangbei to learn some Italian vocabulary.
Of course, this wasn’t to prepare Xiangbei for joining the Ferrari Team.
Instead, F1 racing in the early days often had Italian and English commands coexist, especially with a high proportion of Italian engineers, leading to some distinct accent-laden instructions.
Without learning some simple Italian, encountering such engineers would be disadvantageous.
Take the example of Japanese F1 driver Ino Yuji, who had his Super Driver’s License revoked by the FIA due to not only poor driving skills but also significant communication problems.
Ino Yuji was a driver that the Super Aguri Team forcefully promoted to realize the "All Japanese Crew" dream, without considering racing abroad. His English level was equivalent to that of a middle school student in China, with a strong Japanese accent.
Such foreign language proficiency basically precluded dialogue, at best understanding a few simple words.
The greater difficulty was not just failing to understand team commands, but Ino Yuji’s accented responses also weren’t understood by the strategy group, resembling a futile pursuit of mutual incomprehension.
The team had no choice but to relay commands through his teammate Sato Takuma, translating and then passing them on to Ino Yuji. 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞
Imagine F1 racing, a precision sport down to the milliseconds, having to translate team commands before transmitting them — by the time of execution, it’s already too late.
Moreover, racing requires intense focus, and Sato Takuma had to divert attention to act as a translator. Initially affecting only Ino Yuji, now this weak link dragged both down.
The Super Aguri Team’s downfall was largely attributed to this.
That’s also why Suzuki Aguri eventually gave up on the "All Japanese Crew" dream and agreed to the collaboration model proposed by Xiangbei.
As the saying goes, "One learns from one’s mistakes..."
If sticking to an isolated "All Japanese Crew" approach, even the Super Dream Team would be out of luck.
Facing Xiangbei’s astonishing speed on the simulator, Odetto’s mind sparked similar thoughts to Ross Brown — there’s no need to proceed step-by-step anymore, actual car testing must be quickly prioritized!
On June 9th, it had been exactly one month since Xiangbei arrived at the Brawn GP Team when Odetto convened team members for a "closed-door meeting."
"Ladies and gentlemen, I personally believe Xiangbei should head to the Catalonia Circuit to drive the Honda RA108 for field testing."
The team’s racing models often have continuity; the prototype car code for Honda in 2009 was RA109, while last year’s old model was RA108.
Ross Brown inherited almost all the "legacy" of the former Honda F1 Team, which naturally included old models.
"Xiangbei’s body might not be able to endure it."
Lu Xiaoman immediately offered her opinion.
The Brawn GP Team is not like the Super Dream Team with its "makeshift crew"; they have the complete system of a standard F1 team, which includes the logistics department.
Medical care, fitness, nutrition, and other aspects are part of logistics, especially in medicine, where teams typically hire three to five top-notch experts to ensure the health of the drivers and the entire team.
Take the example of the 2024 Saudi Grand Prix: Ferrari driver Sainz suffered acute appendicitis, and his emergency surgery was completed by Ferrari’s team doctors using local medical facilities.
