Car Racing without Money-Chapter 327 - 145: The Next History-Making Genius? (Double-Length)
Only 16 days after surgery, Sainz completely recovered and returned to the F1 paddock.
Currently, the main logistics team of Brown GP is following the team to participate in the Grand Prix.
However, Lu Xiaoman still meticulously records Chen Xiangbei’s fitness and medical data, sending it daily to the professional team doctors and physical trainers, who then provide feedback and guidance.
After all, Lu Xiaoman previously wore many hats, such as "medical specialist" and "fitness trainer," simply because there was no one else to take those roles. Other than being certified as a nutritionist, she did not hold any other professional licenses.
With more professional personnel now, they naturally follow their opinions.
Theoretically, Chen Xiangbei’s current muscle mass cannot withstand the intense driving of an F1 car.
It’s not that it will necessarily cause injury, but it will at least affect the precision of handling.
"I know, this is not a problem."
The old school F1 professionals still hold firm views; in Odetto’s mind, as long as a man isn’t dead, push him to the limits.
The driver’s performance is essentially fought for with their lives, even someone as strong as Senna was like this.
In comparison, with the development of F1 sport, it’s progressively moving towards a more conservative and safe direction.
Even the once intense rain battles have become harder to witness.
"The pit crew still lacks some experience."
Liang Chi hesitated for a moment and voiced his concerns.
Chen Xiangbei’s ability to advance quickly is due to the ’cheat’ experience from his past life.
Essentially, he is an F2 driver, but impaired by physical and time factors, he is gradually recovering to his peak strength.
Even surpassing his former self!
However, including Liang Chi and the Chinese technician team, they truly have not been exposed to cars above the F3 level.
At this F1 level, they haven’t even touched them.
In a few short months, from Renault to F3 and then to F1, the learning intensity for A Yong and the others is no weaker than it is for Chen Xiangbei.
After joining the Brawn GP Team, the Super Dream Technician Team gathered around model cars to frantically practice maintenance and assembly skills, while the entire engineer team conducted static tire change drills.
But time is too short, and after courses in fitness, culture, maintenance, etc., the Chinese technician team has already been stretched to their limit.
However, mistakes are not allowed in F1 racing, and Liang Chi is not confident inside.
"Experience is gained from practice. You have to show a professional spirit, or can you be weaker than the guest engineers?"
Odetto’s harshness is always fair, not only to Chen Xiangbei but also to any member of the team.
Those who have watched an F1 race should have this impression, that is the ultimate teamwork during a tire change pit stop.
In fact, not all of the tire change team members are full-time technicians, many are engineers working part-time, who have their own duties after a race ends.
This is to save labor costs, especially true for small teams.
Take, for example, the Sauber team, where China’s Zhou Guanyu used to stay. Their tire change speed has long been a second slower than the large teams.
Why doesn’t the Sauber team make adjustments to the slower tire change speed?
The reason is that adjustments are useless; the tire changers are engineers working part-time, and changing them would simply mean getting even more inexperienced newcomers.
To enhance speed and proficiency, it’s necessary to spend money to hire full-time personnel, then work overtime through hundreds or thousands of pit stop practices to cultivate a well-coordinated team.
Europe already has high labor costs. The personnel and car expenses generated could likely amount to millions of US dollars.
Sauber cannot even afford to replace a new tire gun with LED indicators, let alone expect to spend millions of US dollars to change people and train?
This is why F1 small teams struggle to compete with big teams; their weakness is not just in R&D and cars but in an all-around disadvantage.
Faced with Odetto’s retort, Liang Chi found himself speechless.
After half a year of working together, he also understood the team leader’s character, who never listens to excuses, only looks at results.
"I agree with Team Leader Odetto’s philosophy; there’s nothing better than practical training. The only consideration is the funding problem."
Sawano Hiroyuki, usually conservative, stood with Odetto’s aggressive stance this time.
Having raced in Japan’s Super Formula, which is second only to F1 in speed, he knew some things cannot be taught with "armchair strategies."
Take, for instance, the most ordinary tire change training; the dynamic pit stop of a driver is entirely different from static simulation training.
Without even mentioning coordination issues, just the sight of a car traveling at 80 km/h "crashing" towards you and braking suddenly needs a technician to not only overcome the psychological impact of fear but to also accurately position the jack under the front nose. How can this scenario be simulated in static training?
Honestly, Sawano Hiroyuki believes that compared to people’s issues, the funding aspect is potentially more challenging.
Using F1 cars for practical simulation training, with the team’s expenses solely relying on self-funding, can really be described as spending money like water.
After saying this, everyone subconsciously looked at Lu Xiaoman, who currently is responsible for the personal income and team expenditure of Chen Xiangbei.
The small sponsorship funds Chen Xiangbei previously had were already used up in the Australian Grand Prix, and now his funding comes from a few major sponsors pulled in recently.
After deducting the share for the Super Dream Team, there are just about 20 million left.
