Car Racing without Money

When a pie falls from the sky, you have to seize the opportunity!

But at this moment, Chen Xiangbei suddenly fired back with a question.

"Mr. Staler, do you want to acquire an F1 champion team?"

What?

Staler was a bit confused upon hearing this. He could understand that young people have active minds.

But isn't this Chinese kid's train of thought a bit too exaggerated...

He was discussing Renault Sport Academy's training seats with Chen Xiangbei, who suddenly asked if he wanted to acquire an F1 champion team.

To be honest, Staler certainly wanted to acquire one.

Whether it was the early investment in the Williams Team or being persuaded by Zhang Zhicong to invest in Chinese formula racing to explore the blue ocean market, it was all for business success in a way.

Acquiring an F1 champion team would undoubtedly be the greatest success in the formula racing field!

But the question is, what's it got to do with Chen Xiangbei? This little guy still needs to rely on his network and help to even get a training seat with an F1 team.

"Xiangbei, I'm discussing serious matters with you, don't joke around."

Staler admonished him. Although he had a much-improved impression of Chen Xiangbei and was willing to help this last spark of Huasi Sports,

it didn't mean that their first meeting allowed them to be so familiar as to "talk nonsense".

"Mr. Staler, I'm not joking, there is indeed an F1 champion team waiting for investment now."

Chen Xiangbei's expression was extremely serious. He was not joking at all. On the contrary, he had deliberated about this matter countless times in his mind.

"Which team?"

Looking at Chen Xiangbei's expression, Staler asked dubiously.

"The defunct Honda F1 team. Their prototype car, RA109, has groundbreaking double diffuser technology, which will provide unparalleled speed!"

Historically, under the impact of the 2008 financial crisis, the Honda Group announced its withdrawal from the F1 paddock at the end of December the same year and stopped injecting funds into the Honda Team.

However, the advance nature of car development allowed the Honda F1 Racing Department to have already created the prototype car codenamed RA109, ready for the upcoming competition, only for the team to collapse first.

This thus gave birth to the biggest opportunity snatch in F1 history, which was the RA109 prototype car. Besides the groundbreaking double diffuser, it also had the top-notch chassis design, the most efficient front wing, and side pods in the paddock.

Whoever gets this car, paired with two mid-to-upper-level drivers, can become the champion team of 2009!

It can be said that Honda's engineers exhausted their technical reserves and talent just to make a Mars Rover to turn the tide, only to be thwarted by management's decision to abandon it.

The then-manager of the Honda team, Ross Brown, was really unwilling to see the team's hard work aborted, so he chose to negotiate with the Honda Group.

Within three months, he personally raised 80 million US Dollars to bravely achieve full acquisition just before the 2009 season started, and he named it Brawn GP Team.

This Brawn GP Team became the first team in F1 history to win both the constructors' and drivers' championships in its inaugural year.

Moreover, Ross Brown's efforts were richly rewarded. At the end of 2009, Mercedes-Benz announced the acquisition of 75.1% of the team's shares at a disclosed price of 175.7 million US Dollars.

Equivalent to Ross Brown's investment of 80 million, considering the retained shares and team premium, the annual return rate exceeded 200 percent, not counting the fame and sponsorship yield.

From the moment Chen Xiangbei came into contact with Honda, he was actually contemplating how to get a share of the pie in this snatch.

His initial target was Suzuki Aguri, due to the RA109 prototype car's success being a synergy of three design teams working together.

They were the Honda F1 Team, the Honda Corporation Racing Department, and the earlier bankrupted Super Aguri Team, which transferred its research staff to Honda!

Unfortunately, Suzuki Aguri lacked the funds and strength, plus his main business focus was still on the domestic ARTA team. Chen Xiangbei also understood that his relationship with him was completely insufficient to persuade the other party, making it unnecessary to make futile efforts.

Domestic Huali Automobile and Jiuli Sports were also on Chen Xiangbei's list of potential investors, but action was not taken due to immature timing and relationships.

As for Staler, he was not initially Chen Xiangbei's target. His interest was piqued by Staler's relationship with the Ford Group's president, which might speed up Huali Automobile's acquisition of Volvo in the future.

But it was precisely this interest and understanding that made Chen Xiangbei sense Staler's inherent gambler mentality and adventurous spirit.

After all, a rational person wouldn't really make such a brain-dead move as investing in the Chinese Formula Racing in 2003...

Chen Xiangbei didn't want to abandon his team members and ideals and also wanted to gain the resources and technical support of an F1 team.

If that's the case, then as an adult, why not have it all!

With the F1 Bahrain opening race on March 29 approaching, Ross Brown was sweating over the funding gap for acquiring the Honda team.

Should Staler extend a "helping hand" at this moment, the success rate would be close to 100 percent.

"Xiangbei, how do you know about the black technology of the RA109 and that it will dominate with unparalleled speed?"

Staler's tone was very surprised. For Chen Xiangbei to mention the term "double diffuser" meant it was unlikely he was making it up out of thin air.