Even for a famous team like Ferrari, they barely hover around the profitability line.

The best way to share the operational costs undoubtedly is to find customer teams.

Providing the other party with engines, gearboxes, and even technical support for the chassis.

The more customer teams there are, the less the various research costs are distributed, which is why the Ferrari Team actively helps HRT. Trulli and boss Kalanbant don’t actually have such great influence; they act more like intermediaries.

The core factor is that HRT will become a customer team of Ferrari.

It’s similar to how Ferrari has Haas and Sauber as customer teams, and even the Cadillac Team, which hasn’t yet entered the F1 Paddock, will be equipped with Ferrari’s power units.

Under normal circumstances, the customer team can’t match the main team, as the power unit needs to be paired with the gearbox and chassis for tuning, giving the main team a natural advantage.

But there are exceptions, such as how the Red Bull Racing Team equipped with Renault engines has often outperformed the main Renault team.

According to Ferrari’s management expectations, a new team like HRT would need at least two to three years of development to threaten the main Ferrari Team—or maybe never.

Who would have thought that Chen Xiangbei’s speed at this stage has already vaguely surpassed expectations.

Ferrari’s engine technology team personally helped the HRT Team complete the last critical piece!

On the other side, in the HRT Team’s pit room, Chen Xiangbei entered the pit, making the team members excited.

Of course, they restrained their emotions, as this is just the first practice session, not even reaching the halfway mark to justify celebrating with champagne, similar to declaring victory at the start and jinxing good fortune.

After taking off his helmet and leaving the cockpit, Sawano Hiroyuki approached and asked, "Xiangbei-kun, what’s the feedback on the car?"

Chen Xiangbei driving quickly doesn’t mean the tuning plan is perfect.

Many times, tuning an F1 car requires gradual fine-tuning during practice sessions to achieve true harmony between human and machine.

"The tail speed is too high; heavy braking into the corner puts great pressure on the braking system. During practice and qualifying, there are cooling laps to barely maintain a balance in heat dissipation. The race can’t hold past fifty-six laps."

"Additionally, adjust the brake balance to six-front four-rear; I need to maintain deceleration stability when entering corners on the two long straights."

Chen Xiangbei uses a full-track line braking method in the spiral combination corners, unlike the drivers of this era who dominate with brakes; he uses the throttle.

This means he must brake heavily before entering the corner, reduce the speed to an appropriate range to perfectly match his cornering driving style.

"The front braking system was already struggling with heat dissipation pressure, yet you adjust the brake balance?"

Sawano Hiroyuki felt very troubled by Chen Xiangbei’s feedback, as this was a contradictory plan.

"Let’s try; adjust first, then find a balance point."

Chen Xiangbei also knew his demands were difficult to meet, so he had to continuously explore and improve through practice sessions.

After saying this, Chen Xiangbei picked up his water bottle and moved towards Odetto, his gaze on the monitoring screens.

On it were not only HRT Racing Car’s data but also the lap times of other teams’ practice races. As of now, Chen Xiangbei maintained a leading gap.

"What, came to admire your own results?"

Odetto asked, arms crossed without turning his head.

"Not really, it’s not a qualifying session."

"Good, you’re self-aware."

Odetto’s tone finally showed a hint of satisfaction.

Chen Xiangbei indeed wasn’t overwhelmed by the home crowd’s atmosphere and cheers, underestimated the mindset of the Chinese Kid.

At this moment, Trulli’s car just crossed the line, showing his lap time on the screen.

minute 33.544 seconds, an improvement of 1.8 seconds compared to his previous lap. Clearly, as the fuel level decreased and stimulated by Chen Xiangbei’s lap time, Trulli pushed hard this lap.

"Odetto, what’s my speed this lap?"

At the moment of crossing the finish line, Trulli questioned Odetto through the team’s voice channel.

"1 minute 33.541 seconds."

"What’s Xiangbei’s lap time?"

"1 minute 32.422 seconds."

Upon hearing this number, Trulli was dumbstruck.

Honestly, he went all out, akin to a qualifying lap, aiming to close in or even surpass Chen Xiangbei, proving he too could master the new upgrade package and East Sea International Circuit.

And yet, he was still 1.1 seconds slower?

According to F1 team standards, a qualifying difference of around 0.2 seconds between two drivers suggests very close ability.

0.5 seconds points to a significant skill gap.

More than 1 second—and that’s basically an F1 driver trumping GP2!

Trulli couldn’t possibly imagine being 1.1 seconds slower than a newcomer one day.

How did Chen Xiangbei manage that speed; was he pushing to the limits?

Not only Trulli but also Perez, watching at this moment, didn’t know how to express his feelings.

Trulli, renowned for his single-lap pace, now couldn’t match Chen Xiangbei’s level at all.

Can he really challenge after gaining a full race driver seat?

"Trulli, first practice is almost over; prepare to pit."

Odetto understood the impact was tremendous, thus took the initiative to remind Trulli to pit.

There was still no response, Odetto said no more, silently removing his monitoring headphones.

Before long, Trulli’s car returned to the pit stop, race engineer Sote approached to help him with the seat belts.

"Trulli, any tuning adjustments needed?"

According to custom, the race engineer inquires about the track feedback from the driver.

But this time, Trulli didn’t answer immediately; he focused on Chen Xiangbei’s car number 13 that was being re-tuned.

After a long inner struggle, he said, "Change my car settings according to Xiangbei’s tuning plan."

When these words were spoken, everyone in the pit, including Chen Xiangbei, looked at Trulli.

Confirming the driver number one and two identities, this stage both shared setup data.

But to have a veteran driver with over a decade of track experience comprehensively learn from a rookie is definitely a "difficult to bring up" task.

Especially for a driver like Trulli, with a fiery and proud character.

Yet, Trulli compromised this time.

More than a driver’s pride and dignity, he wanted to stay in the F1 Paddock!

Years of working together made Trulli utterly aware of Briatore—if he and Chen Xiangbei had a significant gap, this results-focused manager would open a "kill," advancing Perez ahead of time.

He might take this plan and "extort" some funds from Mexican Telecommunications.

"Trulli..."

Faced with this request, Sote instinctively called Trulli’s name, intending to stop him.

Since the simulator tests showed Trulli was very ill-suited to the over-steering car style.

Changing the setup plan would significantly increase the chances of an accident.

One must know that oftentimes, the difficulty in a driver improving skill doesn’t lie in learning from scratch but in breaking habits!

An experienced veteran driver already has deeply ingrained driving styles; changing now is like overcoming instinct.

How easy is that?

But Sote didn’t voice the stop.

He understood that by making such a decision, Trulli was putting himself in quite a "humble" position.

If he directly said Trulli was incapable, it would smash his last bit of pride.

The tacit understanding of many years let Sote avoid such a cruel decision.

Compared to an accident, a driver fears the destruction of pride more!

"OK, I’ll change the settings."

Sote nodded, calling the engineering team to tune the car.

Chen Xiangbei observed everything without any feeling of pride or intention to belittle Trulli.

To him, a driver willingly risked danger to overcome driving instincts honed over ten years in pursuit of speed; instead, it was a behavior worthy of respect.

Why does Alonso have countless fans; even later, when over forty and not at the peak, many still regard him as one of the strongest drivers?

It’s because throughout Alonso’s over twenty years of professional career, he constantly altered his driving style to adapt to F1 era changes and rule evolution.

Even the most basic overtaking technique evolved from slipstream overtake to DRS overtake.

Always, Alonso stood at the pinnacle!

People age, those climbing the mountain should never mock those descending, even though Trulli’s strength in the paddock level is very far from divine.

But in some regard, Chen Xiangbei has already earned comprehensive recognition from Trulli, proving his status as the number one driver!