CHAPTER 112: CHAPTER 88: HONDA OFFICIAL DRIVER CONTRACT

"Xiangbei, congratulations, your next step is to head to Europe!"

Qin Lianjie opened his arms and hugged Chen Xiangbei, a gesture well-deserved as China has seen very few Formula drivers venture to Europe in the last decade.

"Yes, waiting for the Renault main race in March."

"Keep up the hard work, Europe is where the real tough battles are!"

Liang Chi added, knowing that Chen Xiangbei is usually calm and unlikely to slack off, but still couldn’t help but remind him.

Indeed, Europe is the gathering place for the world’s geniuses.

After a brief celebration, Chen Xiangbei prepared to return to the racing academy, as winning the championship was just a starting point for him to push forward with his goals and plans.

Just as Chen Xiangbei turned around, the voice of Qin Qiuyu came through.

"Go for it, Xiangbei!"

[Xiangbei?]

Surprised by the sudden change of address, Chen Xiangbei realized that after recognizing the gap between professional and amateur, the young girl had become much more earnest.

"Mm."

With a wave of his hand, Chen Xiangbei walked away directly.

...

Back at the Honda Racing Academy, Chen Xiangbei naturally first changed out of his racing suit.

The half-hour qualifying and nearly fifty-minute main race intensity far exceeded any previous practice, and even though the track temperature was close to zero, his sweat had completely soaked through his racing suit.

Without the high-intensity physical training over the past period, Chen Xiangbei may not have been able to complete the race.

At the same time, a vague concern lingered in his mind. Although the Renault race vehicle’s top speed is 260 km/h, far below the F1 track’s maximum tail speed of about 340 km/h, it might seem almost similar.

In fact, limited by aerodynamic layout and mechanical grip differences, the speed difference in cornering is vast.

The lateral G-force pressure that comes with it is also on a completely different level!

Simply put, for top straight-line speed, there’s no need for a formula car. Any performance car, with full throttle, can achieve similar top speed.

The pressure of cornering, that’s the real pressure.

The efficiency of strengthening his physical fitness is barely keeping up with the race’s upgrading pace, and he fears his body might not hold up then.

After showering and changing clothes, Sawano Hiroyuki arrived at the driver’s lounge at some point. Seeing Chen Xiangbei, he said, "Principal Nakajima wants to discuss some matters with you, should we go now?"

"Mm."

Chen Xiangbei nodded, as there were some things he also needed to proactively discuss with Nakajima Goro.

"It might be related to driver contracts; it’s best to consider matters of the contract thoroughly," Sawano Hiroyuki advised.

Having won the Renault touring race, Chen Xiangbei securing a spot in the main race in Europe, naturally meant he couldn’t just remain a racing academy student. At the very least, he had to be promoted to a Honda junior driver.

Or even at a higher level, join Honda’s European racing department to become an official driver!

A driver’s contract isn’t as simple as a student’s contract, involving sponsorships and commercial shares, with many relatively complex terms.

Although Sawano Hiroyuki is an employee of the Honda Group and theoretically should prioritize company interests, Chen Xiangbei is merely an eighteen-year-old with commercial experience naturally incomparable to a big corporation.

Once a contract is signed, it would be costly to go back on it!

"Thank you, I understand."

Chen Xiangbei thanked him, appreciating Director Sawano’s reminder despite his different standing.

Turning around, he headed upstairs into the principal’s office, where Nakajima Goro was still reviewing the footage of Chen Xiangbei’s race. As a top-tier F1 driver, he could better discern a driver’s strength and potential from the footage.

Ultimately, this determines Chen Xiangbei’s signing value.

"Xiangbei, congratulations on winning the race, you performed very well!"

Nakajima Goro first expressed his congratulations to Chen Xiangbei.

"Thank you, Principal Nakajima."

"Come, have a seat first."

Nakajima Goro motioned for him to sit and then retrieved a contract sample from a drawer.

"Xiangbei, having secured a spot in the Renault winter circuit main race, it means you’ll soon head to Europe for competitions."

"The previous student contract only outlined training content, leaving the responsibilities and rights for overseas competitions blank. I’ve prepared a Honda official driver’s contract for when competing overseas, allowing Honda Racing Corporation to provide better technical support."

"You can take a look at the contract content first."

With that, Nakajima Goro handed over the contract sample.

An official driver’s contract?

To be honest, this contract was somewhat unexpected for Chen Xiangbei.

It’s important to note that the biggest difference between a junior driver and an official driver is that junior drivers don’t have a base salary or sponsorship shares. Additionally, some less skilled drivers have to bear part of the car damage repair costs.

Otherwise, crashing a car every race start, no matter how big Honda is, couldn’t withstand such wear and tear.

However, official drivers differ. Regardless of actual skills, Honda must provide a base salary, even if it’s a symbolic 1 US Dollar.

Official drivers also do not bear any car damage costs; crashing remains a non-issue as long as they don’t default and leave, at least there’s no scenario of owing the team.

In his past life, Chen Xiangbei had signed a driver’s contract, so he was mostly familiar with the contents, but he still decided to browse the Honda driver’s contract template to check the treatment from a Japanese big group.

The template didn’t describe salary specifics, presumably meant to be tailored based on each driver’s quote.

Regarding commercial shares, the personal sponsorship on the driver’s racing suit must allocate thirty percent to the team. For race advertisement sponsorship brought by the driver, it’s divided fifty-fifty.

Then comes the team’s use of the driver’s image rights, agreements on attending sponsor events, and team promotional activities, and so on.

Honestly, this template contract isn’t too exploitive, with most overall benefits nearly fifty-fifty split.

Considering that the contracting party is the Honda Group, significantly weightier compared to the driver, willing to split it fifty-fifty is quite fair. Many private small teams tend to offer seventy-thirty split contracts, with terrifyingly high breach penalties!

Theoretically, Chen Xiangbei could entirely agree to sign, but he harbored different plans. After a brief glance, he closed the contract template.

"Principal Nakajima, I have some other thoughts about this contract."