Economic Observer Follow
2026-09-20 20:00
Economic Observer reporter Wang Yajie reports from Spain
In early September, on the outskirts of Valencia, Spain.
The sun has turned the training ground white. The temperature exceeded 30 degrees Celsius, and Liu Shanxu wore a one-piece leather jacket and rode a blue racing car into the track.
The CFMOTO logo is printed on the body, which is a motorcycle brand under Zhejiang Chunfeng Power Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Chunfeng Power"), flashing in the sunshine.
He first practiced circling around the pile, then practicing circle setting, and then practicing track braking. These movements are monotonous and repetitive, but for a 13-year-old driver, they are basic skills that must be repeatedly practiced before entering higher-level competitions.
An ordinary person wearing a jumpsuit and standing under the scorching sun will feel stuffy and hot for a few minutes. Beginners often need to stop and rest after 5 minutes of cycling training. Liu Shanxu trains for one or two hours. Taking off the helmet, my hair was soaked and my face was covered in sweat.
He smiled at the reporter and returned to the car.
Liu Shanxu is from Xi'an and is one of the Chinese drivers signed under the "Genius Plan" of Chunfeng Power. This project selects young drivers from China and sends the children with potential to Europe for training and competition.
On the training ground of the Aspar Team, a Spanish veteran team with decades of experience in participating in and winning the World Motorcycle Championships, and currently partnering with Spring Wind Power to create the CFMOTO Aspar Team, Liu Shanxu is climbing up a path that has already been "drawn".
However, this road is still long.
One
After the training, I asked Liu Shanxu how much he would rate himself if the full score was 10.
He smiled and extended his fingers, counting level by level.
According to him, the competition he is currently participating in is approximately at level 5. Furthermore, there are ESBK Talent (Spanish Super Motorcycle Championship Talent category), Junior Talent (Youth Talent category), Junior Moto3 (Youth Moto3 category), and Red Bull Rookie Cup, followed by Moto3 (the entry-level of the World Motorcycle Championship and an important starting point for young drivers to enter the top-level Grand Prix system).
He hopes to enter the real Moto3 arena around the age of 17 or 18. From the current level to the finish line, each level means a new track, new opponents, new training intensity, as well as higher costs and fewer driver seats.
When he first arrived in Spain, he faced a language barrier, and the training intensity suddenly increased, resulting in significant fluctuations in competition results. That was his most difficult stage to endure.
He is studying locally, and on training days, his mother prepares meals in advance. He quickly dined in the car, changed his equipment and headed straight to the track. After training, exercise for an hour and a half, and then do homework at home. Four days of motorcycle training and five days of gym training per week.
Liu Shanxu participated in the first CFMOTO Genius Cup selection tournament in 2023 and won third place. He was 11 years old at that time. Two years later, he came to Valencia and entered the training system of the CFMOTO Aspar Team.
Here, he is not just learning how to ride a bike faster. He needs to learn how to manage tires and fuel, read the track, understand racing tuning, and also learn to recover quickly after falling, making mistakes, and experiencing a decline in performance.
He divided 'courage' into two types.
One approach is to delay the braking point from 100 meters to 75 meters or even 50 meters at the coach's request, and to be willing to execute it immediately. Another option is to return to the track after being injured. Falling off a car may mean one or two months of not being able to train, but he will use his recovery time to learn language, understand the working principles of vehicle debugging and suspension systems.
He said, "As long as you're still on the field, there's still a chance to earn points. If you give up directly, that's the real loser
He has already achieved some results in domestic and Spanish competitions. A few months ago, he won the Aspa Cup round in Barcelona and raised the five-star red flag.
That is a confirmation that has already occurred on this long path.
But for Chunfeng Power, the real test has not yet arrived.
Two
Sun Shengbo is also on this path.
This 13-year-old boy from Hangzhou, like Liu Shanxu, was selected by Chunfeng Power and entered the youth training system of Chunfeng Power Aspar Racing Team. He has already submitted a transcript at an earlier stage.
In 2023, 10-year-old Sun Shengbo joined the "Genius Plan" of Chunfeng Power. In 2025, he won the annual championship in the 190cc category of the FIA MotoMini series, becoming the first Chinese road motorcycle world champion. In early 2026, he officially signed with the CFMOTO Aspar Junior Team.
This season, he participated in the Moto4 (Junior Junior Junior Division) competition in ESBK, winning 7 championships and 1 runner up in the first 8 races, leading the second place by 85 points in points.
This means that he has already submitted a phased answer sheet in advance for this ongoing long-term investment.
Sun Shengbo said that his dream is to become a professional driver and strive to do his best in every race. He also said that being able to stay on the track all the time feels like returning to another home.
He likes Mark Marquez and also likes Alex Marquez. What attracts him to both drivers is his confidence, decisiveness, and willingness to take risks.
Sun Shengbo said, "They bet everything on every game without reservation
The same goes for Sun Shengbo on the track. After starting to compete at the age of 12, what he most wanted to do in the competition was to grab a spot and complete overtaking. Many of the drivers competing with him are outstanding peers from different countries. David Alonso was also one of them - this driver later rode the CFMOTO race car and won the Moto3 World Championship of the year.
On September 20th, Sun Shengbo won the first place in the Talent Group's second round of the main race at the Navara station of the 2026 Spanish Superbike Championship (ESBK), securing the annual driver championship of the group one stop ahead of schedule.
At the end of the interview, Sun Shengbo didn't say much and only signed his English name Sun and car number 25 on the journalist's passport book.
Sun Shengbo and Liu Shanxu formed the vision of the "Genius Project": it aims to find drivers who can win races as soon as possible, while also keeping immature children on a path that can continue to move forward.
Three
This agreement is not just about the competition results of two children.
In 2023, Chunfeng Power will start participating in the MotoGP (the highest level category of the World Motorcycle Championship, with a position close to F1 in road motorcycle racing) series of events, and simultaneously launch the "Genius Plan". In 2024, Chunfeng Power won the Moto3 Manufacturer World Championship, becoming the first Chinese brand to receive this honor.
The competition, racing development, and driver training were all included in the same plan from the beginning.
Su Zhen is the head of the Development Department of Chunfeng Power Racing and one of the leaders of the "Genius Plan".
In his opinion, Sun Shengbo's achievements are inseparable from his talent and family support, but without a relatively clear path of growth, it is difficult for talented drivers to independently complete the leap from domestic training grounds to world competitions.
In the past, Chinese drivers could only participate in Asian races at most. Going up, they often encounter new problems: overseas teams prioritize local drivers, even if Chinese drivers have sufficient strength, they may not necessarily be able to obtain seats.
Drivers searching for race seats is like looking for a job, "Su Zhen said." There are no vacant positions in the team, and no matter how well the drivers are trained, there is no place to continue developing
The genius plan aims to solve this long missing connection.
Su Zhen is not willing to simply summarize this matter as market size or advertising exposure. The goal of Chunfeng Power is to build a sustainable motorcycle sports system through multiple aspects such as racing events, training, racing car development, and driver training.
Giving money is just the simplest part, "Su Zhen said
After entering Europe, drivers need someone to be responsible for training, as well as resolving issues such as enrollment, visas, living arrangements, and daily communication. Enterprises also need to develop racing cars, build training venues, establish training schools, and cultivate technical service personnel who can understand racing car tuning and driver feedback.
Chunfeng Power has partnered with the Aspar team and is not only interested in race seats.
The founder of Aspa Racing, Jorge Martinez Aspar, has won four motorcycle Grand Prix world championships and 37 Grand Prix races in his career. The team has its own track, youth team, and technician school, and has also trained world champion drivers such as Pedro Acosta and Jorge Martin.
In Aspa's training system, Moto3 drivers, young drivers, and amateur drivers sometimes train on the same track. Several drivers intersperse closely to simulate the attack and defense in the race. Drivers not only need to find their own path, but also adapt to the constantly emerging opponents around them.
This training method is particularly important for Chinese drivers.
Chunfeng Power did not avoid the risk of this investment. At present, the "Genius Program" has signed 7 drivers. But not every selected child can make it to the world arena. Drivers may shift their focus to academics during their academic years, or they may change their interests during adolescence. The younger the age, the higher the cost of accompanying parents abroad. Even if the child is willing to persevere, injuries and fluctuations in grades may cause the child to stop halfway on this path.
Chunfeng Power still faces the problem of driver attrition. Chunfeng Power has an agreement with the trained driver, but if the driver is unwilling to continue working together, the company cannot force him to stay on the track.
This means that Chunfeng Power's investment is not a business that can be pushed forward according to the production plan. A racing car can be built according to the blueprint, a track can be built according to the plan, but there is no fixed cycle for the growth of drivers.
Su Zhen believes that it is best to start training drivers at the age of 7, 8, or 9. By the age of 13 or 14, many riders have developed cycling habits, and the difficulty of competing in world-class events will significantly increase. Therefore, Chunfeng Power needs to expand the number of children participating in this sport as soon as possible. Only with a sufficiently large base can there be more drivers like Sun Shengbo. Only with enough drivers can there be sustained competition in China. Only when competition is formed can sponsors, event operators, and more manufacturers enter.
Sun Shengbo's achievements prove that a Chinese teenager can win the world championship. Liu Shanxu's training shows that a child who has not yet won a world championship also needs a path to continue moving forward.
Those children who did not make it to the top of the race track may also become test drivers on the development line of Chunfeng Power, feeding their track experience back into car manufacturing. They know best where a car will go wrong in extreme conditions, and they are also the best at translating their physical sensations into words that engineers can understand.
Su Zhen believes that drivers are the users of racing cars, and only by knowing how to ride can they create faster cars. He calls this an important development path in the industry, and the value of drivers is not limited to just the last race.
The ultimate image that Chunfeng Power wants to see is Chinese drivers riding Chinese racing cars to top tier events. For Chunfeng Power, competition cooperation needs to be invested ten years in advance, or even longer, until talent, technology, competition, and market are connected to each other.
On the day the reporter left Valencia, the training of the Aspa team had not yet ended.
Liu Shanxu's 14th race car once again drove onto the track. Wrap around the BaZi, fix the circle, and brake along the track. The racing car drew circles and arcs in the sunlight. There is no grandstand or podium in the distance, only the short roar of the engine and the sound of tires.
The first reward that appears in this agreement is a trophy, a national flag, or a faster lap time.
But what it really wants to bet on is that years from now, more and more Chinese drivers will be able to follow the same path and reach higher levels of competition. At that time, the true value of today's eight character winding, circle fixing, and track braking would be revealed.
At present, the betting is still ongoing.
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