How did I become an F1 driver?

Chapter 253 251: Mercedes or Aston Martin?

Qin Miao didn't go over to say hello to him. It was like the other party returned Qin Miao's favor by giving him a Ferrari 488. The relationship between Qin Miao and him was more of a transaction than friendship.

And that deal was already done.

The two of them could only be considered acquaintances, not friends, so Qin Miao felt that there was no need to go over and say hello to him if they were not on the road.

On the way back to the hotel in the afternoon, Qin Miao's mind began to recall Li Shufu's "joke" in the morning.

According to Li Shufu's joke, Geely is preparing to take full control of Aston Martin. If a Chinese team appears in the paddock in this way, Qin Miao feels there is no reason not to participate.

Based on Qin Miao's current strength, joining a new team is definitely the golden leg of the team and a proper candidate for the No. [-] driver.

As for the driver’s championship that everyone longs for…

Qin Miao felt that if she really entered Martin, she would not have to think about the driver championship in a short time.

Therefore, judging from Qin Miao's points situation, the current season is Qin Miao's best opportunity to compete for the driver's championship.

Because so far, most of Mercedes' funds have been invested in the development and upgrade of racing cars this season.

As for next season's W13, Mercedes' investment is only one-third of this season's car upgrade budget.

One is upgrading, and the other is re-developing a racing car based on another new rule. You can imagine how big the gap between them is.

Therefore, Mercedes next season, or even the season after next, is unlikely to compete with Ferrari, a team that has been studying cars for next season since this season.

So if nothing else goes wrong, Mercedes' cars will not be competitive for a long time.

If Mercedes cannot give Qin Miao a competitive enough car at the end of 23, there is really a possibility that Qin Miao will transfer to Aston Martin in 24.

Of course, the premise is that Aston Martin's cars can't be too bad, and Geely really squeezes out Stroll and his son from Aston Martin's board of directors and becomes the boss of Aston Martin Racing, as Li Shufu said. shareholder.

Even like acquiring Volvo, directly acquiring the entire Aston Martin company.

Of course, these are just random guesses without any basis as Qin Miao is on her way back to the hotel.

Moreover, Mercedes only has a small investment in racing cars next season, and it does not mean that it has not invested in research and development funds. With Mercedes-Benz's research and development capabilities, it is possible for vehicle performance to catch up in the middle of the season.

And with Aston Martin's current momentum, the Strolls have no reason to give up such a big cash cow.

……

Qin Miao returned to the hotel at night, and Qin Miao and Qiu Meng did not go out at night.

As for the plane for the two of them to return to the UK, Fan Yue said that it was already being arranged, but due to the general environment, it will take time to apply for the plane's route. It is not certain when it will be available, but it can be departed within three days at the latest.

Two days later, Qin Miao and Qiu Meng set off from Shanghai Hongqiao and returned to the UK on Qin Yun's private plane.

That's the good thing about private jets. Qin Miao doesn't need to cover her face on the plane, and the space is much larger. The most important thing is that private jets are much quieter than civilian airliners.

Sleeping is also much more comfortable.

After landing, Qin Miao and Qiu Meng drove directly to their cars in the airport parking lot, and then returned to their warm little home.

After returning to a familiar place, the two of them didn't have any extra thoughts. They put down their things, took a shower and went to bed directly.

After a rare night's sleep, Qin Miao woke up at around one o'clock in the afternoon.

Qiu Meng woke up in the morning because there was no trouble from Qin Miao.

When Qin Miao got up and came to the restaurant, Qiu Meng had already prepared a sumptuous lunch for Qin Miao.

Naturally, the dishes that appeared on the table at home at this time could not be cooked by Qiu Meng. They were all takeaways ordered by Qiu Meng.

After eating, just throw it into the trash can at the door, saving time and effort.

After returning home, Qin Miao also suffered from holiday syndrome.

Although Qin Miao knew in his mind that he should start to resume his training routine, when Barber came over to help Qin Miao measure his weight in the afternoon, he found that Qin Miao's weight was four kilograms heavier, and he also told Qin Miao to increase his exercise intensity.

But Qin Miao just didn't want to move, he just wanted to find a place to relax.

Putting aside Qin Miao's holiday syndrome, the start date of the Belgian Grand Prix after the summer break is exactly seven days away.

When it comes to the Belgian Grand Prix, many viewers who have just entered the game may not know much about it, but when it comes to the Belgian Grand Prix track, everyone knows it.

The name of the Belgian Grand Prix circuit is Spa, and this circuit has a very famous corner, the El Roque.

It's that high-speed, uphill, full-throttle blind bend.

The reason why this place is classic, in addition to the extremely high risk of cornering, is the violent altitude changes and high-speed, full-throttle, large-angle corners.

These extremely challenging elements are all integrated into this corner, making countless riders flock here.

Because he has run F2 here, Qin Miao is quite familiar with the Spa track.

The skill proficiency level is also over 600.

So after Qin Miao got rid of the holiday syndrome, he began to intensively improve his proficiency on this track on the simulator at home.

In the past few days before the end of the summer break, Qin Miao, like the staff in the Mercedes-Benz Racing Factory, returned to his usual work state.

It is worth mentioning that after Qin Miao returned to the team factory, Toto found Qin Miao and talked about Qin Miao's driver contract.

Qin Miao's contract now has two and a half years left. For Toto, this is the most cost-effective contract he has signed for Mercedes in his career.

But anyone inside Mercedes who knows Qin Miao's contract knows that Qin Miao's current contract is completely inconsistent with his contribution to Mercedes-Benz.

The salary is too low.

To put it bluntly, although Hamilton's salary is much higher than Qin Miao's, Qin Miao's contribution to the team is far ahead of Hamilton's in terms of car research and development.

Therefore, the team's board of directors is ready to compensate Qin Miao for this matter.In addition, Qin Miao's performance on the field in the past half of the season has been impressive enough. In the first season of his career, he can hold a head start on his teammate Hamilton, the seven-time champion, in the standings, although there is a lot of luck involved. However, it would be a bit one-sided to say that Qin Miao can do all this without Qin Miao's own strength.

After all, many people know that there is an opportunity in front of them, but they just can't grasp it.

At the same time, Qin Miao also has another trait that Mercedes people like very much, especially the strategy team and the logistics data analysis department, and that is Qin Miao's terrifying stability.

On the field, Qin Miao will basically get all the points and rankings he deserves.

When driving a racing car, Qin Miao's condition rarely fluctuates.

But he can occasionally break out and bring some surprises to the team, and he rarely makes mistakes.

Mercedes had no reason to let such a driver go, so after the half-season inspection period, Toto completely gave up on Bottas and prepared to sign another contract with Qin Miao, letting Qin Miao get two salary, supplementing Qin Miao's annual salary to the level of US$1500 million a year.

Of course, this is Mercedes' bottom line, that is, the maximum that Mercedes can accept from Qin Miao's two contracts is a total annual salary of US$1500 million. The initial bid will definitely not be that high and will be negotiated later.

At the same time, Toto is also preparing to extend Qin Miao's contract period again. After all, based on Qin Miao's current performance and his support for the team's work, he does deserve a long-term contract.

After discussion by the Mercedes-Benz board of directors, the final decision was to increase the length of Qin Miao's contract from three years to five years, which is two more years, until the end of 25, which is before the implementation of the new regulations in 26.

It can be said that if Qin Miao signs this contract, Qin Miao will spend the ground effect era in Meiben.

But normally, this five-year long-term contract is the dream of all F1 drivers. After all, F1 is a buyer's market.

Driver seats are in oversupply.

Countless people are struggling to get a place in F1. A long-term contract with a high salary is basically what all F1 drivers want.

It's just a coincidence that Qin Miao learned about Geely's idea of ​​acquiring Aston Martin during this time.

Although this news was not confirmed by Li Shufu in person, Qin Miao felt that with her killing everyone in the paddock, Geely might really enter F1.

So when Qin Miao received the quotation from Mercedes-Benz Racing Team, Qin Miao had a bit of a headache.

He really didn't know what to do with this contract.

Fortunately, Meiben only gave Qin Miao a suggestion, and he only needed to give Meiben a reply within a month.

So Qin Miao still has time to think and discuss.

After returning home, Qin Miao asked Qiu Meng what she thought about this matter. Of course, Qiu Meng also knew about Li Shufu and Ji Li. After all, on the way back by plane, Qin Miao and Qiu Meng had nothing else to do. Chatted about it.

After learning that Qin Miao had met Li Shufu, Qiu Meng regretted why she had not gone with Qin Miao in the first place.

However, Qiu Meng has a more radical attitude towards Qin Miao's new contract, that is, he agrees to Mercedes' invitation.

After all, everything on Geely's side is unknown. Even if Geely has the idea to enter F1, wants to acquire Aston Martin, and also acquires the team, no one can do anything about how much resistance it will encounter in the process. Guaranteed and certain, so everything is unknown at the moment.

Rather than gambling on an uncertain future, Qiu Meng prefers to let Qin Miao choose a relatively stable but absolutely safe future.

Of course, these are just Qiu Meng's suggestions. Even if Qin Miao wants to accept them all, Qiu Meng herself will not agree. The suggestions she gives can only be regarded as a reference for Qin Miao. How to make a specific decision? You still have to make your own independent judgment.

After asking Qiu Meng, Qin Miao also knew that he couldn't just listen to one family's opinions, so he called Boss Zhou the next morning.

During the phone call, Qin Miao naturally told Boss Zhou about the current situation he was encountering.

After Boss Zhou heard about Qin Miao's current difficulties, he thought about it and said: "A golden nest and a silver nest are not as good as your own straw nest. No matter how good the Mercedes-Benz is, it is For foreigners, and if there is a chance, I also hope that you can join Martin, which is controlled by Geely.

Although it may be difficult when you first join Martin, the car is not as good as Mercedes and it becomes difficult to win.

But I feel that even so, it won’t be a problem for you. You probably still have potential that you haven’t realized yet. "

Regardless of the rest, Qin Miao felt that the most important thing was the saying that a golden nest and a silver nest were not as good as his own straw nest.

Qin Miao was a little tempted, but Qin Miao did not agree immediately.

There was one last thing he needed to do.

Somewhat anxiously, Qin Miao pulled out a phone number that had been saved in her address book not long ago, and called it.

After the phone rang three times, Li Shufu's voice came over from the other side: "Qin Miao, good morning, what do you want from me?"

Qin Miao replied with some anxiety: "Director Li, I'm sorry to bother you so presumptuously, but I do have a question that I would like you to help me answer."

"Haha, don't bother me. If you have any questions, just ask me."

Qin Miao took a deep breath, and then told Li Shufu that Mercedes was planning to renew his contract in advance and increase the length of his contract.

Although Qin Miao did not explicitly say what problem he asked Li Shufu to solve, after Qin Miao finished speaking, his meaning was already obvious.

If Geely is really preparing to enter F1, then Qin Miao, a Chinese driver, definitely wants to join the Chinese team. But now Mercedes has extended an olive branch to Qin Miao, and Qin Miao needs to make a choice within a month.

If there had not been that meeting with Li Shufu during the summer break, Qin Miao, who was in the honeymoon period with Mercedes-Benz, basically wouldn't have to think too much and would definitely have nodded and agreed to the contract offered to him by Toto on the spot.

But now Qin Miao knew that Geely had an idea, and now Qin Miao came to Li Shufu to ask for news about whether Geely would enter the market, when would it enter the market, and whether it would be before the end of Qin Miao's current contract.

Li Shufu smiled after listening to Qin Miao's words: "I think you have to take a longer view on this matter.

After all, I feel that your potential has not been fully realized yet. You should perform better on the court. And based on your growth rate, it should only take two or three years for you to fully grow up. Your contract at Mercedes has just ended.

Teams like Red Bull and Ferrari will definitely be interested in a top driver like you.

Even if you don't want to be a number two driver for these teams.

If you go to teams such as Renault, McLaren, and Aston Martin, you can secure the position of the No. 1 driver, and the salary you get will definitely not be less than what you are currently at Mercedes-Benz and the contract you are about to sign. "

Although Li Shufu said nothing, he said everything.

(End of this chapter)