How did I become an F1 driver?

Time quickly came to the end of the month, and Qin Miao had to return to Europe to prepare for the 23rd season.

Speaking of work, Qin Miao's contract with Mercedes-Benz will expire at the end of this year. This means that before Qin Miao's contract is officially finalized, almost all teams, regardless of whether there are driver vacancies or not, will have staff specifically responsible for driver contracts contact Qin Miao, or the leader or boss of a team will personally send a message to Qin Miao, asking whether Qin Miao is willing to change jobs, and any conditions can be proposed.

As long as you come!

There is a lot of work to do!

Qin Miao stayed at home until early February before returning to Europe.

After returning to Europe, Qin Miao and Leclerc got together. Norris did not come to this party. There were only Leclerc, Qin Miao, Piastri and Leclerc's brother Arthur.

The four of them didn't talk about work, they just chatted and joked like normal friends.

After resting for two days in Monaco, Qin Miao returned to his home in Brackley, England.

At this time, most of the Mercedes team staff have returned to their original jobs.

The team's R&D department has also begun its work to prepare for car testing in the new season.

At the same time, the design of the 23 season car W14 is nearing completion and the final finishing work is also underway.

The engine department is also making final adjustments to the engine. Everything is in order, waiting for the final testing to be completed.

And Qin Miao returned to Brackley on his first day of work.

Qin Miao wanted to go back to the team's simulator department to practice on the simulator and get a feel for it.

In a few days I plan to drive the W11 to Silverstone to try my hand at it.

Although I played with Zhou Guanyu a little bit when I was in China, the driving experience and G-force of the 488GTB are still not as extreme as those of an F1 car.

The W11 is a famous track car, so there is no problem for Qin Miao to find some excitement while getting the feel for it.

But Qin Miao hadn't even gotten off work yet and was testing the new W14 on the simulator when Toto called Qin Miao.

"Hey, boss, what's up?"

"Qin Miao, let's go to my house for dinner tonight. Susie is already preparing dinner at home."

"today?"

"Why do you have something to do after get off work?"

Qin Miao couldn't say that he had an appointment to play COD with Leclerc after get off work, right?
So Qin Miao could only nod and agree: "Okay, should I go directly or wait for you to come together?"

"You go there first."

……

After hanging up the phone, Qin Miao scratched his hair.

Is this what they call "the one who is closest to the water gets the moon first"?

Qin Miao knew exactly why Toto called him. It was simply about his contract.

It can even be said that the closer Toto gets to the end of his contract, the more anxious he becomes.

At this time, Qin Miao really had no excuse to evade Toto.

And his contract expires this year, so he can indeed start the negotiation process for a new contract.

But these things are just business operations and have nothing to do with Qin Miao, and he doesn't really understand them.

Qin Miao's requirements for his new contract were actually very simple.

I don't have to participate in any sponsor or commercial activities of the team, and they don't have to pay me, but I don't have to participate if I don't want to.

Qin Miao's request is like a fantasy to other drivers.

Anyone who sees this contract clause will slowly put a question mark in their mind and say, "No, buddy, how dare you do that?"

Qin Miao's contract terms are completely rubbing his own commercial value on the ground.

Brother, if you don't participate in these activities, how can you realize your commercial value? Are you really here to play with cars?

But this is indeed the truest portrayal of Qin Miao's inner heart.

Compared to making money, Qin Miao would really rather live comfortably and freely in the paddock. After all, there is no end to making money.

After all, Qin Miao knew very well that as long as he didn't spend money recklessly, the money he earned in the paddock in the past two years alone was enough for him to live a life without worries about food and clothing, and even his descendants and their descendants would be able to do so.

The demand and desire for money will naturally be greatly reduced.

That night Qin Miao naturally went to Toto's house, met Toto's wife Susie, and naturally met Toto's children.

After having a happy meal, Qin Miao went to Toto's study with Toto. Toto awkwardly made tea for Qin Miao while chatting with him about the contract.

Qin Miao knew that he couldn't escape, so he agreed to Toto's request, and called his agency directly in front of Toto, starting the negotiation process for a new contract with the Mercedes team.

After Qin Miao did all this, the smile on Toto's face blossomed like a chrysanthemum.

But at the same time, Qin Miao also asked his agency to release the news that he had officially started contract negotiations, and if anyone had any ideas, they had to hurry up.

After all, drivers are commodities to some extent, so if necessary, you do need to shop around.

During the following period of time, life became regular for Qin Miao.

Normal training, starting with testing the simulation data of the new car W14 on the team simulator.

And learn about other teams that you come into contact with.

It can be said that among these teams, Ferrari is the most sincere.

Ferrari basically agreed to all the conditions proposed by Qin Miao.

Isn't it just another Kimi? Ferrari has the background, we have the experience, just come on!
On the other hand, Mercedes-Benz learned, as expected, that Ferrari was in contact with Qin Miao's agency team.

After learning the news, the Mercedes team held an emergency discussion for half an hour, and then a new negotiation strategy came out, increasing Qin Miao's original annual salary of 2000 million US dollars to 3000 million US dollars.

In fact, considering Qin Miao's worth, he deserves so much money, but Qin Miao does not participate in commercial activities, so Mercedes-Benz has reason to cut Qin Miao's salary.

But after Ferrari made such a fuss, Mercedes-Benz had no choice but to give Qin Miao a raise, assuming they didn't want to let him go.

Of course, at present Qin Miao’s management team is only negotiating cooperation with the people from these two teams. The other teams either offer too little money or do not agree to Qin Miao’s conditions. Or some teams agree to both the money and the conditions, but they just cannot give Qin Miao a car that can stand on the highest podium.

……

However, the bloody business negotiations had nothing to do with Qin Miao, the person involved. In the following period of time, Qin Miao's daily routine returned to normal.

Training, working for the team, and going back and forth between home and the team factory.

Finally, on February 2, Mercedes announced the team's W19 car for the new season.

Qin Miao and Hamilton, who had not seen each other for the whole winter, reunited at Mercedes-Benz Brackley's headquarters.

Let’s stand together for the new car launch conference.

The new car's paint is still mainly black, with the blue lines of Mercedes' title sponsor Petronas as embellishment. It has the standard Mercedes-Benz zero sidepod design concept, and you don't even need to look at the paint. In the second year of the ground effect era, basically you only need to take a look at the sidepods of the car to know which team the car belongs to.

During this winter break, the engineers of the Mercedes team were no longer restricted by the budget cap, so the team designers directly took out the PPTs accumulated during the period at the end of 22 and applied them all to the W14.

The good thing is that in the wind tunnel simulation, the performance of the W14 has been improved compared to the W13B, whether it is acceleration, tail speed or cornering G-values ​​in medium, high and low speed corners, all of which have been improved to a gratifying degree.

Of course, with so many new things piled on top, there will naturally be a lot of shortcomings without any optimization or adjustment.

The first is that the car is slightly overweight. Compared to last season's W13B, which just met the FIA's minimum weight limit, this season's W14 is 20KG heavier than last season's car.

This places high demands on the weight of both drivers.

Of course, this problem is easy to solve. The team will gradually start to optimize the various components of the car. There are still many areas where subtraction can be made.

It's just that in the first few races of this season, the two drivers have to control their weight.

Another aspect is the balance of the car.

Because a lot of new things were added, the originally balanced car started to feel top-heavy.

But this is easy to solve. This problem can be solved at the same time as the above problem is solved.

It can be said that the W14 is now ready, just waiting for the moment to step onto the track.

During this period, Qin Miao also received good news.

The movie The Wandering Earth 2, which he invested in and starred in, is about to be released soon.

The current total box office is 45.9 billion, making it the box office champion of the Spring Festival in 23 years.

Of course, this has another meaning for Qin Miao.

That is, The Wandering Earth 2 made huge profits, and as an investor, Qin Miao naturally reaped a lot of benefits.

While chatting with his wife on the phone, Qiu Meng roughly estimated the income from Qin Miao's first investment in his career.

About 100 million.

At that time, Qin Miao felt that investing seemed to make more money than driving!
Even though one hundred million is not a lot for Qin Miao now, you have to look at the return ratio when investing.

Qin Miao's return ratio is 2.5 times that of what the capitalists would pay with their lives.

It was really successful.

After this little episode, the winter break is almost coming to an end, and it is February 2rd.

The start of winter testing in Bahrain.

In fact, normally, before the Bahrain test, almost all teams will go to the Catalan Circuit in Barcelona, ​​Spain for winter testing.

Because the Circuit de Catalunya is recognized by all teams and drivers as the most balanced track, basically all dimensions of your car's attributes can be tested on this track.

This track is so balanced.

The reason why we are not testing in Catalonia this season is...

This is mainly because the money given by the Bahraini government is too much.

The oil guys in the Middle East are really too rich, and since the opening race is in Bahrain, they might as well just treat it as advance practice before the main race.

As for Mercedes, the W14 was definitely not in full form during the winter test. After all, other teams must be looking at Mercedes like a criminal at this time. If they took out the full form of the car at this time, they would be asking for trouble.

Therefore, winter testing is mainly about running-in, driving the car to extreme conditions to test the stability of the car's internal equipment. As for the appearance...it's fine as long as it can be used.

Qin Miao was already familiar with all of this.

However, on the first day of the winter test, Qin Miao still went to the new Lynk & Co team out of curiosity to join in the fun.

In fact, the car used by Lynk & Co this season is Red Bull's original AT04. The only change is that the paint has changed from white to black and gold.

If nothing unexpected happens, Lynk & Co will continue to use Red Bull's car design throughout this season and perhaps next season.

It is estimated that new racing car design concepts will emerge after two seasons.

If nothing unexpected happens, this black and gold version of AT04 will be patched up by Lynk & Co and Lotus in the next period of time.

Qin Miao's appearance naturally attracted the attention of many people in the P room of the Lynk & Co team.

However, when they saw that Qin Miao did not take any further action, they just stood outside the P room and looked at the Lynk & Co team's paint job as if they were watching a commotion. In addition, everyone in the Lynk & Co team knew that they had changed their master, and they inexplicably developed a lot of good feelings towards Qin Miao, so no one cared about Qin Miao.

The leader of the Lynk & Co team, Tost, who was wearing a black team uniform, came over with a smile on his face when he saw Qin Miao.

If he was still the former team leader of the Red Bull Racing Team, after seeing Qin Miao coming to watch the fun, he would only think that Qin Miao is Qin Miao. The calmness and composure of the two-time world champion was undoubtedly highlighted at this time. During the period before the opening race, he did not take the time to understand the performance of his own car, but instead watched the fun here without any panic.

But now his status is different. His boss has changed from Red Bull to Geely, and he has become the team leader of the Lynk & Co team.

Although it is still the original team of the Red Bull Racing team, even the team headquarters has not changed.

But after all, the identities are different.

To a certain extent, he and Qin Miao were fellow villagers at this time.

With such a relationship involved, Tost naturally began to fantasize, is there a possibility that Qin Miao's contract will expire after the end of this season, and he will join Lynk & Co directly?
What? It is rumored that Qin Miao has already started negotiations with the Mercedes team?
Can't people fantasize in broad daylight?

What if?
When Lynk & Co was still Red Bull, Tost studied why Qin Miao was so strong.

It is undeniable that Qin Miao's driving skills are top-notch, and his defensive ability is unmatched in the entire paddock.

But these abilities are still within the limits of what the drivers can do. If the opponent's car performance is too strong, Qin Miao's abilities will actually have no room to be utilized.

If you can't even catch up with others, forget about attacking or defending.

The main reason why Qin Miao was able to compete with Verstappen on the track during the 22 years was actually Qin Miao's abnormal and puzzling ability to protect the tire.

Tost calculated that if Qin Miao came to Lynk & Co, then Lynk & Co could rely on Qin Miao's ability to protect the tire and become a regular in the points zone.

If the subsequent research and development of the team is strong, it is almost inevitable that Lynk & Co will become a regular on the podium using a mid-range group car because of Qin Miao.

But it was obvious that Tost was going to be disappointed. Qin Miao really came here today just to join in the fun. He didn't even want to talk to Tost.

He was even more surprised when he saw Tost come out and find him.

But since Tost had come over, Qin Miao still had a chat with him.

From his words, Tost also realized that Qin Miao had no intention of joining Lynk & Co, but Tost didn't think it was a pity.

After all, with Qin Miao's current grades and age, Tost really couldn't imagine what kind of experience would make Qin Miao choose to come to Lynk & Co.

In the future, if the performance of Lynk & Co's racing cars is not too different from that of Mercedes-Benz, Qin Miao will have the reason and motivation to join Lynk & Co.

But this is not something Tost can control now.

Of course, this does not affect Tost's desire to get closer to Qin Miao.

So the two of them chatted for a while.

Qin Miao also asked a lot of questions about Lynk & Co.

Then Qin Miao also learned some inside information that he didn't know.

That is, Lynk & Co is a bit like a patchwork fleet.

Because the staff composition of the Lynk & Co team is particularly complex.

Lotus will send people to design the aerodynamic shape, Lynk & Co will send people to design the chassis, and then Geely and Volvo will send people to work with Red Bull to design the power unit and battery.

The suspension of the car will continue to be made by Red Bull.

Of course, it’s just that the origin of the team members is a bit complicated. After coming to the Lynk & Co team, everyone’s ownership is assigned to the Lynk & Co team.

PS. Dads, please take a day off tomorrow. (End of this chapter)