Lawson is one of the people who knows Qin Miao's current situation better.
So when he saw Qin Miao coming to see him and carrying something in his hand, Lawson vaguely guessed the purpose of Qin Miao coming to him this time.
Inviting Qin Miao to sit down, before Lawson could say anything, Qin Miao put down the gift first, then took out the Ferrari car key that the other party gave him and placed it on Lawson's desk.
After seeing Qin Miao's actions, Lawson finally understood Qin Miao's purpose of coming to him this time.
The other party is ready to leave. If nothing else happens, the next home may have been found.
He sighed with some regret: "I expected our parting, but I didn't expect it to come so suddenly."
Qin Miao also felt a little emotional. The scene when he was led into Ferrari by Lawson was still vivid in his mind, but he was about to leave in the blink of an eye: "Yes, I originally thought I would stay at Ferrari for a long time, but why?" Expect things to change."
Lawson asked curiously: "Have you decided which team you want to go to?"
Qin Miao smiled: "Mr. Lawson, you know what I can't say."
Lawson didn't feel embarrassed, and after laughing aloud, he accepted the gift Qin Miao brought. However, he did not accept the key to the Ferrari 488. Instead, he pushed it back to Qin Miao: "I accept the gift. After all, I was the one who introduced you to this road, and your talent in racing is really good, so I can accept the gift you gave me with peace of mind.
But the car has been given away, and we can't get it back, so you can keep the car for yourself. "
Qin Miao shook his head: "It's too precious."
Lawson spread his hands: "It's not that we don't want to come back, but this car has been modified by you and has been marked with your mark. Even if we get it back, it's not convenient for us to take it out and give it to others. We want it back. The only place to go is to put it in a museum to eat dust, or throw it into a test drive track and let people drive it for fun.”
Qin Miao scratched his face in embarrassment. He really didn't think much about it when he modified this 488. He just felt that the 488's performance was not enough and he had to give her some hard work.
Unexpectedly, it was an unintentional move at the time, but now I have won a Ferrari 488 for myself.
"Thank you then." Qin Miao thanked her sincerely and took the key back.
What Lawson did was actually planting seeds in Qin Miao's heart.
In the future, whenever Qin Miao sees this 488, he will be able to remember that this car was given to him by Ferrari. In case Qin Miao no longer wants to stay in his team and wants to try other teams, and at that time Ferrari If there happens to be a shortage of people, Qin Miao may not be able to take over.
After chatting with Lawson for more than 20 minutes, Qin Miao stood up and said goodbye.
It's getting late, Qin Miao is leaving Maranello...
…
Time has entered the fast lane since Qin Miao joined Mercedes-Benz.
Friday, August 14, 2020, is the start of the Spanish Grand Prix.
At this time, Qin Miao's clothes and racing car still had Ferrari youth training icons, but Qin Miao's heart had already gone to Mercedes.
There was nothing much to say about the morning practice session. I just followed the previous procedures to find a car that I was comfortable with.
In the afternoon qualifying session, Qin Miao got a set of tuning settings that were about 80% suitable for him.
Not high, but basically enough.
Qin Miao followed a familiar rhythm, a new set of soft tires, two warm-up laps, an unobstructed flying lap, and a score of 1:27.812 in pole position.
Punch in and get off work!
By the time the qualifying session ended, Ilot, who was ranked second, was 0.4 seconds slower than Qin Miao.
Others have studied Qin Miao's qualifying and race videos countless times.
Everyone wants to understand why Qin Miao is so much faster than other F2 drivers.
After they analyzed it frame by frame, they found that there was nothing special about Qin Miao. He just had precise routing, knew exactly when to apply oil and when to brake, and his stability was so high that he could not see it throughout the whole game. to a mistake.
The F2 race stage of this grand prix was actually quite exciting. The safety car came out twice. The second time the safety car was used, the race was forced to change to the last lap after the F2 race time limit expired.
In order to compete for a better ranking in this last lap, the drivers behind the car were beaten to death.
But all this has nothing to do with Qin Miao. After all, this person opened up a gap of 0.5 seconds from the second place just by starting.
Qin Miao is just like the previous races, you run your race and I run mine.
In the end, Qin Miao started from the pole position and took home the championship, once again scoring 27 points in the race.
Zhou Guanyu also performed well today. Starting from third place, he was originally a lot behind in the middle of the race, but with his good performance in the last lap, he finally ended the race with a good result of third place.
In this race, Qin Miao listened to Toto's advice and did not create a wake for Zhou Guanyu or create overtaking opportunities. He only focused on himself.
In addition to his own strength, Zhou Guanyu's performance in this game is also due to the fact that he is more adaptable to high-speed tracks.
After the game, Qin Miao's total points reached 223, while Zhou Guanyu's total points also exceeded the 100 mark, reaching 101 points.
It is worth mentioning that this season's two Chinese drivers worked together to break the 100-point mark. It is also the first time in F2 history that two Chinese drivers lead the F2 standings.
As netizens said, there have never been two Chinese drivers competing in the same field in the history of F2. Whatever these two do on the field is breaking the record in Chinese racing history.
Sunday, sprint race.
Qin Miao maintained his usual style and ran the entire race on a new set of soft tires. In just five laps, Qin Miao went from eighth to first, and started leading the pack for 21 laps. .
It is said that Toto laughed so much when he saw Qin Miao's performance on the field today.
Toto has high hopes for this rising sun in F2.
Qin Miao's age, coupled with the dominance he has shown in the F2 field, the word "rising star" can no longer be used to describe Qin Miao. Instead, the word "sun" is slightly more appropriate.
Qin Miao still completed his race as steadily as an old dog. His speed was astonishing and he also showed terrifying stability.
After P1 was brought back, Qin Miao's total points have reached 240 points.
Zhou Guanyu did not score any points in this sprint race. The unlucky guy was hit by a piece of his front wing while overtaking. After pitting and changing the front wing, he fell out of the points area.
After this race, the next F2 race is the Belgian Grand Prix two weeks later.
Of course, Qin Miao, who is in a special period, will definitely not be able to take a good rest.
After the game, Qin Miao handed over his two championship trophies to Ferrari for engraving as usual.
Although Qin Miao was already thinking: "A man was born in heaven and earth, how can he live in depression for a long time?"
But after all, the contract with Ferrari has not really been terminated, and his contract with Mercedes is still in the negotiation process.
So for now, everything is business as usual. The difference may be that Qin Miao has never been to Ferrari's P room after the F2 sprint race.
During the holiday, Qin Miao returned to the UK and began to advance the negotiation process with Mercedes-Benz.
Even because of Qin Miao's good performance in Spain last week, the negotiators invited by Qiu Meng once gained more initiative in the negotiation process.
Finally, on August 20, the negotiation between Qin Miao and Mercedes-Benz was officially completed.
After the contract that both parties were satisfied with was finalized, the two parties did not sign the contract immediately. Instead, they only signed the intention contract.
After all, Qin Miao still has a contract with Ferrari. According to the requirements of the intention contract, Mercedes has to help Qin Miao negotiate Qin Miao's contract with Ferrari during this period.
This is not complicated, just talk to Ferrari and break up amicably if possible. Both parties will sign the contract and the contract will be voided.
If not, then just pay liquidated damages in accordance with the requirements of the contract. There is no need to push each other for more than half a month like Qin Miao's contract before it was finally settled.
August 25th.
Mercedes' negotiating team traveled to Maranello to discuss the contract with Ferrari.
This process was handled by Ferrari's sports director Meikis, and Ferrari team leader Binotto did not attend.
However, Ferrari had no intention of breaking up with Qin Miao peacefully, so in the end, Qin Miao unilaterally broke the contract, and then Mercedes advanced Qin Miao's driver contract liquidated damages totaling 4.7 million euros under the notarization of the court.
To be honest, Qin Miao was really shocked when she saw the amount of liquidated damages. After all, her one-year contract salary was just over one million euros. Once the liquidated damages were paid, she would have to work for five years in vain.
Fortunately, Mercedes-Benz is short of everything except money. 4.7 million euros is not a big problem for them, and if Qin Miao can really let them pay for all 4.7 million euros, not only will they not feel uncomfortable, but they will also Happier.
After the Maranello matter was resolved, Qin Miao, who received the news in the UK, officially signed a three-year official driver contract with the Mercedes team.
It will officially take effect from the first day of 2021 and will last until the end of 2023.
The liquidated damages for Qin Miao's second contract were as high as US$200 million.
To be honest, Qin Miao didn't feel much when he looked at this number. It was too much, beyond Qin Miao's concept.
However, Qin Miao believes that he will not have the idea of changing teams in a short time, so Qin Miao can accept the slightly higher liquidated damages.
Meanwhile, Qin Miao’s annual income is US$600,000.
Although it is at least half less than the contract at Ferrari, Qin Miao's contract has incentive bonus options.
Qin Miao can get a bonus of 10,000 US dollars for each game he participates in (every game has one). Counting 24 grand prix in a season, this is 240,000 US dollars. Therefore, Qin Miao's total basic salary is actually 8 One hundred and forty thousand dollars.
There will also be additional bonuses for standing on the podium. The bonus for third place is US$150,000, second place is US$300,000, and first place is US$600,000. Points won do not count.
If Qin Miao performs well enough in the 21st season, his salary may catch up to a fraction of his future teammate Hamilton.
Of course, this contract is not only the contract after Qin Miao joined Mercedes-Benz, but also the contract after he joined Williams.
This shows that although Mercedes has a lot of money, it is not stupid.
At the same time, there are also additional conditions for Qin Miao in the contract. As mentioned before, he is not to participate in other media activities other than those mandated by the FIA.
The day after the contract was signed, news spread like wildfire that Qin Miao had been poached by Mercedes himself.
Obviously, this news was spread by Ferrari.
After all, Ferrari and Mercedes are rivals in the paddock. The other party has no obligation to keep secrets for the opponent. It is normal to publicize them like this.
You can't blame Ferrari for being ruthless. As soon as the front foot let go of its own team's driver, the back foot began to spread news about him in the paddock.
After all, everyone knows Qin Miao's talent. As long as he can adapt to the intensity of F1 competition, he will definitely be a figure who can often appear on the podium in the future.
From an opponent's perspective, what Ferrari needs at this time is to influence Qin Miao's condition as much as possible and create a public opinion environment in the paddock that is not very good for Qin Miao and Mercedes.
So Qin Miao had just signed a contract with Mercedes-Benz, and rumors spread in the paddock.
A well-known columnist in the paddock wrote a column titled: "What does Mercedes spend a lot of money to poach F2 super genius Qin Miao from Ferrari?" 》.
If Qin Miao was a big influence in F2 in the past, he was only in a very small circle. The number of people who paid attention to Qin Miao was limited, but compared with the huge fan base of F1, it was really not that many.
Even though there were rumors in the past that Qin Miao has joined Ferrari and may become an official driver of the Ferrari F1 team next season.
However, under the premise that Ferrari itself did not stand up to prove the authenticity of this news, the popularity of this news quickly faded. Even if someone is interested in this news, if there is no new disclosure for a long time, even if it is No matter how interested I was, I gradually forgot about it.
Naturally, no one would go over to watch the F2 game to understand Qin Miao's strength.
But it's different now. With the help of thoughtful people behind the scenes, the news of Qin Miao joining Mercedes was everywhere in the paddock, and it was spread in a decent way. The most important thing is that someone from Ferrari stood up to prove it. authenticity.
What is the current status of Mercedes-Benz in the paddock? Let's put it this way, if the current F1 is a winner-takes-all model, then there is no need to compete in subsequent games this season, and the championship can be awarded directly to Mercedes.
The key is that Bottas hasn't been in a slump of late, he still has one year left on his contract, and there's a driver in the paddock that Toto has been grooming for a long time: George Russell.
Although this guy's performance in F2 was not as incredible as Qin Miao's, he was still a solid F2 world champion, and his performance during his time at Williams was also amazing.
Bottas is still capable, and the younger generation has Russell.
With these two people present, many people couldn't understand why Mercedes wanted an unknown driver like Qin Miao to join the team.
ps. Sorry, I forgot to time it...
(End of chapter)
