People have also speculated on the possibility of Meiben buying Qin Miao back and sitting on the bench.
But then I thought about it and thought it was impossible. If Meiben really planned to buy Qin Miao back and sit on the bench, it would be impossible for them to pay the liquidated damages of Qin Miao's contract.
Being able to pay this money, it can be seen that Mei Ben must want Qin Miao to work.
The public opinion in the paddock was fierce at this time, and everyone was puzzled by Mercedes' actions.
Many reporters also went to Mercedes' headquarters and wanted to interview Mercedes' senior management, but they were all politely rejected.
And there has been no Grand Prix held recently, so if you want to get the answer to this matter, you can only wait until the Belgian Grand Prix starts at the end of August.
However, thoughtful people have still discovered more directions that can be explored in this public opinion.
For example, a reporter found Qin Miao's teammate in Prema Racing, Mick Schumacher, and asked him his opinion on this matter.
Faced with this opportunity to expose himself, Mick naturally would not refuse.
Although the relationship with Qin Miao is not good, there is no hatred between the two. At most, they can only be regarded as strangers.
Therefore, in the interview with reporters, Mick did not add any extravagance, but just told the truth.
But to be honest, Qin Miao's impression on Mick is really not very good, so even if Mick adopts a fair and objective attitude to evaluate Qin Miao, this interview is destined to be crooked from the beginning.
And this interview just matched the first impression of Qin Miao by many passers-by, so the reporter's newspaper reaped the first wave of dividends from this hot event.
After all, many people in the paddock now want to know the deeper news about Mercedes-Benz, but Mercedes-Benz is covering it up tightly and has not released any news.
These are somewhat useful, but not very useful, but the news related to Qin Miao can easily attract the attention of some people who don't know the truth.
This reporter's method of opening a breakthrough among people around Qin Miao was imitated in a short period of time.
Things like "Youth Training Teammates Critical Comments on Qin Miao's Behavior", "Qin Miao in the Eyes of Prema Technicians", "Evaluations of Qin Miao from the Restaurant Owners He Frequently Visits"...
For a moment, everyone started to share the big cake unscrupulously like hungry jackals, wishing that all the dogs Qin Miao had seen would come over to ask a few questions and write a column.
Of course, there are also some real interviews and subjects.
A reporter interviewed six-time champion Hamilton, who may become Qin Miao's teammate in the future.
Skip the small talk and pleasantries and get to the most important issue.
"Lewis, did you already know that Mercedes' number two driver might be replaced next season?"
"I know, I received an email before it happened, but at that time I only thought that a new person might come to our team. I thought he would just come to serve as a test driver or reserve driver, and I didn't think about the other person. Possibly going into the team as the number two driver and we don't even have any understanding of each other."
"Lewis, do you agree with Mercedes' approach?"
"Of course, I believe in Toto's vision, just like they believe in me on the court.
However, I still feel that what the current team needs is stability, not an aggressive young man. "
…
Well, although the old man didn't say it clearly, his dissatisfaction with the team's choice was basically made clear in his two answers.
Qin Miao's poor performance in the F2 and Ferrari youth training resulted in a bad public opinion environment in the paddock. Now that this report has come out, Qin Miao's public opinion environment has become even worse.
Toto, on the other hand, just watched and took no further action.
Looking at this almost one-sided negative evaluation, Mercedes' sports director Marcus Walker asked: "Are we putting too much pressure on him?"
With Mercedes' ability, it is actually fully capable of controlling the speech in the paddock at this time, so that messages about Qin Miao will not be everywhere like now, and most of them are negative comments.
But Toto just crossed his arms and looked at the data chart in front of him and said without looking back: "If he can't stand this pressure, then there is no need for Qin Miao to continue on the road of F1.
If he really can't stand it, let him run a simulator for three years. It is said that he drove the simulator quite well when he was at Ferrari.
Besides, the contract we gave him stipulates that if there is no competition, Qin Miao will only have a basic salary of 600,000, so we won't lose much if he sits on the bench. "
It is obvious that the basic salary in the contract given to Qin Miao by Toto is very low, but the rewards are many. This is the plan.
Although Toto is really optimistic about Qin Miao's talent and his future.
But as Mercedes' executive director and team leader, Toto must put the team's interests first in these matters.
"Okay, so the public opinion about the paddock..."
"Treat it coldly and wait until the heat of this matter subsides." Toto didn't look back.
Walker wrote down Toto's instructions in his notebook, but he sighed slightly in his heart, because it was not that easy to get rid of the heat of this matter.
What's more, Qin Miao is still an active F2 driver. Although the attention of F2 drivers is pitifully less than that of F1 drivers, as long as he keeps participating in the competition, he will continue to be exposed.
Walker already has a rough guess as to how much pressure Qin Miao will be under by then.
Just when Walker recorded Toto's instructions and was about to leave, Toto suddenly said: "By the way, you have to do some work on Bottas' side. The main thing is to stabilize his mood and try to let him do this." The rest of the season can be played normally.”
The originally calm expression on Walker's face suddenly turned into a grimace.
If Qin Miao's external problem after joining Mercedes-Benz is the incomprehension of public opinion and fans, then the internal problem is Bottas's emotional problem, and secondly there is Russell's problem.
But compared to Russell, Bottas's problem is more serious. After all, he is an active driver, and his presence affects Mercedes' points.
After seeing the expression on Walker's face, Toto smiled: "Don't worry, Bottas' job is actually not difficult. He has been at Mercedes for four years.
I can see that four years of being the No. 2 driver has made him tired. After all, no one wants to have someone above them who can overwhelm them. He has actually left Mercedes-Benz to go to other teams to experience becoming a No. 1 driver. I have an idea of what it feels like for the No. 1 driver. "
Although Walker's face was still full of doubts, he still nodded: "Okay, I'll talk to him later."
After saying that, Walker left, leaving Toto alone sitting in his seat with his arms folded, looking at the monitor of his computer.
What's on the monitor is the telemetry data Qin Miao sent to Toto, the telemetry data of Qin Miao's recent games...
Qin Miao knew that his public opinion in the paddock was already showing signs of collapse, and he had the potential to be infamy for eternity.
However, Qin Miao's response to this is also very mature, just two words: no matter!
Also because Qin Miao changed teams recently, Qin Miao has more things to do.
For example, the things brought from Maranello need to be sorted out. They can't be kept at Zhou Guanyu's house forever, right?
Even if Zhou Guanyu didn't mind having a bunch of clutter at home, Qin Miao would still feel bad about it.
So during this period, Qin Miao not only needs to find a house, but also needs to move.
Moving brought more trivial problems. During this period, Qin Miao and Qiu Meng did nothing else but busy with these things.
Because Mercedes' factory is in the UK, Qin Miao will have to live in the UK permanently like Zhou Guanyu.
This is actually a good thing. The two of them can meet each other from time to time.
After Qin Miao had taken care of all these chores, it was Thursday, August 27th.
Qin Miao, who had just finished handling her own affairs, didn't even have time to rest for a day before heading to Belgium without stopping.
The Spa circuit in Belgium is one of Qin Miao's most proficient circuits among all the circuits. In addition, there was no rain during the entire race week, so the final result of the qualifying session was no longer suspense at the beginning of the race.
1 minute 57 seconds 111.
This is Qin Miao’s qualifying result.
The second place is Tsunoda and the third place is Ma Zeping.
After the middle of the season, these people gradually became familiar with the car and began to exert their strength. Unfortunately, compared to Qin Miao, they were still just ordinary people, and their results were just like that.
Qin Miao's tire selection changed a little during the main stage of this game.
Qin Miao wanted to earn full points in this race, so at the start of the race, Qin Miao did not choose to start on soft tires as usual, but on hard tires, and then pitted in the last few laps with a light fuel load. Get the fastest lap.
The final result was that Qin Miao scored all 27 points he could get in the main game.
Qin Miao scored +17 points in the sprint race.
After three games, Qin Miao's total points were: 46 points.
Because the background of the start of this game is that Qin Miao joined the amazing giant Mercedes.
Therefore, the ratings of this F2 race were uncharacteristically high, and the number of viewers tripled. The number of people watching this race through television broadcast reached an unprecedented 150,000 people.
Fortunately, the host who interviewed Qin Miao after winning the game was an official FIA staff member. He did not ask some inappropriate questions to disturb Qin Miao's mentality. He only asked some very conventional questions.
"March of the Volunteers" resounded on the highest podium of F2 for the 16th time.
The F2 season is already halfway through, but the national anthem of other countries has not been played on the highest podium of the F2 field. Whether it is the main race or the sprint race, the "March of the Volunteers" was played during the final awards stage.
Those who have been following F2 races can even hum this melody in their own heads.
This can be regarded as a disguised form of cultural export.
After the race, about 20% of the audience who didn't understand Mercedes' approach seemed to have an epiphany and instantly understood Mercedes' top management.
Strong, indeed strong.
What Qin Miao and other F2 drivers showed on the field were completely different.
After the game, Qin Miao sent his trophy to Ferrari.
Although Qin Miao's contract with the Ferrari F1 team has been terminated, Qin Miao's contract in the Ferrari youth training has not changed.
Although the Ferrari F1 Team and Ferrari Youth Training are both affiliated with Ferrari, they are actually two different departments, but the exchanges and cooperation between the two departments are more frequent.
Therefore, although Qin Miao has terminated his contract with the Ferrari F1 Team, his contract at the Ferrari Driver Academy is still in effect.
Qin Miao's youth training contract will end only after the end of this season and the contract between Qin Miao and Mercedes takes effect.
And there is one more interesting thing.
That is, after the news began to spread in the paddock that Qin Miao will leave the Ferrari system to join Mercedes next season, the relationship between Mick and Qin Miao, who had been basically estranged from each other for a long time, has reached a certain level. of relief.
After all, after Qin Miao left Ferrari, there was no direct conflict of interest between the two, and it was logical that they could exchange racing-related matters during team meetings.
After the match at Spa, Qin Miao did not stay in Belgium for long.
As soon as the team meeting ended, Qin Miao followed the team back to Vicenza.
The new Grand Prix is held in Monza, Italy, and Vicenza is only a two-hour drive from Monza. For Qin Miao and the others, coming to Monza to compete is almost like playing at home.
There is no need to go into too much detail about the game process. Qin Miao took home 46 points in full.
However, the longer the game goes, the more Qin Miao feels like an outsider.
After all, Qin Miao has very limited space to show his strength throughout the competition weekend.
After the race starts, it’s a normal lap run.
The only interesting thing was that Qin Miao kept overtaking others during the sprint race.
But now Qin Miao is starting to get a little bored even if he runs a sprint race.
Because almost everyone in front of Qin Miao will not defend Qin Miao.
Although when Qin Miao appears in his rearview mirror, he will not lose speed and give up his position like a slow car encountering a fast car, but no one will take the initiative to defend Qin Miao when he attacks. Miao.
Because it's not necessary.
Defending Qin Miao will make you lose speed. The key is that you can't defend him, so there is no need to waste time on such meaningless things.
So now Qin Miao's F2 race is not challenging at all. He spends the whole process running laps to improve his proficiency on the track.
After the game, 80% of the audience who were curious or bored about Qin Miao recognized Qin Miao's strength, and also understood Toto's uncharacteristic intention of signing Qin Miao.
If such a talent is placed outside, it will be a time bomb for Mercedes-Benz, because Mercedes-Benz cannot be sure whether Qin Miao will eventually enter Red Bull or Ferrari, and then rely on his own personal strength to make up for the car like a boss. The gap in performance gives Mercedes a little genius shock.
In the interview session after the competition and before going on stage to receive the award, Qin Miao prepared her mind and waited for the host's questions as she had done countless times before.
But the host said as soon as he came up: "Congratulations, Qin, you have become the 2020 World Formula 2 Champion!"
"Huh?" (End of chapter)
