In fact, the main reason is that Toto saw that Qin Miao had been working really hard during this period, not only on the field, but also in the team factory behind the scenes.
Qin Miao's contribution to the Mercedes team even made Toto, a capitalist, feel a little embarrassed. In addition, Qin Miao has already demonstrated his talent and growth ability, so Toto wants to give Qin Miao a boost. Improve treatment.
Since we want to raise the salary, we naturally have to sign a new driver contract.
Of course, if that doesn't work, Toto has other plans.
As for Qin Miao this time, Toto Baobao plans to find Qin Miao to sign a guarantee contract.
That is to say, Toto is worried that someone will take advantage of the expiration of the contract between Qin Miao and Mercedes-Benz Racing Team to come and take advantage of him.
If there is a guaranteed contract, in this case, if Mercedes and the other team offer the same treatment, Qin Miao must give priority to the Mercedes team.
In fact, the matter of Qin Miao's contract was mentioned on the board of directors of the Mercedes F1 team. Since Qin Miao is to be trained as Hamilton's successor, a three-year contract is not safe no matter how you look at it.
Originally, Toto wanted to wait for a while before talking to Qin Miao about this matter, but after seeing Qin Miao's efforts in the simulator department, they happened to do it together.
"I still have that idea." Qin Miao expressed her attitude after hearing Toto talk about the contract.
Toto was not surprised, and after thinking for a while he said: "Well, you have indeed helped the team solve a lot of problems recently, and your contribution to the team cannot be ignored.
After today's work is over, go to the finance department to get a bonus. "
Qin Miao:? !
Is there such a good thing?
But then Toto said: "Of course, this is just the first thing I came to see you for this time.
Another thing is that the team wants to sign a guarantee contract with you. "
After speaking, Toto roughly explained the meaning of the guarantee contract.
Qin Miao didn't hesitate and agreed readily.
Don't look at the monk's face, look at the Buddha's face, not to mention that this contract basically has no binding force on Qin Miao.
After settling the matter in two or three sentences, Toto had no intention of seeing him off, but instead chatted with Qin Miao about racing next season.
Toto lit a cigarette and turned on the exhaust system in the office before saying: "Red Bull is still biting us behind this season. You also know that we cannot stop the research and development of the current season car at this time, but I don't know what this means. You should be able to guess it."
Qin Miao nodded: "It means that no more resources will be allocated to the research and development of the car next season."
Toto nodded: "It can be expected that our car will not be too fast next season.
I dare to conclude that after entering the ground effect era next season, the rise of Ferrari and Red Bull is inevitable.
Among them, Ferrari will definitely have their most impressive season in the past 10 years next season. "
Qin Miao understands why Toto said this about Ferrari. After all, most of Ferrari's resources this season have been invested in car development for next season.
Coupled with the fact that their team leader is Mattia Binotto, the absolute leader in engine research and development, I believe that Ferrari next season will definitely shine.
"I can understand Ferrari, but why will Red Bull become a threat to us next season? Shouldn't Red Bull be in the same predicament as us?" Qin Miao asked curiously.
After talking about this, Toto rubbed his eyebrows with a headache: "That's true, but Red Bull has an advantage that we can't compare with, and that is their Chief Technology Officer Adrian Newey.
Newey is different from the chief technical officers of other teams in the paddock. He personally experienced the era of ground effects. Even F1's first ground effects car was designed by Newey.
I can assert that after entering the ground effect era, Red Bull's car's research and development progress on the floor will be half a season ahead of all other teams, maybe even more. "
After listening to Toto's analysis, Qin Miao also started to have a headache.
But soon, Qin Miao discovered something was wrong.
It seems that he is just a driver, although because he often communicates with the team's engineers about some racing problems, Qin Miao's knowledge of the design and aerodynamics of his own racing car has increased to a certain extent.
But Qin Miao does not feel that he has the ability to solve the problem of the team's lagging R&D progress due to insufficient resources.
Suddenly, Qin Miao realized something.
But before Qin Miao could fully react, Toto said to Qin Miao earnestly: "So in order to make the car more competitive next season, I would like to trouble Qin Miao to go to the team more recently." One step away.
We will also ask Bottas to help you in the near future. You two should stop running the racing data of this season and run more of the racing data of next season. "
Qin Miao:?
To be honest, Qin Miao really wanted to refuse.
I can't do it, I'm just a bad driver, and my little shoulders can't handle such a difficult task.
You'd better find another job!
But Toto's words immediately silenced Qin Miao.
"You don't want to get an uncompetitive car next season, right?"
Where did you learn these stupid things?
Sure enough, there is no free lunch in the world, and there is no free bonus.
In the end, Qin Miao left the headquarters of Mercedes-Benz Racing Team with a distorted expression, taking the US$800,000 bonus from the team.
The inner emotions are complex.
In fact, Qin Miao himself needs to bear a certain amount of responsibility for today's situation.
In the recent period, he has helped the team basically use up the R&D budget for this season. Now it is not the R&D department's problem, but the production department's output that cannot keep up with the R&D department's R&D speed.
Now many components have passed the CFD and wind tunnel testing stages, and Qin Miao and Bottas have also run them on the simulator. They basically meet the team's performance requirements for these new components. However, the production department is due to scheduling issues. The problem cannot be created at all.
It can be said that in the next few games, the two Mercedes drivers will make small improvements in each game.
Also because this year's upgrade budget has been exhausted, Toto has begun to consider next season.
Then he focused on Qin Miao.
…
Tuesday.
When Hamilton asked Qin Miao to attend a fashion event together, Qin Miao was not free.
The old man was surprised for a while.
After all, Qin Miao's rest time is usually Monday and Tuesday.
After learning that Qin Miao was forced to work overtime in the team by Toto, Hamilton could only sigh: Honest children are easy to suffer.
But for young people, suffering is a blessing, especially when Qin Miao suffers, he can still enjoy the benefits after Qin Miao suffers.
Then young people should suffer more!
Of course, Hamilton comforted and encouraged Qin Miao on the phone, and then he continued to play music and dance happily.
On Wednesday, Qin Miao received a task from the system as usual.
However, in addition to the regular ranking tasks, Qin Miao also received a task of obtaining the fastest lap in the race.
The reward is also relatively simple and crude, just $1 million.
This was the time when Qin Miao was preparing to buy a house, so it would be good to have more money in his account.
A larger budget means that Qin Miao and Qiu Meng can buy a better house.
Therefore, Qin Miao has no reason to refuse such a task. He just hopes that the next Turkish Grand Prix will have good weather.
When Wednesday arrives, it means that the Turkish Grand Prix is about to begin, so Qin Miao naturally starts to pack up and prepare to leave for Turkey.
The team had already helped Qin Miao book a local hotel in Turkey.
Right next to the Istanbul Circuit, it only takes 10 minutes to walk to the track.
Qin Miao got on the plane on Wednesday morning and landed in the afternoon. After arriving at the hotel, Qin Miao stayed in the hotel and did not go out.
Even when Leclerc asked Qin Miao to go out for dinner, Qin Miao refused.
There are too many test tasks for Qin Miao these days. Although it is not tiring, Qin Miao often enjoys it when running the simulator.
But there are too many. Testing more than ten or twenty in a day is really too much of a mental drain.
Now that he finally had half a day to rest because he needed to go to the track, Qin Miao didn't want to do anything but find a quiet place to stay for a while.
Fortunately, no one disturbed him in the afternoon. Qin Miao stayed in the hotel all day on Wednesday and did not go out.
Thursday is another familiar game day.
After arriving at the paddock, he had breakfast, changed into the team uniform, and started walking on the track with his crew members.
Because they were not familiar with this track, Qin Miao and all the staff on his team observed and tested the track very carefully when they walked on the track.
After the walk, Qin Miao went to attend a sponsor event.
After the sponsor event, we had lunch and rested for half an hour in the afternoon, followed by interviews and video recording of some small events.
Finally, I signed autographs to the audience and VIPs who came to the paddock on Thursday.
After completing the above-mentioned tasks, Qin Miao's day's work is over.
After returning to the hotel, Qin Miao sighed as she rubbed her face that was already sore from smiling.
Although Thursday was as busy as when he was at the team helping to test the car for the new season, he had very little time to rest.
But for some reason, Qin Miao felt that it was easier to run data on the team's simulator than to be watched by countless fans in the paddock and participate in various activities.
It really proves the saying, people will die when comparing with others, and goods will be thrown away when comparing goods.
But anyway, the Turkish Grand Prix weekend has officially begun.
Friday is the day when first and second practice begins.
I came to the paddock as usual, made all the pre-race preparations and then started practice.
In the first practice stage, Qin Miao was mainly familiar with the track. He was not like Hamilton and Verstappen, two drivers who had already raced on this track.
All his knowledge of the track is based on the team's simulator data and the track he walked yesterday, Thursday.
Qin Miao, who was driving on this track for the first time, naturally needed to be more cautious.
Although the track was re-paved with asphalt, when Qin Miao actually took his car to the track, it felt like Hamilton said. The driving feel of this track is not the same as running in the simulator. Too much difference.
However, Qin Miao did not run too aggressively during the first practice period. While helping the team collect data, he gradually tested the limits of his knowledge of this track.
In the end, Qin Miao was only eighth, more than one second slower than Hamilton, who was first.
It was just a practice, and it turned out that this person was Qin Miao. Everyone was accustomed to Qin Miao's poor performance in the practice stage.
Even if one day Qin Miao's performance exceeds his teammates in the practice stage, the audience will be a little surprised.
Second practice.
Because of the data and driving experience collected during the first practice session, Qin Miao dared to push his car to the limit in this lap.
It's just that sometimes being overconfident is not a good thing.
During the qualifying simulation in the second practice, Qin Miao went through the three corners of T3, T4, and T5. Because he didn't grasp one detail well, he was a little too pursuing the limit.
In addition, T4 is a blind left turn with a downhill slope. When Qin Miao cut the corner, the right front wheel came up too much on the shoulder of T4.
The left front wheel of the car bounced directly because the road shoulder was too high, and the grip of the rear wheel was lost on the spot because the balance of the car was destroyed.
Qin Miao immediately became a spinning top on the track.
Because of Qin Miao's mistake, a yellow flag appeared immediately in the first timing period.
Of course, the track in this area is still relatively spacious, and Qin Miao was not fast enough at the moment. After spinning the top for two laps, Qin Miao regained control of his car.
However, the set of soft tires on Qin Miao's racing car was completely useless.
Somewhat frustrated, he drove the car back to the team's P room, and Reyes came over to comfort him immediately.
I still suffered the disadvantage of not being familiar enough with the track.
Apart from this small episode, neither Mercedes driver had any accidents in the rest of the test.
Soon, the second practice ended.
Hamilton ended the second practice with a time of 1:23.804 and once again won the first place in the second practice.
Qin Miao's time gap this time was slightly smaller than that of his teammates, 0.5 seconds slower than Hamilton, ranking fourth.
The two drivers in front of Qin Miao are Verstappen and Leclerc.
After work on Friday, Qin Miao also asked Hamilton for the test data of the opponent's game.
This is the first time Qin Miao has asked Hamilton for data after a race. After all, Qin Miao is familiar with the previous track. He is also confident that he will be thoroughly familiar with the track in the three practice sessions, and believes that he can have a good performance in the main race. of play.
But the Istanbul track is different. Qin Miao had too little preparation for this track before, so he could only shamelessly ask his teammates for off-field assistance.
Hamilton did not refuse Qin Miao's request and readily shared his data from the two practice sessions with Qin Miao.
Hamilton even told Qin Miao that if he didn't understand anything, he could ask him at any time.
Qin Miao naturally thanked him hurriedly.
(End of chapter)
