How Did I Become an F1 Driver?

Just like the netizens said, there has never been a situation in F2 history where two Chinese drivers competed on the same track. Whatever these two do on the field is breaking records in Chinese racing history.

Sunday, Sprint Race.

Qin Miao maintained his usual style, running the entire race on a new set of soft tires. In just five laps, Qin Miao surged from eighth to first place and began a 21-lap lead.

It is said that Toto couldn't stop smiling after seeing Qin Miao's performance on the track today.

For this rising sun in F2, Toto has high hopes.

At Qin Miao's age, combined with the dominance he's shown in the F2 arena, he's no longer just a rising star; instead, the term "sun" describes him more aptly.

Qin Miao completed his race as steadily as ever, not only with incredible speed but also showing remarkable consistency.

After bringing back the P1, Qin Miao's total score is now 240 points.

Zhou Guanyu, on the other hand, didn't score in this sprint race. The unlucky guy had a piece of his front wing damaged during overtaking, and after a pit stop to replace it, he dropped out of the points zone.

After this race, the next F2 race will be the Belgian Grand Prix in two weeks.

Of course, in this special period, Qin Miao definitely couldn't rest properly.

After the race, Qin Miao routinely handed his two championship trophies to Ferrari to be replicated.

Although Qin Miao was already feeling, "A great man is born between heaven and earth; how can he remain under others for long?"

However, since he hasn't officially terminated his contract with Ferrari and his contract with Mercedes is still under negotiation,

everything remains the same for now, except Qin Miao no longer visits Ferrari's P room after F2 sprint races.

During this break, Qin Miao returned to the UK and started advancing the negotiations with Mercedes.

Thanks to his excellent performance in Spain last week, the negotiating specialist invited by Qimeng even gained more initiative during the negotiations.

Finally, on August 20th, Qin Miao formally completed negotiations with Mercedes.

Once this mutually satisfactory contract was finalized, neither side immediately signed the official contract; instead, they just signed an intention contract.

After all, Qin Miao still had a contract with Ferrari, and according to the intention contract, Mercedes had to negotiate Qin Miao's contract matters with Ferrari during this period.

It wasn't too complicated; talking things over with Ferrari would hopefully lead to an amicable separation, with both parties signing off the contract and nullifying it.

If not, then the penalty would be paid according to the contract terms, avoiding the lengthy tug-of-war that characterized the finalization of Qin Miao's previous contract.

August 25th.

Mercedes' negotiation team went to Maranello to discuss the contract with Ferrari.

This process was managed by Ferrari's sporting director, Mekis, and Ferrari's team principal Binotto did not attend.

However, Ferrari had no intention of parting amicably with Qin Miao, so it ended with Qin Miao unilaterally breaking the contract. Under court certification, Mercedes advanced the 4.7 million Euro compensation for Qin Miao's driver contract.

Honestly, Qin Miao was a bit taken aback by the penalty amount; after all, his yearly contract salary was just over one million Euros, and paying this penalty meant he'd effectively work for free for five years.

But fortunately, while Mercedes lacks many things, money isn't one of them. The 4.7 million Euros wasn't a major issue for them, and if Qin Miao could indeed make them pay it all, they'd be more pleased than troubled.

After resolving matters in Maranello, in the UK, having received the news, Qin Miao formally signed a three-year official driver contract with the Mercedes team.

It officially takes effect from the first day of 2021 and lasts until the end of 2023.

Qin Miao's second contract has a buyout clause as high as 200 million US Dollars.

To be honest, this number was beyond Qin Miao's comprehension. It was too much, exceeding his concept.

However, Qin Miao believed that in the short term, he wouldn't be looking to change teams, so he could accept a slightly higher buyout clause.

Simultaneously, Qin Miao's annual income would be 600,000 US Dollars.

Even though this is at least half of what he had at Ferrari, Qin Miao's contract has incentive bonuses.

Qin Miao can earn 10,000 US Dollars per race (for every race), which amounts to 240,000 US Dollars for the 24 Grand Prix races in a season. So, Qin Miao's total basic salary is actually 840,000 US Dollars.

There'll also be additional bonuses for podium finishes: 150,000 US Dollars for third place, 300,000 for second, and 600,000 for first, not counting points.

If Qin Miao's performance in the 2021 season is good enough, his salary could keep up with a fraction of what his future teammate Hamilton earns.

Of course, this contract is not only Qin Miao's contract joining Mercedes but also his contract joining Williams.

This shows that while Mercedes has a lot of money, they're not foolish.

The contract also has additional terms for Qin Miao, which were already mentioned before: to not participate in other media activities aside from those mandated by the FIA.

The day after the contract was signed, news of Qin Miao being poached by Mercedes spread quickly.

Obviously, this news was leaked by Ferrari.

Since Ferrari and Mercedes are competitors in the paddock, they aren't obligated to keep secrets for the opponent; publicizing such news is normal.

You can't blame Ferrari for being ruthless. Just after letting go of their driver, they started broadcasting his news in the paddock.

Everyone knows Qin Miao's talent; as long as he can adapt to the intensity of F1 racing, he's someone who'll frequently appear on the podium in the future.

From a competitor's perspective, Ferrari needs to influence Qin Miao's state and create less favorable public opinion for Qin Miao and Mercedes within the paddock.

That's why as soon as Qin Miao signed with Mercedes, rumors spread around the paddock.

A well-known columnist in the paddock wrote a piece titled: "What does Mercedes splashing out a fortune to poach F2 super talent Qin Miao from Ferrari mean?"

If previously Qin Miao, even with his overwhelming presence in F2, was just bouncing around in a small circle, and the number of people paying attention to him was limited, then compared to F1's massive fan base, it really wasn't much.

Even if there were rumors in the paddock about Qin Miao having joined Ferrari and possibly becoming an official driver for Ferrari's F1 team next season,

in the absence of Ferrari's verification of this information's authenticity, its hype quickly faded. Even if some were interested, the lack of new disclosures over time made them gradually forget about it.

Naturally, no one would go out of their way to watch F2 races to find out about Qin Miao's level of skill.

But now things are different. With people fanning the flames, the paddock is buzzing with news of Qin Miao joining Mercedes, and it's being spread quite convincingly, mainly since Ferrari has people standing up to verify the truth of this matter.

What exactly is Mercedes' status in the paddock now? To put it simply, if the current F1 follows a winner-takes-all model, then there's no need for the remaining season's races; they might as well hand the championship directly to Mercedes.

The key point is Bottas' recent performance hasn't declined, and Bottas' contract has another year, plus there's another driver Toto has been nurturing for a long time: George Russell.

This guy, although his performance in F2 wasn't as extraordinary as Qin Miao's, is a real F2 world champion, and his performance in Williams has been impressive enough.

Bottas is still capable, and the younger generation includes Russell.

With these two present, many can't understand why Mercedes would seek out a relatively unknown driver like Qin Miao.

ps. Sorry, I forgot to set the timer…