How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 160 - 109: Ferrari’s Dark Secrets 2

Of course, at this moment, Qin Miao wouldn’t be so tactless as to make such a request to give Lawson a hard time.

After thinking for a while, Qin Miao carefully said, "I actually don’t have a specific idea in my mind, but I trust your insight and judgment, Mr. Lawson. Do you have any teams that you would recommend for me?"

Although all F2 cars have the same performance, different teams have different understandings of racing, and naturally different tuning abilities.

And Qin Miao really doesn’t know much about F2 teams; he’s only familiar with two F2 teams, one of which is UNI-Virtuosi.

After Zhou Guanyu left Renault frustrated from Ferrari, his family invested directly in UNI-Virtuosi to prevent him from being marginalized by any teams, and now Zhou Guanyu is one of the shareholders of this team.

The other team is Prema, where Qin Miao had trained with borrowed cars for some time.

This team actually doesn’t have any interests entangled with Ferrari; it’s just that the two teams have a relatively good relationship.

Moreover, given Qin Miao’s limited understanding of many F2 teams, letting Lawson, who has been in this business for years, help as a consultant is indeed a fitting choice.

Meanwhile, Qin Miao also knows that his strength, which has been forcibly enhanced by the system to nearly ninety points, is an alluring treat in the eyes of those team leaders. Letting Lawson assist in choosing is also, to some extent, giving Lawson a chance to gain some favors.

I believe that Lawson, given such a good opportunity, wouldn’t choose a bad team for him.

Furthermore, by doing so, Lawson might remember some of Qin Miao’s good, and if there is any insider information in the future, Lawson might inform Qin Miao in advance.

Upon hearing Qin Miao’s statement, the smile on Lawson’s face became more pronounced, and his gaze toward Qin Miao, which was already quite gentle, even took on a hint of appreciation.

This kid is sensible! Worth keeping around!

"I think Prema is quite good." Lawson did not evade but pretended to think for a while before saying, "First of all, you have a certain cooperative foundation with Prema Team already; say what you will, both sides have a basic understanding. Secondly, their team has another driver from our Ferrari Driver Academy: Mick Schumacher..."

Lawson didn’t mention that it’s beneficial having drivers from the same Ferrari Driver Academy look after each other in the future.

After all, as the head of youth training, how could he not know the relationships between the drivers under him?

Though Qin Miao wouldn’t say he looks down on others, his reserved nature indeed makes him hard to get along with, so his popularity isn’t very good.

Although Qin Miao doesn’t look down on other drivers, after being ostracized the first time he tried to communicate with them, he never initiated any conversation with any Ferrari Driver Academy drivers again.

And Qin Miao’s attitude made other drivers not very fond of him, until yesterday when Qin Miao utterly dominated a group of drivers with his strength, which improved the situation.

During the celebration banquet, quite a few drivers attempted to talk to Qin Miao, but they were all ignored by him.

This made the relationship even more strained.

So, Lawson chose another method of inserting himself.

He first glanced inconspicuously at the office entrance, then lowered his voice and leaned into Qin Miao’s ear, saying, "The surname Schumacher should not be unfamiliar to you. This name has quite a status internally at Ferrari, and for this, many senior officials have high expectations of Mick’s talent. Therefore, this year, Mick’s second year in F2, there will be engineers assigned to F2 to help him with tuning. By then, you can also look at his settings through your identity..."

There you go, Qin Miao had just done Lawson a big favor, and the other party immediately returned the courtesy. Honestly, who would normally share such insider news, which could be regarded as an internal scandal, with Qin Miao?

However, Qin Miao wasn’t too interested in this because, thanks to the skill card, he could quickly familiarize himself with any car and easily identify the best tuning suited to his driving style and the current track.

He felt slightly dismissive about Mick’s tuning.

But during his training at Prema Team, he got along quite well with a few engineers from the F3 division, so Qin Miao didn’t refuse, nodding and saying, "I trust your choice, Mr. Lawson."

Lawson didn’t say much regarding this unspoken understanding, and upon Qin Miao’s agreement, moved on to another topic. "Alright, with the team issue settled, let’s move on to the contract issue." Lawson said as he stood up and went to his office.

After opening his safe in the office, Lawson took out two documents.

"What contract is this?"

Lawson was puzzled: "Didn’t you look at the contract draft I gave you yesterday?"

"...Did you give me a contract yesterday? ...I remember now... I think I lost it during the celebration." Qin Miao scratched his head.

Lawson: "..."

"Ah, it’s just a sponsorship contract, mostly without any additional terms. Altogether, it’s a sponsorship of fifteen million euros, but after deducting various miscellaneous fees and the costs of next year’s driver academy, there will be a bit more than thirteen million euros left."

Hearing Lawson’s explanation, and doing a simple conversion between RMB and Euro in his mind, it’s about one billion yuan.

The system never gives Qin Miao less money but never gives more. By that time, it must be one billion in assets reaching Qin Miao’s pocket.

But Qin Miao still sharply captured a keyword that caught his interest: driver’s academy costs.

"Do we need to pay tuition at our driver academy?" Qin Miao asked puzzledly.

Lawson wasn’t bothered by Qin Miao’s lack of understanding since Qin Miao didn’t enter the Ferrari Driver Academy through the regular channels; he was signed because Lawson had a momentary brainwave, so it’s quite normal not to understand some internal rules.

He explained, "In the first year, it’s basically free. As long as you have the talent, we’ll let young drivers try it for a year for free. But after a year, no matter how talented you are, you will have to pay for tuition, because daily training, accommodation, and meals all cost money."

Qin Miao understood and had no objections; after all, this money is like a free gift—more or less it’s fine.

"So are there any restrictions in this contract?" There’s no such thing as a free lunch; even if it’s a system reward, the cost might be negligible for Qin Miao right now.

Lawson responded, "There are basically no restrictions for you. This contract doesn’t restrict you from doing anything but requires that the Shell logo be on your helmet for the next seven years."

Qin Miao asked in confusion, "Just this? Isn’t this sponsorship from Ferrari?"

Lawson laughed, "Although the Shell logo will appear on your helmet, we at Ferrari have paid half of the funds. You know our excellent collaboration with Shell has lasted over half a century.

When people see the Shell logo on your helmet, they’ll think of Ferrari.

Of course, the premise of signing this contract is that you re-sign with our Ferrari Driver Academy for one more year, but this request for you is almost no restriction."

"And both Shell and we see this contract as an investment in your future rather than your present."

Qin Miao nodded gently and then looked at the other contract, asking, "What’s this?" 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

"The driver contract with Prema Team, starting after this year’s Halloween until Halloween next year."

Qin Miao was astonished, "Why just one year?"

Logically, a team signing a contract with a talent like Qin Miao should wish to engage him for a long-term period, like a hundred or eighty years, with a hefty breach of contract fee, just waiting to earn when Qin Miao, after getting rich, unilaterally breaks the contract.

But this Prema team didn’t do so; instead, it signed for only one year, which made Qin Miao somewhat puzzled.

Lawson said with some emotion, "This is the treatment for a genius. If you only had talent, but it wasn’t that outstanding, Prema would indeed sign a contract for at least three years as you imagined. But you know, your talent has reached a completely different dimension, and even the greediest people would give a green light to someone of your caliber."