F1: The Making of a Racing God

Chapter 144 Finalized
Even though Marco had lowered his guard by about 60-70%, Shu Long still didn't agree on the spot. Instead, he and Steiner played a game of tug-of-war in front of Marco.

It's not just Red Bull and Marco that's being targeted; Shulong is also targeting Haas and Steiner.

Such a meeting is a very rare opportunity, and Shulong wants to take advantage of the fact that both sides have urgent needs to secure the greatest possible benefit for himself.

The first issue is his subsequent treatment within the Haas team.

The treatment here doesn't refer to salary, but rather the allocation of team resources. Regardless of which driver Shu Long will replace, Haas must ensure that the team's R&D direction can no longer be like Toro Rosso's, saying one thing to your face and another behind your back.

This is certainly not a problem, after all, Steiner made the same guarantee to Ferrari, and this was also one of the core factors that allowed Haas to attract Shulong.

In addition, Haas needs to ensure the competitiveness of its race cars.

The final outcome of the research and development is still unknown, after all, the small team only has so many resources, but Haas at least needs to ensure that the team's operation will not be affected by funding issues.

Otherwise, if Haas's final competitiveness turns out to be nothing but a pile of dung, then Shulong might as well stay with Toro Rosso and find another way out, rather than losing his value in the past.

Steiner said they are already in talks with new sponsors, and although the amount is not very large, it should be enough to tide them over.

Moreover, although Rich Energy's sponsorship was suspected of fraud and defaulted, and Haas's sponsorship fee will not arrive for the time being, since the sponsorship was initially guaranteed by a bank, the subsequent funds will be gradually compensated by the bank.

The money will definitely come, but the transfer speed will be rather slow.

The most basic things were settled first, and there were still a lot of complicated details to be decided. Then Shu Long went back to China for a holiday.

Summer vacation is meant for people to rest.

Although the team's factory only needs to shut down for 14 days, given the current situation within Red Bull, Shu Long really doesn't want to keep trying to win them over.

Normal vehicle R&D testing?
Sure, since these things are all written into the driver's contract terms.

But do I have to work overtime even when I'm on vacation?

Fuck you!

During the holiday, Shu Long didn't want to handle any more commercial activities, except for a commercial activity that was agreed upon in advance with Douyin (TikTok) sponsorship, which was a live broadcast promotion of the F1 19 game with Norris and Leclerc.

Douyin arranged an offline fan meet-and-greet, as well as a long video production that was somewhat similar to a variety show.

Perhaps seeing the positive response to their previous collaboration with the Speed ​​Buddies, Douyin has essentially copied the outline of the content this time.

The content wasn't very interesting, but considering the sponsorship fee, we should still uphold the spirit of the business contract and cooperate.
Then he spent another day attending a fan meet-and-greet, where Shu Long and the host sat face-to-face on stage and talked about topics that fans might be interested in. There was also a segment where audience members were randomly selected to interact and have conversations.

So many things have just happened, and Shulong knows what everyone is interested in without anyone even having to say anything.

Some confirmed whether he would join Mercedes next year, while others were curious about when he would start driving a Red Bull. Finally, one brave soul, under the angry glares of many fans, asked Shu Long if anything had happened between him and Verstappen after the trophy was returned.

Everyone is being very careful not to touch on Shulong's sore spots. Who invited such an idiotic car fan? Couldn't the organizers have sent out a survey to screen people before selling tickets?
Actually, there's nothing difficult to handle. The first two questions can be glossed over by saying "contract confidential, no comment," and for the last one, just tell the truth.

After the German Grand Prix, domestic social media outlets were practically tearing Verstappen apart.

To prevent Max from being pelted with rotten eggs and tomatoes by the stands at next year's Shanghai International Stadium, Shu Long felt it was necessary to take this opportunity to help his friend salvage his reputation in the public eye, since Verstappen hadn't done anything wrong from beginning to end.

After the event, he signed autographs for each of the car enthusiasts present and also received many carefully prepared gifts from them. Shu Long then turned around and picked up Gan Mengning to go home.

The last time I went home, my grandfather kept urging me to settle things with my girlfriend as soon as possible. I didn't stay long before he kicked me out of the house.

This time, he brought his girlfriend home, and the old man was visibly happy, but not long after, he kicked Shulong out.

The reason is that it's rare for Shu Long to have a holiday and go home, and it just so happens that Gan Mengning is on summer vacation from university. What kind of talk is it for two young people to stay here with him?

There was no other way, so Shu Long had to rebook plane tickets and prepare to take Gan Mengning back to their villa in the Luhu Forest Resort in the United States.

Before that, Shu Long first confessed to his parents his current situation within Red Bull and told them where he would actually be going next season.

This news was like a bolt from the blue, completely different from the initial online rumors they had heard that their son was either going to Mercedes-Benz Arena or Red Bull.

But there's no way to stay silent now. Before the summer break ends, Shu Long will definitely have to reach an agreement with Haas on the basic contract amount, which will ultimately have to go through his family's agency.

Shu Xiong immediately lost his temper, but under his wife's warning look, he quickly shifted his focus to comforting his son.

There's nothing we can do. Things aren't like they were when we were kids playing go-karts. With the little resources we have at home, there's almost nothing we can do to help our son in the paddock.

So when the couple heard that Alonso had helped them connect with Ferrari and Mercedes in the process, they couldn't help but marvel at how lucky they were to have met such a benefactor in the paddock.

"It's alright, son. You're still very young. You've already achieved something that we're all proud of."

"Exactly, Haas's cars have a high ceiling, and they'll prove Red Bull wrong with their performance later!"

Then Shu Xiong was glared at by his wife again. Zhang Xin just hoped that her son wouldn't put so much pressure on her while he was in the hunting grounds.

After all, racing is an extremely dangerous sport. Every time Shu Long got into a race car, his mother Zhang Xin was always on edge, fearing that one day the race car would crash into a wall and be smashed to pieces, and the person sitting in it would be her own son.

Whether you achieve good results or not isn't that important; it's already a great thing if you can get off the race car safely.

Shu Xiong's way of expressing his love was a bit more straightforward. He said that when he went to finalize the contract with Has after his vacation, he would also help Shu Long get the new car he had been talking about for a long time.

If his father hadn't brought it up, Shu Long would have almost forgotten about it.

Because he is always traveling all over the world for competitions, and he usually travels in the paddock in the team's cars, Shu Long himself doesn't have many opportunities to drive himself when he is abroad.

I was thinking of just giving up, since my dad has a lot of good stuff in his garage anyway, and I can just indulge myself every now and then when I go home for vacation.

However, Shu Xiong was very firm in his stance on this matter, saying that it was too undignified for an F1 driver to go out on foot or by taxi, and that this money had to be spent.

Okay.

Before leaving, Shu Long originally wanted to take Gan Mengning to the Haigeng Circuit to reminisce about the past, the first time he became involved with racing was in a race with Gan Mengning here.

Unfortunately, after Shu Long became famous, news spread that his family also ran a small go-kart track. A large part of the credit goes to Teng Weifeng for creating a biographical series about Shu Long, which included some of his experiences as classmates with Shu Long.

Yu Mujie, Shen Qian, and Chen Tingya all appeared in the video, and the group vividly portrayed Shu Long's childhood image.

This video is very popular, and it is said that Shu Long honed his superb driving skills on this track at home since he was a child. Now many car enthusiasts come here to admire him, calling it a "pilgrimage to the holy site".

If they were just ordinary tourists, it wouldn't be a problem, but this little racetrack is packed with Shulong fans every day. Not to mention that they brought Gan Mengning along, they'd probably be recognized in no time and the news would spread all over the internet.

Back at Midea Luhu Lake, I spent a few days with my girlfriend, and in my spare time, I bought two simulator devices for our home.

Besides staying up all night to help those on the other side of Earth complete their live-streaming tasks, Gan Mengning also wanted to experience Shulong's life from more perspectives. The two of them usually don't see each other often, so cultivating shared interests would make Gan Mengning feel that the distance between them wasn't so vast.

If it weren't for Shu Long's comeback and subsequent confession, she wouldn't even know what kind of pressure Shu Long, who seemed so successful outside, had been under all along as he navigated the challenges.

Every time, she felt both heartache and a burning desire to make up for what was rightfully hers with this big boy, but each time, it wouldn't be long before she was the one sweating profusely and it was Shu Long's turn to feel sorry for her.

I can't take it, I really can't take it!
She now roughly understands the kind of pressure Shu Long is under.
Summer break is over, but Gan Mengning's summer vacation is not over yet, so she decided to accompany Shu Long to finish the Belgian Grand Prix before school starts.

The Toro Rosso factory officially started operations around mid-August, but Shu Long did not arrive at the team in advance as he had before the start of the season. Instead, he took his family to the Red Bull youth training base in Austria a week later to find Marko.

Steiner also brought Haas's legal team here to make preparations.

The term "loan" implies that Shu Long remains a driver under the Red Bull system, and his salary and commercial obligations are still tied to Red Bull.

The base salary is $1.5 million, an increase of $300,000 compared to this year's base salary.

It's a bit low.

Based on Shu Long's performance this year, his base salary was originally planned by Marco to be at least between two and three million.

This is just the situation while he's still in Toro Rosso. If he can be promoted to Red Bull, Marco wouldn't mind raising Shulong's annual salary to eight million or even ten million in the first year.

They should at least keep their salary at a similar level to Verstappen's, but it might be two or three million less due to the ongoing youth training commitments.

However, because he was loaned out, Red Bull couldn't extract much commercial benefit from Shulong, and might even be affected by public opinion. Marco was already doing his best to get 1.5 million.

However, Alonso and Marko also secured some compensation for Shu Long. For every point Shu Long earns next season, he will receive a bonus of $25,000 from both Red Bull and Haas.

This is one of the few costs Haas has to pay to rent Shulong from Red Bull.

Another condition is that Shulong's helmet design for next year must feature a distinct Red Bull motif.

These conditions are actually quite good. Judging from the results of this season, Shulong has already earned 114 points in just twelve Grand Prix races.

This year alone, the points and prize money he received from Red Bull in the first half of the year were more than double his base salary. And there are still nine Grand Prix tournaments to come. At this rate, Shu Long conservatively estimates that he can earn more than four million US dollars in prize money this year.

Based on this premise, the price Haas would have to pay to rent Shulong would not be small.

But for Haas, this condition isn't a bad deal; it's a very good one.

Because in their plan, Shu Long will replace Grosjean, a driver whose current points are less than half of his teammates', and who has an extremely high vehicle damage rate while earning an annual salary of more than $500 million.

The current explanation is that they will wait until the end of the season to see how the two drivers perform before making an evaluation. However, Magnussen not only has an annual salary of $1.2 million, but he also has the sponsorship of JACK & JONES. Haas has no reason to abandon such a cost-effective driver.

Furthermore, Haas is unsure about the competitiveness of his current Schrödinger's car, and it remains to be seen how many points Shulong can score in it.

If they get fewer points, then they need to pay less in bonuses.

The more points you get, the better!

Once Haas's ranking improves, sponsorships will be much better than they are now, and paying a driver's bonus will be a piece of cake.

The key to this is the extremely low damage rate of the Shulong, which alone can save Haas a lot of money.

What is Haas's biggest problem right now?
Having neither money nor achievements, without money means lack of competitiveness, without competitiveness means no achievements, and without achievements means it's even less likely that you'll have money.

It can be said that we are completely trapped in a vicious cycle.

But if they could get their hands on Shu Long, a driver who has already shown extraordinary potential, they could instantly solve every link in this vicious cycle.

Even if they can't, if Shulong can break through any one of these barriers, the Haas team will have a turning point.

Now that we've covered the basics, dealing with the less-than-perfect details will be much faster.

Of course, there is another prerequisite for this contract to take effect: Red Bull must be sure that it will not promote Shu Long to a higher position. Otherwise, there would be no need for Shu Long to challenge himself at Haas, right?
After staying in Austria for a few more days, Shu Long took advantage of the fact that the Toro Rosso team hadn't yet urged him to go back to work, and accompanied his family to climb the Alps.

The main reason is that Gan Mengning thinks she particularly likes a movie released in 15 called "Heidi and Grandpa".

The movie is a good movie. If I had to describe it in one word, I think it would be "pure".

Apart from the mischievous shepherd Peter, who was a bit infuriating, everyone else made Shu Long feel a pure and genuine relationship between people, completely different from what he experienced in the paddock. After watching, Shu Long felt his restless heart calm down considerably.

The film was shot in the Alps. After watching it again in bed late at night, Gan Mengning and Shu Long decided that they both wanted to come and experience the picturesque landscape in the movie for themselves.

Then, seeing that it was almost time, Shu Long returned to Italy on the other side of the Alps to test the team's upgrades during the summer break.

Shu Long had originally thought that the first person he would meet would be the hardworking and devoted Alben, but who would have thought that the first person to knock on his door after he had just put down his luggage would be Gasley.

"Huh? What's going on? You've come to Italy for vacation too?"

"Just pretend, are you free tonight? It's been a long time since we've gotten together for a meal. How about I treat you tonight?"

After saying that, Gasly peeked into the room again and saw Gan Mengning hiding in the inner hall, secretly looking out. He immediately gave Shu Long a knowing look and raised his eyebrows.

"Of course, you can bring your girlfriend if you want; my girlfriend will be coming tonight too."

"That's fine."

While having dinner with her boyfriend and other F1 drivers, Gan Mengning immediately recalled the gorgeously dressed beauties in the paddock and began to worry about what to wear that night.

But who could have imagined this would happen before she arrived? All the clothes she brought were casual everyday styles.

"Oh, what's there to worry about? We're all friends, so just wear whatever you want. Anyway, I'll wear this T-shirt this afternoon."

"That won't do! You should at least take better care of yourself!"

Little Housekeeper
Shu Long arrived as promised that evening, and like Gasley, the two men were dressed in casual clothes.

Gan Mengning rummaged through her belongings and put together an outfit that didn't look too casual, but the moment they met, she was overwhelmed by the very formal attire of Gasley's supermodel girlfriend.

I was planning to put on some lipstick before going out to boost my confidence, but Shulong said it looked too strange for a child to wear lipstick, so he didn't let me.
How abominable!
After exchanging a few pleasantries upon taking their seats, and just as the main course was being served, Gasley hesitated for a moment before slowly speaking.

"So, Dragon, should I congratulate you in advance?"

"what?!"

(End of this chapter)