All-round Athlete

Chapter 727 Driver Championship and Team Championship

"The biggest miracle in the history of racing was born! ——In the Italian Grand Prix of the World Formula One Championship that ended yesterday, Zhang Guan of China Power Racing Team won his tenth race championship this season, and ranked first with 113 The driver points table is guarded, and he has surpassed the second-placed Barrichello by 49 points. Given that there are still four races left in this year's Formula One race, Zhang Guan has already locked the championship of this season in advance. We have witnessed the racing with our own eyes The birth of the greatest miracle in the world, a racing driver who participated in Formula One for the first time, to be precise, a person who participated in motorsports for the first time, won the annual championship of Formula One, which is truly unprecedented. , I believe that only Zhang Guan, a 'senior miracle worker', can do it!" Zhang Guan's photo appeared on the front page of the New York Times again.

"The International Automobile Federation congratulated Zhang Guan for winning the championship four races ahead of schedule, and decided to hold a championship award ceremony for Zhang Guan after the Japanese race. F1 President Bernie also said in an interview with reporters that he was very grateful to Zhang Guan Guan’s contribution to the worldwide promotion of Formula One racing, and he even called Zhang Guan a racing genius rarely seen in a millennium.” "Racing" magazine.

"Zhang Guan reached the top of the F1 world championship. He became the first Chinese athlete to win the championship in the world's top racing events. From doubts at the beginning of the year, to one after another race championship, and then to lock the world championship four races ahead of schedule , Zhang Guan’s journey along the way is not ordinary, let’s go back and review Zhang Guan’s mental journey..." This is an official newspaper in China, followed by a page of introduction and a page of praise.

It is not a rare thing in Formula One to lock the championship four races ahead of time, but for a driver who participated in Formula One for the first year, all this is too amazing. There has never been a racing driver in history who can win the annual championship in the first season of participating in F1. Before that, the best result of a driver participating in F1 in the first year was Hamilton's annual runner-up.

Hamilton's career started at McLaren, and there are very few people like Hamilton who started their F1 career in a big team. What a big team needs is a mature and competitive racing history. Newcomers are often in Small teams started their racing careers, even if they showed extraordinary talent, but lacked a competitive car, they would not have a chance to win the championship. Even Schumacher started his F1 career with the Jordan team. After showing his talent, he was poached by the Benetton team and started his championship career.

From a certain point of view, Zhang Guan is also very lucky. If it is not for the economic crisis, he would not have the opportunity to buy a team; if it is not for Ross Brawn, Zhang Guan would not have a fast enough car. Without a fast enough car, even if Zhang Guan is a combination of Senna and Schumacher, it is impossible to win the annual championship.

...

Bernie, the head of F1, seemed to be in good spirits. Zhang Guan had secured the annual championship in advance, which was undoubtedly a booster for Bernie. Over the years, Bernie has been committed to the promotion of F1. He hopes to promote F1 to the whole world. However, the economic crisis last year gave him a blow. Even a large manufacturer team like Honda decided not to play. F1 even has ten teams. The team was almost out of order.

Fortunately, Zhang Guan appeared, and behind Zhang Guan represented a large market with a population of more than one billion. Even if only one percent of the people could be attracted to watch the Formula One game, there would be millions of people. It is on top of many countries in Europe.

Now that Zhang Guan won the championship ahead of schedule, it means that he can attract tens of millions of spectators to F1. Bernie even thinks that next year's F1 communication and advertising expenses can be greatly increased.

Think back to the beginning of the year, when Bernie took the initiative to issue the super driver's license to Zhang Guan, how many people attacked him at that time, the media, commentators, and retired racing drivers all accused him of turning the noble F1 into a car full of copper stink the match of. But now, the person who they said was qualified as a driver by spending money through the back door has become the world champion four races ahead of schedule.

"A few months ago, everyone was talking about Zhang Guan going through the back door. Let's talk about it now if you have the ability! If you can win the world championship through the back door, I'd like to open the back door again!" Bernie looked at the praise of Zhang Guan in the media, quite a bit A feeling of elation.

"Next year's economic situation should be much better, and the Formula One competition should also expand. Maybe now is a good time to 'create a god'." Bernie thought of this, picked up the phone, and dialed a number.

...

"God-making" is essential for any movement to be promoted. For example, David Stern created a Michael Jordan, which made the NBA popular all over the world. Later superstars such as Kobe, James, Durant, Curry, etc., also became ""creatures"" created in the promotion of the NBA. god". People pay attention to the NBA. At the beginning, they pay attention to the stars, then they turn to the teams where the stars are, and then they pay attention to the entire NBA. Many people can't even name the 30 NBA teams, but they definitely know which big-name players are there. And as long as the NBA can continue to create superstars one after another, it will never decline.

The same is true of football. Pele and Maradona were the kings of the last century, Ronaldo and Beckham at the turn of the century, and then Ronaldo and Messi. Superstars passed the banner of "God" alternately, Drive people to pay attention to this sport.

After all, football and basketball are the most widely watched sports in the world, and for some slightly smaller sports, making gods is even more important. Federer has made many people obsessed with tennis, and O’Sullivan has made many people start to pay attention to billiards, blogging, etc. Before Walter appeared, perhaps many people had never even watched the 100-meter sprint. If there were no Liu Fei people, there must be many people in China who did not know about the 110-meter hurdles.

F1 races have created gods many times. The car body Senna was once the focus of countless media attention, but unfortunately died young; and more people realized the fun of F1 races only through Schumacher. Since Schumacher retired, it is an indisputable fact that the attention of F1 has been greatly reduced, so Bernie needs a new god to attract more attention and better promote F1.

Bernie originally chose defending champion Hamilton. He hoped to turn Hamilton into another Schumacher, but Hamilton did not live up to expectations. Many people, including drivers, questioned Hamilton's character. People with character problems are obviously not suitable. was used to create gods.

Zhang Guan was born, and Bernie obviously found another excellent target. In comparison, Zhang Guan has a higher reputation and a better image, and the story of his winning the championship is even more magical. It is obviously more beneficial for the promotion of F1 to make Zhang Guan a "new god".

Under the impetus of Bernie, in the next few days, Zhang Guan's name continued to appear in major European media.

...

At the same time that Zhang Guan won the annual championship, China Power Racing Team has already secured the annual team championship in advance.

The annual championship of Formula One has always been monopolized by big teams. Even if it is not a factory team like Ferrari, it is a team that has been in F1 for many years. It may take a year or two for a new team to reach the podium. It will take several years or even more than ten years of accumulation to have the opportunity to get involved in the annual team championship.

China Power's victory undoubtedly created another miracle. A new team won the team championship in the first year of entering Formula One, which is unique in the history of F1.

Last year's Honda team was a weak chicken in F1. Both Honda and Force India had no points, and Honda was even worse than Force India, because Force India still participated in the 2009 season, and Honda could not continue to play. .

No one could have expected that the weakest team in F1 last year became the strongest team in one fell swoop after being acquired by Zhang Guan and changing its name. Laugh at Honda's decision to let go of a laying hen.

And some people began to analyze out of boredom, what happened during the period when the weak Honda team became the strongest Chinese power. When Zhang Guan acquired the Honda team, he left behind the original team from the European headquarters. Designers, engineers and technicians have not changed. The only thing that has changed is that the driver has changed from Button to Zhang Guan. But looking at Barrichello's world No. 2 result, we can know that even if there is no change of driver, China Power will still become the top team.

However, the China Force team uses Mercedes-Benz engines. Prior to this, the Honda team was a factory team, and they used Honda's own racing engine. The same set of people became stronger after changing the engine, so after some analysts analyzed it, they believed that the Honda engine was much worse than the Mercedes-Benz engine.

The engine is the heart of a car. If a car manufacturer can't make a good engine, it can never expect to make a good car, so this has also aroused consumers' doubts about Honda cars.

Honda once again took the blame. In fact, the engines of F1 racing cars and the engines of ordinary civilian cars can be said to be two completely different things. Compared with ordinary civilian cars, F1 racing cars are too high to be reached. This is like comparing fried potato shreds with Buddha Tiaoqiang. A cook can't make Buddha Tiaoqiang, but he can definitely make potato shreds. Let a chef who is a good cook of Buddha Tiaoqiang do fried potato shreds. It may not be better than takeaway fried potatoes. better.

In fact, manufacturers at the level of F1 are not very surprised at the level of manufacturing. For high-tech things, the more they reach the top of the pyramid, the harder it is to widen the gap. The so-called leaders, sometimes Just one step ahead of you. One step and you catch up to him, two steps and you overtake him.

...

On the plane to Singapore, Ross Brown looked very happy holding a report in his hand.

"What are you laughing at?" Zhang Guan asked.

"Zhang, you know what, we made money!" Ross Brown said.

"Make money? I don't quite understand." Zhang Guan asked in confusion.

"We won the constructors' championship this year, so there will be an extra bonus." Ross Brown said.

"Bonus? Who gave it?" Zhang Guan then asked.

"It is the salary for running Formula One. It seems that you don't know it yet. The teams participating in F1 will get some bonuses every year. Of course, the higher the ranking, the higher the bonus. In addition, the big teams have some other bonuses. share," Ross Brown explained.

"How much can we have? How much can we earn?" Zhang Guan is still more concerned about the specific figures.

"I did the math, and I should be able to get at least 60 million pounds." Ross Brown said, pointing to the paper in his hand.

"60 million pounds? That's a lot! It's more than the operating expenses of some small teams." Zhang Guan said.

"Formula 1 has more than one billion dollars in revenue every year. Bernie, as the president, can also get tens of millions of dollars every year. Part of the revenue will be rewarded to the team as bonuses. For many For small teams, this bonus is actually the main source of their income, which can almost offset their operating expenses, and if the results are better, they may even make money." Ross Brown thought for a while, and then said : "For example, the Honda team's bonus last year was 20 million pounds. The money originally belonged to us, but that cheapskate Bernie said that because the Honda team changed ownership, he could not enjoy the 20 million pounds."

"I remember that the Honda team was the bottom one last year, right? The bottom one can get 20 million? The F1 operating company is really generous." Zhang Guan sighed. To be honest, he was taken aback by this number. Because in Zhang Guan's cognition, the top few have always been rich, and he has never heard of any sport that is the bottom one and can get huge prize money.

"The Honda team is a factory team, so as long as they race, there will be a fixed factory team bonus." Ross - Brawn explained.

"Then we should win the most, right? Although we are not a factory team, we are number one." Zhang Guan continued to ask.

"I'm sorry, we don't get the most, Ferrari has the most bonuses, and McLaren may have more bonuses than us." Ross Brown continued.

"Because they are factory teams?" Zhang Guan asked.

"It's not just because of the factory teams. As the old teams in F1, they can enjoy the share of F1's revenue. I remember that Ferrari can get 5% of F1's annual revenue, and McLaren is less than Ferrari. Coupled with the team ranking bonus, Ferrari will always earn more than hundreds of millions of dollars from F1 every year. In addition, like Williams, although it is not a factory team, but because it is a senior team, they will also Enjoy additional revenue sharing, this part of the money can be obtained as long as they participate in the game." Ross Brown said.

Zhang Guan nodded with a sudden realization. The commercialization of the sports industry that is talked about every day in China is nothing compared to F1. F1 is real and everyone has meat to eat, while in China it is more like a fake sponsor. How many billions a naming right sells, how many billions a broadcasting right sells, are all astronomical figures, but in the end it is not known who pockets such a large sum of money, anyway, when it comes to hiring a coach, the astronomical figures are all gone It disappeared without a trace, and the club only heard of such a number but could not see the real money.