Zhang Yifei rarely asked for a conversation in such a more formal way, so Prost nodded and replied.

"Let's go to the office and talk about it."

Seeing Zhang Yifei and Prost walking towards the office, Ah Hu curiously asked Chen Zhi beside him at this time, "Brother Zhi, does Brother Fei have anything to do with the boss?" ”

"I don't know."

Chen Zhi shook his head, the idea of controlling the Prost team, except for Zhang Yifei, only Junko Takeda and Kossell knew. Ah Hu, Chen Zhi, Yamamoto Youjing, these people from the original team, Zhang Yifei didn't tell them.

After all, it doesn't make any sense to tell them this kind of thing before it's done, and there are a lot of people, so if you say it, it may cause some bad effects.

"By the way, do you think it will have anything to do with Fei Ge's return to China?"

Ah Hu is just more upright, not too stupid, he quickly thought that Zhang Yifei had returned to China for almost half a month, and it might have something to do with this.

"Don't guess, something will definitely tell us when you fly, take care of the car. Now that there are no spare cars, you can't be careless with these two cars for the whole season. ”

"Oh."

Hearing Chen Zhi's question, Ah Hu also put away the curiosity in his heart and concentrated on post-game maintenance.

With Zhang Yifei crashing the No. 13 official car at the Brazilian Grand Prix, there are currently only these two race cars left in the Prost team. If anything goes wrong with these two cars, a visual inspection will have to bring in a prototype car from the R&D center.

However, there are many uncertainties in the prototype, and the stability is much worse than that of the official racing car, so the technical team is now under a lot of pressure to overhaul the two cars, and it is necessary to ensure that the two cars do not have any problems.

In the team's office, Prost stretched out his hand to the chair, and even Zhang Yifei sat down.

"Fly, there's something you can say."

Zhang Yifei was not polite at this time, in order to solicit sponsorship, he had been running for days and days, which caused him to recover from his injury very slowly, and his right leg was still swollen.

Especially when standing, the blood rushes towards the legs, and I feel an unbearable swelling and pain.

"BOSS, when I was in China before, I learned that you issued a team statement that you intend to purchase new engines and sell the shares of Prost Racing next season, right?"

"Yes, you did announce these things when you weren't there, what good advice do you have?"

Prost didn't realise at all that what Zhang wanted to do was buy a stake in the team, because under normal circumstances, very few active drivers would do anything to buy a stake in the team.

On the one hand, they don't have the money, and on the other hand, even if they do, the current drivers don't have the ability and energy to run an F1 team.

So theoretically, if an active driver wants to buy an F1 team, it's just a matter of having enough to eat, and it doesn't make much sense at all.

Of course, this is all based on the premise of their own operation, in fact, it can also be changed to another way, such as joint holding or spelling father. The drivers are still focused on their jobs, leaving the operation to their partners, or letting their dad buy the team altogether!

There is a very famous "second generation official" in the F1 paddock, that is, the future Red Bull driver Max Verstappen. Now his dad Jos Verstappen is in the Toyota team and has become Zhang Yifei's opponent.

But in addition to the "official second generation", there is also a famous "rich second generation" in F1, together with Verstappen, known as the F1 second generation duo, his name is Lance Stroll.

The guy's father is called Lawrence Stroll, a famous fashion tycoon with a net worth of at least $2.5 billion. Real estate can be said to be all over the world, as well as private yachts and airplanes, and even for his son's hobby, he has established a private track in Canada.

F1 has always had a tradition of sponsoring drivers, but under normal circumstances, well-known teams will not consider sponsoring drivers, because except for special cases, the strength of sponsored drivers is generally weak and cannot run well.

More often than not, some small teams with financial difficulties will sell their second driver's seat in exchange for money.

However, Lawrence Stroll has proved with his own strength that there is only one reason why sponsored drivers can't enter well-known teams, and that is that they don't spend enough money!

With a sponsorship fee of no less than $35 million, he smashed his son into the Williams team with money. Although the Williams team of later generations no longer has the status of the Big Three, the camel that is so thin that it is bigger than the horse and has a glorious history and heritage.

As a result, in front of the rich, it is still so vulnerable!

Later, it may be that he was dissatisfied with the sponsorship to buy a seat, and Lance Stroll's strength was a little insufficient, and he could not convince the crowd and gain a firm foothold in the Williams team.

So Laurence Stroll pulled a consortium and simply bought the Force India team in 2018 and renamed it Racepoint Racing Team, so that his son can drive F1 cars easily and happily in the future, and no longer have to worry about any seats.

The world of rich people is so unpretentious and boring many times, there is no such thing as challenging, and being rich means that you can do whatever you want......

"I didn't think about the suggestion, but I set up an investment company that intends to buy shares in Prost Fleet, and I don't know how many shares you sell and what the offer is."

When Zhang Yifei said this, Prost looked at him in surprise, and he didn't expect that what Zhang Yifei wanted to talk about was actually to buy the shares of Prost Racing Team.

"Fei, you're not kidding me, are you?"

Prost still didn't believe that all this was true, and Fei was probably too young to buy an F1 team, thinking that he was playing a game of family.

"No kidding, I'm back in China this time, and I've already contacted the acquisition capital, boss, you can quote a price."

Zhang Yifei has no nonsense, he still has a simple and rough style, and he is familiar with Prost, so there is no need to make so many twists and turns.

More importantly, Zhang Yifei has historical experience and knows the real hole card of the Prost team, but the other party doesn't know what Zhang Yifei thinks. Even before the negotiations began, they were already in an unequal situation.

Hearing Zhang Yifei's reconfirmation, the expression on Prost's face became serious.

This is no joke and will determine the fate of the Prost team.

"Fei, if you're serious, then I'll negotiate with you as a business object, not a driver under Prost."

"No problem, in business."

Zhang Yifei nodded, he himself was very formal and wanted to buy the shares of Prost Racing Team, not to mess with the other party here.

Prost also sat up straight at this time, looked directly at Zhang Yifei's eyes and said: "According to my plan, I will sell 40% of the current shares of the team, and the tentative price is 70 million US dollars." At that time, we will negotiate with several interested parties and finally select a collaborator to become a shareholder. ”

At present, the shortfall in the research and development of the Prost team's racing car is about 20 million US dollars, and the follow-up competition fee is 10 million US dollars. And the purchase of new event engines, such as the strongest Mercedes-Benz and BMW, the starting price is around $30 million.

This means that even if you don't count next year's fleet budget expenditure, Prost Racing's funding gap is more than $60 million.

Of course, at the end of the season, the team will have dividends from the F1 operating company, as well as sponsors' fees. If one or two big sponsors can be brought in, the revenue could be close to $100 million, and the actual funding gap is not so exaggerated.

But the premise is that the Prost team can run well and move forward.

If the team's performance continues to fall, and the influence and exposure decrease, the dividends of the F1 race will be much less. In addition, not to mention other big sponsors joining, even the existing sponsors may have to withdraw their funds, so it is really a mountain of progress.

Therefore, Prost must ensure sufficient funds to maintain the competitiveness of the team, and the current situation and reputation of the team are much better than the historical situation, so he has the confidence to offer 70 million US dollars.

When he heard this number, Zhang Yifei's brows furrowed, and forty percent of Prost's shares were sold for $30 million in history. Later, when it came time to go out of business, the Dinitz family planned to buy the team for $1 and take on the debts of the Prost team.

However, this request was rejected by Prost, which led to the divestment of the Dynitz family, which became the last straw that broke the strength of Prost's team.

Zhang Yifei had imagined that the situation of the Prost team in this world would improve, so he was not satisfied with 30 million US dollars, but prepared 50 million US dollars, thinking that it would be enough.

But now Prost has raised the price to $70 million, which is a bit of a lion's mouth.

"BOSS, I also know a little about the current situation of the team, and it is impossible to have a buyer for the price of 70 million US dollars."

"Really? At present, the Saudi prince, South Korea's Daewoo Group and Russia's Telecom Group are negotiating, and they are very interested in cooperating. ”

Prost had a confident smile on his face, in fact, the Saudi prince did contact these investors, but they gave a very low hold, and even paid 10 million US dollars.

Of course, it is impossible for Prost to tell Zhang Yifei about these offers, and he said it out as an investor, just to put pressure on Zhang Yifei and tell him that the shares of Prost Racing Team are now in high demand.

As a result, what Prost didn't expect, Zhang Yifei didn't eat him at all, and he also had a confident smile on his face.

"BOSS, if they make a satisfactory offer, I guess you have already sold your shares. Even if I'm not mistaken, they should all have additional agreements that allow you to guarantee the team's competitiveness for next season. ”

"I thought about it, there is only one hole card you can give to ensure the competitiveness of the team, and that is that I will stay in the Prost team next season, I don't know if I guessed right?"