The process of the award ceremony after the race is the same, and after going through several times, Zhang Yifei does not have the excitement of standing on the championship podium for the first time.

It may be that, as he promised before, only when the national anthem is heard on the podium of the F1 championship can it be regarded as a true fulfillment of the promise and glory to the motherland.

After the award ceremony, Zhang Yifei did not continue to be interviewed by those reporters, because he just wanted to use this opportunity to announce his retirement, and he did not plan to talk about it.

Back at the pit, the team members were very excited, especially Ah Hu, who came up directly with a bear hug.

"Take it easy, this kind of small scene, don't make it look like I haven't won the championship."

Zhang Yifei pretended to reply calmly, and then silently pushed Ah Hu away, mainly because this kid wiped his snot on his racing suit before the game, which made Zhang Yifei a little shadowy, afraid that he would make some more moths for himself.

"Yifeijun, congratulations on winning the championship, but it is still a bit too impulsive to announce your withdrawal from Renault in public."

Yamamoto Ukyo is still in the usual cautious style, although the future plan has been made before the game, as long as he wins the championship of Silverstone, Zhang Yifei will retire from the Renault European Cup early.

But this kind of public announcement is equivalent to no chance of regret, after all, there is still a theoretical possibility of losing the championship. If something really goes wrong, Zhang Yifei didn't publicly announce his withdrawal anyway, he can still come back and run for a stop, get some points, and kill the theoretical possibility!

Or is it this kind of public announcement, which is indeed a bit arrogant in the eyes of the outside world. Although Zhang Yifei is now a lice and is not afraid of bites, and the outside world is almost accustomed to his personal tough style, Yamamoto Ukyo's character always feels that it is better to be low-key.

"Anyway, sooner or later, it will be announced, and it can still cause a wave of heat at this time."

Zhang Yifei replied indifferently, strength is the basis of worth, but popularity is the ladder of rising value.

Formula 1 is a competitive sport, but it's also a business. Zhang Yifei is from the Internet era of later generations, and he deeply understands what the word "traffic" represents.

The aroma of wine is also afraid of deep alleys, not to mention that F1 is a sporting event with a huge "gap between the rich and the poor" between drivers.

Zhang Yifei has not yet understood the salary of drivers in this era, and he is not clear because there is no network and wireless media transmission. But the value of F1 drivers in later generations, he has still seen some reports.

For example, twenty years later, that is, in 2019, the F1 driver salary, the top Hamilton, can get a salary of 40 million pounds a year. At the back, such as Albon of Little Red Bull, can only get an annual salary of 130,000 pounds.

And that's not the worst of the problem, but in 2019 all drivers still have annual salaries. In this day and age, many drivers are not paid and even have to be paid backwards to the team, such as the sponsor of the small team.

The salary gap, of course, strength and performance are the decisive factors. But strength and performance can only determine how much top salary you get, as for what the lower limit is, it is not entirely determined by strength.

Because as long as you have enough popularity, if you don't have results, you can still rely on sponsorship and endorsement to earn a lot of money. This is the same as the traffic route of "Little Fresh Meat" in later generations, the strength and achievements are the same, but it can't stand up to the many fans of others, which is also an intangible wealth.

Zhang Yifei didn't plan to take any "little fresh meat" traffic route, he can think of himself as a firm and powerful faction. But the powerful faction does not conflict with the traffic, and it is not a bad thing to gain more attention, and hype is not exactly a derogatory term.

And Zhang Yifei is now very short of money, Renault will have to replace the engine at two stops, whether Zhang Yifei retires or not, he needs to pay for the replacement of maintenance parts after the race.

Zhang Yifei's previous deposit was probably just enough to run four races, and then settle the cost of renting a Renault car. But now the problem is that he replaced a gearbox and a full set of carbon fiber racing clutch plates ahead of schedule.

Not to mention the clutch plates, because compared to the competition-level sequential transmission, it can be regarded as a small amount of money. Now it's this gearbox that is hundreds of thousands of dollars, Zhang Yifei doesn't know how to get it, so he called back to the old man to ask for it, he really can't open this mouth.

So Zhang Yifei wished that he could become popular, and then what advertisements and endorsements came to the door, he was really a little poor at this stage!

"Fei, now that the game is over, what are you going to do next? Should I go to the Prost team base in France for F1 training, or should I return to my home country first? ”

Cosell opened his mouth to ask, he would not help Zhang Yifei make decisions about things in ordinary life, it was completely up to Zhang Yifei's own opinion.

"Go home first."

There is nothing to hesitate, Zhang Yifei said his choice.

Now that the F1 season is not over and the winter break training period has not begun, the main personnel of the Prost team are still following the drivers to compete on various circuits around the world.

So even when I went to the Prost base in France, there were not many core personnel stationed, after all, the current Prost team is not like the big three teams with deep pockets, even if it is the team headquarters, there are enough professionals left.

To put it mildly, it is a bit difficult for the Prost team to maintain the current racing team, not to mention building two teams.

And there is also an agreement between Zhang Yifei and Prost, he must bring in a sponsorship of two million US dollars to allow Ah Hu and Junko Takeda to join the Prost team.

Otherwise, even in the past and now, only Zhang Yifei is qualified to enter the headquarters of the Prost team, and such a scene is unacceptable to Zhang Yifei.

"Well, now there's a little over a month before the end of the F1 season, so we can go to China first."

Cosell nodded, agreeing with Zhang Yifei's choice.

After making a choice of direction, it was still Yamamoto Youkyo and a few of them who stayed behind to carry out post-game maintenance work, while Zhang Yifei and a few people returned to the hotel first.

Back at the hotel, Zhang Yifei found a separate time to discuss the issue of the event fee with Junko Takeda.

According to Formula Renault's price for driver parts, the price of an engine is $50,000 and the gearbox is $30,000.

This price is actually quite favorable, you must know that in this era, an ordinary Santana or Jetta in China will cost 100,000 yuan to change the engine, and this kind of event-level engine is only 340,000, which is really not expensive.

However, counting the pit station and the cost of the race, as well as the previous test run to rent the track, as well as other parts and fluids, etc., Zhang Yifei wants to settle the expenses with Renault, and it is estimated that he has to prepare at least 100,000 US dollars, that is, an amount of millions of yuan.

This price is also a driver's discount given by Renault in order to promote its own events. Otherwise, if it is calculated exactly according to the cost price, it is not surprising to double.

After learning about these expenses, Zhang Yifei asked Junko Takeda: "What is the last period of Renault's payment time?" ”

"A month later, that's the end of the seven races."

Hearing this time, Zhang Yifei breathed a sigh of relief, he didn't take the driver's spokesperson fee of 800,000 US dollars, and the one-month deadline was enough for him to return to China and Huaxia Petrochemical Group to complete the terms of the contract.

"If the money is not enough, I can pay in advance with Youjing, so you don't have to worry about the cost."

Junko Takeda added at this time that now Zhang Yifei's finances are in charge of her, so Junko Takeda knows very well how much money Zhang Yifei has left.

At present, Zhang Yifei is in a period of rapid rise, whether it is because of everyone's current relationship with friends in the team, or Junko Takeda has bet her "future" on Zhang Yifei, she doesn't want Zhang Yifei to be affected by the cost problem.

Hearing this, Zhang Yifei smiled instead: "It's not a month, maybe I will become a local tyrant when I return to China." ”

Seriously, with a month of ample time, Zhang Yifei really didn't worry too much. As long as this trip back to China goes smoothly, let alone 100,000 US dollars, it is a million US dollars, Zhang Yifei is confident that he will find a way to get it.

Because of the "great cause" of three consecutive championships, coupled with the result of locking the Renault European Cup championship in advance, it is already a gorgeous enough answer sheet, and it is estimated that China has considered promoting itself as the next sports star.

Indeed, as Zhang Yifei imagined, and not only in China, but also in the entire world's car world, they are vying to report on this sudden emergence of Asian star drivers.

In the evening of the same day, CCTV, Eurosport, The Times and other mainstream media all published the news that Zhang Yifei successfully defended his title for three consecutive times and locked the drivers' championship.

"Chinese Drivers' Historic Breakthrough, Flying or Will Lock the Renault European Cup Championship in Advance"

"Fei, a formula driver from China, responded to those previous doubts with the title of champion at Silverstone! 》

The Next Star Driver? Can Zhang Yifei replicate his miracle in F1? 》

"The Rising Chinese Driver, Zhang Yifei Charges to the Honor of the First Person in Asia"

The issuance of various news reports, especially those of these mainstream media, has made Zhang Yifei's fame soar again.

Zhang Yifei's identity has changed from a Chinese newcomer to an Asian star, and he may become a superstar in the car world in time.

However, just like the cold eyes and ridicule before, in the face of these praise and praise, Zhang Yifei also saw it very openly.

Because he knows that his results are really nothing, and if he didn't have the identity of a Chinese driver, he wouldn't get the attention he has now. If you were a European driver, the most you would have done was to make a little wave.

After all, the Renault Series has been held for almost 30 years, and there are countless drivers who have won the championship in a row, and there are many drivers who have won three consecutive championships.

The more this kind of praise flies all over the sky, the more Zhang Yifei understands his own shortcomings more clearly, and he is still far from the top.