All-round Athlete

Chapter 729 The Trouble of the Rich

In a hotel in the affluent area of ​​Sao Paulo, the China Power Team is holding a dinner to celebrate the victory.

Holding a wine glass, Zhang Guan walked up to Barrichello and said, "Rubens, I want to thank you very much. If you hadn't given me the first place, I wouldn't have won the championship."

"This is what I should do, I'm the number two driver." Barrichello said with a smile.

But Zhang Guan could feel that there was a trace of regret in Barrichello's smile. After all, Brazil is Barrichello's homeland and his home field. As a driver who has driven F1 for more than ten years, Barrichello has Brazil has countless fans. Of course, he hopes to win a championship in Brazil and give an explanation to his motherland and compatriots, but in the end he still gave up the championship to Zhang Guan, so he created Zhang Guan in this season. Thirteenth win.

Prior to this, the most winners in a single season belonged to Schumacher's thirteen wins in the season, which means that Zhang Guan tied Schumacher's record. But Zhang Guan's 13-win record is more valuable than Schumacher's 13-win record. Schumacher set a record of 13 wins in the season in 2004. There were a total of 18 races in that year. In 2004, there were no races in Turkey and Singapore, but there were France, the United States and Canada. This year, all North American races have withdrawn from F1, and the French station has been suspended for several years. There are only 17 F1 races left. Thirteen victories in 17 games are naturally more valuable than 13 victories in 18 games.

But Zhang Guan was not satisfied with these, especially at the end of the Japanese Grand Prix, when Zhang Guanhao won 12 victories, a consensus was reached within the China Force team, to help Zhang Guan win 14 consecutive victories and surpass Schumacher, That's why Barrichello gave way.

On November 1st, in Abu Dhabi, the United Arab Emirates, the most affluent place in the world, the final battle of this year's Formula One officially began.

Both the driver championship and the team championship have lost suspense. For other drivers, this race has become a battle of honor, which has nothing to do with the overall situation. But for car fans, this race is still full of suspense: Can Zhang Guan win? Break Schumacher's record of fourteen wins in the season.

The birth of a new record is what the whole F1 is happy to see. Even the car king Michael Schumacher expressed his expectations for Zhang Guan in the pre-match interview. But not every driver has the beauty of an adult. For example, Hamilton, he worked extremely hard in qualifying yesterday and got pole position. In today's race, he once again planned to attack Zhang Guan, at least to prevent Zhang Guan from Complete the feat of fourteen victories in the season.

But it is a pity that God is not on Hamilton's side. On the twentieth lap, the rear brake system of the MP4-24 driven by Hamilton had a problem. He could not control the car on the track and had to return for maintenance. District, and then chose to retire.

Even if it is a civilian car, it cannot be driven if there is a problem with the brakes, let alone an F1 car with a speed of more than 300 kilometers per hour. And even if Hamilton dared to continue driving on the track with this problematic car, the race stewards would stop him from doing so with dangerous driving. After Hamilton withdrew from the race, no one could stop Zhang Guan from winning the 14th race.

After 1 hour and 34 minutes and 55 laps of competition, the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix finally came to an end. Zhang Guan also got his wish and broke Schumacher's record of 13 consecutive victories in the season.

The two cars of the Red Bull Racing Team performed well, ranking second and third respectively, and the Red Bull Racing Team has therefore locked the runner-up this season. It's just that in terms of total scores, they are far behind China's power.

"Zhang Guan, congratulations!" Vettel stepped forward to hug Zhang Guan and congratulated him. Everyone could see the envy of Vettel at this time.

"Thank you." Zhang Guan secretly said in his heart: "Don't envy me, starting next year, you will have the fastest racing car."

This season, the Red Bull would have been the fastest car if Ross Brawn hadn't exploited a loophole in the rules and used a double-layer diffuser, and next year the rules will be more explicit, and Ross Brawn will no longer have any loopholes to exploit. Red Bull's design master Newey will flex his muscles and create the fastest racing car. Vettel will also bring a four consecutive championships to Red Bull Racing and become a new generation of car king.

"Congratulations, I know you can do it." Schumacher also stepped forward to congratulate Zhang Guan. Although Zhang Guan broke Schumacher's record, Schumacher didn't look depressed at this time, but looked at Zhang Guan with a rather gratified look.

I only heard Schumacher go on to say: "The season is over, what are the plans for the next step?"

"I have to go back to China first to deal with some things, and then I will give myself a vacation." Zhang Guan said.

"Are you interested in going skiing? The ski season in the Alps is about to start, and Meribel is where I go every year." Schumacher continued.

"Skiing? To be honest, I'm not very good at skiing. In our country, winter sports are not popular." Zhang Guan said.

"It doesn't matter, I can teach you, my skiing skills are not inferior to professional skiers." Schumacher continued: "If you have time, come to me to relax. You broke my two records this year, I can't beat you on the field, so let me find my place on the snow!"

Schumacher sincerely invited Zhang Guan, but Zhang Guan couldn't resist his kindness, so he nodded and agreed.

...

F1 has entered the offseason, and the new competition will start in March next year. The team staff also got a two-week vacation. Zhang Guan also took this opportunity to return to China.

Domestically, what awaits Zhang Guan are various welcome and celebration ceremonies, as well as sponsors flocking to him waving banknotes.

Auto companies are the ones that come most frequently. Under the background of the global financial crisis, the sales of bulk commodities such as automobiles have been greatly affected. The life of those multinational auto brands is not easy. In the traditional markets of Europe and the United States, the sales volume of automobiles All fell, but in the Chinese market, car sales rose against the trend. Zhang Guan returned with a Formula One championship trophy, and immediately became a "fragrant momo" in the eyes of the car company. The major car companies also spared no expense in wanting Zhang Guan to be their spokesperson, but Zhang Guan was up for sale, waiting for the car company to offer the highest price.

China Force's revenue last year reached US$188 million, a figure after deducting costs, which includes bonuses the team received, advertising fees and additional bonuses from sponsors. The cost of running an F1 team is actually very high, and every race, the team needs to rent planes, venues, and equipment, all of which cost money, not to mention the research and development of racing cars is a bottomless pit, such as That kinetic energy recovery system cost Zhang Guan tens of millions of dollars.

This revenue, after paying the bonuses of the team staff and leaving some operating expenses, belonged to the two major shareholders, Zhang Guan and Ross Brown. Zhang Guan finally got a share of 100 million US dollars.

Earning 100 million US dollars a year is not a lot. Even the Ferrari team does not have such a high profit, but compared to the 500 million US dollars bet, it is really a drop in the bucket.

Although Omi, the instigator, has been imprisoned, the money that should be repaid still has to be repaid. Omi didn't have this financial strength, so it was the Maria family who signed the contract. Even the Maria family didn't want to pay the 500 million US dollars at all, but there was no good way, after all, people all over the world were watching. .

The whole world knows about the 500 million US dollars, and they all want to see if the Maria family is willing to carry out this bet, and whether they will not pay back the money.

If the Maria family had to choose whether to ask for 500 million dollars or face, the Maria family would definitely choose to ask for 500 million dollars. Although it would be embarrassing not to pay back the money, how could there be 500 million dollars in face? Even if it is reviled by people all over the world, it may be worthwhile to earn 500 million US dollars. However, it was written in black and white in the bet that if the Maria family really did not pay back the money, they still have legal means.

For the Maria family, pure legal means are not terrible. The industries of the Maria family are spread all over the world. Cross-border debt collection is a worldwide problem. .

But when public opinion hijacks the law, the situation is completely different. The procrastination process can be simplified, laziness can be made more efficient, and even things born in the two worlds can cooperate hand in hand.

What's more, if you don't pay back the money, it will affect the credit of the Maria family.

Credit is a very important thing. Even the most dishonest people will desperately hope that others will be able to do so, so dishonest people will always be condemned by the public, and honest and trustworthy people will condemn them, because their dishonesty will offend others. their own interests; those who do not keep their promises will also condemn these same kind, and the reason is also because their untrustworthiness will violate their own interests. It's like a thief, he hopes he can steal money, but he doesn't want other thieves to steal his money.

This is especially true for people engaged in commercial activities. Except for those who do a lot of business, observing credit is the most basic thing, which can even be regarded as an unspoken rule in commercial activities. If the Maria family wants to continue to engage in business activities, he must abide by this unspoken rule.

The Maliya family finally returned the money to Zhang Guan, although it will be repaid in successive installments within the next year. In fact, 500 million US dollars is not a small amount for the Maria family, at least their airline will buy a few fewer planes.

However, what Zhang Guan didn't expect was that the 500 million US dollars brought him a lot of trouble.

Rich people's trouble!

...

Canteen of Provincial Athletics Training Center.

"Come on, come on, Zhang Guan, often this fried chicken is our team's own chickens. They are all free-range chickens. They haven't eaten any feed since they were young, and they can't have hormones. And it's Chef Xu himself. It’s fried.” Coach Zhou transferred the plate of fried chicken to Zhang Guan, took the biggest chicken leg with his chopsticks, and said courteously.

"Coach, why are you being polite to me, just come by yourself." Zhang Guan took a sip, and then nodded: "The taste is really good. When I was in the team, I was used to eating the food made by Chef Xu. Vegetables, less salt is added, the taste is light, but the taste is very good.”

"That's right, Chef Xu is a Lu cuisine cook, but he doesn't like to add salt when cooking. This is different from other Lu cuisine cooks. He wasn't on duty today. I heard you were here, so I decided to come over and cook some special dishes for you. "Coach Zhou paused, and then said: "In the past two years, our team has specially built vegetable planting bases and animal husbandry bases to provide athletes with pollution-free food. Our table dishes are all made by ourselves. planted."

"Isn't it? Food safety is indeed very important to our athletes. After more than ten years of hard training, it may be ruined by eating a bite of pork with clenbuterol. Now even many vegetables are used The ripening agent is not grown by myself, so I really dare not give it to the athletes." Coach Wang next to him said.

"Hey..." Coach Zhou sighed, and then said: "But growing vegetables and raising chickens by ourselves is not a long-term solution! Besides, we can't afford it in terms of expenses. Just take this chicken He said that the white-striped chickens on the market will be out of the cage in less than 50 days, and the grass chickens in the chicken farm will have a better time, but it can only be three months at most. And the chickens we raise ourselves, no one has eaten them for three months Half the size of hormones. Our athletes have to eat meat to supplement nutrition, how can a chicken have to be raised for six months to get some meat, the time cost is a small thing, but the economic cost is too high!"

Coach Zhou picked up a piece of spinach as he spoke, and then said: "There is also this spinach. The spinach we grow ourselves, we dare not use many pesticides. If we use it, we are afraid that the athletes will have problems eating it. But if we don't use pesticides, the spinach will still grow. If it is not too big, it will be eaten by insects, and the spinach we grow on one acre of land is not as much as others who grow half an acre of land."

"What Coach Zhou said is right!" Coach Wang next to him continued: "The cost of planting and animal husbandry is too high now. Fortunately, we are not here to make money, but it is not a way to lose money like this. Since last year's Olympic Games After the end, the funding for sports was cut a lot. In 2008, it was okay for us to plant and raise animals for athletes. At that time, the funding was high. But the current funding, I am afraid that it will not be able to continue for a long time. .”

During the Olympic Games in the capital, it is an indisputable fact that sports funds are abundant, and after the Olympic Games, sports funds will inevitably decrease. The number of domestic sports competitions has decreased a lot, and the leagues of some sports are almost unstoppable.

This can be regarded as a drawback of the national system. No matter how many gold medals and championships you win, sports cannot drive the upstream and downstream, and cannot form a sports industry chain. Only relying on financial appropriations, what often happens is that : When the money is in place, the sport will achieve results. If the money is taken away, the sport will soon fail. Of course, there are exceptions. No matter how much money is spent on Chinese football, it may not be able to rise. Everyone knows that it is not about money at all!

Seeing Coach Zhou and Coach Wang complaining here, a smile appeared on Zhang Guan's face. He had already seen that these two were singing oboe in front of his face.

They are here to ask Zhang Guan for money!