Chapter 123: Two Contracts

Chapter 123 -49: Two Contracts

On the other side, Hamilton naturally saw this scene as well. He had just been laughing and chatting with his engineer, Peter Bonington.

After all, he had won three consecutive Grand Prix races. Coupled with the fact that he was driving quite smoothly at this stop and felt very confident about securing the victory, he could naturally converse with relaxed ease.

“Who exactly started that rumor?” Like Tony, Peter was also deeply puzzled by this.

As a veteran engineer, he knew that any news coming out of the paddock had a source. Especially when it was a leak directly from within the team, even if it wasn’t entirely true, it held at least some shred of authenticity.

“What’s the point of caring about that? This year’s car is powerful enough. We might as well think about the upcoming races,” Hamilton replied.

It wasn’t that Hamilton didn’t care about the seat changes; rather, he felt that his chance to win a second World Championship had arrived. Naturally, he paid less attention to other matters.

At the back of the pit area, Toto, Nikki, and Sid entered a conference room.

After taking a seat, Sid immediately spoke up, “As you know, this matter has nothing to do with us. We wouldn’t be stupid enough to breach the terms of our contract.”

Toto remained noncommittal, merely stating, “We are still handling this situation. Inviting you here today is simply to show our sincerity. We don’t want a few rumors to damage our contract.”

Sid breathed a sigh of relief inwardly, knowing that they needed to set the tone for this incident.

“We’ve prepared a supplementary agreement. Take a look first.” Toto pulled a stack of papers from his bag.

Sid took them and began to read. Because the document was extensive, he had to go through it carefully. By the time he finished reading it entirely, more than twenty minutes had passed.

The supplementary agreement primarily targeted the confidentiality clause. It detailed that if the leak originated from Wu Shi’s side, the contract would no longer be enforceable. However, if the leak was caused internally by Mercedes-Benz, then it would have nothing to do with Wu Shi’s party.

Aside from this section, the agreement also amended the sponsorship fees. The previous contract already had related stipulations. Since Wu Shi was too young, setting a high sponsorship fee made it easier to pass the board’s resolution. And this supplementary agreement raised the sponsorship fee from thirty million US Dollars to fifty million US Dollars.

“I don’t quite understand this increase,” Sid said.

A fifty million US Dollar sponsorship fee wasn’t considered high for joining a team like Mercedes-Benz. But gathering thirty million US Dollars was already a monumental task for Wu Shi, let alone fifty million US Dollars.

“I understand that, which is why I have another contract here.” Toto brought out another document.

Sid accepted it, noticing that Party A was not Mercedes-Benz, but a company he wasn’t very familiar with. He didn’t rush to speak, choosing to browse the contract first. The gist of it was to provide Wu Shi with a twenty million US Dollar sponsorship.

He realized that the twenty million US Dollar sponsorship increase Toto proposed was actually part of an alternative arrangement. Thus, he said, “I understand now. This shouldn’t be a problem.”

“Good. We’ll discuss the specifics on Monday.” Toto casually signed his name on several of the contracts but didn’t ask Sid to sign. He gathered the contracts and stood up.

Sid also stood to shake hands with him before leaving the conference room. It wasn’t until he stepped out of the racetrack that he called Martina to inform her of the situation.

“They caused this trouble themselves and dragged us into it. That’s really out of line,” Martina said over the phone.

“I think so too, but at least it didn’t affect the seat. This whole thing is just moving money from one pocket to another; it doesn’t impact the actual execution of the contract.”

“Once things are settled here, I’ll ask for some time off to take a trip to Hua Country,” Martina said before hanging up.

Sid shook his head. What a headache. Things were getting more and more complicated. Yet, just as he caught a moment of peace, another call came in. Seeing the caller ID, he recognized it as an old classmate who supposedly worked in Renault Formula.

Feeling a bit puzzled, he answered it anyway.

“Hello? What gives you the free time to call me?”

“Haha, I heard you’ve got a hot property driver on your hands! We’ve thought about it over here, and we’re interested too.”

“Huh? We haven’t considered participating in Renault 3.5,” Sid said bluntly.

“Ah! I didn’t make myself clear. I jumped ship to the Sauber Team three months ago. I’m contacting you on behalf of the Sauber Team this time.”

“Alright, we can schedule a time to chat.”

Sid didn’t refuse. Although the Sauber Team wasn’t as competitive as Mercedes-Benz or Williams, they were still an F1 team. For a driver like Wu Shi, who had yet to showcase his talents in F1, simply getting his foot in the door was always the best choice.

He pondered for a moment. It seemed the contract issue with Mercedes-Benz was no longer confined to just Mercedes-Benz internally. The entire paddock had likely caught wind of it, and the other teams were acting on the rumors!

***

SWOOSH!

After the safety car was deployed three times, the race finally came to an end.

Wu Shi maintained his lead to the very end. After all, overtaking on this track was quite difficult. As long as he stayed steady, he could bring home the victory.

Unlike the excitement of the crew, he returned to the rest area right after the award ceremony and dialed Sid to get an update on the latest situation.

“There are no issues with the contract execution. You don’t need to worry too much; just focus on racing well.”

“Yeah, I understand.”

Hearing this outcome, Wu Shi finally breathed a sigh of relief. He had intended to chat with Louise, but then saw that Leclerc had sent him quite a few messages.

“Hey! You got an F1 seat? Weren’t you on better terms with Ferrari before?

“I’m preparing to join the Ferrari Driver Academy.

“Is the news true?”

The last message was a news link, which he tapped to open. The header image of the article captured the moment Sid was at the Mercedes Pit Room, heading to the rear area alongside Toto and Niki Lauda. The headline was in large, bold font:

“Wu’s manager, Sid, appears in the Mercedes Pit Room, possibly corroborating rumors of an F1 seat contract between Wu and Mercedes-Benz.”

Fuck!

What kind of efficiency was this?!

According to what Sid just told him, he had gone in a little past eleven in the morning. It was only noon now, and the press release was already out.

He quickly scanned the content.

“Shit! What do they mean Mercedes-Benz offered me an annual salary of ten million US Dollars? Bullshit!

“Where the hell would I get a hundred million US Dollars in sponsorship?! If I had that much money, wouldn’t it be better to just buy Force India and act like a Young Master like Stroll?!

“When did I become the golden boy of Mercedes-Benz?!”

The wording in the news article was extremely outrageous, rendering Wu Shi completely speechless. However, it was precisely because the content was so absurd that it highlighted the only useful piece of information: the fact that he had an F1 seat contract with Mercedes-Benz.

Just then, Focca and Verstappen walked over together. Their first words were, “Is this stuff true?”

Wu Shi naturally shook his head directly, saying, “I don’t even know who’s spreading these rumors!”

“Tsk, tsk. Never mind whether it’s a rumor or not. Since they’re saying this, you guys must have had some contact with an F1 team. I recall you mentioning before that an F1 team had reached an agreement with you, right? Don’t tell me it really is Mercedes-Benz?!” Focca said excitedly.

“Mercedes-Benz is doing very well this year. I heard it’s because of their powerful engines.” Verstappen thought of the race cars first, and the rumor second. He continued, “This rumor isn’t actually too far-fetched. If I were an F1 team principal, I would have signed you a long time ago.”

“Then do you want to consider buying a team?” Wu Shi followed Verstappen’s words to change the subject.

“I have no money,” Verstappen replied frankly.

“Hey, as the person involved, aren’t you going to clarify this?” Focca was refreshing Twitter frantically, turning out to be quite the gossip.

“I don’t like making statements on the internet.”

“The comments under your account have exploded!”

“Really? Let me see.” Wu Shi leaned over.

“Uh, wait… Isn’t this your account? Why do you need to look at it on my phone?” Focca was dumbfounded.

“I’m not allowed to play on my phone for more than two hours a day. If I look at my own phone again, I’ll go over the limit,” Wu Shi made up a random excuse.