CHAPTER 547: CHAPTER 237: TAX HAVEN (PART 2)

In the morning, Qin Miao gets up to train, eats breakfast, and then works on his physical fitness. After a nap at noon, he goes on the simulator to familiarize himself with the track and watches the videos prepped by Barber. Qin Miao’s day is fully scheduled like this.

On Wednesday, Qin Miao reported to the team factory before ten in the morning. Today marks the day he resumes his routine of clocking in and out for work life.

As time passed, Qin Miao walking to work deeply regretted the decision he made to live near the team.

Living close to work does offer convenience, but for someone working a regular job, the worst thing is actually living too close to the company.

That’s because as Qin Miao became more familiar with the paddock, he realized that drivers like Hamilton usually don’t come to the team unless there are special events to attend to.

Most drivers in the paddock, when not racing, train on their own, find rhythm on tracks, and spend other times flying around, attending shows, participating in fashion weeks, endorsing products, and appearing in programs.

For drivers like Qin Miao, who commute to the team factory daily like a worker, there’s currently only one such driver in the entire paddock: Qin Miao himself.

Because of this, when the team encountered issues before, they were mainly resolved through research and adjustments by the team’s own reserve drivers.

But since Qin Miao moved near the team, everything has been settled with just a phone call to bring Qin Miao over to handle things.

Although the reserve drivers can perform the same tasks, after all, they’re reserve drivers, unlike other F1 drivers who have the experience of racing F1 cars for long periods on the track. So, the data they gather must be verified during practice races for compatibility with drivers.

But when Qin Miao comes to run the data, there’s no such hassle. After all, Qin Miao is already a formidable F1 driver, with a driving style similar to Hamilton.

The data he runs can be used directly by Hamilton, requiring only minor adjustments if necessary.

If there were an F1 driver overtime chart this year, Qin Miao would undoubtedly be number one without question.

To get out of this current situation, Qin Miao is actively seeking change.

In fact, on Sunday night, Qin Miao asked Leclerc to help him find a suitable property in Monaco after returning there.

That’s right, Qin Miao is preparing to buy a house and settle in Monaco.

Even though a mere dozen square meters in Monaco costs millions of US dollars, many people are still flocking towards it.

The reason is simple: residents of Monaco do not pay personal income tax.

This is why Monaco is called a tax haven.

For instance, if Qin Miao settled in the UK and received a contract for endorsement, the partner would offer him two million euros per year.

Normally, with this 2 million euro endorsement contract, Qin Miao would need to pay 45% personal income tax to the UK. Meaning, after the contract is finalized, he has to pay 900,000 euros in tax to the UK government.

But if Qin Miao resides in Monaco, no matter the endorsement contract’s amount, he can pocket all of it without losing a cent.

Of course, since Qin Miao is not an ordinary person, settling in Monaco is not that difficult.

Monaco’s residency policy is not particularly challenging for wealthy individuals. To settle in Monaco, one must first own property there and have over 600,000 euros in a local bank account.

These requirements are naturally no obstacle for Qin Miao.

Upon arriving at the team factory, Qin Miao made an unexpected discovery because Toto was also there today.

Toto, being the boss, usually has a similar work rhythm to Hamilton.

On weekdays, he often comes but usually just for late arrivals and early departures.

He mostly just checks in briefly and leaves.

But initially, Qin Miao didn’t pay much mind, assuming that Toto just had something to handle and thus came early.

After arriving at his own office and setting his things down, Qin Miao intended to go to the factory downstairs to check his car and the installation of new components.

Mercedes had an upgrade during the Hungarian Grand Prix.

After looking at the installation of the upgraded parts, Qin Miao was preparing to go to the simulator department to run data.

However, after just putting his things away and stepping out of his office, Toto, from the office on the other side, waved to Qin Miao.

"Qin Miao, come over here for a moment."

Seeing this, Qin Miao nodded.

He thought to himself that it was unusual for Toto to show up so early, and it must be because he was looking for him.

He skillfully entered Toto’s office and sat on the chair in front of Toto.

Toto’s office is the largest in the Mercedes F1 team, followed by those of Qin Miao, Hamilton, and Allison.

Offices are specially decorated according to personal preferences; everyone received a budget for decorations when they joined, although Qin Miao hasn’t utilized his yet.

Mainly because he finds it cumbersome, and renovation would require him to use someone else’s office for a long time, which is inconvenient.

Once seated, Qin Miao curiously asked, "Toto, is there something you need from me? Or is there another event you need me to attend."

Toto didn’t rush to get to the point. First, he made Qin Miao a cup of black coffee, and then chatted about other matters: "You know, Qin Miao, when we signed you, it wasn’t a spur-of-the-moment decision. We considered several factors at the time.

I valued your future, and the Daimler Group saw the potential in the Chinese market you represent.

But we didn’t expect that you’d surprise us from an angle that none of us anticipated."

Saying this, Toto turned to look at a large screen in his office, displaying the current team and driver standings.

And Qin Miao, ahead of his seven-time champion teammate Hamilton by eight points, is in first place on the standings.

The surprise Toto referred to was likely this achievement.

Despite Toto stating the truth, the innate modesty of being Chinese led Qin Miao to instinctively say, "Hamilton, after all, is a seven-time champion. I just happened to have eight more points than him by chance. The season is still long, and considering Hamilton’s strength, overtaking me in the overall standings is just a matter of time."

Toto smiled. He also didn’t think Qin Miao could remain long in his current position. While Qin Miao is indeed strong, this season has already yielded enough data for Mercedes, and analyzing this data shows that Qin Miao is not as fast as Hamilton. Adding to this, what he intended to discuss with Qin Miao today...

Overall, Mercedes intends to fully support Hamilton in securing this year’s driver championship for an eighth-time achievement.

However, thinking is one thing, but Toto couldn’t directly speak his true intentions in front of Qin Miao.

Thus, Toto said with a smile, "What you should focus on now is improving your own strength. After all, you’re only 19 years old, you have plenty of time."

With a face full of attentiveness, Qin Miao nodded slightly after hearing Toto’s words.

"I know and I’m continuously working in the direction of improving my strength."

The conversation opened smoothly here, and then Toto said, "There’s another matter concerning Hamilton."

Qin Miao nodded, indicating attentiveness, without showing extra emotion or any intention to speak.

Toto paused momentarily before continuing, "This season is immensely important for the team. While Mercedes has been relatively successful in recent years, every era sees one or two dominant teams emerge, precisely because strong teams are bound to appear in every era, making them not particularly surprising, and rather normal.

Therefore, to leave our mark in F1 history, we need to break some seemingly difficult records or achieve unprecedented accomplishments.

And ideally, this process should involve as few surprises as possible."