How did I become an F1 driver?

Zhou Guanyu also recognized Toto's statement. If nothing else, just as the team leader and shareholder of the Mercedes-Benz Racing Team, these words were full of convincing power.

No matter what the occasion is, Toto's words make sense.

It's just that at this time, there happened to be such a negative teaching material sitting next to the two of them.

So after Toto said these words, Zhou Guanyu subconsciously glanced at Qin Miao next to him.

This one is more heavyweight.

His world championship basically didn't involve hard practice or skills. 50% of his world championship was won by the Mercedes team, which provided him with a competitive enough car in 21, and the other % was because of Qin Miao's terrifying performance. Talent, but also the arrogance of the two veteran drivers, Hamilton and Verstappen.

Toto also noticed Zhou Guanyu's eyes and glanced at Qin Miao beside him without leaving any trace; "Qin Miao was a complete accident. In the history of F1, there are only a handful of drivers with the same talent as Qin Miao.

There is no comparison between you and him. "

Zhou Guanyu glanced at Qin Miao, shook his head helplessly and said, "I know, and I also know myself. Working so hard is not because I want to get to that position. I just want to gain a foothold in the paddock."

It is worth mentioning that although Zhou Guanyu still gave Arrow Racing a driver sponsorship of 20 million euros, Arrow clearly told Zhou Guanyu that if there was no sponsorship of 20 million euros, they would still ask for Zhou Guanyu.

Now with this capital injection, Arrow even hinted to Zhou Guanyu that Arrow's car upgrade for the 2022 season will be biased towards Zhou Guanyu's operating habits.

Of course, after all, it is just a hint. There is no certainty whether A Luo will do this.

Toto smiled: "I found that both of you have a characteristic, that is, you both know what you want, but you are a little too modest.

This kind of humility is less reflected in Zhou Guanyu, but this characteristic in you, Qin Miao, is a bit too strong. "

Qin Miao was stunned, why did the conversation come to me while we were chatting?

"It has become a habit and cannot be changed."

……

Toto's family left after having dinner at Qin Miao's house.

Zhou Guanyu stayed in Monaco for an extra day. Foreigners may think that New Year's Eve is the Chinese New Year, but Qin Miao and the others still have the Spring Festival to celebrate.

However, on the third day of the Lunar New Year after the Chinese New Year, the three elders of the family returned to China together.

After looking at their children abroad and making sure that they were fine and living a pleasant life, they were satisfied. If they didn't like the living environment abroad, they fled back to the environment where they felt most comfortable. .

Qin Miao and Qiu Meng also resumed their daily work. As for the half-month leave granted to Qin Miao by Tuotuo, it was not used at all.

In the following period, in addition to daily physical training, Qin Miao also practiced on the simulator and helped the team develop racing cars.

On the other side, Elliott was also scratching his head and began to study the floor and side cases of version B.

The good news is that after half a month, Elliott already has a rough design idea, and the new B version of the sidepods and floor are expected to be lighter than the overall design of the current racing car.

Of course, this is just the team's and Elliott's estimate, and we won't know the details until the parts are produced.

Time flies and comes to January 1th.

Although the team has not stopped developing and improving the W13 during this period, the time has come for the team to announce the new season car as agreed with the fans.

Therefore, Qin Miao needs to rehearse with Hamilton the speech for the launch of the No. 19 new car.

This is also the first meeting between Qin Miao and Hamilton after the end of last season.

After the meeting, Hamilton was in pretty good shape and seemed to be having a comfortable year.

Qin Miao even had the feeling that Hamilton was a little fatter than the last time he saw him.

On the 19th.

Mercedes' new car launch conference came as scheduled. Under the guidance of the host, two Mercedes drivers took the stage to explain the design ideas, development process of this car, and their roles in the process.

However, the fans of the Mercedes team are also aware of the urinary nature of Mercedes-Benz. Basically, until the final start of the opening race, no one knew what the new car of Mercedes-Benz this season looked like.

In the past, Qin Miao also thought like the audience that Mei Ben liked to hide things.

But Qin Miao knew about it after joining the Mercedes team and working in the team for a year.

This is really not intentional by the team, it is simply because the team has been improving and upgrading the car.

There is a period of time between the new car launch of the racing car and the winter test of the racing car, so when the audience watches it, they will feel that the Mercedes-Benz racing car will be different.

In addition, after seeing the Mercedes car in the new season, the audience was most happy to see the return of the Mercedes team's silver paint.

After all, Mercedes fans prefer the previous Silver Arrows to the Black Arrows team in the 21st season.

Because the Silver Arrow painting has brought too many victories to the Mercedes team, in the eyes of some more superstitious viewers, the Silver Arrow represents victory.

In addition to the painting, most fans of other teams are more concerned about the zero-sidepod concept of the Mercedes W13.

Mercedes-Benz is not the first team in the paddock to announce the livery design of its car, but the teams that have announced their cars before Mercedes-Benz basically have large side boxes.

Only the Mercedes-Benz team's racing car side boxes are flat or vertical, and the air inlet of the Mercedes-Benz racing car is obviously smaller than the air inlets of other teams.

Therefore, after the Mercedes-Benz team's new car launch conference, all car fans were discussing Mercedes' sidepod design.

In addition to the raging discussions in the paddock, designers and simulator departments of other teams have also focused part of their attention on the side compartment design of the Mercedes team.

They are also curious about whether Mercedes' design has any profound meaning.

Of course, all they can do at this time is just guessing. The most they can do is create a fluid dynamics model through the simple video of the press conference, which is not very clear, and then simulate the airflow direction designed in this way.

Because of incomplete data, most of the teams that did this failed, and instead wasted at least an hour of CFD simulation time.

But at least before the start of pre-season testing, this design of the Mercedes team also attracted enough attention.

So much so that from the launch of the new car until the start of the official pre-season testing, the discussion about Mercedes' design has been ongoing inside and outside the paddock.

On February 2, after another month of intense preparations, the pre-season testing of the 20 Formula One World Grand Prix is ​​about to begin.

In accordance with the tradition of previous years, the first pre-season test is scheduled to be held at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, ​​Spain.

The reason for choosing this place is purely because the Circuit de Catalunya is the most comprehensive track among all F1 tracks.

This track includes low, medium and high-speed curves, right-angle curves, turning curves, high and low drop curves, big straights and other iconic curves.

It can be said that as long as your car is fast enough at Circuit de Catalunya, your car will not be too bad at all tracks this season. Therefore, all teams will choose to conduct pre-season testing on this track, and Mercedes is naturally not exempt.

So Qin Miao went to Barcelona today.

This was the first time Qin Miao took his own plane to work after having a private jet.

However, Qin Miao didn't have time to enjoy the scenery along the way. He didn't go to the hotel after landing. Instead, he asked Qiu Meng to help put his luggage and other things in the hotel.

Qin Miao himself went directly to the Circuit de Catalunya.

At this time, the Mercedes team is already preparing for pre-season testing.

The preparation process for the winter test is similar to that of a general grand prix. The P room is arranged and the car is assembled in the P room.

During this process, Qin Miao could only watch.

As a driver, there isn't much he can do at this time.

However, at this moment, Qin Miao's appearance in the paddock at least invisibly gave Qin Miao's crew a sense of confidence.

The riders had all come over at this time, and he had no reason to continue fishing.

Time flew by and February 2rd soon came.

Today is the start of pre-season testing.

Although this is not the first time Qin Miao has participated in the pre-season test of the new season since becoming an F1 driver, Qin Miao even knows that the car he is driving this season has certain design flaws.

But despite this, Qin Miao was still so excited that he couldn't sleep knowing that he was about to drive a brand new F1 racing car. When he woke up in the morning, he was even more excited.

The situation at the Circuit de Catalunya today is actually the same as a normal Grand Prix weekend, the only difference may be that there are no spectators present.

After arriving in the paddock, Qin Miao participated in the interview before the test as usual.

During the interview, it was natural that reporters would inevitably ask questions about the Mercedes car. Who said that the Mercedes car was the only one in the entire paddock that looked different.

Qin Miao naturally has a deep understanding of this.

If the reporter continued to ask questions, Qin Miao would excuse himself by saying that he had only driven this car in the simulator and had not run it in reality.

Seeing that the defending champion was struggling, the reporter finally gave up with regret and began to ask questions that other viewers were more interested in.

When faced with such questions, Qin Miao's answers were much more normal. Basically, the answers he got were satisfactory to reporters.

After completing daily tasks like those in a mobile game, Qin Miao happily came to the P room of the team.

At this time, Qin Miao's racing car had been assembled and parked quietly at his position.

Qin Miao knew that this was not the final form of the car, so he only glanced at it briefly and then looked away.

In addition to Qin Miao, those who came to the P room of the Mercedes-Benz team today were Hamilton, Toto, and senior members of the Mercedes-Benz leadership team.

The only thing worth mentioning is that technical director Mike Elliott did not come. He was still busy with his own projects in the team factory. Qin Miao had not paid attention to him for some time.

It's not that Qin Miao doesn't care about the development progress of Mercedes-Benz racing car. The main reason is that the development speed of Elliott is a bit slow. At the beginning, Qin Miao would occasionally take a look at Elliott's development progress.

But as time went by, Qin Miao found that the other party's parts were still in the drawing stage every time he went there. Although the drawings would be more perfect every time he went there, so far, Elliot had not come up with anything. real thing.

Over time, Qin Miao stopped paying attention.

After saying hello to these senior executives and chatting for a while, Qin Miao went to the team home to change into his racing suit and helmet for the new season.

The helmet paint Qin Miao currently uses is still the red helmet from last season.

The team suggested that Qin Miao should not take out the helmet for the new season until the opening game in Bahrain.

Qin Miao has also recently received his share of proportionally reduced helmets and team uniforms. That is not a small sum of money, so Qin Miao happily accepted the team's suggestion.

After putting on his equipment, Qin Miao came to his racing car.

At this time, the 18-inch tires of the car have not been installed yet and are being heated in the thermal blanket.

After Reyes nodded to Qin Miao, Qin Miao entered the car.

After more than a month, Qin Miao actually missed this secluded feeling after returning to the cockpit of the racing car.

After Qin Miao got used to it, Reyes came to Qin Miao's side with a tablet and asked, "How is the fit of the racing seat? Is there anything that needs to be adjusted?"

Qin Miao moved his back and body a little, and made a few sudden left and right changes. Then he gave Frankie a thumbs up and said: "It feels pretty good. It's almost the same as last season. It can be tight." Stick to the ground."

Reyes nodded and recorded it, and then said: "You should also pay attention to this aspect when you run later. If there is anything loose or uncomfortable, report it to us as soon as possible."

"it is good."

"How does the steering wheel feel?"

This season, the steering wheel of the Mercedes-Benz racing car has also been improved to a certain extent based on Qin Miao's hand shape.

Although the 21-year-old Qin Miao's height has been established and he has not continued to grow taller, Qin Miao's bones will change every year, so the team also customizes a steering wheel based on Qin Miao's hand shape every half a year.

"Not bad, it feels as good as ever."

"Okay, let's make a second confirmation after we get on the track."

"Where are the pedals? Is the angle appropriate? Will there be any frustration when you step on them?"

……

Although pre-season testing has begun, Qin Miao was not released by the team immediately.

Reyes and the others allowed Qin Miao to experience the car more.

It is best to find problems or any discomforts during this period and solve them on the spot. If you wait until you are on the track to start solving problems, it may be too late.

After another ten minutes of delay to complete all the inspections, Franky's voice reached Qin Miao's ears.

"Okay, after the inspection, let's go up and see what this guy is capable of." (End of Chapter)