How did I become an F1 driver?

Then Antonelli recalled what his teammate F2 driver Ilott said about Qin Miao: "He is not a normal person. After all, how can a good person drive a standard car and beat other F2 drivers by 0.3 seconds per lap? If you make the slightest mistake while following him, he will make it so that you can't see his taillights after 5 laps."

Thinking back to the F2 Grand Slam Qin Miao almost achieved...

Well, it all makes sense!
After the second practice session, Qin Miaole said goodbye to the team staff and left work.

However, Qin Miao still had a lingering doubt in his mind: which racing team did Geely buy?
However, it was not convenient for Qin Miao to call and ask directly at this time like he did last year. After all, Geely had officially entered the market. Although they had not yet started to achieve results on the track, Geely's affairs were already considered commercial secrets.

If he asked around like this, Mr. Li might really tell him the truth, but if he did so, Qin Miao would feel that he was being too shameless.

But Qin Miao changed his mind and realized that this matter would be made public sooner or later. After all, Geely is a racing team no matter what. When the time comes, everything will be clear as long as he officially appears.

After thinking about this, Qin Miao no longer worried about it.

The next day, Saturday, there is qualifying today.

There was a third training session to be conducted in the afternoon, and Qin Miao returned to his familiar state.

However, because most of the testing objectives were completed last night, Qin Miao's work this afternoon was relatively easy.

But it's not that there is nothing to do. Qin Miao still has a few sets of old tires left. Qin Miao can use them to test the aerodynamic efficiency of the car and try to optimize the tuning settings.

After all, the track temperature only drops at night, and the altitude and air density around the track do not change.

The only thing you need to pay attention to in this kind of desert track racing is that this is a desert and there are no trees around the track to block and weaken the wind on the track.

Therefore, when on the track, drivers need to face the problem of wind.

Qin Miao is no exception.

But at that time, it will depend more on the driver's own reaction and luck, and will have little to do with the team's tuning of the car.

Soon the third practice session ended, and the last practice session of the 2022 season came to an end.

After returning to the team's P room, Qin Miao began to review several flying laps on the track today and further optimized his route on the track with Barber. The sky at the Yas Bay Marina Circuit soon darkened.

After checking the time, Barber reminded Qin Miao, who was still immersed in the data, "Qin Miao, the qualifying round is about to begin. We need to go to the track to prepare first."

Qin Miao looked up from the data reluctantly. It felt really good to optimize his lap time bit by bit and get a 0.01 second speed advantage from the details.

Qin Miao then turned off his computer and thought about the results of his review after the third practice session this afternoon. After making sure there were no omissions, he stood up and started putting on his racing suit.

After getting dressed, Qin Miao left the lounge of the team's home and came to the team's P room.

But what surprised Qin Miao was that he actually met a lot of acquaintances in the team's P room.

Jay Chou, Kun Ling, and Liu Yifei.

Of course, Qin Miao only knew these people, had met them and said hello to them, but they had very few interactions in private.

On the one hand, Qin Miao was busy, and on the other hand, although they were all public figures, Qin Miao and they had no common topics, so there was naturally no possibility of chatting on weekdays.

But after all, they showed up in the team’s P room, so it was obvious that they were VIP customers of the team.

So Qin Miao walked over and greeted them.

"Mr. Jay, Sister Kunling, Sister Yifei." After all, they all knew each other, and Qin Miao was not a person with low EQ. Although as a two-time F1 world champion, Qin Miao's status was higher than that of an entertainment star to a certain extent, they were older than Qin Miao after all, so Qin Miao was still polite when greeting them.

"Hey Qin Miao, I watched your race in Brazil last week. It was very good. Keep up the good work in today's race!" Jay Chou smiled and shook hands with Qin Miao.

Qin Miao also smiled and shook hands with the other party and said, "I will try my best, but I think if you can release a new album today, I will listen to your songs during the qualifying round, and I will probably be in better shape."

Jay Chou: …

How come this kid is so bad at chatting? He starts by getting close to me and using his ultimate skill?
The point is that my new album was only released in July this year...

But there is at least one good news, that is, Qin Miao is sure that his fans have not run away.

Jay Chou looked at Qin Miao speechlessly, and then said, "After the album was released, I really don't have much stock now."

Qin Miao sighed with some regret.

But Jay Chou changed the subject: "But I can give you two tickets to my concert."

Qin Miao immediately held Jay Chou's hand tightly: "Please give it to me!"

After happily chatting with Jay Chou for a while, Qin Miao went to say hello to Kun Ling and Liu Yifei.

Next comes small talk.

After chatting for about ten minutes, Qin Miao saw Frankie wink at him, and Qin Miao knew that the time was almost up.

"I'll take my leave of the three of you. It's almost time. I have to go to the game."

"come on!"

Qin Miao bowed to the three men and came to his racing car. Reyes handed him the pre-race inspection documents. After confirming that there were no problems, Qin Miao signed his name.

During this time, Kun Ling asked Jay Chou, who was watching Qin Miao's work process with great interest, with some curiosity.

"Baby, how powerful is Qin Miao now?"

After all, Kun Ling really doesn't know much about F1 racing. She came to watch the race today entirely because she was brought here by Jay Chou. She doesn't know much about racing, but when she saw her husband's face full of interest, she naturally had doubts in this regard.

Jay Chou explained patiently, "Do you remember that we were here last year? Qin Miao wasn't the world champion at the time, but even so, as long as he won the Grand Prix, he would appear on the news broadcast that evening."

"And now this year, he has become a two-time world champion..." "Qin Miao's status in the domestic racing world is now equivalent to Liu Xiang in the hurdles world and Yao Ming in the basketball world."

"And Qin Miao's results in the competition are better."

"Even if we put aside his identity as an Asian driver, Qin Miao is only the second person in history to win the F1 world championship in his first season in F1. The first person in F1 history to achieve this achievement can be traced back to Giuseppe Farina in 1950."

Kun Ling was surprised: "Qin Miao is so powerful, is there anyone more powerful than him?"

Jay shook his finger and said, "Giuseppe Farina's talent is not comparable to Qin Miao's. The reason why he was able to achieve such success was because that was also the first season of F1. Anyone could have achieved this in their debut season."

"So leaving Giuseppe Farina aside, Qin Miao is strictly speaking the first driver in F1 history to win the world championship in his debut season, and naturally created another record that has never been seen before and will probably never be surpassed: winning two world championships within two years of entering F1."

"It can be said that although Qin Miao does not have as many world championships as his teammate Hamilton, there is no doubt that Qin Miao is also a legend active on the field now."

Looking at her husband who seemed to be very knowledgeable and became more and more excited when talking about Qin Miao, Kun Ling looked at Jay Chou with some helplessness and doting.

The Fairy Sister on the side was glancing at the pile of snacks on one side of the VIP area, wondering if she would gain weight by getting some food at this time?
Finally, the Fairy Sister couldn't resist the temptation of food, thinking that since her agent was not around, she wouldn't be discovered if she ate a piece or two!

Then he reached out for the pastries and drinks prepared by the team for the VIPs.

At this time, Qin Miao completed all the preparations before entering the car. He stretched out his hand to shake hands with Reyes, and after high-fiving the other staff members of his crew one by one, Qin Miao stuffed himself into his car.

After entering the racing car and connecting the communication line of the helmet to the racing car, Qin Miao heard Franky's voice:

“Radio check.”

"I can't hear you. Please repeat." Qin Miao replied.

"Haha." Franky smiled perfunctorily.

It’s the last game, and you can see that Qin Miao is very relaxed now, and even in the mood to have some fun.

But after a pause on the radio, Franky's voice sounded again:
"Qin Miao, if possible, we need to provide Lewis with some help within our capacity in today's game."

Qin Miao blinked in surprise and asked, "Is this a request from the team or Hamilton?"

Franky told the truth: "This is the team's request."

A request is just asking someone for help. Whether you want to do this favor depends entirely on your personal wishes, which means it is not mandatory.

"Does that mean it can be not executed?" Anyway, it was the last game of the 2022 season. Qin Miao was very relaxed at this time and continued to joke.

However, because the two were communicating through the team TR, and the sound quality of the team TR was not very good, in order to control the weight of the car, almost all teams were frantically making subtractions in the design of the communication system.

Sound quality? Not necessary!
HIFI? No need!
Surround sound? No need!
Response speed? No... this is still necessary...

In summary, the team has only one requirement for the TR system built into the car: it should work and have low latency, so that there will be no errors in the team's tactical communication due to latency problems, and it will not malfunction due to the car's harsh working environment and bumps when driving at high speeds.

In short, it is a bit like some irresponsible parents raising their children. They have no other requirements, just that they are alive and not dying.

Therefore, Qin Miao's joke seemed a little distorted and sounded a little cold and heartless when heard by Franky.

The original joking meaning in Qin Miao's words was lost.

So after thinking about it, Franky said: "That's true, but this race is the last race of the year. The team hopes that the last race can have a relatively good result in both the driver and team standings."

"Okay, I'll try my best. Do you need me to help Hamilton tow the car in qualifying? Today's track is quite suitable for towing tactics, at least much more suitable than Monte Carlo."

Qin Miao's answer clearly showed agreement, but his cold attitude just now lowered everyone's expectations to the lowest level.

So after Qin Miao agreed, everyone's faces showed joy.

Frank said: "In Q1, you can rehearse on the track and familiarize yourself with the process of pulling the slipstream on this track in advance."

"Good~"

On the other hand, Hamilton's track engineer naturally told Hamilton the news that Qin Miao was going to help him tow the car on the track. The old man was actually a little unable to accept it for a while.

After all, no matter what, he is the seven-time F1 champion. He still needs his teammates' help to tow the car to get the pole position in the qualifying race. If this gets out to others, he will lose face.

But on second thought, he had no choice now after all, Perez was within reach in front of him, and if he performed well enough in today's race, he could get fourth place in the driver of the year.

Hamilton didn't want to miss this opportunity.

And F1 is a competitive sport after all, where only the results matter, not the process.

Therefore, although Hamilton did not actively ask Qin Miao to help him with the slipstream on the track, after knowing from the team that Qin Miao would help him with the slipstream, Hamilton did not refuse.

Soon Q1 started. Qin Miao encountered some traffic problems on his first flying lap. Although the team tried their best to avoid Qin Miao from encountering such problems on the track, there are always some teams that release their cars at the same time as your flying lap, and there are always some stupid track engineers who don't like to look at the satellite map of the track.

This was inevitable. After running for two years, Qin Miao had even become accustomed to it. After all, he had already won the world championship. Qin Miao did not swear at Ricardo who blocked him, but just complained.

Qin Miao finished his first flying lap quickly, with a lap time of 1:1. Although this result was a bit ugly for Qin Miao, the world champion, it was undoubtedly a result that would allow him to advance directly to Q25.700.

After seeing Qin Miao achieve such a good result on a brand new set of soft tires, everyone in the Mercedes team's P room said that they were calm and did what they were supposed to do.

After finishing the first flying lap, Qin Miao naturally knew that he could definitely enter Q1, so he changed to a set of neutral tires used in the practice session and helped Hamilton create a wake on the track for his last flying lap.

The main purpose was to see where exactly I should start in order to provide the best wake effect for Hamilton.

In the end, Hamilton ran a single lap time of 1:24.700, just 1 second faster than Qin Miao, and won the first place in Q1. (End of this chapter)