How did I become an F1 driver?

Although Qin Miao didn't know why Toto knew he was out, he knew that wandering the streets alone without the support of a motorcade was indeed too disrespectful to the local craftsmen.

So from then on until the start of the Mexican Grand Prix, Qin Miao rarely left the hotel.

However, although Qin Miao calmed down to adapt to the local high-altitude climate, he also practiced settling down in the hotel.

But the various news in the paddock did not stop.

First of all, Red Bull announced on Wednesday before the Mexican Grand Prix that Perez would renew his contract with Red Bull.

Perez's new contract will run until the end of 2024.

It's a surprise for all Mexican fans.

Many fans who didn’t pay much attention to the situation in the paddock were stunned after seeing Red Bull’s official announcement.

No buddy, the sponsorship of Perez is so attractive to you Red Bull... Well, the sponsorship of Perez does seem to be quite attractive...

But that's not the point. Perez's performance this season shouldn't be called that. Red Bull Racing can't win the Constructors' World Championship despite the strong performance of the car this season. 100%, or even 90% of the fault lies with Perez.

Even so, you, Red Bull, are still going to renew the contract with Lauper?

Isn't the money you get after winning the Constructors' World Championship much more than Laupe's sponsorship?

Of course, this is just the superficial judgment of car fans.

In fact, Red Bull is really satisfied with Perez's performance.

Perez's poor running was not due to Perez himself, but to Red Bull.

You have to know that in recent seasons, Red Bull's upgrades to the car have really not cared much about whether the driver can control the car, but instead focused on improving the performance of the car.

Therefore, although this car has good predictability, driving it is a bit like walking on a tightrope. The best working state is within a very small range, and you have to stay in this very small range throughout the race. A slight wrong step can easily lead to an accident.

Only a driver of Verstappen's level can control the RB19 well. For ordinary people, the car will easily turn into a gyroscope when passing some more intense turns.

Of course, this is not absolute, because in the recently concluded US Grand Prix, Verstappen's performance in the race was not particularly good.

In the small dark room after the race, Qin Miao also asked Verstappen why his speed in chasing him slowed down in the later stages of the race.

Verstappen was in a good mood because he got the runner-up place, so he did not hide anything when facing Qin Miao's question. He told Qin Miao directly that his brake settings were not adjusted properly during the race.

It can be seen from this that even Verstappen may not be able to accurately find the best tuning settings for the RB19.

As for the reason why Red Bull signed Perez... Qin Miao learned it from Barber.

After all, it is obviously easier to establish friendships between the staff of each team than between drivers.

The main reason why Perez signed with Red Bull was that he beat all the test players when he was conducting simulator testing of RB19 within the Red Bull team.

Of course this does not include Verstappen, because Verstappen did not go at all.

All in all, Perez had the fastest lap time throughout the entire test.

Among those who took the test were not only two drivers from Lynk & Co, but also a young driver from Red Bull.

So it’s not that Red Bull doesn’t want a driver who can score more points, but Perez is now the driver in their lineup who can score the most points besides Verstappen.

Therefore, Master Pei is a choice that Red Bull has no choice but to make.

Speaking of Perez's seat, we have to mention that there is still a driver in the paddock whose destination has not been determined.

This person is Sainz.

Sainz is in a very awkward position now, because last season Sainz signed a two-year contract with Ferrari.

In other words, Sainz's driver contract should last until 2024.

But because Vasseur paid a huge price to pry Ferrari away from Mercedes, Sainz is in a very embarrassing situation now.

Of course, Ferrari also knows that what it did was not fair, so when negotiating with Sainz, it made it clear that the team could make concessions on Sainz's contract.

The team can settle the contract with Sainz in advance, just like McLaren did with Ricciardo, and directly pay Sainz 24 years' salary in advance.

Then in 24 years, there was no restriction on Sainz finding a job in the paddock, and the two sides parted ways peacefully.

Sainz also knew that after Qin Miao came, he had basically completely moved from the front stage to behind the scenes.

So during this period he naturally contacted other teams.

But Sainz is not Qin Miao. It is impossible for these teams to give up their drivers who have already signed contracts for Sainz.

There are also teams that have obvious ideas about Sainz, such as Sauber.

As Sauber has been acquired by Audi, considering the cooperative relationship between Audi and the Sainz family, it stands to reason that the cooperation intention of both parties should be very strong.

But Sainz doesn't want to go to Sauber.

Because he doesn't see any future in Sauber.

Maybe Audi is willing to invest money, and Sauber also has a bright future, but at least this bright future will not be in this ground effect era, and Sainz does not want to stay at Sauber for three years.

Yes, Sauber offered a lot of money, but the contract was also very long, a full three years.

Sainz naturally wouldn't agree.

After struggling for a long time, Sainz still couldn't find a team in the paddock that was willing to fire a driver from its own team and accept him, except for Sobo.

So after weighing the pros and cons and considering for a long time, Sainz finally decided to stay in the Ferrari team as a test driver for one year.

And 24 years is enough time for Sainz to contact other teams.

The reason for this choice is that Sainz has Ricciardo as a reference.

After wandering outside for more than a year, Ricciardo was not accepted by the Lynk & Co team based on his own abilities, but because he waited for the opportunity and a position happened to be vacant.

So if I also have to wait for an opportunity in the next year, Ferrari is obviously a better platform.

It's interesting to say.

Qin Miao, who has been in F1 for nearly three years, has so far only played for the Mercedes F1 team. However, when he went to Mercedes, the driver Bottas, who he replaced, still had one year's contract with Mercedes.

This time when he came to Ferrari, the driver Qin Miao replaced, Sainz, also had a one-year contract with the Ferrari team.

The two times he changed jobs, he made the No. 2 driver of the team sit on the bench for a year. This may also be a special ability that belongs to Qin Miao.

But at least the people in Tiefu Temple still like this characteristic of Qin Miao.

After all, judging from Qin Miao's performance after joining Mercedes, he replaced Bottas and made Bottas sit on the bench.

But he also brought Mercedes the Drivers' World Championship, even though Mercedes had already won both the Team and Drivers' World Championships for many consecutive years.

But this is enough to show that after Qin Miao comes to Ferrari, he will also bring the same championship to Ferrari.

The Iron Buddhas have been craving for a world championship for too long, and now they finally have the chance to get it. Naturally, they hope to see Qin Miao's trajectory at Ferrari overlap with his trajectory at Mercedes-Benz.

This refers to the trajectory of Qin Miao winning the world championship after squeezing out the second driver.

……

A regular life always goes by quickly, and soon it was Wednesday.

Qin Miao had already completed all his community service tasks.

So Qin Miao only needs to follow the normal procedures during this Grand Prix weekend.

Through reports on the Internet and local TV stations, Qin Miao could clearly feel that the Mexican media's enthusiasm for him was obviously not as high as that of the American media.

Of course, such a situation is not difficult to understand. After all, this is Mexico, Perez's absolute home ground.

I believe that if the venue of the race is changed to a domestic race, the media on the scene will definitely have a completely different attitude towards myself and Verstappen.

And for this Grand Prix weekend, Mercedes naturally also brought corresponding upgrades.

After all, the 2238-meter altitude of the Rodriguez Hermanos Circuit seriously affects the air intake and aerodynamic efficiency of the racing engine.

So this Grand Prix weekend, the Mercedes team brought targeted upgrades.

The air intake of the engine has been increased, as well as more radiator grilles.

The purpose is naturally to adapt to the thin air track environment at the high altitude of the Rodriguez Hermanos Circuit.

Apart from this, there are no further upgrades to the team.

After all, there is only one high-altitude track in the entire F1 calendar. If an aerodynamic kit or one or two aerodynamic components are designed specifically for this track, although it will have unexpected effects, it will not be worth the cost considering the overall situation of the entire season.

In addition, this is not Mercedes-Benz's home ground, so there is no need to invest too much R&D resources here.

Therefore, apart from the optimization of the engine air intake system, there were no changes to the W14 this Grand Prix weekend.

On Wednesday night, Qin Miao invited Leclerc to his hotel for dinner.

When Qin Miao cooks for him personally, even if Leclerc has business activities in the evening, he will turn them down and come to Qin Miao's house for dinner.

After all, Qin Miao is a world champion, so when he cooks for you, there is naturally a rare filter.

Not to mention that Qin Miao’s cooking actually tastes much better than the food Leclerc has eaten in many Michelin five-star restaurants.

Sometimes when chatting privately, Leclerc and Zhou Guanyu joked that eating the food cooked by Qin Miao at Qin Miao's house felt like taking drugs. After eating it once, you will become addicted and want to eat it a second time.

At that time, Qin Miao said: "In this case, in order to prevent you from becoming addicted to drugs, I will turn off the stove and never cook again."

After hearing what Qin Miao said, the two of them almost knelt down in front of Qin Miao and begged him to give up.

Therefore, Leclerc had no reason to refuse Qin Miao's invitation.

As for the fact that the food is too spicy, it will make your stomach feel uncomfortable after eating it, and in severe cases, you may even have diarrhea...

Is this Qin Miao's problem? This is Leclerc's problem!
It makes sense that his own stomach cannot adapt to the dishes cooked by Qin Miao!
The previous Leclerc might have some concerns, but the current Leclerc has no such concerns.

Over the years, even though Leclerc had diarrhea after eating chili peppers at first, he has gotten used to it after eating it for so long. Leclerc even feels that if he continues to eat it for a few more years, his body will become desensitized to the peppers.

As for why Qin Miao suddenly invited Leclerc to dinner, it was mainly because he wanted to comfort Leclerc.

After all, I worked hard to run a race. Even though the result was not very good, I was only seventh, but I still got some points, right?

But who could have imagined that his result would eventually be cancelled because the track was too bumpy and the wooden board at the bottom of the car was worn out too badly.

No matter who it is, it would be extremely uncomfortable if this happened to them.

It was like I worked hard throughout the entire game, but in the end all my efforts were wasted.

So Qin Miao invited the fourth brother to come over for a meal.

Of course, Qin Miao was going to cook himself, so he couldn't have invited only Leclerc.

Since only Leclerc was invited, Qin Miao couldn't cook too many dishes. Two or three dishes would already be considered a lot. The most important thing was that if he cooked too much, they wouldn't be able to finish it.

But if you want to eat well, two or three dishes are obviously not enough, so Qin Miao called Leclerc as well as Zhou Guanyu and Gasly.

This time, the drivers really just had a meal together. They didn't even talk about things in the paddock during the meal. They just focused on eating.

Not only was the food so delicious that they had no time to eat, but they were also all choking on the spiciness. No normal person would have the time to chat at this time.

Compared with them, Qin Miao and Zhou Guanyu are in much better condition than the other two.

But the spiciness made me sweat.

But what is certain is that when Lao Si left Qinmiao Hotel, there was no longer the disappointment on his face from having his results cancelled at the US Grand Prix last week, but instead more worry.

Because of this meal, the fourth child ate a little too much.

For F1 drivers like Leclerc, weight is a very important issue.

Even if you weigh one or two kilograms more, you can still go on the track and race. The FAI only stipulates that the minimum weight limit for the driver and the racing seat cannot be less than 80 kilograms, not the maximum weight limit.

However, these weights resulted in a real loss of lap time, so after Leclerc finished his meal and returned to his hotel, he started his daily physical training.

Nothing happened that night, and the next day was Thursday.

Just when Qin Miao arrived at the track and was about to attend the pre-race press conference, he received a piece of news that made him laugh and cry.

Leclerc, who was supposed to attend the pre-race press conference with him today, missed the event because of a stomach upset.

Therefore, there were only four drivers at the pre-race press conference that Qin Miao attended today. (End of this chapter)