How did I become an F1 driver?

Qin Miao took a look and found that it was Barber who hit him.

Qin Miao answered the phone without thinking.

Soon, Barber's voice came through the phone: "Qin Miao, it's getting late, and we have work tomorrow."

Although there was not much emotion in Barber's words, Qin Miao knew that Barber must have been staring at him.

And after being disturbed by Barber, Qin Miao also transformed from an internet-addicted teenager back into the world champion who was a big name in the F1 arena.

Qin Miao regained his self-discipline.

After clicking Save in the game, Qin Miao said amid the wailing of the audience in the live broadcast room, "It's time to log off. I still have work to do tomorrow, so I need to rest early."

After saying that, Qin Miao closed his live broadcast room.

Only the barrage was left, still struggling feebly:

[One more round, the last round, just the last round! ]

[You blew up Tokyo before you slept, you bastard! ]

【Grass, be born! 】

【Good night Sanshui】

【Bye-Bye】

【886】

Of course, in addition to the viewers who were really watching Qin Miao play games, there were obviously also many viewers who came just for Qin Miao as a person.

So compared to the audience who likes to watch Qin Miao play games, the other group of audiences are obviously a lot calmer.

I closed the live broadcast room, stood up, stretched, took a shower and went to bed.

The next day, the post-season test period begins.

When Qin Miao dressed neatly and arrived at the Mercedes team's P room, he saw his acquaintance, Mick Schumacher, in the Mercedes team's lounge.

Although Mick's driver contract with the Haas team has not expired, strictly speaking, Mick Schumacher is still a driver of the Haas team.

But the season testing period is almost the same as next season.

So it is not surprising that Mick appears in the Mercedes team's P room now.

After all, the two had been teammates for a while, and their relationship had been reconciled.

When Qin Miao saw Mick again, he was more filled with the joy of meeting his former colleague again.

But when Mick saw Qin Miao again as a teammate, he felt very complicated.

This guy is already a two-time world champion, but now he has been kicked out by Haas. Now he can only rely on the influence of his father to get a one-year test driver contract at Mercedes.

A bitter feeling spread in my heart.

"Long time no see Mick. Seeing you...well, should I be happy?" After Qin Miao came in front of Mick, he greeted him habitually, but he paused halfway through his words.

In fact, Mick’s personality is not like his father Michael. Mick’s personality is a bit soft, which is commonly known as a good guy.

So even though Qin Miao's greeting was somewhat rude, Mick didn't care. Although he felt bitter in his heart, he smiled and shook hands with Qin Miao and said, "It's okay. I'm glad I can join Mercedes-Benz."

Looking at the face in front of him, which was obviously much more mature than the first time he saw it, Qin Miao sighed.

Although the Mercedes team is indeed strong and can provide drivers with a sufficiently competitive racing car.

However, the team does not have a clear promotion mechanism like Red Bull. With himself and Hamilton staying in the driver's position, Mick will probably only be a test driver before his contract ends.

Although Qin Miao and Mick's relationship was not that good yet, Qin Miao still felt sorry for Mick.

However, no matter how mediocre one is who can enter F1, he has something in his hands, so Qin Miao is not worried that his old teammate will be unemployed in the future.

At that time, both the endurance race and the Indy 500 will be a good choice. Even if Mick does not plan to drive a racing car in the future, the money left by Michael will be enough for him to use for a lifetime.

"Then I wish you good luck with your future work. I have to go check on the repair of my car first."

After saying hello to Mick, Qin Miao entered the team's P room, came to his car and saw his car.

At this time, the damaged bottom plate of my car had been removed and the internal engine had also been maintained.

However, the engine parts of Qin Miao's racing car are assembled from the parts that are in better condition among all the remaining parts of this season. It should not be a problem to survive the last period of the 2022 season, but the performance is indeed average. However, the post-season test does not look at the performance of the car.

After patting the hood of his racing car and feeling the condition of it to make sure there was no problem, Qin Miao pretended to check it before starting to hand over the work.

Next up is post-season testing.

This process has been mentioned before. In addition to testing Pirelli's tire formula for the next season and collecting tire data, it also serves to collect racing data and also allows new drivers to familiarize themselves with the team's work process.
Mercedes-Benz did not have a new driver, so Qin Miao's job was relatively simple at this time, just driving and running laps on the track.

After the race, let’s talk about the specific differences in driving with different tire compounds in the two seasons.

Then continue to run on the track and modify the car's aerodynamics, suspension damping and so on.

Moreover, like pre-season tests, there is no specified testing time for post-season tests, so everyone is relatively relaxed throughout the entire work process, after all, time is not tight.

Two days passed in a flash. As Qin Miao parked the W13B in front of the door of the Mercedes team's P room and Reyes and his team lifted it up with a jack, everyone in the team breathed a sigh of relief at the same time.

Because the 2022 season belonging to the Mercedes team came to an end after Qin Miao parked his car.

All the work for this year has been completed. Once the team transmits the data collected in the past two days to the headquarters and then cleans up the things of the on-site team, everyone can go home.

After completing the post-season testing, Qin Miao did not leave Abu Dhabi immediately.

Because last year all the drivers had a meal together after the post-season test. Since last year, almost all the drivers have agreed to come to this Chinese restaurant for a meal after each season.

So after finishing his work in the paddock, Qin Miao drove to this familiar Chinese restaurant alone.

There were actually only 20 people attending today's party, these were this year's 20 official F1 drivers.

Drivers like Piastri and de Vries, who will join the F1 family next year or have only played one race this year, were not invited.

Although the circle of F1 drivers is not exclusive, and basically everyone can be kind to others due to professional requirements, but they are all the chosen ones who have fought their way up from low-level formula events. Before you truly enter the F1 family, no one will recognize you.

And this gathering is really a gathering in the literal sense. At the end of the year, colleagues sit together to eat, drink, chat and talk about what happened on the track and in the paddock in the past year.

Normally, Qin Miao, the world champion, would be the real protagonist of this gathering. However, including Qin Miao, many others focused their attention on Vettel, listening to him talk about his experiences in the paddock over the years.

This is not only a respect for the four-time champion, but also a remembrance of the friend who is about to leave.

To be honest, Vettel is quite popular in the paddock. At least compared with Verstappen, Vettel is obviously more popular.

As for Qin Miao...

If Vettel is a hospitable big brother next door, then Verstappen is a bit like a reckless kid on the track and in private. As for Qin Miao, he is an autistic genius boy.

He is really strong, and he is really autistic.

During this process, everyone was naturally very relaxed and had no burdens.

Many misunderstandings on the track were resolved during this dinner, except for Ocon and Alonso.

During today's dinner, the two of them sat almost at opposite corners of the long dining table, looking like they would never have anything to do with each other.

Qin Miao had nothing much to say about this. He could only say that since these two people worked in the French racing team, it was destined that something like this would happen one day.

But all good things must come to an end, and everyone still has work to do tomorrow. No matter how long the meal takes, it will all end around 11pm.

After saying goodbye to Vettel and other colleagues, Qin Miao went directly to the airport and boarded a plane back to the UK.

However, Qin Miao's colleagues were not as anxious as Qin Miao after the party.

Some people plan to return to the UK after playing in Abu Dhabi for a while, while some plan to leave tomorrow.

It's entirely a personal choice.

The reason why Qin Miao did not return to China directly after finishing his work but went to the UK first was mainly because the team would have an annual meeting soon and Qin Miao, as one of the two official drivers of the team, must attend.

At the same time, the annual FIA awards ceremony will be held in December, and Qin Miao also needs to attend.

In addition to these, there are also some promotional materials that Qin Miao needs to shoot.

Unable to rest during the New Year holidays, the team’s social media has simply gone dead and nothing is released.

Fans still need to be managed and maintained.

After finishing his work in the UK, Qin Miao will need to go back to Monaco to clean up the house and then invite Leclerc to dinner. Zhou Guanyu and Norris will probably come as well. If the timing is right, Hamilton, who usually lives in Monaco for three months a year to avoid taxes, should also come.

I'll have to buy more vegetables then.

After dinner, Qin Miao would probably be called to the royal family. After all, Qin Miao often received messages from Prince Jacques of Monaco on his mobile phone.

Qin Miao would come back when he had time, and therefore the two had a good relationship.

After I go back, the other party will definitely want to see me.

After thinking about it, I realized that after finishing all these things, my work would basically be done, and I could go home directly then.

If you count carefully, he hasn't seen his wife for almost a month. When he was busy on the field, Qin Miao didn't feel this way. Now that he has completely relaxed, Qin Miao feels the longing.

After sighing, Qin Miao packed up and started to sleep on the plane.

When Qin Miao woke up the next morning, the plane had already landed in the UK.

It was still dark, but because of the time difference, Qin Miao was already very energetic.

After landing, Qin Miao first went to Blackley's home and asked the cleaning lady to clean up his room.

After politely declining Barber's invitation to dinner at his home, Qin Miao took his fishing equipment and drove the RV to the pond near his home.

After throwing away the bait that had long expired, Qin Miao started his fishing trip this year.

It has been a long time since he last went fishing. After returning home, Qin Miao was ready to pick up this not-so-well-known hobby of his and Zhou Guanyu again.

After all, it is the end of the year, and other people in the team also have their own work to deal with. Even other drivers who have a good relationship with Qin Miao are very busy at this time. The drivers' sponsors also know that the drivers are now free, and naturally they will treat them to dinner, discuss contract renewals, shoot commercials, and participate in events.

Qin Miao is different. Although he has many endorsement contracts, none of them are in-depth cooperation. Qin Miao also completed all his work targets at Yili as early as the middle of the year, so Qin Miao naturally became idle at this time.

Qin Miao sat by the lake for almost a whole day and no one came to disturb him.

The only thing that made Qin Miao feel a little uncomfortable was that he didn't catch any fish...

I also lost 10 kilograms of bait.

"Damn, it's such bad luck. Whoever wants to fish for this fish can do so. I won't touch it anymore."

As it was getting dark, Qin Miao packed up his fishing gear while cursing and drove back home.

In the evening, Qin Miao made some noodles and beat two eggs.

Although the meal was very ordinary, Qin Miao had cooking skills after all, and the taste was very good.

After eating, I started the live broadcast and continued to play Civilization for almost two hours before taking a break.

The next day, Qin Miao put on his team uniform and drove the AMG GT to the team.

Starting this afternoon, the team will hold this year's annual meeting at the team's headquarters.

During the period, many Mercedes legends, team executives, celebrities from all walks of life and even the mayor of Brackley came.

When Qin Miao came out of the team headquarters after the annual meeting, it was already past one in the morning.

Go home and sleep.

The next day, after getting up, Qin Miao finally picked up the exercise that he had neglected for a long time.

It was still a little uncomfortable at the beginning, but as Qin Miao persisted, he soon regained the original feeling.

In the next few days, Qin Miao exercised at home in the morning and went to work in the fleet in the afternoon.

That’s right, Qin Miao still needs to make final preparations for the 2022 holiday.

For example, helping the team's R&D department determine the next R&D direction.

Of course, Qin Miao couldn't give a specific research and development direction, he could only make suggestions. (End of this chapter)