How did I become an F1 driver?

After dinner, it was naturally time to rest. The three of them did not go back to their RV or hotel to rest. They just opened the automatic balcony on Qin Miao's RV, opened the parasol, put down three lounge chairs and a pot of tea, and the three of them just lay on the lounge chairs and chatted idly.

After chatting for a while, Leclerc suddenly asked: "By the way, has your team made any major upgrades during this summer break?"

"You are trying to find out my business secrets. I have recorded the video and will report you to the FIA ​​later." Zhou Guanyu took out his cell phone with the screen turned off and threatened.

Qin Miao and Leclerc ignored him: "Not bad, one major upgrade and three minor upgrades. Elliott said that this upgrade should bring Mercedes-Benz a 0.5 second improvement in lap time."

"That sounds good." Leclerc nodded and said, "Ferrari has been very diligent in upgrading recently, but there is a big problem."

Qin Miao and Zhou Guanyu asked curiously: "What's the problem?"

"As the car was upgraded, its handling performance plummeted. It is faster, but the increase in speed is accompanied by an increase in handling difficulty. Can you imagine that if the SF23 is hit by a little crosswind, its characteristics in the corners will change dramatically? This car is so damn fun to drive now. Sometimes it oversteers, sometimes it understeers."

Leclerc complained: "I don't know what those bugs in Ferrari's design department were thinking. They could make such a disgusting car. The most disgusting thing is that they ignored me when I gave them feedback. I am really impressed."

Although Leclerc did not say that he would find the culprit inside Ferrari and kill him, it is probably because Ferrari has done too many stupid operations like this and he has gotten used to it.

But Qin Miao still touched his nose a little embarrassedly. He still remembered that when he was chatting with Vasseur, he mentioned the performance of the car. At that time, he talked about the car upgrade with the French old man with a crooked mouth. After discussing with the other party, he determined the car upgrade policy for the second half of the 23 season.

That is, regardless of driving comfort and controllability, the racing performance is dead.

It can be said that the difficulties Leclerc suffered in car controllability at this time were basically caused by Qin Miao.

After seeing Qin Miao's actions, Zhou Guanyu bumped Leclerc's shoulder and motioned him to look at Qin Miao.

They both saw Qin Miao rub his nose.

After all, they have known Qin Miao for such a long time, and they can judge Qin Miao's current state based on some of his habitual movements.

Qin Miao's behavior of smiling and touching his nose showed that he felt guilty at that time.

After Zhou Guanyu's reminder, Leclerc also had some guesses in his mind.

After all, Qin Miao will join Ferrari next season, and the conditions offered by Ferrari are basically the same as Ferrari begging Qin Miao to come back. Therefore, Qin Miao's status within Ferrari is absolutely transcendent, and he may also make such a request.

But Leclerc still didn't believe that the bugs inside Ferrari would surrender so easily, so he was just a little skeptical and looked at Qin Miao with ill intentions: "Qin Miao, you'd better not let me know that you have anything to do with this, otherwise... I will go to your house and steal your F2 championship trophy."

At this time, Zhou Guanyu raised his hand and said, "Two of the trophies in Qin Miao's house belong to me. Don't take the wrong ones when you steal them."

"Oh, no, if you give the trophy back to me after you steal it, Qin Miao won't know about it. Then I won't have to give Qin Miao the F2!" Zhou Guanyu showed the same expression as Tie Niu: "Xiaer, let me tell you that my trophy is long..."

"That's enough, both of you!" Qin Miao interrupted Zhou Guanyu's spellcasting: "Also, how can you slander someone's innocence out of thin air? Since you said I have something to do with this matter, whoever claims it must provide evidence. Show me the evidence!"

"Sometimes, for you, you don't need any evidence, just rely on your feeling."

"Get the hell out of here!"

"Hey hey hey."

Qin Miao looked at Zhou Guanyu and said, "Are you laughing at your mother? At least our team has made some upgrades this week. We are not talking about the podium, but at least we are both guaranteed to be in the top five. What about you? You didn't make any upgrades this week and you are still grinning."

Zhou Guanyu, who had just been watching the show and adding fuel to the fire, was stunned after being hit hard by Qin Miao. Then he seemed to have lost all color and became depressed.

"Hey Qin Miao, you're not right." At this time, Leclerc said to Zhou Guanyu: "At least, this weekend, Arrow brought a new paint upgrade."

“Hahahahahaha!”*2.

"You two! Die!" After being stabbed by the two men in turn, Zhou Guanyu became completely furious. He picked up the pillow next to him and threw it at the two men.

However, the two men were agile and quickly dodged it.

……

Happy Thursday passed in a flash and it was Friday.

When Qin Miao arrived outside the P room of the Zandvoort Circuit during the first practice session, he heard the "cordial" greetings from the Dutch fans at the scene.

Listening to the greeting in his ear, Qin Miao closed his eyes and took a deep breath of Zandvoort's air.

Barber, who was standing by, looked at Qin Miao's movements and asked with a smile, "Why, are you enjoying the greetings from the audience now?"

Amidst the sounds of "fuck", Qin Miao shook his head: "No, I just want to smell who is spewing shit from their mouths."

"Do you smell it?" Bob asked curiously.

"The whole auditorium smells like shit. It's boring."

"Then go and slap them in the face in the main competition." Barber encouraged Qin Miao.

Qin Miao smiled bitterly: "The drivers at home have some advantages, I will do my best."

After saying this, Qin Miao couldn't help but think of what Boss Zhou and Toto had said to him before today's race. So Qin Miao changed the subject: "Of course, if there is a chance, I will probably try to knock Verstappen off the track."

The corner of Barber's mouth twitched, and he looked around nervously. He breathed a sigh of relief when he found that there were no outsiders.

If what Qin Miao just said was heard by local Dutch fans, Qin Miao would probably be scolded by them.

"Okay, stop talking nonsense and go to the P-room. The game is about to start."

Qin Miao nodded, and the two returned to the team's P room together.

I won't go into details about the first practice session, but what surprised Qin Miao was that Elliott was not bragging about this Grand Prix weekend. After replacing the new rear wing, the W14 was in really good shape.

Qin Miao clearly felt that the driving experience of the car was much more comfortable than before, and the adjustable range had also become larger.

The most important thing is that Qin Miao is not the only one who thinks so. The old man also feels that the current W14 is much easier to drive than the one before the summer vacation.

In the second practice, Qin Miao and the old man completed their work normally, but during this process, an accident occurred on the track.

Ten minutes into the second practice session, Piastri slipped and hit the wall in T3.

The place where he climbed the wall and parked was just outside T3, and the place where he parked was very close to the driving lane.

Because Ricciardo couldn't dodge in time, in order to avoid a secondary collision, he did not choose to force into the turn, but chose to brake in a straight line.

But Ricciardo entered the corner too fast and the distance between him and the guardrail was not enough to slow down the car.

As a result, Ricardo eventually crashed into the guardrail.

It is worth mentioning that before all this happened, Ricardo did not take his hands off the steering wheel.

You should know that all trained formula one drivers know that when the car is completely out of control and cannot be saved and is about to hit the wall, the best way to avoid getting hurt is to take your hands off the steering wheel and make an X in front of your chest.

After the collision, Ricciardo felt discomfort in his palm. After leaving the track and going to the hospital for examination, it was found that his palm was fractured. The doctor judged that Ricciardo would not be able to continue to participate in the entire Grand Prix weekend.

Lynk & Co is also confused. What the hell is going on?

Lynk & Co's first thought after Ricardo's fracture was to find someone to replace Ricardo.

After all, you only have one car running on the track, and sponsors won't be happy about that.

Even if Lynk & Co is a factory team and can ignore the sponsor factor, the data collected by a car on the track is not enough.

After a little thought, Lynk & Co thought of Ye Yifei, who ran endurance races for Ferrari, as the substitute driver.

【Note 1】

But Ye Yifei is a Ferrari driver after all, and Lynk & Co had actually wanted to contact Ye Yifei before.

After all, there are only three Chinese drivers who are relatively famous and capable abroad at this time, Qin Miao, Zhou Guanyu and Ye Yifei.

Not to mention Qin Miao and Zhou Guanyu, both of them have already entered F1 and are doing well in their own teams. Either their contracts have not expired yet, or Lynk & Co cannot afford them.

Premised on wanting a Chinese driver to join, Lynk & Co naturally started considering Ye Yifei.

However, Lynk & Co is only planning to contact Ye Yifei in the short term and give him the identity of a test driver to let him try to adapt to the rhythm of F1 racing.

Of course, in Lynk & Co's view, Ye Yifei, a prototype car driver, has something in common with F1 in terms of physical fitness, speed and competition experience, and they are quite confident in Ye Yifei.

But the problem now is that Lynk & Co is only talking with Ye Yifei and has not signed a contract with the other party.

After all, Lynk & Co belongs to Red Bull, so even if they want to lease it on the spot, they don't have the opportunity to do so.

But, the world of martial arts is not about fighting and killing, it is about human relationships and worldly wisdom.

A question is, who is the person in the current F1 paddock who has a good relationship with Lynk & Co and also has a close relationship with Ferrari?
Qin Miao?

Asking someone for help means you owe them a favor!
And to be honest, Qin Miao’s relationship with Lynk & Co is not that deep. They can only be said to be fellow villagers.

This person is actually Binotto.

After all, he will be a senior executive of Lynk & Co next season, and he has worked at Ferrari for so many years. It won't be a problem to let Teacher Bi go to Ferrari to make some arrangements and rent Ye Yifei for a few days.

What? Red Bull has so many excellent young drivers, but they chose Ye Yifei. This is obviously discrimination against nationality!
Damn, Lynk & Co is a Chinese company, and the Lynk & Co-Lotus Saudi Aramco F1 Team is also a Chinese team.

The purpose of participating in the competition here is to expand Geely's influence in the country and compete with those monsters for the domestic market. Under such circumstances, shouldn't it be a natural thing to find a Chinese driver?
If you don’t agree, come in and buy a fleet of cars!

Andretti: I...I want to, too...

Note 1. Ye Yifei joined Ferrari on December 2023, 12. Before that, he was a Porsche employee, but I changed it for the plot. (End of this chapter)