How did I become an F1 driver?

However, when Qin Miao was still puzzled, Toto explained: "Although this model is no different from a normal car model, this car is specially customized for you. This model is exactly the same as the car you drove in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. At the same time, the internal structure of the W14 is restored as much as possible. Most importantly, all the parts that make up this car are taken from the W14 you drove."

Qin Miao was stunned: "It only took a few days to complete it?"

Toto was stunned for a moment, then reacted and explained: "It's not the one in Abu Dhabi. That car is lying in the team museum."

"This model was made from parts that were replaced from a previous car, and it took three months to make."

Qin Miao nodded in understanding, then took the gift and said with some complaint: "Does it take so much effort to give a gift? But...thank you, Toto, I like it very much."

Tuotu reached out and patted Qin Miao on the shoulder: "As long as you like it, come back often when you have time."

"I will." Qin Miao said with a smile.

Just as the two were about to part, a horn sounded at the door.

When Qin Miao and Toto turned their heads, they saw Qiu Meng driving Qin Miao's AMG GT Black Warrior to the door of the Mercedes-Benz team headquarters.

Qin Miao said: "You came at this time? I thought you had sent the trophy over a long time ago."

After saying this, Qin Miao came to his wife.

"Here, the trophy. Your daughter was crying again just now. I coaxed her to sleep for a long time. It seems I made it in time." Qiu Meng didn't blame Qin Miao for forgetting such things. She just explained why she sent it over at this time.

Qin Miao took the trophy from Qiu Meng with a smile, then lowered his head and kissed his wife on the forehead: "Thank you for your hard work."

Qiu Meng patted Qin Miao lightly with some disdain: "Hey, you are not ashamed."

Although she said she was disgusted, she still had a smile on her face and happily took the gift from Qin Miao.

Toto on the side didn't think there was anything wrong with it and just watched happily.

After talking for a while, Qin Miao came to Toto and handed the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix championship trophy in a box to Toto.

"Give it to you."

Toto took the trophy with a smile: "Is it for me or for the Mercedes team?"

Qin Miao shrugged: "Anyway, the team doesn't know that I'm going to give this trophy away. If you want, you can steal the trophy yourself and no one will know. Even if they know, no one will dare to say anything to you. After all, you are the boss now."

Toto nodded thoughtfully: "That's right."

But it seems that Toto was just joking with Qin Miao, and he himself had no intention of taking the trophy.

"But speaking of the topic of bosses, we are now considered to be on the same level. After all, we are both team owners."

Qin Miao waved his hand: "How can I be considered a boss? I only hold dry shares and I am purely a shareholder who gets dividends. I am more of a symbolic person in Ferrari. I am not like you. You have the power to manage the team."

"Besides, I'm just a rough guy who can only drive. If you really ask me to manage a fleet, I wouldn't be able to do it, right?" Qin Miao said with his hands spread out.

Toto smiled and patted Qin Miao on the shoulder: "If you don't want to run races anymore and want to be a manager, Mercedes-Benz will still open its doors to you."

Qin Miao smiled and said, "Of course, if that day really comes, my first choice will definitely be Mercedes-Benz."

"But it's almost time. All good things must come to an end."

Tuo Tuo nodded when he heard this, and stretched out his hand to shake Qin Miao's: "Goodbye."

Qin Miao smiled and said, "See you next year."

After saying goodbye, Qin Miao got in the car, and the AMG GT Black Warrior slowly drove away from the Mercedes-Benz team's factory.

At this point, Qin Miao's three-year journey at Mercedes-Benz has come to an end. Looking back on these three years, Qin Miao has many feelings.

"Time flies." Qin Miao said while looking at Qiu Meng who was driving.

"Yeah, that's right." Qiu Meng also nodded seriously and answered while looking at Qin Miao.

Qin Miao flicked Qiu Meng's head lightly: "Don't look at me, look at the road!"

"Oh~"

……

December 12, Baku, Azerbaijan.

Qin Miao came to attend this year's FIA awards ceremony.

Rather than saying this is an award ceremony that people look forward to, it is more of a platform for all FIA drivers to gather together.

After all, compared to other awards that require judges to select, in F1, a sport where winners are chosen, the winners of many awards have already been determined before the end of the season. Coming here again today is just a formality.

Qin Miao received the trophy that belonged to him as the world champion of drivers.

Qin Miao has two such trophies at his home in China.

After the award ceremony, Qin Miao took Leclerc back to Maranello.

This time, Ferrari was going to hold a welcome ceremony for Qin Miao.

In fact, after Qin Miao visited the Mercedes-Benz team factory, he had a period of time, and a welcome ceremony could have been held during that period.

But Ferrari didn't have time.

After all, after Qin Miao changed teams, he had no marketing activities or work to deal with in a short period of time. After the first few busy days, Qin Miao just rested and played.

But Ferrari is a racing team. It needs to sign contracts and discuss cooperation with the team’s employees for the new season’s racing car development and logistics and transportation planning at the end of the year.

Those who get a raise will get a raise, and those who get fired will be fired.

Lots of things.

Therefore, it was difficult for Ferrari to gather all the important senior executives of the team before the awards ceremony.

So the time was pushed back to after the FIA ​​awards ceremony.

On the plane, Qin Miao saw Leclerc still studying Qin Miao's in-car video and telemetry data. Qin Miao really wanted to curse: "Where is your mother?"

But after all, he was his own son, and Qin Miao couldn't bear to hit him like this.

But to be honest, Qin Miao really felt that Leclerc was hit by the lap he drove in the SF23 during the post-season test.

Although Qin Miao later got out of his car and noticed during the replay in the team's P room that he was so fast at the time purely because the new season's tire compound had stronger grip and the track temperature was relatively high during the day.

Leclerc's test results on the second day were better than his qualifying results, which also proved this point.

But Leclerc believed that the gap in strength between himself and Qin Miao was too big.

Therefore, during this period of time, Qin Miao saw Leclerc giving his all.

It can be considered as the complete form of Leclerc.

Of course, during this period, Qin Miao did not forget to guide Leclerc. Although Leclerc has made some progress, the extent is not great.

This is probably the most uncomfortable point for F1 drivers.

Because there are very few F1 drivers who can achieve significant speed growth in the middle and late stages of their careers.

After all, if drivers who have reached this stage want to improve their speed, in addition to controlling their cars more accurately on the track, they really can only focus on the details.

And this approach can only bring you less than 0.1 improvement at most.

This is also why many teams would rather go to F2 to discover talented drivers than those who have been on the track for several seasons and have below average lap times.

But Qin Miao could understand the pressure on Leclerc at this time. After all, although he was agreed to be the second driver, after being trained as the number one driver by the team for so long, how could he be willing to be someone else's supporting role? Even if this person was his own eldest son, it wouldn't work!

But you can't say that Qin Miao did anything wrong.

After all, Ferrari gives you shares in the team, allows you to join the management, and guarantees that you will not be involved in the internal political struggles of the team, and will devote all its efforts to building racing cars for you. Can you refuse?
This is a Ferrari!
All I can say is that it just happened to be the right time.

Soon, the plane landed.

The group drove to the Ferrari factory in Maranello.

At this time, Leclerc came back to his senses and looked at Qin Miao who was driving next to him and said, "What kind of monster are you?"

Qin Miao gave him a puzzled look.

"Look at your brake and accelerator circuit diagram. Can you find any difference in these ten laps? Apart from the necessary adjustments after the tire failure, your accelerator and brake strength are basically the same in every lap." After complaining here, Leclerc reached out and pinched Qin Miao's arm very hard, directly to the bone.

"Fuck, why are you pinching your dad?" Qin Miao screamed in pain.

"I want to make sure you are not a robot." Leclerc said seriously.

Qin Miao slapped Leclerc's hand away like he was chasing a fly: "Go away, I'm driving. I hope the news in Corriere dello Sport won't be "The great Qin Miao finally returned to his loyal Maranello", but "Qin Miao and Leclerc were in a car accident, both died, Ferrari lost their mainstay and rising star overnight."

Leclerc thought: "This is not bad. I will have a Triple Crown champion buried with me before I die."

"Get lost!" Qin Miao cursed angrily, "You can't spit out ivory from a dog's mouth. If I want to commit suicide for love, I have to drag my wife with me. Who the hell do you think you are?"

"I am your father!"

"Damn it, if you can win a race on the track next year, I'll take your last name!" Qin Miao threatened.

"No, no, no, brother, I'm wrong." Leclerc immediately admitted his mistake. The reason why Leclerc changed his face so quickly was because Qin Miao promised to let Leclerc stand on the highest podium as much as possible during the Monaco Grand Prix, making him the first driver in Monaco's history to win the Grand Prix at home.

"Brother?" Qin Miao glanced at Leclerc.

Then, under Qin Miao's gaze, Leclerc reluctantly called out, "Dad."

"Well, this kid is teachable." Qin Miao felt happy.

But Leclerc then threatened: "If I don't win, I will put you in a concrete pillar and sink you into the sea in the Bay of Monaco."

Qin Miao shrugged: "I will definitely do everything I can, but if you are too inexperienced and crash on the track and retire, you can't blame me, after all, there are precedents!"

Leclerc cursed: "Fuck you, you still bring it up!"

"Hey, stop it, I'm driving."

"Fuck you, if you weren't driving, I would fucking kill you!" Leclerc shouted.

Qin Miao ignored this guy who didn't take his life seriously, and said, "Oh, by the way, why don't I mention it to the people at Ferrari."

"What do you want to mention?" Leclerc thought Qin Miao was going to change the subject, so he sat back in his original seat and asked casually.

"Tell them to strengthen the suspension of the car next season. Although it won't be as strong as Mercedes-Benz, it should at least not break if it hits the wall."

"Fuck you!" Leclerc couldn't help but take action again.

"You just called me dad, and now you're attacking me? You rebellious son!" Qin Miao blocked Leclerc's attack with one hand while controlling the car with the other hand. At the same time, he kept paying attention to the situation on the road with his peripheral vision, making sure nothing could go wrong, while also not forgetting to attack him verbally.

……

The two of them played and joked along the way, not worrying about not having any topics to talk about.

The conversation went from racing cars to drivers, from drivers to sports cars, from sports cars to yachts, from yachts to submarines, and then from submarines to the navy.

In short, you never know how outrageous the topic a man’s conversation may turn to.

Soon the two were back at the Ferrari factory in Maranello.

On the familiar streets of Maranello, Qin Miao drove while looking around curiously.

Compared with the time when he lived in Maranello three years ago, the streets of Maranello have basically not changed. At most, the business content of the shops on the street has changed, and the advertising content on both sides of the shops has changed. Everything else can be said to be unchanged.

"Compared to when I left, there is basically no change here." Qin Miao said.

Leclerc leaned on the cushion and looked at the street scene of Maranello like Qin Miao and replied, "It's normal. Maranello is one of the iconic tourist cities in Italy. After all, as you know, this is the headquarters of Ferrari, so the Iron Buddha Temples around the world sometimes come here to make pilgrimages."

"Therefore, the Italian government wants to try its best to preserve the original appearance of this place. So even if local residents want to renovate their houses, the municipal government will not agree. Therefore, this place will remain the same for a long time in the future."

Qin Miao nodded, and then followed his memory and drove the car to the door of the Maranello team headquarters.

After stopping at the door, a security guard wearing Ferrari's exclusive security uniform came out of the security booth.

After Qin Miao rolled down the window, the other party only glanced at Qin Miao's face, and a smile immediately appeared on his face: "Qin Miao, welcome home."

Qin Miao also knew that with his current influence in the F1 paddock, basically everyone in the entire Ferrari factory would know him, so Qin Miao was not surprised by the security guard's reaction after seeing him. He smiled and nodded. The other party did not ask Qin Miao to show his access card or anything like that. He directly opened the gate and let Qin Miao and Leclerc enter the Ferrari team's factory.

Looking at the opened gate, Qin Miao said to Leclerc next to him: "See? The power of shareholders!"

Leclerc rolled his eyes: "Come on, he would open the door even if it was me."

When passing by the entrance of Ferrari's old headquarters, Qin Miao looked at the eaves on both sides of the headquarters.

At this time, there was not a single Ferrari flag on the eaves of the Ferrari headquarters.

Ferrari has a tradition that as long as Ferrari wins a race in the F1 Grand Prix, they will hang a Ferrari flag on the eaves of their headquarters.

Ferrari did not win a single race this season, so there is no flag on it.

But Qin Miao asked Leclerc beside him curiously: "If I remember correctly, you won a sprint race in Austin, USA, right? What does that mean? Ferrari doesn't take the sprint race championship as a championship?"

Leclerc shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly: "This is normal. After all, the sprint champion is not the race champion."

“Also, we had already agreed to completely abandon this season’s car and put all our resources into developing next season’s car.”

"And this is all thanks to you, right? If you weren't going to join us next season, would the team have made this decision? It's all your fault that I didn't win a single race this year."

Qin Miao's answer to Leclerc's complaint was also very concise and clear: "If you are not good enough, just practice more."

Soon Qin Miao's car stopped at the gate of the Ferrari team factory.

Glancing at the door, Qin Miao asked curiously, "Didn't Ferrari arrange a special parking space for you?"

Leclerc rolled his eyes as he got out of the car: "I'm not a team shareholder like you, I'm just a stinky employee."

"Hey, don't underestimate yourself. When the time comes, your father will teach you a few tricks and you will become the backbone of a team. Then you can drive the car directly to the team leader's office and park it." Qin Miao unbuckled his seat belt and got out of the car while laughing and chatting with Leclerc.

Only after Qin Miao got out of the car did he see clearly that the car they were driving was a red Ferrari F8, and it was a customized version of Leclerc.

It was just handed over to Claire not long ago.

The reason why Qin Miao's car was not driven was because Qin Miao did not have a car in Italy yet. The Ferrari 488 that was parked in Italy at that time was now in the UK. It would take some procedures and processes to ship it back to Italy. Qiu Meng sent someone to handle it, but it would not be delivered in a short time.

Qin Miao parked the car on the side of the road and looked at the Ferrari team factory with Leclerc.

After all, the time for them to arrive here had already been determined, so when they got off the car, they noticed a large group of people standing at the door of the convoy.

Some of these people were wearing casual clothes, but more of them were wearing the red long-sleeved shirts and jackets of the Ferrari team staff.

After Qin Miao and Leclerc got out of the car, the Ferrari photographer who was already prepared quickly approached the two drivers with his video camera in hand.

There were also warm cheers and applause from the crowd, and Ferrari team leader Vasseur and Ferrari chairman John Elkann appeared in the center of the front entrance of the team factory.

After the two drivers got out of the car, two Ferrari executives took a few quick steps and came to Qin Miao and others.

Smiling and shaking hands with Leclerc and Qin Miao.

"Thank you for your hard work along the way." John Elkan said to Qin Miao with a smile.

Qin Miao smiled and replied: "Actually, the journey here was not bad, mainly because that bastard Leclerc didn't know how to drive and didn't know the difference between the old and the young."

Leclerc, who had just shaken hands with Vasseur, rolled his eyes after hearing Qin Miao's words.

After hearing Qin Miao's words, both Wasser and Elkan laughed.

"I feel relieved to see that you two have such a harmonious relationship. At least I don't have to worry about seeing infighting between the two Ferrari drivers on the track next year," Elkann said with a smile.

Qin Miao said calmly: "You can rest assured. Even if Leclerc wants to fight me, he can't catch up with me on the track."

"Hey, damn it, I just gave you a beating and now you're itchy again?"

"Oh, you said bad words." Vasseur pinched Leclerc's shoulder and said with a hint of blame.

Leclerc: ?
Damn, this bastard hasn’t even raced a single race for Ferrari and he’s already taking sides?
Yes, he is a three-time world champion, but you can't be so partial to him, can you?

Isn't he the world champion?

……

After a brief greeting, Qin Miao and Leclerc attended the Ferrari welcome party under the leadership of the Ferrari chairman and the Ferrari team leader.

There was no process of identifying people one by one. After all, there are thousands of staff members in the Ferrari team headquarters, and there were more than 400 people present this time.

If we acknowledge them one by one, there would be no need to hold this welcome party.

So this welcome party is more about letting everyone meet Qin Miao, and then holding a press conference-style process, and then letting Vasseur take Qin Miao to visit the headquarters of the Ferrari team and take a look at the various facilities. After arriving here, the process of this meeting is almost complete.

However, it is worth mentioning that during this welcome party there was also a session where all Ferrari staff introduced themselves and Vasseur and Qin Miao gave speeches.

At this stage, Wasser really had the utmost praise for Qin Miao.

When talking about Qin Miao with the team staff, Vasseur was even more outspoken, saying: "Facts have proved that Qin Miao is a talented driver who can add icing on the cake for the team when there is a Mars rover, but when there is no Mars rover, he can still bring victory and championship to the team."

Vasseur's words are well-targeted. After all, everyone has seen the performance of Mercedes-Benz last season. They were no match for Red Bull's RB19.

It can be said that Vasseur's words completely elevated Qin Miao to a high position, which was equivalent to announcing to everyone in the Ferrari team that Qin Miao is the cornerstone of the Ferrari team for the next three seasons.

And Qin Miao will also bring the returns that everyone expects for Ferrari's investment.

There was nothing special about Qin Miao's speech. He just thanked the Ferrari team for their trust in him and hoped that his colleagues in the Ferrari team could work together in the next three years.

In short: it is our responsibility to restore Ferrari's glory.

After the meeting, many people came up to Qin Miao to take photos.

During this process, Ferrari's chairman Elkann left the Ferrari team's factory.

After all, he has more than one company under his name. Although he attaches great importance to Ferrari, it is impossible for him to spend all his time on Ferrari.

Just showing up and showing his face at the event shows that he really values ​​Qin Miao. (End of this chapter)