How Did I Become an F1 Driver?

Originally, Hamilton couldn’t have won today’s race anyway; without that honor, in the eyes of a seven-time champion there’s no difference between finishing second and finishing twentieth.

So whether he retired or not in this race really didn’t matter to Hamilton at this moment.

The only thing Hamilton felt a bit regretful about was that he couldn’t help Vettel draw donuts on track to celebrate his retirement.

And what no one expected was that Mercedes and Red Bull were busy tearing each other apart on track today, while Ferrari ended up reaping the benefits from behind.

Leclerc finished this race in second place, bringing 18 points back for the team.

Hamilton had already returned to the team’s garage before the race ended.

When he got out of the car, Qin Miao walked over to him, reached out, and patted his teammate’s shoulder.

Hamilton turned around, saw that it was Qin Miao who’d patted him, and instead pulled Qin Miao into a hug.

Just as Qin Miao was stunned, he heard Hamilton’s slightly muffled voice come through his helmet: "Congratulations, Qin Miao, you really did perform better than me this season, but next season that might not be the case. You’d better get ready to challenge me on track again."

The corner of Qin Miao’s mouth twitched; he’d been suppressing Hamilton on track for two seasons already, and Hamilton still didn’t realize that Qin Miao was actually stronger than him?

But at least what Hamilton said now proved he wasn’t in a bad mood because of that retirement in the last two laps of today’s race.

Or maybe the Old Man was just hiding it too well, and Qin Miao couldn’t tell for the moment.

It was entirely possible that Hamilton was secretly shedding little pearls under his helmet right now.

"I thought after you retired from today’s race, you’d be a bit... you know."

Hamilton spread his hands with a smile: "To be honest, I do feel a bit regretful, but what’s done is done. No amount of regret will change the final result. Right now I just want to prove myself again on track next year."

Qin Miao didn’t say anything more about it; he just nodded and said, "Then let’s wish ourselves good luck."

The race was almost over now, and this final round of the year really didn’t have much left to watch for Mercedes.

Normally, once a race ends, the team side would already start packing up, getting everything ready to be shipped to the next venue.

But today was different: the season was over, and the winter test was coming up, which would also be held in Abu Dhabi. So even though Mercedes’ 2022 season had ended early, there was no need for everyone to pack up.

The main purpose of this winter test was to let the new drivers of other teams get familiar with their new cars and run-in with their new teams’ processes for the coming races, and to test Pirelli’s new 2023 tire compounds by the way.

After leaving the team’s garage, Qin Miao went to do the post-race interview for this final Grand Prix of the year.

The one interviewing Qin Miao was still that reporter who had a good relationship with the Mercedes team.

Qin Miao was already quite familiar with him, and the two greeted each other with smiles when they met.

Even though Mercedes ultimately didn’t win the title, and both of them felt a bit regretful about that, from either Qin Miao’s or the reporter’s perspective, this didn’t affect their mood right now.

"Congratulations, Qin Miao, you are the 2022 world champion. You once again created new history on track—this time not just for your hometown, but for the history of Formula 1. Winning two world titles in two years after entering F1... just hearing that achievement gives people goosebumps."

"Thanks, but everything I’ve achieved has always been inseparable from the help the team staff gave me on track. Without them, there’s no way I’d be where I am today."

"How would you sum up your 2022 season?"

Qin Miao thought for a moment: "Accumulation, I guess. In the first half of this season, compared to Red Bull and Ferrari, we clearly had a speed disadvantage. But we didn’t give up; we kept our points gap to Ferrari and Red Bull very tight, and our car’s reliability stayed very strong. We didn’t have any serious incidents in the races, so in terms of points we were never dropped by Ferrari and Red Bull. Maybe it was exactly that period of accumulation in the early season that allowed us in the latter half to fight Verstappen for the world title."

"Now that the 2022 season is over, is there anything you’d like to say to the fans who’ve supported you all year?"

"Thank you all for always supporting me and the team. I’m really grateful for everything you’ve done for me. Love you guys."

"Alright, thanks for accepting our interview. Once again, congratulations on winning the world championship, and have a great break."

"Thank you, and wish you a great break as well."

After the interview, Qin Miao left.

It was kind of interesting—during this post-race interview, the reporter basically didn’t ask Qin Miao anything specific about today’s race.

Maybe he didn’t want to bring up those sad things for Qin Miao.

But Qin Miao didn’t really mind.

Once the interview was over, Qin Miao felt completely relaxed, because most of his paddock duties for the 2022 season were now done.

From here on, aside from one winter test, there were no more mandatory tasks for him in the paddock.

He also didn’t need to take part in sponsor events during this period, since his contract had clear terms about that.

It was obvious the pressure Qin Miao felt this season was even greater than last year’s, so he had zero desire to keep working in the short term. Right now he just wanted to rest for a while.

When Qin Miao finished the post-race interview and went back to the team’s garage, he happened to see Zhou and his group coming out from inside.

He walked over with a smile and shook Zhou’s hand; after a bit of small talk, Zhou and his group left.

After all, Zhou had been invited by the Abu Dhabi organizers; coming to watch the race was mainly just to join the fun.

Although they felt a little sorry seeing Qin Miao retire live, he’d already taken this year’s world title. Retiring in the final race wouldn’t affect his results this season; the only regret was not being able to watch him dominate on track one last time.

But at least, as fans, this trip to the circuit was still worth it—they’d gotten to chat with Qin Miao a lot.

By the time Qin Miao finished the interview and returned to the team’s garage, Frankie and the others had already taken delivery of his damaged car.

Right now, Qin Miao’s car hadn’t been taken apart for repairs yet, because of team tradition: after the final race of every season, no matter what result they’d achieved, everyone in the team has to put a proper full stop on the year—which naturally means a big group photo.

And since only part of the floor on Qin Miao’s car was damaged, they could just park his car on the left side of the garage for the group photo, which would hide the damaged right side of the floor. Only after taking this 2022 season group photo would his car be towed back for repairs.

After all, they still needed Qin Miao’s car for the post-season test two days later; they had to get it fixed in time.

For Mercedes, the good news was that the damage to Qin Miao’s car wasn’t too serious, and the repair costs wouldn’t be counted under the budget cap.

But before the photo shoot, Qin Miao heard the Dutch national anthem playing over by the podium, which meant that, if he guessed right, it was already podium ceremony time.

And that was indeed the case. Red Bull had completely dominated today’s race: Verstappen and Perez took first and third respectively, with Leclerc finishing second.

At the same time, Perez was voted Driver of the Day by the fans for this race, because he’d dropped straight to last at the start and then charged all the way back to finish third, which really wasn’t easy.