How Did I Become an F1 Driver?

Even at the start of this race weekend, Qin Miao felt a bit unlucky. After all, on Thursday, Qin Miao was practically exhausted, and upon returning to the hotel, Qimeng eagerly dragged him over for two hours.

Thankfully, Qin Miao has a good physical foundation, otherwise, after meeting Leclerc on Friday, he’d be mocked by Leclerc for looking pale, advising him to take care of his health and not overindulge.

"Sorry, my bad." Qin Miao quickly kneeled: "Please, Mr. Leclerc, take back the bad luck clinging to me. My little shoulders, with two world championships, can’t bear such enormous fortune."

Leclerc was a bit surprised at first hearing this. After knowing Qin Miao for nearly four years, although Qin Miao isn’t exactly rebellious, Leclerc had never seen Qin Miao apologize to anyone so seriously.

But after hearing the latter part, Leclerc felt at ease, because that’s the Qin Miao he knew.

Lazy and coy.

Though being a two-time world champion is true, have you seen any good person flaunting their world championship honor all over the place?

Jokingly, Qin Miao patted Leclerc’s back and said, "If you don’t speak, I’ll assume you’ve agreed. I’ve returned the bad luck to you, no thanks needed."

"Scram!" Leclerc laughed and cursed.

Then Leclerc hooked his arm around Qin Miao’s and curiously asked, "How’s my goddaughter doing now?"

"She’s healthy and loved, with three loving elders pampering her that they almost always keep her at the center of attention." Qin Miao thought for a moment: "Just she likes to spit up milk sometimes."

"By the way, being so far from the kid for racing, don’t you miss your little Muqiu and Qimeng?"

Qin Miao nodded, "Of course I miss them, so after the last race weekend ended, I went back home."

"Ah? Despite the tight schedule of back-to-back races, you managed to go back?" Leclerc was quite surprised, "Did Mercedes just let you go? Allowed you to return home."

Then Leclerc refuted his own speculation, "No, Mercedes couldn’t possibly be such a hastily assembled team."

Qin Miao didn’t let Leclerc continue guessing, he directly explained, "Do you remember the Azerbaijan Grand Prix race?

I retired back then due to issues with the team car, so the team compensated by giving me two days off, and I went back."

Upon hearing this, Leclerc shook his head, "Mercedes really dares to give time off, and you dare to take it."

"That’s the confidence of a two-time world champion," Qin Miao said with a smile.

"Aren’t you afraid of your performance lagging?"

Qin Miao shrugged, "I have confidence, and who said I neglected my training when I went home?"

"Then I’m looking forward to your performance this race weekend. Don’t let me leave you behind on the track."

Qin Miao chuckled, "You had better mind your own business first. With Ferrari’s car characteristics, finishing the race smoothly is a question; don’t let the car break down during the race."

Leclerc: ...

Can you even talk properly?

...

After chatting with Leclerc for a while, the two of them reached the entrance of the Ferrari team’s pit room, while Qin Miao had to walk another ten meters to reach Mercedes’ pit room, so they said goodbye here and parted ways.

Returning to the team pit room, the usual team meeting started on Friday morning.

Because of too many commercial activities on Thursday, neither Qin Miao nor Hamilton had time to walk the circuit.

Today’s practice session is very important for both drivers.

Qin Miao and Hamilton both plan to spend more time familiarizing themselves with the track during today’s two practice sessions.

As time progressed, it was time for the practice sessions to begin.

At this stage, there’s not much to say. At the very start of the practice session, both Qin Miao and Hamilton actively hit the track right away to begin their practice.

It’s worth mentioning that unlike last year, this year the asphalt of the Miami Circuit has been repaved, so the first lap both Qin Miao and Hamilton ran, they found the car’s feedback was vastly different from the simulator feedback.

Turns out all the time spent finding setup adjustments on the team simulator was now useless, even the original baseline setup couldn’t be used.

It would take three practice sessions to find the right settings again.

The following two practice sessions won’t be detailed much, mainly focusing on finding setup adjustments and collecting data.

Without the sprint race, it wasn’t too difficult for Qin Miao to find a comfortable setup.

The same went for other drivers.

The only notable event during the practice sessions was Leclerc pushing too hard during the second practice, directly going off the track and crashing into the barriers.

The practice session saw a red flag.

Qin Miao had just finished adjusting in the team pit room and was about to head out from the pit lane, but seeing the red flag he was pushed back into the pit room by the team technicians.

After the display screen was set up again in the middle of Qin Miao’s car, he saw Leclerc crawling out of his car on the circuit.

Frowning slightly, does Leclerc’s bad luck really come in strong? After I returned it to him, he actually started running into bad luck?

What the hell kind of urban legend!

Of course, Leclerc’s incident was just a typical track accident, it couldn’t even be considered bad luck for Leclerc.