Chapter 1247 - 469: Hamilton’s Gift (Part 2)
Hamilton shrugged and said, "In this way, it’s also making up for a regret from my childhood."
Qin Miao shook his head helplessly, "I can’t understand why you older folks have so many regrets in your words."
Hamilton chuckled, "You’ll understand. Now that the gift has been delivered, I won’t disturb you anymore. See you tomorrow."
"Thanks a lot for your gift, but I won’t hold back in tomorrow’s race." Qin Miao thanked Hamilton but added a cheeky remark at the end.
"Haha, I’m not old enough yet that you’d need to hold back for me to win against you." Hamilton waved goodbye.
After Hamilton left, Qin Miao looked at the fund contract in his hand, feeling a bit amused.
The things Hamilton sent aren’t really expensive for the two Mercedes drivers with their current net worth.
euros a month is 2400 euros a year, making it 192,000 euros over 80 years.
Since the whole fund is less than 200,000 euros, the fees over 80 years might even be more expensive than the fund itself.
And 200,000 euros isn’t much to Qin Miao; he doesn’t even need to lift a finger. He could call his agency to design a new helmet, wear it in a race, and then auction it off for more than 200,000 euros.
But this gift could accompany Qin Miao’s child throughout their life, and in retrospect, it’s a gift full of imagination yet very meaningful.
"Sometimes I truly admire the creativity of you folks." Qin Miao joked as he tucked the contract into his laptop bag.
After the Mexican Grand Prix, there’s a two-week break during which Qin Miao will surely head back home, and he plans to take Hamilton’s special gift with him.
In the past, during Grand Prix time, even with a two-week break, Qin Miao didn’t always think about going home. At most, he would think about what to do during the Grand Prix weekend.
However, now that things have changed, and he has a child, Qin Miao often thinks of them and feels more attached.
During the break, Qin Miao often wonders whether the child is a boy or a girl, what their name is, and where they’ll study when they grow up.
These questions linger in Qin Miao’s mind, bringing an invisible sense of responsibility as well as a warm feeling.
But Qin Miao is a clear-headed person, so he quickly calmed his thoughts and refocused on the race coming up tomorrow.
The night passed without incident, and the next day marked the start of practice sessions for the Mexican Grand Prix.
Nothing worth mentioning happened during the first practice session; everyone carefully tested setups and tire compositions on the track.
And Qin Miao was no exception.
The first practice session concluded busily yet uneventfully,
and there’s not much to elaborate on for the second practice as no track data relating to the Rodriguez Brothers Circuit was acquired.
Everyone switched to testing on track with the 2023 Pirelli tire compositions.
Friday concluded just like that.
Time quickly moved to Saturday.
As Qin Miao arrived happily at the paddock planning to slack off during qualifications after finishing the third practice, he returned to the team headquarters hearing good news that made every Mercedes team staff smirk.
The Red Bull team had been investigated by the FIA Audit Committee regarding the budget cap overspend and the results were in.
The fact of Red Bull going over the budget cap was confirmed.
According to the investigation, Red Bull initially kept their March budget expenditure under the budget cap limit, but following the FIA Audit Committee investigation, corrected data showed Red Bull overspent by 1,864,000 British Pounds, totaling about 2.15 million US Dollars.
Since the FIA now had accurate results and this was the first year of implementing the budget cap, they would certainly follow the rules because there can’t be a system without regulations.
Red Bull was fined 7 million US Dollars and faced a 10% reduction in CFD simulation and wind tunnel usage time for the next 12 months.
However, for big teams like Ferrari, Red Bull, and Mercedes, a 7 million US Dollar fine was almost equivalent to nothing, not making any impact.
Moreover, a 10% reduction in CFD simulation and wind tunnel time wasn’t an unbearable punishment for Red Bull, which possessed aerodynamics expert Newey.
This punishment for Red Bull was more of a psychological impact.
It would certainly increase pressure on Red Bull, already somewhat uneasy due to Mercedes’ rise in the later part of the season, affecting the team’s internal atmosphere.
But there was also good news; the 7 million US Dollars fine for Red Bull wouldn’t count towards this season or the next season’s budget cap—it’s considered additional spending.
From Qin Miao’s perspective, regardless, Red Bull being penalized was a good thing!
And the Mercedes team staff naturally took up small benches to sit by the garage entrance happily observing.
Next was the third practice session.
In the third practice, Hamilton showed good speed; Qin Miao only ran one flying lap on soft tires at the start. During the remaining time, Qin Miao focused on testing medium and soft tires.
Except for Mick’s spin without a crash during the third practice, there were no major incidents, and the practice session proceeded smoothly.
Next, Qin Miao naturally returned to his familiar place—playing games openly in team headquarters while waiting for the qualifications to begin.
Qualification session.
As Qin Miao sat in his car, he could hear the crowd chanting Perez’s name uniformly through his helmet.
It’s a home game, and Qin Miao guessed that Perez hadn’t immediately gotten into his car but was greeting the Mexican fans, or else there couldn’t have been such loud cheers.
After a bit of envy, Qin Miao sorted himself out and lined up for the qualification session early.
Soon, the Q1 session of qualifications started.
Qin Miao didn’t make any mistakes during Q1, and he even performed quite well.
Qin Miao advanced to Q2 with his flying lap made from a set of old soft tires as his base result.
Seeing that this result could directly advance him to Q2, Qin Miao, being consistent with his style, definitely rang the bell and returned to the team garage.
This operation from Qin Miao had become habitual, and his fans were already used to this.
As for Qin Miao’s teammate Hamilton, he didn’t hold back and directly took the fastest lap in Q1, easily advancing to Q2.
Zhou Guanyu, despite being blocked by Mick and Alonso in the first timing sector of his flying lap, refreshed his personal best in the other two sectors, ultimately taking 10th place—beating his compatriot Qin Miao by 0.009 seconds to advance to Q2.
This was the first time Zhou Guanyu beat his compatriot Qin Miao during qualifications.
The commentators staying up late for Five-Star Sports covering the Mexican Grand Prix enjoyed this for a good while.
Q2 saw Qin Miao being daring yet steady, advancing to Q3 in seventh place.
It seemed Zhou Guanyu had exhausted all his competitive form by surpassing Qin Miao in Q1, performing not particularly well in Q2.
His first flying lap also encountered slow traffic, which visibly disrupted Zhou Guanyu’s mindset, leading him to give up on the lap.
In the second flying lap, although there wasn’t slow traffic anymore, Zhou Guanyu didn’t run well and his tires locked up.
Eventually, Zhou Guanyu was eliminated in 11th place in Q2.
This marked the first time Zhou Guanyu lost to his teammate Bottas in qualifications since the second half of the season.
His teammate Bottas easily advanced to Q3.
The drivers eliminated in Q2 were: Zhou Guanyu, Ricardo, Tsunoda, Gasly, Magelsen.