Chapter 1306 - 491: Qin Miao’s Bitter Regret
In one season, the points difference between him and his teammate could reach a staggering 74 points. If Ricardo had scored an extra 6 points in any race this season, McLaren would have retained fourth place in the annual team rankings, just like last year.
No wonder McLaren no longer wanted to keep Ricardo; they sent him away like a plague, paying him a year’s salary in advance.
However, since Ricardo came from Red Bull originally, he announced joining Red Bull before leaving early in 2023.
Yet, Ricardo did not secure a driver position at Red Bull or Toro Rosso, instead becoming a test driver for Red Bull. Due to his popularity, Ricardo also participated in Red Bull’s marketing activities, greatly reducing the burden on Verstappen and Perez, allowing them more time on the track.
Apart from McLaren, the ranking of other teams this season seemed quite normal, with no team appearing out of their expected position.
As for this year’s sixth place, Alfa Romeo... they indeed are the top of the earth group, that’s undeniable.
It mainly comes down to Vassel’s competence, having Kimi sit out for a season, achieving the ultimate lightweight design for the 2022 season car, and allocating all funds to the development of the ground effect car for the 2022 season, which even allowed Bottas to contest for the podium with leading drivers at the start of the season.
However, the inherent lack of development capability at Alfa Romeo gradually began to surface in the latter part of the season. Scoring points came not only from Zhou Guanyu and Bottas’s performance but heavily relied on luck.
Whenever drivers from other teams retired, they could mingle and bag points.
At least this season, Alfa Romeo didn’t suffer from the typical problems that often plagued Ferrari-affiliated teams. Though tire changes were slow they were stable, and the team’s pit stop strategy was remarkably fresh, without any major blunders.
And these are indeed the final rankings of the 2022 season; unless there are unforeseen changes, nothing more will alter.
By this point, the post-race award ceremony had also concluded.
Even though Red Bull’s Verstappen regrettably missed out on the drivers’ championship, winning the team championship injected new life into everyone at Red Bull Racing.
After a busy year, at least there were gains.
Everyone from Red Bull Racing raised their champagne glasses, toasting towards Verstappen and Perez on the podium, thanking them for their contributions this year, and grateful for their own relentless efforts throughout the year.
It’s easy to imagine the celebrations Red Bull Racing would have shortly.
Meanwhile, at Mercedes, everyone soon adjusted their moods and put on smiles.
No matter how Mercedes performed this season, the season is finally ending. After completing winter tests, everyone can wrap things up and head home for a rest.
The word ’rest’ holds an irresistible allure for team members who have worked tirelessly all year.
Even though they didn’t win the team championship, resulting in slightly reduced bonuses, the second-place team also receives a considerable amount of prize money, not to mention the driver’s world championship money.
Oh... this prize money is exclusive to Qin Miao and his crew...well then...
Nevertheless, everyone would have a relatively pleasant holiday.
Thus, in the period following the race, after a bit of regret, all that remained was happiness.
The only ones with different sentiments compared to the employees were Toto and other high-level members of Mercedes; their mood undoubtedly differs from ordinary team staff.
Losing the team championship cost Mercedes nearly 50 million euros, not counting those incalculable incidental losses.
Nevertheless, the processes after the race continued orderly and normally.
At the end of the 2022 season, all team members, including the cleaning staff and drivers, gathered at the entrance of the P room with the two W13B cars, alongside the drivers seated on their tires.
Took a big group photo for 2022.
After the group photo came the photos of the crew with drivers, then drivers with on-site fans; the entire process was fairly joyous.
Once Qin Miao finished his work he strolled around and noticed the Alfa Romeo team taking photos, so Qin Miao joined in the fun and stuck his head around the big group photo at Alfa Romeo.
Predictably, Qin Miao’s head sticking out was captured in the photo.
Then Qin Miao was caught, and under Vassel’s invitation, Qin Miao joined the middle of the Alfa Romeo team for a photo, and amusingly, Vassel made a normal race-day sign for driver notifications, placing the words "2022 Formula One World Championship Winner" on it.
Resulting in a photo like that.
Making it seem as if Qin Miao belonged to Alfa Romeo.
After some tomfoolery, Alfa Romeo later supplemented a photo without Qin Miao’s disruption.
Nowadays, as digital cameras are used for photography, worrying about the camera memory consumption from extra photos is unnecessary; instead, Qin Miao’s antics brought joy to everyone.
Nonetheless, Alfa Romeo still posted the photo with Qin Miao featured and captioned it "We have a world champion too!"