How Did I Become an F1 Driver?

Facing the three men, Qin Miao clasped his fists together and bowed, then headed to his car. Reyes handed over the pre-race inspection document, and after confirming there were no issues, Qin Miao signed his name.

Meanwhile, Kunling curiously asked Jay Chou beside her, who was enthusiastically watching Qin Miao’s work process.

"Baby, how impressive is Qin Miao now?"

Kunling truly didn’t know much about F1 racing. She came to watch the race today completely because Jay Chou brought her. Looking at her husband’s enthusiastic face, she naturally had doubts about this aspect.

Jay Chou patiently explained: "Do you remember last year when we came here? At that time, Qin Miao wasn’t a world champion yet, but even then, as long as he won a Grand Prix, he would appear on the evening news broadcast."

"But now, he has already been a world champion twice this year..."

"Currently, Qin Miao’s status in the domestic racing scene is equivalent to Liu Xiang in hurdling and Yao Ming in basketball."

"Moreover, the achievements Qin Miao has attained on the track are even better."

"Even without considering his status as an Asian driver, Qin Miao is only the second person in history to win the F1 world championship in his rookie season, and the first person to achieve this was Giuseppe Farina back in 1950."

Kunling was a bit surprised: "Is there anyone more impressive than Qin Miao?"

Zhou shook his finger: "Giuseppe Farina’s talent couldn’t compare to Qin Miao’s. The reason he could achieve this is because it was also F1’s first season, and anyone could have achieved it in their rookie season."

"So, excluding Giuseppe Farina, Qin Miao is really the first driver in F1 history to win the world championship in his rookie season. Naturally, he created another record that likely won’t be matched: winning two world championships in just two years of entering F1."

"To be honest, although Qin Miao doesn’t have as many world championships as his teammate Hamilton, without a doubt, Qin Miao is a living legend on the track."

Looking at her husband who was happily chatting about Qin Miao, Kunling gazed at Jay Chou with a mix of helplessness and affection.

Meanwhile, Fairy glanced at the snack pile in the VIP area, pondering whether indulging in a bit of eating now wouldn’t make her fat.

Ultimately, Fairy couldn’t resist the temptation of food, thinking that since her agent wasn’t around, eating one or two pieces wouldn’t be noticed!

She then reached for the pastries and drinks prepared by the team for VIPs.

At this moment, Qin Miao completed all pre-race preparations, shook hands with Reyes, and gave high-fives to other staff members of his team before slotting himself into his car.

After connecting the helmet communication line with the car, Qin Miao heard Frankie’s voice:

"Radio check."

"Can’t hear you, please repeat," Qin Miao replied.

"Haha," Frankie chuckled indifferently.

Being the final race, it was clear that Qin Miao was quite relaxed now, even playful.

However, after a pause on the radio, Frankie’s voice came again:

"Qin Miao, if possible, we need to offer Lewis some help today in this race."

Qin Miao blinked in surprise and asked, "Is this a request from the team or a request from Hamilton?"

Frankie said frankly: "It’s a request from the team."

A request is asking for help; whether to help is entirely up to one’s personal choice, meaning it’s not mandatory.

"So it means it can be ignored?" Anyway, it’s the last race of the 2022 season, Qin Miao was quite relaxed at this time, continuing to joke.

But because they were communicating through the team’s TR, and the audio quality of the team TR wasn’t great, to control the car’s weight, almost all teams made radical simplifications in the design of the communication system.

Audio quality? Not needed!

HIFI? Not needed!

Surround sound? Not needed!

Response speed? No... this is still needed...

In short, the team has only one requirement for the TR system inside the car: audible sound with low latency, so there won’t be tactical issues due to delay, and it won’t malfunction under the harsh operating environment and high-speed bumps.

To put it simply, it’s somewhat like some irresponsible parenting, with no other expectations, just as long as they’re alive and not dead.

Therefore, when this joke from Qin Miao reached Frankie’s ears, it sounded somewhat distorted, perceived as cold and heartless.

It lost the original playful meaning in Qin Miao’s words.

So Frankie thought for a moment before saying: "That’s indeed the case, but this race is the last one this year, and the team hopes for relatively good results on both driver and team standings."

"Alright, I’ll do my best. Do I need to tow Hamilton during the qualifying race? Today’s track is quite suitable for towing tactics, more suitable than Monte Carlo at least."

Qin Miao’s answer clearly agreed, but his earlier indifferent attitude had lowered everyone’s expectations.

So after Qin Miao agreed, everyone was visibly pleased.

Frankie said: "During Q1, you can rehearse a bit on the track to familiarize yourself with the slipstream process on this track."

"Alright~"

On the other side, Hamilton’s track engineer naturally passed the message that Qin Miao planned to help him with slipstreaming on the track, leaving Hamilton a bit unable to accept it.

After all, no matter what, he was a dignified F1 seven-time champion, needing help from a teammate for pole position in qualifying was humiliating indeed.

But on second thought, circumstances were beyond control now, Perez was right ahead within reach, and with a good performance today, he could secure fourth place in the annual driver standings.

Hamilton didn’t want to miss this opportunity.

Moreover, as F1 is competitive sports, results are what matter, not the process.

Therefore, although Hamilton didn’t actively request Qin Miao to help him with slipstreaming on the track, upon knowing from the team that Qin Miao would help him, he didn’t refuse.

Soon, Q1 started. Qin Miao encountered some traffic in the first flying lap, despite the team’s best efforts to prevent this situation on the track.

However, some teams’ timeliness put the cars right in line with the flying lap timings, and some clueless track engineers didn’t like checking the satellite map of the track.

This was unavoidable; after two years, Qin Miao was almost accustomed to it. Besides, having already won the world championship, he didn’t swear at Ricardo blocking him, just complained a little.

Soon, Qin Miao’s first flying lap was completed with a time of 1:25.700, which although a bit ugly for a world champion, was undoubtedly a time that directly advanced to Q2.

Seeing Qin Miao complete a lap with this result on brand-new soft tires, everyone in Mercedes’ pit was calm, doing their business as usual.

After finishing the first flying lap, Qin Miao naturally knew he could safely advance to Q2, so he switched to the medium tires used during practice to provide slipstreaming for Hamilton’s final flying lap on the track.

Mainly, he wanted to see where exactly would be best to start to provide the optimal slipstream effect for Hamilton.

Ultimately, Hamilton managed a lap time of 1:24.700, precisely one second faster than Qin Miao, securing first place in the Q1 stage.