How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 840 - 337: Pirelli Tire Test_2

An hour later, the two finally finished the food in front of them.

To be honest, it tasted really good. Given Qin Miao's current culinary expertise, he would rate it an 8 out of 10.

After all, this is Abu Dhabi, a place crowded with wealthy people, so to allow these Middle Eastern residents to taste authentic Chinese flavors, many ingredients are directly airlifted from China, and the seasonings are all sourced from there as well.

As a result, some of the ingredients for this meal missed the optimal time for consumption, but the flaws weren't serious enough to overshadow the merits. Just like Boss Zhou said, being able to eat such a meal thousands of miles from home was satisfying enough.

After the meal, Qin Miao had things to handle too. There was a Mercedes team gathering in the evening, considered an entertainment event after dinner, and several shareholders of the Mercedes team would attend, so Qin Miao needed to participate. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

If it weren't for the system overrunning Qin Miao, he would have been showing off fried chicken at that dinner by now.

"By the way, this is for you." With the meal almost over, Boss Zhou wiped his hands with a napkin and then pulled out a plastic-wrapped box of keys from his bag to toss to Qin Miao.

Qin Miao took it, somewhat surprised, and curiously asked, "What is this?"

After receiving this bunch of keys, Qin Miao weighed it in his hand. To his surprise, it felt quite heavy.

"Didn't I say I had a surprise for you?" Boss Zhou pointed at the bunch of keys in front of Qin Miao and said, "This is the surprise."

Qin Miao was stunned for a moment, then twitched his mouth: "These wouldn't be the keys to a house, would they?"

Boss Zhou raised an eyebrow and asked in surprise, "How did you know?"

"Not only do I know these are keys to a house, but if I'm not mistaken, this should be a house in Shanghai."

Boss Zhou was completely shocked this time: "Ah?"

Qin Miao spread his hands: "That's all I know."

Boss Zhou nodded helplessly: "I wanted to give you a surprise, but I didn't expect you to already know.

Yes, it's a house, a gift for you."

"With gifts of houses and cars like these, I'm starting to question your motives." Qin Miao joked, but he didn't refuse. He just put the keys straight into his pocket.

"Get lost, I have a family." Boss Zhou retorted angrily.

"Also, you just accept it like that? No humility, no gratitude?"

Qin Miao waved his hand calmly: "Who are we with each other? There's no need for formalities with you."

Boss Zhou laughed and nodded: "Indeed."

Still, Boss Zhou asked curiously: "I'm very curious, how did you guess it was a house? And even know it's a house in Shanghai."

"First, by looking at the keys. These kinds of keys are usually house keys, and the packaging for the keys is also the kind used only for new homes.

Additionally, with your thoughtful personality, you would even give me a house that I can use."

"Considering this, and given my profession and daily life pace, a house in Shanghai makes more sense."

Boss Zhou's eyes were now filled with astonishment and surprise as he looked at Qin Miao: "You're astoundingly low on emotional intelligence, but your brain works well. No wonder you can stay clear-headed in such extreme conditions and environments in F1, outsmarting and competing with other drivers."

"Are you praising me or insulting me?" Qin Miao touched his nose.

How could he have guessed so precisely? It was all because he knew the system had sent him something like this, and he deduced it backward.

"It depends on how you interpret it." Boss Zhou laughed: "Alright, I've already sent the house address and such to Qimeng. Before going home for the New Year, let Qimeng go to Shanghai to handle the house transfer procedures."

"Also, I put Qimeng's name on the house." After standing up, Boss Zhou looked at Qin Miao and said.

Qin Miao nodded: "I think the house in Monaco is also under Qimeng's name."

Boss Zhou grinned.

Afterward, the two didn't chat anymore. They packed their things and left the restaurant.

After saying goodbye to Boss Zhou, Qin Miao returned to the hotel, changed clothes, handed the keys to Qimeng, and rushed off to socialize.

The next day, Qin Miao still hadn't left Abu Dhabi and even returned to the paddock.

In the two days ahead, Qin Miao needed to conduct Pirelli's tire testing for the next season at the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi.

At this point, Qin Miao was still using the tire size from this season, except the tread was changed to that of next season's 18-inch tires.

Only the tread was changed, not the tire size, so running would certainly differ from the actual driving environment of next season's cars.

But all Pirelli needed was a lot of data from the tires running on the track; whether it was suitable didn't matter much to them.

And because it was tire testing, aside from a few people from the team's publicity departments, the paddock was mostly staffed by the team members only.

This made the paddock feel a bit deserted.

But because it was a test without conflicts of interest between teams, the atmosphere in the paddock was notably more relaxed.

Everyone was not in as much of a rush as they were in normal races.

The overall pace inside and outside the paddock slowed down.

Anyway, Pirelli only required the teams to cover a total mileage of 600 kilometers over two days.

Interestingly, Hamilton's 300 kilometers were entirely covered by Bottas, who didn't even show up in the paddock during the tire test.

After all, Bottas was going to Alfa Romeo next season, and Toto, as Bottas's manager, sent him off without any notice, which was already making Toto feel a bit guilty.

Now that Bottas was about to leave, Toto gave him an opportunity to familiarize himself with the car, so when he goes to Alfa Romeo next season, he wouldn't feel rusty from not racing with an F1 car for too long.

Additionally, it's worth noting that Bottas's hostility towards Qin Miao completely disappeared after the latter won the 2021 season world championship.

Since Qin Miao had achieved victory this season, with such results to his name, even if Bottas got demoted, people wouldn't think it's because of his declining skills, but rather because Toto saw greater potential in Qin Miao than Bottas.

And indeed, Toto's judgment was correct. Qin Miao not only had the ability to replace Bottas, but he could also defeat Hamilton on the track.

Another interesting aspect was that Alfa Romeo's side assigned their 300-kilometer test to the two drivers for next season. On one hand, Zhou Guanyu just barely scored enough points to earn the Super License, but hadn't accumulated enough F1 driving mileage.

So having Zhou Guanyu run the tire tests allowed him to tally up the F1 driving mileage necessary for the Super License from the FIA and to familiarize himself with Alfa Romeo's cars ahead of time.

The other car was driven by Bottas.

Indeed, in those two days, Bottas completed a total of 600 kilometers of testing.

Alfa Romeo was also concerned that Bottas, who hadn't raced an entire season, might not adapt to F1 racing.

But when Bottas finished 300 kilometers at Mercedes and then went to Alfa Romeo, his lap time was immediately 0.2 seconds faster on average than Kimi's and Giovinazzi's during the race phase.

This might partly be due to the new tires or perhaps Bottas's better understanding of the Yas Marina Circuit, making him more adept when driving the car.

Regardless, Bottas's performance at least reassured the Alfa Romeo executives and team leader Vassel that his immediate capability still existed.