How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 921 - 363: The Second Unlucky Person Exhausted from Running_2
Upon hearing Qin Miao say this, Dani's eyes lit up instantly.
Even though she admired Qin Miao for his achievements on the F1 circuit, she still preferred Leclerc over Qin Miao.
No other reason, just because Leclerc is arguably the most handsome driver out there.
However, Jay Chou waved his hand and said, "No, it's alright. I know you F1 drivers are very busy. After your work is done, don't worry about us. I'll be there to cheer for you during the races on Saturday and Sunday."
Seeing this, Qin Miao didn't insist. After exchanging contact information with Jay Chou, he wrapped up his work for the day.
Returning to the hotel, Qin Miao ate the apple Qimeng had sliced for him, while recounting the afternoon's events.
Originally, Qin Miao thought that Qimeng might be a bit surprised that Jay Chou was still in the Middle East, but shouldn't be too excited, considering she had met Jay Chou last week.
But what Qin Miao didn't expect was that Qimeng immediately turned to him, scratching her head in frustration, and wailed, "Ahhh, why am I always not around when you meet Jay Chou?!!"
Qin Miao looked puzzled. "Didn't you go looking for Jay Chou last week?"
Qimeng looked up at Qin Miao with pitiful eyes. "Couldn't find him... I searched the entire event..."
Qin Miao chuckled, but seeing Qimeng's sad face made him feel a bit sorry.
He reached out to touch Qimeng's head, wondering, "Then why didn't you tell me?"
"You were in a race..."
Seeing the considerate yet pitiful Qimeng, Qin Miao smiled helplessly, then took out his phone and handed it to Qimeng, saying, "Here, before coming back I exchanged numbers with Jay Chou."
Looking at the phone Qin Miao handed over, Qimeng pushed it away helplessly, "It's useless to me now. Even with his contact info, I can't just call him out of the blue, right? It would definitely cause trouble for him, and might even leave a bad first impression."
This time, Qin Miao finished his apple, got up from the sofa, and said, "Then we'll have to wait until Saturday and Sunday. Jay Chou said he would be in the paddock then, and I'll keep an eye out for you."
"Mm-hmm."
...
Friday, the day the first and second practice sessions start.
Just like last week's Bahrain event, the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix this week already saw many spectators during the practice sessions.
There were even more people entering at this time compared to usual. 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚
Qin Miao could always spot Chinese fans supporting him in one corner of the track.
The rest of the day's routine was the same as previous Grand Prix events: two practice sessions, tuning the car, collecting data, and testing tires, all in a hectic rush.
This week, the team brought some upgrades to the car, but the changes were minor.
They added an aero fin on both sides of the cockpit.
The main role of these aero fins is to break the airflow over the car, guiding it more towards the heat exchanger intake on the side pods.
Another change was the redesigned engine cover to help guide more airflow to the rear wing, increasing rear downforce.
The last upgrade wasn't visible externally — it was mainly about reducing the installation location of the internal radiators, which helps in improving cooling efficiency as air flows through the radiators.
These three upgrades are minor, but without affecting the car's setup window, they still offer some speed improvements.
The real major upgrade for the Mercedes team would be at the Australian Grand Prix in a fortnight, where they'll have a new rear diffuser.
However, nobody can guarantee the effectiveness of this new diffuser.
Back to today's two practice sessions, the recurring issue was that neither Qin Miao nor Hamilton noticed any improvement in the car's porpoising.
Qin Miao personally didn't have much of an issue with the porpoising, as it was only towards the end of the main race when his back would start to hurt, but enduring a bit would see him through the race.
However, on the other hand, Hamilton showed more "full-bodied" emotions when reporting the issue.
The team was quite helpless as well; the factory was already working on the issue, but it had only been a week since they started addressing it, clearly not enough time to solve and eliminate it completely.
As of now, aside from being slow and having porpoising at high speeds, the car didn't have any intolerable issues, at least in terms of consistency and setup window, leaving both Qin Miao and Hamilton quite satisfied.
Thus, halfway through Friday's second practice session, Qin Miao quickly found his most comfortable setup window, spending the remaining time helping the team collect data.
Hamilton was slightly behind Qin Miao in this regard; he was still balancing between collecting data and finding his setup on Friday.
It wasn't that Hamilton was lacking; he was mainly looking for a setup that had decently low bounce while maintaining a reasonable speed.
However, Qin Miao didn't mind; he endured it thanks to his youth and physical fitness, bearing the brunt of the porpoising impacts.
Don't be fooled by how twisty the Jeddah Circuit may look; it's genuinely a high-speed track. Besides the first sector, the second and third sectors virtually require no braking, with most corners being easily navigable in ground effect-era cars by just easing off the throttle slightly.
A track like this would have been perfect for last season's Mercedes car, but not this season. Even with the engine's power advantage, the aerodynamic deficiencies and the porpoising make it hard for the Mercedes car to harness its speed advantage.
In fact, going faster only exacerbates the bouncing — the faster the car, the more it hops.
Soon, it was Saturday. During that day's practice, Qin Miao consistently and efficiently completed all the tasks assigned by the team.
This is one of the reasons why the Mercedes team liked Qin Miao.
Whether inside or outside the paddock, Qin Miao could complete all his tasks without compromise and even utilize his initiative to help develop the new car with the team.
Saturday night, the Bahrain track was brightly lit.
At this moment, Qin Miao stood at the entrance of the team house for a pre-race interview.
After the interview, Qin Miao turned to see Barber, but Qimeng was nowhere to be found.
"Where's Qimeng? I remember seeing her around when I was being interviewed just now."
Barber said, "She mentioned she saw a celebrity she likes in the team's P room and went to get their autograph."
Qin Miao nodded, understanding it was probably Jay Chou.
Last week, Qimeng was searching for Jay Chou in the VIP section above the team's P room. Though it wasn't a large area, the traffic was heavy enough that missing Jay Chou wasn't entirely surprising.
But this time, Jay Chou was right in the team's P room, where the viewing area was quite small. Once the race started, even the VIP guests in the viewing area weren't allowed to move around freely.
Therefore, Qin Miao didn't think Qimeng would miss seeing Jay Chou again this time.
After nodding, Qin Miao took Barber into the team's P room.
Sure enough, when Qin Miao saw Qimeng, she was in the grandstand area behind his car, right next to Jay Chou.
The girl was staring at him, eyes full of admiration and happiness.
Although Qimeng looked at Qin Miao with more warmth and affection, for some reason, Qin Miao felt a bit jealous. He thought to himself that she never seemed to have that look of admiration when she looked at him.
Darn, I'm a world champion, right! Does that not deserve even a look of admiration from you?
