CHAPTER 208: CHAPTER 127: DOMINATING THE QUALIFYING SESSION

Although his rest time flew away, Qin Miao was quite curious about the normal work and operation of the Ferrari F1 team during a Grand Prix.

So he stayed according to Bi’s arrangement.

Qin Miao spent the entire Thursday within the Ferrari team.

Since Qin Miao had worked in Ferrari’s simulator department, many people in the F1 team knew Qin Miao, and combined with his outstanding performance in the F2 last week, as well as his status as a Ferrari youth training driver, no one was surprised by his appearance in Ferrari’s work area.

There were even Ferrari technicians inviting Qin Miao to a dinner gathering in the evening after work.

But Qin Miao politely declined, given that there was still an F2 practice race and qualifying tomorrow.

On Friday, driven by his biological clock, Qin Miao got up for a wash, had breakfast, and then rested for a while before completing his daily basic physical training.

After completing all this, Qin Miao headed to the paddock.

By the time he arrived, many F2 team staff had already started busying themselves in the temporary P room for F2.

Qin Miao was long accustomed to this, and the contract he had signed two days ago, along with the changes in status the contract brought, did not alter his mindset.

On one hand, it was because the contract had not yet taken effect, and on the other hand, although Qin Miao had a young man’s love for flamboyance and showing off, he preferred to impress with his own strength rather than by his status.

So Qin Miao carried on as usual, arriving at the team’s temporary P room to start working.

Today, Qin Miao didn’t have much work to do, because most of the work had already been completed last week. This week’s work mainly revolved around maintaining and checking Qin Miao’s car.

Doing everything possible to ensure that no mechanical failures occur during the race for Qin Miao’s car.

As for car tuning and adjustments, they were left untouched. On one hand, Qin Miao’s setup last week was already ideal. Besides, without current track data to support adjustments, making changes might ruin the setup that Qin Miao found comfortable to use.

So at this moment, keeping it unchanged was the best choice.

Once everything was ready, there was still quite some time before the F2 practice race would start.

Qin Miao could take a rest. In fact, Sui Wentao and the others could also take a break before the F2 practice race began.

But taking advantage of this break, Roxin pulled Sui Wentao and the others to practice tire changing.

Sitting around during the break, it was the perfect time to practice tire changing, preparing for tomorrow’s main race and the sprint race the next day.

Thus, Qin Miao watched with amusement as the overwhelmed Sui Wentao and others practice tire changing under the scorching sun, and after watching for a while, Qin Miao, out of curiosity, also expressed his wish to give it a try.

After all, the tire-changing practice was added temporarily, and Roxin primarily just didn’t want the team to sit idle during regular work hours.

So they did not refuse Qin Miao’s request.

Changing tires is indeed a technical job because you not only have to be fast but also accurate.

Tire changing in F2 is different from F1; in F2, there’s only one tire changer per tire, so the process is more complicated than in F1.

First, when the car stops in front of you, aim the tire gun at the tire bolts and insert it, then pull the trigger to loosen the bolts, grab the rim’s edge, and use arm strength to pull the tire off the car.

Then use the mouth of the tire gun to catch the nut on the new tire; at this time, the tire gun and the nut on the tire are in a locked state, and you can directly lift the tire with the tire gun, insert it into the car’s coupling, and then use the tire gun to tighten the nut.

After trying it twice, Qin Miao lost interest because he realized that once you’ve mastered the skills, the speed of changing tires depends on your proficiency, which wasn’t too interesting.

Qin Miao then played on his mobile phone in the team P room for a while, and later, following the notification from the race committee, many F2 teams, who had been waiting for a long time, poured out of their temporary P rooms, pushing cars or tires, or carrying equipment towards the pit area.

The F2 practice race was about to begin...

After changing into his racing suit in the dressing room, Qin Miao smoothly headed to the pit area. After helping Sui Wentao and others tidy up some miscellaneous items, Qin Miao stretched his body next to his car and then started putting on his gear.

Once ready, Qin Miao got into his car.

It’s worth mentioning that due to his outstanding performance on the track last week, Qimeng had recently received many calls from sponsors interested in sponsoring Qin Miao, but more were from companies wanting to offer driver loans to Qin Miao.

The so-called driver loan is easy to understand; racing is ultimately a sport that requires money to play, and regular F2 drivers get their seats by sponsoring F2 teams. Sometimes the team pays for the car, but in other cases, like Qin Miao, the driver buys it themselves.

Since you paid to buy this position, aren’t you, the driver, responsible for paying for the tires, fuel, and component wear and tear?

Of course, the team can’t just do nothing; they are responsible for the driver’s logistical support, giving the driver a race number and entry spot, and they’re also responsible for the logistics and transportation of the car.