CHAPTER 517: CHAPTER 226: NEW MISSION

When Qin Miao was in F2, he also walked this track and even won a championship here. He even attended the British Grand Prix as a spectator.

But now, walking the track has become a habit for Qin Miao, just like the old saying goes: "Military action follows logistical preparation," and "Review the old to learn the new."

In Qin Miao’s view, preparing in advance is never wrong. Given his personality, if he’s not walking the track, he’s usually practicing driving to improve his track proficiency.

However, Qin Miao has already fully mastered the Silverstone Circuit, so now he’s working on his proficiency at the Hengelo circuit.

But doing this won’t really give Qin Miao much of an advantage in this race.

So instead of honing proficiency for the next race track, Qin Miao might as well walk the current track.

To be honest, for the Hengelo circuit, if Qin Miao wants, he could push the limits, pit once during yellow and red flags, and complete the race that way.

Of course, that’s something for two weeks later; it has nothing to do with Qin Miao now.

While walking the track, Qin Miao still didn’t encounter any other drivers. Like Qin Miao, most drivers are quite familiar with the Silverstone Circuit, although some, like Qin Miao, come to walk a couple of laps. However, most people prefer to stay in a comfortable spot doing what they enjoy.

After spending two hours, Qin Miao completed his track-walking task for the day, with some fruitful findings—he discovered a section of the curb wasn’t secured properly, likely costing the responsible track maintenance staff some money.

A driving line at the exit of a corner had worn down quite a bit. Giving some gas at the exit could slightly improve lap times from the simulator by about 0.05 seconds during qualifying.

Then he went to attend the pre-race press conference, where the participants alongside Qin Miao were Tsunoda and Perez.

Seeing the lineup didn’t surprise Qin Miao, but it was clear Tsunoda and Perez weren’t happy with the officials during the pre-race conference, barely giving them a smile.

Somewhat bewildered after the pre-race press conference, Qin Miao spent some time at the team house and asked Allison about the development and manufacturing status of the other two car parts.

Allison smiled and said that they were already off the production line, and had been installed on the car today, just waiting to see their performance in practice tomorrow.

Mercedes developing three parts at once does put some pressure, otherwise, new parts wouldn’t be rushed to the track after just brief wind tunnel tests and simulator data runs.

However, Qin Miao still believes in the development capabilities of Allison’s team. After all, Mercedes didn’t win all those championships for nothing; without sufficient development capability, they would have been laid low by the FIA long ago.

During Mercedes’ dominant period, the FIA frequently tried to set them back with technical directives.

And yet, Mercedes always managed to circumvent these obstacles with its own strength, which is truly admirable.

So both Qin Miao and Hamilton agreed to the somewhat radical proposal of using untested parts during practice sessions.

Even though qualifying is right after the practice session, they still have plenty of confidence.

However, after confirming the status of his car, Qin Miao didn’t leave immediately but instead went to Eliza to ask her about the events he and Hamilton needed or could participate in on Friday and Saturday.

Honestly, before Eliza explained, Qin Miao never imagined there would be so many activities during a race weekend.

Throughout the day, there are over a dozen various activities—fan meet-and-greets, interviews, meetings with independent media figures, autograph sessions, and you can even sing on the stage set up at the Grand Prix venue.

After sifting through these activities, Qin Miao picked out five that he was particularly interested in.