CHAPTER 549: CHAPTER 238: HENGELO_2

So amidst Qin Miao’s wails, during his summer break, he could only return home and reluctantly work.

Naturally, for Qin Miao, this vacation was almost the same as not having one at all.

In the following period, Qin Miao no longer slacked off and worked hard daily to improve himself.

By Wednesday, Qin Miao had improved his tire preservation ability a bit, now scoring 81 points in tire preservation and totaling a score of 92.

Considering the characteristics of the Hengelo track, as long as Qin Miao’s tire preservation ability is strong enough and his qualifying results are decent, he can basically maintain whatever qualifying position he achieves during the race.

By Wednesday, the system timely sent Qin Miao the tasks for the new race week.

[Task: The Adoptive Father of the Logistics Department]

[Requirement: During the Hungarian Grand Prix, do not cause any vehicle damage (paint damage doesn’t count)]

[Reward: Random Skill *1, Orange Flavored Health Potion *1]

[Task: Rising Star]

[Requirement: Defeat your teammate Hamilton during the Hengelo main race]

[Reward: Purple Lottery *3, Random Attribute Increase *1]

[Task: Defense Master]

[Requirement: Defend against any driver for over twenty laps during the main race]

[Reward: Random Blue Skill]

...

After confirming the tasks and rewards, Qin Miao realized that, according to the system, the Hungarian Grand Prix wasn’t considered particularly important, and besides the second task, the other system tasks weren’t too difficult to complete.

The rewards can only be described as average.

On Wednesday afternoon, Qin Miao went to Hungary, still staying at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel, which has a partnership over there, but since the hotel’s location is still a bit far from the track, the hotel prepared commuter cars for all the Mercedes staff.

And the car for Qin Miao, Hamilton, and Toto was still provided by the local Mercedes dealer.

Driving five kilometers with a commuter car isn’t a tough task.

On Thursday, Qin Miao started the activities that are a part of every Grand Prix weekend.

He drove to the paddock in the morning, smiling as the photographers, awaiting at the track entrance, snapped photos of him before clocking in to enter the paddock.

He had breakfast in the team’s cafeteria, rested for a while after breakfast, and then waited for Barber and his crew members to be in place, at around ten o’clock, he began the track walk.

Previously, Qin Miao would do the track walk usually with just one or two people, but today’s different because when he was in F2, Qin Miao had walked the Hengelo track, so he’s quite familiar with it. Thus, during the track walk, Qin Miao had more free time, and utilizing this free time to improve his relationships with his crew members seemed like a good choice.

And because there’s a need to get closer to the crew staff, Qin Miao didn’t ride his scooter for today’s track walk.

Finished the track walk around ten-thirty, Qin Miao changed clothes and went to attend the Mercedes fan meet-up.

After the meet-up, Qin Miao’s morning work was more or less done, had lunch and rested for a while, at two in the afternoon, Qin Miao had an interview with the local media, and after the interview, he went to the pre-race press conference.

Around three-thirty in the afternoon, Qin Miao and Hamilton played table tennis in the team’s lounge.

One, a driver from the country that founded table tennis, the UK, and the other, a driver from China, currently the best country in the world at playing table tennis.

Many people were actually quite looking forward to seeing these two play table tennis.

Plus, this wasn’t just a pastime; it was actually the two of them recording materials to be used on social media for promotion, just like stars occasionally need to post selfies or updates to maintain their popularity, drivers also have similar needs.

Since Qin Miao was Chinese, and in the impression of most foreigners, for the Chinese, table tennis is essentially a kind of innate skill, everyone was eager to see Qin Miao in this table tennis match against Hamilton.

They all wanted to see Qin Miao beat Hamilton decisively.

But believe it or not, when Qin Miao was in elementary school, his school happened to be under renovation, during which the basketball court became a construction site covered in clay, the soccer field was nonexistent, and the track wasn’t even visible.

The renovation took three whole years without completion, only getting done after Qin Miao graduated elementary school.

Under such circumstances, the only sports facility in Qin Miao’s elementary school was a few stone ping-pong tables.

During PE classes, Qin Miao and his classmates had nowhere else to go wild, so the entire class played ping-pong.

And so, Qin Miao honed a decent chop technique in table tennis.

It might appear childish in front of professional table tennis players or even slightly strong amateurs, but in front of Hamilton, who’s virtually a novice, Qin Miao’s unique skill was absolutely dominating.

A single chop technique nearly drove Hamilton to despair.

Because Qin Miao’s ball speed wasn’t fast, it wasn’t hard for Hamilton to catch with his paddle, but then the ball would always roll in an unexpected direction.

Of course, since it was merely a promotional video, entertainment took precedence over competition, and even if Qin Miao won, there were no significant gains.

So, realizing Hamilton’s lack of skill, Qin Miao graciously toned things down, playing with only straightforward shots, no chops.

In the end, Hamilton narrowly lost to Qin Miao with a score of 9 to 11.

It was all about social courtesy.

But because of this, Qin Miao gave Hamilton the illusion that by putting in a little more effort and more practice, he could vanquish Qin Miao.

So after it was over, Hamilton expressed that next time he would definitely win back.

Afterwards, Qin Miao and Hamilton rested a bit, then they both went to the team house to attend a meeting among team engineers.

Once the meeting ended, Qin Miao’s work was completely wrapped up.

This kind of work pace was just right for Qin Miao, not tiring, and the day felt very fulfilling.

Friday is when the first and second practices start.

The weather is nice today, sunny and the track temperature is above 40°, which is good news for all the drivers.

After getting to the track, and having a simple breakfast, Qin Miao went to attend the team meeting.

This meeting mainly discussed which projects the team still needed to test during the first practice today, and which driver was responsible for each test.

Once the team meeting ended, Qin Miao went to the FIA office for the drivers’ meeting, the content was to understand FIA’s track limit explanations for today’s race, which areas couldn’t be exceeded, and which areas were altered from last season, all of these would be clearly explained in the meeting.

After the meeting ended, Qin Miao’s morning work was done, but Hamilton had to change into his team uniform and attend a gathering with Mercedes’ suppliers.

Had a little something to eat, and at eleven, Qin Miao began warming up, getting ready for the first practice starting at eleven thirty.

Then came the first practice.

Worth mentioning is that Qin Miao switched to his fourth exhaust system for this race.

During the first practice, Qin Miao’s main task was to test the long-distance durability of his hard tires, given that this track’s tire wear isn’t as extreme as in the UK, so if Qin Miao’s long-distance data on hard tires was satisfactory, the team planned to let him finish with a yellow-white one-stop strategy.

The first practice session also tested various other data, and overall, it exceeded the team’s expectations.

What? You’re asking about the results? Don’t ask, just know it met the team’s expectations...

After the first practice ended, Qin Miao had lunch, slept for over twenty minutes, woke up, attended another meeting, and then began preparing for the three o’clock second practice.

No need to elaborate much on the second practice, after it ended, he gave an interview and, by the end of Friday’s work, he took an ice bath at the team house to ease his muscle soreness before leaving the paddock.