How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 156 - 107: In High Demand (Part 2)

F*ck, a backstabber cut me off!

After all, they’re all making a living together in F2. Roxin squinted slightly and recognized the bastard talking to Qin Miao, and identified who he was.

Once he confirmed who it was, Roxin felt his blood pressure rising.

No sense of honor, coming to deceive! To launch a sneak attack!

But at the moment, they just had some disdain for Richie’s opportunistic behavior. They weren’t worried that Qin Miao would switch to Richie’s Trident Team just because of a few words.

"I saw your qualifying session earlier, and I must say, I haven’t seen such a talented driver like you in many years. I believe your future is limitless." Richie was full of sincerity: "Our Trident Team’s F2 division just happens to have a driver spot open next year. I think a genius like you needs a great stage like our Trident Team to showcase your talent to the world. Our team has good relations with Mercedes, Ferrari, and Haas. You won’t have to worry when you graduate from F2, as there will be F1 teams extending an olive branch to you."

Once the conversation started, Richie began to endlessly introduce his team to Qin Miao. His message was clear: Our team is great! There’s a future here! What are you waiting for? Come join us! A bright future awaits you.

But after listening to all this, Qin Miao only felt that the person in front of him seemed a bit too eager? There was still one race left this F2 season, and he still had a main race to run. Could this person see his talent without even a glance?

"Uh, Mr. Richie, how about this, let’s exchange contact details, and I’ll get back to you after some consideration?" Having attended many gatherings hosted by Ferrari’s higher-ups, Qin Miao had learned a lot of simple ways to deflect offers.

Qin Miao’s words were clear—it was a way of politely seeing him off.

Moreover, Qimeng and others had returned with their plates by now, so even though Richie had more to say and genuinely hoped Qin Miao would join his team, he knew better than to leave a bad impression on Qin Miao at this moment. So, after exchanging contact details with a smile, he got up and left.

After Richie left, Qimeng placed water-boiled chicken breast specially prepared for Qin Miao and unsweetened black tea in front of him, while curiously asking: "Who was that just now?"

Qin Miao looked a bit troubled at the food in front of him, sighed, and then answered Qimeng’s question: "The head of an F2 team, wanting me to join their team."

"An F2 team? Why are they looking for you now?" Qimeng was a bit surprised.

Feeling relatively good today, probably because of securing pole position in the race, despite the food tormenting Qin Miao’s taste buds, he joked: "With my talent, skill, and looks, could anyone be blind enough to think I should start from F3?"

Qimeng rolled her eyes playfully: "You wish..."

While they were chatting, Roxin and Fini arrived at the long table.

Qin Miao didn’t notice them at first due to his position, but Qimeng, sitting opposite Qin Miao, saw them and recognized Fini, whom she had met in England with Qin Miao. Knowing he had supported Qin Miao by providing a training venue for a while, she nudged Qin Miao gently as a reminder.

Upon seeing them, Qin Miao naturally exchanged pleasantries. Once they learned from Qin Miao that he hadn’t accepted Richie’s offer, their smiles became more natural.

During the meal, they naturally engaged in some light conversation.

Unlike Richie, who jumped straight to the point, these two built rapport first and expressed that they wanted to invite Qin Miao to a banquet their Prema Team was hosting in the evening.

But Qin Miao turned them down, saying he had a prior engagement, which was true as he had plans to play games with Zhou Guanyu later that night.

The post-lunch rest period was relatively long, and no one came to disturb Qin Miao during this time. Everyone knew that the upcoming race was extremely important for these young individuals.

After two hours, Qin Miao returned to the P room after a nap at home. By then, races were already underway on the track, with the roar of engines echoing across the entire circuit.

It’s worth noting that the Fiorano track was originally designed to test vehicle performance, with no intention of hosting racing events, so the pit area was not as well-designed as those of official racing tracks.

If you pit for a tire change on this track, you’d run at least a third less of the track.

Therefore, in these three events, tire changes during the race were not allowed, and each race had to be completed on one set of tires.

For young drivers in GT races, there’s not much of an issue since their tires are quite durable.

But it’s tough on the F3 and F4 drivers because their tires are all soft, and wear out quickly on the track, meaning they are limited to using the relatively harder Yellow Tires and White Tires.

For tire selection, Qin Miao decisively chose Yellow Tires because he had a Passive Skill for tire preservation, and the tires prepared by Ferrari were supplied by Pirelli.

Based on data from his long-distance tests yesterday, Qin Miao judged that with Yellow Tires, he could barely finish the race, but with Red Tires, even if he gingerly managed and used all his skills, he couldn’t complete it.

Additionally, Yellow Tires are at least 0.4 seconds faster per lap than White Tires, which was also Qin Miao’s reliance for completing system tasks, so to overtake as many drivers as possible during the race, he needed these Yellow Tires.

Qin Miao believed his skills could increase the endurance of Yellow Tires by 30%.

But according to data from Lubos and two other technicians assessing Qin Miao’s long-distance tests, his Yellow Tires would start to wear 10 laps before the end of the race. Though finishing the full race wasn’t an issue, the last 10 laps would likely be very challenging, with serious grip degradation.

So, there was some hesitation when fitting the Yellow Tires, and they tried persuading Qin Miao otherwise. But since Qin Miao was the driver, this was his race, and they were just there to assist, so faced with Qin Miao’s insistence, they could only agree while silently wishing him luck.

The F3 race consisted of 37 laps with no pit stops and no fastest laps or anything like that.

With the car setup finalized, enough fuel for 39 laps filled, and tires ready, Qin Miao drove his F3 car—missing even a driver’s number and only featuring his name on the shark fin area—onto the track.

After the warm-up lap, Qin Miao parked the car in the grid position marked temporarily for the start.

The race soon began, and Qin Miao charged ahead, quickly widening the gap with the second place.

...

Qin Miao knew he might be a bit stronger than his fellow competitors in the race, but he didn’t expect the gap to be this wide.

In just the ninth lap, approaching a turn, he spotted an F3 car ahead that he was about to lap.

Soon, at the end of the ninth lap, with the blue flags waving along the track, Qin Miao overtook this slower car.

Honestly, there wasn’t much pressure; it felt just like in the simulator when practicing overtaking.

The subsequent race was a bit monotonous. Qin Miao ran, spotted a slow car, approached it, and if the position was right, he overtook it himself; if not, he waited for the blue flags on the sidelines and then overtook it.

By the end of the 37-lap race, Qin Miao had overtaken four slow cars. Considering only 10 cars participated in this F3 race, Qin Miao overtook almost half of them.

Qimeng didn’t know how Qin Miao felt after overtaking so many, but she knew that after seeing Qin Miao overtake so many, many team leaders and owners could no longer sit still.

Even before the race ended, these usually high-and-mighty figures jogged down from the stands, found Qin Miao’s P room, and started talking to Lubos, Qin Miao’s Physical Trainer, and Qimeng, Qin Miao’s manager.

No need to explain their enthusiasm; their intentions were obvious.