How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 166 - 112: Joining Prema Racing (Part 2)

However, after seeing the river, Qin Miao curiously said to Qimeng with a constructive suggestion, "If I block the river and set up a toll station, charge 0.5 euros per boat, how much do you think I could earn in a year?"

Faced with Qin Miao’s idea, thought up with his imagination, even Qimeng, who knows Qin Miao can be whimsical, was dumbfounded for quite a while.

Then, after knocking lightly on Qin Miao’s head in annoyance, Qimeng went back to the room to pack her luggage.

Qin Miao was just joking. After rubbing the spot that was knocked, he moved a chair to sit by the river, took out his mobile phone, and ordered a set of computer equipment, along with peripherals needed for gaming.

Because Qin Miao was still in the Ferrari youth training program, he continued to reside in the house in Maranello, so he hadn’t brought the computer and simulator from his place.

But after ordering these items, Qin Miao looked at the slowly flowing river in front of him and decided to order a fishing rod that wasn’t too expensive.

When tired of gaming, he could become a backdoor fisherman.

Only thing, he wasn’t sure if the fish caught in this river were edible...

As Qimeng’s voice echoed, "Dinner is ready!"

Upon hearing it, Qin Miao got up and closed the back door. Although finding a river as a backyard was quite novel for someone who had never lived in such a place like him, he knew water was a breeding ground for mosquito eggs, so he closed the door for safety.

This marked the end of a busy day.

The night passed quietly, and Qin Miao woke up early the next day. After all, it was his first official day at work, and he needed to make a good impression on the boss and colleagues.

Qin Miao’s job today was chiefly to meet the race team members assigned to him by Prema; these people would be in charge of his TR on the track, tire changes, tuning, vehicle maintenance, and a series of other tasks moving forward.

It’s safe to say that starting today for the next year, these folks would be inseparable from Qin Miao, sharing in all joys and losses.

Unlike F1, F2 tire crews only have seven people: the front and rear jack technicians, four tire changers, and the technician holding the signboard for drivers.

These roles are all held by technicians. While tuning the cars, they also have to handle tire changing duties, which is indeed no easy feat.

Moreover, for a racing duo, the tire crew is shared between the two drivers.

Qin Miao’s race engineer, the one responsible for TR communication with him, is much like Jeff in the game "F1 2019," communicating with the player.

His name is Trick Frankie, a slightly chubby middle-aged man, about 1.8 meters tall, with relatively ordinary looks, yet unusually thick hair, not suffering from the balding common at this age.

Besides him, there’s Qin Miao’s chief technician, a Chinese named Sui Wentao, appearing to be around 27 or 28 years old, sporting a buzz cut that gives him a spirited look, with muscular arms, and dimples like Leclerc when smiling.

Although he has Asian features, he is actually an Asian-British person, born in the UK due to his family’s business background, speaks Chinese, but like Zhou Guanyu before, has a habit of using inverted sentences.

These two were the most important figures in Qin Miao’s racing team.

One provides critical information and more detailed, data-driven feedback during the races, while the other tunes the car to Qin Miao’s preferences before the races.

Qin Miao couldn’t afford to offend either of them, so he acted quite polite towards the duo.

Of course, he treated everyone equally, extending due respect to the rest as well.

After getting acquainted, they each introduced themselves.

Qin Miao’s race engineer Frankie only needed to sit at the command station and indeed only at the command station, because any information from the track had to be conveyed by him to Qin Miao competing in the car.

As for Qin Miao’s chief technician Sui Wentao, he had a more demanding role as part of the tire crew, responsible for the rear jack of the car.

Besides these two, Steve and Alvin were also members of Qin Miao’s team.

The two handled tire changes on the left side of the vehicle, and also helped tune the car for Qin Miao.

The four of them constituted Qin Miao’s entire racing crew.

The other people belonged to Mick Schumacher’s team, mainly being here to change Qin Miao’s tires during the races, simply dropping by to meet Qin Miao.

After exchanging greetings, Mick’s team left, leaving Qin Miao with his four-member crew.

With some confusion, he pondered and asked curiously, "Isn’t the tire crew supposed to have seven people? Why do we only have three? Is Mick’s team bigger than ours?"

Sui Wentao explained, "Yes, Mick’s team is indeed not just one person bigger than ours but has three extra members. As for the reason and identity of those additional folks... coming from Ferrari youth training, you surely know, don’t you?"

Qin Miao smacked his lips and changed the subject, "What’s our work content for today?"

That’s when Frankie spoke up, "Our main task today is getting familiar and acclimatizing with each other, sorting out miscellaneous stuff, and that’s about the work for the day.

The new car for this season will arrive in about a month, allowing us to familiarize ourselves with vehicle structure, redesign car liveries and such, keeping us quite busy until the new season’s opening race."

Qin Miao raised his eyebrows, "So we don’t have specific tasks today?"

Frankie nodded with a smile, "That’s right, come on Qin, whenever someone new joins, it’s our happiest time, because the team covers most of the expenses for outings."

Thus, instead of working, Qin Miao was taken out by the crew members for a day of fun, eating and drinking.

Not surprisingly, the locals opted not to visit the globally renowned Water City Venice despite it being just 60 kilometers away and less than an hour’s drive. Instead, they took Qin Miao to the local tourist attractions in Vicenza.

This place perfectly matched Qin Miao’s fantasy about Venice, also being a water-based towns and villages, with clear water, abundant flowers and birds, and not many visitors; most were locals, the food was cheap, its only flaw being that it’s remote and hard for typical tourists to find.

Because tourists overlook this place, there are fewer people, and the environment is exceptionally good.

Led by the racing crew members, several people arrived at a local specialty restaurant.

Entertaining foreign guests by treating them to the most famous local dishes is a foolproof type of hospitality.

Given the outing was akin to a business gathering aimed at fostering good colleague relations, Qin Miao did not bring Qimeng along.

Honestly, although the outing was in a pleasant environment with uniquely local cuisine, Qin Miao realized some of his values developed in China differ somewhat from those of the folks abroad.

Thus, when interacting with them, he often felt somewhat uncomfortable and struggled to understand.

Additionally, being acquaintances meant that Qin Miao’s best method for shortening distances between men didn’t apply.

On one hand, Qin Miao didn’t drink, and since he had a girlfriend, he couldn’t join them in doing things men typically love.

So on the first day, the relationship between the crew members and Qin Miao progressed slowly, but after spending the day together, everyone got somewhat acquainted.

On the second day, Lubos finally made a belated appearance.

Since Lubos was Qin Miao’s Physical Trainer, not assigned by the Prema team, they didn’t arrange accommodation for him, nor were they obliged to.

This wasn’t an issue, though. Qin Miao and Qimeng’s dormitory was quite spacious; despite Qin Miao having converted a room into a gaming space, there was still a vacant one.

Once Lubos arrived, he settled comfortably in Qin Miao’s place, making supervising Qin Miao’s daily training even simpler than before.