Zhou Guanyu also agreed with Toto's statement, not to mention anything else, just as the leader and shareholder of the Meiben team, these words are full of convincing.

In any case, Toto's words make sense.

It's just that at this time, there is such a negative textbook sitting there next to the two of them.

So after Toto said this, Zhou Guanyu subconsciously glanced at Qin Miao next to him.

This one is even more heavyweight.

His world champion basically didn't have much hard practice and skill, 50% of his world champions were Mercedes Racing Team, which provided him with a competitive enough car in '21, the other 40% was because of Qin Miao's terrifying talent, and the other layer was the arrogance of the two veteran drivers Hamilton and Verstappen.

Toto also noticed Zhou Guanyu's eyes, and glanced at Qin Miao beside him without leaving a trace; "Qin Miao is completely an accident, there are only a handful of drivers in F1 history who are as talented as Qin Miao.

There is no comparison between you and him at all. ”

Zhou Guanyu glanced at Qin Miao, shook his head helplessly and said: "I know, and I am also self-aware, it's not because I want to get to that position so hard, I just want to gain a foothold in the paddock now." ”

It is worth mentioning that although Zhou Guanyu still gave Arrow Racing Team 20 million euros of driver sponsorship, Arrow made it clear to Zhou Guanyu that if there was no 20 million euros of sponsorship, they would also want Zhou Guanyu.

Now with this injection, Arrow hinted to Zhou Guanyu that Arrow's car upgrade in the 2022 season will be biased towards Zhou Guanyu's operating habits.

Of course, after all, it is just a hint that there is no certainty whether Arrow will do this.

Toto smiled, "I see that both of you have a trait in you, which is that you both know what you want, but you are a little too modest.

This kind of modesty is a little less reflected in Zhou Guanyu, but Qin Miao, this characteristic in you is a little too strong. ”

Qin Miao was stunned for a moment, why did you talk about me while chatting?

"It's a habit, and I can't change it."

……

Toto's family only left after having dinner at Qin Miao's house.

Zhou Guanyu stayed in Monaco for one more day, foreigners may think that Chinese New Year's Eve is the Chinese New Year, but Qin Miao and they still have the Spring Festival to celebrate.

However, on the third day of the Lunar New Year after the New Year, the three elders of the family returned to China together.

After looking at their children abroad, they were satisfied with the fact that they were okay and had a good life, and they didn't like the living environment abroad, so they fled and returned to the environment they felt most comfortable with.

And Qin Miao and Qiu Meng also resumed their daily work, and the half month of leave that Toto gave Qin Miao was not used at all.

In the next period of time, in addition to daily physical training, Qin Miao practiced on the simulator and helped the team develop racing cars.

On the other hand, Elliott is also scratching his ears and cheeks and begins to study the baseplate and side box of the B version.

The good news is that after half a month, Elliott already has a rough idea of the design, and the new B-version sidebox and floor are expected to weigh less than the overall design of the current car.

Of course, this is only the expectation of the team and Elliott, and the exact situation will have to wait for the parts to be produced.

It's January 17th.

Although the team has not stopped developing and refining the W13 during this time, it is now time for the team to announce the new season of cars that the team has promised fans.

So Qin Miao needs to rehearse with Hamilton the speech when the No. 19 new car is released.

This is also the first time Qin Miao and Hamilton have met after the end of last season.

After the meeting, Hamilton is in good shape, and it seems that this year is very comfortable.

Even Qin Miao still had a feeling that Hamilton was a little fatter than the last time he saw the other party.

19th.

The new car launch event of Mercedes came as scheduled, and the two Mercedes drivers took the stage under the guidance of the host to explain the design ideas of the car, the development process, and their role in this process.

However, the fans of the Mercedes team also know the nature of the Mercedes, and basically no one knows what the new car of the Mercedes team will look like this season until the final start of the opening race.

In the past, Qin Miao also thought the same thing as the audience, Mei Ben likes to hide things.

Ke joined the Meiben team, and after working in the team for a year, Qin Miao knew.

It's not really intentional on the part of the team, it's simply because the team is always improving and upgrading the car.

There was a period of time between the new car launch and the winter test of the car, so the audience will feel that the Mercedes team's car will be different when they watch it.

In addition, after seeing the new season of Mercedes cars, the audience was happiest to see the return of the silver livery of the Mercedes team.

After all, compared to the Black Arrows in the 21st season, Mercedes fans prefer the previous Silver Arrows.

Because the Silver Arrow livery has brought too many victories to the Mercedes team, in the eyes of some of the more superstitious spectators, the silver sword represents victory.

In addition to the livery, most fans of other teams are more concerned about the zero side box concept of the Mercedes W13.

Mercedes Racing wasn't the first team in the paddock to unveil their car livery designs, but the teams that did announce their cars in front of Mercedes Racing were mostly with large side boxes.

Only one of the Mercedes teams has flat or vertical sideboxes, and the air intakes of this car are significantly smaller than those of the other teams.

Therefore, after the launch of the new car of the Mercedes team, all fans are discussing the side box design of the Mercedes.

In addition to the buzz in the paddock, the other teams' designers and simulator departments also focused part of their attention on the design of the Mercedes team's sideways.

They were also curious to see if there was any meaning to this design by Meben.

Of course, all they can do at this point is to guess, at most to make a fluid mechanics model through the simple video of the press conference that is not very clear, and then simulate the direction of the air flow so designed.

Because of the incomplete data, most of the teams that did so returned in vain, and instead wasted at least an hour of CFD simulation time.

But at least before the start of pre-season testing, the design of the Mercedes team has also earned enough eyeballs.

So much so that from the launch of the new car to the start of the official pre-season testing, there has been a constant discussion about the design of the Mercedes inside and outside the paddock.

On February 20, after another month of intense preparations, the pre-season testing of the Formula One World Grand Prix 2022 will begin.

As is traditionally in previous years, the first pre-season test was scheduled at the Circuit de Catalunya in Barcelona, Spain.

The reason for choosing this place is simply because Circuit de Catalunya is the most comprehensive of all the circuits in Formula 1.

The track includes iconic corners such as low, medium and high speed corners, right angle corners, turning backs, high and low drop corners, and big straights.

Suffice it to say that as long as your car is fast enough at Circuit de Catalonia, your car won't be too bad on all the tracks of the season.

As a result, all teams choose to conduct pre-season testing on this track, and Mercedes is no exception.

So today, Qin Miao went to Barcelona.

This is the first time Qin Miao has taken her own plane to work since she got a private jet.

However, Qin Miao didn't have time to enjoy the scenery along the way, and didn't go to the hotel after landing, but asked Qiu Meng to help put his luggage and other things in the hotel.

Qin Miao herself went directly to the Catalan circuit.

At this time, the Mercedes team was already preparing for the pre-season test.

The preparation process for the winter test is similar to that of a regular Grand Prix, where the P room is set up and the car is assembled in the P room.

And in this process, Qin Miao could only watch it.

As a driver, he doesn't have much to do at this time.

However, at this moment, Qin Miao's appearance in the paddock at least invisibly brought a kind of confidence to Qin Miao's crew.

The riders are all over at this time, and there is no reason for them to continue fishing.

Time flew by, and soon it was February 23rd.

Today is the day the pre-season testing begins.

Although this is not the first time Qin Miao has participated in the pre-season test of the new season since becoming an F1 driver, even Qin Miao knows that the car he is driving this season has certain design flaws.

But despite this, knowing that she was about to drive a brand-new F1 car, Qin Miao was still so excited that she couldn't sleep, and after waking up in the morning, she was even more excited.

Today's situation at the Circuit de Catalunya is the same as on a normal Grand Prix weekend, with the only difference perhaps being that there are no spectators.

After coming to the paddock, Qin Miao went to participate in the interview before the test as usual.

In the process of the interview, it is inevitable to be asked by the reporter about the Meiben car, who said that the whole paddock is the maverick of the Meiben car.

Qin Miao was naturally indifferent to this.

If the reporter continued to ask, Qin Miao prevaricated on the grounds that he had only driven this car on the simulator at present, and had not run in reality.

Seeing that the defending champion did not enter, the reporter could only regret it in the end, and began to ask questions that other viewers were more interested in.

In the face of this kind of question, Qin Miao's answer is much more normal, and basically the answers he gets can satisfy the reporter.

After completing the daily tasks like in a mobile game, Qin Miao happily came to the P room of the team.

At this time, Qin Miao's racing car had already been assembled and quietly stopped in his place.

Qin Miao knew that this was not the final form of this car, so he just glanced at it twice and looked away.

In addition to Qin Miao, there were also Hamilton, Toto, and the senior leaders of the Meiben leadership who came to the P room of the Meiben team today.

The only thing worth mentioning is that the technical director Mike Elliott did not come, he was still busy with his own project in the team factory, and Qin Miao had not paid attention to the other party for a while.

It's not that Qin Miao doesn't care about the development progress of Meiben Racing Car, the main thing is that the development speed on Elliott's side is a bit slow, and at the beginning, Qin Miao would occasionally take a look at Elliott's development progress.

But after a long time, Qin Miao found that the other party's part was still in the drawing stage every time he went, although every time he went to the drawing, it would be more perfect than the last time, but so far, Elliott has not taken out any physical objects.

Over time, Qin Miao stopped paying attention.

After saying hello to these high-level executives and chatting a little, Qin Miao went to the team house to change into his new season racing uniform and helmet.

Now the helmet paint used by Qin Miao is still the red helmet from last season.

The helmet team of the new season suggested that Qin Miao should be taken out at the opening game of Bahrain.

Qin Miao has also received his share of the helmet and team uniforms in equal proportions recently, which is not a small amount of money, so in the face of the team's suggestion, Qin Miao happily accepted it.

After putting on his equipment, Qin Miao came to his racing car.

At this time, the 18-inch tires of the racing car had not yet been installed, and they were heated in the thermal blanket.

After Reyes nodded at Qin Miao, Qin Miao entered the car.

After more than a month, after returning to the cockpit of the racing car, Qin Miao actually missed this feeling of occlusion.

After Qin Miao got used to it, Reyes came to Qin Miao's side with a tablet: "How is the fit of the racing seat?" Is there anything that needs to be adjusted? ”

Qin Miao moved her back and body slightly, and made a few sudden left and right changes, and then said to Frankie with a thumbs up: "It feels good, it's almost the same as last season, and it can be tightly attached." ”

Reyes nodded and recorded, and then said: "When you can run, you should also pay attention to this aspect of the problem, and report to us as soon as there is any loose or uncomfortable place." ”

"Okay."

"How's the steering wheel feel?"

The steering wheel of Meiben Racing this season has also been improved to a certain extent according to Qin Miao's hand shape.

Although Qin Miao, who is 21 years old, has been set in height and has not continued to grow taller, the bones on Qin Miao's body will change every year, so the team has also recustomized a steering wheel according to Qin Miao's hand shape for half a year.

"Yes, it feels as good as ever."

"Okay, let's do a second check when we get on the track."

"What about the pedals? Is the angle right? Will there be a setback when you step on it? ”

……

Although the pre-season test has begun, Qin Miao was not released by the team for the first time.

Reyes: They let Qin Miao feel more on the car.

It's best to find the problem during this time, or if there is anything uncomfortable, you can solve it on the spot, if you really wait until you get to the track to start solving it, it may be a little too late.

After delaying for more than ten minutes to complete all the examinations, Frankie's voice came into Qin Miao's ears.

"Okay, now we're done, let's go up and see what this guy is capable of." (End of chapter)