It can be said that during the period when the Meiben team was in full swing to develop and improve the car, the team was willing to spare two hours to celebrate Qin Miao's birthday, which is really enough to show that the Meiben team attaches great importance to Qin Miao.

And the team staff also had a little more rest time in the nervous mood, and everyone was in a much better state.

At least the nerves that had been tense were relaxed for a moment.

After a brief celebration, it was almost time to get off work, and today the team also gave all the staff a rare holiday, which was regarded as Qin Miao's light, and they could rest for a night.

Originally, Qin Miao wanted to invite his colleagues from the team to go out for a meal at night, but as soon as he proposed it, he was unanimously rejected by these people.

They don't want to socialize or anything, and everyone wants to go back to their homes and sleep comfortably

After saying goodbye to the rest of the convoy, Qin Miao returned home with the gifts they had given her.

And when she got home, Qiu Meng was already preparing dinner.

Qin Miao was a little surprised, but it seemed to be a matter of course that there was also a birthday cake on the dining table at home at this time.

Presumably, even if there is no reminder from the team colleagues, Qin Miao can know from Qiu Meng that today is his birthday after returning home.

In contrast, when Qiu Meng celebrated her birthday on February 2, Qin Miao directly forgot about this girl's birthday, if it weren't for Qin Miao's mother who called to remind Qin Miao, it is estimated that Qin Miao would not have known about Qiu Meng's birthday.

"Daughter-in-law, I'm back."

"Happy Birthday! Kiss one~"

……

Thanks to the joint efforts of the two Mercedes drivers, after a month of adjustment, the overall appearance of the car when I came to Bahrain for testing was very different from that in Barcelona.

The car was re-installed with a new floor plate, but the overall structure of the side box remained unchanged, and the outer edge of the floor was pulled with a few extra stiffeners.

Of course, in addition to these obvious changes, there are also obvious changes in some places that are not easy to notice, the biggest point is that the opening at the exit of the venturi passage of the floor plate is larger, which can more efficiently direct the air flow to form a vortex at the edge of the floor to seal the floor of the car, so that the dolphin jump appears later on the car.

In addition, changes have been made under the base plate and the joint position of the stiffeners has also been changed, also to delay the appearance of the dolphin jump.

The last of the more noticeable changes was the anterior alar of the nose.

There is a notch in the inner fins of the front nose to allow the airflow from the venturi passage inlet to enter the venturi passage more smoothly, so that the airflow from the venturi passage exit will be larger, which will provide a better seal to the floor and naturally allow the dolphin to jump later.

This month, most of the team's upgrade goals have been focused on slowing down the car's dolphin jump times.

The recent Bahrain Winter Test is the time to test the effects of these upgrades.

On the first day of the winter test, everyone in the team came to Bahrain with confidence, and all the teams will stay in Bahrain for the next half month.

After the Bahrain Winter Test, the 2022 season opener will start with the Bahrain Grand Prix, six days away.

At that time, the image that all Chinese fans have been waiting for all winter will appear in front of them, that is, there will be two Chinese F1 drivers in the F1 paddock.

Domestic fans not only have Qin Miao, the main dish, but also Zhou Guanyu, the side dish.

And it's worth mentioning that during last month's Barcelona test, Zhou Guanyu was sometimes faster than his team-mate Bottas.

Therefore, although in fact, most of the time Zhou Guanyu's speed is not as fast as Bottas, domestic fans are still full of confidence in Zhou Guanyu and are full of expectations.

At least in terms of Zhou Guanyu's current state and adaptability to F1 cars, domestic fans are now looking forward to Zhou Guanyu's good performance in his next F1 career.

Of course, this is also because of Qin Miao's existence, which made fans subconsciously raise their expectations for Zhou Guanyu.

In fact, normally speaking, with Zhou Guanyu's current ability and the performance of the Arrow team's cars, striving to become a regular in the points area is their primary goal.

……

"No kidding, now I really feel like I'm a little stressed."

At seven o'clock in the morning, Zhou Guanyu and Qin Miao sat together in the rest area at the door of the Meiben team's team in the paddock and ate breakfast, and not far from the other side were Barber and Zhou Guanyu's assistant Simmons, who were also eating breakfast at this time.

The reason why Zhou Guanyu had to go to Mei Ben's team for breakfast was mainly because of Qin Miao's existence, and Mei Ben specially configured Qin Miao with a very good cook for Chinese food.

In order to be able to eat something good, Zhou Guanyu ran over to eat.

Qin Miao took a bite of the fritters: "How stressed are you?" Although your current strength can't be compared to Norris, but it definitely surpasses the Haas duo, right? If you are a first-year student, even if you don't run well in the opening race, you can at most say to the outside world: if you don't adapt to the rhythm of F1, run a few races, and then you will be fine. ”

Zhou Guanyu shook his head and said: "Actually, it's not, I don't have any pressure at all in terms of speed, and I can even say that I am very confident in terms of speed." ”

"And where does your stress come from?"

"Domestic fans." Zhou Guanyu said calmly.

Qin Miao raised her eyebrows: "What does it have to do with them?" ”

"Don't you know how many fans there are in the country right now? Not to mention anything else, I didn't do anything, and now I have 600,000 Weibo fans.

That's 600,000 people, more than the combined population of some of Europe's smaller countries, and I'm afraid I'll let them down if I don't do well on the track. ”

Speaking of this, Qin Miao scratched her face embarrassedly, because strictly speaking, there is a certain reason why there are so many fans and herself in China.

As I have said countless times before, most people in China are actually championship fans, and the number of fans and fans has increased by a nuclear explosion after knowing that you have won the world championship in F1.

According to statistics, after Qin Miao won the world championship in F1, the total number of domestic fans increased by 60%, which shows how many champion fans there are.

But the current problems encountered by Zhou Guanyu have never been encountered by Qin Miao.

Because Qin Miao's mentality has always been very good, whether it was when he first entered F1 or now when Qin Miao is defending the championship, Qin Miao's mentality has always been relatively stable.

So Qin Miao has no way to empathize with Zhou Guanyu now.

But my friends complain to me, I can't just say nothing, just grin and have fun there or open my mouth to eat, right?

So Qin Miao still comforted after thinking about it: "That's no way, we do have a lot of people in China, but your more than 600,000 is actually quite good, look at me, Weibo has never bought any fans, and there are already more than 7 million fans at this time."

If I change you to my position, you can't give these 7 million fans a lot of tea and can't sleep? ”

"Can't you just make something a little more constructive? Makes sense to say cool things here, right? Zhou Guanyu complained.

Suddenly, Qin Miao had an idea, "Don't say it, don't say it, I have a plan." ”

"But it doesn't hurt to say?"

Qin Miao snapped her fingers: "You canceled your Weibo account." ”

After finishing speaking, Qin Miao clapped her hands and said excitedly: "In this way, you will have no fans, and you will save time and worry." ”

"You think you're humorous?" Zhou Guanyu glanced at Qin Miao as if he were a dead man.

"So what do you want to do? This is fate, bear it. ”

"Bad luck." Zhou Guanyu complained, and then ate the porridge in front of him in three or two bites.

Qin Miao didn't care about Zhou Guanyu's complaints, and after eating the noodles, she got up and said, "It's almost time, I'm busy." ”

"Good.

By the way, I just took the time to watch the episode of Netflix's special shot for you in the Amazing Survival documentary, it was really handsome, I was enthusiastic to watch, and the process of winning the championship was also ups and downs, but do you and Hamilton really have such a serious conflict? ”

After hearing Zhou Guanyu's words, Qin Miao's eyes were about to turn upside down.

I couldn't help but silently greet Netflix again, believing that Hamilton had the same thoughts as himself when he heard others mention this matter.

Zhou Guanyu is talking about the F1 documentary "Amazing Survival", which has skyrocketed F1's audience in the United States.

Perhaps the most famous representative of this is the beautiful English of Steiner, the leader of the Haas team, in the documentary.

And this year's Qin Miao, as the first world champion to come out of China's racing desert, naturally received a lot of attention, so in Netflix's documentary, there is a special episode to tell the story of Qin Miao winning the championship.

It's hard to say elsewhere, but in China, the number of views of this episode has reached 50 million in just three days.

Because this episode completely portrays Qin Miao as an absolute protagonist, and then all kinds of monster fighting upgrades all the way to becoming a world champion.

There is a feeling of reading cool texts, and there is a saying that the shooting is indeed good, but it is a little inappropriate in terms of authenticity.

Because Netflix directly shaped Hamilton into Qin Miao's biggest opponent.

Therefore, to put it mildly, this is an F1 documentary, but to put it mildly, this is actually a TV series adapted from reality.

Some people who don't know the truth are also thought by Netflix guides that Qin Miao's relationship with Hamilton is not very good.

There was a lot of discussion about this matter on the Internet.

Qin Miao also felt quite speechless about this, so he didn't even watch this documentary that belonged to him.

"Fake."

After losing a sentence, Qin Miao went to Mei Ben's convoy home.

……

The pre-season test in Bahrain, like Barcelona, is a three-day event.

Mercedes Racing is still the most talked-about team in the paddock, and not one of them.

On the one hand, this is due to the aggressive zero-side box design of the Mercedes team, and on the other hand, the appearance of the Mercedes car has changed a lot during the testing phase in Bahrain compared to Barcelona.

Therefore, almost everyone is curious about what kind of performance improvement Mercedes upgrade will bring to the car.

Even Ferrari Red Bull, a team that has an obvious rivalry with Mercedes, has not had a good rest in the analysis department in the past few days.

There has been a lot of discussion about how much the Mercedes zero side box design can bring to the car, and what kind of characteristics this design has, and whether it will cause problems for its own team on the track.

It is worth mentioning that no one thinks that the design of Meiben is untargeted, and they all feel that with Meiben's technical ability, the design of this zero side box is definitely their own reason.

And in the end, they definitely couldn't discuss anything, after all, they could only get a Mercedes car shape, and there was no complete CFD data, if they themselves were the same design, it would have some reference meaning, but Mercedes and all the teams took a completely different path.

On the first day of the test, Qin Miao did feel that the dolphin jump of the car had improved after a month of hard work, but it was only a little relieved, and he should jump or jump at high speed.

It is not slowed down by the stronger tightness of the base plate because of the stronger tightness.

Hamilton on the other side was in the same situation, jumping non-stop.

On top of that, the car didn't replicate the speed of the car on the simulator on the track, and the team even began to wonder if the simulator was broken, or if there was some data out of order.

Of course, when there is a problem, it is necessary to find a way to solve it, so the team quickly regrouped and began to test the cause of the problem and try to find a solution.

Despite this, most of the staff of the Mercedes team are still full of confidence in this design, after all, in the racing industry, it is not uncommon for an upgrade to be flawed, but after the upgrade is over, it does not have the desired effect.

All said they were emotionally stable.

The team also did their best to collect data on the car during the three days of testing in Bahrain.

Of course, the team can't just do this one thing, in addition to collecting data to solve the dolphin jump problem, the team is also looking for other problems with the car and planning the tuning window of the car, in short, whether it is Qin Miao or Hamilton or the senior management of the Mercedes team, almost everyone's brain has been in a state of high-speed operation.

And three days later, the results obtained by Mei Ben are quite satisfactory.

At least on the third day, the team made sure that there were basically no hidden dangers in the car, and at least in terms of the stability of the car, Mercedes could swear to pat his chest and assure everyone that there would be no problems with my car's car at high speed.

As for speed, because everyone is collecting data to adjust the condition of the car, neither Mercedes nor Red Bull Ferrari have really shown their full strength on the track.

There is no way for the Mercedes team to use the results of other teams as a reference, but at least compared to the Mercedes who arrived in Bahrain on the first day, the lap time of the car has improved by at least 1.5 seconds.

For the Mercedes team, this is a very impressive improvement, so although the dolphin jump has been like a dark cloud over the heads of everyone in the Mercedes team during this time, no one will think that the Mercedes car will not be competitive for the upcoming Bahrain Grand Prix.

Of course, this is true, but Mercedes Racing is still using the data it has already obtained to upgrade and improve the performance of the car before the start of the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Qin Miao didn't go anywhere else during this time, and also worked in the paddock in Bahrain.

Soon it was March 16th.

The performance of the car is important to F1 drivers, but the real self-worth of F1 drivers is actually their commercial value.

Hamilton aside, his 7-time world championship combined with his status as a fashion darling is enough to bring his commercial value to a peak, and it can be said that Hamilton at this time is the driver with the highest commercial value in the entire paddock, and there is no one.

And below Hamilton is Qin Miao.

That's right, two of the most commercially valuable drivers in the entire paddock are in Mercedes.

It is not difficult to guess what is the reason for Qin Miao's high commercial value, backed by China, the world's second largest economy, Qin Miao's commercial value is completely supported by the country behind him and the fans of this country.

Therefore, it is impossible for the two drivers to spend all their time developing and researching new cars, so they naturally need to take the time to realize their commercial value and maintain their image in front of fans, even if the drivers themselves do not want to do this, the team has sponsors.

Even Hamilton started this work on the 15th, and Qin Miao started this work on the 16th because he basically had no personal sponsors.

On the 16th and 17th, that is, the two days before the start of the Bahrain Grand Prix, Qin Miao also had a rare break from the heavy team work.

Started recording videos, attending events, catwalks and the like.

In the midst of the hustle and bustle, the time has come to Friday, March 18, 2022.

Today is the opening race of the Formula 1 World Grand Prix and the start of the Bahrain Grand Prix practice session.

Because it was the opening match, the local tourism board in Bahrain invited many celebrities from all over the world to watch the game.

There are also many domestic stars, and even some stars who have not been invited come to watch the game at their own expense.

Qin Miao tidied herself up after getting up in the morning, put on the team's team uniform and took Barber to the paddock together.

When he arrived outside the paddock, Qin Miao naturally saw a lot of fans.

It is worth mentioning that many fans who are relatively wealthy in China or have achieved financial freedom have expressed on various social media that they want to chase Qin Miao to watch all the races in his 2022 season.

And at the entrance of the paddock on Friday, Qin Miao saw the shadows of many Chinese fans.

What? How do you tell if he is a Chinese car fan?

Meiben team uniform, Qin Miao's red Meiben team hat that only he wears, you don't need to look at your skin color, as long as you see fans in this kind of outfit in the paddock, there is a good chance that they are Qin Miao's fans.

In the face of her fans, Qin Miao has always been more enthusiastic.

So when he saw these people at the entrance, waving to himself and shouting his name, Qin Miao also greeted them with a smile.

Even Qin Miao wanted to walk over and chat with them for a few words and take a group photo, but under Baber's reminder, Qin Miao could only wave to them and leave here helplessly.

Because the flow of people at the entrance is relatively large, but it is not possible to strictly screen the people who come in because of the fans, because this will seriously affect the work efficiency of other team staff.

So the FIA also chose to let fans in, but there are rules that drivers can't stay when they see fans at the entrance of the paddock, and they have to go in at most to say hello, and they can't affect the normal passage of other team staff, and there is actually a special channel for fans and drivers to meet, and it's no problem to sign and shake hands and take photos at that time.

Coming to the paddock and looking at the bustling crowd, Qin Miao suddenly had a feeling of nostalgia.

The only pity is that many familiar faces are no longer visible, such as Vettel, Giovinaz, and Radao.

Because Mercedes won the Constructors' Championship again last season, the team position of Mercedes Racing this season is still at the front of the pits, at the entrance to the pits.

So Qin Miao and Barber walked through the entire pit area together.

Qin Miao vaguely remembered that when she first joined Mei Ben last season, some people might have cast curious glances at her, but the situation at that time would not be like now:

"Qin Miao, good morning, you're in good spirits."

"Morning! Qin Miao. ”

"Look who's coming, our World Champion."

"Good morning, World Champion."

……

Basically, people who are a little more familiar with Qin Miao, after seeing Qin Miao, will smile and say hello to Qin Miao.

Even if he is not familiar with it, he will have a friendly smile on his face when he looks at Qin Miao.

And when Qin Miao passed by the door of the Luo team, he happened to see Zhou Guanyu being interviewed by reporters at the door of the Luo team.

Qin Miao had long been accustomed to this kind of interview, but at this time, Zhou Guanyu looked a little nervous.

Qin Miao thought about it and said hello to Bobble, and then Qin Miao secretly went around to the blind corner of Zhou Guanyu's field of vision.

And behind Zhou Guanyu was the rest of the Aluo team, and when they saw Qin Miao coming, they were just about to say hello to Qin Miao, and they saw Qin Miao making a silent gesture to them, seeing this, they didn't want to cause trouble, so they simply shut up and waited for the show to happen.

Then they saw Qin Miao quietly come behind Zhou Guanyu, and just when Zhou Guanyu wondered why the photographer in front of him suddenly raised the lens of the camera and aimed at his right face, Zhou Guanyu's shoulder was suddenly patted heavily.

Zhou Guanyu, who was in a nervous state, was taken aback on the spot.

Qin Miao, who knew what would happen after Zhou Guanyu found out that he was joking with him, scared Zhou Guanyu and ran away with a smile, leaving Zhou Guanyu scolding in place.

And the interaction between the two was recorded by this camera at the scene.

What Qin Miao didn't know was that this was actually a live broadcast......

【Genuine leather......】

[The relationship is good, and you can do it casually]

[Happy to death, Zhou Guanyu was almost scared away]

[Qin Miao's scary and then escaping action is too skilled, it can be seen that he shouldn't have done this for the first time]

[Leclerc: I have a say in this matter]

[Was Lock also scared by Qin Miao during the interview? ] 】

[That's not it, it's just that Leclerc is more vindictive, and after being scared, he found a chance to return it] (end of this chapter)