How Did I Become an F1 Driver?

Chapter 1173 - 442: Qin Miao’s Half-Home Advantage

To even say something a bit boastful, when it comes to scenery, most places in the country have their own distinct features, in no way inferior to foreign ones, and in some ways even better.Of course, this is according to his mom.

Besides that, there was another tiny, almost negligible reason: Lin Junjie is from Singapore, plus his status as a public figure, and a bit of insider gossip.

He was very likely going to show up at this Singapore Grand Prix as well.

And when Qin Miao’s mom was young, she really liked listening to JJ’s songs, especially stuff like "Jiangnan."

She wasn’t exactly a fan, but since she often listened to his songs, getting a chance to see him up close, she was quite happy about it.

Since his mom was planning to go back to China for a bit, and Qin Miao’s company had quite a few collaboration invitations waiting in China, Qimeng decided to seize the chance and go back too, even though in many Qin Miao fans’ jokes, his management company was basically just a decorative prop.

But the company still needed to exist. On one hand, it helped maintain Qin Miao’s public image; on the other hand, it needed to interact with his fans from time to time. At the very least, they couldn’t let domestic fans feel he was super aloof. After all, Qin Miao was just lazy, not actually cold.

But all of that would have to wait until after the Singapore Grand Prix.

Half an hour later, the door to Qin Miao’s room was pushed open again, and this time it was Qimeng who came in.

"Let’s go, let’s go, everything’s packed, come help carry it downstairs."

Hearing Qimeng calling him, Qin Miao replied, closed the tablet in his hands, stuffed it into his bag, and then followed Qimeng out the door.

It was Wednesday, and Qin Miao was getting ready to set off for Singapore.

By this time, the team’s equipment had already arrived at the Marina Bay circuit in Singapore, and they had even started setting things up.

The team’s new upgrades were all in place as well. Many photographers in the paddock didn’t even bother much with Ferrari and Red Bull, who’d also brought upgrades to this race. Instead, they chose camera spots that gave them the best angle to shoot directly into the Mercedes garage.

The reason, of course, was that this week, Mercedes’ upgrade package was the biggest of all the teams—practically a complete redesign of the W13’s bodywork—so naturally it drew a lot of attention from media inside and outside the paddock.

And it wasn’t just the media inside and outside the paddock; the other teams in the paddock were also extremely interested in Mercedes’ upgrades this week. They all wanted to see just how big a move Mercedes had made.

It wasn’t until Thursday, when he went to the paddock for events, that Qin Miao finally saw what the improved car looked like once it was fully assembled.

Before this, all he’d seen were the individual parts, and those parts didn’t even have that outer layer of low-drag clear coat on them yet. They just looked like a bunch of black carbon-fiber chunks, so he had never seen the assembled car.

The improved W13 naturally got a brand-new name, since the floor had changed drastically and the car’s characteristics in the corners were completely different from the original version.

The car now had very little to do with that original W13. Aside from the engine and gearbox—which couldn’t be changed because of regulations—most of the parts were no longer the same as the ones from the start of the season.

So after internal discussions among senior management, the team named the car W13B.

Of course, there was a price to pay for making these changes: Mercedes’ development budget for the season had basically been exhausted.

While the budgets in other areas still added up to a very considerable amount, the team didn’t feel it was necessary to squeeze those other budgets just to spend more on car development, because even if they did, it would be a drop in the bucket.

Not to mention that after you design the upgraded components, you still have to manufacture them.

And that could easily bring a whole new set of problems.

So after this round of upgrades, the remaining development and manufacturing budget could at most support another two to three small upgrades for the W13B.

After that, even if the design department came up with new ideas, and those ideas were turned into drawings and had passed CFD simulations, Mercedes still wouldn’t have the budget to manufacture new parts.

However, there were still six races left in the season. With two to three more minor upgrades plus this major one, that was actually enough to get by to a certain extent.

At the very least, it would ensure that the W13B’s performance wouldn’t fall too far behind Red Bull and Ferrari.

The remaining issues would naturally be left for the 2023 season.

On Thursday, after the track walk, Qin Miao also took part in some promotional video shoots arranged by the team.

Besides the promo shoots, he and Hamilton also had a roadshow on the streets of Singapore.

Basically, they took the cars out onto the streets and put on a show.

They interacted with the local Singapore fans on site, then drove their cars to show off some tricks and stunts.

At times like this, you obviously wouldn’t use the cars from the last few seasons; they always used older machinery.

It was the same for both Qin Miao and Hamilton. Hamilton was driving the 2017 title-winning W08 he’d raced back then, while Qin Miao was also in a W08—but the one that had been Bottas’ car.