After receiving the award, Qin Miao naturally got pulled into the Ferrari paddock to watch the qualifying session.
It’s worth mentioning that because it was time for the F1 qualifying session, the rain on the track lightened up a bit, but soon started to intensify again.
So the officials could only let the drivers and staff wait inside the paddock until the track conditions improved before allowing the cars out.
During this time, the directors surely couldn’t let the screen be idle, so the broadcast alternated between shots of the team paddocks and the drivers’ faces.
That’s when the broadcast focused on the Ferrari paddock.
Coincidentally, Qin Miao was in the Ferrari paddock, and unlike those VIP guests, Qin Miao was seated right next to Vettel.
Sitting in a position envied by countless fans, Qin Miao didn’t do what most fans would do, like chit-chatting with Vettel or asking for an autograph.
He was like an office worker slacking off, head down, wearing noise-canceling headphones, actually listening to music and reading a novel in Ferrari’s paddock.
When the director zoomed in on Qin Miao, they thoughtfully displayed his name on screen along with the information that he was currently ranked first in the F2 standings.
This behavior of Qin Miao was quite normal, given that everyone was waiting for the race to resume. Chapters first released on novel·fire·net
However, playing on his phone in the work-intensive environment of the Ferrari paddock did leave some viewers unfamiliar with Qin Miao with a less than favorable first impression.
But the shot of Qin Miao was just a fleeting one, lasting at most five seconds.
On the contrary, the three bored commentators at Five-Star Sports discussed the paddock rumors after seeing the footage of Qin Miao in the Ferrari paddock.
Recently, there had been rampant rumors in the paddock that Qin Miao was signed by Ferrari right after his career debut, spreading so convincingly that all that was missing was official confirmation.
However, the discussion soon settled with all three agreeing that this was unlikely to happen.
Because historically, Ferrari never directly promoted drivers from their youth training system to the main team.
Even Leclerc spent a year honing his skills in Alfa Romeo and performed well there before being promoted to Ferrari, proving he wasn’t just an F2 driver.
While Qin Miao may be dominating in F2, no one is certain that he’s more than just an F2 driver.
Such a conservative team as Ferrari is unlikely to risk promoting Qin Miao directly to the main team.
After hearing the analysis from the commentators, viewers also felt they had a point. With Ferrari’s cautious nature, no one at the top wants to bear responsibility, so everything is handled conservatively, leaving little room for bold moves.
Thus, the conclusion was drawn that it was impossible for Ferrari to have signed Qin Miao so quickly.
Nevertheless, Qin Miao’s performance in F2 was undoubtedly impressive. After more time, if Qin Miao’s strength and stability were confirmed, viewers would begin to speculate which F1 team, aside from Ferrari, would most likely recruit him.
We’ll put aside the outside noise for the moment.
After qualifying started, Qin Miao put away his phone and entered a normal viewing state, mainly observing how Vettel drove the F1 car in heavy rain, how F1 driving in the rain differed from his F2 experience, and noting Vettel’s braking points.
To be fair, being able to watch both the data and drivers on track from the team paddock gave Qin Miao quite a bit of insight and a chance to learn new things.
He stayed in the Ferrari paddock until the pit lane qualifying session was over, with Old Man taking pole position, Pan second, and McLaren’s Little Sainz in third.
On the Ferrari side, Leclerc got eliminated in Q2, and although Vettel made it to Q3, he only ranked tenth.
Upon seeing these results, Qin Miao didn’t have much of a reaction because his current ties with Ferrari were not deep enough for him to empathize with this poor performance.
Qin Miao waited in the paddock until Vettel returned, greeted him, and then left.
After all, the atmosphere in the Ferrari paddock wasn’t great, and Qin Miao knew it wasn’t suitable for him to stay there long.
Besides, the next activity was a Ferrari internal meeting, and while Qin Miao was technically part of Ferrari now, he didn’t really want to attend such meetings.
He also had work to do back at his own team.
Returning to Prema, Qin Miao joined the team staff for a routine meeting.
The main discussion was about the two drivers’ performance on track and the team’s focus for the coming period.
Although Qin Miao’s performance in this race couldn’t be considered bad, Roxin still asked him to stop by the office after the meeting ended when Qin Miao was planning to head back to the hotel to rest. Naturally, he had to comply, as Roxin was his direct superior.
Roxin’s office was at the mobile home parking area provided by Red Bull Ring for F2 teams, and his office was just a truck container, albeit much better furnished than those modular houses.
Upon arriving, Qin Miao knocked on Roxin’s office door, waited for a response, then pushed the door open to enter.