The group chatted idly in the garage, waiting for about ten minutes before Hamilton finally arrived slightly late.
However, F1 drivers are rather busy, and it’s common for someone like Hamilton to frequently miss team meetings. Contrastingly, someone like Qin Miao, who rarely arrives late to team meetings, is an exception.
Of course, it might also be because Qin Miao hasn’t attended many team meetings in his career, so he hasn’t had many opportunities to be late.
Although being late is unavoidable, the team staff understand, but upon seeing the team staff, Hamilton still felt a bit embarrassed, slightly bowed, and apologized to the Mercedes team staff.
After sitting down, today’s team meeting began.
The meeting’s content was about today’s tire strategy and the team’s new tactical choices in rainy conditions. Toto also emphasized what preparations needed to be done, which are entirely different from those on dry ground.
Although the meeting was important, it didn’t last long, ending in twenty minutes. Qin Miao and Hamilton mainly acted as audience members; the main participants in the meeting were the team’s technicians and engineers.
They needed to complete the car setup and preparation in the time between the meeting’s end and the race’s start.
After the meeting ended, Qin Miao left the garage with the tasks arranged for him by the team.
The original strategy of one-stop red-yellow for Qin Miao was no longer usable, but considering that today’s rain wasn’t too heavy, and according to the weather forecast, after about 20 laps, the rain on the track would diminish, and the standing water would be mostly drained by the long-duration driving of the cars. So, a green-white one-stop strategy could be arranged for Qin Miao.
Of course, under rainy conditions, plans can seldom keep up with changes, so the specific tire strategy Qin Miao adopts will have to be adapted to the situation. ᴛʜɪs ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ɪs ᴜᴘᴅᴀᴛᴇ ʙʏ Nove1Fire.net
Familiar with the path, Qin Miao arrived at the team’s pit; at this moment, the team staff felt uneasy because no one knew how effective Qin Miao’s current car setup would be on this track. Whether the car setup would still suit Qin Miao’s driving habits after changing tires, these all became unknown variables without testing, making everyone tense.
After reaching his car, Qin Miao began preparing to get into the car. After a simple stretch and moving his limbs a bit, Qin Miao donned his gear, supported himself with flip-flops, and lay down into the car.
Lying in the monocoque, during the installation of the seatbelt, Qin Miao’s chief technician Reyes handed over the steering wheel.
After Qin Miao secured his seatbelt, he took the steering wheel, and Reyes explained: "Just now, your steering wheel was taken to the logistics department for an internal system upgrade. The system’s stability has been tested for a while in the engineering department, and no issues were found. Now it’s just the right time for you to test its stability on the track."
While taking the steering wheel from Reyes, Qin Miao curiously asked, "Did Hamilton’s system get upgraded like mine?"
"Uh... no, his steering wheel just had its exterior optimized." Reyes, fearing Qin Miao might have feelings about it, quickly added, "Of course, our steering wheel also has exterior optimizations, minimizing the possibility of accidental button presses."
Qin Miao didn’t mind the system upgrade for his steering wheel because he knew that updating the system must have fixed some critical system bugs and optimized some program response sequences and times, which is beneficial overall.
However, Qin Miao suddenly didn’t like being the number two driver anymore.
Although the system stability of the steering wheel must have been tested thousands of times in the factory, using it on the track was its first time. No one could say for sure if the system, which was as stable as an old dog in the lab, would have issues on a real track.
As the guinea pig for testing the steering wheel system’s stability, Qin Miao felt somewhat uncomfortable.
The feeling that all risky, strenuous, and dirty jobs fall on the number two driver wasn’t very pleasant, even while he was driving a Mercedes.
But Qin Miao didn’t show it. Driving is a paid job, and it’s also the career he loves. Qin Miao might be a bit lazy in daily life, but in a working state, he remains quite rational.
He opened the quick-release on the back of the steering wheel, revealing the ball bearings and clasps below, aligned them, and snapped it into his car.
Then, he waited for the steering wheel system to start up, adjusted the internal button testing program, and checked all the buttons on the wheel’s interface to ensure none were malfunctioning before switching the steering wheel to normal mode.
After a final check of his car setup, Qin Miao said in the TR, "I’m ready to go anytime."
After confirming that Qin Miao’s equipment check was complete and the technicians from Qin Miao’s car group confirmed the car’s readiness, Reyes released Qin Miao to go.
It’s worth mentioning that due to the rain, Qin Miao’s car’s front wing angle was adjusted again, maximizing the front-end downforce of Qin Miao’s car.