How Did I Become an F1 Driver?

Chapter 1122: Chapter 426: Belgian Grand Prix (6K, Bonus 5/17)

However, in any case, these days have been mostly comfortable and peaceful for Qin Miao.

But the peaceful time is always short-lived, and soon all the summer vacation quietly slipped away.

Qin Miao knew it was time to return to the busy work rhythm of the racetrack again.

Saying goodbye to neighbors, with a heap of homemade food and various gifts from them, Qin Miao boarded a plane back to the UK.

After returning to the UK, Qin Miao naturally reported to the team first, but when Qin Miao arrived at the team, he received very unexpected news.

Ricardo will leave McLaren next season.

If Qin Miao remembers correctly, Ricardo signed a three-year contract with the McLaren Team, meaning that the collaboration would last until 2023.

Didn’t expect a contract termination now.

The reason is not hard to guess.

Because Ricardo’s performance over the past two seasons has seriously not met the McLaren Team’s expectations, he hardly ever beat his teammate Norris in a whole year, yet his salary is higher than Norris’s.

McLaren obviously couldn’t overlook this.

So McLaren terminated Ricardo’s driver contract a year early and compensated Ricardo with his 2023 salary of 30 million US Dollars as per the contract.

Ricardo needs to leave McLaren after the 2022 season.

Strictly speaking, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing for Ricardo.

After all, in 2023, he can collect the compensation from McLaren and still find another team to join and earn a salary.

Of course, this depends on Ricardo finding a team willing to sign him.

Though this news took Qin Miao by surprise, McLaren didn’t just directly drop Ricardo in mid-season.

For Ricardo, this might be the best ending given the current situation.

"Hope he has already found a new place," Qin Miao remarked as he handed the tablet back to Barber.

Barber nodded in agreement.

Then, scratching his head in some confusion, Barber said, "Honestly, when Ricardo was with Red Bull, he was definitely a very competitive driver. I don’t know why he got overshadowed by Lando after moving to McLaren."

Qin Miao shrugged, "I don’t know, maybe Lando is just that strong, or McLaren’s cars suit Lando’s driving style better. If it really bothers me, I could give a call to find out."

As they talked, Toto and others came in, and the team meeting commenced. freeωebnovēl.c૦m

The main topics were budget allocation for the second half of the season, vehicle research and development routes, and logistics issues.

Qin Miao didn’t actually have to attend, but after staying idle at home for so long, he was itching for some action. The home’s simulator couldn’t satisfy his craving, so he wanted to go to the team’s factory simulator to find the feeling of driving an F1 car.

And attend the team meeting along the way.

After the team meeting ended, Qin Miao spent more than four hours in the team’s simulator department, and once satisfied, he flew to Stockholm the next day to participate in a CSGO exhibition match.

Before this, no one knew that Qin Miao would participate in the pre-match exhibition of CSGO.

So when Qin Miao emerged from backstage, the on-site audience was stunned for at least three seconds. ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm

Just as Qin Miao wondered if his fame was not enough here, the place suddenly erupted with a terrifying cheer.

Even domestic viewers preparing to watch the exhibition were taken aback for a moment upon seeing Qin Miao.

Subsequently, in whichever livestream that was watching the exhibition match, the screens were flooded with question marks.

Qin Miao had heard cheers before, even every Grand Prix weekend, but such an intense face-to-face cheering in an enclosed space was a first for him.

Honestly, it was quite overwhelming.

But also quite enjoyable.

Then the exhibition match began.

Being an F1 driver, Qin Miao naturally didn’t get nervous competing in front of so many people, especially since it was just an exhibition match where winning and losing didn’t matter.

The teammates paired with Qin Miao were also professional players who had been eliminated early and missed the finals.

Meanwhile, several fun modes were introduced in this match.

For example, low gravity, everyone running really fast.

Mouse inversion.

Unlimited throwables, and stuff like that.

Overall, Qin Miao had a lot of fun at the pre-match exhibition.

After the exhibition, Qin Miao’s performance was quite decent too.

Out of the 24 rounds, Qin Miao scored 20 kills and 19 deaths.

Even though a lot of those kills were with sniper rifles given by teammates, at least Qin Miao’s score wasn’t negative, right?

After the exhibition match, Qin Miao’s Steam added quite a few more professional player friends, and after taking photos with many fans, Qin Miao left contentedly.

Throughout the process, Barber was always with Qin Miao.

Barber doesn’t usually play games in his daily life; he prefers watching football over gaming.

Which is pretty much the sports most Europeans love.

But seeing Qin Miao’s popularity at the match venue, Barber couldn’t help but marvel, "So this is the influence and popularity of a world champion?"