Chapter 405: Chapter 190: Verstappen Under Pressure Released
Then Qin Miao’s meme seemed to ignite a fuse, and suddenly a chaotic explosion of memes began to pop up in the chat group.
Once Qin Miao joined the group, Norris, who had been lurking, sent a barrage of memes like there was no stopping him.
Qin Miao soon joined the meme-sending frenzy, but the memes he had stored on his phone were all of the domestic panda head variety. Still, with everyone sending memes, Qin Miao’s memes didn’t stand out too much.
They didn’t play for long, as the pre-race fan activities were about to start soon.
One by one, Qin Miao and the others were introduced by the host.
Notably, when it was Qin Miao’s turn to enter, the cheers from the audience were significantly louder compared to the likes of Tsunoda and Russell.
Of course, compared to Alonso racing on home soil and the handsome Leclerc, it was slightly less impressive.
After all, 50% of the audience below were wearing Alonso’s Renault team gear, 30% were in Ferrari gear, and Qin Miao only spotted a handful of people wearing Mercedes gear.
There’s no need to elaborate too much on the content of the pre-race activities. Mainly, it involved answering some questions from curious fans, playing some small games, and finally handing out personally signed gifts to the fans attending the event.
By the time Qin Miao wrapped up these trivial tasks and returned to the garage, it was just past eleven-thirty in the morning.
When Qin Miao returned to his resting room, there was still half an hour until lunchtime, and then the entire afternoon was free until the race started at 3 PM.
This time was specifically set aside for the drivers to rest and prepare for the race.
After all, with the speed of F1 racing being so fast, if a driver doesn’t get into the right state, there’s a possibility of accidents.
As for Qin Miao, he didn’t really do much to adjust. After lunch, he turned on his work computer, put on noise-cancelling headphones, and started playing games, while checking if there were any fun bits in the group.
Unfortunately, after lunch, no one continued to send memes in the group, and Qin Miao didn’t want to be the culprit who triggered another meme battle, so he didn’t say anything in the group.
Toto was already used to Qin Miao playing on his computer before the race started and didn’t bother him at all.
People are different. Some people concentrate and prepare their state before a race through meditation, exercise, listening to music, or like Hamilton, singing.
Qin Miao’s way of adjusting might be a bit unique—playing games.
Toto found a way to justify Qin Miao playing a few rounds of CSGO before the race began.
In reality, Qin Miao was just bored during this time and played games to kill some time.
As for his state.
To put it boldly, as long as Qin Miao sat inside his car, his mental state would synchronize with his car’s frequency. That was when Qin Miao was in his best mental state, without any need for adjustments.
At 1:30 PM, just after finishing a game, Barber reminded, "The race is about to start soon, take a break."
Qin Miao naturally knew how to prioritize. After Barber’s reminder, Qin Miao shut down his computer and packed it into his laptop bag.
In under 10 minutes, Qin Miao changed into his outfit, did a bit of meditation to clear his mind, and then went to the paddock with Barber.
Arriving at the paddock, just as Qin Miao was about to inspect his car, Toto called him over.
"Qin Miao, come over here for a moment."
While adjusting the wires of his noise-cancelling headphones, Qin Miao went over to Toto and asked, "What’s up?"
Toto’s intention was to offer some comforting words. After all, anyone facing their first career retirement would feel some psychological pressure.
Although Qin Miao performed excellently and steadily in the practice and qualifying sessions, the pressure on a race driver is much greater than in practice and qualifying. Toto was afraid Qin Miao might be suppressing his emotions, and if during the actual race, the pressure caused an emotional breakdown, it would be troublesome.
However, Toto didn’t see any tension or other negative emotions on Qin Miao’s face.
If it were someone else, Toto would think they were hiding their emotions well, but Qin Miao was different.
Toto knew him well; Qin Miao was someone who wore his emotions on his sleeve. Since Qin Miao appeared calm and even somewhat excited, it was likely this was his genuine feeling at the moment.
After a brief moment of surprise, Toto felt relieved and secretly pleased to have gained such a talented driver.
But Toto couldn’t just call Qin Miao over and then suddenly say, "Never mind, you can go now."
Even though Qin Miao might not care if he did that, doing so would diminish his own authority within the team, which was unnecessary.
He didn’t say much more, simply offering a routine reminder, "Good luck in today’s race. I don’t want to see you clash with Hamilton."
"Okay, don’t worry." Qin Miao nodded in response.
"Go on, I’m looking forward to your performance in this race."
Qin Miao didn’t think much and left.
Watching Qin Miao busily making his way to his car and then heading to the control tower to check the current weather conditions, Toto didn’t even realize the proud expression he had as he watched a younger person he admired.