CHAPTER 168: CHAPTER 113: RACE POSTPONED (PART 2)

However, after spending a week in Vicenza, Qin Miao left Prema, because his adaptation work there was complete. He needed to return to Maranello to start a new year of study and life. He would only return to the Prema team for official training when the new season began.

In fact, returning to Maranello just meant resuming Qin Miao’s usual life routine: training in the morning, attending classes in the afternoon, practicing on the track if time allowed, and doing extra sessions on the simulator in the evening. But if you ask Zhou Guanyu, you’d know that Qin Miao basically waits for him in the game every night, unless something unexpected happens.

Extra practice? Geniuses don’t need extra practice, and wall-hangers even less so.

During this time, Zhou Guanyu called Qin Miao to hold him accountable. The reason was simple: today, all the major F2 teams submitted their driver lists for the new season to the FIA, and the FIA made this list public.

Zhou Guanyu was dumbfounded to see his good friend Qin Miao on the Prema team’s F2 driver list.

At that time, Zhou Guanyu could be described as having his eyes opened.

So he hurriedly called Qin Miao, and as soon as the call connected, he asked when Qin Miao became an F2 driver for the Prema team and why he didn’t mention such a big event to him.

Back then, Zhou Guanyu’s tone was really heartbreaking and tearful, much like a little wife who had been abandoned.

When Qin Miao received the call from Zhou Guanyu, he thought there was something he needed. But after the call connected and realizing what Zhou Guanyu wanted to talk about, Qin Miao was a little puzzled.

"Wait, did your village just get internet? After the Ferrari youth training test, I remember Prema announced that I became their team driver. Didn’t you see it?"

There was a moment of silence on Zhou Guanyu’s end, but you could hear keyboard clacking through the receiver, probably searching for information.

A moment later, Zhou Guanyu’s voice spoke again, but the tone wasn’t as aggressive: "And you didn’t mention it last time when we stayed in the UK."

Qin Miao was even more puzzled: "You didn’t ask, and I thought you knew."

Zhou Guanyu was indeed helpless, having rushed to call Qin Miao, only for it to end this way.

The two chatted a bit more, agreeing to meet up after the F2 season opener in Bahrain before ending the call. However, neither expected that the next time they’d meet would be during the Austrian Grand Prix six months later.

During this time, a well-known event had occurred, and when Qin Miao left Maranello, returning to Vicenza was already June 2nd, six months later.

Because of the well-known reason, both F1 and F2 were suspended for half a year, and now the competitions officially resumed.

Wearing a mask and dragging his luggage, Qin Miao returned to his dormitory in Vicenza, which had accumulated a thick layer of dust.

Initially, Qin Miao and Qimeng both thought they’d be back preparing for the new season after a month in Maranello, but they had to wait for six months instead.

Fortunately, the storm had passed by this time, and Qin Miao wasn’t worried about him and Qimeng getting infected. His constitution was amazing, so even if he got infected, it probably wouldn’t be a major issue. Moreover, he and Qimeng had been drinking health potions daily, so even if they got infected, they could easily expel the virus.

After returning home and putting his luggage away, Qin Miao reminded Qimeng to wait for him to report to the team before they cleaned together.

Qimeng naturally agreed. However, the girl cleaned the dust in the bedroom first and put their luggage in place.

After placing his luggage at home, Qin Miao went to the team.

After half a year, he met Roxin again. Compared to six months ago, Roxin seemed more exhausted and had aged, with more wrinkles on his face.

It seemed that in such a grand environment, Roxin wasn’t feeling well either, but the smile that bloomed on his face upon seeing Qin Miao was so genuine.

"Welcome home," Roxin smiled and fist-bumped Qin Miao.

Qin Miao bumped fists back and said, "To be honest, Mr. Roxin, you seem to have more of the charm of a mature gentleman now."

Roxin smiled but didn’t continue the subject; instead, he changed the topic: "Let’s go to the factory. Sui has already roughly checked your car, and they’ve painted it with our team’s new-season livery, waiting for you, the car owner, to unveil her."

"Really? I can’t wait!" Qin Miao indeed felt excited because it was the first formula racing car truly belonging to him.

By the way, there are many ways to obtain an F2 driver’s seat.

Apart from having excellent talent and getting noticed by the team owner, who signs you into their team, most other drivers need to sponsor an F2 team to secure a seat.

The sponsorship fee isn’t cheap, which is why motorsport is said to be only for the rich.

Although Qin Miao is the former, he wanted to own his first formula racing car. So, to retain this car after the season, Qin Miao sponsored the team himself and bought the car in the team’s name. Thus, after the season, the car would be transferred to Qin Miao.

The cost wasn’t too high, 500,000 Euros, roughly around 3.8 million RMB. Fortunately, this expenditure was covered by the Racing Fund, so Qin Miao didn’t feel much psychological burden when spending it. (ps. I’m not sure if F2 costs this much; I couldn’t find data online, so I calculated it based on the most expensive GT3 car prices)

"Let’s go. I hope you like our team’s livery." Roxin put down his work, put on a mask, and went out with Qin Miao, heading directly to the factory area downstairs.

Qin Miao naturally followed along.

Arriving at the factory area, a car was quietly parked in a vacant lot, covered with a cloth bearing the Prema team logo, hiding the car’s details. Yet, Qin Miao could still roughly make out the silhouette of the car.

Qin Miao knew that this was his F2 racing car.

At this time, not only were Qin Miao’s crew members waiting for him to unveil the car, but many team staff were also there to watch. Photographers were taking pictures of Qin Miao.

Those photographers were probably filming promotional clips for the team.

As Qin Miao approached his car, his crew and the onlookers from the Prema team applauded him.

They knew this moment was significant for Qin Miao, and naturally, they didn’t mind giving him some of their blessings.

With a nervous yet slightly expectant heart, Qin Miao approached his car.

Although feeling complicated, Qin Miao didn’t hesitate. After a deep breath, he grabbed the corner of the car cover and pulled hard.

The car cover, large enough to cover the entire car, was lifted with Qin Miao’s strength. After another strong pull, the true appearance of the car was revealed in front of Qin Miao.

This F2 car used Prema team’s iconic paint scheme, resembling a mini Ferrari.

However, compared to other driver’s cars, Qin Miao’s was quite unique. Because it was his personal asset, the car had no team sponsor ads, only the logos of his private sponsors. Therefore, Qin Miao’s car had few sponsor logos, counting the Ferrari Driver Academy’s prancing horse logo and the FIA logo, it only had five logos.

The Ferrari prancing horse logo and the FIA logo were on the nose cone of Qin Miao’s racing car, with the Ferrari logo even resembling the badge of Qin Miao’s F2 car.

Shell, which sponsored Qin Miao with 10 million euros, had its Shell logo on the left and right sides of the F2 car’s flip-flops, and above the side pod’s Qin Miao number 22.

Boss Zhou Group’s logo: Zhou Group, like Zhou Guanyu’s Hengji Group, was printed on the outer sides of the car’s side pod.

The last logo wasn’t even a sponsor’s logo, but the Prema team logo, located above Qin Miao’s rear wing.

When DRS is open, it splits this logo in half; it’s unclear why they designed it that way.