Chapter 228 - 131: Leclerc
Words : 880
Updated : Sep 25th, 2025
Found a place near the paddock to park the car.As soon as Qin Miao got out of the car, a small commotion broke out among the crowd.
"Is that... Qin? What’s he doing here today?"
"Yeah, he usually doesn’t come to these events."
"Could it be because of Leclerc?"
"Not sure, maybe he wants to compete with Leclerc."
"This guy seemed to win last week’s sprint race again, right?"
"Yep, he started from seventh and overtook up to first, using soft tires. It’s said that after the entire sprint race, Qin’s tire wear was only 39%."
Upon hearing this person’s revelation, there’s a gasp of surprise among the crowd of drivers.
Although Qin Miao’s relationship with them isn’t great and they hardly talk, it doesn’t stop them from admiring Qin Miao’s abilities.
After all, regardless of where you are, if you’ve got talent, someone will recognize you despite your personality.
Yet someone couldn’t help but say sourly, "Lucky he has the skills, if a loser dared to be so arrogant, I’d definitely nab him with a sack at night."
...
Qin Miao wasn’t bothered by their gossip. After parking the car, he donned a red Ferrari cap for shade and walked into the Fiorano Circuit paddock.
Qin Miao’s relationship with Ferrari was quite peculiar.
None of his peers could really talk with Qin Miao, but when it came to staff, designers, technicians, or even the cleaners in the P rooms, Qin Miao was generally amiable.
After arriving at the paddock, many staff greeted Qin Miao, though none of them were drivers.
Qin Miao wasn’t concerned. He wandered around the paddock but couldn’t find Leclerc, then learned Leclerc was on the track playing with cars.
Since Qin Miao was currently considered the true rising star of F2 and left many drivers at the Red Bull Ring trailing so far they couldn’t even see his taillights, despite Qin Miao’s lack of camaraderie with the Ferrari junior drivers, numerous people still focused on Qin Miao. They wanted to see what was so extraordinary about Qin Miao, what made him possess such terrifying skills and gain such high regard from Ferrari’s upper management.
But upon close observation, Qin Miao’s appearance had nothing particularly outstanding, not even handsome, the only distinct feature was his sturdy and upright demeanor, which would definitely place him in the good guy camp in a suspense drama.
Facing so many blatant and undisguised stares, even Qin Miao found it hard to cope.
Finally, he returned to his car, and asked the technician who came today specifically for the drivers’ cars to check his vehicle. He then put a Buff on his car and proceeded to drive his custom 488 onto the track.
It’s worth mentioning that Qin Miao’s car was actually faster than a standard 488.
Although after modifying with a GT3 aerodynamic kit, his car gained at least an additional hundred kilos (Note 1), this aerodynamic kit allowed Qin Miao’s car to have greater downforce and mechanical grip, enabling quicker cornering.
Coupled with Fiorano Circuit being a track with mostly medium to low speed corners, Qin Miao’s cornering speed was naturally faster than the original 488, as for straight-line acceleration and top speed...
Quick cornering is true speed! Anyone can press the throttle on a straight.
After a few laps, a black Ferrari 488 Pista gradually closed in on Qin Miao from behind.
Though both cars were 488s, the latter 488 Pista had more horsepower than Qin Miao’s 488, and its specially designed front end had greater downforce than Qin Miao’s car.
Of course, that’s data before modifications; now Qin Miao’s car’s horsepower was still inferior to the 488 Pista behind, but after adding a complete aerodynamic kit, Qin Miao excelled in terms of downforce over the car behind.
The moment the other party began to close in and even honked behind Qin Miao’s car.
Qin Miao steadied his mind; this guy wanted to go head-to-head with him.
Honestly, during his time in F2, Qin Miao was basically fish blasting; not to mention being attacked, he hadn’t faced a decent offense or defense.
Overtaking other F2 drivers on the track for Qin Miao was as simple as eating and drinking water.
Either it’s a late brake to forcefully take the inside line, or it’s relying on the DRS-boosted straight-line top speed to overpower, hardly any surprises.
Now his car and the opponent’s car had noticeable differences in features, excelling in different aspects, perfect for having a good play with the opponent here.
Although there wasn’t staff holding cameras on the sidelines like an F1 Grand Prix, the paddock had dedicated GPS showing the specific position of cars on the track.
Many people in the paddock closely watching the GPS data discovered that Qin Miao and Leclerc had already converged.
"Stop messing with your crappy car, the show has begun!" Someone directly pulled their friend out of their car and pointed at the two points on the track signifying Qin Miao and Leclerc: "The duel between the former and the current Ferrari junior genius, Shire and Qin."
The person pulled out of the car was initially vexed, but seeing the duo on the field, only excitement remained: "Whoa! Big moment! I bet 5 bucks Qin won’t last a lap."
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