And more than half of this 4 million US dollars is because Qin Miao didn’t want to participate in these activities.

So strictly speaking, Qin Miao wasn’t originally required to attend these activities. On Monday and Tuesday, when Qin Miao helped me share some work, I should actually be grateful.

After calming down, Hamilton said, "Yes, but it’s just a small modification, mainly to the floor. Seems like it’s about the location of the floor’s vortex generator, enhancing the floor’s sealing."

Upon hearing this, Qin Miao nodded, but Hamilton immediately added: "Apart from that, Toto went to the FIA this week, planning to have them add a new technical directive."

"He thinks just because he wants to add something, FIA will do it?" Qin Miao was a bit puzzled.

In his daily work, Qin Miao didn’t see Toto have any overly frequent interactions with FIA staff. Is it because Toto actually has a good personal relationship with Ben Sulayem, but to avoid suspicion, he usually doesn’t show it in the paddock?

While Qin Miao was still pondering, Hamilton directly interrupted and explained: "He doesn’t have that kind of influence at FIA. During the time when Mercedes was winning eight championships in a row, FIA basically saw Toto as a thorn in their side."

I felt at that time they wished they could directly eliminate Toto to slow down Mercedes car speed; all the technical rules and improvements FIA launched back then were targeted at our team."

Qin Miao curiously looked at Hamilton.

Hamilton shrugged, "Though this season our team’s car doesn’t have its former competitiveness, also because of what I just said, Toto is unlikely to have much sway with the FIA."

"So?"

"Because of me."

Qin Miao: ???

"Don’t look at me like that, I don’t have that much influence there either." Hamilton waved off and explained, "Remember the Azerbaijan Grand Prix?"

Qin Miao nodded, recalling Perez proving himself at Red Bull, securing his first race win in his career at Red Bull.

Firmly establishing his title as the king of street races.

Of course, the most dazzling wasn’t the one and two Red Bulls but the Ferrari engine. 𝙛𝒓𝓮𝒆𝔀𝒆𝙗𝓷𝒐𝙫𝒆𝙡.𝒄𝓸𝓶

That race had a large number of retirements for cars using Ferrari engines, which terrified all customer teams using Ferrari engines, fearing their car might be next.

Naturally, Hamilton bringing this up now surely isn’t because of the mass retirement of Ferrari cars.

Because it has nothing to do with the current topic.

If it were relevant to today’s topic, then it might be the scene after the race where Hamilton was holding onto his waist, sitting in the car for quite a while before finally getting out.

At this point, Qin Miao suddenly realized, "Pressuring the FIA with driver safety issues?"

"Pretty much," Hamilton nodded, "With this reason, the FIA has no choice but to issue a new technical directive.

Just don’t know if this move can precisely hit Red Bull and Ferrari cars hard."

Qin Miao shrugged, "That’s hard to say, it might even backfire and significantly affect our car speed."

But Hamilton shook his head, "Not likely. If Toto goes to the FIA himself, there’ll surely be a corresponding contingency plan. Compared to this, I’m more hoping... forget it, nothing."

Seeing Hamilton holding back his words, Qin Miao knew what he wanted to say but chose not to continue the conversation.

...

The two had a meal together, frankly speaking, the taste was just average, but for both racers who had exhausted both mentally and physically throughout today, taste wasn’t a concern.

After dining, they each went back to the hotel to rest.

The Austria Grand Prix adopted a sprint race format.

With Friday practice and qualifying, Saturday practice and sprint race, and Sunday main race.

Honestly, if Qin Miao were still an ordinary fan now, he’d quite enjoy watching races with sprint races, as there’d be races to watch on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

But after becoming a racer himself, he developed a deep hatred for the sprint race format.

Because an additional sprint race reduced practice time that was already limited for the racers.

Most importantly, during Friday’s qualifying stage, racers and teams weren’t familiar enough with the car on the track, and finding a suitable qualifying setup in one practice session really tested the ability of racers and teams.

However, although Qin Miao was quite opposed to this race format, he didn’t have this aspect of worries, he could easily find his qualifying setup in one practice session.

Wednesday, the day of practice and qualifying.

The weather today was pleasant, with temperatures in the thirties and track temperatures as high as over fifty.

Qin Miao found his most comfortable setup within about half an hour during practice.

With 30 kilograms extra fuel in the car, Qin Miao’s fastest lap time was only 0.9 seconds slower than the team’s expected speed.

Strictly speaking, Qin Miao’s speed on this track was still very impressive.

Yet, contrary to Qin Miao’s comfortable practice, the latter part of the practice session saw a total of two red flags.