How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 891 - 353: Blossoming Flowers

Zhou Guanyu shook his head and said, "Actually, none of them. In terms of speed, I feel absolutely no pressure. I would even say I have confidence in my speed."

"So where does your pressure come from?"

"Domestic fans," Zhou Guanyu said calmly.

Qin Miao raised an eyebrow, "What do they have to do with it?"

"Do you know how many racing fans there are in China now? Not to mention, I've done nothing and my Weibo followers have already reached 600,000.

That's 600,000 people, more than the total population of some small European countries combined. I'm just afraid that if I don't perform well on the track, I'll disappoint them."

At this point, Qin Miao awkwardly scratched his face because, to be honest, the massive number of racing fans in China is partly due to him.

It has been said countless times before that, actually, most people in China are champions' fans. When you won the F1 World Championship, the number of fans and racing enthusiasts experienced an explosive growth.

Statistics show that after Qin Miao won the F1 World Championship, the total number of racing fans in China increased by 60%, showing just how many champion fans there are.

But the current issue Zhou Guanyu faces, Qin Miao has never had to encounter.

Because Qin Miao has always had a great mindset, whether it was when he first entered F1 or now as a defending champion, Qin Miao's attitude has remained steady.

Therefore, Qin Miao simply cannot empathize with Zhou Guanyu's feelings.

But when a good friend comes to you to complain, you can't say nothing, just grin or eat with an open mouth, right?

So after thinking for a bit, Qin Miao comforted, "There's no other way, we do have a lot of people in China, but your 600,000 is actually pretty good. Look at me, I've never bought any followers on Weibo, and now I have more than 7 million followers.

If I put you in my position, wouldn't you be unable to eat or sleep because of those 7 million followers?"

"Can't you offer some slightly constructive advice? Is it fun to just stand there and talk nonsense?" Zhou Guanyu complained.

Suddenly, Qin Miao had a brainstorm, "Don't say, you really shouldn't say, I have a plan."

"Just say it?"

Qin Miao snapped his fingers, "Cancel your Weibo account."

After saying this, Qin Miao clapped his hands excitedly and said, "This way you won't have any followers, getting it over with, saving time and concern."

"Do you think you're funny?" Zhou Guanyu looked at Qin Miao like he was dead.

"What do you want to do then? This is destiny, just bear it."

"Annoying," Zhou Guanyu complained, then quickly finished the porridge in front of him.

Qin Miao didn't mind Zhou Guanyu's complaints. After finishing his noodles, he stood up and said, "It's about time, I'm off."

"Okay.

By the way, I just found time to watch the special episode of the Speed of Life documentary Netflix made about you, it was really cool and got my blood pumping. The championship process was indeed full of twists and turns, but do you and Hamilton really have such a serious conflict?"

Upon hearing Zhou Guanyu's question, Qin Miao rolled his eyes almost to the sky.

He couldn't help but silently curse Netflix again, believing Hamilton must feel similarly when people bring this up.

Zhou Guanyu was referring to the F1 documentary Speed of Life that greatly increased F1's popularity in the United States.

The most famous representative perhaps is Haas Team's leader Steiner with his fancy English in the documentary.

This year, being the first World Champion from the motorsport desert that is China, Qin Miao certainly received a lot of attention, which is why Netflix dedicated a whole episode to tell the story of Qin Miao's championship win.

While there's nothing to say about other places, domestically this episode amassed fifty million views in just three days.

Because the episode entirely portrays Qin Miao as the absolute protagonist, battling through challenges to become the World Champion.

It has the feeling of a captivating story; one has to admit it was filmed well, just a bit lacking in authenticity.

Because Netflix directly portrayed Hamilton as Qin Miao's greatest rival.

Thus, to put it nicely, it's an F1 documentary. To put it bluntly, it's essentially a drama based on reality.

Some uninformed onlookers were led by Netflix to believe that the relationship between Qin Miao and Hamilton isn't great.

Online discussions about this matter have been quite rampant.

Qin Miao felt quite speechless about it as well, which is why he hasn't even watched his own documentary.

"Fake."

He tossed the comment and headed to the Mercedes team's home.

...

The preseason tests in Bahrain, like in Barcelona, span three days.

The Mercedes team continues to be the most noticed team in the paddock, without exception.

Partly because of the team's aggressive zero-sidepod design, and also because, compared to Barcelona, the appearance of the Mercedes race car has seen significant changes during the Bahrain test phase.

Thus, almost everyone is curious about what kind of performance upgrades Mercedes' new update will bring to the race car.

Even teams like Ferrari and Red Bull that have clear competitive relationships with Mercedes have had their analysis departments busy without proper rest these days.

They keep discussing the potential performance boost Mercedes' zero-sidepod design could bring, and what characteristics this design has, wondering if it might create challenges for their own teams on the circuit.