How did I become an F1 driver?

As for whether there was any other meaning in these words, the three of them understood it tacitly and did not point it out.

Although we are all from the same hometown, in this kind of competition where the majority of players are foreigners, there is a natural sense of closeness to each other.

But in fact, there are only so many seats for F1 drivers. If you have a seat, I don’t have one. In such an environment, we can be friends in private, but once we get to work, we are actually competitors trying to steal each other’s jobs.

Of course, Qin Miao is an exception. His position in F1 is a bit too high. Zhou Guanyu and Ye Yifei are not qualified to compete with Qin Miao for jobs.

Le Lao Si didn’t come to the party today, so there were only these three people.

It’s not that Leclerc didn’t want to come. On the one hand, the food here at Qin Miao’s is really delicious, and he doesn’t have to worry about being overweight. On the other hand, it’s also fun to eat at Qin Miao’s place.

After all, it is always more fun to be with your friends than with your colleagues.

But Italy is Ferrari's home ground after all, and as Ferrari's No. 1 driver, Leclerc naturally needs to take on more publicity responsibilities at this time.

This means that from the beginning to the end of this Grand Prix weekend, Leclerc will basically have no chance to have a good rest.

To be honest, when Qin Miao saw Leclerc at the drivers' meeting on Thursday, he found that this guy had a face full of decadence in the truest sense of the word, as if his body had been hollowed out.

Qin Miao, who was sitting next to Leclerc, curiously nudged Leclerc's waist with his elbow and asked, "What's wrong with you? Isn't it just a home Grand Prix? Is it necessary to be so exaggerated?"

Leclerc looked at Qin Miao with lifeless eyes and said: "Next year, when you experience a home race in Shanghai, you will know how uncomfortable this feeling is. Even if you want to rest, you can't.

If you want to take a break, there are countless people who will push you forward in various ways.

Everyone will submit under coercion and inducement."

Qin Miao looked up at the podium. Ben Sulayem had not arrived yet, so Qin Miao sat more and more unrestrainedly, crossed his arms over his chest, and said to Leclerc with a playful look on his face: "Is there a possibility that my contract with Ferrari is the same as the contract I signed with Mercedes-Benz? If I don't want to, I can refuse all commercial activities proposed by the team."

Leclerc looked at Qin Miao with a look that said, "You are still a little too naive." "Just wait and see. There will be a time when you will cry."

Qin Miao still didn't care at this time.

In fact, according to Ferrari's arrangement, Leclerc was actually doing normal training during this race week.

But after all, it is the home court, so even though Ferrari did not arrange any marketing activities for Leclerc, since last week, Leclerc's agent has frequently received various endorsement invitations and event invitations.

And the prices offered are not low.

Leclerc originally wanted to refuse, but the other party offered too much.

So this Grand Prix weekend, Leclerc was completely driven by money.

The most important thing is that during the whole process, Leclerc did not feel any coercion at all. Leclerc was willing throughout the whole process.

After all, Leclerc earned more than $3000 million in just three days.

He himself is not very clear about the exact number.

But what Leclerc can be sure of is that as long as he works a little harder, it will not be a problem for him to earn his annual salary in one Grand Prix weekend.

Anyway, I made a lot of money.

Of course, although Qin Miao knew this, he still didn't take it seriously because he was not short of money.

Qin Miao, who is not seeking fame or fortune and has plenty of money, feels that he is invincible.

After the pre-race meeting, Qin Miao went for a walk on the track.

During this period, many unexpected but reasonable things happened.

For example, when racing in Monza last season, the fans and staff around the track had lost a lot of their fondness and regret for Qin Miao's youth training at Ferrari. When everyone looked at Qin Miao, it was more like looking at an ordinary F1 driver. They did not feel indignant or regretful when they saw Qin Miao's excellent performance in his first season in the paddock.

After all, a year has passed and people cannot live in the past forever, and the same goes for Iron Buddha Temple.

But on this Grand Prix weekend, the Ferrari fans at the scene were visibly enthusiastic about Qin Miao, and many of them even took the initiative to cheer for Qin Miao.

If you don’t know, you might think that Ferrari’s special edition uniforms for this Grand Prix weekend are Mercedes’ black and white.

Qin Miao had an easy time in the two practice sessions on Friday.

After all, the Monza track is too classic, and Qin Miao was very familiar with this track when he was racing in F2. In addition, his understanding of the F1 sport has deepened over the years, and Qin Miao is now extremely familiar with Monza.

At the same time, the track doesn't have that many turns.

It can be said that Monza is one of the tracks with the fewest turns in the F1 calendar, with only 11 turns. Of course, the track with the fewest turns is the Red Bull Ring, which has only 10 turns.

Both of these tracks are relatively simple, but if you compare the two tracks together, Qin Miao still prefers Monza.

After all, Monza will be their home ground next season.

It is foreseeable that the Red Bull Ring and Zandvoort in the Netherlands will still be Qin Miao's away games for a long time.

……

In addition to getting the training they wanted after just one practice, Qin Miao and Mercedes also received some expected good news.

That is, this Grand Prix weekend, the W14 was faster than Mercedes had expected before the race.

Originally, according to the prediction of the team simulator department, the Mercedes W14 could reach a final speed of around 335 without pulling a slipstream. If teammates pulled each other's slipstream, the final speed is expected to directly exceed 350.

But the actual data requires an additional 10 kilometers per hour to be added to the original estimate.

You have to know that Monza is not as high as Rodriguez back then.

This means that the ability to run at such a fast speed is entirely due to the W14 engine and power.

It also means that the muscle car W14 has finally arrived at its home turf.

The third practice session on Saturday morning was more about collecting data. Qin Miao used old tires throughout the entire session, and only ran a qualifying simulation in the last twenty minutes, using a set of brand new soft tires.

When running on the track, Qin Miao's car was filled with 30 kilograms of fuel. Although the final result was not good, after removing the extra 30 kilograms of weight, Qin Miao and Mercedes knew that Qin Miao had become a strong contender for the pole position and the championship of this Grand Prix weekend.

It is worth mentioning that the qualifying rules for this Grand Prix weekend are the same as those for the Hungarian qualifying weekend, using hard tires for Q1, medium tires for Q2, and soft tires for Q3.

If some people don't remember, there is a more obvious memorable point in that game, that is, Zhou Guanyu got the best starting position of his career in the qualifying stage, starting fifth.

Also because of this special qualifying rule, Pirelli does not provide so many tire compounds to each team driver.

Even someone as capable of protecting his tires as Qin Miao is, he couldn't help but feel anxious about his tires during the race.

In the qualifying stage, Q1 was smooth for Qin Miao, and he advanced to Q2 very smoothly with a set of old hard tires. Even the advancement from Q2 to Q3 was completed by Qin Miao with a set of old neutral tires.

Although the final eighth place promotion gave many fans at the scene a cold sweat, Qin Miao and Mercedes fans were no longer surprised by it.

You have to have a big heart to be Qin Miao's fan.

Qin Miao is really good at saving tires.

It is worth mentioning that Lynk & Co brought upgrades to this competition, and their upgrades were quite effective on the field.

Although both Lynk & Co drivers were eliminated in Q2, one ranked 11th and the other 12th.

He was eliminated just before the Q1 closing line.

Although they did not make it to Q3, compared to their previous results, today's qualifying performance is undoubtedly an improvement.

If Lynk & Co continues to upgrade its racing cars at its current momentum.

It is very likely that we don't have to wait until next year. In the second half of the year alone, Lynk & Co may become a regular in the points zone like Aston Martin in the first half of the season.

After all, as time goes by, Aston Martin's lack of R&D capabilities has gradually been exposed. In recent races, Alonso has fallen to the point of sitting at the same table with McLaren.

I believe that with their current downward trend, it won’t be long before they have to sit at the same table with Alpine.

In Q3, Ferrari and Red Bull had no intention of helping their teammates to pull in the slipstream on the track at the beginning.

After all, they are confident in the performance of their racing cars.

But as Qin Miao and the old man finished their first flying lap, the two Mercedes drivers directly landed in first and second place, and Hamilton, who was in second place, was 0.4 laps faster than Leclerc, who was in third place.

After seeing such a huge time gap, Ferrari and Red Bull realized that they had to use slipstream.

If we delay any longer, the pole position will be gone.

It's just a pity that even if the two teams really ordered their drivers to pull each other into slipstream, in the last flying lap of Q3, the four drivers from Ferrari and Red Bull still failed to shake the dominance of the two Mercedes drivers in Monza.

In the last flying lap of Q3, the two Mercedes drivers, who had already achieved a good basic result, began to push their limits.

The two continued to break their own records in the last flying lap, and both of them broke the 1 minute 19 mark.

最终秦淼的成绩是1分19秒909，老汉1分19秒959。

Both of them put in phenomenal performances.

Among the four drivers from Ferrari and Red Bull teams, Sainz, who performed the best, only got third place.

Although before Sainz's last lap, he helped his teammate Leclerc to pull a lap of slipstream, and only started his last flying lap after some tire damage.

But compared to the two Mercedes drivers, he at least has the slipstream to take advantage of. You know, on a track like Monza, the lap time difference is still quite large with or without slipstream.

可尽管拿到了这样的优势，赛恩斯的最后一个飞行圈的成绩都没有突破1分19，最终成绩1分20秒099。

In the qualifying round, the two Mercedes drivers overpowered Ferrari and Red Bull at Ferrari's home track, taking home a one-two finish.

After the final results came out, the Mercedes P room was crowded with people, and everyone was clapping and congratulating each other with smiles on their faces.

Qin Miao also heard Frankie's good news in his own team TR for the first time in a long time: "P1! Qin Miao, we are P1, your performance today is impeccable."

Even the audience at the scene gave Qin Miao their applause for his performance today after seeing his result. For a moment, a sound that is rarely heard on the track under normal circumstances appeared in the Ferrari team's home field.

That was the applause as warm as thunder and waves.

After all, as a gathering place for fanatical Ferrari fans, the only sounds that the fans at the Monza circuit can make, apart from enthusiastic cheers, are boos. Although there have been applause, it has not been frequent and it has never been as loud and intensive as the applause Qin Miao gave today.

This can be considered as a gift from the Iron Temples of Monza to their king who has not yet arrived.

Now Qin Miao is still in Mercedes-Benz and has only got one pole position in the qualifying race.

The Ferrari fans at the scene gave such warm applause. It is not difficult to imagine how crazy the fans at the scene would be if Qin Miao returned to Ferrari next season and won the championship at home in Monza.

……

The final qualifying rankings are as follows:
1: Qin Miao (1:19)

2: Hamilton

3: Sainz
4: Verstappen

5: Leclerc

6: Perez
7: Albon
8: Piastri
9: Norris
10: Alonso
11: Tsunoda

12: Ye Yifei

Ye Yifei's performance in today's qualifying race was the most outstanding except for the two Mercedes drivers.

He has shown tremendous adaptability in F1.

You have to know that before last week, he was just an absolute rookie driver with driving experience in F3 Formula and LMP1 endurance racing.

However, under such circumstances, Ye Yifei was able to have such an excellent performance in the second game of his career, and the speed gap between him and his teammates was particularly small.

Although this is only a qualifying race, as long as Ye Yifei's performance in the race is not too bad and there is no large-scale decline in position, or even if Ye Yifei gets a point, then it is a foregone conclusion that Ye Yifei will enter F1 next season.

……

After qualifying, the entire Mercedes was in a festive mood.

Judging from the team's testing and qualifying results for this Grand Prix weekend, the car with the performance advantage this Grand Prix weekend has become the W14.

As for Red Bull's long-distance speed and their terrifyingly efficient DRS?

Although this is indeed a concern for Mercedes, at least in the team's expectations, these are not problems.

In fact, on high-speed tracks like Monza, or even high-altitude tracks like the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez, the efficiency of Red Bull's DRS can basically be ignored.

On the one hand, the rear wings of all Monza racing cars are low-downforce rear wings, which themselves do not bring much resistance to the cars. After turning on DRS, the drag reduction efficiency may be only 20% of the DRS efficiency in normal conditions.

So Red Bull's DRS is not a concern on this track. (End of this chapter)