How did I become an F1 driver?

It's not that Perez wants to be Kvyat.

The main reason was that Magnussen was much slower than Perez at the time, and Perez was also anxious and wanted to overtake the Haas quickly and get back into the points zone.

After all, Perez's seat in Red Bull is in jeopardy at this moment. If he doesn't produce some good results, Perez may have to experience Red Bull's traditional skills, which is to be killed in the first half.

It is easy to make mistakes when you are in a hurry. Perez on the track misjudged the distance between himself and Magnussen.

So when Magnussen finally closed the door, Perez realized that he was not far enough, but it was too late to brake. The left front wheel of the car was locked and he could not stop the car. Finally, the right front nose wing of Perez's car torpedoed Magnussen's left rear wheel, knocking Magnussen around on the track.

This accident resulted in Perez receiving another 5-second penalty.

Because of this collision, Sainz's front nose was damaged and a lot of debris appeared on the track.

However, there were not as many debris as at the start, so the race only deployed the virtual safety car this time.

After Perez returned to the team's P room, he did not choose to stay on the track, but chose to retire directly.

There was nothing wrong with Perez's choice. After all, Perez had fallen to the end of the team and had a 10-second penalty.

Even if the team replaced the front nose wing and Perez returned to the track, he would still be at the end of the team. The virtual safety car is not a safety car and will not re-compact the field.

According to calculations by the Red Bull strategy team, once Perez repaired his car and returned to the track, there would be a 22-second gap between him and the last driver.

With such a huge time gap, even if Perez returned to the track and ran as fast as he could, he would not be able to catch up to the points zone in the remaining time.

Even if the driver was replaced by Verstappen or Qin Miao, it would be impossible to do it.

As for betting on the safety car, that is even more impossible. This thing is truly something you can only encounter by chance.

So instead of continuing to waste the life of the car on the track, it is better to just retire.

This was actually a very common-sense decision, and no one found it surprising.

After Perez retired, the situation on the field gradually calmed down, and the distance between the drivers gradually widened to more than two seconds after a stop.

Then on the 27th lap, the tranquility on the track was broken by a broadcast picture.

The broadcast footage showed Perez, who had already retired from the race. For some unknown reason, Perez put on his helmet again and got into the car.

At the same time, Red Bull's sporting director was also having a heated exchange of views with the FIA's race stewards.

Because the Red Bull sports director, who is familiar with the sports rules, knows that if Perez goes into the next race with a 10-second penalty, it will no longer be just a penalty, he will be penalized and relegated to the starting position.

When faced with the Red Bull sports director's request to return to the field, the event organizers were shocked at first. Is there such a thing?

They then searched through the FIA's race rule book but could not find any reason to reject the Red Bull sports director, so they had no choice but to agree to let Perez return to the track.

Of course, before that, the race stewards had an extremely heated exchange with Red Bull’s sports director.

In the end, because he couldn't find a reason to refuse, on the 40th lap, Perez returned to the track in front of the shocked eyes of all the fans.

Of course, Perez didn't stay on the track for long. After running one lap on the track to pay all the remaining penalty time, he retired for the second time.

Of course, the FIA's sporting rules are not laws and the impact needs to be carefully considered. If a loophole is discovered in the FIA's sporting rules, it will be plugged on the spot.

It's like the TD039 technical instruction that destroyed Ferrari with one blow.

So after this race, the FIA ​​directly introduced a rule that cars that have retired cannot return to the track. Even if they return to the track, all actions on the track will be considered invalid.

The second half of the race was relatively dull. Qin Miao relied on a one-stop strategy to successfully overtake the two McLaren drivers on the track and came second.

The old man's car was damaged in this race. Although the front nose was replaced, the damage to the edge of the bottom plate of the old man's car could not be repaired.

As a result, the old man's performance in today's game was not particularly good. In the end, Hamilton didn't even beat McLaren and only got fifth place.

The final ranking and scores of the Japanese Grand Prix are as follows:
P1: Verstappen +26 (fastest lap)
P2: Qin Miao +18
P3: Norris +15
P4: Piastri +12
P5: Hamilton +10
P6: Leclerc +8
P7: Sainz +6
P8: Alonso +4
P9: O'Connell +2
P10: Gasly +1
Qin Miao couldn't avoid the post-race interview after the Japanese Grand Prix.

After all, the interviews with the top three drivers were conducted before they received their awards. It's impossible for Qin Miao to give up his own grand prix championship trophy just to get into a fight with the FIA, right?
It is worth mentioning that Ben Sulayem also came to the scene to present awards for today's game, and even the person who presented Qin Miao with the runner-up trophy of this game was Ben Sulayem himself.

Qin Miao thought that this guy came to present the award to him to cause some trouble, and he was even mentally prepared to run away if he found out something was wrong.

At the beginning, Ben Sulayem just congratulated Qin Miao and shook hands and hugged Qin Miao normally.

Just when Qin Miao was wondering if he was overthinking, Ben Sulayem, who was hugging him, suddenly whispered, "Are you free tonight? Let's go have dinner together."

Qin Miao understood, it turned out that he was waiting for him here.

As for what the other party wants to talk about, it is not difficult to guess.

After thinking about it, Qin Miao did not refuse. After all, it was not a big deal for him and the FIA ​​to keep wasting time.

Moreover, the FIA ​​has already backed down, but has not apologized.

Qin Miao also knew that hard things are easy to break, so he was ready to pass on this step.

After the hug, Qin Miao smiled and said, "Of course I have time. I can accept everything except Japanese food."

Ben Sulayem smiled and nodded, patted Qin Miao on the shoulder and said, "Okay, I'll reserve a seat that night and call me then."

At this time, the three commentators from Five Star Sports also noticed the interaction between Qin Miao and Ben Sulayem on the podium.

After all, they didn't turn their backs to anyone when they were hugging and talking, so at a glance one could naturally see their mouths moving.

"Oh, it's hard to believe that such a big thing happened in the paddock, but these two people can still chat about it." Brother Bing said with some surprise.

After all, their conflict is well known to everyone in the paddock.

Therefore, the scene of the two of them hugging and then chatting quickly attracted the attention of the director of the Japanese station, and the camera of the live broadcast was also fixed on the two of them and gradually zoomed in.

Everyone could also see more clearly what they were saying to each other, but after all, they were not on the podium, and they did not have a microphone with them when they received the award, so even though the fans were also itching to see what Qin Miao and Ben Sulayem were talking about.

However, because the picture was zoomed in hastily, by the time the picture really froze on their faces, Ben Sulayem had already shaken hands with Qin Miao and left the podium. After the other party left, Qin Miao looked at the white cylindrical trophy in his hand and kissed the top of the trophy as Ben Sulayem said.

Then the colors of the national flag appeared among the small dots on the trophy.

However, unlike other drivers who can show the national flag with two or three colors, the matrix light board inside the trophy cannot show Qin Miao's national flag well.

After all, strictly speaking, compared with the national flags of those European countries, the national flag of Qin Miao's country is actually more complicated.

However, from the pattern which is mainly red with yellow embellishments, we can still roughly judge that this is the iconic five-star red flag.

Qin Miao's Japanese Grand Prix has almost come to an end here.

Overall, this game was actually quite exciting, but it has nothing to do with Qin Miao.

After over-cutting the two McLaren drivers by coming into the pit late, Qin Miao fell into a relatively boring state.

Qin Miao couldn't catch up with Verstappen in front, and the two McLaren cars behind couldn't catch up either.

Although there were many accidents on the track, except for the yellow flag, safety car and virtual safety car, the accidents at the back of the track had no impact on Qin Miao.

After this race, the points gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen was widened again, and now the points gap between the two has been widened to 26 points.

Of course, this is not a big deal. There is still a long time to go in this season, and W14 will not easily fail to adapt to the local climate in the following games.

The reason why the Suzuka Circuit makes the W14 uncomfortable to run on and unable to exert its full strength is more due to geographical reasons.

Japan is so small that even if they wanted to, they couldn't build a large racetrack like the one in Shanghai or Spa.

The government only allocated a small amount of land for the race track, and the designers of the track are also working on a tiny piece of land. Since the land allocated is not large, the designed track will naturally be a bit stingy.

After the end of the Japan station, Qin Miao and his team got two weeks of free time, and finally they no longer had to compete back-to-back.

The next Grand Prix is ​​the Qatar Grand Prix.

Strictly speaking, Qatar's Losail International Circuit is actually a new track.

In 21, due to the global public health issue, many F1 Grand Prix were suspended. In order to fill the gap in the F1 calendar, the FIA ​​temporarily opened this track and held the first Qatar Grand Prix.

Perhaps it was the Qatar Grand Prix in 21 that made Qatar officials realize the economic benefits and city visibility brought by the F1 racing sport.

So after a year of negotiations in 22, the organizers of the Qatar Grand Prix officially signed a 10-year contract with the FIA, which will take effect in 23.

This year marks the first official Qatar Grand Prix.

Compared to the 2011 race, this year's Qatar Grand Prix was moved forward a month and started in early October.

But after all, there has been a year between the last Qatar Grand Prix.

Therefore, during this rest period, all drivers were working hard to familiarize themselves with the track.

Of course, the most troublesome one here is Lynk & Co.

After all, the Lynk & Co team is somewhat less traditional than other teams. Although it has the legacy of the Red Bull Racing team, many people have left the Lynk & Co team with the change of the team name.

Now, as we get familiar with the season, everyone has figured out the workflow of a normal Grand Prix weekend.

However, the database within the Lynk & Co team is not as comprehensive as those of the older teams.

At this time, if Lynk & Co wants to understand this track, it can only ask Red Bull for help.

The drivers are also trying their best to familiarize themselves with the track.

Old drivers like Leclerc and Qin Miao, who have participated in the Qatar Grand Prix, shared their experience of the race with their friends when they had dinner together after the race.

After the Japanese Grand Prix, Qin Miao did not attend the post-race press conference and flew directly back to China.

After treating Leclerc and others to a meal in the country, Qin Miao rested for another two days.

Qin Miao spent the remaining time returning to Mercedes-Benz's headquarters.

The team brought new upgrades to Qatar, and Qin Miao had to go and run the simulator to familiarize himself with the effects of the new upgrades.

This upgrade specifically optimizes the car's cornering performance.

Of course, the W14's foundation is here. This car itself is not very suitable for running on those winding tracks, and no matter how it is optimized, the effect will be limited.

But Qin Miao, who had raced at the Losail International Circuit in Qatar, knew that although the track looked crooked on the satellite map, it was obviously the same table as the Suzuka Circuit.

But in fact, the driving experience at the Losail International Circuit is much better than that at Suzuka.

As long as you choose the medium to high downforce setting, you can take many turns on this track at full throttle.

This track is even smoother to drive than the Hungaroring.

Therefore, the upgrades brought by the team at this time are, to a certain extent, aerodynamic upgrades specially prepared for the Qatar Grand Prix.

Qin Miao's guess was correct. When he returned to Brackley and tested the simulator, he felt that the upgraded W14 would be very comfortable running on the Losail International Circuit.

Of course, this is just Qin Miao's own feeling. There will be a little deviation between the simulator data and the actual data. The specific results will not be known until he gets on the car on Friday.

It is worth mentioning that when testing on the simulator, Qin Miao slightly modified the tuning settings that Mick found on the simulator, and then Qin Miao's fastest lap on the simulator was even 0.5 seconds faster than Mick's.

However, we cannot just deny Mick's contribution on the simulator. At least without Mick's data as a reference, it would not be so fast for Qin Miao to get a training set that can be used on the simulator.

A week's rest passed in a flash. On Wednesday of the competition week, Qin Miao had just arrived in Qatar when Ben Sulayem called him.

Invite Qin Miao to go out for a meal. (End of this chapter)