How did I become an F1 driver?

Before the start of the race, there were some unexpected accidents on the track, such as Perez replacing a new chassis and engine and starting from the maintenance area during the race.

Sainz's car suffered a fuel system failure, and under the current track conditions, this problem could not be fixed.

As a result, Ferrari had a driver retire before the race even started.

At the same time, the FIA's regulations were also refined. During the race, all cars were forced to pit and change tires on the 18th lap.

Violators will be directly sent off with a black flag.

That is to say, in today's race, drivers have to make at least three stops if they want to finish the race.

This shows the benefit of Qin Miao's excellent tradition of saving tires before every race.

While other drivers were struggling to come up with a new set of tires, Qin Miao now had three new sets of tires.

There were two sets of brand new soft tires and one set of new hard tires. As for the neutral tires, Qin Miao did not keep the new ones.

In fact, we should have kept a new set of neutral tires, but that new set of neutral tires was used in the sprint stage yesterday.

Of course, this is not a big problem. In the last stint, Qin Miao still had a set of soft tires that had only been run for five laps. With Qin Miao's tire protection ability, he did not need to worry about tire problems throughout the entire race today.

Of course, it's not just Qin Miao. All drivers in this race don't need to worry about the remaining tires and can always try their best.

I won’t go into details about the pre-match preparation process here, now it’s time to start the main competition.

The five red lights go out and the race begins.

At the start, Verstappen's start was as good as ever.

In fact, this is normal. For top drivers like Qin Miao and Verstappen, starting is the most basic skill among the basic skills. If you can't start well, then you can't be a top driver.

Qin Miao's reaction speed at the start is actually the same as Verstappen's.

But the difference is that in today's race Qin Miao started with soft tires, while Verstappen used neutral tires.

Therefore, it can be clearly seen on the track that after the start, although Qin Miao was driving on the dirty side, he was still rapidly shortening the distance between himself and Verstappen.

After the start, Verstappen's main attention was on Qin Miao behind him on the right.

Naturally, he noticed Qin Miao's speed at the first moment.

After realizing that Qin Miao posed a great threat to him at this time, Verstappen directly gave up the outer lane and squeezed towards Qin Miao on the inner lane, putting pressure on Qin Miao and forcing him to take the dirtiest lane.

Verstappen has been fighting with Qin Miao on the track for two or three years. He also knows that Qin Miao has a terribly strong psychological quality. His operation may not have a good effect on Qin Miao, but Verstappen still did it.

It's not that Verstappen is too excited or for any other reason, it's simply because Verstappen has no other good way to defend now.

"The game has begun! Qin Miao started very well, climbing ahead of Verstappen in the inside line. Let's see if Qin Miao has a chance this time... Verstappen! Squeeze directly to the inside line and don't give Qin Miao any chance!"

The commentators of Five Star Sports also started their own day's commentary work.

Perhaps for the three commentators of Five Star Sports, commentating on the game has changed from a job to a hobby.

After all, at this time, there is not only Qin Miao on the F1 field, but also Ye Yifei and Zhou Guanyu. As a Chinese, it is really hard not to be happy to see Chinese people shining in their favorite racing sport.

On the track, Qin Miao was indeed suppressed by Verstappen on the dirty side of the track.

Because there was too much gravel on the track, Qin Miao was unable to effectively bring into play the W14's mid-to-late acceleration advantage in the middle and late stages of the starting straight, because the grip on the dirty side of the track was a bit poor.

But a lean camel is bigger than a horse. Qin Miao still held Verstappen's inside line tightly and was not squeezed out by Verstappen.

At this time, Qin Miao was thinking about waiting next to Verstappen until the braking point of T1.

This means Verstappen has to brake to the outside to enter the turn.

But at this time Verstappen also made clear a goal, that is, in the entire driver standings, the only person who can pose a threat to his first world championship is Qin Miao.

So even though he had seen with his peripheral vision that Hamilton went to the outer lane of the track to prepare for the turn, Verstappen still did not let Qin Miao go. He still squeezed Qin Miao on the inside and did not give him much space to enter the turn.

Qin Miao was helpless about this. The track's inner grip was poor and it was not the best cornering angle. Now he was squeezed to the edge of the track guardrail by Verstappen.

Seeing that he had reached the extreme braking position on the inside line, Verstappen, who was outside him, showed no intention of moving out of the way.

Qin Miao had no choice but to brake early and gave up this excellent start.

However, after Qin Miao saw Hamilton overtake him and Verstappen from the outside, Qin Miao became even more depressed.

Is it really just to restrict me? You don’t even want to win the championship in the individual races?
Strictly speaking, Qin Miao's advantage in this race was actually greatly limited, because the race regulations required a pit stop every 18 laps, which undoubtedly greatly weakened Qin Miao's advantage in tire preservation.

But Verstappen himself is also very clear about these advantages. There is a prerequisite for taking advantage of these advantages, which is that he cannot let Qin Miao appear in front of him.

Therefore, Verstappen chose to let Hamilton behind the two of them go.

Hamilton also seized this opportunity and completed a one-two on the outside of the T1 track.

To be honest, this scene is rare in the entire history of F1.

After surpassing these two people, the old man himself was dumbfounded.

Seeing the two young men fighting in front, the old man didn't think too much about it. He just thought that the inside lane was occupied by them anyway, so he took the outer lane to enter the curve as usual.

Who knew that these two guys would get so carried away with each other on the inside lane that after passing the braking point, they didn't come to the outside lane to enter the turn, but instead continued to waste time on the inside lane.

In such an unclear way, the first place fell into Hamilton's hands.

"Alas, Qin Miao didn't grasp the start of the race today." After seeing Verstappen's tight defense, which ultimately resulted in Qin Miao not only failing to improve his position at the start but falling to third place, Fei Ge scratched his head helplessly and said.

Qin Miao on the track cursed "Grooved Verstappen" and gradually regained his composure.

After all, Qin Miao had too many excellent starts throughout the season, and among these excellent starts, only one was converted into a ranking, which Qin Miao had long been accustomed to.

Anyway, the game is still long, so let's wait and see.

Then the old man took the lead, while Qin Miao was locked by Verstappen. However, even if it is what was said before, Qin Miao is not in a hurry at this time. If Verstappen starts in the first place and keeps his current position after the start, then Qin Miao may still be a little anxious, but at this time Verstappen is ahead of his teammate Hamilton, so Qin Miao has no reason to be anxious.

Although Hamilton would definitely not help him deliberately block Verstappen in front of him, Qin Miao knew that his speed was similar to that of the old man.

Therefore, Verstappen will most likely be trapped behind the old man, so he will not be able to run far. Qin Miao still has the possibility and opportunity to overtake the opponent in the remaining time.

Qin Miao’s judgment was correct. Soon the three cars in front started to race on the track.

What is surprising is that even though the three people in front were running at full speed, they were still quickly leaving Piastri behind them with a time difference of 0.2 seconds per lap.

When DRS was turned on on the third lap, Piastri already had a gap of 1.7 seconds over Qin Miao.

With DRS turned on, before Verstappen could make a move on the old man, Qin Miao took the lead in attacking Verstappen from behind.

After all, Qin Miao used a new set of soft tires at the start. Soft tires have unique advantages in both acceleration and deceleration.

So even though Verstappen also had Hamilton's DRS in the DRS zone on the starting straight on the fourth lap, Qin Miao's acceleration was obviously faster.

Verstappen didn't even make any threatening moves towards the old man, but Qin Miao had already pulled ahead of Verstappen on the inside and completed a wheel-to-wheel attack on Verstappen before the braking point of T1.

Verstappen was shocked when he saw the W14 appearing on the right.

The two of them made their way to the T1 braking point.

At this moment, both drivers had the same idea in their minds, which was to brake as late as possible and not give the bastard on the opposite side any chance.

Although Qin Miao is now on the inside and Verstappen is on the outside, Qin Miao has the advantage in tires.

Therefore, Qin Miao chose the braking point later than Pan Zi.

Also because of Qin Miao's late braking, he did pull away on the inside line before the center of the T1 curve.

But T1 is a long bend after all, and the mechanical grip of RB19 is obviously stronger than that of Mercedes-Benz W14 in such a bend.

So Verstappen still did not give up on defense and started dancing wildly on the edge of the knife on the outside line.

After all, Qin Miao is not a good person. After blocking Verstappen in the inside, he left very little space for Verstappen on the outside.

After all, no matter what, it is Qin Miao's line right now.

The reason why Verstappen was not squeezed out directly is that the best exit line is not on the outermost side of the track.

When the two cars were closest, the distance between them was only one or two centimeters.

But the reason why top drivers can get dozens of times more salary than other drivers is because they can control their cars under such extreme conditions, and even while controlling their cars, they can perform some operations that others find incredible.

Although Qin Miao braked late on the track, he gained the advantage before entering the corner.

However, the T1 curve was too long, and Verstappen relied on this long curve and his own control to prevent Qin Miao from completely overtaking him in the long curve of T1.

After leaving T1, Verstappen, who was originally behind, made up a lot. Although he was not wheel-to-wheel with Qin Miao, at least Verstappen's front nose was at the position of Qin Miao's front wheel, and the two cars were not too far apart.

By the time we reach T2, it is Verstappen's advantage zone.

This is a high-speed left turn, and it is a long high-speed left turn.

Qin Miao, who was originally on the outside line, had the advantage of entering the corner, but Verstappen blocked Qin Miao's best cornering route on the inside line, so that Qin Miao could only be trapped on the outside line by Verstappen and could not find a suitable exit angle at all.

And at this time Qin Miao encountered the same problem as Verstappen just now, that is, in such a curve, the outside line is not the driving line, so there will be a lot of dirt on the outside line.

The W14 originally had little grip in this kind of low- and medium-speed corners, and now it was running on the outside line, so Qin Miao's speed was even slower.

In the end, Qin Miao had no choice but to give up the attack and returned the position to Verstappen.

Of course, although Qin Miao's attack failed this time, the pressure he brought to Verstappen was great enough.

Even Verstappen fell out of the DRS zone behind Hamilton because he was so focused on defending Qin Miao.

At this time, the time difference between the old man and Pan Zi had reached 1.7 seconds.

Although Pan Zi suppressed Qin Miao for a short time, he still had no use for DRS at this time.

On the other hand, Qin Miao is still in the DRS zone behind Verstappen.

However, in the following games, Qin Miao did not put too much pressure on Verstappen.

After all, there is only one DRS zone on this track, and this DRS zone is not long enough, and there is a very long curve area before entering this DRS zone.

Verstappen widened the distance between himself and Qin Miao in these places, so that when Qin Miao entered the DRS zone, he couldn't even make a pull-up on the inside to put pressure on Verstappen.

However, this situation did not last long. As time went by, the drivers entered the pits one after another after the 10th lap.

During these 10 laps, Qin Miao also tried to attack Verstappen, but the results were not ideal.

The reason for saying this is that, on the one hand, Qin Miao's continuous offensive attempts did have a certain effect, and Verstappen on the track never had the opportunity to return to the DRS zone behind Hamilton.

So much so that when the drivers of Mercedes and Red Bull arrived at the first pit window, Verstappen not only failed to shorten the time gap between himself and Hamilton, but it became even bigger. At this time, the old man was 1 seconds ahead of Verstappen.

On the other hand, Qin Miao tried to attack Verstappen two or three times, but in the end all his attempts failed because the car could only pull away at the end of the straight and could not gain a decisive advantage.

Qin Miao was the first to enter the first stint on the 14th lap.

Verstappen followed closely behind and pitted to change tires on the 15th lap.

This is just a normal pit stop strategy.

Red Bull discovered that Qin Miao's car had a faster lap time than Verstappen when using soft tires. If Verstappen pitted first to change tires, he might be undercut by Qin Miao.

So I chose to pit late, as for Hamilton...

In the remaining races of this season, Qin Miao is the only main rival of Verstappen. At this time, what Verstappen needs to do is to lock Qin Miao, so Hamilton is not important. At most, he can just give the championship to Hamilton. (End of this chapter)