How did I become an F1 driver?

After Qin Miao entered the pit, Red Bull naturally responded in the next lap in order to prevent Qin Miao from changing to soft tires and under-cutting Verstappen.

Of course, Mercedes' strategy team is not just there to do the job, although they don't know what Red Bull's plan is for this race.

But they will calculate the condition of Qin Miao's tires and arrange the best pit stop strategy for him.

What puzzled Red Bull was that Qin Miao entered the pit this time to change to a set of old neutral tires instead of the soft tires they expected.

At this time, the set of neutral tires on Qin Miao's racing car had been used by Qin Miao for 12 laps of practice.

Although it was unclear what Mercedes' intention was, Red Bull still followed its established pit stop strategy and replaced Verstappen with a set of used neutral tires.

Just when everyone thought that the fight between the two drivers in the second stint might not be as intense as in the first stint, the always stable Red Bull tire-changing team gave the audience a rare treat.

After Verstappen parked his car, the tire changer on his right rear wheel did not remove the tire the first time, and only pulled it off the wheel the second time.

It was during this delay that Red Bull's tire changer gave Verstappen a 3.2-second tire change.

In fact, strictly speaking, this 3.2-second tire change is not unacceptable. In fact, this tire change speed is faster than the regular tire change speed of some teams.

But if there is a top driver behind you who is always chasing you and whose lap time increases after coming out of the pit area, then these 3.2 seconds are very fatal.

After Verstappen, who was originally ranked second, came out of the maintenance area and started to accelerate, Qin Miao just happened to overtake Verstappen on the outside of the track.

Qin Miao was stunned, and the little bit of luck that Verstappen had in his heart disappeared completely, replaced by a deathly pale face and an indescribable anger.

Your mother's kiss, I worked so hard to defend in front of Qin Miao for so long, and finally helped him to pit, and you guys made a fucking mistake in changing tires at this time.

To be honest, Verstappen really wanted to curse at people in the TR team at this time.

But looking at the rear of Qin Miao's car in front of him, Verstappen forcibly suppressed the impulse in his heart.

He did not want to go to community events, even though the FIA ​​now states that any community service will only take up one day of a driver's time.

But Verstappen is a normal person after all, and the environment on the track is harsh now. Verstappen is tired, stuffy and hot, and he is almost out of water.

So after being disgusted by the team, he couldn't help but curse a few words, but he didn't drive the team TR.

Qin Miao was naturally overjoyed, and said happily in the team TR: "It seems that luck is on my side today."

"Received Qin Miao, how do you feel now?" After answering Qin Miao, Franky looked at the telemetry data on the monitor in front of him and asked with concern.

The reason for this problem is that the organizers miscalculated the air temperature and wind speed for this game.

It was not cool on the track at this time and there was no wind for today's race.

The drivers felt very uncomfortable in the car.

Even Franky, who was sitting on the podium, felt that even though it was dark, the track was still very hot and stuffy.

But to be honest, Qin Miao felt he was okay.

"Not bad, the car is in good condition and I didn't find any problems." Qin Miao replied.

Franky's mouth twitched... That's not the question I asked...

But at least from Qin Miao's performance at this time, he was still in the mood to feel the state of the car, which means that the track temperature of this race has little effect on Qin Miao, or at least not much.

There is nothing much to say about the game after Qin Miao took the lead.

Although Qin Miao's tires were 12 laps inferior to Verstappen's, it was too easy for Qin Miao to defend against Verstappen's attack.

The only suitable overtaking point at the Lusail International Circuit is T1.

Apart from this place, the rest of the track is a combination of medium and high-speed bends, and there are basically no suitable overtaking points.

At least that's the case for this season's cars.

Qin Miao's W14 has determined the overall characteristics and tone of the car since the early stage of the season. Although he has been constantly optimizing the car's cornering performance, the car's straight-line acceleration ability and final speed are extremely abnormal. Although the recent upgrade has deteriorated the W14's straight-line final speed, the acceleration ability is still there.

Therefore, Qin Miao can often rely on his understanding of Verstappen's psychology and some obvious mistakes such as understeer when exiting a corner and oversteer when entering a corner to slow down Verstappen's race pace, and then take advantage of his car's acceleration on the straights.

After all, Qin Miao knew that Verstappen had now learned how to overtake him from behind, relying on the fully charged ERS and DRS and absolute control of his distance after exiting the corner.

After exiting the corner, he used all his strength to accelerate in a straight line, and the terrifying DRS efficiency of the RB19 allowed Verstappen to effectively approach and surpass himself.

But Qin Miao doesn't need to worry about his tire wear in this race.

After all, no matter how well you protect the tires, you can only run 18 laps with this set of tires at most.

Also because of this restriction of the competition, Qin Miao's mistakes can be made more realistic.

In the past, when Qin Miao tempted Verstappen to try to attack him, Qin Miao's mistakes were all corrections after exiting the corner, and he went a little too far when entering the corner.

You are not a professional driver, and it is difficult for you to even notice Qin Miao's mistakes.

However, this kind of mistake is to some extent less than the tire damage caused by tire locking and rear wheel slipping.

But now there is no anxiety about tire durability.

When Qin Miao was luring Verstappen to attack him, he would often end up leaving the ball wide open, or his tires would be locked to the point of smoking and leaving flat marks.

Basically, at T6 and T10 in every lap, Qin Miao would show off a particularly big flaw, the kind that could directly brake the tires to the point of smoking.

The reason why the brakes were smoking in this place was because there was no overtaking point on the next track, and when Qin Miao came to the starting straight.

The flat spot on the tire was covered by the worn tire as Qin Miao continued driving.

Qin Miao directly exposed such a big flaw, so Verstappen naturally wanted to give it a try, but this attempt went wrong.

From the first pit stop until Qin Miao's second pit stop on the 1th lap, Verstappen tried to attack Qin Miao a total of seven times on the track.

Only one of them was when Qin Miao attacked at the braking point of T1 at the end of the DRS zone. The key point was that the attack was not successful. After Qin Miao forced his way to the inside line, he relied on his control over the car to force Verstappen to the outside line of the track, so that after he came out of the corner, he had no suitable acceleration project at all.

Finally managed to hold off Verstappen.

Verstappen's remaining six attacks were all attempted under the inducement of Qin Miao's major mistake.

But they all ended in failure. Not only did his attacks fail, but Verstappen was basically thrown out of the DRS zone by Qin Miao every time he failed to attack.

In fact, under normal circumstances, Verstappen will learn his lesson after suffering two or three times from Qin Miao’s new type of defense (crossed out)... fraud method.

But today's race is different. This race consumes extremely huge physical and mental energy of the drivers.

In fact, if it is a normal Grand Prix weekend, even if the temperature in the cockpit of the car is as high as 60 degrees Celsius, it is not a big problem for the drivers to endure it for more than an hour.

But in today's race, the temperature in the cockpit was very high, and because of the FIA's outrageous regulations, everyone had to make three pit stops.

This means that everyone has enough tires from the beginning to the end of the race, and no matter how you push, you will have enough tires left.

In this situation, if your body cannot bear the urge to slow down due to being too hot or the G-force being too high during driving, the driver behind you will definitely take the opportunity to overtake you.

Therefore, under the cooperation between the FIA ​​and Pirelli, everyone has been running in qualifying rounds since the beginning of the race.

Verstappen was not very clear about the situation of the others, but after running for so long, even a strong driver like Verstappen had his mind somewhat confused.

So when faced with so many flaws revealed by Qin Miao, Verstappen, who had been working at a high intensity for a long time and had consumed his physical and mental energy, inevitably made some misjudgments and became a little too excited.

After safely passing the most difficult stint, Qin Miao entered the pit to change tires.

Originally, everyone thought that this was just an ordinary pit stop for tire change. Qin Miao did not miss any opportunities, nor did he make any mistakes like failing to stop steadily and knocking the jack technician away. The pit stop window was also relatively clean.

But who would have thought that in this match between Red Bull and Mercedes, one team would finish the performance and the other would take the stage.

In the previous pit stop window, Red Bull made a mistake in changing tires, and this time it was Mercedes' turn.

Qin Miao had no problem parking this time, he parked steadily at the marked line. Other people in the team who were changing tires did not need to re-aim their guns, they could just poke them forward and insert them into the bolt hole of Qin Miao's racing tire.

But the damn left rear tire changer didn't insert the tire firmly after inserting it, so the pneumatic operator didn't tighten the bolts the first time. When he found out something was wrong, he adjusted the position of the tire before tightening it.

And this one second of delay is gone.

Although he had changed to new neutral tires, Qin Miao pushed as hard as he could after coming out of the pit area to prevent himself from being over-cut by Verstappen, running even harder than in the qualifying round.

But after Verstappen entered the pit, perhaps the tyre-changing team gave Verstappen a 2-second tyre change in order to compensate him.

After coming out, he was just 0.5 seconds ahead of Qin Miao.

In the studio of Five Star Sports, the three commentators who were very nervous after seeing Qin Miao's mistake in tire changing looked really dejected when they saw Qin Miao was over-cut by Verstappen.

Originally, after seeing Qin Miao coming out of the maintenance area after changing to a new set of neutral tires, with the second and third timing sections both running purple, the three of them felt a little comforted, as well as some unrealistic fantasies.

But when Verstappen came to the track, the three of them were completely numb. Qin Miao's inner state at this time was similar to that of the three commentators of Five Star Sports.

But Qin Miao couldn't blame the tire changer of the team, after all, everyone makes mistakes sometimes.

However, the only thing Qin Miao could be thankful for at this time was that although Verstappen's third stint was replaced with brand new tires, they were a set of hard tires.

Although I was not using the last set of new soft tires, the single lap speed of a set of new neutral tires was much faster than Verstappen's new hard tires.

So after returning to the track, Qin Miao was able to follow Verstappen all the time without being left too far behind by him, but Qin Miao didn't have a good way to deal with Verstappen.

The race then fell into a stalemate. Although Qin Miao was able to get close to the DRS area behind Verstappen on the track.

But just like when Verstappen faced Qin Miao's defense, Qin Miao couldn't find a good opportunity to overtake when facing Verstappen.

Although Qin Miao was not thrown out of the DRS zone by Verstappen during this period, Pan Zi was really running the race in the same way as qualifying.

Basically, every corner was driven according to the deadline of the car, and Qin Miao had no good way to deal with Verstappen for a while.

It’s not that Qin Miao can’t drive like Verstappen.

Logically speaking, if we compare the stability during extreme driving, Qin Miao's stability is actually higher than Verstappen's.

But the shitty thing is that Qin Miao is now unable to drive his car to its limit.

The W14's mechanical grip is not that strong, and its aerodynamic efficiency is not as good as the RB19. There is also a RB19 in front that constantly creates turbulence. Even a strong person like Qin Miao doesn't know what the limit of this car is with Verstappen following behind him.

If there is a car in front of you creating turbulence, it is easy to lose control if you drive too hard.

The gravel buffer zone on this track is particularly abnormal. Basically, once you enter it, you can't get out. So there is not much Qin Miao can do at this time. Apart from following Verstappen in the DRS zone and using his skills to put pressure on Verstappen, Qin Miao can't do much more.

In fact, it is interesting to say that the FIA ​​started the ground effect era so that the ground effect floor can effectively prevent the front car from transmitting turbulence to both sides and the back of the track.

It can make overtaking on the track more frequent and the race more exciting.

However, for the aerodynamic design departments of all F1 teams, the turbulence discharged by the racing cars can not only optimize the aerodynamic efficiency of their own racing cars, but also reduce the aerodynamic efficiency of the racing cars behind.

This is an excellent design with no disadvantages and only benefits.

So even though the Venturi channel limits what aerodynamic designers can do, they can always come up with a solution.

For example, some turbulent air can be discharged outward from the sealing serrations of the floor, rear wing, tire or directly from the Venturi channel. However, each kit discharges a little more turbulent air, and each upgrade increases the ability to discharge turbulent air a little more.

After a season, F1 cars have once again turned into turbulence-generating machines.

It is now the end of the second season of the ground effect era. The difficulty of overtaking this season is similar to that of the car Qin Miao drove in his first year in F1.

Qin Miao even felt that as the car continued to be upgraded, overtaking would become more difficult in the remaining seasons, much higher than he had imagined.

But no matter what happens next, at least in the first season of the ground effect era, overtaking is indeed much easier.

In the third stint, Qin Miao was always looking for opportunities and expecting Verstappen to make mistakes.

But he was Pan Zi after all. Even under the pressure from Qin Miao, he did not make any mistakes and even caught up to 1.9 seconds behind Hamilton.

Finally, on the 46th lap, Verstappen entered the pit first and started the last pit stop between the top three drivers.

After entering the pit, Pan Zi changed into a new set of neutral tires.

This is the set of tyres with the best grip for Verstappen.

It is worth mentioning that there was a detail when Verstappen was changing tires. After entering the maintenance area, Verstappen opened his helmet goggles and wiped the sweat around the corners of his eyes with gloves, while also cooling himself down a bit.

Red Bull did not make any mistakes when changing tires this time, but it did not perform the terrifying 2-second tire change.

The tire changing time is 2.4, which is barely acceptable.

In the next lap, Qin Miao also responded by pitting and changing to the last set of new soft tires of the race.

This time, Mercedes' tire changers did not let down, finishing in 2.1 seconds, which was even an exceptional performance.

After coming out of the maintenance area, Qin Miao fell 1.7 seconds behind Pan Zi. Although this position was not very good, Qin Miao, with the advantage of tires, caught up to the DRS area behind Verstappen in the next lap.

And in the next lap, Qin Miao launched an attack on Verstappen.

Of course, Qin Miao is currently just putting pressure on Verstappen, and will launch an attack on Verstappen after his car battery is charged enough.

Before that, the old man also entered the pit on the next lap after Pan Zi entered the pit.

After coming out of the maintenance area, Hamilton was still in first position, but just 0.5 seconds ahead of Verstappen.

It was also thanks to Qin Miao's T1 in the previous lap that he put a lot of pressure on Verstappen.

If Verstappen had not gone to the inside to defend Qin Miao before T1, the old man would definitely have been killed by Verstappen and Qin Miao.

However, despite this, Hamilton, who returned to the track, was caught by Verstappen and Qin Miao.

The three of them formed a group of DRS trains again.

However, this time the person trapped at the rear of the car was no longer Verstappen, but Qin Miao.

To be honest, after seeing Qin Miao, who had the advantage of tires, trapped in the DRS train, even though he was not the locomotive, Verstappen still felt a sense of pleasure of revenge.

"Good deeds will be rewarded in the end!" Verstappen couldn't help but sigh in his heart: "Qin Miao, you have come to this day!"

In fact, after the Mercedes team saw that Hamilton had trapped Qin Miao behind him, they thought about giving Hamilton a team order to let Qin Miao go.

But this idea was quickly dispelled. Although Qin Miao and Verstappen were competing for the world championship at this time, it was indeed inappropriate to do so.

At this time, the only thing Mercedes' strategy team can hope for is that Qin Miao can perform well and defeat Verstappen.

On the track, although Qin Miao did not think of asking Hamilton to give up his position at this time, Qin Miao was indeed disgusted by the DRS train that the old man had made.

His current lap speed is rarely faster than Verstappen's, but he cannot overtake him on the track.

However, Qin Miao is not without a solution, because as time goes by, the pressure value on Verstappen's car head has reached [81%].

In this state, Verstappen may make mistakes on the track at any time. What Qin Miao needs to do now is to keep testing and putting pressure on Verstappen from behind, waiting for the opponent to make mistakes.

Then as expected, Qin Miao waited for Verstappen's mistake.

On lap 54, there were only three laps left until the end of the race.

A normal person would have been extremely anxious if they were in Qin Miao's position at this time, but Qin Miao remained calm at this moment.

This is not to say that Qin Miao is not anxious.

In the competition for the world championship, anyone would be anxious if faced with such a situation. The reason why Qin Miao was still calm at this time was mostly because Qin Miao had already given up tactically in this game.

After all, Pan Zi is second and I am third, so it’s better for me to win the race than Verstappen, right?

The points gap between first and second is 8 points, while the points gap between second and third is only 3 points.

If this race ended like this, then if the sprint race points were counted, Qin Miao would only be 1 point behind Verstappen in this Grand Prix weekend.

This result is generally acceptable.

Then the surprise arrived as promised.

Just after crossing the line on lap 54, Qin Miao routinely changed lanes to the inside of the track to put pressure on Verstappen, then turned to the outside, and after a sway, returned to the inside again.

Normally, after Qin Miao completes this set of moves, Verstappen will give corresponding defensive moves. Eventually, he will block Qin Miao's route to the inside before Qin Miao heads out, and then give the outside line to Qin Miao.

But this time, under Qin Miao's somewhat surprised gaze, Verstappen was slow to block the road to the inside. The final result was that after Qin Miao pulled towards the inside for a distance, he actually shot directly into Verstappen's inside.

By this time, it was too late for Verstappen to react and block Qin Miao's route.

At this time, Qin Miao's left front wheel had already hit Verstappen's right rear wheel. If Verstappen continued to forcefully change lanes to the inside, given Qin Miao's character, he would indeed give way a little, but if you pushed Qin Miao into a corner, he would really dare to push Verstappen off the track.

So Verstappen hesitated.

After all, even if he only got third place in this game, the points gap between him and Qin Miao would only be 3 points, which was an ultimately acceptable result.

But if he did not hit Qin Miao after the collision, and his car was damaged and he retired from the race, he would lose more than 18 points in this race.

After all, Verstappen has a deep understanding of the strength of Mercedes-Benz racing cars.

So Verstappen got scared and just pushed Qin Miao to the center line of the track, limiting Qin Miao's turning angle, but did not directly squeeze Qin Miao out of the track.

But this angle was enough for Qin Miao to rely on the grip advantage of the soft tires and brake late to get ahead of Verstappen before the APEX point of T1. (End of this chapter)