How did I become an F1 driver?

The team standings are as follows:
1. Mercedes: 726
2. Red Bull: 591
3. Ferrari: 290
4. Aston Martin: 190
5. McLaren: 183
6. Alpine: 76
7. Williams: 24
8. Lynk & Co: 17
9. Alfa Romeo: 13
10. Haas: 7
After this race, there was no major change in the team standings.

But it is worth mentioning that the next race, the Brazilian Grand Prix a week later, will most likely decide this season's team championship.

Because at this time the total points that the remaining teams can get this season are 147 points, and the team points gap between Mercedes and Red Bull is 135 points.

If Mercedes scores 7 points more than Red Bull in the next sprint race, it will be able to be crowned the 2023 Constructors' World Champion two races in advance.

And what's fucked up is that Mercedes' crowning may happen after the sprint race.

But if Mercedes really won the world championship during the sprint race, it would probably be very uncomfortable.

It's not just the Mercedes team, the fans of the Mercedes team and even the FIA ​​will feel uncomfortable.

Because after the sprint race there is the main race tomorrow, so everyone has no time to celebrate or anything else.

At most, they would just take a quick sip of wine and celebrate a little, and then everyone would have to get back to their busy work.

It is even possible that if the team does not perform well in the race the next day, the jubilant atmosphere of the entire team due to winning the team world championship will disappear.

Of course, if such a situation really occurs, there is nothing we can do about it. We can only bear it and prepare for the remaining two games.

This is also the inevitable pain that F1 will experience during the reform period.

Just get used to it. After all, if the FIA ​​doesn’t give you some fancy tricks, can it still be called the FIA?
……

After crossing the finish line, although the race was somewhat dull for Qin Miao, he was still excited and cheered loudly in his car.

"Who is the loser now?" Qin Miao directly opened his team TR and had a cordial exchange of views with the Mexican fans at the scene.

In the past, Qin Miao was criticized when playing away games, but Qin Miao didn’t say anything. After all, he was young at that time, Qin Miao didn’t understand, and he didn’t have the arrogance of winning so many world championships.

But now Qin Miao is the double champion no matter what, and there is a high probability that he will win the triple crown.

The most basic respect should be there, right?
No? If not, don't blame me for being mean to you guys after the game.

I won’t go into too much detail about the post-match interviews and the like.

Although everything was glorious for Qin Miao after he won the game today.

But for a young man who has been fighting on the field for nearly three years and is only 22 years old, these are commonplace for him.

If the only thing that could arouse Qin Miao's interest in today's race was that winning the race would be a slap in the face of the Red Bull fans at the scene.

After completing most of the post-match work, Qin Miao went to attend the post-match press conference.

At the post-race press conference, in addition to being asked about the team championship and driver championship, reporters also asked Qin Miao about his opinion on the race of Mexican Perez.

Qin Miao also expressed deep sympathy and concern, and hoped that Perez could regain his confidence.

All in all it was a very basic and diplomatic post-match interview.

After completing these procedures, Qin Miao didn't even rest in Mexico, but flew to Brazil on the same day.

Although the development of these South American countries is generally not good due to the intensive cultivation of the United States, the gangs in Brazil appear to be more respectable than those in Mexico.

At the end of the season, the FIA ​​is stepping up efforts for all drivers and teams.

The Mexican Grand Prix is ​​followed by the Brazilian Grand Prix.

Qin Miao was actually fine, except that he was a little more rushed than a normal Grand Prix weekend.

But the team members had a hard time.

Because these three consecutive back-to-back races are all held in the Americas, all teams use the same set of supplies in these three consecutive back-to-back races.

The team not only has to prepare the cars for the Grand Prix weekend, but also needs to consider the team's logistics and transportation issues.

All in all, during this period of more than half a month, the logistics departments of all fleets were extremely busy.

As soon as a component becomes unused, it will be immediately packed up and sent to the venue of the next Grand Prix.

Qin Miao arrived in Brazil in the early hours of Monday morning, checked into the hotel and went to sleep.

When it comes to Brazil, the most famous thing is Brazilian football. In addition, in the circle of car fans, the most famous Brazilian is the racing god Senna.

But then again, Qin Miao didn't really have much feeling for Senna, and he didn't start watching F1 races since Senna's time.

Qin Miao wasn't even born when Senna died.

But leaving Qin Miao aside, Hamilton, another driver in the Mercedes team, really likes Senna.

Regardless of whether he really likes the God of Cars or is just using the title of the God of Cars to establish his own persona.

But at least because the old man has been frantically building up his own persona during this period, Brazil can be considered one of the Mercedes team's home grounds.

Therefore, although Qin Miao does not have a very good impression of Brazil, Brazilian car fans also love Qin Miao.

Qin Miao saw a lot of articles praising him on the local social media in Brazil, and these articles also directly stated that they hope Qin Miao can lead the Mercedes team to win the championship this Grand Prix weekend.

But in fact, the Mercedes team no longer values ​​this world championship as much as it did in the middle of the season.

It’s not that they don’t want the world championship anymore, it’s mainly because they know that they can’t escape the constructors’ championship no matter what.

Drivers Qin Miao and Hamilton performed very stably on the track.

Basically, just one look will tell you that in the remaining three games of this season, Qin Miao and Hamilton will definitely be able to score points steadily.

Now almost everyone at Mercedes has a consensus that it is only a matter of time before the Mercedes team wins this season's Constructors' World Championship.

Therefore, during the period before the start of the Brazilian Grand Prix, Mercedes shifted the focus and emphasis of the two drivers in this Grand Prix weekend.

Qin Miao returned to his comfort zone, constantly running the simulator, practicing and improving his skills while helping the team test some new parts. The old man mainly put more of his energy into various pre-race activities.

Anyway, this is the end of the old man's season. Instead of continuing to consolidate his third place in the year, it is better to make as much money as possible during this period, preserve more of the old man's energy, and return to the court to shine in 24 years.

And there is nothing wrong with Qin Miao's behavior.

After all, the Brazilian Grand Prix is ​​a sprint race weekend, and the practice time for this race is originally less than that of a normal Grand Prix weekend. In order to consolidate his current position in the driver's standings, Qin Miao naturally needs to spend more time on training.

And Qin Miao also has the power to do so. Even if Mercedes-Benz wants him to participate in commercial activities, Qin Miao can actively refuse. After all, his contract is too overbearing.

At the same time, at the Brazilian Grand Prix, Mercedes brought the last major upgrade of the 2023 season.

There are four parts that have been upgraded and optimized, including the floor, beam wing, rear diffuser and DRS rear wing.

Speaking of upgrades, there are also some inside stories that make Qin Miao feel that some people have become unpopular.

Ever since Qin Miao announced that he would not renew his contract with Mercedes-Benz next season and would instead switch to Ferrari.

Qin Miao couldn't enter the door of Mercedes-Benz team's R&D department.

Of course, although the contract did not explicitly state it, Qin Miao also knew a basic business rule, so he would definitely not take the initiative to hang out in the Mercedes-Benz team's R&D department.

But what really made Qin Miao feel a little uncomfortable was that the team's upgrade route had changed this season.

Take this upgrade for example, the original route of the Mercedes team's car upgrade was to upgrade according to Qin Miao's driving habits.

Although Qin Miao and the old man both like to drive racing cars with understeer, there is a difference between understeer and understeer.

Qin Miao prefers a racing car that has less understeer but a more stable and controllable rear end.

Compared to Qin Miao, the old man prefers a racing car with a relatively more unstable rear end.

And this Grand Prix weekend, the upgrades brought by the team are precisely those that favor Hamilton's driving habits.

The overall character of the car has changed to the direction that Hamilton is accustomed to.

Of course Qin Miao can also understand why Mercedes-Benz would do this. After all, he will leave Mercedes-Benz next season anyway, and there is no need for Mercedes-Benz to continue upgrading the car according to his wishes and driving habits.

After all, even if I change it according to my own habits, I won’t be able to use it next season.

But after all this really happened to him, Qin Miao couldn't help feeling a sense of disappointment.

Before making all these changes, Qin Miao didn't even know what they would do.

In other words, before this they had not even informed the Qin Miao team that they had changed the direction of research and development of the car.

As for the next upgrade plan for the car, Qin Miao only knew when the team would upgrade and when the last upgrade in 23 years would be.

As for how the racing cars will be upgraded in the future and what the design ideas are, Qin Miao doesn’t know.

All I can say is that F1 is ultimately just a commercial alliance.

If you are like some small and medium-sized racing teams, they don’t care about the competitiveness of their cars, and there is a small probability that they will consider personal relationships, but for large racing teams like Mercedes-Benz, they only care about interests, not personal relationships.

Of course, these small disturbances within the team will not affect Qin Miao's pre-race preparations.

On Thursday, during the pre-race press conference, Qin Miao noticed that most of the fans who followed the drivers to the pre-race press conference on the sidelines were Mercedes fans.

Qin Miao clearly remembers that when he came to participate in the Brazilian Grand Prix last season, although there were many fans on the scene, the fan group was still quite scattered.

There are fans of every team, but Ferrari has the most fans.

After all, Ferrari's base is indeed large.

But the situation at this Grand Prix weekend was completely different from the past. The most fans Qin Miao saw at the scene were no longer the Tiefu Temple fans, but Mercedes fans.

Qin Miao was actually a little mentally prepared for this. After all, Hamilton is now an honorary citizen of Brazil, and it is natural that he is popular here.

But what really surprised Qin Miao was that the number of fans wearing No. 44 and No. 66 jerseys was basically half and half. Why?
Could it be that the Brazilian fans at the scene are just like the domestic fans, only looking at the results and not the process?
Of course, Qin Miao only found out after asking Frankie on Thursday that because the last three Grand Prix were back-to-back and held every week, all the materials and peripherals originally prepared by the team were sold out.

Restocking had to come from China, which took time, so the Mercedes team uniforms were sold out during the Brazilian Grand Prix.

After the old man bought all the peripherals, besides the team uniforms, the only thing left was Qin Miao's Mercedes uniform with No. 66.

That's why there were so many Brazilian fans wearing Qin Miao's clothes at the scene.

After the press conference on Thursday, Qin Miao did nothing else but continue practicing on the Brazilian Grand Prix track on the team's simulator, even though no one was unfamiliar with the track and it was not difficult.

However, it has been a year since the last F1 race was held at the Interlagos circuit, and the track organizers have repaved the asphalt of the Interlagos circuit.

Qin Miao hasn't run on this track for a long time.

Although he has a basic level of proficiency in the system, Qin Miao is still willing to learn more about the layout and driving skills of this track.

After all, compared with the tracks of the previous races, the track layout of the Interlagos circuit is obviously more favorable to the performance of the RB19, and the only chance for a muscle car like the W14 to win on this track is to get a good starting position in the qualifying stage, and then block the car behind in the race, allowing the opponent to drive behind it.

This is also the reason why Qin Miao did not show up on Thursday's media day except for a press conference. Qin Miao needs to strive for all possible lap time improvements.

Of course, there is bad news as well. For example, Qin Miao learned from Barber that Pan Zi stayed at home during this Grand Prix weekend and his participation in various commercial activities was significantly reduced.

It is not difficult to see from these signs that Verstappen is also sharpening his knife for this Grand Prix weekend.

Pan Zi also knew that Red Bull's car had an advantage at the Interlagos circuit.

As long as he beats Qin Miao in the qualifying round, relying on the upgrades brought by Red Bull during this Grand Prix weekend, he has a great chance of crushing Qin Miao on the track and winning the championship.

Of course, all this will be revealed after the qualifying rounds start on Friday. (End of this chapter)