How did I become an F1 driver?

In the commentary booth of the Five Star Sports studio, three commentators were analyzing the situation on the field at the moment.

"I think the current situation is favorable for Qin Miao." Bing Ge analyzed: "Qin Miao is now ahead of Verstappen in the driver standings, which means that it doesn't matter whether Qin Miao gets points in this race. What he needs to do is to try to prevent Verstappen from getting points or getting as few points as possible."

"Now that both of them have fallen to the back of the team, I think Qin Miao's top priority is not to regain his position on the track, but to try to stop Verstappen in the middle and back of the track as much as possible."

"Anyway, given Qin Miao's current position on the track, as long as he can finish ahead of Verstappen, then whether Verstappen enters the points zone or not, it will not threaten Qin Miao's position in the standings."

"That's true, but given Qin Miao's personality, he certainly won't just sit there and wait to defend Verstappen. Although it's unlikely that Qin Miao can catch up to a very high position, the two drivers will definitely get back into the points zone."

……

On the track, Qin Miao's ideas were actually different from the guesses of the three commentators from Five Star Sports.

Qin Miao also knew that he only needed to finish ahead of Verstappen in today's race to continue to consolidate his position in the driver's standings.

But if he only finished ahead of Verstappen, the advantage he would establish would be minimal.

A two or three point points difference may be quite large for drivers in the middle and lower reaches who are not regulars in the points zone. They may only be able to get two or three points in a season.

But for drivers like Qin Miao and Verstappen who have been on the podium for many years, a two or three point points difference is just the points difference between the second and third place.

For Qin Miao, it is not safe as long as the points gap between him and Verstappen does not reach more than 10 points.

After all, who knows what will happen on the track in the remaining two races of this season, right?
So Qin Miao prepared to continue chasing, trying to get more points, preferably to get on the podium.

……

His eyes returned to the track, and Qin Miao gradually began to find his rhythm for overtaking continuously on the track.

On the 9th lap, Qin Miao caught up with Piastri.

However, Qin Miao wasted a little time when overtaking Piastrid.

Because when I caught up with Piastri in the DRS zone, the front was right on the starting straight.

On this long straight road, Qin Miao only shortened the time gap between himself and Piastri to 0.3 seconds.

After that, we entered the multi-turn area of ​​the first timing section.

And in this area, Qin Miao was blocked once by Piastri.

It can’t be said that he defended it, but Qin Miao didn’t expect that Piastri had learned his famous skills.

At that time, Piastri left a flaw at T1, missed the braking point, and gave the inside to Qin Miao.

Qin Miao took a look and thought, there is such a good thing!
Naturally, I was ready to insert myself into the team.

But Piastri was just pretending. He had a good rhythm when he came out of the corner. When he reached T2, he defended the inside line tightly and used his advantage of turning on the inside line to push Qin Miao to the outside line.

Naturally, Qin Miao had no choice but to give up his position on the track.

As a result, Qin Miao missed the possibility of overtaking Piastri in the DRS zone in the first timing period.

This is actually Qin Miao's standard layout-type defense.

Qin Miao used it many times against Verstappen, forcing Verstappen to fully charge the battery of his car before attacking Qin Miao.

Speaking of this, there is also an interesting fact, that is, Verstappen's car battery reserve this season is only 70% of his teammate Perez.

The other 30% is loss due to excessive use.

Okay, let’s get back to the topic.

Qin Miao did nothing for the next whole lap, and used the entire lap to get closer to Piastri.

When they finished a lap and came to the starting straight again, the time gap between Qin Miao and Piastri had been shortened to 0.5 seconds.

Normally, this 0.5 second time difference is not enough for overtaking, but the characteristics of the W14 muscle car are indeed better utilized at the Interlagos circuit in Brazil.

Piastra no longer had any desire to defend against the Mercedes car running wildly behind him, and he just symbolically moved his car to the inside to prevent Qin Miao from braking late and disrupting his car's rhythm.

Qin Miao took a clean and concise route on the outside and overtook Piastri on the track.

Two laps after Qin Miao overtook Piastri, Verstappen also came to the DRS area behind Piastri.

Pan Zi's speed on the Interlaken track was not slow, and Qin Miao was delayed a little when he was overtaking Piastrid.

So Verstappen was catching up faster.

To be honest, although Verstappen had not yet approached the DRS area behind Qin Miao, Qin Miao could still clearly feel the constant pressure from Verstappen behind him.

Because this guy always flashes past you in the rearview mirror at some inexplicable bends, giving you a feeling that he will catch up with you at any time.

It can be said that he feels like a thorn in the side.

It's like when you are playing a horror game, and someone blows a breath on the back of your neck when you are concentrating on the game.

After overtaking Piastri, Qin Miao's road ahead was not smooth, but there was a window of nearly 12 seconds.

What follows is a pure 1V1 duel between Qin Miao and Verstappen.

If Qin Miao can withstand Verstappen's attack for the next 12 seconds, about seven or eight laps, then Qin Miao will be rewarded with Zhou Guanyu in front of him.

If put in a racing game, Zhou Guanyu would be a speed accelerator for Qin Miao.

At that time, whether it is the slipstream or after overtaking Zhou Guanyu, Zhou Guanyu's blocking will make Qin Miao feel a little less pressure when facing Verstappen.

It is also worth mentioning that although Qin Miao and Zhou Guanyu had no communication before the game, Qin Miao had a strong feeling that after he caught up with Zhou Guanyu, Zhou Guanyu would not defend him, but would directly let him pass.

On the other hand, Verstappen also knew that there was a gap between Piastri and Zhou Guanyu. If he wanted to overtake Qin Miao, this was the best opportunity.

So before this, he had been holding back when overtaking the driver in front of him and had not used too much of the ERS power of his car. He was waiting for this period of time to see if he could directly defeat Qin Miao.

In the following period, Qin Miao continued to run on the track, but he was always paying attention to Verstappen's condition.

The lap gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen is actually not that big. Qin Miao's lap time is 1:13.789, while Verstappen's lap time is 1:13.591.

The lap speed difference between the two was 0.198 seconds.

At this time, the time difference between the two was 3.1 seconds.

Qin Miao was overtaken by Verstappen mainly in the second time period. As a time period with more bends and consecutive bends, it is understandable that Qin Miao's overall speed in the second time period is slower than Verstappen.

After reaching the third period, Qin Miao was able to make up some of the lost time.

On the 14th lap, Qin Miao finally caught up with Zhou Guanyu, and he was 1.7 seconds away from Verstappen.

In fact, according to Verstappen's original pace, he should be 2.5 seconds behind Qin Miao.

However, because Verstappen tried his best to unleash the power of his car during the window period, he shortened the time gap between himself and Qin Miao by 0.8 seconds.

Qin Miao also came behind Zhou Guanyu at this time.

Zhou Guanyu did not think about defending when facing Qin Miao.

Because there is no need to, and it is impossible to defend against it. If you defend against it, Qin Miao will probably come to kill you after the game and call you to account.

Wouldn’t it be a big loss if I wasn’t allowed to hug Xiao Muqiu at that time?

So after Zhou Guanyu provided Qin Miao with DRS on the starting straight on the 15th lap, when he came to the braking point of T1, Zhou Guanyu took the initiative to give up his position to Qin Miao.

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Of course, although Zhou Guanyu himself took the initiative to give up his position, under the broadcast camera, it seemed that Zhou Guanyu found that Qin Miao was approaching him quickly and took the initiative to change lanes to the inside in an attempt to defend Qin Miao, but the defense failed because Qin Miao's speed was too fast, so Qin Miao directly overtook him from the outside.

It was a bit like a replica of the scene where Qin Miao surpassed Piastris.

One and a half laps after Qin Miao overtook, Verstappen also entered the DRS zone behind Zhou Guanyu.

This time, Zhou Guanyu did not laugh and joke with Verstappen.

Zhou Guanyu really tried his best to block Verstappen's offensive rhythm on the track.

Although Zhou Guanyu's operation did not buy Qin Miao much time on the track, it was probably less than 0.5 seconds.

After all, the performance gap between the Arrow car and the Red Bull car is too big, and Zhou Guanyu has already tried his best to defend.

At that time, it was in T10. Verstappen had already caught up to 0.3 seconds behind Zhou Guanyu. Then he braked late on the inner line of T10 and forced Zhou Guanyu out of the track before overtaking him.

I don’t know if it’s a coincidence or what the reason is.

Nine laps after being overtaken by Verstappen, Zhou Guanyu's car retired due to engine problems.

It's like burning out.

Of course, it could also be Leclerc's call from somewhere, as both Ferrari and Arrow's cars retired from the race.

A total of were sent in the same week.

Of course, before that, Qin Miao and Verstappen had already entered the car formation in front. Although the two of them were not slaughtering chickens and dogs on the track, in the face of the absolute gap in racing performance, the two of them overtaking the drivers in front was really no different from kicking a stray dog ​​to death on the side of the road.

When Zhou Guanyu retired from the race, Qin Miao had already arrived at the entrance of the points area, and Verstappen had just overtaken Bottas and came behind Ocon.

In fact, Verstappen was somewhat depressed. Qin Miao's lap speed was only average compared to his own.

But after Qin Miao started to overtake, either the driver in front of him happened to reach the pit window and needed to pit to change tires, or he gave up the car reluctantly, or he was in a very good overtaking position and overtook it in one go.

During this process, Qin Miao basically did not waste any time overtaking.

His own situation and Qin Miao's were completely different extremes.

Verstappen was restricted everywhere at the back of the track. It seemed as if these guys had a grudge against Verstappen. As long as Verstappen appeared behind them, they would do their best to defend Verstappen.

But in fact, the drivers behind did not really have a grudge against Verstappen. It was really just a pure coincidence.

Lap 27.

At this time, Qin Miao and Verstappen have both entered the points zone.

Qin Miao was third and Verstappen was fifth.

The reason why they appeared in such a front position was that the two drivers had not entered the pits except for the red flag at the beginning of the race, and therefore the tires of the two drivers were on the verge of collapse.

The reason why the two of them are still staying on the track and not entering the pit is purely because both drivers and the team's strategy groups have set their sights on the driver behind/in front.

They all want to wait for the other party to make a corresponding move, and then make the most advantageous pit stop choice for themselves based on the other party's move.

It is equivalent to both of them drinking two liters of water, and then holding their urine together to see who can't hold it first.

Finally, on the 27th lap, Verstappen's tires couldn't hold on anymore. He could already feel a noticeable decline in grip. If he were to run two more laps on the track, the tires would hit the cliff point. It was hard to say what would happen then.

So on lap 27, Red Bull called Verstappen into the pit to change tires through the team TR.

At this time, Mercedes was also worried that Qin Miao would be undercut by Verstappen who came out of the maintenance area on the track.

So the Mercedes team also called Qin Miao into the maintenance area.

As for whether this might lead to telecom fraud by Red Bull...

In fact, there is no need to worry so much. Qin Miao is a driver with strong ability to protect his tires. Qin Miao felt that his tires could not hold on any longer while running. Verstappen's tires were naturally like a turtle running a day school - they could not hold on any longer.

At this time, he had really reached his limit when he entered the pit, and if he didn't release it, he would shit his pants.

So Mercedes is not really worried about Red Bull committing telecommunications fraud. In fact, they think it would be good news if Verstappen did not make the race.

The tire changers of the two top teams performed well during this pit stop.

Qin Miao changed the tire to 2.2 and Pan Zi changed the tire to 2.3.

The difference of 0.1 seconds can basically be ignored.

Thanks to Toto's training of the team's technicians on the tire changing speed in the previous races, the Mercedes team's technicians have invested a lot of energy in practicing tire changing in recent times.

There are basically more than ten practice sessions during every Grand Prix.

As a result, the tire changing speed of the two Mercedes drivers in the second half of the season can be effectively kept below 2.5 seconds.

Much better than at the beginning of the season.

After coming out of the maintenance area, the two came to their real positions, one seventh and the other eighth. (End of this chapter)