How did I become an F1 driver?

Moreover, at this time on the track, the time gap between the drivers has basically opened up to more than 2 seconds. As long as no driver makes a mistake and crashes on the track, the other drivers will basically not get any shots.

So the director directly fixed the camera on Qin Miao and Verstappen.

Speaking of mistakes, someone will ask at this time, what if Red Bull instigates Perez to crash, and then puts out a safety car or a red flag?
To be honest, Red Bull did consider hinting Perez to crash on the track before this race.

They even had a secret signal for Perez to crash.

The price is to guarantee Perez a two-year driver contract.

But now Red Bull has discovered that even if Perez crashes, it will be useless.

After all, you have to know that behind Verstappen is Hamilton.

Even if this underhanded trick was used to make Verstappen get ahead of Qin Miao, Hamilton would definitely help Qin Miao defend Leclerc behind him, and he would not attack Qin Miao.

Even if Hamilton did not help Qin Miao and even surpassed Qin Miao directly on the track, who would Qin Miao face next?

Qin Miao’s teammate next season: Leclerc.

Moreover, these two people are recognized in the paddock as having a good personal relationship. Do you think Leclerc is likely to attack Qin Miao?
Even if Leclerc went crazy and didn't want his fourth place anymore.

But you have to know that when Qin Miao fell to fourth place, he had already been overtaken by three cars.

This is not something that can be accomplished in a short period of time, and you cannot forget Qin Miao's terrifying defensive ability.

Even if he was overtaken by Leclerc, the race would have been nearing its end by then. Qin Miao would have finished fourth and the world championship would still have been his.

Therefore, this can only be used as a backup plan and Red Bull will keep it as a secret forever.

Back to the topic.

At this moment on the track, the names of the two drivers appeared directly in the display box at the bottom of the screen.

There is also a display in the middle showing the time gap between the two people, as well as a number showing how much time Verstappen's single lap can shorten the gap between himself and Qin Miao.

It is still 0.7 seconds now.

"Qin Miao, Verstappen is now 14.3 behind you." Franky reminded Qin Miao.

"Got it." Qin Miao glanced at his rearview mirror, and the picture in the rearview mirror was very clean, without a single car.

Qin Miao continued to race at his own pace to protect his tires. He didn't even press the higher curbs, and his cornering was very smooth.

However, as Verstappen's tires returned to the optimal operating temperature and Verstappen pushed forward with all his strength, the time gap between the two narrowed rapidly.

With 13 laps left in the race, Verstappen once again set a new fastest lap record, and the time gap between him and Qin Miao narrowed to 1.2 seconds on this lap.

Qin Miao continued to leisurely protect the fetus.

With 10 laps left, the time gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen was only 10 seconds.

What Verstappen needs to do next is very simple, to catch up with Qin Miao by more than 1.1 seconds per lap.

This will give Verstappen one lap of time to attack.

Then Verstappen overtook Qin Miao by 1.5 seconds in the next lap.

"Catching Shrimp Householders" is on the way!

Although it is known that whether Qin Miao wins the race or not will have no impact on the outcome of this season's world championship.

But whether it was the commentator of Five Star Sports, the commentator of other platforms who were commenting on the game, or the domestic car fans, they all subconsciously clenched their fists at this moment, and their palms could not stop sweating.

With 7 laps left, the time gap between Verstappen and Qin Miao further narrowed, and the time gap between the two was only 6 seconds.

Even though Qin Miao knew that it didn't make much difference whether he won the race or not, when he learned from the team that Verstappen had overtaken him by 4 seconds in three laps, Qin Miao couldn't help but frown.

I even had the thought of just giving the championship to Verstappen.

Of course, this thought only flashed through Qin Miao's mind and soon disappeared.

Are you kidding? If you want to win the world championship, you should do it in a fair and complete manner.

In this last race before leaving Mercedes, Qin Miao also hopes to keep this race championship with Mercedes.

He doesn't want the final punctuation mark of his journey at Mercedes to be a comma rather than a period.

So now that Qin Miao has the opportunity, he will definitely try his best not to let the championship of this race slip away.

With six laps left in the race, Qin Miao could already see Verstappen coming at him aggressively from behind in his rearview mirror.

With five laps left in the race, Verstappen had already caught up to Qin Miao, 5 seconds behind him.

This was at a level where one could barely smell the exhaust from Qin Miao's racing car.

With three laps left to the end of the race, Verstappen had already entered the DRS zone behind Qin Miao.

At this moment, everyone in the Mercedes team was staring at the broadcast screen in front of them, feeling nervous and worried, but more of it was anticipation.

During the three years at Mercedes-Benz, Qin Miao has proven his talent in the extreme racing sport of F1 to the world countless times.

It's not just his tire-preserving ability that gives the FIA ​​and Pirelli a headache, but also his defensive and offensive abilities.

The key is that while having these abilities, Qin Miao is also a very humble and polite driver both on and off the track.

Although in the eyes of many foreign fans, Qin Miao's humility is a bit fake, more like a kind of alternative show-off
But no matter what, as Qin Miao's colleagues, they also hope that Qin Miao can win the last race championship in 2023 in today's game.

It brought a perfect end to his three-year career at Mercedes.

Qin Miao naturally also noticed Verstappen who was coming from behind with a huge sense of oppression.

However, Qin Miao has been protecting his tires since he came out of the maintenance area after changing to hard tires.

Qin Miao's tire consumption is less than that of other drivers. Qin Miao has been in a state of protecting his tires. Now the actual gap between his tires and Verstappen is only about seven or eight laps.

This means that Verstappen's tires are only seven or eight laps newer than Qin Miao's. This level of tire advantage means that at most Verstappen is about 0.2 lap faster than Qin Miao. Add to that the performance gap between Red Bull and Mercedes on this track, and Verstappen's lap speed is probably 0.5 to 0.6 lap faster than Qin Miao.

But don't forget that the RB19's advantage lies in the third period of the track.

There is no overtaking point in the third period.

So in this area, what Verstappen can do is to shorten the time gap between himself and Qin Miao as much as possible, and then try to attack Qin Miao in the two long DRS zones in the second timing period.

Verstappen knows Qin Miao's defensive tactics too well.

So after catching up with Qin Miao, Verstappen did not launch an attack immediately, but tried to shorten the time gap between himself and Qin Miao as much as possible.

Start charging your racing battery.

He knew that if he wanted to attack Qin Miao, he had to do it in one go.

As for not being able to stop, he directly torpedoed Qin Miao on the track.

In fact, before the race started, Red Bull and Verstappen also considered this option.

But Red Bull and Verstappen dare not gamble. After all, Qin Miao's first impression on many fans is his incredible defense, and this label has been with Qin Miao from the time he entered the F1 arena to the present.

Mercedes-Benz cars have given people the impression of being very strong in recent seasons, especially the suspension system.

When other people's cars were almost destroyed, Mercedes' car was fine and could still continue running.

So Verstappen was also afraid of a collision with Qin Miao on the track.

After all, with the consistent strength of Mercedes-Benz cars, if Verstappen really collides with the Mercedes-Benz car, it is very likely that Verstappen's car will be directly retired from the race, and then the Mercedes-Benz car will continue to do what it should do.

Even though Verstappen's collision was very strong this time, Qin Miao was forced to retire from the race.

However, the only collision that could have caused Qin Miao to retire from the competition, apart from the American-style stop, is a head-on collision.

Deliberately using the American-style stop on the track will result in a direct penalty of a black flag.

That would be no different from directly giving the world championship to Qin Miao.

Even if the black chess piece was not penalized, it was penalized 10 or 20 seconds.

After a collision of that magnitude, Verstappen didn't think his Red Bull car could survive, and the most likely scenario was that both of them would retire.

For Verstappen, retiring from the race with Qin Miao means that all his efforts this year have been in vain, and he has completely lost all possibilities of competing for the world championship.

So Verstappen was somewhat nervous while preparing to overtake.

As for Qin Miao, he was as calm as ever.

With two laps left to the end of the race, the time gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen was only 2 seconds.

This basically means that the front of Verstappen's car is stuck to the butt of Qin Miao's car.

This is also the position where Verstappen is most likely to launch an attack.

Soon, the two crossed the finish line one after the other and started the final second lap of the 2023 season.

After passing T5, Verstappen was still 0.2 seconds behind Qin Miao.

This is still a position from which to launch an attack.

Before the braking point of T6, Qin Miao did not choose to defend Verstappen too hard. He just guarded the inside line and did not give Verstappen any route to attack from the inside.

Verstappen, who had DRS, had already finished side by side with Qin Miao on the outside line before the braking point of T6.

But Verstappen started to slow down early on.

It can be seen that Verstappen was not prepared to attack Qin Miao here.

This is basically common knowledge at the Yas Bay Marina Circuit.

After all, the second timing section of this track has two DRS sections. Although the first section is longer than the second section, unless the performance of your car has an absolute performance advantage over the driver you want to overtake, after you complete the overtaking in the first DRS zone, you will most likely be overtaken by the driver behind you who has obtained DRS in the second DRS zone.

Although Qin Miao's current car has a certain gap in average speed compared to the RB19, the characteristics of the W14 muscle car make up for this well.

The tail speed of the W14 on the long straight road with DRS is extremely terrifying. If Verstappen overtook Qin Miao at the end of the first DRS zone, Qin Miao would definitely be able to regain the position in the second DRS zone.

This means that the only position where Verstappen can make a move is T9. This is also the reason why Verstappen did not make a move in the DRS zone in the first section.

On the other side, Qin Miao felt a little regretful when he saw Verstappen was side by side with him on the outside and did not take any action.

Just like what was just said above, as long as Verstappen takes action in T6, Qin Miao will take the initiative to give up his position to Verstappen.

Then he took the position back in T9, but unfortunately Verstappen is not stupid.

Of course, if Verstappen was really stupid, he wouldn't have been Red Bull's number one driver for so long.

Soon, a Mercedes and a Red Bull arrived at T7 one after another.

After exiting the corner, Qin Miao began to fully release the ERS that had been charged to 100% throughout the race.

After all, his battery components are brand new, so there is no need to worry about wear and tear. So when Verstappen completed his last pit stop and started chasing him, Qin Miao started charging his battery. Therefore, the power of Qin Miao's battery has always been maintained between 90% and 100%.

I've been preparing for so long, waiting for this moment.

Verstappen, on the other hand, took full advantage of the three bonuses of DRS, ERS, and wake turbulence.

Read more latest popular novels at 6.9*shuba!

What made Verstappen a little helpless was that even though he had already used all the speed he could.

He even wanted to lift up his helmet visor and spit out of the car to reduce the weight of his racing car.

However, the RB19's closing rate is still very low compared to the W14.

Although Verstappen managed to stay side by side with Qin Miao on the outside line when they reached the braking point of T9, Qin Miao insisted on staying on the inside line and braked late, not giving Verstappen on the outside line any chance to overtake.

Even Verstappen's most comfortable exit route was blocked by Qin Miao, which delayed Verstappen's exit rhythm.

The attack failed. There was still one lap plus a third timing period left before the end of the race, which meant that Verstappen only had one chance to attack Qin Miao.

The two crossed the finish line again and began the final lap competition.

This time, Verstappen deliberately did not get so close to Qin Miao before T5.

After all, when they just came out of the T7 corner, there was only a 0.2 second time difference between Verstappen and Qin Miao. This time difference was not enough for Verstappen's RB19 to absorb the tail flow of W14 and increase his relative speed.

So this time Verstappen is ready to widen the time gap between himself and Qin Miao to 0.4 seconds, and use this 0.4 seconds to create more relative speed for RB19.

By the way, while widening the time gap between himself and Qin Miao, Verstappen can also recharge his battery. Although it is impossible to reach the 1% power level when he attacked Qin Miao for the first time, it is at least 95%.

This is also a power reserve that is sufficient to launch an effective and threatening attack on Qin Miao.

On the other side, Qin Miao had used up all his energy when defending Verstappen's first attack, and now Qin Miao's power reserves are only 1% of the original.

Although Qin Miao was charging his car throughout the third timing period, the battery level of the car was still insufficient compared to Verstappen.

But Qin Miao still defended normally, and he still had the chance to block Verstappen next time.

At the end of the first time period of the last lap.

This location has a monitoring point for the DRS area between T5 and T6.

While here, Qin Miao actually observed Verstappen's position.

Qin Miao also thought about letting Verstappen pass first in this position, and then using two sections of DRS in the DRS area behind to overtake.

After all, the W14's straight-line performance is indeed very reliable.

I don’t know whether Verstappen was prepared or had other ideas. At this time, Verstappen was 0.4 seconds behind Qin Miao.

If Qin Miao still wants to force his position to Verstappen, he will lose a lot of racing rhythm.

Qin Miao simply dismissed the idea in his mind and continued to race on the track normally.

This time, Verstappen attacked Qin Miao in the same way as last time, except that in the DRS zone between T5 and T6, Verstappen did not use ERS to accelerate.

Soon, the two cars passed T7 again and entered the final DRS area.

Verstappen turned on his ERS full-release mode before even exiting the corner.

Qin Miao also started accelerating as hard as he could before exiting the turn.

Just after passing the fake corner T8, Qin Miao found that the closeness between Verstappen and himself had returned to zero.

At this moment, Qin Miao realized that Verstappen posed a great threat to him in this lap.

Next, Verstappen continued to approach Qin Miao quickly, and because he had left enough distance in advance, the closeness between Verstappen and Qin Miao was so high that Qin Miao was caught off guard.

But Qin Miao is not without a solution.

He directly observed the position of Verstappen's car. Before Verstappen was about to make a breakthrough in his own inside lane, Qin Miao occupied the inside lane first.

Verstappen was not panicked. It could even be said that based on his understanding of Qin Miao over the past three years, Verstappen had already guessed that Qin Miao would do this.

So while Verstappen was shooting from the outside, he was also sticking to Qin Miao from the inside.

He wanted to squeeze Qin Miao's cornering angle, forcing Qin Miao to brake early at T9.

Qin Miao was also a little surprised when he saw Verstappen's actions, but at this time Qin Miao was still very calm and tried to get more angles to the outside before Verstappen got close to him.

The two cars were just running towards the braking point of T9 at a distance that would have made other drivers shudder in fear, right in the center of the track.

Verstappen was also very angry at this time, and he stared at Qin Miao's car to see when he would brake and slow down.

Qin Miao, on his part, was observing his braking points while adjusting the balance of his car.

In order to stop the car at position T9, Qin Miao adjusted the front wheel brake ratio to the maximum.

Although it sounds long, for an F320 car that can easily reach a top speed of over 1 kilometers per hour, this straight stretch is actually very short, taking less than 5 seconds.

Soon the two cars reached the extreme braking point.

Although he wanted to keep an eye on Qin Miao's car to see his movements, Verstappen also had to pay attention to the extreme braking point of his own car.

After waiting for his best braking point, in order to limit Qin Miao, Verstappen did not even change lanes to brake on the outside line, but still braked on the center line of the track.

But just as he stepped on the brakes and the car brought Verstappen more than 5.3G of G-force, his pupils suddenly dilated.

Because in his sight, Qin Miao in the inside line braked later than him.

From the aerial perspective, after RB19 slowed down, W14 rushed forward for a while before starting to slow down.

Then, thanks to this section, Qin Miao entered T9 earlier than Verstappen.

Plus, T9 is a long 180° U-turn.

After seizing the initiative, Qin Miao took the inside line of the track.

He stopped Verstappen again.

At this time, Verstappen was not angry, depressed, or even disappointed. He was full of doubts.

After being stopped by Qin Miao, Verstappen's team member TR well explained his inner emotions at the time: "Qin Miao...how did he brake the car?"

The people on the Red Bull side were also full of confusion. No matter how amazing Qin Miao's ability to protect the tire was, it was impossible for him to brake the car at this angle and position?

In fact, Qin Miao was almost unable to brake.

The reason why it braked was that Qin Miao stepped on the brakes of the car to the maximum at the first step, and in the process of releasing the brakes, every step Qin Miao took was just at the limit of the grip of his tires.

At the same time, Qin Miao was constantly adjusting the balance settings of his front and rear brakes.

At that moment, Qin Miao was multitasking and every step was just right. If there was a mistake, the car would either be out of control or the tires would be locked.

It can be said that Qin Miao was gambling at that moment. He was betting that he could use this skill of multitasking, which Qin Miao usually failed 10 times out of 9 times when he tried it.

As for what was said before the game about playing it safe and finishing in the top four, Qin Miao completely ignored it.

Qin Miao just wants to win at this moment!
As it turned out, Qin Miao made the right bet.

When he braked, all the steps were optimized.

"Qin Miao, he braked! We don't know how Qin Miao braked, but he did it. His title of defensive master was never given to him by others, but he earned it himself with his amazing and amazing defense time and time again!" After seeing the scene on the track, Brother Bing was so excited that he almost broke his voice.

After defending against Verstappen, the time gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen widened to 0.7 seconds again.

And this was already the last lap of the race, and Verstappen had basically lost all chances of winning the race.

The only thing Verstappen could look forward to at this time was Qin Miao, who made a mistake in the next third timing period and retired from the race due to hitting the wall.

But it is foolish to pin your hopes of victory on your opponent's mistakes at any time, and today was no exception.

In Qin Miao's field of vision in front, when he looked at the rearview mirror, he even felt that Verstappen behind him was a little crazy.

However, Qin Miao did not give Verstappen any chance during the final scoring period.

Although in this section Verstappen further narrowed the time gap between himself and Qin Miao to 0.2.

But as mentioned before, there is no overtaking point in this area.

Verstappen felt a deep sense of powerlessness and frustration at this moment.

It’s fine if I can’t win the world championship, but you won’t even give me the championship title?

Finally, under the gaze of the telephoto lens operated by the photographer in the distance of T1, a black Mercedes racing car drove out of the corner of T16. The red stripes at the position of the camera on the roof proved who was driving the car.

Under the gaze of the telephoto lens, as the checkered flag waves.

The black Mercedes No. 66 race car crossed the finish line at the Yas Bay Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi with the checkered flag waving.

Amid the fireworks bursting on both sides of the track, Qin Miao also completed his last race for the Mercedes-Benz F1 team.

He achieved his unique triple crown feat.

The Red Bull car behind the W14 became the best background for the W14. (End of this chapter)