How did I become an F1 driver?

Of course, Qin Miao was hit twice from behind by Leclerc in the end.

At this moment, Leclerc really felt like a high school student who posted a status late at night: [My life is like walking on thin ice. Do you think I can make it to the other side? ], and then returned to school the next day and was furious after being bullied by his bad friends and classmates.

After that, Leclerc opened a bottle of water for Qin Miao and sat on the sofa to talk about business: "How does SF24 feel?"

Qin Miao held a bottle of mineral water, rubbed his back that was hit by Leclerc, and asked, "You've never driven before?"

“I have driven it before.” Leclerc spread his hands. “But I am different from you. I was just testing it, so I was afraid that something might go wrong with the car. Unlike you, you pushed the SF24 as hard as you could on its maiden voyage. I didn’t even dare to test the limits of this car.”

Qin Miao recalled: "The car is good, and it is definitely capable of winning the championship on a track like Monaco, but I didn't test the car's limits in high-speed corners and high-speed driving at the time. In addition, I even felt a dolphin jump on the car, so the specific details will have to wait until the winter test to actually drive the car to know."

After hearing what Qin Miao said, Leclerc seemed to be thinking about something: "I see... I have done a few training sessions on the simulator, but I don't know if they will be useful. Anyway, you are in charge of the morning and afternoon of the first day of the winter test, so why don't you help me run a training session that I am most proud of?"

Qin Miao did not refuse. After all, although he was very talented in racing car tuning, it was easy for him to find a tuning that he was particularly comfortable with.

But that is based on the support of data, so that Qin Miao can find the most comfortable tuning for himself. Now at the beginning of the season, whether it is Qin Miao, Leclerc or the team, they all have a vague understanding of the SF24 they launched this season. Although everyone is full of hope for this car, no one knows what the specific speed of this car is.

Therefore, it is still necessary to collect a large amount of data during the three days of winter testing to verify them one by one.

"Okay, send me a set when the time comes and I'll help you take a look."

The winter test lasted three days in total, during which the two drivers evenly distributed the testing time.

Qin Miao was in charge of the morning and afternoon of the first day, Lao Si was in charge of the morning and afternoon of the second day, and on the third day, Qin Miao was in charge of the morning and Lao Si was in charge of the afternoon.

What stands out is an average.

I chatted with Lao Si for a while, and then watched two episodes of this year's Need for Survival Season 6 together.

Although this documentary was announced to be released on February 2, it was officially released on the second day of the winter test.

But for drivers like Qin Miao, if they want to watch it, they can do so in early February.

They both watched this documentary relatively late.

After commenting on the content of the documentary and scolding Netflix for arbitrarily changing and misinterpreting the drivers' original intentions and the situation on the track, Qin Miao returned to his RV camp with satisfaction.

In the remaining days, Qin Miao spent more time doing rehabilitation training in the gym and on the simulator.

After all, Qin Miao had been doing basic training for the entire winter. He just needed to maintain his basic driving feel and keep his physical fitness from declining. There was no need for additional training.

With Qin Miao's physical talent, he only needs to do a period of recovery training before officially starting training to restore his body to its peak condition.

I have to say, it’s good to be young.

Time flies, and soon it is time for pre-season testing, also known as winter testing.

Qin Miao put on Ferrari's clothes before going out today.

One advantage of holding winter tests in the Middle East is that the temperature will remain at a very comfortable level and there is no need to wear long sleeves.

When Qin Miao entered the paddock alone, the photographers who had been waiting in the paddock for a long time pointed their cameras at Qin Miao who was wearing the Ferrari team uniform.

This was the first time that Qin Miao appeared in a semi-open paddock wearing a Ferrari team uniform.

Therefore, many people have long coveted this scene.

There is no need to say much about Qin Miao's appearance, the word "handsome" is enough to describe it.

Qin Miao ignored the photographer beside the track and walked straight to the Ferrari team home.

Started a day's work.

Because Qin Miao has all the testing time today, he is the only driver in the Ferrari team house at this time.

After the morning meeting and completing today’s testing on the track, everyone dispersed and started their day’s work.

Qin Miao also went upstairs and put on his Ferrari racing suit again.

After changing his clothes, Qin Miao went to the team's P room.

After greeting his colleagues, Qin Miao looked at the clock in the P room of the fleet.

With 10 minutes left before the winter test started, Qin Miao came to his seat, sat down and began to wait.

What Qin Miao didn't expect was that Leclerc, who had no work today, also came.

Looking at the fourth brother in casual clothes, Qin Miao asked in surprise: "Why are you here?"

Leclerc leaned on the toolbox next to Qin Miao's seat and said, "Nothing much, I'm just curious about how the Triple Crown conducts winter testing, so I came here to learn from them."

"You are so arrogant even though you are not justified." Qin Miao said unhappily.

Leclerc shrugged: "There's no rule that says I can't come. What? You can share with Hamilton but not with me? Are you afraid that I will crush you if I succeed?"

Qin Miao sneered and said, "I tell you, provocation doesn't work on me."

"So you mean you won't show it to me?"

Qin Miao shook his head: "What I mean is that you wouldn't be able to learn it even if I showed it to you."

Leclerc: ...

Time always flies quickly when there are friends chatting around, and when the winter test started, Fabio and the others had already prepared Qin Miao's car.

Qin Miao left a message to Leclerc: "Watch carefully and learn well." Then he put on his helmet and strode to the top of the racing car with the number 66 printed on the rear and a yellow stripe above the roll cage.

Qin Miao reached out and touched the No. 66 logo. Just as he was about to enter the car, Leclerc's voice suddenly came from beside Qin Miao: "After you won the world championship, you could have chosen the driver's number 1. Why didn't you choose it?"

Qin Miao explained, "That's not necessary. You know, we Chinese people believe in moderation. And I like the number 66. In certain groups in our country, 66 means awesome."

Of course, that's what he said, but in fact Qin Miao is just lazy.

Because if you want to change the driver's number after winning the world championship, you need to submit an application to the FIA, but Qin Miao was too lazy to submit the application.

And what Qin Miao said was not nonsense. Part of the reason was indeed that Qin Miao liked the number 66 very much.

After a brief chat with Leclerc, Qin Miao climbed into the cockpit of his racing car.

After all the inspections were completed, it was already ten minutes later. Ferrari was the first to remove the fence at the entrance of the team's P room. Qin Miao's No. 66 Ferrari was the first car to hit the track in the 2024 winter test.

What follows is some very repetitive work for Qin Miao.

While testing the durability of the tires, the operating conditions of each component and various monitoring values ​​were checked. Qin Miao did not push it to the limit, because as Qin Miao said on the day of shooting, the car would do dolphin jumps.

Fortunately, after modifying the car's tuning, the dolphin jump will only occur after the speed reaches 319 kilometers per hour.

Apart from this, Qin Miao did not find any other problems in a short period of time.

However, when Qin Miao was conducting winter testing, he did not spend most of his time on the car, but waited in the team's P room for the team to modify and replace the aerodynamic kit.

Because the car's tuning needs to be modified several times, and Ferrari has also prepared several aerodynamic kits, the team also has to test them one by one.

After the morning test is over, take a one-hour break and continue in the afternoon.

In this busy environment, the day passes quickly.

After finally finishing his work, Qin Miao couldn't help but let out a sigh of relief.

Looking at Leclerc, who had spent a day with him in the team's P room, he smiled and asked, "How is your study going?"

Leclerc smacked his lips and cursed: "Bad luck."

Leclerc simply couldn't learn the way Qin Miao used to train him.

Other drivers have to try five or six times to find a tuning method that they are comfortable with.

It took at least four or five attempts to find a setting that was barely working. If you really want to find a perfect setting, more attempts are needed.

But Qin Miao is different. It only takes him three tests to find a set of settings that he feels comfortable using under the current racing conditions.

The first time you test the benchmark, the second time you adjust, the third time you confirm.

Moreover, Qin Miao had no basis at all for finding these conditions. Just as Qin Miao himself said, it was entirely based on his feelings.

All I can say is, it's talent.

I can't learn anything.

The next day, Qin Miao did not go to the paddock like Leclerc.

After running for a day, Qin Miao had a basic understanding of SF24. For the rest of the time, Qin Miao's main job was to familiarize himself with the characteristics of this car on the simulator.

Qin Miao didn't even attend the winter test on the third day.

Leclerc also had activities in the morning, so Sainz was in charge of the winter test in the morning.

It is worth mentioning that Sainz seemed to want to prove something. On the morning of the winter test, the lap time he set on the track was not only faster than Qin Miao and Leclerc, but also the fastest lap time in the entire field.

This is probably because Sainz knew that he needed to increase his exposure as much as possible during this period, so he did this.

Many Iron Buddha Temples expressed their concerns about this.

Of course, they were not worried that Sainz would take Qin Miao's place, but whether the lack of one morning of testing time in the winter test would affect Qin Miao's familiarity with the SF24.

But Qin Miao didn't care at all.

Two days later, it was February 2th.

The first race of 2024, the Bahrain Grand Prix is ​​about to begin.

During the press conference, Qin Miao appeared in the public eye for the first time with Leclerc wearing Ferrari's new team uniform.

Of course, at this time, ordinary car fans still don’t pay much attention to Qin Miao. Although fans are also looking forward to Qin Miao joining Ferrari, what they are looking forward to is whether Qin Miao can continue his performance in Mercedes-Benz after driving a Ferrari.

After the press conference, the next day we had practice one or two.

If the teams were still somewhat reserved during the winter test, now is the time to see the real truth.

After all, today is the first Grand Prix that Qin Miao has participated in since joining Ferrari. Therefore, there are a lot of Ferrari fans present today. Even though there is no sprint race on Friday, the tickets for today's Grand Prix weekend are almost sold out.

When Qin Miao entered the venue wearing the Ferrari team uniform, the Iron Buddha Temple surrounding the track kept cheering for Qin Miao and shouting Qin Miao's name frantically.

After seeing this scene, Qin Miao just waved at them lightly, but Qin Miao couldn't help but start thinking in his heart, if he went to Monza this season, on that track full of iron temples, he couldn't imagine how crazy the fans there would be.

As for domestic competitions, to be honest, Qin Miao actually doesn’t know whether domestic fans will support him so enthusiastically.

After all, Qin Miao knew that Chinese people are more introverted than foreigners, so they would not do anything too outrageous in public.

But Qin Miao is still looking forward to playing in his home court.

After entering the Ferrari team home, Qin Miao had no time to think about this. He immediately plunged into his intense work.

In fact, there is not much difference between the work process of being a driver at Ferrari and when Qin Miao was a driver at Mercedes-Benz.

After the pre-match meeting, preparations were made before the practice match began, and soon one or two practices followed.

During the practice session, Ferrari's engine engineers did not release the full power of the engine. During the first practice session, they were more focused on verifying the team's chosen tuning and the integrity of the car.

Moreover, the first practice session was held during the day, and the track wind direction and track temperature at that time could not simulate the conditions of the race and qualifying session very well, so basically everyone used neutral tires for long-distance testing in the first practice session, and Ferrari was no exception.

Qin Miao drove his new car up there for about forty minutes.

Then the strategy team of the Ferrari team felt the joy of the Mercedes strategy team.

Because even though Pirelli has changed the tire compound this season, Qin Miao's ability to maintain his tires on the track is still as amazing as ever.

He consumed 20% less tyres than his teammate Leclerc.

This means that Leclerc's tires will start to fail after 10 laps, while Qin Miao can run 12 laps on the track.

After the first practice session, Qin Miao roughly determined the tuning settings for this Grand Prix weekend.

During the day of winter testing, Qin Miao had already obtained enough data for support. In addition, Leclerc was not stingy with his own data and took a pair of data. After practicing on the track for a while, Qin Miao already had a good idea of ​​it. He found the tuning settings that were comfortable for him to use, and naturally landed smoothly.

P.S. Dads, it's the end of the month, and now there are double monthly tickets, come and have some. (End of this chapter)