How did I become an F1 driver?

Chapter 681 Chapter 665: Opening Battle (6K plus more)

At the same time, Perez also exerted his strength. He just overtook Leclerc and caught up with Russell.

I believe that with the speed Perez is showing now, it is only a matter of time before he surpasses Russell on the track.

It was not until the 8th lap that Qin Miao finally gained an advantage in single lap speed over Verstappen.

As for the previous idea of ​​putting pressure on Verstappen from behind and forcing Verstappen to constantly take a defensive line, it is now obviously not working.

Qin Miao could only rely on the advantage of his tires to try to attack.

But before that, Verstappen had opened up too much distance. Qin Miao only caught up to 1.2 seconds behind Verstappen until Verstappen stopped for the pit, and did not even enter the DRS zone.

Pan Zi entered the pit to change tires on the 15th lap.

Qin Miao followed Pan Zi's pace and entered the pit to change tires.

In fact, Qin Miao could still stop in this race, but based on Ferrari's calculations of tire wear during Qin Miao's two practice sessions, if Qin Miao chose to stop, the condition of his tires would be very weak, and it would be impossible for him to compete with Verstappen for the championship.

Although Qin Miao's ability to protect the tire is still amazing, Pirelli also knows that when everyone else stops, the scene of Qin Miao stopping once will be somewhat unsightly.

Therefore, the durability of this season's tires has been weakened to a certain extent. Qin Miao happened to be stuck on a track where everyone had to make a second stop. He could barely make one stop, but it was very difficult, not to mention the speed problem in the later stages of the race.

Therefore, in this game, Ferrari chose to trust Qin Miao's pursuit speed in the later stages of the game.

Therefore, the pit stop strategy Ferrari chose for Qin Miao in this race was roughly the same as that of other drivers, all of which were two stops at the red, white and red lanes.

However, this might be the first time that Ferrari used such a good driver like Qin Miao and ignored Qin Miao's defensive ability.

But the pit stop strategy has already been formulated. After all, the information Qin Miao can collect on the track is limited. He is not a driver like Sainz who can think so much during the race.

So he did whatever the team arranged.

Therefore, after Qin Miao changed to hard tires and came out of the pit area, the pace of the race could not keep up with Verstappen at all.

Pan Zi maintained his own pace, and by the 35th lap he had already opened up a 3-second gap with Qin Miao.

Qin Miao felt a little uncomfortable looking at the time difference.

Because Qin Miao had been chasing Verstappen for almost 7 laps on the track, he had only barely shortened the time gap between himself and Verstappen to 3 seconds.

By the 40th lap, when all the drivers on the track had completed their second stops, Qin Miao knew that the championship of this race had nothing to do with him.

His new set of soft tires will still repeat the same mistakes as the previous two sets of soft tires on the track.

At best, he can only shorten the gap between himself and Verstappen on the track. As for trying to attack Verstappen, forget it.

So Qin Miao began to slow down his car to protect the engine of the car.

In fact, Qin Miao also thought about blocking Perez, who was 13 seconds behind him, to create an opportunity for Leclerc to enter the podium.

However, Leclerc's braking problems troubled him throughout the race. When Qin Miao made this proposal to the team, the time gap between Leclerc and Perez was 10 seconds.

With such a huge time gap, even if Qin Miao wanted to, he would be powerless.

Even if he had the ability to help Leclerc gain these 10 seconds, the remaining time was not enough. After Qin Miao suppressed Perez, Leclerc went to overtake Perez again.

So the proposal was rejected by the team.

The rest of the opening race was rather monotonous, with basically all the drivers just cruising around the track.

The only good news for each team at this time is that no driver retired unexpectedly due to a car accident in today's race.

The opening of the 2024 season will be in such a peaceful atmosphere.

That’s how they ended the opening game of the 2024 season.

Qin Miao, who crossed the finish line five seconds later than Verstappen, looked at the Red Bull car in front of him that slowed down significantly, and sighed helplessly in his helmet.

"I'm sorry, I can't catch up with Verstappen, he is too fast." Qin Miao apologized to the team staff in the team TR somewhat helplessly.

Although Qin Miao knew that Verstappen's fast performance in this race had nothing to do with him, it was purely because the Red Bull car was running fast. However, Qin Miao also knew that Ferrari had high hopes for him, and he did not give Ferrari a good start in the first race. Qin Miao felt somewhat guilty.

But in fact, Ferrari is very satisfied with Qin Miao's performance today. After all, no matter what, it is not difficult to see from the performance that Qin Miao was able to leave Leclerc behind by almost 20 seconds before the end of the race that Qin Miao was trying his best in this race.

Ferrari couldn't ask for more. In fact, for Ferrari, Qin Miao's performance was better than they expected.

Just as Ferrari predicted before the race, Qin Miao has a good chance of helping Ferrari win a race and get off to a good start in the 24th season.

But who would have thought that Red Bull's car could be so fast?

But in any case, Ferrari is satisfied with the performance of the two drivers on the track today.

There is no need to say much about Qin Miao. Looking back now, Ferrari also feels that the price it offered to Qin Miao was indeed worthy of the speed he showed on the track.

As for Leclerc...well, Leclerc actually has the strength. The third place in the qualifying round is the best proof. But unfortunately, Leclerc's car had problems on the track.

Of course, Ferrari drivers' cars having inexplicable problems on the track is also one of Ferrari's traditional performances. This fine tradition and reserved program must be experienced every season.

"It's okay, Qin Miao. Your performance in today's race has exceeded everyone's expectations. You've done very well. Now bring the car back. Remember to stick more tire rubber on the edge of the track when you come back."

"Got it." After responding, Qin Miao shook his head helplessly, turned on the power limiter of the car, and went to pick up tires on both sides of the track.

Of course, although Qin Miao did not win the championship in this race, the fans at the scene also knew that Qin Miao had done a good job in this race, so Qin Miao still received a lot of cheers and applause on the way back.

Qin Miao also smiled and waved to them.

But to be honest, Qin Miao was only disappointed for a short while.
After all, Qin Miao had never been able to complete the Pole to Win in the opening game of any of the four seasons of his professional career, and Qin Miao had long been accustomed to it.

So Qin Miao quickly adjusted his mentality.

After returning to the post-race inspection area, Qin Miao parked his car next to Verstappen's car.

After getting off the car, Pan Zi took the initiative to walk over.

Looking at Qin Miao wearing the Ferrari uniform, Pan Zi, who won the championship in today's race, was in a very good mood. He even made a joke: "To be honest, I'm not used to seeing you wearing the Ferrari uniform."

Qin Miao was wearing a helmet, so no one could see his facial expressions, so he shook hands with Verstappen expressionlessly. "At first, when I looked in the mirror, I felt that this outfit looked a little out of place on me, but I had to make some changes."

"That was a good race. By the way, why did you run so fast?"

Pan Zi smiled and said, "I don't know either. I was just running normally on the track."

It was a particularly Verstappen-style answer, very honest and truthful, but also very hurtful in some ways.

No matter how hard you try, you can't surpass their normal cruising speed.

Qin Miao didn't care much about it. He smiled, patted Pan Zi's arm and said, "Congratulations." Then he walked towards the crowd of Ferrari cars that had been waiting for a long time.

After coming in front of the crowd, Qin Miao first gave Wasser a simple hug.

After the hug, Vasseur put his arm around Qin Miao's shoulders and said, "Don't be discouraged, kid. The season has just begun and the team still has many upgrade plans that have not been put into practice. I promise you that after a while, the performance of the car will be greatly improved, and then you will have the opportunity to compete with Verstappen on the track."

"I know." Qin Miao nodded: "I also believe in the team's research and development capabilities."

"It's good to have confidence, and second place isn't an unacceptable ranking, right? Enjoy tonight."

After a brief chat with Vassell, Qin Miao walked down one by one to greet and celebrate with his colleagues in the team.

Finally it arrived in front of Qiu Meng.

After hugging his wife, Qiu Meng reached out and patted Qin Miao's helmet after letting go: "Thank you for your hard work. Today has been great!"

Qin Miao stretched out his finger and flicked the girl's forehead. Not paying attention to the ambiguity in her words, he asked curiously, "By the way, how did you take a picture of my helmet?"

Qiu Meng is actually not very tall, only 159cm tall. Under normal circumstances, she can only touch Qin Miao's forehead when she stands on tiptoe.

Even if Qin Miao was wearing racing shoes today, the soles of his feet were not insoles but a hard carbon fiber plate, and there was no height-increasing effect, but logically speaking, this girl should not be able to touch Qin Miao's forehead.

"I put height-increasing pads in my shoes!"

"Awesome! Did you guess that I wouldn't get a good result in this competition, so you specially wore a height-increasing pad to pat my helmet to comfort me?"

"Impossible! My husband is the best in the world!"

……

After the celebration, Qin Miao went to the post-race weigh-in, and when weighing in, Qin Miao came to the side of Leclerc, who looked very disappointed. Although the other drivers did not weigh in at Qin Miao's place after the race, their weigh-in place was in a room not far away, and they had to pass by the post-race interview area to weigh in.

Qin Miao saw Leclerc, and Leclerc naturally saw Qin Miao as well.

Qin Miao walked over and gave his friend a hug. Although he had already known the general reason for Leclerc's slow speed through the team TR, he still asked the person involved: "What's wrong with your car?"

Leclerc smiled bitterly and shook his head: "The braking ratio of the left and right front wheels of the car is inconsistent. The left front wheel is easy to lock up when braking, especially when it is a right turn. In order to reduce tire wear, I can only brake in advance to slow down."

After hearing Leclerc's explanation, Qin Miao didn't say anything, but just patted Leclerc's shoulder with some heartache.

This child is so unlucky.

"No more chatting, I'm going to weigh myself."

"it is good."

After a brief chat, Qin Miao tidied himself up and started today's post-match interview.

The first one to go up was Perez, and Qin Miao came after Perez's interview was over.

The person who interviewed Qin Miao was 15-time champion Rosberg: "How does it feel to get second place in the first race after joining Ferrari? Are you adapting to the working environment at Ferrari?"

Qin Miao smiled and replied: "It's not a question of adapting or not. After all, everyone knows that I am a driver who came out of Ferrari's youth training. I am actually very familiar with Ferrari's working environment. It feels like home here."

"As for this race, I can only say that the team and I have tried our best. We did not expect to finish second before the race, but I believe that the team's upgrades will make us more determined to catch up with Verstappen."

The next two questions are relatively routine and will not be elaborated on here.

After finishing the post-match interview, Qin Miao naturally went to the small dark room to wait for the post-match podium.

However, before going upstairs, Qin Miao heard the voice of Verstappen's interview.

"This game is easier than I thought..."

As Qin Miao went upstairs, he gradually could no longer hear the voice of the live interview with Verstappen.

However, the word "simple" that Verstappen said during the interview lingered in Qin Miao's mind for a long time.

After letting out a long sigh, Qin Miao's eyes gradually became firm.

I won't go into details about the podium session after the race, it's just the same process anyway. Qin Miao has been on the podium too many times in the past four years.

Even if it weren't for the consideration of the fans, Qin Miao might not have smiled when he stepped onto the podium after finishing second.

After the race, the drivers' scores and rankings are as follows:

P1: Verstappen +25
P2: Qin Miao +19 (fastest lap)
P3: Perez +15
P4: Leclerc +12
P5: Russell +10
P6: Hamilton +8
P7: Norris +6
P8: Piastri +4
P9: Alonso +2
P10: Stroll +1
After all, in the last stint of the race, Qin Miao used a brand new set of soft tires, and the other drivers no longer had new soft tires at this stage, so Qin Miao chased Verstappen particularly fast in the last stint. As a result, Qin Miao set the fastest lap in one of the laps, and no one could break Qin Miao's lap time since then.

What happens next is easier to understand. Except for the four drivers from Ferrari and Red Bull who are mixed together, the following rankings are basically two drivers from one team occupying the next two seats all the way down to Stroll, who is the last seat in the points zone.

After all, as mentioned before, in the middle and late stages of this race, basically all the drivers were cruising. Even if they were not cruising, the drivers fighting on the track were outside the points zone.

Therefore, after the first race of the 24th season, the ranking on the driver's standings will basically be the ranking of the long-distance performance of each team's current cars.

In addition to the two Ferrari drivers, the rankings of other drivers on the track also prove who is stronger and who is weaker in this team.

As for why Ferrari cannot prove it, although everyone knows that Qin Miao is almost dominant in long-distance speed on the track, isn't there something wrong with Leclerc's car?
What if there is no problem with Leclerc's car and his long-distance performance is no worse than Qin Miao's?

Therefore, many of Leclerc's fans still have some expectations in their hearts.

It can be said that in the opening battle of this race, the performances of the drivers in the front row were within everyone's expectations, and no unexpected situations occurred.

There has also been no sudden rise of any team like Aston Martin did last season.

However, this Grand Prix weekend also saw a number of unexpected faces appear in places no one expected.

And that face is Alpine.

Because this Grand Prix weekend, not only in qualifying, but also in the race, Alpine's performance was the same as their performance in qualifying, which was particularly poor.

The two drivers took one and two, but it was just the last one.

You should know that although Alpine's performance last season was not as good as top teams such as Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari, at least at the end of the 23rd season, Alpine was still ranked 6th in the team standings.

Therefore, no one expected that this season would plummet to the bottom right from the start.

After all, who would have thought that the famous Renault Alpine would one day be able to sit at the same table for dinner with Sauber, which is in a turbulent period?

As for the team standings, I will not release them here. Anyway, the driver's overall standings and team standings are the same as above.

The week after the Bahrain Grand Prix is ​​the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix, which is a back-to-back race in the Middle East.

Therefore, after the game, Qin Miao attended the routine post-match press conference but did not choose to go home, but went to Saudi Arabia.

However, what surprised Qiu Meng was that although Qin Miao still rejected most of the commercial activities of this Grand Prix weekend as before, after returning to the hotel, Qin Miao did not let himself go and become a lazy person after completing the standard daily training as usual.

From the end of the Bahrain Grand Prix until Thursday, the pre-race preparation day for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Qin Miao had not played any games in the hotel. Basically, when Qiu Meng saw Qin Miao, he was either running the simulator or looking at information.

Qiu Meng even suspected that Qin Miao had suddenly changed his personality due to some stimulation. Otherwise, with Qin Miao's lazy dog-like personality, it would be difficult for him to be so self-disciplined.

Although Qiu Meng knew that this was a good thing for Qin Miao's long-term development and for the Ferrari team, Qiu Meng was still a little worried about Qin Miao's health.

Because for F1 drivers, their daily training volume is basically limited.

The combination of work and rest is an iron rule that cannot be violated in today's sports science field. This is why both athletes and drivers need to enter hyperbaric oxygen chambers and refrigerators to relax their bodies after a lot of physical training in order to protect themselves.

Therefore, there is a natural need for mental rest and relaxation.

This is also the reason why Qin Miao has been playing games whenever he has free time for so many years, and the team has never said anything to him.

Of course, Qiu Meng's worries did not last long. After the Saudi Arabia Grand Prix, Qin Miao's condition returned to normal.

However, before the start of the Saudi Grand Prix, Qin Miao added a point to his system for the first time in a long time.

[Host name: Qin Miao
Age: 21
Overall rating: 94.9→96
Stamina: 98 → 97
Mentality: 94
Stability: 98
Ranked Ability: 96 → 97
Starting ability: 95→96
Long distance race: 98
Tire protection ability: 91→99
Rain battle ability: 82→84
Attack Ability: 96
Defensive Ability: 100 (+1)]

Except for the natural increase in Qin Miao's ability to maintain the fetus, the other 7 points were added by Qin Miao using skill points. As for the other improvements, they were all attribute points that naturally increased after Qin Miao ran competitions on the track during this period.

Qin Miao's original basic ability to preserve the fetus could only be considered excellent, because Qin Miao himself felt that his ability to preserve the fetus was a little too amazing, and to a certain extent, with the blessing of skills, his ability to preserve the fetus was already sufficient.

Qin Miao also knew that the first bird to stick its head out gets shot. What if he relied on his incredible ability to protect his tires to dominate the entire paddock? By that time, the FIA ​​rules would be changed to require everyone to make several stops per race. Although his advantage in protecting his tires would not disappear directly, it would definitely be greatly weakened, and he would not be as dominant as he is now.

So Qin Miao put a seal of neither big nor small on himself.

However, Qin Miao did not expect that Pirelli's tires this season were so not durable. In those races where other drivers had to make two stops, he would be very tired when he stopped once, and he could not overuse his tires.

It is easier to access the cliff point with a little more tire use.

So when Qin Miao saw what Pirelli was doing, he simply stopped pretending.

Add some dark blue!

……

Sorry, we went to the wrong set.

In short, just add some points to me!

As for Qin Miao's dedicated research during this period, it was not to cover up the improvement of his tire-protection ability. It was mainly because after driving a Ferrari on the track for the first time, Qin Miao also noticed the difference between the Ferrari and the Red Bull. Although the two cars have the same weight and similar horsepower, their chassis and design concepts are different, which leads to different characteristics and features of the two cars on the same track.

Qin Miao adapted to one or two differences after a little getting used to them, but the two cars had very different characteristics and features in different places, so Qin Miao needed to spend more time to familiarize himself with them.

For example, because the suspension of the Mercedes-Benz car is harder, the weight of the suspension is naturally higher than that of the Ferrari car. Therefore, in terms of the overall balance of the car, the Mercedes-Benz is relatively closer to the front and the Ferrari is closer to the rear.

This will also result in a slight difference in the slight deviation of the car on the track after Qin Miao drives onto the curb.

According to Qin Miao's previous habit of driving a Mercedes-Benz, if it is in cruising mode, Qin Miao can even drive while distracted, and in this state Qin Miao's speed will not be too slow.

Because he knows the car very well and knows what state the car will be in after passing that corner.

But if you let Qin Miao drive the Ferrari SF24 now, he wouldn't be able to do such an incredible operation as driving while being distracted.

(End of this chapter)