How did I become an F1 driver?

After spending a long time with Qin Miao, Leclerc was also influenced by Qin Miao in subtle ways. Now Leclerc naturally knew what Qin Miao meant by the word "black magic".

It's like being cursed by an evil character like an old witch.

Shaking his head, Leclerc explained: "It's not that serious, I just feel that I can't control my car well in Suzuka now."

"Didn't you find the right training?" Qin Miao asked.

Leclerc scratched his head: "I don't know, I referred to your tuning settings and tested it before the end of the third practice, but I didn't find the problems I encountered in the qualifying stage."

“Is it because the temperature dropped today? But the temperature difference in the afternoon at Suzuka Circuit is not that big…”

Qin Miao shrugged: "Let's go to the team's home to check the data after the game."

After Qin Miao finished speaking, Leclerc realized belatedly: "Hey, that's not right! Why the hell are you here? You didn't make the top three in qualifying?"

When saying this, there was even a hint of surprise in Leclerc's words.

After all, if Qin Miao didn't make it into the top three, then it would be reasonable for me to not run well in the qualifying round today. After all, you see, the three-time world champion didn't even make it into the top three. It's normal for me, the number two driver, to get eighth, right?
"Look, you don't care about me. After the qualifying race, won't you ask your track engineer about my ranking in the qualifying race?" Qin Miao pretended to be unhappy.

Leclerc scratched his face with a dry laugh, then said righteously: "Didn't you ask it either? Or you just asked me. So what's your rank?"

"Fourth." Qin Miao said helplessly: "Before this season started, I never thought that one day I would be stepped on by McLaren."

"Things change all the time, but to be honest, McLaren has made significant progress since it changed its internal management structure."

"Who says it's not..."

……

The two chatted as they went through the post-match process and went to be interviewed.

This was the first time in the 24th season that Qin Miao did not make it into the top three in the qualifying round, so when the reporter in charge of the post-match interview saw Qin Miao coming for the interview, he became visibly excited.

When Qin Miao stood in front of the camera, the reporter couldn't wait to ask: "Qin Miao, I'm surprised to see you here. Can you tell us if you encountered any difficulties today?"

Qin Miao sighed: "The team has not encountered any technical problems with the car so far. In the qualifying stage, it can even be said that everything went according to plan."

“As for today’s qualifying performance, I think neither the driver nor the team did anything wrong, because today’s performance is the same as what we got in the simulator. I can only say that the upgrades of Red Bull and McLaren in qualifying for this Grand Prix weekend were indeed very effective, beyond our expectations. It may also be that there was one less practice session, which gave us less time to collect data, and there were some problems that we did not discover.”

"Have you thought about how to adjust after the race? Suzuka is a track where you can stop once. Will you consider a longer stint to challenge Verstappen in tomorrow's race?" the reporter asked.

Qin Miao smiled bitterly: "You know, I will start the race in fourth place tomorrow. I don't know if I can get on the podium in the race tomorrow. As for the championship of the sub-race, to be honest, I don't have much confidence... I hope I can get on the podium after the race."

Although Qin Miao's answer was sincere, he did not mention a word about the team's tactics when the reporter asked about them, and simply evaded the question.

The reporter then asked: "Do you have any set goals for tomorrow's race?"

"I currently have a certain advantage in the driver's standings, so the team has very low expectations for me in today's race. Fourth place will be enough, but I personally still want to strive for a podium, and I also hope to contribute a wonderful race to the fans who came to the scene to support me." Qin Miao's answer was very formulaic.

The reporter who interviewed Qin Miao also knew that what Qin Miao said was almost like an order to expel him, so he didn't want to be interviewed anymore.

"Okay, thank you for the interview and I wish you good luck in tomorrow's game."

"Thank you." After nodding his thanks, Qin Miao left the post-match interview area.

After the interview, Qin Miao’s external work was all finished.

Although Qin Miao maintained a humble attitude during the post-match interview, he even set very low goals for himself.

But this was actually Qin Miao patching himself up. What if he didn't run well in the race on Sunday? Didn't he say that during the interview after the qualifying on Saturday? He didn't expect to get a very good result in this race.

The car's performance is not good either.

This is equivalent to passing on the blame early on.

But in fact, after the interview, Qin Miao returned to the team's home and started to study the in-car video of McLaren Norris with Leclerc.

As for why not watch the pole-sitter's in-car video...

This damn pervert's fastest qualifying lap was a full 0.3 seconds faster than Qin Miao's fastest qualifying lap. What's the point of watching his in-car video with such a big time gap?
And it goes without saying that Verstappen relied on the performance of his car this time and didn't learn anything!
In comparison, the results of the McLaren car are more relevant. After watching Norris' fastest lap, Qin Miao also felt that if he ran more extreme in the qualifying stage, he might be able to surpass Norris.

As for Leclerc, after studying Leclerc's in-car video, Qin Miao felt that Leclerc's familiarity with the track in this race was fine, and the thing he was not used to was probably the local climate.

The temperature at the Suzuka Circuit was only around 24 degrees Celsius at the beginning of spring, and it was raining, so the water on the track did not dry up quickly, which led to a low track temperature. Leclerc could not bring out the full performance of the SF on such an ultra-low temperature track.

This involves personal ability. After all, not everyone is Qin Miao, who can adapt to almost all track environments and perform stably.

The team has also considered letting Leclerc and Qin Miao continue to optimize Leclerc's tuning settings. At worst, he can start from the maintenance area in the race tomorrow.

In any case, at the end of the race, Leclerc's finishing position will definitely be higher than his starting position.

However, Leclerc rejected the team's proposal. Leclerc said that all he needed now was some time to adapt. After all, there was one less second practice session in this race. Leclerc was not very good at low-temperature tracks, and with one less practice session, he became a little slow to warm up.

But Leclerc believes that with the data he collected today and after importing it into the simulator and practicing for a few hours, he will definitely perform better in the race.

If it were in the past, Ferrari might still have the power to make decisions arbitrarily, and even if you drivers don't want to, you have to listen to Ferrari.

But now that Ferrari has Qin Miao, the team has given Qin Miao enormous power, while also damaging the team's own prestige in some invisible dimensions.

Plus, Vasseur is not a team leader who doesn’t listen to the drivers’ advice.

So after a while of chatting at the meeting, Ferrari finally decided to let Leclerc continue to use the current set of car tuning for the race. Time flies, and soon it is the second day, Sunday.

The starting order for today's race is as follows:
1: Verstappen

2: Perez
3: Norris
4: Qin Miao

5: Alonso
6: Piastri
7: Hamilton

8: Leclerc

9: Russell
10: Tsunoda

I won’t go into detail here about the preparations leading up to Sunday’s game.

The scene changed, and 20 F1 cars had already parked at their respective starting positions.

Qin Miao, who had already finished singing the national anthem before the race, walked to Leclerc's car, squatted down and gave Leclerc's car a BUFF.

After finishing all this, Qin Miao did not leave in a hurry. Instead, he came to Leclerc and said, "Do you know what I want to say?"

"I'm not a worm in your stomach, how would I know what you want to say?" Leclerc rolled his eyes unhappily, "Just say what you want to say, don't waste my time."

Qin Miao was not angry, but said: "The organizer of the Japanese station and the local Matthew have some problems with their brains. Maybe this is the characteristic of the Japanese."

"In short, keep in mind the cause of Bianchi's accident. And from the three years I have been in F1, basically every time the local organizers of the Japanese Grand Prix put out a yellow flag on the track, there will be some low-level problems, either the crane enters the track early or there is an accident on the track and the yellow flag does not come out for a long time."

Hearing what Qin Miao said, the expression on Leclerc's face became a little gloomy. After all, Bianchi is Leclerc's godfather, the guide who led him into F1.

The opponent lost his life due to the operational error of Suzuki official Matthew in the Japanese Grand Prix and the irregularities in the official rules of the FIA.

Although he may not show his disgust for Japan in front of the camera, he has always disliked this country in his heart.

This is also why during the Grand Prix weekends in other countries, Leclerc would more or less participate in some activities, but during the Japanese Grand Prix, Leclerc's marketing activities were very few, even on par with Qin Miao.

"Got it. I'll pay attention." Leclerc nodded.

Qin Miao continued to instruct, "When you encounter a yellow flag and it's raining, you must slow down sufficiently. I don't want my daughter to die in a car accident before she recognizes anyone."

Leclerc: ...

Leclerc looked at Qin Miao speechlessly. He felt heavy-hearted just now and now did not know whether to laugh or cry. He seriously suspected that Qin Miao was being sarcastic to him.

"Fuck off!"

But Qin Miao did not stop talking: "To be honest, I even feel that these Japanese are trying every means to kill some F1 drivers, keep their souls in Japan, and then use some strange cult methods to extract their talents and pass them on to the Japanese..."

Leclerc couldn't help but shudder when he heard Qin Miao's sinister voice: "Is it so evil?"

"A group of people who don't worship their ancestors during festivals but worship ghosts instead, can you expect them to think like normal people?" Qin Miao glanced at Leclerc. "Besides, the most common things in Japan are urban legends and ghost stories. Do you think they would be so widely circulated if there was no truth in them?"

"Don't... don't say anymore." Leclerc was made a little unconfident by Qin Miao.

Qin Miao laughed when he saw that the time was almost right: "Good luck in the competition. I'll be waiting for you on the podium."

After saying this, Qin Miao left.

Soon, all the drivers were ready and got into their cars.

The trackside staff evacuated the track and the warm-up lap began.

After the warm-up lap, all the drivers returned to their starting positions. Qin Miao also stopped in the fourth position, looking at the McLaren car in front of his left.

When he was telling a ghost story to Leclerc just now, the gloomy expression on his face disappeared, and what remained was only concentration. At the same time, Qin Miao also began to think silently.

At the start of the race, I used to face opponents like Verstappen, and it was indeed difficult to convert the starting advantage into a position advantage.

But things are different now. Now he is facing only a McLaren. Although he started from fourth place, his position is inside, so he only needs to insert into Norris's inside before T1 to have a chance to move up one place.

Although T1 of the Suzuka Circuit is a high-speed right turn, strictly speaking, it is not a good overtaking point, but Qin Miao still has absolute confidence in his overtaking skills.

This time, I have a great chance to move up a place.

Soon, five red lights lit up one by one.

"Okay, five red lights on... go off! Race on!"

"Let's take a look at Qin Miao's start in today's game..."

Brother Bing explained excitedly: "Qin Miao's starting rhythm is as good as ever. He is already side by side with Norris in the interior! Does Qin Miao have a chance?"

On the track, Qin Miao did as Bing Ge said. After an excellent start, he was already wheel-to-wheel with Norris on the inside and outside of the track before T1.

It was also the first time that Norris experienced Qin Miao, the three-time world champion, starting from behind him, and at the starting stage he felt the strong sense of oppression emanating from the three-time world champion.

Although Qin Miao's pressure didn't make Norris feel suffocated, after the start, he inexplicably found that Qin Miao's red Ferrari SF24 was wheel-to-wheel with his own on the inside lane, and Norris still had an inexplicable sense of horror.

There was even a moment when Norris was no longer thinking about how to defend Qin Miao, but why Qin Miao was here? How did he do it?
I was sweating profusely. (End of this chapter)