How did I become an F1 driver?

However, Qin Miao is a man with a systematic system after all. Even if he felt listless when he woke up the next day, after drinking the energy potion, Qin Miao would be full of energy again the next morning.

Still coming to the paddock, there were more people waiting at the entrance today than yesterday, but Qin Miao still interacted with the fans waiting at the scene just like yesterday before entering the paddock amid the fans' exhortations such as [You must win!] [Go for it!] [We will always support you!] [We will always be your backers].

The sprint race on Saturday morning is from 11:12 to : local time, and during this process, no modifications can be made to the car settings except the angle of the front wing.

So strictly speaking, at this moment, there is very little that Qin Miao can do.

However, before the race started, Qin Miao still ran for a long time on the simulator of the team's home.

Qin Miao waited until he received notification from the team before changing into his racing suit and going to the track.

After all, it is a sprint race, so the process before the race starts is much simpler than the main race.

When the camera turned, Qin Miao had already appeared next to his racing car, ready to get in.

Before entering the car, Qin Miao discovered that some spectators in the stands opposite the Ferrari team's P room had started to hold up banners.

[Come back my Ferrari, my proudest belief]

[2024, the year of the invincibility of Wofa]

【Let's go on Friday, no no no on Saturday】

To be honest, if it was an old Ferrari, there would be no big problem with fans pulling banners like this.

The key point is that Ferrari is now in a leading position both in the driver's standings and in the team's standings. If it puts up a banner like this, it would be a complete reversal of the original intention.

After seeing that there were also skewers at the scene, Qin Miao was already satisfied.

Although Qin Miao is not a skeptic, he still likes to see skeptics. After all, it is really fun to watch them.

Therefore, Qin Miao entered his racing car with a relatively relaxed mood.

After debugging various equipment, Qin Miao gave a thumbs up to Fabio in front of the car to indicate that he did not find any problems with the car.

When there is a manned car and the first skill, Qin Miao has to check the car without looking at the data, relying entirely on his own feelings.

At the beginning, Ferrari also felt that Qin Miao’s inspection method was a bit unreliable, but everyone got used to it over time.

After seeing Qin Miao's thumbs up, Fabio, who was still a little nervous even though he had checked his car repeatedly before the race, breathed a sigh of relief and led most of the Ferrari team's track engineers to evacuate the track.

As the 20 drivers stopped at their positions, the safety car took position at the rear, the red flag waved, and five red lights gradually lit up.

As the five red lights went out, the 2024 Chinese Grand Prix sprint race officially began.

Qin Miao, who started from pole position, had an amazing reaction speed, and his entire car had surpassed Norris before reaching the braking point of T1.

Although Qin Miao started from the outside of the track, Qin Miao's position was the driving lane after all, and the track conditions were much better than Norris'.

In addition, Qin Miao's reaction speed at the start was faster than Norris's, so Qin Miao's start was smooth and he secured his leading position.

After successfully entering T1, Qin Miao began to focus his main attention on the drivers behind him.

After all, Qin Miao’s biggest enemy in today’s race is not Norris behind him, nor Hamilton behind Norris, but Verstappen who started in fifth place in today’s race.

After all, in the sprint race qualifying stage, Verstappen only got fifth. Such a less than ideal starting position was not Verstappen's own problem, but the sudden heavy rain. As all the drivers were not well prepared, it was difficult for Verstappen to achieve a particularly good result.

However, Qin Miao had a strong feeling at this time that Verstappen would catch up from behind in a short time.

So after a successful start, after thinking for a while, Qin Miao decided to trust his own speed. He did not slow down to provide DRS for Norris behind him. Qin Miao, who was using neutral tires, began to push forward with all his strength at all costs.

Qin Miao once ran at the pace of the qualifying round on the upper track. When the race came to the second lap, Qin Miao had already thrown Norris behind him out of his DRS zone.

On the second lap, when Qin Miao was driving his car to the T15 exit and about to enter the starting straight, he suddenly heard bursts of enthusiastic cheers from the audience.

Qin Miao was a little confused when he heard the cheers, because at this time Qin Miao was basically in a cruising state on the track. Logically speaking, no matter how much the fans at the scene liked him, there was no reason for them to give him such enthusiastic cheers in this relatively dull state.

But the fact is, the cheers from the fans at the scene were not really for Qin Miao.

Qin Miao can only be regarded as an introduction in this incident, because the real cheers from the fans at the scene were for Leclerc on the track.

The fourth driver started from 7th place in today's race. He encountered the same problems as Verstappen in the qualifying stage, that is, heavy rain, insufficient practice time and unfamiliarity with the new asphalt of the track.

But these are not the most important things. What is important is that at the start, Leclerc overtook Perez in front of him and moved up to sixth place, and in front of Leclerc was Verstappen.

Then on the second lap, after the race committee turned on DRS, Leclerc shook Verstappen when he was in T14, and then pushed Verstappen to the outside line at the braking point of T14 and inserted into the inside line of Verstappen. After exiting the corner, his attitude was very tough, and he squeezed Verstappen, who wanted to continue to maintain his position on the track on the outside line, onto the small piece of soil between T14 and T15.

At that time, Leclerc's outstanding feature was that he was fearless. Anyway, this was Qin Miao's home Grand Prix, and I had a position on the track, so I would force you out. If you don't accept it, you can hit me.

If a collision really happens, I believe Ferrari will be even happier.

Therefore, Verstappen, knowing that he was at a disadvantage in the driver's standings, chose to retreat. The two left tires of the RB20 car were pressed on the land of Shanghai, and the acceleration after exiting the corner was significantly affected. Therefore, Verstappen was completely overtaken by Leclerc before reaching T16.

Most of the fans at the scene also knew that the person who posed the greatest threat to Qin Miao in today's race was Verstappen, and at this time Verstappen was overtaken by Leclerc. This meant that if they came to the scene today, they would have a better chance of seeing the Chinese driver Qin Miao step onto the championship podium, even though it was only the sprint race champion.

Of course they needed to cheer. However, the Ferrari team did not tell Qin Miao, who was leading the race on the track, the news, although they knew that Qin Miao's mentality was very stable, even so stable that he did not look like a young man of his age.

However, through the in-car screen and remote data control, they also knew that Qin Miao was now treating the sprint race as a qualifying race. The driver in this state was basically concentrating on the current driving. Every turn basically challenged the limits of the car and its tires. Any slight interference or mistake would easily lead to a run off the track.

Therefore, Ferrari didn't dare to tell Qin Miao about this at this time, for fear that Qin Miao would lose control due to momentary excitement or some other reason.

Qin Miao on the track began to quickly widen the time gap with the car behind him. By the fourth lap, the time gap between Qin Miao and Hamilton behind him had been widened to 2.9 seconds.

And Qin Miao's momentum remains unabated, and the time gap between the two is still rapidly widening.

As for Norris, the old man kicked him to death as if he were a stray dog ​​on the roadside.

The seven-time champion still has strength.

Leclerc has also fulfilled the limits of what he had agreed with Qin Miao before the start of this season.

On the track, he really didn't care about his own racing results at all. He would rather be half a second slower than not to disrupt Verstappen's offensive rhythm.

However, the acceleration ability of RB20 after turning on DRS is still terrifying, even though Leclerc tried his best to defend on the track and even drained the last bit of power from his car.

But when the race came to the starting straight on the fourth lap, Verstappen, who had accumulated enough advantages and car power, finally overtook Leclerc on the starting straight and returned to fifth place.

However, the four laps in which Leclerc fought desperately to defend also caused huge losses to Verstappen. At least 2 seconds were lost to Leclerc.

At this time, the time gap between Verstappen and Alonso in front was widened to 3.4 seconds.

To be honest, when Verstappen started chasing Alonso, he couldn't help but envy Qin Miao.

After all, you are willing to let Leclerc, the talented driver trained by Ferrari, be your number two driver. The key is that Leclerc really works hard throughout the whole process.

Looking back at his teammate Perez, he was kicked to death by Leclerc like a dog at the start. So far this season, the help he provided to him as the No. 2 driver was really limited.

It really proves the saying that if you compare yourself to others, you will die; if you compare goods to others, you will throw them away.

Now that he was delayed by Leclerc, Verstappen didn't know whether he could catch up with Qin Miao in the later stages of the race.

Although Qin Miao had already opened up a 9-second gap with Hamilton by the 7th lap, Verstappen had also caught up with Hamilton at this time.

Normally, when it comes to a sprint race, everyone would want to compete in their best condition. After all, China is a semi-developed market and everyone is drooling over it.

But since Qin Miao came along, and his appearance in the sprint qualifying stage yesterday silenced everyone in the paddock, everyone realized that this is the absolute home court of Chinese drivers, so before the sprint stage began, most teams decided to focus on protecting their own cars during the sprint stage.

So except for Verstappen, everyone else ran relatively conservatively.

The same is true for old men.

So on the 10th lap, Verstappen overtook Hamilton, who had no intention of defending, and came in second place, and at this time Verstappen was 8 seconds behind Qin Miao.

On the 11th lap, everyone saw the time difference between the two drivers given by the director. Verstappen could catch up with Qin Miao by 0.7 seconds per lap on the track.

But there were only 8 laps left until the end of the race.

This means that if Verstappen maintains his current pursuit efficiency, unless Qin Miao's tires become excessively depleted during the race, Verstappen will not be able to catch up with Qin Miao in the next race.

Knowing this, when the fans at the scene saw the close rate between the two on the live broadcast screen, many of them even cheered in advance, as if Qin Miao had already secured victory in today's sprint race.

But the race was not over yet, mainly because Verstappen was still approaching Qin Miao quickly from behind, so many fans were still skeptical at this time.

What if Verstappen suddenly explodes, or he has some hidden speed that is useless, or what if Qin Miao’s tires start to become grainy?
However, it was later proved that they were indeed overthinking. Qin Miao was still the same Qin Miao, and his ability to protect the fetus was still unparalleled in the world.

When the race reached the 14th lap, the gap between Verstappen and Qin Miao began to gradually narrow. When the race reached the 17th lap, there was no gap between the two.

Only now did the fans who came to watch the race breathe a sigh of relief. Although they knew there was still one lap left before the end of the race, many fans began to celebrate in advance by opening champagne.

Wherever Qin Miao's car drives to, the fans in that stand will burst into loud cheers.

When Qin Miao reached the last lap, the cheers from the audience became louder and louder.

Finally, when we even reached the last timing period, the entire race began to become increasingly agitated.

Qin Miao braked at the outside line of T14, then entered the corner, and began to accelerate at full speed after exiting the corner. After arriving at T16, Qin Miao downshifted and braked lightly, and after passing T16 smoothly, he arrived at the starting straight area.

At this time, Qin Miao could already feel the eagerness of the audience in the main stand on his left.

Even in the corridor far away, many fans were excitedly waiting for this moment.

Qin Miao stepped on the accelerator and the car began to accelerate wildly. This time he did not celebrate with the team staff after crossing the finish line near the maintenance area on the track, but moved forward quickly along the fan stand area on the left.

Finally, Qin Miao crossed the finish line at high speed and completed his sprint race in P1 position.

"boom!"

The moment Qin Miao crossed the finish line, it was as if something extraordinary had been ignited. The fans who had been waiting for a long time seemed to have found a window to vent their emotions. The overwhelming cheers resounded throughout the entire race the moment Qin Miao crossed the finish line. (End of this chapter)