How did I become an F1 driver?

Chapter 210 Chapter 208: Menglong

After skipping the topic, Kimi said: "Your performance in Monaco was really good, many of my old friends were full of praise for your performance that day.

But I think it’s more important than your overtaking during the race, the pressure on the driver in front, the tactics arranged by the team, and undercut.

It's not as exciting as that time when you overtook two cars in a row at the beginning. "

Qin Miao thought for a while, and it seemed that he had killed Ricciardo and O'Connell in the early stages of Monaco.

After thinking about the situation at that time, Qin Miao thought for a while and said: "To be honest, I was gambling at that start, and the two overtakings were very risky. If I were not careful, the game might be over."

"I'm a little scared when I think about it now." Qin Miao paused here, and then said with a smile: "Of course, if you give me a chance to start again in the 12th place in Monaco, I will still do it if I have the chance. Do."

After hearing Qin Miao's words, Kimi felt a little emotional. Yes, as a driver, who doesn't take risks, endure pressure, concentrate and go all out when starting?

For a moment, Kimi felt that Qin Miao, a young junior, was very suitable for her.

However, even though a brief conversation greatly increased Kimi's affection for Qin Miao, Kimi is Kimi. He will not act like other elders do when they meet a junior. After having a certain fondness for a junior, he will follow his own example for so many years. With his experience, he began to teach the younger generation tirelessly.

Instead, Kimi chatted about another topic.

"How does it feel to be teammates with Hamilton? Is there a lot of pressure?"

Qin Miao smiled when he heard this question. It was not the first time someone asked him this question. It was as if everyone would think that their situation within the team would not be good after seeing their teammate Hamilton, a seven-time champion. , or because his teammate is Hamilton, Qin Miao will be under great pressure.

But in fact, Qin Miao basically has no feeling about this. In Qin Miao's view, there is no saying that he or Hamilton is stronger or weaker. It is normal that he cannot outrun the seven-time champion, and the seven-time champion has lost to him once or twice. Teammate Qin Miao is also normal.

After all, no one can guarantee that they will not make mistakes in more than 20 games a season.

"Actually, it's okay. I didn't feel any pressure from Lewis."

"There are rumors in the paddock that your contract at Mercedes-Benz is for three years, right?" Kimi groped his chin: "With such a long contract, it's normal for you not to worry about your contract and position in the short term. .”

Qin Miao also didn't explain that her contract salary is floating, the upper limit is high and the lower limit is also very low.

At this moment, Barber hurriedly ran over carrying two black electric scooters with the Mercedes logo printed on them.

In fact, he could have just rode over, but it was not safe to ride with one hand and hold the skateboard with the other.

Qiu Meng, on the other hand, stayed at Mercedes' team home. The sun was always so unkind to girls. Qiu Meng would not go out to bask in the sun unless necessary.

But when Barber came to Qin Miao, he became numb, because Kimi's eyes lit up when he saw the transportation skateboard in his hand.

Before Barber walked in front of Qin Miao, Kimi turned to Qin Miao and said, "This skateboard is good, lend me to play."

Barbour:? ? ?
Then Kimi's assistant was also dumbfounded, because Qin Miao and Kimi stepped onto the track on their skateboards, while their assistants were all left where they were.

In fact, under normal conditions, when the drivers walk on the track, in addition to the driver's own assistant, there will also be the team's engineer. They are mainly responsible for recording track data in order to formulate tire usage for qualifying and the race. At the same time, these The data can also evaluate a driver's performance on the track.

But the good thing is that there is Hamilton above Qin Miao who has much more experience than Qin Miao, and not only are there no conflicts between the two Mercedes drivers, but they have a good relationship.

So Qin Miao's crew members can prostitute the more accurate and refined data of Hamilton's crew than their own records.

Of course, it was Qin Miao's team who paid for the staff gathering after each race.

This year's Baku track did not re-pave the asphalt, but used old asphalt. This track also has the same characteristics as Monaco. Due to the daily traffic flow, the asphalt is very flat overall, which consumes a lot of tires. No big deal, the tire choice given to the drivers by Pirelli in this race is also the softest tire among the three types of C5-C3.

Barring accidents and the safety car, Baku would normally have a one-stop pit stop strategy.

Qin Miao felt that based on his ability to protect the fetus, the most likely tactic to choose in the end was to stop the red and yellow.

After all, this is not the first time for Kimi to run this track. When the two of them are riding scooters on the track, Kimi will stop to check at some noteworthy places.

For example, last season he found a small bulge at the exit of T6 corner, so this time Kimi came to check this place specially.

Kimi didn't mean to teach Qin Miao any racing experience. He simply came to inspect the track himself. And just like Qin Miao didn't shy away from giving his racing data to Kimi, Kimi didn't shy away from letting Qin Miao know about it. Small details found on the Baku circuit.

Qin Miao is also willing to follow behind Kimi to see what details he found on the track and what is the difference from his own discoveries.

The two of them can also exchange experiences with each other during this process.

After finishing the track, Qin Miao took out his mobile phone and looked at the photos he took on the track. He found no unclear photos, and his mission of walking the track was completed.

To be honest, people will gradually become lazy if no one takes care of them.

When Qin Miao first entered F1 in the past, he carried a small notebook in his hand. Whenever he encountered a more difficult corner, he would write it down and record his passing and entering the corner. Some ideas, and record the height of the road shoulder and the roughness of the road shoulder surface, and estimate the ultimate grip of the racing tires after the tires are pressed up.

Everything was done in detail, even though Qin Miao had the support of the system at that time and already knew the track very well.

But now?Relying on the proficiency of the system, Qin Miao could just ride a scooter and take a quick glance at everything.

At most, when you find some difficult curves, you will stop the car and use your hands to touch the asphalt, road shoulders, and guard walls of the curve.

Just like when walking on the track this time, Qin Miao deliberately stopped at the stupid corner, and then asked Kimi to help him take a photo with the guard wall of the corner.

After confirming that there was nothing wrong with the photo, Qin Miao directly sent the photo to Leclerc with Kimi's somewhat speechless eyes.

We will not comment on Le Laosi’s subsequent verbal attacks on Qin Miao for the time being.

In short, this trip to the track was completely worthwhile for Qin Miao.

After leaving the track, Qin Miao discovered that Kimi was different from Norris.

Norris didn't return the things after borrowing them, and he didn't even say anything. Of course, it might be because Qin Miao didn't leave with Norris and he forgot about it.After Kimi and Qin Miao got off the track together, they personally handed the car to Barber and thanked him.

It can be seen that although Kimi is a bit casual and straightforward, there is nothing wrong with Kimi in terms of principles of life.

After finishing the track, he returned to the team house and took Qiu Meng with him. Qin Miao took his girl back to the hotel.

After returning to the hotel and resting for a while, Qin Miao went to attend Thursday's pre-match press conference.

At the meeting, Qin Miao happened to be interviewed on the same stage as Leclerc.

After Leclerc discovered Qin Miao backstage, he immediately locked Qin Miao's throat, and then scratched Qin Miao's waist fiercely.

In the end, Qin Miao could only helplessly humiliate and admit defeat.

However, Leclerc was serious during the pre-race meeting and did not cause any trouble on the stage.

After the pre-race meeting, most of the work for the Grand Prix Thursday was completed. After that, Qin Miao went to the team to have a look at his car.

Qin Miao's racing car was only delivered to Azerbaijan today and unpacked.

Because a new engine has been replaced, although this engine was tested at Brackley, no one knows whether the engine will be acclimatized, so after it is shipped to the local area, it must be restarted to ensure that the engine can operate normally. .

This is considered a routine test.

This step is done before almost every grand prix. Qin Miao just stopped by to take a look. After it was started, he was ready to go back to the hotel to rest.

It's so good that there was something wrong with today's test.

Qin Miao's crew technicians were sweating profusely. No matter how they inserted the starter lever into the car's clutch, the car's engine could not ignite successfully.

Reyes and other technicians from Qin Miao's crew became anxious after seeing this situation.

However, as an old racing team, Mercedes-Benz has always had emergency plans to deal with these emergencies, so according to the inspection manual, they quickly replaced the heated lubricating oil inside the racing engine, and then began to inspect the engine. parts.

They have to eliminate all problems with Qin Miao's racing engine before the start of tomorrow's Friday practice session. If the troubleshooting is not completed within the specified time, they will have to install Qin Miao's old engine.

Normally, the Mercedes team does not need to pay for the transportation of a new engine, and it is impossible to only bring an old engine for spare parts.

But no one expected that a new engine, or even a new engine with upgraded durability, would have such a problem.

After all, according to the calculations of the team's engineers, any part of Qin Miao's car in this grand prix may have problems and damage, but it is impossible to have problems with the engine.

Therefore, the logistics department took into account the constraints of the budget cap and in order to save freight, they only brought three sets of engines for both cars, one new engine and two old engines.

Normally, the two old engines are in normal use, and one new engine is used as a backup.

Qin Miao happened to have a problem just after installing the new engine in the car.

So an embarrassing thing happened. Qin Miao's new engine failed, but he did not have another new engine to replace it.

But things have already happened, and the team's staff naturally tried their best to deal with the problems caused by the engine. Although Qin Miao was not driven out of the P room by Franky and the others, the eyes they looked at Qin Miao were full of Qin Miao. Miao disliked being in the way, and Qin Miao also knew that it was best not to stay here and be an eyesore.

So just leave.

Toto had a social engagement today and was not in the team. Qin Miao talked to Ben Hodgkinson, the powertrain supervisor who was on duty at the team today, about his engine and made sure that they could give him a usable car on Friday. , Qin Miao left the paddock with peace of mind.

Back at the hotel, Qin Miao and Qiu Meng didn't go out at night.

They didn't come into contact with anything related to work. Qin Miao and Qiu Meng spent the whole night playing with the PS5 they brought from home.

The next day, Friday, the time when the first and second practice starts is also the time when the Azerbaijan Grand Prix officially starts.

The first thing I do when I get up from bed in the morning is to check the weather. Fortunately, the weather today is very good. There is no sign of rain. The sun is very bright and the local temperature is also very comfortable, 1 degrees. Let’s go like this. Go on, the track temperature will be at least 26 degrees when the practice session starts. For Qin Miao and other racers, today's weather should not be too good.

After getting up and washing up, Qin Miao performed a simple warm-up training in the hotel gym. After that, Qin Miao took Barber to the track.

Passing the turnstile, due to local policy, no spectators entered the paddock today.

But because it is a street race, there are still many people in the buildings on both sides of the track who have brought tables and stools to their balconies, eating melon seeds, drinking wine, and watching the race for free.

However, because the side of the paddock was very empty, Qin Miao didn't see any audience when he entered the paddock.

As soon as Qin Miao passed through the turnstile of the paddock, she saw three hosts warming up before the game at the entrance.

And they happened to be talking about Qin Miao's game in Monaco, so Qin Miao was stopped by a commentator when he was passing by, and he started asking Qin Miao some questions about Qin Miao's game in Monaco.

When Qin Miao came out from among them, Kimi wearing Arrow short-sleeved uniform came in from the door.

He also held a half-eaten piece of ice cream in his hand, and a small wooden stick could be seen.

After seeing each other, Qin Miao smiled and said hello to Kimi: "Good morning, Kimi."

"Morning." Kimi responded to Qin Miao with a smile, and then brought his physical trainer to Qin Miao: "I have read the data and deleted it."

Listening to Kimi's somewhat confused words, Qin Miao didn't say anything on this matter, but asked curiously: "What are you eating?"

"Ice cream." Kimi flashed the Menglong in her hand.

Qin Miao was very surprised. Because of his systematic reasons, there was no possibility of getting a bad stomach, but Kimi was lucky. He started showing off ice cream early in the morning, and he was not afraid of having a stomachache during practice games.

(End of this chapter)