How did I become an F1 driver?

Chapter 214 Chapter 212: over cut (6K, plus update 319)

Although this was not a suitable overtaking point, Qin Miao still used a late brake on the inside line before entering T15, and Gasly was stuck.

And Gasly also knew that he basically had no room for resistance when facing Qin Miao, so he didn't defend himself and just kept walking in his own lane.

"Qin Miao, just now I was worried that his starting operation was too aggressive and the car would be damaged, but now I see that Qin Miao's operation is bold and careful, and just like Monaco, he started and started going up continuously without finishing a lap. Got two places.”

Brother Bing applauded vigorously: "Beautiful! This overtaking is so beautiful!"

"Excellent Qin Miao, now you are in fourth place, and in front of you is Verstappen." French's voice sounded in Qin Miao's TR: "If you can, you can also try to surpass the opponent."

Qin Miao, who came out of T16 and entered the straightaway, didn't say anything, but silently adjusted the fuel-saving mode that he had just adjusted after passing Gasly to the rich mode, and left his skills behind Pan Zi's. On the head.

[Max Verstappen: Pressure: 0%]

Soon, the first lap was completed, and Qin Miao passed the monitoring point of the first lap.

At the same time, after the first lap, Russell directly chose to pit and change to hard tires.

At this time, he pitted and changed to hard tires. Williams' idea was probably to run the entire race on a set of hard tires.

For a track like Baku, which is not very demanding on tires, a set of hard tires can really finish the entire next race.

At the same time, Perez relied on slipstream and late braking on the inside line to overtake Sainz and move to sixth place on the final stretch of the straight.

At the end of the second lap, Hamilton showed his knife directly to Leclerc, who was ranked first. When he exited T16, Hamilton was 0.7 seconds behind Leclerc.

On other tracks, this 0.7 second gap can only be regarded as entering the DRS zone of the car in front. Even with DRS, there is no way to overtake the car in front.

But this is in Baku. 0.7 seconds on the next straight road of more than 2.2 kilometers is enough for Hamilton to take action against Leclerc in front, even without DRS.

Not to mention that in the previous two laps, Leclerc had used up all the power in his battery while trying to shake off the Mercedes behind him.

Obviously, using up all the power in the battery is not ideal.

Hamilton tapped Leclerc on the inside even before the DRS monitoring point.

At this time, Qin Miao was 1.6 seconds away from Verstappen in front of him, and the opponent's pressure level only increased by 1% every lap.

Qin Miao knew that if he wanted to get the championship reward, he couldn't skimp on the use of tires.

So Qin Miao pushed forward with all his strength from the third lap. Of course, in order to have enough overtaking opportunities in the next race, Qin Miao always kept his ERS power above 3%.

On the fourth lap, Perez passed Gasly, who was 3 seconds behind Qin Miao, and came to fifth place, 3.7 seconds behind Qin Miao.

DRS was also turned on this lap, but unfortunately Qin Miao was not in Verstappen's DRS zone, and even if Qin Miao was in a state of no tire protection, he could only catch up with Weiss in two laps. Tappan 0.3 seconds.

On the seventh lap, at this time, Qin Miao, who was unleashing all his strength, could barely catch up to the DRS zone one second behind Verstappen.

But for drivers, there has always been a very scary thing in the F1 arena. The name of this B thing is the DRS train.

This is the situation Qin Miao is currently facing. Hamilton is leading the front, Leclerc can eat Hamilton's wake and DRS, Verstappen can eat Leclerc's wake and DRS, and Qin Miao can eat it. To Verstappen's.

But because Qin Miao has the advantage, Verstappen in front also has it, so even if Qin Miao has the blessing of DRS on the straightaway, it will be very difficult to surpass Verstappen in front of him.

Now Qin Miao is trapped in this DRS train.

The only good news is that with the support of DRS, Qin Miao does not have to release it with all his strength. He can protect the tires a little and the fuel strategy can also be adjusted to a normal state.

However, at the end of the eighth lap, Leclerc focused most of his energy on defense because he had to defend Verstappen. When he came out of T16, he failed to keep up with Hamilton's rhythm, which resulted in his failure in the following long straight. With the support of DRS, he finally lost his second position.

At that time, Leclerc only symbolically blocked the inside line, but Red Bull with DRS support was too fast. From the director's perspective, Leclerc even seemed to take the initiative to give his position to Verstappen. Give way.

After Verstappen passed Leclerc, Qin Miao came behind Leclerc.

What was a pity from Qin Miao's point of view was that the two men did not make too fierce defensive moves when they completed the position exchange, so Qin Miao did not benefit from the fight between the two.

The gap between him and Leclerc in front was actually wider than the gap between him and Verstappen. Qin Miao was even slightly thrown out of the DRS zone for a while, and the gap came to 1.3 seconds.

But Qin Miao was not in a hurry, because after Leclerc and Verstappen exchanged positions, French said to Qin Miao in the TR: "According to calculations, our lap speed is 0.3 seconds faster than Leclerc's per lap. We expect you to catch up and pass each other within three laps.”

Qin Miao naturally knew this, so after answering "I received it", Qin Miao began to calm down and run at his own pace.

During this time, the three commentators also started chatting.

Brother Bing said with joy: "Red Bull is feeling uncomfortable now. Because of Qin Miao's presence, many of their tactics cannot be used."

Fei Ge nodded and added: "Yes, if Qin Miao is still in his original position, Perez and Verstappen will pose a threat to Hamilton at this time. This is what Marco wants to see most, and also Mark’s main purpose in recruiting Perez to Red Bull.

If Perez pits before Hamilton and Verstappen keeps putting pressure on Hamilton, Mercedes will have a headache.

But the situation is very different now. Qin Miao started in two positions. Many of Red Bull's tactics were blocked by Qin Miao. "

"With Qin Miao's defensive ability and speed, if Qin Miao pits early, he may even overturn Verstappen directly. Then he will defend Verstappen for several laps like Bahrain, and Red Bull will have a headache. ." Zhou Haoran said.

Fei Ge said: "I don't deny that Qin Miao's defensive ability is one of the best among all the drivers I have seen, but I feel that Qin Miao will not be able to defend Verstappen's offense so easily on this track. In the Baku race It's much easier to overtake in Dao than in Monaco and Bahrain."

Brother Bing has a different view: "I believe Qin Miao can surprise us. After all, Qin Miao's performance has always exceeded our expectations since he entered F1."

Zhou Haoran also nodded: "That makes sense. I also think Qin Miao can give Red Bull a headache for a while."

……

On the field, Qin Miao didn't know that several commentators had strong expectations for his performance on the field. He was just running at his own pace.

On the eighth lap, Qin Miao caught up to the DRS area behind Leclerc at T8.

When T15 came out of the corner on the eighth lap, Qin Miao caught up 0.8 seconds behind Leclerc.

Leclerc looked at his friend behind him and saw that the gap between the two was quickly closing, feeling a little complicated in his heart.

In short, the meaning is: I am afraid that my brother will have a hard time, and I am also afraid that my brother will drive a Land Rover.

When Qin Miao was still in F2, Leclerc initially took time to watch Qin Miao's races. After all, they were both drivers, and they still worked in the same paddock and were drivers in the same camp. Wanting to watch Qin Miao's races was a big deal. It was quite convenient for Leclerc, but as Qin Miao's performance in F2 gradually began to go against the sky, while Leclerc was happy for his friend, he also began to sense something fishy.

Leclerc always feels that Qin Miao may become his biggest enemy and even his biggest competitor in the future.

Given Qin Miao's dominant performance in F2, his position as the No. 1 driver may be unstable after he joins Ferrari.

After having this idea and speculation, Leclerc stopped paying attention to Qin Miao's performance in F2. After all, if you watch a shark killing people in a fish pond, it might be interesting in one or two games, but it won't matter as time goes by. Feel it.

But as luck would have it, no one expected that Qin Miao, who was trained by Ferrari's youth team, would not be able to play for Ferrari with him in the end. Instead, he was forced by Ferrari to switch jobs to Mercedes, where he also showed extremely terrifying talent. .

The complicated thoughts in his heart flashed by. Looking at the Mercedes No. 66 that was gradually approaching him, the fighting spirit in Leclerc's heart burned.

It's familiar, but you, a first grader with a good car, want to sit on my head, Claire, and shit?
Let your father teach you, this rebellious son, what the best defense is.

Then on the big straight on the eighth lap, Qin Miao used ERS, DRS, rich mode, and full power, and he was tied with Leclerc before the T1 braking point on the ninth lap.

Leclerc chose to brake late, but Qin Miao crossed the line and passed Leclerc directly after exiting the corner with an engine more powerful than Ferrari.

Leclerc: Your Mercedes car is great and you are awesome.

"Well done!" French's voice came from the TR at the right time: "Next is Verstappen, he is 1.9 seconds ahead of you."

"Copy that." Qin Miao also had some relaxed emotions in his tone, and began to figure out how to show off in front of Leclerc after the game.

Of course, this was just a passing thought of Qin Miao. He still focused his main attention on chasing Verstappen ahead.

On the tenth lap, the pit stop window opened and the drivers pitted one after another.

However, Qin Miao was still in good condition on the soft tire at the moment and was still faster than the medium tire, so he continued to stay outside.

Among them, Leclerc, who was behind Qin Miao, also chose to pit.

Qin Miao originally wanted to let Leclerc stay behind him for a while and let his DRS drag him for a while, so that he could block Perez behind him. Unexpectedly, Ferrari didn't think Qin Miao was good at all. Let Leclerc pit immediately.

Now Qin Miao needs to face the pressure brought by Perez, but Qin Miao doesn't panic.

Of course, Qin Miao still asked Perez about his tire wear and lap time during TR.The results obtained are naturally gratifying. As long as Qin Miao makes no mistakes, at Qin Miao's current speed, he will only be 0.08 seconds slower than Perez. Perez will not be able to catch up with Qin Miao in a short period of time. .

On lap No. 12, Hamilton pitted before Qin Miao and put on new hard tires.

At this time, the team asked Hamilton to pit and put on hard tires, hoping that he would run the entire race on this set of hard tires.

However, in order to avoid other cars entering the pit and avoid an unsafe release, the release officer allowed Hamilton to stop in his position for more than one second. When he came out, the lower right corner showed that Hamilton had taken 4.6 seconds to change tires this time.

This time is very critical for F1. This result means that if Qin Miao comes out of the pits on the next lap, he will be directly in front of Hamilton.

However, Qin Miao's pit stop window has not yet been reached at this time, and because Qin Miao's tire protection ability is so incredible, his lap time is even faster than Hamilton's at this time.

Moreover, the team is more inclined to put Qin Miao on medium tires.

Although the medium tire is only 0.4 seconds faster than the hard tire on this track per lap, and its durability is much worse than the hard tire. Generally speaking, the overall cost performance of the medium tire on the track is not as high as that of the hard tire. of.

But Qin Miao is too buggy. As long as he doesn't drive violently, the durability of his medium tires is the same as the durability of other players' hard tires.

So the team chose to leave Qin Miao outside.

In addition, other drivers also stopped to change tires.

After these drivers have pitted one after another, the rankings of the five drivers in the front group are as follows:
1: Verstappen

2: Qin Miao

3: Perez
4: Vettel
5: Hamilton

In fact, Red Bull started to have a headache after Hamilton pitted, whether to follow Mercedes' strategy or not.

But Qin Miao has been biting behind Verstappen, and they are also worried that Qin Miao has been protecting the tires. As soon as Verstappen came into the pit, Qin Miao relied on the fact that there was no car in front to create turbulence for himself and rushed forward. A few laps later, after coming out of the pits, he was directly in front of Verstappen.

But if he doesn't pit, Hamilton's hard tire speed will soon catch up with Verstappen's now greatly worn soft tire.

Although the gap between the two is still quite large now, Red Bull is also worried that things will change later, and at this time Verstappen's tires have also begun to degrade.

So after a simple and quick brainstorming, Red Bull chose to let Verstappen pit, while Perez quickly released his speed to put pressure on Qin Miao.

Red Bull has never heard of Tian Ji’s horse racing story, but Red Bull understands this truth.

Now that Verstappen is Red Bull's only driver who can compete with Hamilton, Red Bull should not consider Qin Miao at this time, but should focus its main attention on Hamilton.

After all, overtaking Hamilton is not much easier than overtaking Qin Miao.

As for Qin Miao, he left it to his second driver, Perez.

So on lap No. 12, Verstappen also chose to pit and put on white tires.

And the total time is 1.9 seconds.

He directly overturned Hamilton, and the time difference between the two even reached a terrifying three seconds.

The Mercedes tire changers were silent collectively.

But Franky didn't care about that much at this time: "Qin Miao, there is clean air in front of you now. Push with all your strength. My tires still have an advantage. Try your best to overcut Verstappen."

After Qin Miao heard this, he naturally began to use all his strength, and he didn't spare the use of tires.

Then the confused person became Perez.

Because after Verstappen came into the pits, Qin Miao suddenly started to increase his speed just as the team feared, and the distance between him and himself was 2 seconds before T0.1 even arrived.

The Mercedes-Benz Red Bull strategy team's scalp went numb after seeing Qin Miao's speed, and they began to frantically calculate how Qin Miao's speed at this time compared to Verstappen. How many laps would it take for Qin Miao to overcut Verstappen.

Damn it, you really are hiding something.

On lap No. 13, after Qin Miao crossed the line, Red Bull's strategy team came up with the final result. Qin Miao ran on a set of soft tires for 16 laps, which was 0.9 seconds faster than Verstappen per lap.

Three laps, as long as Qin Miao maintains this speed for three laps, Qin Miao will be able to complete the overcut of Verstappen.

Now all they can hope for is that Qin Miao's tires will degrade quickly, don't force them.

But to disappoint them, Qin Miao's tire wear had only reached 45% at this time, so no matter how intensively he used it for four laps, it wouldn't be a big problem.

However, the gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen was not that big on lap No. 14, because at this time Qin Miao's ERS battery was exhausted and he could only run by consuming a lot of fuel and tires.

It is worth mentioning that Red Bull saw that Perez could not catch up with Qin Miao and called him into the pits.

After all, the main consideration in keeping Perez outside is to let him put pressure on Qin Miao. However, judging from the current situation on the court, Perez simply cannot catch up with Qin Miao.

However, Red Bull seemed to be responding to Hamilton's mistake just now. This time Perez made a mistake when he pitted for a tire change, which took 4.3 seconds.

It's just that Perez is worthy of being a former tire protection guru. After running so many laps on the soft tires, he is still in good condition. The lap times he achieved in these few laps in the clean air are also good. When he came out, he happened to be stuck in front of Hamilton. 0.5 seconds.

Only Hamilton's injury was achieved. Due to a tire change error, both Red Bull drivers completed the undercut of the seven-time champion.

It is even foreseeable that Hamilton's teammate Qin Miao is very likely to surpass him after pitting.

On lap No. 16, Qin Miao, who had been pushing with all his strength, finally felt that the tires of his car were beginning to deteriorate a little, and his steering ability was a little too insufficient when cornering.

This rate of degradation was somewhat beyond Qin Miao's expectations, but if it can degrade after running so many laps, this set of tires can be considered to have reached the end of its life.

Fortunately, Qin Miao did not run the race according to the pace of qualifying. He left a certain margin when exiting the corner. Therefore, although T1 was a little too understeer when exiting the corner, Qin Miao found that he applied the brakes a little after exiting the corner. At that time, only the right rear wheel slightly rubbed against the guardrail and wiped off the billboard a little bit. Other than that, there was no other collision.

However, Qin Miao knew clearly that because there was no tire protection, his soft tires had reached the cliff point and their grip began to decline significantly.

So Qin Miao said in the TR: "The tires are running out, I want to pit."

Mercedes had been prepared for a long time. When Qin Miao said these words, the staff of the Mercedes team ran out from their positions and took out the medium tires that Qin Miao was about to put on.

And diagonally across from the Mercedes-Benz pit lane, Horner in the Red Bull Racing podium turned his head and glanced at the color of the tires Qin Miao was about to put on, and raised his eyebrows.

At this time, the gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen was 19.4 seconds, and the time it took for the Baku track to pass through the pit area was about 16.5 seconds, which means that Mercedes' tire changer had to change the tire time at this time. Only by suppressing it within 2 seconds can Qin Miao successfully overcut Verstappen.

At this time, someone will ask, isn't there still 0.9 seconds of spare time?
But you should know that there was at least one second of spare time between Qin Miao when he slowed down and stopped at the tire changing position, then changed the tire before accelerating out of the maintenance area.

The 16.5 seconds it takes to pass through the pit lane once is the time it takes to walk directly through the pit lane without stopping and then enter the track again.

Qin Miao didn't think about these data carefully on the track. Qin Miao, who had been pushing with all his strength, naturally didn't have any extra thoughts at this moment to think about these data that could not affect his lap speed.

But everyone in the P room of the Mercedes team knows the importance of this data.

While waiting for Qin Miao to enter the station, Reyes even gave a death order to the internal engineers responsible for changing tires, saying that the tire change must be completed within two seconds.

Qin Miao showed his strength and driving skills in the last section, and we can't pull our pants at this time.

Knowing the importance of this matter, other Mercedes-Benz staff members also cheered up and were eagerly waiting for Qin Miao's pit stop.

After another lap, Qin Miao, whose tires were already struggling, pitted at the end of lap No. 16.

When entering the entrance to the maintenance area, Qin Miao went to the limit.

The tire on the right is directly against the guardrail at the entrance to the pit area as if cutting a curve.

If a high-speed camera were set up in this place, it would be seen that Qin Miao's tire completely rubbed against the guard wall on the right side.

It may be a little outrageous to say it, but in the days before the start of the game, Qin Miao practiced a lot of pit stops in Bahrain.

And we all know that most tire changes are done when the tire wear is relatively high when pitting, so Qin Miao adjusted the tire data to very high wear when testing on the simulator.

Practicing for a long time also had its due effect at this time.

He braked hard before the white line, killing the two front wheels so much that white smoke came out. However, Qin Miao just kept his car at a speed of 80 kilometers per hour when his front wheels crossed the white line.

(End of this chapter)