How did I become an F1 driver?

Chapter 217 215: Netherlands International

At this time, Qin Miao suddenly discovered a problem. He was rushing too fast, and the wear of the tires was indeed somewhat beyond expectation.

I believe the team has known this for a long time, but they did not tell Qin Miao.

Qin Miao can roughly guess the reason. After all, TR is shared.

So all Qin Miao could do at this time was to remain calm, but the speed of the car obviously began to decrease.

Behind the two, Perez defended Hamilton terribly.

Mercedes has two different sets of rear wings in this race, one is a high-downforce rear wing and the other is a low-pressure rear wing. Qin Miao and Hamilton chose both low-pressure rear wings, but raised the angle of attack of this rear wing.

But despite this, Hamilton still had a hard time following Perez, let alone finding a chance to overtake Perez.

After that, the game began to enter a peaceful state, but after Qin Miao got the bad news, he naturally had no chance to open the distance between him and Verstappen as he wished.

Even on the ninth lap of No. 30, the second lap after turning on DRS, Qin Miao was overtaken by Verstappen on the straight.

Qin Miao, who was overtaken, didn't even make any move to resist.

There's nothing I can do, the tires can't hold up anymore.

As soon as we reached lap No. 40, the rankings of the top few on the field changed.

The current ranking is as follows

1: Verstappen

2: Qin Miao

3: Perez
4: Hamilton

5: Vettel
Fortunately, Qin Miao's long-distance rhythm is good, and Perez also needs to deal with Hamilton's crazy attack behind him.

If Perez accelerates and catches up with Qin Miao at this time and starts attacking Qin Miao, then Perez's speed will inevitably slow down, and Hamilton will have an opportunity to take advantage of it.

If Hamilton really seizes the opportunity to overtake, then the gain will outweigh the loss.

So Perez didn't act rashly.

Surprisingly, the rhythm of the front camp stabilized, and there were no drastic changes in rankings for the next period of time.

Everyone is taking care of the miscarriage.

Four laps into No. 40, Ma Zeping once again achieved the achievement of being one second slower than his teammate in a race on this track.

No. 40 Six laps later, Qin Miao was already 2 seconds ahead of Verstappen.

Seeing that Qin Miao and Verstappen were no longer fighting, the director moved the camera away from these two and started to look at Perez and Hamilton.

Compared to the two drivers who were in peace with each other in front of them, there was always a smell of gunpowder among them, and Hamilton also used his head to intimidate Perez from time to time.

It's just that I haven't really done anything.

However, these two people had just come out of T19, and the director's screen suddenly changed to an aerial shot.

Opposite the entrance to the maintenance area, I saw a Red Bull that was running well, but suddenly hit the wall on the right side of the track, then turned and slid for dozens of meters before stopping on the track. .

When the three commentators saw this scene, they immediately exclaimed: "Huh?! Verstappen!"

"what's the situation?"

"Did it blow out?"

"Qin Miao! Be careful!"

Verstappen is a professional racing driver, and the Red Bull car has run stably for so many laps. It cannot be a mechanical failure or other reasons that would have caused Verstappen to hit the wall at this time. There is only one possibility.

That's a flat tire.

And this is indeed the case. From the first perspective of Qin Miao, the driver closest to Verstappen, Verstappen was still fine after coming out of T19.

But as he reached the exit of the pit area, the left rear wheel of Verstappen's car suddenly deflated.

Also because the grip and support of the left rear wheel disappeared, the balance of Verstappen's car was instantly destroyed.

Verstappen deserves to be one of the top drivers. When he discovered that the overall posture of the car was not right, he immediately chose to fight back to save the car. However, in a car with a speed of more than 300 kilometers per hour, no matter how hard you try, you will always be disappointed. In vain.

So Verstappen just kept the car in a relatively stable state for about a second. During this period, he saved the car almost three times. Then the car completely lost control and turned into a gyro, hitting the wall on the right side of the track. .

Then the whole car slid forward for dozens of meters and debris flew everywhere.

Qin Miao even saw the entire front wing of Verstappen's car flying out.

This is also the scene that the director brought out for the audience half a minute later. Regardless of Qin Miao's performance in this game, Qin Miao is definitely qualified as a battlefield reporter.

Although Qin Miao is not far away from Verstappen, only more than two seconds away.

But when he found that Verstappen's car started to swing, Qin Miao changed lanes to the dirty side of the track.

So when Verstappen crashed, only some very small debris and dust blew to Qin Miao, which naturally did not pose any threat to Qin Miao's car.

However, Verstappen's collision really shocked Qin Miao.

Also because of Verstappen's crash, a yellow flag quickly appeared on the track.

And it didn't take long for the yellow flag to turn into a safety car.

After the car stopped, Verstappen naturally started spitting out sweet things in TR immediately: "Tires! ****!*****!****,***!"

The director did not show Qin Miao and other drivers at this time, and the camera was directly focused on the P room of the Red Bull Racing Team and Verstappen.

After venting in TR, Verstappen angrily threw away the steering wheel in his hand, and then climbed out of the car.

After coming down, Verstappen seemed very frustrated, but he still walked to the car, picked up the steering wheel that he had just thrown away because of anger, and inserted it into the car.

Verstappen then looked around the two rear wheels of his car before confirming that his left rear wheel had a puncture.

Thinking that the championship he had so easily won was gone, Verstappen became furious and kicked the flat Pirelli tire hard with his right foot.Regardless of the nickname of [Golden Right Foot] or [Dutch International] after this kick, Verstappen also knew that it was unsafe on the track after venting his anger.

So after observing the situation on the track and confirming that there were no cars on the left and right, he jogged across the track and returned to the pit area.

After all, the place where he crashed was opposite the entrance to the pit area, so it was easy to go back without having to take a car like Stroll.

Speaking of Stroll, both of them also suffered a puncture of the left rear tire of their car, and both of them were on the straight in the third timing section.

It's just that Stroll's tires ran 31 laps, while Verstappen's tires ran 33 laps, and the location of the crash and the direction of the wall were different.

It can be seen that tire puncture is not an isolated case, so it can be ruled out that it is a problem with the car or the driver.

Pirelli has to bear the main responsibility for the retirement of the two drivers this time.

I believe that Pirelli tires cannot be sold in the Netherlands after Verstappen's kick.

Qin Miao followed the safety car for a lap before realizing that if Verstappen retired due to a puncture, his position would be first in the race.

And according to this posture, if nothing unexpected happens, the safety car should directly lead the entire race. In this way, he can naturally gain the second race championship of his career.

Of course, although Qin Miao is very confident that he will be the final winner of this game.

But just like no one expected that Verstappen would suddenly blow out a tire while leading, Qin Miao had no way of predicting whether any accident would happen during the few laps with the safety car behind the wheel.

So he did not open the champagne at halftime, but followed Melander honestly and waited for the safety car to take them to finish the race.

However, on lap 48, after running a lap under the safety car, the race steward felt that there were too many debris on the track to clean up, and two drivers had already retired from the race due to punctures, so the race was The officer converted the yellow flag into a red flag.

Qin Miao, who was still a little happy at this time, felt a thump in her heart. What a stupid race steward. Why didn't he just let the safety car finish the race?is you!
The reason why Qin Miao scolded the race stewards in his heart was mainly because sending the red flag at this time meant that there would be a static start later, which meant that the game was still not over and there was still a certain amount of suspense.

Although Qin Miao was the only one among all the drivers, there was still a set of soft tires that had only been run for three laps at this time.

Moreover, it is easy for Mercedes-Benz cars to heat up the tires. In addition, the track in Baku is long, and a warm-up lap is enough for Qin Miao to raise his tires to the appropriate temperature.

But who is willing to take risks when he can safely win the championship?
But no matter what, now that the red flag has come out, Qin Miao can only drive his car back to the pit area according to the wishes of the race stewards.

At this time, the rankings of the top five drivers in this race are as follows:
1: Qin Miao

2: Perez
3: Hamilton

4: Vettel
5: Gasly
After parking the car, Reyes and the others pulled the trailer with their equipment on their backs and ran to Qin Miao in a hurry.

They were actually quite tired from running all the way here, because the P room of Mercedes' team was at the entrance of the maintenance area, and the place where Qin Miao parked his car was at the exit of the maintenance area. They had to carry their equipment and run through the entire maintenance area before arriving at Qin Miao's place.

After they arrived, Qin Miao turned off the car and climbed out of his position.

There must be at least half an hour between a red flag and a red flag cancellation, so Qin Miao can get out of the car, move around, and drink some water.

After Qin Miao took off his helmet, Reyes came over and patted Qin Miao on the shoulder, and then started to do his own business.

After giving the helmet and other items to the crew engineer for storage, Qin Miao picked up a white hat with his number 66 printed on it and put it on his head.

Although Qin Miao usually doesn't pay attention to his hair at all, after a game, his hair was covered with sweat. It was somewhat unsightly to look like this in the camera, so Qin Miao still chose to wear a hat for himself.

After all, he is a public figure. Both Qiu Meng and Mercedes' press officer Alyssa have emphasized to Qin Miao: You must pay attention to your image outside. Now you not only represent yourself, but also represent Mercedes and you. Sponsor image.

Qin Miao didn't run around after getting off the car, and the sun wasn't very bright at this time, so Qin Miao unbuttoned his racing suit a little and sat on a small step to the right of his racing car.

After a while, Barber ran over in a hurry carrying a bag.

Most of the items in Barber's bag are Qin Miao's supplies.

"Why did it take so long?" According to his duties, Barber should have come to Qin Miao together with the Mercedes team staff, but I don't know why it took so long for Barber to appear in front of Qin Miao.

Barber explained helplessly: "I saw that the situation on the field was deadlocked, and the game was almost over. I happened to have a stomachache, so I was going to go to the toilet before the end of the game. I came back from the toilet just in time to watch. You go on stage to receive the award.”

At this point, Barber clapped his hands and said helplessly: "But who would have thought that my tire would blow out and hit the wall while Verstappen was on the toilet."

Qin Miao was not blaming Barber, but she was a little curious about why he came so late today when he was never late.

After nodding his head as if he understood, Qin Miao reached out to take the water handed over by Barber, took a sip and took out his mobile phone and earphones from Barber's bag.

Just as he was about to kill time and take a good rest, Qin Miao suddenly saw Franky coming.

So Qin Miao didn't rush to put on the headphones. After Frankie arrived in front of him, he asked, "Why are you here?"

Franky said: "Nothing, come here to see how you are doing. By the way, I want to tell you that you must not be nervous after the game restarts. Be sure to calm down."

Qin Miao didn't care too much. He was no longer a child, and he had never been impulsive on the field.

After getting down to business, Franky added: "The soft tires have to wait a little while. We didn't expect there would be a red flag in the race, so the thermal blanket has been removed in advance. We are heating it up at the team's side now. After the temperature comes up, It will be sent over.”

Qin Miao nodded. Anyway, the red flag was still very long. Just put on new tires before the start of the race.

"It doesn't matter, just don't break down. I don't want to experience Verstappen's feeling of losing control on the track."

"Do not worry."

After chatting with Qin Miao for a few words, Franky returned to his job.

As soon as Frankie left, Toto came over.

Toto first chatted with the old man at Hamilton's place, and then walked towards Qin Miao.

Looking at Toto walking towards this side, Barber beside Qin Miao suddenly said: "I feel that Toto may not do anything good when he comes to see you this time."

Although Barber had a temporary job at Mercedes and his salary was provided by the team, he knew that he was able to reach this position because of Qin Miao's needs, so most of the time, Barber kept his position in the right place.

However, Qin Miao did not say anything about this, but smiled and walked over to Totuo.

"Qin Miao, you did a great job in this game, far beyond our expectations."

Toto gave Qin Miao a hug as soon as he came up, and gave Qin Miao enough recognition and praise for his performance today.

"It's good that I didn't disappoint you." Qin Miao smiled and said modestly.

(End of this chapter)