How did I become an F1 driver?

Chapter 222 Chapter 220: (6K, plus more updates (819)

As for whether it is easy to drive?The training window is very narrow?
There is a Verstappen in his team, and Verstappen is top-notch in terms of adaptability to racing.

Also because of Panzi, when Red Bull designs the car, it only needs to slightly develop the characteristics of the car in accordance with Verstappen's driving habits. After that, it doesn't have to worry about anything else. It only needs to focus on the performance of the car and other aspects of control. Panzi can solve the problem himself.

With such a driver, all Red Bull needs to do is put all its energy into research and development and try its best to catch up with Mercedes-Benz.

Then find an experienced driver for Verstappen who can keep up with him as the No. 2 driver.

Based on Red Bull's design philosophy for racing cars at this time, it is inevitable that the tuning window of their racing cars will be narrow.

It all depends on the driver's personal ability and the power of the car to compete with Hamilton on the field.

The best evidence is that when Perez first came to Red Bull, he rushed off the track every three days.

The other extreme is Mercedes. Under the design concept of small sidepods, the aerodynamic layout and chassis structure of Mercedes-Benz racing cars, as well as suspension and brakes, were all developed to the extreme on the W11 last season.

Therefore, W11 at that time was called a veritable Mars rover.

But this year's W12 is a bit embarrassing. The bottom plate was cut off, which reduced the downforce of the entire car by 30%.

And because this design concept has been developed to the limit in W11, there is no more room for development in W12 now. All it can bring are some additions and subtractions in details, and there is not much upgrade overall. space.

But despite this, the problem of excessive resistance of the car on the high-speed track has to be solved, because judging from the momentum of Red Bull's pursuit, if the problem is not solved, Mercedes will be very difficult in the second half of the season.

So during this day, Qin Miao and Hamilton did nothing else but held a meeting with the team's engineers in the team's conference room.

Discuss the main upgrades to the car this season and how the car can be improved.

And not only on Friday, but also on Saturday, Sunday, and not until Tuesday of the game week, the matter was considered to have a result.

The final solution the team came up with over the past few days was to redesign the car's floor and rear wing.

At this time, someone will ask, the front nose clearly accounts for the largest proportion on the car, why not adjust the front nose instead of resetting the floor and rear wing?

This requires the introduction of the concept of pneumatics.

When a car is running on the track, a component will not only flow through normal air, but may also be affected by the airflow of other components.

The front nose is a place where airflow is distributed. After the airflow from this component blows through the front nose, it will go to other parts of the car, such as the air inlets of the sidepods, the floor, the air breakers, and the brake ventilation ducts.

Therefore, a racing car is a whole, and not all components are counted separately for aerodynamic effect, but the aerodynamic effect of all components constitutes the overall aerodynamic effect of a racing car.

How much airflow will pass through those places at what speed, and how much downforce can be provided to the car during this process? These are things that engineers gradually understand and design exquisitely through step-by-step exploration, as tight as the gears of the engine. ground together.

This is a whole, and once you cancel the design concept of the front nose and redesign it, the most direct consequence is that other parts of the entire car must also be changed.

Putting aside the trouble, the biggest headache for people in the design department is: even if you make changes, the effect after the change may not even be as good as the effect before the change.

So the first thing to go under the knife is the floor and tail, which have less to do with the overall aerodynamic effect.

Although the floor is not very eye-catching, the floor actually provides 12% of the overall resistance of the Mercedes W17, and the rear wing contributes about 20%.

If these two parts are redesigned, the tail speed of a car running on a high-speed track like Baku can be increased by at least 3 kilometers per hour without DRS, and the effect will be more obvious if DRS is turned on.

However, these have nothing to do with Qin Miao for the time being. As the time gets closer and closer to the start of the French Grand Prix, Qin Miao and Hamilton also devoted more time to simulator training.

In addition to practicing on the Paul Ricard circuit while working in the factory, Qin Miao also started running the Red Bull Ring in the next race during the rest of his training time at home.

This year, like last year, we still need to run two races at the Red Bull Ring.

However, the difference between this year and last year is that F2 will not continue to race at the Red Bull Ring.

Before Wednesday, Qin Miao also reached 1000 proficiency levels at the Paul Ricard Circuit and the Red Bull Ring through his unremitting efforts.

Got two purple draws.

The reason why he is so fast is mainly because Qin Miao often ran on the Red Bull Ring track in F2 and accumulated a lot of experience. After practicing for a while, he improved his proficiency.

After adding these two purple draws, Qin Miao's total number of purple draws came to eight.

At the same time, the system also issued a new task to Qin Miao on Wednesday.

[Mission: complete and complete]

[Requirement: During the entire competition day, the car will not have any collision or damage]

[Reward: Purple Lucky Draw*1]

[Task: Audience Favorite]

[Requirement: Become the most popular driver in the French Grand Prix and the main race]

[Reward: Random green skills]

[Mission: French Count]

[Requirement: Get on the podium]

【奖励：No.330W美元奖金，No.2紫色抽奖*2，No.1金色抽奖*1】

Qin Miao glanced at it.

To be honest, from Qin Miao's perspective, the most difficult task in this game was not the second or third task, but the first task.

Because several other tasks are controllable by Qin Miao, as long as Qin Miao performs well enough and has better luck on the day of the competition, at least the guaranteed bonus of 30 will go into Qin Miao's pocket.

But the first difference is that during the race, Qin Miao can ensure that his driving will not make mistakes, but Qin Miao cannot guarantee whether there will be gravel on the track, and then he accidentally hits the gravel, and there is no way to ensure that other drivers Whether he will hit himself or not, it's possible that even the team's engineers will be stupid.

This is a completely uncontrollable task. Whether it can be completed depends not on Qin Miao's skills and operations, but on the horoscope.

Even after having this task, normal people will start to worry about gains and losses throughout the Grand Prix, worrying that if they do not do a certain operation well, they will cause the car to be damaged, which will eventually lead to the failure of the task, and thus they will start to become timid and stagnant. .

Qin Miao also felt worried after seeing this mission.

However, Qin Miao quickly came to his senses after having this idea.

I have also been affected by the system mission. If I continue to fall into this idea, I may miss the opportunity in the final stage of the competition because of this hesitant thought. In the end, I may even withdraw from the competition or lose it. Very important and critical ranking.

So Qin Miao quickly calmed down and stopped thinking about this system task and its rewards.

Just treat this task as if it doesn't exist.

If you don't care, you won't think about it.

Qin Miao could still tell the difference between a purple lottery and the championship reward.

On Wednesday afternoon, Qin Miao went to France with the team.

After arriving in France, Qin Miao settled in a hotel that cooperates with Mercedes-Benz Racing Team.

The good thing about a big team is that there will be many sponsors for the team. Basically, all your food, clothing, housing and transportation are covered for you. Even in special times like this, you don’t have to worry about having a place to live.

What's more interesting is that after arriving in France, Qin Miao learned that the unlucky teams of Haas and Williams and their staff had not found a hotel to stay.

There was no work on Wednesday afternoon. After so many days of intense work, Qin Miao had no desire to work at this time, so she took a rest all afternoon on Wednesday afternoon.

And amidst the endless calls from Qin Miaoshui's friends, he remembered the account and password of his live broadcast room after a long absence.

But it was a pity that the crystal jack in Qin Miao's hotel room was broken, and the hotel service staff couldn't fix it because the two technicians responsible for this were infected.

Changing rooms is inconvenient.

Because the hotel room was specially prepared for Qin Miao.

The name tag at the door of the room, and even the bedding, pillows, bathrobes and other items in the room were all embroidered with Qin Miao's Chinese name in gold thread.

And just because one of the network ports was unavailable, Qin Miao was unable to speak because she had to change rooms with other people.

If it was before, it wouldn't matter, but now Qin Miao is considered a relatively influential public figure, so it is better to have fewer of these outrageous operations.

So in the afternoon, Qin Miao only used WIFI to conduct an indoor live broadcast for his water friends, and answered their questions.

That's how the day ended on Wednesday.

Thursday, track day.

The Paul Ricard Circuit is a very balanced track, with all low, medium and high-speed corners, as well as all long and short straights.

This track, like the Circuit de Catalunya, can also be used by teams for winter testing.

Even because the Paul Ricard Circuit can adjust the layout of the track, there are more items that can be tested, and it can even simulate some classic corners of other tracks.

It is a pity that this track suspended the F20 Grand Prix for a year due to the epidemic in 1, so this is Qin Miao's first time here.

Therefore, compared to Perez, Verstappen and Hamilton, Qin Miao has a certain inherent disadvantage on this track.

After all, among the four drivers of the two major teams, only Qin Miao has never run on this track.

Therefore, Qin Miao needs to focus more on preparations before the competition, walking on the track, studying the track, and daily practice.When Qin Miao was walking on the track today, he didn't meet any other drivers. Tsunoda was actually walking on the track when Qin Miao was walking on the track, but the two happened to stagger each other and did not meet on the track.

In the morning, after walking the track, Qin Miao attended the pre-race press conference.

In the afternoon, there were team activities, media interviews, and signing of some posters, clothes and hats.

As Qin Miao spent more and more time in the paddock, he became more and more proficient in these activities.

Friday, the day when the first and second training starts.

However, something happened during the first practice session that surprised everyone. Qin Miao found his sweet spot in training right after the first practice session.

This means that Qin Miao found his best racing settings just by practicing.

In fact, Qin Miao's operation is very common. In accordance with the team's charter, he first sets the tuning settings that Qin Miao often uses on the simulator to the car that is imported into reality.

After changing some settings of the simulator that would conflict with reality, Qin Miao put on a new set of soft tires under the arrangement of the team and ran a long-distance test with heavy fuel.

Then Qin Miao and the team discovered that Qin Miao's speed was abnormally fast.

After returning, Qin Miao was a little surprised. The driving experience of this car was so perfect, as if it was tailor-made according to his own driving habits.

It was amazing, but Reyes and the others were just a little surprised and happy when they found out.

Qin Miao could tell that their happiness was purely because they would be less happy at work in the past few days.

In the end of the first practice, Qin Miao also surprised everyone by finishing nearly one second faster than No. 2 Hamilton.

Qin Miao didn't know until he asked Hamilton during the break between the first practice and the second practice.

Although the situation that Qin Miao encountered was very special and a purely accidental incident, it is not that such a situation has never happened in the paddock. He just adjusted the car casually, and then found that the car became the most convenient thing for him to drive. Comfortable state.

This is just bad luck.

If it were placed in an F1 Team Manager game, it would be like you just entered the game, casually pulled up the driver's car settings during the first practice stage, and then you were stunned to find that the driver's compatibility with the car after finishing the race. 100%.

Of course, Hamilton's explanation was not in vain. After explaining, Hamilton directly took Qin Miao's tuning data and then used this data to change the tuning settings for his own car.

It is worth mentioning that Qin Miao did not participate in the second training period, but gave all the second training time to Mercedes' youth training driver De Vries.

Originally, after Qin Miao found the best tuning settings for his car, the follow-up work was very simple, which was to help the team's logistics department run data and test tires.

Any driver with some experience can do this kind of work, and the FIA ​​has certain rigid requirements in this regard, requiring teams to ensure that rookie drivers compete in at least two practice sessions in a season.

Isn't this just right?So let De Vries go.

De Vries's results in FE are also good, so he won't be able to completely destroy Qin Miao's car after just two practice sessions with Qin Miao's car.

And Qin Miao didn't have any other requirements for De Vries, just don't crash, just drive my car out intact and bring it back intact.

Fortunately, this practice session was also related to the possibility of De Vries entering F1 in the future, so he was not too arrogant. He just followed the team's instructions to test the car normally, and then brought Qin Miao's car back intact. .

And from Qin Miao's point of view, Mercedes' car is basically the best-handling among all F1 cars.

As long as you have some basic knowledge of F2 racing, it is not difficult to get started with this car.

Friday was spent in such tranquility.

Saturday is the start of practice and qualifying.

It is worth mentioning that the French Grand Prix also opened the entrance channel for spectators, allowing 30% of the spectators to enter.

So you can see that even in yesterday's second practice, the stands in some places were full.

Therefore, the team's VIP activities have also started again.

Among these activities is a track experience activity. Normally, this activity is for some professional drivers to take VIPs to the track to experience the feeling of speeding on the track.

In the past, Mercedes used a backup driver. Qin Miao also worked as a worker in F2 before the breakup with Ferrari. At that time, although Qin Miao was in control of Thunder in F2, he was still in the audience of F1 and F1. In his heart, Qin Miao is still a no body, a nobody.

But today is different. Today, the team specially held an event. Although the VIPs were told that it was Mercedes' youth training drivers who would take them to the track to experience this time, in fact, Qin Miao also participated in the track activities before the third practice. Arranged by the team to participate.

Of course, Qin Miao is a big daddy, not a worker. He can just select a few lucky VIPs and let them sit in Qin Miao's car and have fun. Qin Miao cannot let everyone pick up the guests.

To be honest, Qin Miao was willing to agree to the team's request to be a driver, mainly because Qin Miao thought it was quite interesting.

He was also very curious about how those people would react when they found out that the unknown driver who took him for a lap was actually F1's super star, the prince of the Mercedes-Benz team and his future successor Qin Miao.

And this is also a way for Qin Miao to increase his influence.

The car this time is an AMG GT of the same model as the safety car, with a black appearance.

Qin Miao wore a Mercedes short-sleeved shirt and got into the car with a black full-circle helmet commonly used by Mercedes team technicians when changing tires.

Qin Miao's entire face was covered in this outfit. Although it was not as comfortable as a half-helmet, the main feature was that it was difficult to recognize.

After checking his disguise one last time and making sure that Qiu Meng would not recognize him even if he appeared in front of him, Qin Miao turned to the Mercedes staff and gave a thumbs up gesture to indicate that he was ready to welcome guests. .

After receiving Qin Miao's signal, the staff began to let people in.

In fact, Qin Miao's car is not the only one on the track at this time, there are other cars waiting for guests. Think about it and you will know that although Mercedes-Benz VIP is expensive, a three-day ticket costs more than 1 yuan. Euros, but the most indispensable thing in this world and society is rich people.

It is the same at home and abroad.

So one car can't be busy no matter what.

After a while, a white European and American man who looked to be in his thirties and wearing a Mercedes uniform got into Qin Miao's car.

"Good morning." The other party started to fasten his seat belt as soon as he came in, and greeted Qin Miao politely.

In fact, Qin Miao's voice is not particularly distinctive, so most car fans only know Qin Miao's face and are not so sensitive to his voice.

However, I believe that if Qin Miao can continue to be active in the competition and his results get better and better, many fans who often watch the post-race interviews will be able to recognize Qin Miao through his voice.

So when facing the other party's greeting, Qin Miao also responded in French: "Bonjour (Hello)."

There is actually nothing wrong with Qin Miao's greeting. After all, it is during the French Grand Prix, but the outside environment is relatively dangerous. Most of the people who can come here must be French locals.

The man also responded with "Bonjour." But soon switched to English and asked curiously: "When will we start?"

Qin Miao raised his eyebrows, buddy, are you looking forward to it?

"Right now." After saying that, Qin Miao suddenly stepped on the accelerator, and a pressure exceeding 1.5G directly acted on the two of them.

Although the AMG GT is considered a sports car and has sufficient horsepower, this car is not a super sports car after all, and its speed is naturally not as fast as that of F1.

Accelerating to 3.6 kilometers per hour in 1.5 seconds is a lot when a foot of floor oil can generate [-] G force.

Moreover, this car is used to give VIPs experience, not to increase their intensity. If they want to find excitement, they can go ride a roller coaster, which is much more exciting than experiencing racing on the track.

"shit..."

The opponent was obviously a newbie and had never experienced the feeling of racing on the track. So after Qin Miao stepped on the accelerator, he cursed angrily and tightly grasped the handrail on the top of the car with his right hand.

Qin Miao smiled and didn't care so much. There was a vomiting bag next to him, and before getting in the car, the Mercedes-Benz staff gave numerous instructions. If you want to vomit, you can vomit anywhere, but you can't vomit in front of someone who is driving. The rider vomited.

On the one hand, if you spit on the driver's face and he can't see anything, if there is a car accident, both of them may die on the track.

On the other hand, you don’t know that the staff of Mercedes-Benz all know that the person driving the car is Qin Miao. If you really spit on him, Qin Miao may not say anything at the time, but it is estimated that Qin Miao will never do it again in this life. Dealing with the media department of Mercedes-Benz Racing Team.

And this person's performance was pretty good. At least after Qin Miao started with all his strength, the opponent didn't show any signs of being ready to vomit.

When Qin Miao is cornering, he is often so overwhelmed by the G force that he can't even speak, and all his strength is used to fight against the G force.

But I can still ask a few questions when running in a straight line.

"Are you pushing full force now?"

"Yes."

"Is it faster for you to drive the AMG GT or for Melander, the F1 safety car driver?"

Thinking of Melander driving the F1 safety car slowly and leisurely in front of him, Qin Miao sneered: "If I wanted to, he couldn't even see my taillights.

It's just a pity that he appears in front of me most of the time, so I can't surpass him. "

Qin Miao's first passenger obviously didn't believe what Qin Miao said and thought Qin Miao was bragging.

But even if he wanted to say something, he couldn't say it, because the car was cornering when he wanted to speak, and the huge lateral G force was oppressing him all the time, so he finally chose to shut up.

Two minutes later, the first lap was over. Qin Miao, still somewhat unsatisfied, parked the car again in the pit area where he got on.

The other party was obviously still in shock.

(End of this chapter)