How did I become an F1 driver?

Chapter 316 319: Killing (6K, debt repayment 22)

After passing T27, Qin Miao came to a position 0.9 seconds behind Hamilton after exiting the corner. When he passed the DRS detection point, he just got Hamilton's DRS.

But the price is relatively heavy. When the T24 was released, the battery power of Qin Miao's racing car was 91%. After passing T27, the battery power of Qin Miao's racing car was only 29%.

Running down two false turns and one turning back, Qin Miao directly burned 62% of his battery power, and the total distance was less than 1.3 kilometers.

At the same time, Qin Miao knew that once he used this mode, the battery life would be reduced by at least three hours.

Although three hours is not a long time, you must know that the overall service life of F1's power unit components is basically only about 200 hours.

Three hours is really a long time.

Converted, it is equivalent to a person who can live to be 70 years old directly shortening his life by one year.

However, Qin Miao was quite satisfied with the results.

After exiting the corner, Qin Miao also turned on DRS and started to get closer to Hamilton and Verstappen.

However, because Hamilton in front of Qin Miao also has Verstappen's DRS at this time, Qin Miao's approach rate to Hamilton is not very high at this time.

When Verstappen saw that Hamilton had DRS before T27, he knew that on the following straightaway, Hamilton would also get his own DRS and suck his own wake.

So after coming out of the corner on the straightaway, Verstappen kept running on the dirty side.

On the one hand, due to the tire rubber and dust on the ground, the speed of the car behind you is not that fast.

On the other hand, it is to stand on the inside lane in advance, so that if Hamilton wants to overtake after catching up with him, he can only take the outside route.

After passing the white line at the finish line, on lap 37, Hamilton also took advantage of the situation and took the lead on the outside.

Due to his position and speed, Qin Miao followed Hamilton after exiting the corner and slowly shortened the time gap between himself and Hamilton.

After Hamilton took the lead on the outside, Qin Miao also followed Hamilton's rhythm and came to the outside of the track.

Although both Hamilton and Verstappen can catch wakes from behind, after all, the track on Hamilton's side is much cleaner. If you choose this side, Qin Miao's ability to speed up is faster than that on Verstappen's side. Some.

After Hamilton took the lead, he used the speed advantage of his car to align with Verstappen at the braking point of T1.

At this time, Qin Miao was still 0.5 seconds behind the two drivers in front, and almost a car body away from Hamilton in front of Qin Miao.

This distance is very subtle and basically does not pose any threat to the positions of the two people in front.

But if the fight between the two is too fierce this time, and they even run off the track directly because of the fight, Qin Miao will have a chance this time.

Then Qin Miao saw Verstappen's signature late braking on the inside line.

When entering the corner, Verstappen's car entered the corner earlier than Hamilton's car directly because of late braking.

Naturally, Verstappen had the line rights.

Then Verstappen braked a little too late, braking his car so much that the rear wheel's grip was lost.

So Verstappen drifted while pushing Hamilton towards the outside of the track.

Qin Miao took a look: What a good opportunity! My brother has been following Hamilton for so long, and he has been waiting for this moment!

When Hamilton and Verstappen rushed out of the track and headed for the corner, Qin Miao happened to be taking a normal route.

After Hamilton was squeezed out by Verstappen, he was originally planning to return directly to the track and start running again.

After all, based on his experience in racing for so many years, Verstappen's cornering method will definitely be punished.

Even the FIA ​​race stewards have clearly tended to help Red Bull secretly and in some rules in the last few games, but this is stipulated in the FIA ​​rules, and they have to punish them even if they don't want to.

But after seeing Qin Miao behind him, Hamilton knew that if he returned to the track at this time, he would definitely be overtaken by Qin Miao behind him using his better cornering angle and speed.

So after a very brief thought, Hamilton gave up the idea of ​​returning to the track. Instead, he acted as if it was too late to turn and return to the track. In the end, he had no choice but to follow Verstappen's rhythm. Cutting inside the buffer zone and returning to the track.

Therefore, Hamilton's attack did not translate into a positional advantage.

The opportunity in front of Qin Miao also disappeared, because after all, he had no interference. It was impossible for him to cut the outside line of the corner like Hamilton Verstappen, and then cross the shoulder to return to the track.

The most direct consequence of cutting through T2 is that Qin Miao ran at least 50 meters more on the low-speed track than the two of them.

Even because of this, after Qin Miao came out of T2, he had already caught up with Hamilton in the DRS zone, but Hamilton opened the time gap again to 1.3 seconds.

"Damn it, they cut a corner!" Seeing this, Qin Miao was naturally dissatisfied and shouted in the TR of the team: "Isn't this punishable? Is there any justice?"

Hamilton also said: "Verstappen pushed me off the track! He was really crazy."

Verstappen remained silent.

[Although Verstappen is a ruthless track machine, ruthless track machine is just an adjective after all. Verstappen is also a human being, and he will also make major mistakes.

Right?

Besides, when entering the corner, Verstappen was in front of Hamilton, so he had the right to the line! 】

This can also be regarded as Red Bull's excuse when facing the FIA's questioning and Mercedes' anger.

Of course, that's what I said, but Red Bull is also a little uneasy. They can only try their best to fight for Verstappen and let the FIA ​​give Verstappen a lighter punishment for his overtaking.

But position aside, from a purely bystander perspective, Verstappen's defense was indeed a bit dirty this time.

Soon, after Hamilton's attack failed, he also came to the position 1.5 seconds behind Verstappen.

Now Mercedes is working on two fronts, allowing Hamilton to chase Verstappen while putting pressure on Red Bull from the FIA ​​side.

It is the same lap, that is, the long straight between T37 and T24 on lap 27.

The FIA ​​gave a penalty to Verstappen when he ran off the track at the T1 corner. The FIA ​​asked Verstappen to return his position to Hamilton.

However, this news was not communicated directly to Verstappen by the FIA ​​through the team TR, but by the FIA ​​to the Red Bull Racing Team, and then the Red Bull Racing Team communicated it to Verstappen through the team TR.

And during this process, there was a slight problem with the Red Bull Racing team's communication method.

What Verstappen's track engineer said to Verstappen was: " Strategically handing the position back to Hamilton."

This is nakedly telling Verstappen that it is okay to return the position. According to the rules, you should indeed return this position to Hamilton.

But when returning the position, be more careful and try to set some traps for Hamilton.

Verstappen knew what the team was thinking, so he deliberately started to slow down after passing T25, but did not give up the lane to Hamilton.

According to FIA rules, when returning your position, you need to give way to the vehicle behind you, just like a slow car gives way to a fast car.

But Verstappen didn't do that. He just drove normally on the lane and then slowed down his car.

Then Hamilton noticed that Verstappen's speed had dropped and instead of rushing to overtake Verstappen, he also started to slow down.

Because the turning position of T27 in front is the DRS monitoring point of the following straightaway.

Hamilton knew exactly what Verstappen was planning.

It is nothing more than wanting to return the position to Hamilton before the DRS monitoring point, but Hamilton wants to pass Verstappen after passing the DRS monitoring point.

The friction between the two just now made both of them a little excited, and they both subconsciously ignored the other person.

Just as they both slowed down, Qin Miao, who had exited T23, began to rely on the wake of Hamilton's car to gradually shorten the time gap between herself and Hamilton from 1.3 seconds to 1.1 seconds.

Then Qin Miao suddenly saw the two cars in front of him suddenly starting to slow down.

At this time, Qin Miao's position is actually very particular.

He was behind Hamilton on the left, and Verstappen was on the front right of Hamilton at this time.

Most of Hamilton's attention was on Verstappen, and although Verstappen was always staring at the rearview mirror, Hamilton's car was the only one in his rearview mirror.

Therefore, due to sudden changes before the DRS monitoring point, both of them briefly ignored the existence of Qin Miao behind them.

Although it only took Verstappen half a second to realize that there was Qin Miao watching behind Hamilton after he decelerated, his sudden deceleration was simply reaching out to hand his wallet to Qin Miao.

So Verstappen immediately started accelerating after realizing that Hamilton had not passed him.

Hamilton also realized in the next moment that there was Qin Miao behind him.

But Qin Miao ran too honestly in this race, which not only gave Hamilton but also Verstappen a sense of deja vu that Qin Miao was not as competitive as the two of them.

So much so that after the two of them fought so hard, they subconsciously ignored Qin Miao's existence. Then when they reacted, they discovered with some despair that because of that brake, Qin Miao directly overtook them both from the inside line of the two.

And drove all the way to the braking point of T27.

When Qin Miao came to the braking point of T27, Verstappen really regretted it.

Damn it, am I an idiot? ! Why did I forget this thing!

And Hamilton was extremely angry inside. Qin Miao was such a deadbeat! Why did you just ignore Qin Miao's existence? ! It shouldn’t be!

Ah ah ah ah ah……!

Qin Miao's overtaking this time can only be described as having accumulated a lot of experience but failed to do so.

Without the forbearance before the start of the game, and the behavior of frantically reducing his sense of presence from the beginning of the game to just now, Qin Miao would not have been able to wait for such a good opportunity.

Of course, it's also thanks to Hamilton and Verstappen.

They really gave Qin Miao a chance.

They are all good people, Qin Miao thought silently after leaving T27.

After seeing Qin Miao's actions, the atmosphere at Mercedes was a bit strange. More than half of the people were cheering for Qin Miao's overtaking, while the other half was eerily quiet.

At this time, Toto also smiled and applauded Qin Miao's successful sneak attack.

Although Toto also hopes that Hamilton will achieve his eighth championship with Mercedes-Benz, if Qin Miao wins the F1 driver championship in the first season of his career, Toto will not refuse.

After all, this shows that you have good vision.

The atmosphere is weirdly different from Mercedes.

The three commentators on Five Star Sports were originally explaining the fight between the two drivers, Verstappen and Hamilton, and when the FIA ​​would let Verstappen return his position to Hamilton.

After all, in their eyes, Verstappen's defense did violate the rules.

Now I suddenly saw Qin Miao overtaking Verstappen and Hamilton when they were taking over positions.

Suddenly, the three commentators on Five Star Sports felt like they were all enlightened.

It's like taking a hot bath in the snowy winter, or entering an air-conditioned room in the hottest summer with a freshly opened popsicle in your hand.

"Qin Miao! He passed! He caught the opportunity that he had been waiting for the whole race when Verstappen and Hamilton returned their positions! He passed the two drivers in front of him at once!" Brother Bing was all excited at this time. stood up.

"We were just saying that it would be very difficult for Qin Miao to overtake in this race. If he wants to get back to second place, he has to either wait for Verstappen's medium tires to start to fail, or he has to wait for the top two drivers to make mistakes on their own. ” Fei Ge said: “Looking at it now, Qin Miao’s thoughts are the same as ours, and he has done everything we considered for him before the game started.”

"I have to sigh with emotion. Qin Miao, a young man who is only 20 years old, can stabilize his mentality at this time and follow Hamilton for so long without any impatience. This is simply incredible. This overtaking will definitely be successful. It will become one of the most eye-catching overtaking highlights in the 21st season!" When Zhou Haoran said these words at this time, his words were full of excitement and excitement.

"Although we said before the game started that Qin Miao might win the championship in this game, but at that time we all felt that the possibility was not too high. After all, Qin Miao's opponent was He is Verstappen, a talented driver at the same level as Qin Miao, and the other one is Hamilton, the seven-time champion who is still active in the racing field." Brother Bing added: "But even in the face of such an opponent, Qin Miao can still Maintain your own rhythm steadily and launch the most critical attack at the most critical moment!"

"So now, we can finally look forward to Qin Miao's final results in a fair and honest way. I believe that given Qin Miao's defensive ability and the difficulty of overtaking on the Jeddah track, Qin Miao's game is very likely. Winning another race championship after Turkey!”

"Yes, and if Qin Miao wins the race championship in this race, then in the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix a week later, Qin Miao only needs to finish in the top three to win the 2021 driver championship. Got it!" It is not difficult to judge from Zhou Haoran's words that he has been helping Qin Miao calculate his points in the driver standings this season a long time ago.

And what kind of ranking you get, how many points you need to score in the next race to win the driver championship.

And this is indeed the case. If Qin Miao converts his position into the championship in this game, then Qin Miao's points lead over Hamilton in the standings will change from 6 points to 13 points.

Even if Hamilton wins the championship, Qin Miao only needs to finish third to defeat the seven-time champion and win the first driver's championship in his career.

In terms of the strength and achievements that Qin Miao has always shown.

As long as there are no accidents and Qin Miao can run the race normally on the track, Qin Miao will be guaranteed to finish in third place, and if he is lucky, he can get second or first place or something.

It is worth mentioning that among the evaluations of Qin Miao by the staff of many teams who collect and evaluate driver data from other teams, the most eye-catching thing is not Qin Miao's defensive ability, nor his starting and overtaking. Tire protection, or long-distance capability.

It's Qin Miao's stability on the field and his diligence. After all, no one in the entire paddock has spent more time in the team's factory simulator than Qin Miao this season.

Therefore, drivers like Qin Miao are what the R&D departments of all teams hope to meet, because their presence can really bring strong confidence to the staff of the R&D department.

After all, after developing a new component, you can immediately find a driver to help test it.

If you can get feedback as soon as possible, the research and development progress will naturally be faster.

Back to the topic.

It is precisely because of Qin Miao's characteristics that the winner of this race can be said to determine the driver's championship this season.

Therefore, it is understandable that the three commentators seemed a little too excited at this time.

Franky also praised Qin Miao hard after he seized the opportunity to overtake the two of them: "Well done, the overtaking is so beautiful."

Although Frankie's praise for Qin Miao seemed a little plain, on the team's side, Frankie almost stood on his chair and jumped and cheered.

He also knew how important the ranking was to Qin Miao at this time.

However, as a track engineer, French also knew that he was not an atmosphere team who only praised Qin Miao blindly, so he reminded Qin Miao: "Verstappen still has your DRS, try to keep his current position. "

French is right, Verstappen does have the DRS of Qin Miao Racing at this time.

After all, before Qin Miao crossed the line at the DRS monitoring point, Verstappen realized that he had ignored Qin Miao behind him and started to accelerate his car.

But still because of that deceleration, when Qin Miao and Hamilton Verstappen arrived on the starting straight together, the time gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen behind him was still quite large, a full 1.2 seconds.

In the next race, although Verstappen pursued Qin Miao with all his strength and released the ERS power as much as possible, the time gap between the two was still a bit too big. Even with the support of DRS and ERS, Verstappen There was no way to catch up with Qin Miao.

Before the braking point of T1, he could only catch up to 0.3 seconds behind Qin Miao.

Under this time gap, Qin Miao did not even take the inside route to defend Verstappen, but took the normal route into the corner after braking late.

At this time, Verstappen had no chance to attack Qin Miao, but he still tried to put pressure on Qin Miao on the inside. Although Verstappen also knew Qin Miao's terrifying defensive ability, this pressure did not affect Qin Miao at all. .

But as the saying goes, spanking a child on a rainy day is idle time.

It's just that Verstappen has overlooked one problem. Now he doesn't seem to be returning the position that originally belonged to Hamilton to Hamilton.

Qin Miao originally thought that after he surpassed Hamilton and Verstappen, the two would put aside their grudges, exchange positions and start chasing him.

However, Qin Miao obviously underestimated the hostility of Hamilton and Verstappen towards each other.

Because when Qin Miao came out of the corner at T38 on lap 23, he discovered that Hamilton had obtained Verstappen's DRS again.

The original car was paused due to Qin Miao's sudden appearance, so Verstappen still wanted to return the position that originally belonged to Hamilton to Hamilton in this lap.

After all, if he didn't return the position, Verstappen would have a 5-second penalty on his body.

But Red Bull's strategy when switching positions did not change because of Qin Miao's sudden disruption.

So we can see that it is the DRS monitoring point before T27. After Verstappen arrived here, he still did not give up the lane, but simply started to slow down.

It can be seen that Verstappen still wants to let Hamilton hit the DRS monitoring point before himself.

Although Qin Miao is right in front of them, and after doing this, Qin Miao will definitely run further.

But Verstappen did it anyway.

And Hamilton seemed to be on top. He didn't want to hit the DRS monitoring point first. If you slow down, I'll slow down too.

Then Qin Miao discovered with some confusion that he had reached the braking point of T27. When he turned his head and glanced at the rearview mirror to observe the specific positions of the two people behind him, he saw that they were still at T26 at this time. outside of the bend center.

Qin Miao's mind was full of questions at this time.

how? Aren't you two going to run away?

In fact, Verstappen's idea at this time is very simple.

Originally, he was currently at the bottom of the three championship contenders in points, and he was using medium tires in this race.

Verstappen is not Qin Miao. Although his tire protection ability is among the top among others, after being pushed by Hamilton for so long, Verstappen also knew that his tires were somewhat overused.

In this race, he was indeed sure to run all the way to the end with this set of medium tires, but he could not guarantee his speed in the later stages.

Coupled with Qin Miao's tire protection ability and his set of hard tires, Verstappen really couldn't have any desire to attack Qin Miao for a while.

Because he knew that even if he really had this idea, he would not be able to catch up with Qin Miao.

At least in the remaining 11 laps, Verstappen didn't think he could find a chance to catch up with Qin Miao.

(End of this chapter)