How did I become an F1 driver?

Chapter 366 Chapter 360: The first yellow flag

Qin Miao finished fourth 0.09 seconds faster than Hamilton.

Surprisingly, McLaren, which had an ugly performance in the first two games, regained its form in the third game of this season, qualifying six or seven.

Haas, who could still be seen in Q3 in the first two games, is now back where they should be.

Leclerc swept away the decline in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and took pole position in the Australian Grand Prix.

Although the tracks of the Australian Grand Prix and the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix are both high-speed circuits, the Jeddah Circuit of the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix has more curves, while the Albert Park Circuit of the Australian Grand Prix has more straights and DRS area, so Ferrari can fully utilize the maximum performance of the engine that it has developed a season in advance.

Therefore, in qualifying, Leclerc is obviously faster than Red Bull.

When Qin Miao went to weigh in after the race, he looked at Leclerc and others who were being interviewed on the track through a glass wall. There was no joy in his eyes after defeating his teammates, and he only looked at the track with envy.

What he took for granted last season now seems a bit out of reach for him.

Shaking his head to clear away the messy thoughts in his mind, Qin Miao turned around and devoted himself to his work.

It is worth mentioning that at a time when nucleic acid production was still intensive in China, foreign countries were completely liberalized, and what stood out was freedom.

However, Qin Miao still pointed at the guys who looked like international students with a husky pointing expression.

At this moment, Qin Miao was relatively leisurely. She only had to sit in the car and greet the spectators in the auditoriums on both sides of the track.

And when Qin Miao drove past them, these people cheered louder than all the surrounding spectators.

In this race, not counting Hamilton, Qin Miao's single lap speed was only 0.4 seconds slower than the leading group in front on average.

Therefore, the auditorium at the Albert Park circuit was almost full, and Qin Miao also saw many fans wearing red hats and white Mercedes team uniforms.

This rear diffuser actually solves the problem of excessive downforce at the rear of the W13, which relieves a burden on the W13. Therefore, the speed increase is very obvious, because strictly speaking, the W13 of this season should actually be at this speed. right.

In the two races in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia, the average qualifying lap speed difference between Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull was about 0.6 seconds.

Therefore, what Qin Miao didn't know was that the upgrade of the rear diffuser was not long-lasting.

……

So Leclerc was riding in a four-seater classic car, with the camera sitting in the front seat and Leclerc and reporters sitting in the back.

But where did these photos of people holding up their own headshots laughing maniacally come from? ? ?

Qin Miao recalled for a moment that his expression management was always online, and he should have never laughed so wildly.

Although Qin Miao has been helping the team develop the car for the new season for a long time, Qin Miao still spends more of his working time running the simulator, and then uses the feedback from the simulator to tell the team the impact of the thing they designed on the car. What impact does the overall aerodynamic layout have, and how does Qin Miao feel about driving this car.

There was nothing to say all night, and the next day, it was the main game.

And this group of people also saw that Qin Miao was not angry, so they became more enthusiastic and shook Qin Miao's mugshot.

Unlike the pre-game parade of the previous two games, which was carried out on the trailer of a truck, Qin Miao completed the pre-game parade of this game in an antique car.

At least Qin Miao now has expectations in her heart.

Qin Miao was quite touched. At least at the lowest point, these people still didn't leave him.

This means that the next improvements to Mercedes-Benz racing cars will not have such an immediate effect like this rear diffuser.

One advantage of riding in this kind of car is that you don’t need to be interviewed during the pre-race parade, because this kind of antique car usually only has two seats, one for the driver and one for the driver. There is basically no space left for reporters to interview the driver. .

However, the pre-race parade cannot simply let the drivers run around the track, so the race will still arrange pre-race interviews. However, due to vehicle restrictions, it is impossible to interview everyone during the pre-race interview stage. , usually interviewing the pole position driver of this race.

After the small episode, the post-race parade ended, and Qin Miao returned to the team home.

After changing into his racing suit and solving his personal problems, Qin Miao returned to the P room of the team.

At this time, Reyes and the others were still conducting final inspections on the car.

Qin Miao was not in a hurry, moved a stool and sat next to Franky.

When Frankie saw Qin Miao coming, he also gave way to Qin Miao.

"The weather is good today, the track temperature is very suitable, and you can be a little more relaxed in terms of tire management. According to your wishes, the pit stop strategy formulated for you by the team is red and yellow, but the soft tires for this game are used It is C5, and the medium tire is C3. If you choose red and yellow to stop, according to the team’s simulation, your tires may struggle a little later in the race.”

Qin Miao nodded indifferently and said, "It doesn't matter. I believe in my ability to protect the fetus. I can handle it."

Seeing this, Frankie did not continue talking about this matter, but changed other topics: "I know that with the performance of the current team's cars, it will be a bit boring for you to run on the track, but if you are in front of The time gap of the leading group is kept within 17 seconds, and they will fall behind you after they leave the station. If you choose to stop at yellow and white, it is possible to try to defend them."

This was just a joke between friends. Although Qin Miao's fight with the car in front after falling behind Qin Miao could effectively increase the exposure of the Mercedes-Benz team's sponsors, this has nothing to do with the team itself. There is a conflict of interest. Franky just gave Qin Miao the idea after seeing Qin Miao cruising alone on the track in two games.

Qin Miao really thought about French's proposal for a moment, but Qin Miao finally shook his head and said: "Okay, but it's not necessary. Since my tires may be a little nervous in this game, there is a high probability that I will always It’s in a state of preservation.”

"Of course, I'm just making a suggestion..."

"Qin Miao! The car is ready, come here for inspection." Reyes' voice came over. Qin Miao reached out and patted Franky on the shoulder, then dragged his stool away.

……

After completing the final inspection of the car, Qin Miao went to the track with his car.

After the Five-Star Sports broadcast footage was shown on the track, Qin Miao was already sitting in the car adjusting his gloves and helmet.

Soon, the tire warm-up lap began.

"Haoran, we saw in this race that Qin Miao still started with soft tires, but we all know that the three tires in this race were given by jumpers, namely C5C3C2, so we know that the soft tires of C5 are In fact, they are not as durable as normal soft tires. How many laps can this set of C5 soft tires last in the race under normal conditions?" Naturally, Qin Miao was the main commentator of Five Star Sports commentating on this game. The topic unfolds today's work.

Zhou Haoran didn't even look at the data he recorded, and said directly: "Actually, the reason for using tire jumps in today's game is because the grip of C4 at the Albert Park track this season is almost exactly the same as that of C3, so the two The speed of this tire is the same, but the durability is much worse, so the competition finally chose to use the C5 as the soft tire choice for this game.”

After explaining something, Zhou Haoran returned to the topic: "Under normal circumstances, the C5 can only run a maximum of 13 laps, and the car must be light on fuel.

But if it is the starting stage, if the car is full of fuel, the number will be reduced, maybe only about 10 laps, so I am also curious about why Qin Miao chose to start with soft tires. "

"Is there a possibility that Qin Miao will adopt the two-stop tactic in the main race?" Fei Ge curiously put forward another hypothesis.

But he was quickly rejected by Brother Bing: "In fact, according to the current speed of the Mercedes-Benz team, this choice is completely unnecessary. Anyway, the Mercedes-Benz team cannot catch up with Ferrari and Red Bull in terms of long-distance speed. The whole game may be cruising, and there is no need to create unforeseen complications and increase risks for yourself when you can achieve results that can be achieved safely.

In short, no matter what, we still hope that Qin Miao and Mercedes-Benz can bring us some surprises in this game, and we also hope that the upgrades introduced by Mercedes-Benz this week can have the desired effect. "When Brother Bing said this, all the drivers had already completed the tire warm-up lap and parked their cars at their own positions, and Qin Miao was no exception.

On the track, Qin Miao looked at Hamilton's position.

Among all the cars in this race, only Qin Miao started using soft tires. Among the top ten drivers who started, except Qin Miao, all used medium tires.

Therefore, I shouldn't need to face Hamilton's attack in the initial stage. As for the three people in front...

Qin Miao set his sights on Perez.

Verstappen is directly in front of him, and it is not easy for Qin Miao to catch up with him more than two cars away. Therefore, Qin Miao has set a goal for himself in this game, which is to try to surpass Perez in front of him. And fight for a podium position.

Soon, the five red lights gradually turned on, and Qin Miao also started to add fuel and increase the engine speed.

When all five red lights came on and went out, Qin Miao suddenly released the clutch button on the steering wheel of his racing car, and the racing car started instantly.

After the start, Qin Miao was obviously faster than Hamilton, quickly widening the distance between him and Hamilton. Moreover, Perez did not start very well in this game, as if he felt the pressure brought by Qin Miao. .

By the time the four people in front arrived at T1, half of Qin Miao's car was already stuck on Perez's inner line.

In the T1 stage, Qin Miao braked normally and entered the corner. At the apex of the corner, Qin Miao and Perez had already started wheel-to-wheel.

After exiting the corner, Qin Miao naturally took advantage of the car's soft tires and started accelerating at least 5 meters earlier than Perez.

The low-speed acceleration of the Mercedes engine is faster than that of the Honda engine. Even if the Mercedes racing car has certain flaws in the aerodynamic design of the floor, in such low-speed corners, the ground effect floor cannot be used.

Therefore, Qin Miao came in front of Perez after exiting the corner, raising his ranking to third.

"Beautiful! Qin Miao! The start was very beautiful, and he was very tough after entering T1! He directly surpassed Perez and came to third!" At this time, the commentators also forgot that Qin Miao was still using soft tires. See After reaching Qin Miao's position, he subconsciously blurted out: "Is it possible for Qin Miao to get another podium in this game?"

On the track, after overtaking Perez, Qin Miao also had an impulse in his heart. Since it was so easy to overtake Perez, could he also try to overtake Verstappen in front of him?

So Qin Miao bit Verstappen in front of him, and Qin Miao was constantly squeezing his own set of soft tires, trying to stay in the DRS area behind Verstappen and wait for the DRS to be turned on during the race. .

However, in the second lap of T12, Sainz, who had been losing position since the start, made a mistake and rushed out of the track. The entire car rushed into the grass and then rolled across the field under the influence of inertia. After crossing the entire track, I finally got stuck in the gravel buffer zone outside the track.

Although Sainz's car came to a stop and he tried to restart the car.

But the floor of the car that had sunk in had already touched the gravel. No matter how hard Sainz stepped on the accelerator pedal of the car, he could only make the rear wheels of his car spin, unable to provide any power to the car.

Everyone who has driven F1 knows that gravel ground is a thing. If the car stops in it, it will basically retire.

Therefore, in the second lap of the race, Ferrari, which has performed amazingly this season, had a driver withdraw from the race for the podium.

The yellow flag on the track quickly turned into a virtual safety car and finally a physical safety car.

It is worth mentioning that Zhou Guanyu happened to be behind Sainz and witnessed Sainz miss the braking point when trying to overtake in T11, and rushed into the grass outside T11, losing grip, and then rushed directly to the outside of T12 gravel buffer zone.

Many people may think that Sainz is too weak to be able to rush off the track.

But people at Ferrari actually knew that this mistake could not be entirely blamed on Sainz, because the steering wheel that Sainz mainly used was found to be unable to turn on during the final inspection on the track.

At that time, there were less than 5 minutes left before the start of the race. There was no time to repair the steering wheel, so the team hurriedly replaced Sainz with a spare one, but Sainz was not recorded in this spare wheel. Sainz's settings for this game were derived from the practice matches, so Sainz in this game was equivalent to going to the battlefield with a weapon that he was not familiar with.

Therefore, Sainz's retirement can be said to be excusable.

ps. Happy Chinese New Year, brothers, may you make a fortune in the Year of the Dragon!

Love you guys

(End of this chapter)