How did I become an F1 driver?

第370章 373：意外频发的排位赛（6K，加更1/15）

In short, after the first practice, Qin Miao has completed all the test tasks assigned by the team.

The speed of the car is also similar to the speed given by the team simulator.

The good news is that after qualifying, the rain has stopped, the track has dried, and Qin Miao's testing efficiency has recovered again.

And because it rained during practice, Qin Miao's dry tires basically showed no wear and tear. Looking at his many tires, Qin Miao felt a faint sense of peace of mind.

This is what is called having food in hand, don’t you feel panic?

I won’t go into details about the second and third practice stages here. The time will soon come to the qualifying round.

Today's qualifying session was rainy just like yesterday.

However, the rain was very light, and obvious driving lines appeared on the track after two laps.

After seeing this, many people who knew Qin Miao's characteristics began to wonder. On such a semi-dry track, would Qin Miao's speed be similar to his performance on dry land or wetland conditions? What about performance?

In the car, Q1 started after Qin Miao listened to French talk about the weather and track conditions during today's qualifying session.

Franky shrugged helplessly: "Actually, we also know that the team has such a problem, but you know, this problem cannot be solved in a short time."

However, not long after Qin Miao started using the second set of soft tires, an accident occurred on the track.

The right rear wheel of Albon's car caught fire, and the car trailed a long line of flames across the track.

Faced with such a sudden blow, it is very likely that Qin Miao's self-confidence was frustrated because of this incident. After all, this was the first time he was eliminated in Q1 since entering F1.

Because as time goes by, the conditions of the track will get better and better, and the qualifying lap speed will naturally become faster and faster.

Because the right rear brake disc of Albon's car exploded and debris fell on the track, the safety car was dispatched.

In the Q2 stage, there were no accidents, but although there was no car accident in Q2.

After Qin Miao drove his car back to the maintenance area and parked it, Franky and others also gathered around him.

Many upgrades to F1 cars may be reverse upgrades, but only weight reduction.

The two Mercedes drivers were eliminated in the 11th and 12th positions respectively.

Although Albon quickly learned about the abnormality of his car through the team TR and slowed down, during the period when he tried to drive his car back to the pit area, the brake disc of Albon's car exploded on the spot due to excessive temperature.

The two small wings on both sides of the cockpit also play a role in guiding the airflow. The overall speed of the car will not be affected by the loss of these two small wings.

After the game restarted, there were no other surprises in the Q1 stage.

It is worth mentioning that in today’s race, both Mercedes’ car and Arrow’s car came out to run immediately.

Therefore, although Qin Miao and Hamilton both advanced to Q2, Qin Miao entered Q2 at tenth, and Hamilton entered Q2 at the gate line of fifteenth in a thrilling manner.

Of course, this may also be the reason why drivers from other teams did not use their full strength in Q1.

After getting the news, both Five Star Sports and domestic fans couldn't believe it at first.

Qin Miao nodded and accepted the result.

However, French still said: "I'm sorry Qin Miao, the final result of this track is different from the result obtained by our simulator. I know the team has held you back."

Despite this, the two cars of the Mercedes team were still eliminated in Q2, which only shows that Mercedes' current cars are indeed not suitable for ultra-high-speed tracks like Imola.

Qin Miao looked very calm at this time, even calmer than Hamilton, who had been complaining to other team executives after getting off the car.

The whole process that followed was a bit unfamiliar to Qin Miao.

Fortunately, the soft tires on Qin Miao's side have not officially started running laps yet, and they can still be used after returning to the pit area to warm up a little.

For this reason, the two Mercedes drivers, Qin Miao and Hamilton, did not choose to return to the P room to rest after completing their first flying lap. Instead, they entered the pit area to change into the pit stop rhythm just like the race. After buying a new set of tires, I returned to the track and continued running.

In particular, Imola is a high-speed track with long straights, especially the starting straight, which can be said to be one of the longest straights in this year's calendar.

That is, Mercedes-Benz's W13 will still have the problem of dolphin jumping on such a high-speed track.

Of course, Franky and the others became confused when they were concerned. After Qin Miao lifted the visor of his racing helmet, Franky did not see any emotional fluctuations in Qin Miao's eyes.

However, Mercedes' car looked a bit weak in this qualifying match. Although Qin Miao used three new sets of soft tires for the first time in Q2, it still could not change the final result of this qualifying match in Q2.

But they soon accepted the result. After all, before today, Qin Miao's teammate Hamilton had already been eliminated in Q1, and the fans were mentally prepared.

In the end, the drivers eliminated in Q2 were: Qin Miao, Hamilton, Zhou Guanyu, Mick, and Stroll.

No matter how much weight is reduced, as long as the overall balance of the car is not destroyed, it will be a positive upgrade for the car.

The red flag didn't last long, only 20 minutes.

Compared with the poor performance of Qin Miao and Hamilton in Q1, what is surprising is that Zhou Guanyu actually entered Q2 in fourth, 0.7 seconds faster than his teammate Bottas.

For this reason, the team will allow Qin Miao and Hamilton to continue to stay on the track.

In fact, everyone at Mercedes also knows that there is no problem with Mercedes' car in this game. After all, the upgrades the team has brought to the car this week are more about weight reduction.

However, Mercedes discovered a problem after Qin Miao and Hamilton completed their first flying lap.

But I also hope that the team understands that if the problem of dolphin jumping cannot be completely eradicated, it is basically impossible for the car to be competitive on a super high-speed track like Imola, let alone win the championship. "

However, whether it was Qin Miao or the other three drivers, their results at the beginning were not very good. After all, the track was still somewhat wet.

They know that now is not the time to feel uncomfortable. Compared with their inner shock at seeing the two drivers eliminated in Q2, taking care of Qin Miao's emotions is the most important thing at this time.

After getting off the car, Qin Miao took off his equipment and shook his head: "Needless to say, I understand that the team is not a god or the maker of F1 rules, and there will always be accidents.

After all, in the eyes of many people, Qin Miao is just a child, and he is only 20 years old.

After parking the car, I went to the weighing area to complete the weighing, and then went to the post-race interview.

On the way to the weigh-in, Qin Miao suddenly felt a little dazed while listening to the roar of racing engines speeding past on the track.

The person interviewing Qin Miao was still an acquaintance, but after all, he was a member of the Mercedes team, so he was somewhat concerned and confused. He did not ask Qin Miao any questions about qualifying on the track, and talked about a few things that had nothing to do with the competition. After the question, Qin Miao's post-game interview ended here.

After the post-race interview, Qin Miao went to hold a post-race meeting. The main content of the meeting was to analyze the main reasons why the car was not competitive on the Imola track.

During the meeting, neither Qin Miao nor Hamilton spoke much. After all, this could be regarded as touching on their knowledge blind spots.

The meeting did not last long. After all, the reason for the poor speed of the car can be easily determined through data. It was still a common problem. The dolphin jump limited the tail speed of the Mercedes car.

It can be said that the characteristics of the current W13 are not suitable for the Imola track.

Now that the team has accepted the fact that the W13's top speed is flawed, this race can't change anything. The only doubt now is whether the W13's long-distance speed at Imola will be faster than its qualifying speed. a little better.

It is worth mentioning that during the Q3 stage, red flags appeared three times on the track.

Because the rain on the track has increased, even if they put on semi-wet tires, experienced F1 drivers will inevitably make mistakes.

One red flag occurred when Magnussen braked incorrectly before the braking point, locked his rear wheels on the track, and then ran off the track, triggering a red flag for about five minutes.

Another time, Bottas stopped on the track because his engine stalled due to a problem with his car. The last red flag was when Norris made a mistake when he ran out of the lap because of too much rain on the track and got stuck in the gravel. inside.

In short, due to heavy rain in Q3, the Q3 qualifying stage at Imola seemed a bit fragmented. A Q10 that was only 3 minutes long had three red flags.

And because Norris rushed off the track and triggered a red flag with 3 seconds left before stopping the clock in Q38, the pole position competition in this qualifying session also ended between Verstappen and Leclerc.

After the Mercedes meeting ended, Qin Miao also got the final ranking of this qualifying match.

1: Verstappen

2: Leclerc

3: Perez

4: Sainz

5: Norris

6: Ricardo

7: Bottas

8: Magnussen

9: Alonso

10: Vettel

11: Qin Miao

12: Hamilton

13: Zhou Guanyu

14: Mick Schumacher

15: Stroll

16: Yuki Tsunoda

17: Gasly

18: Russell

19: O'Connell

20: Albon

Zhou Guanyu was actually faster than Hamilton, but in the last flying lap of Q2, Zhou Guanyu rushed out of the track while running the flying lap, so the result of the last lap was cancelled.

There is nothing that can be done about it. After all, in this race, in addition to the slippery ground, the drivers also need to deal with the crosswinds that appear from time to time on the track.

Anyway, the qualifying round is over.

After returning to the hotel, he turned on his cell phone, and Qin Miao's cell phone kept ringing.

Many friends or acquaintances have sent me messages concerned about my mental state.

It can be seen that friends have been paying attention to Qin Miao's competition. After seeing him eliminated in Q2 in qualifying, they were worried that Qin Miao might not be able to bear it, so they immediately came to care about Qin Miao.

This also includes Jay Chou.

Qin Miao didn't have anything to do at this point, so he simply lay down on the bed, picked up his phone and started replying to his friends' concerns one by one. There was nothing to say all night, and the next day was Sunday, the day when the main race started.

When he woke up in the morning, it was raining in the sky. Qin Miao took out his mobile phone and looked at today's weather forecast. It showed light to moderate rain...

With a helpless sigh, Qin Miao got up, washed up, and then went to the paddock.

After going through all the pre-race procedures, Qin Miao returned to the team's P room.

When Qin Miao appeared in the live broadcast of the game, he had already entered his car.

At this time, Reyes and the others had not yet evacuated from the track, and Qin Miao's car had an awning set up.

Obviously, it was still raining lightly on the track at this time. In order to prevent the rainwater from flowing into the interior of the car and damaging the car, a canopy was needed.

After the race started, the holes in the car were not so easy for water to enter.

Although the rain before the race is about to start is much lighter than when the drivers parade before the race, it is still raining.

Therefore, in the main race, the drivers choose semi-wet tires.

Ten minutes later, the tire warm-up lap begins.

At this time, the racing line had not yet reached the racing line, and the entire ground was covered with water.

However, during the tire warm-up lap, the team told Qin Miao through TR that the rain would gradually become lighter, but there would be another cumulonimbus cloud in 15 minutes, and then there would be another moderate rain.

Fortunately, after the track gradually became dry in the middle period, Qin Miao did not need to consider the need to stop for tire changes. Qin Miao only needed to follow the team's arrangements during the race.

Before the words were finished, at this time, except for Zhou Guanyu, all the drivers had parked their cars at their own positions, waiting for the start of the race.

The reason why Zhou Guanyu did not start at his original position is because after the qualifying session yesterday, the team gave Zhou Guanyu a little more intensity.

Although the car returned directly to the team's P room after qualifying.

But during this process, team staff cannot touch the car.

The real process is that after the car returns to the team's P room, the only action the team can take on the car is to set up the car and push it back to the team's P room.

Next, FIA staff will come to check the status of the car. After the FIA ​​staff have completed the inspection, the team will be allowed to repair and change the accessories of the car or wipe the car.

But I don’t know if these people from Arrow Racing Team were transferred from Ferrari. In short, after Zhou Guanyu was eliminated in Q2 and returned to the team’s P room, his team’s engineer directly opened the hood of the car.

Although the engineer was quickly stopped, Zhou Guanyu still violated FIA rules.

Then the team discovered that a parameter setting was wrong and adjusted Zhou Guanyu's settings.

As a result, Zhou Guanyu's qualifying results in Q2 were invalidated, and he needed to start from the pit area in today's race.

After receiving the news, Qin Miao even suspected that Arrow Racing Team had an undercover agent sent by Ferrari.

Zhou Guanyu is really unlucky.

This was only the fourth race of the season, and Zhou Guanyu was cheated twice by the team.

Back to the topic.

After all the cars were parked in their spots, the safety car behind was in place and the green flag was waved.

Five red lights gradually lit up.

Soon, the five red lights went out and the race began.

Because there was water on the track, the drivers also used semi-wet tires.

Therefore, in the starting stage, the drivers did not dare to step on the accelerator as deeply as they did in dry conditions. Qin Miao and many drivers even started in second gear, just to prevent the rear wheel of the car from having too much torque and prevent the rear wheel from slipping. The wheels are slipping.

Therefore, all drivers did not use the full performance of the racing engine at the first time.

The start seemed a bit slow on rainy days.

But F1 is F1 after all.

After the speed of the car fully increased, the sense of speed and sharpness came back.

However, because there was rain on the track, not long after Qin Miao started, the scenery in front of him was gradually obscured by the mist brought up by the rear wheels of the car in front.

The mist was so thick that Qin Miao couldn't even see the road ahead. All he could see were the three blinking lights on the rear of the car ahead.

In fact, Qin Miao also ran a race on a rainy day last season, but last season when the front car brought up water mist, you could at least vaguely see the road ahead. But in this game, after the front car picked up speed, Qin Miao could not see the road ahead at all. All he could see clearly were the track boundaries on both sides of his field of vision and the indicator lights of the car in front.

This is actually caused by the characteristics of ground effect racing.

Because the floor of a ground-effect racing car provides 60% of the overall downforce for the car.

And because of the rear diffuser, the low-pressure airflow and normal airflow merge here at the rear of the ground-effect racing car.

So much so that the rainwater on the track is sucked up to the sky by the suction at the bottom of the ground effect car. Therefore, when this season's car is running in the rain, the water mist raised by the rear of the car is much more than that of last season's car. of.

And it's not just Qin Miao, other drivers also encountered such problems.

Except for Verstappen, who started from pole position, all other drivers could not see clearly the road ahead.

And despite this, no one on the track took off his foot on the accelerator for this reason.

This may be one of the instincts of F1 professional drivers, speed is everything here.

In the starting stage, Qin Miao's reaction speed was actually very fast. After starting, he quickly shortened the time gap between himself and Alonso in front.

Alonso, who has always had a good starting speed, had an average start in today's game, and was quickly caught up by Qin Miao from behind.

Since they had already surpassed Alonso, who was directly in front of him, Vettel, who started from Qin Miao's right front, was naturally overtaken by Qin Miao early.

The heavy rain in this game seems not to be so friendly to the elderly whose reaction speed is not as fast as that of the young.

In fact, after surpassing these two people, Qin Miao can be said to be satisfied. After all, being able to move up two positions to ninth in the starting stage was a surprise that Qin Miao had never thought of.

The next thing Qin Miao wants to do is to take advantage of his long-distance speed on the track and slowly pursue the driver in front.

But when the traffic came to T2, something unexpected happened on the track.

When Ricciardo in front of Bottas exited the corner, Ricciardo's right front wheel hit Sainz's left rear wheel.

Although both drivers were using wet tires, after Sainz's left rear wheel collided with Ricciardo, Ricciardo did not directly bounce Sainz's car up.

However, this sudden external force also caused the Ferrari car, which was already cornering and whose grip was at its limit, to instantly lose its rear wheel balance.

Sainz made a 180° U-turn directly on the track.

The two rushed off the track together, facing each other.

In the process, Bottas in the rear even shoveled Ricciardo in front.

What's even more unfortunate is that when he rushed out of the track, Sainz's butt was facing the gravel outside the track.

After Sainz discovered this, he immediately tried to save himself. The moment the car stopped, Sainz immediately stepped on the accelerator, hoping to restore power to the car.

It's a pity that after reversing into the sand and gravel, there is basically no need to try to save oneself. The car has completely stopped. At this time, no matter how much Sainz steps on the accelerator, the rear wheels of the car are just idling. No way to bring any power to the car.

The game had just begun, and Sainz's first home game of the year ended in a dramatic way.

Therefore, Qin Miao, who started 11th, had no time to feel happy that he had surpassed the two people in the starting stage, and inexplicably jumped from 9th to 7th.

Bottas, who was originally ranked 6th, happened to be behind Ricciardo, so Bottas was affected by the two of them. Especially in that collision, Bottas obviously made a mistake when exiting the corner to avoid the two of them. of deceleration.

Because of this, Magnussen and Qin Miao took advantage of this, and they both moved up one position.

Magrusen rose to fifth place, and Qin Miao was sixth.

And what makes Qin Miao most happy is that because of this car accident, the top five riders had already run far away.

But after this accident, the competition dispatched a safety car.

This also means that the car lineup will be compressed again in the next race. Because of this accident, the advantage gained by the driver in front is gone.

During the safety car period, the competition also gave a replay of the accident.

It can be seen from the replay that Ricciardo's original direction was always turning left after exiting the corner. However, because Ricciardo was a little too hasty on the gas when exiting the corner, the car experienced a push phenomenon that was difficult to detect. .

Most people may not react at all when encountering this kind of situation, but for drivers who have already developed a sense of the car, this phenomenon is basically the same as putting a firecracker in your ear.

So Ricciardo immediately made corrections after reacting.

And because of this correction, Ricciardo, who originally would not have collided with Sainz after exiting the corner, veered a little to the right.

The two of them collided.

There is no doubt that Ricciardo was solely responsible for the accident.

(End of this chapter)