How did I become an F1 driver?

It is not difficult to understand Qin Miao's idea of ​​​​making such an adjustment. He wanted to further reduce the resistance on his car while helping Hamilton pull out the wake.

Let your car have more speed, and prevent Hamilton from approaching you too quickly while helping Hamilton pull the tail slip. You can also help Hamilton create a higher tail speed.

However, Qin Miao did not repeat the scene where Hamilton's opponent pulled back for him two weeks ago, because the straight track of the Baku track was too long. Before Qin Miao reached the braking point, Hamilton was about to catch up with him, so Qin Miao He gave up his position in advance.

Qin Miao's wake added at least 0.2 seconds to Hamilton's lap time.

After all, Hamilton is a seven-time champion, and his own strength is obvious to all, so he has not let down the DRS that Qin Miao helped him win.

After this flying lap, Hamilton's score came directly to 1:41.879, ranking fifth.

The first four are naturally the four drivers from Ferrari and Red Bull.

However, the team asked Qin Miao and Hamilton to run through the qualifying simulation during the practice session, so the team knew that with the normal performance of the W13, there was no way to get within 1 minute and 41 seconds.

Qin Miao pulled a slipstream and entered 1 minute and 41 seconds. Although neither Qin Miao nor Hamilton could even reach the podium in this game, the team and Hamilton were already very satisfied with it.

Finally, Qin Miao crossed the line and ran his last flying lap before stopping the clock in Q3.

This result may not be enough in front of Ferrari and Red Bull, but for Qin Miao and Mercedes, 1:42.497 is the limit that Qin Miao can achieve under normal conditions.

Finally, the rankings of the qualifying stage are as follows:

1: Leclerc

2: Perez
3: Verstappen

4: Sainz
5: Hamilton

6: Qin Miao

7: Gasly
8: Yuki Tsunoda

9: Vettel
10: Alonso
After getting off the car, the post-race podium session, which he only enjoyed for one round, naturally had nothing to do with Qin Miao.

After parking the car in the inspection area, Hamilton walked over.

Reaching out to shake Qin Miao's hand, Hamilton patted Qin Miao's helmet who was sitting in the car: "Thank you."

Qin Miao smiled: "You're welcome."

The subsequent post-match inspection process will not be described in detail here.

But on Saturday night, when Qin Miao finished her work and returned to the hotel, she saw herself in a small group of four with Leclerc, Zhou Guanyu, and Norris, and Zhou Guanyu was madly complaining about his team's strategy team.

Everyone is friends, so everyone is not stingy with their... ridicule at this time.

Qin Miao and Norris were both crazy with joy.

However, Leclerc was uncharacteristically uncharacteristic and did not start the crazy ridicule he would have done in the past about Zhou Guanyu's tragic experience. Instead, he comforted Zhou Guanyu.

Maybe there is some sympathy between the unlucky guy and the unlucky guy. Although Leclerc won the pole position in this game, the team did not give him any extra work, but he thought of the past qualifying and race stages where he was strategically arranged by the team. Leclerc will definitely have some sadness and sympathy in his heart due to all the past events.

After having fun, everyone took a rest.

After all, tomorrow is the main game, and everyone needs to be in a good competitive state during the main game. If you want to have such a competitive state, ensuring that you sleep well and have a good mental state is the most important part.

After the pre-match interview and the parade, Qin Miao spent the next period of time adjusting his condition in the lounge of the team's P room.

The time soon came before the game started.

Qin Miao, who was sitting in the racing car, was adjusting the fit between his gloves and his palms while listening to Franky telling him about the state of the track at this time.

At this time, the tires used on Qin Miao's car were the same set of new medium tires as his teammate Hamilton.

Normally, if drivers from the same team start with the same tires, then the tire strategies of the two drivers during the race may be exactly the same, and the order of pit stops may only be separated by one lap.

However, given Qin Miao's well-known tire protection ability in the paddock, even if Qin Miao and Hamilton start on the same tires, their pit stop strategies in the race may be completely different.

And this is indeed the case.

Qin Miao planned to finish this race as soon as Huang Hong stopped.

Because in the two practice sessions, Qin Miao used his two sets of tires to show good long-distance speed and tire durability. It can be said that despite using the yellow-red one-stop tactic, Qin Miao also has Enough tire margin to try and attack the rider in front of him.

After the relationship between Hamilton and Qin Miao improved, Qin Miao also learned about Hamilton's pit-changing strategy for this game.

Yellow and white stopped.

This pit stop strategy cannot be said to be very good, it can only be said to be quite satisfactory.

Soon, all preparations for the race were in place, all team staff were evacuated, and the race was about to begin.

The five red lights come on one by one, then go out, and the game begins.

In fact, Hamilton didn't start very well at the beginning, while Qin Miao started at a consistently high level.

But thinking that Hamilton had used up his favor just to start in front of him, it would be rude for me to overtake him at the start.

And at this time, he is no longer competing with Hamilton for the driver's championship. He still has more points than Hamilton, so although he started much faster than Hamilton, Qin Miao still loosened the gas a little after the start and did not enter the corner at T1. Sometimes they forcefully squeeze Hamilton's inside line and put too much pressure on him.

What Qin Miao didn't know was that Hamilton had been watching Qin Miao when he started. After all, he knew that in this race, he and the four cars in front of him were not on the same planet at all.

Even if they overtake them at the beginning, when traveling long distances, the performance gap of the car will quickly allow them to overtake them.

So Hamilton was staring at Qin Miao the whole time, and naturally witnessed Qin Miao's starting reaction and acceleration faster than his own, but before entering T1, Qin Miao obviously released the accelerator and brake early.

Seeing this, Hamilton's heart was somewhat complicated and felt strange.

When entering T1, Qin Miao also defended Gasly who was stuck behind him, waiting for an opportunity to attack.

Gasly, who was stuck by Qin Miao, had no choice but to choose to enter the corner honestly.

It is different from the near misses of Qin Miao and Hamilton.

Leclerc didn't start well, and because of his starting position on the outside, Perez started faster than him on the inside and forced his way into Leclerc's inside lane at T1.

He overtook Leclerc in one corner.

During the entire starting stage, among the six cars in front, only Perez and Leclerc exchanged positions, while the other drivers did not change their rankings.

Then the game entered a normal rhythm of cruising and waiting for DRS to start.

However, when the race came to the fourth lap, Qin Miao had already reached the position 4 seconds behind Hamilton.

This time gap does not allow you to attack the car in front on a normal track. If you want to attack the car in front, the time gap between you and the car in front must be shortened to less than 0.4 seconds.

But the straights and DRS area of ​​the Baku circuit are too long.

So Qin Miao stayed on the first lap after DRS was turned on, taking advantage of the straightaway and the advantages brought by DRS to attack Hamilton in front of him from behind.

Hamilton did not surrender directly because of the easing of the relationship between the two and Qin Miao's deliberate surrender of the car at the beginning.

After all, for the Mercedes team in this race, as long as the driver in front does not have an accident or the car breaks down, it is inevitable that the two Mercedes drivers will finish fifth and sixth.

Instead of a long cruise followed by 51 laps to finish the race.

It would be better for the two Mercedes drivers to discuss each other on the track at this time, and more or less expose the sponsors of their respective drivers' cars.

So after Hamilton discovered that Qin Miao had offensive intentions, he directly defended inside to prevent Qin Miao from forcing his way inside.

Qin Miao currently has no good solution. After all, the time gap between himself and Hamilton is slightly large.

Before entering the braking point, all Qin Miao could do was barely complete the wheel-to-wheel alignment with Hamilton on the outside.

After Hamilton braked late to enter the corner, Qin Miao could only get out of the way of the best exit route.

On the track, the smell of gunpowder between the two Mercedes drivers quickly attracted the attention of the broadcasters, and the cameras were directly locked on the two drivers.

Strictly speaking, this is actually the first time Qin Miao has had the opportunity to have a real fight with Hamilton on the track.

After all, in previous games, either Qin Miao led the field, or Hamilton left Qin Miao far behind.

And Qin Miao also knew that he might be a little bored in the next game. It just so happened that Hamilton was not ready to let his faster self pass, so he simply had some fun with Hamilton.

Anyway, due to the characteristics of the track in this race, I have plenty of tire margin.

Then the audience saw a unique infighting among teammates.

Unlike the previous infighting between teammates at Mercedes-Benz and the infighting among other teams, neither Qin Miao nor Hamilton are worried about their driver seats in the team.

A seven-time champion and a top-notch talented driver.

These two people are the two living dads to Mercedes-Benz Racing Team.

For Qin Miao, Mercedes-Benz Racing Team is eager to directly sign a five-year contract and lock him directly in its own team.

And Hamilton is the cornerstone of the team. Although Mercedes does not want to continue to pay Hamilton a high salary due to cost issues, they also want to keep Hamilton in the team if possible.

Even if the older Hamilton is not as competitive as before, they hope that Hamilton can retire directly with the Mercedes team.

It would be nice to be a mascot.

So for these two people, on the one hand, there is no pressure for seats in this game, and on the other hand, there is no pressure for performance. After all, no matter how hard they try, they will end the game in fifth or sixth place.

So from the fourth lap, Qin Miao began to attack Hamilton, and the two were fighting on the track.

But the key is that the fight between these two people is not the kind where you push me off the track and I block your exit route.

How should I put it, the two fought very "restrainedly".

If there is not enough positional advantage, no one will do more dangerous actions.

Qin Miao started attacking Hamilton from the fourth lap to the eighth lap. During this period, due to the struggle between the two, Gasly, who was behind, tried to attack Qin Miao several times in an attempt to pick up the slack.

After all, when these two people started fighting, their speed was definitely not as fast as during a normal match.

However, Qin Miao deserves to be known as a defensive master.

While he attacks Hamilton, he also has the ability to take time to defend Gasly behind him.

Then it appeared on the track. Qin Miao was attacking Hamilton in front, followed by Gasly, Yuki Tsunoda, and Vettel Alonso.

Because Gasly was guarded by Qin Miao, the people behind him were stunned by the small train driven by Qin Miao.

Because of this, the nickname Qin Miao’s train driver has spread unknowingly in the paddock.

After all, Qin Miao drove too many trains in the 2022 season. Even in the entire Monaco station, Qin Miao won the championship by driving trains.

At this time, the time gap between Hamilton, who was at the front of the earth group, and Sainz in front had reached 6 seconds.

Just when everyone thought that in this game, the two Mercedes drivers would be directly separated by more than 1 minute by the driver in front due to infighting.

On lap 9, there was a 4-second gap with Verstappen ahead, and a 6-second gap with Hamilton behind him. Sainz, who had basically no interference on the track, rushed out of the track in T5. I ran directly into the escape tunnel of T5.

However, when the camera cut away, the audience discovered that Sainz's car lost all power when exiting the corner due to engine problems.

There was no other way, Sainz had no choice but to retire.

However, because Sainz retired from the race at the exit of the track and there were no car debris on the track, the competition only issued a yellow flag and did not dispatch a safety car.

There was a yellow flag, and at this time, the riders in the front row had just arrived at T17 and T18.

Not far ahead is the entrance to the pit area.

So not surprisingly, most drivers chose to pit for tire changes at this time.

This naturally includes Qin Miao.

Mercedes directly used two cars to pit this time.

After both Qin Miao and Hamilton entered the station, due to the fight between them, the DRS train piled up behind them could no longer sustain itself. Qin Miao, the train driver, was laid off immediately.

This time Qin Miao's tire change time was not long, only 2.7 seconds, but it took Qin Miao 2 seconds to wait for Hamilton to change the tire and then drive into the tire change position.

So after Qin Miao came out of the pit area, the time gap between Qin Miao and Hamilton, who was originally in the DRS area behind Hamilton, came to 3 seconds.

However, after the race reaches this point, Qin Miao's pit stop strategy has been completed. Qin Miao can finish the next race directly with a brand new set of hard tires.

This challenge may be a bit difficult for other drivers, and even the speed of the car may be greatly affected, but this is Qin Miao.

Pirelli has studied the ruthless man who has not been able to understand it in a single season in 2021.

And based on the ability of Hamilton and other drivers who pitted at this time to protect their tires, they still need to pit once to change tires in this game.

Next, the race entered a cruising state, and after Qin Miao's tire temperature came up, he began to overtake the car in front at the rear of the team.

On the 15th lap, he passed Hamilton who didn't defend Qin Miao much.

On lap 17, overtook O'Connell.

On lap 18, passed Gasly.

On lap 19, he passed Ricciardo and reached fifth place.

Next, there was only one Norris in front of Qin Miao, who was 3 seconds ahead of Qin Miao.

However, just when Qin Miao was about to continue accelerating and knocked off Norris, a timely reminder came from the team's TR: "Qin Miao, Norris has not pitted yet. Our actual position has already been It’s fourth, and there’s still a long race ahead, so please protect your tires.”

"receive."

After receiving the reminder from the team, Qin Miao's speed also began to slow down.

However, on lap 21, just when everyone thought the race would continue normally, Ferrari gave the audience another chance.

Leclerc, who started to lead the race because Perez pitted to change tires during the yellow flag, was suddenly running on the straightaway on lap 21 when a large cloud of white smoke billowed out from behind the car.

But Leclerc didn't stop at the track.

Because the place where his engine problem happened to be was on the straight, and the car itself had a speed of more than 300 kilometers per hour, Leclerc relied on the inertia of the car to enter the pit area even though he suddenly lost the power of the car.

Anyone who has watched an F1 race knows that an F1 car is very light and can be pushed by one person.

So Leclerc even parked the car directly in front of the inspection area.

As the two Ferrari drivers retired from the race, Qin Miao inexplicably ended up in third place after Norris had pitted to change tires.

It seems that if Mercedes wants to finish second this season, it depends on Ferrari's performance.

And Leclerc seemed to be used to it. Although he retired from the race, he did not cry hysterically in the team TR: "NO! NO! NO!".

Starting from the 23rd lap, Qin Miao entered the cruising state.

On lap 24, just when domestic fans knew that Qin Miao's race was over, they began to turn their attention to Zhou Guanyu, who was eighth.

Zhou Guanyu, who was defending his idol Alonso's attack, suddenly received a TR from the team.

"Sorry Zhou, the car broke down. I'm afraid we have to withdraw from the race."

Zhou Guanyu:? ? ?

Finally, Zhou Guanyu also returned to the P room of the team and retired from the race.

So far, the race has only run 24 laps, but three cars using Ferrari engines have retired.

This also makes people start to wonder whether Ferrari is so fast this season at the expense of the engine life of its own car.

On the 33rd lap, Qin Miao had already opened up the 3-second time gap behind Hamilton, and Hamilton had been distracted by Gasly behind him.

And just when the audience thought that withdrawing three cars using Ferrari engines was the limit of Ferrari's competition.

Haas's Magnussen car also broke down on the track and slowly stopped on the track.

This is the fourth Ferrari to retire from this race.

Like Sainz, Magruson also stopped at the exit of the track and retired due to car failure rather than a car accident. Therefore, there were no carbon fiber fragments left by the car on the track, so there were only a few carbon fiber fragments left on the track. A yellow flag.

However, with such a good opportunity, Qin Miao still did not choose to pit, because both Qin Miao and Mercedes' strategy team felt that this pit stop was unnecessary.

The highlight of the next race was Gujing Wubo. The only thing worth mentioning was lap 45. When the director's broadcast footage came to the door of the Ferrari team again, the entire Ferrari team's P room had been packed up, and all the team technicians And the engineering leadership staff, including the race cars, were all gone.

Even the Ferrari team has only two engineers left on the podium, responsible for collecting racing data from other teams.

Everyone else packed up and left.

After this episode, until the end of the race, there were no accidents on the track.

And Qin Miao just got a podium gifted by Ferrari in this way.

But when the race ended, the time gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen in front reached a terrifying 28 seconds.

The Red Bull Racing car was really close to finishing the race half a minute faster than Qin Miao.

Qin Miao also ran a long distance of 40 laps on white tires in this race.

Although there was a yellow flag in the middle that reduced Qin Miao's tire wear, the 40-lap long distance still surprised many fans who had just recently entered F1 and knew the importance of F1 tire strategy.

[He is Pirelli’s biological son, right? 】

Many car fans sighed like this.

But in fact, Pirelli basically brought every set of tires used by Qin Miao back to its headquarters in the UK for testing and analysis.

The final result gave Pirelli a headache because the tires used by Qin Miao were the same as those of other drivers.

Red Bull won a great victory, and everyone in the Mercedes team was also smiling.

Although Ferrari often performs rectifications, there are not many opportunities to steal from them.

After the race, the top three drivers were celebrating and preparing for interviews when the live broadcast camera turned to focus on Hamilton.

At this time, Hamilton had just parked his car and removed his headrest.

The scene that appeared next made all the old car fans feel a sigh of relief.

After Hamilton had made all preparations to get off the car, when he was about to get off the car, he felt a stabbing pain in his waist due to the too many dolphin jumps made by the car during the race.

He didn't even climb out the first time.

After struggling and trying in the monocoque of the car for a while, Hamilton climbed out of the cockpit with some difficulty.

After climbing out, Hamilton did not leave the car, but sat on the racing flip-flops and subconsciously supported his aching back with his right hand.

After sitting on the flip-flops on the racing car to relax for a long time, Hamilton got out of the car.

Maybe this is the so-called twilight of heroes.

On the other side, after Qin Miao completed the pre-match interview, Hamilton happened to pass behind Qin Miao.

Qin Miao naturally went over to say hello to Hamilton.

But looking at Hamilton's slightly tired look, Qin Miao was speechless for a moment.

After listening to the Mexican national anthem again on the podium, this week's Azerbaijan Grand Prix came to an end. (End of chapter)