How did I become an F1 driver?

Qin Miao raised his eyebrows and looked at Hamilton, waiting for his next words.

"If we upgrade a few more times and find the right direction, I feel that W13 can still regain its previous competitiveness, and the team can return to its original position."

Qin Miao shrugged but said nothing.

It was obvious that he didn't think so.

Seeing this, Hamilton did not continue to play off, and said bluntly: "It's still the same thing, about the design concept of W13 that will be abandoned next season."

Qin Miao asked in confusion: "Hasn't the discussion on this matter already come to an end? I remember that you agreed to the team's plan."

"Yes, that's right." Hamilton nodded, and then said: "But you see, the success of the British Grand Prix has proved that this car still has merit. At least that upgrade brought us a Championship, although your efforts account for at least half of the championship, you still have to admit the effect of this upgrade, right?”

Qin Miao nodded. There was really nothing to object to.

"Look!" Hamilton spread his hands, and then said: "So I am going to go to Toto to propose a redeployment of resources and continue to develop W13.

I believe that the team’s current development capabilities can bring W13 to a new level. "

Qin Miao rubbed his eyebrows with a headache, and then asked: "This is inappropriate.

And haven’t you already evaluated W13 before? The design flaw is obvious. "

"The design flaw mentioned at the beginning was due to the excessive downforce of the overall car and the small upgrade window caused by the floor." Hamilton said: "So this season the team can focus on the aerodynamic design and floor, or Directly change the base plate.”

Qin Miaogang wanted to say that if the chassis is really to be significantly changed, the layout of the overall engine inside the car, the overall length of the car, the arrangement of the suspension angle and position, and the installation of the monocoque position will all have to be redesigned.

This is basically the same as rebuilding a car. After all, the floor of an F1 car is equivalent to the foundation of a car, which literally affects the whole body.

But seeing how Hamilton became more and more excited as he talked, Qin Miao also knew that even if he said it, the other party might not listen.

And Qin Miao suddenly felt that Hamilton was a little anxious.

But what exactly is he anxious about?

After thinking about it, Qin Miao still said: "Sorry Lewis, I still think the W13 is not a good racing car."

Just when Hamilton's face was full of disappointment, Qin Miao added: "But at least if the team wants to vote again on this matter, I will not vote against it.

After all, you know me, I can master any kind of racing car. "

Although he didn't get the answer he wanted, Hamilton still nodded and accepted Qin Miao's statement.

However, Hamilton turned a little envious of Qin Miao. After all, this talent of being able to master the car proficiently and bring out all the performance of the car no matter what kind of car it is is even more enviable than Hamilton.

"Okay, but are you sure you won't consider it anymore? I really think W13 has the potential to be upgraded..."

"Lewis." Qin Miao interrupted Hamilton who was about to continue saying something.

"This is my opinion, but I also understand you, so I will not object to the improvements you propose, as long as the team can give me a competitive car."

At this time, Qin Miao and Hamilton were at completely different extremes in mentality.

First of all, as long as they enter Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari and other teams, drivers will definitely want to win the championship.

After all, in competitive sports, victory and championship are the eternal pursuit and truth.

Qin Miao is here because he has strength and is young. Even to exaggerate, Qin Miao is still in the growth stage. He can afford to wait. Even Qin Miao can afford to wait for the new 26-year rule.

But Hamilton is different. He is older, and even he can clearly feel that both his physical functions and reaction speed have begun to decline.

Hamilton knew that the longer time passed, the slimmer his chances of overtaking Schumacher became.

It’s still the same reason as before, who doesn’t want to be the number one in history and leave his name in history forever?
Although the honor of seven championships can already tie Hamilton with car king Schumacher, he is one of the drivers with the most honors among all F1 drivers currently in service.

But this one is very unacceptable to Hamilton.

In short, Hamilton is in a hurry now.

This time he came to Qin Miao because he was somewhat sick and needed medical treatment urgently.

Qin Miao didn't particularly understand Hamilton's inner thoughts at this time, but under the influence of his mentality, all he could do was not oppose Hamilton's proposal.

"Okay." Hamilton sighed.

"Let's eat first. By the way, does the team have any plans to upgrade the car recently? This week, because I was worried that the team would drag me to participate in the event, I didn't even go to the team factory, so I came directly to Austria."

Having said this, Hamilton glanced at Qin Miao with some resentment.

Your kid ran away this Wednesday. I feel relieved, but I am the one responsible for wiping your butt!

However, Hamilton didn't say much on this matter. After all, Hamilton himself knew that the difference in salary between Qin Miao and his contract was close to 4 million US dollars.

Most of the US$4 million was due to Qin Miao not wanting to participate in these activities.

Therefore, strictly speaking, Qin Miao did not need to participate in these activities. On Monday and Tuesday this week, Qin Miao could help him share some work, and he should be grateful to him.

After calming down, Hamilton said: "Yes, but it is just a small change, but it is for the bottom plate. It seems to be the position of the vortex generator on the bottom plate to enhance the sealing of the bottom plate."

Hearing this, Qin Miao nodded, but Hamilton immediately added: "In addition, Toto went to the FIA ​​this week to ask them to add a new technical instruction."

"If he said he wanted to add FIA, would he add it?" Qin Miao was a little confused.

In daily work, Qin Miao has never seen Toto have too frequent exchanges with FIA staff. Could it be because Toto actually has a good personal relationship with Bensulayem, but in order to avoid suspicion, he You don’t usually show it when you’re in the paddock?

Just when Qin Miao was still thinking, Hamilton directly interrupted Qin Miao's thinking and explained: "He doesn't have such a big reputation in the FIA. During the time when Mercedes-Benz won eight consecutive championships, the FIA ​​basically He regards Toto as a thorn in his side and a thorn in his flesh.

I feel like they wanted to kill Toto directly to slow down the Mercedes team car. All the technical rules and improvements introduced by the FIA ​​during that time were aimed at our team. "

Qin Miao looked at Hamilton curiously.

Hamilton shrugged: "Although our team's cars are not as competitive as before this season, because of the reason I just mentioned, Toto is unlikely to have any face with the FIA."

"so?"

"because I."

Qin Miao:? ? ?
"Don't look at me like that, I don't have that much respect over there." Hamilton waved his hand and explained: "Remember the Azerbaijan Grand Prix?"

Qin Miao nodded. In that game, Perez proved himself at Red Bull Racing and won the first race championship in his Red Bull career.

He completely confirmed his title as the King of Street Races.

Of course, the most dazzling thing is not the Red Bull brought back from one or two, but the engine of the Ferrari racing car.

In that race, a large number of cars using Ferrari racing engines retired, which frightened all the customer teams using Ferrari engines. They were afraid that the next one to retire would be their own cars.

Of course, Hamilton is definitely not mentioning this now because of the large-scale retirement of Ferrari's series of cars.

Because it has nothing to do with the current topic.

If it can be related to today's topic, it may be the scene after the game of Hamilton sitting on the car holding his waist and relaxing for a long time before getting off the car.

Thinking of this, Qin Miao suddenly realized: "Using driver safety issues to put pressure on the FIA?"

"That's almost it." Hamilton nodded: "For this reason, the FIA ​​will have to issue new technical instructions.

I just don’t know if this knife can hit the necks of Ferrari and Red Bull Racing. "

Qin Miao shrugged: "It's hard to say. It might even be self-defeating and greatly affect the speed of our car."

Hamilton shook his head and said: "It's unlikely. If Toto takes the initiative to go to the FIA, there will definitely be a corresponding response plan. Compared to this, I hope...forget it, it's nothing."

Looking at Hamilton who was hesitant to speak, Qin Miao knew what the other party wanted to say, but Qin Miao did not answer.

……

The two had a meal together, and to be honest, the taste was only average, but for two riders who had consumed a lot of energy both mentally and physically throughout the day, the issue of taste was not a problem.

After eating, the two of them went back to the hotel to rest.

The Austrian Grand Prix uses sprint rules.

The rules include first practice and qualifying on Friday, second practice and sprint race on Saturday, and the race on Sunday.

To be honest, if Qin Miao was still an ordinary car fan, then he would rather see a sprint race. After all, there are races to watch on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

But after he became a driver himself, he felt a deep hatred for the rules of sprint racing.

Because one more sprint race was added, the driver's already limited practice time was further reduced.

Of course, the most important thing is the qualifying session on Friday. The drivers and teams are not familiar enough with the current car on this track. It is really important to find a suitable qualifying setting in a practice session. Test the abilities of drivers and teams.

Of course, although Qin Miao dislikes such a competition system, Qin Miao has no such concerns. He can easily find his own qualifying training in a practice session.

Wednesday is the day of practice and qualifying.

The weather today is very good, the temperature is over 30 degrees, and the track temperature is as high as 50 degrees.

Qin Miao spent about half an hour during the practice session to find the most comfortable adjustment for him.

With 30 kilograms of extra fuel added to the car, Qin Miao's fastest lap speed was only 0.9 seconds slower than the team's expected speed. Strictly speaking, Qin Miao's speed on this track is still very impressive.

However, unlike Qin Miao's comfort in this practice session, there were two red flags on the track in the later stages of the practice session.

It seriously disrupted the practice rhythm of other drivers, and Qin Miao even heard Hamilton's complaints in the team's TR.

Because the red flags in practice are different from those in qualifying and the race.

If a red flag occurs during practice, the countdown to the practice session will not end.

Therefore, the red flag greatly delays the driver's rhythm in the practice session.

During this period of time in Lao Han’s team TR, the number of complaints and the rate of complaints to team staff have been getting higher and higher.

The practice session ended with a bang, and then Qin Miao replaced an engine used for qualifying and the race.

Reyes and the others have not looked good in recent days.

Because during these three days, they needed to replace the engine twice.

Although the team's engine takes into account the need for frequent replacement, the team's design department has designed a lot of comfort designs for engine replacement.

But changing the engine does not mean taking out the old engine and putting the new engine down and installing it.

At the same time, the team's staff also have to check whether the connection of the engine lines is normal, whether the fixation is in place, and whether the overall balance is affected by the different engine installation positions.

In short, replacing the engine is a very complicated matter. The installation position and the tightness of the screws need to be measured directly with high-precision measuring instruments.

After all, if you install the engine in the wrong position, the driver's tuning settings for the entire practice race may be completely ruined.

During the time when the team is replacing the engine, drivers like Qin Miao naturally need to participate in some activities.

However, this is Red Bull's home court after all, so Qin Miao and Hamilton did not have a meeting with fans. After all, after the audience saw these two people, they booed them all the time, and directed their obscene remarks directly at them. Greet you politely.

In order not to affect the mentality of the two drivers before the start of qualifying, even if the drivers themselves want to participate in fan meeting activities, they will be stopped by the team.

Therefore, Qin Miao and Hamilton mainly participated in pre-match interviews.

After the interview, Qin Miao saw Leclerc on his way back to the team lounge.

The drivers are quite busy with back-to-back races. Although the two of them have been in the paddock recently, they have had few opportunities to meet each other.

Even if they saw each other, they would just nod to each other far away because they had something to do, and that would be it.

So after seeing the other party, Qin Miao took the initiative to go over and prepare to say hello to this guy.

However, when Qin Miao saw Leclerc, he discovered that something was wrong with Leclerc's state.

"What's wrong with you? What happened?"

Looking at Leclerc, who had almost lost the sparkle in his eyes and looked somewhat tired and decadent, Qin Miao asked curiously: "There was a thief in the house? Was his head stolen by the way?"

Leclerc, who would normally roll his eyes at this time, was calmer than Qin Miao expected: "It's nothing, why do you ask that?"

Qin Miao touched his chin and said: "I feel that your condition is not very normal, it feels like your whole body has been drained of energy...

Could it be that...Sini is here? You didn't get out of bed last night, were you drained? "

Leclerc couldn't help rolling his eyes after hearing this: "What are you thinking? Sydney has never come to Austria, and with my professionalism as a professional driver, it is impossible to do those things before the start of the race.

The most important thing is that even if I do it, she is the one who should be lying in bed without energy! "

Charlotte Sydney is Leclerc's girlfriend, but she is still in college, so Qin Miao and Leclerc have never seen each other after knowing each other for so long.

They always miss each other for various reasons.

However, Qiu Meng and the other party are quite familiar with each other. They give each other gifts and go out to play together.

Moreover, the other party is a local of Monaco, a standard rich second generation. His family owns a hotel in Monaco. His father is also the director of a local gaming company in Monaco, and his income is much higher than that of Leclerc.

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"How many times do you want me to say this?"

"Then I'll call Sydney and ask her to pay more attention to you."

"Fuck off!"

……

After chatting for a few words, Qin Miao finally realized that Leclerc was worried about something, but the other party didn't want to say it.

But Qin Miao is also convinced that he doesn't need to worry about the other party now.

After all, Leclerc has been in F1 longer than himself, and F1 drivers may have low emotional intelligence, may be ugly, and have various flaws, but in terms of ability to withstand pressure, F1 drivers are basically Just like their profession, they are at the top of an industry.

Of course, there are some individual cases in this line that cannot be counted among them.

In short, no matter what, Leclerc, who has been beaten for so long at Ferrari, is an F1 driver with good pressure resistance and psychological quality.

The fact that he was still in the mood to joke with himself meant that Leclerc was not yet at the point where he needed to see a psychiatrist.

He should be able to adjust himself.

On the way back to the team, Qin Miao looked at Barber beside him and asked: "What do you think is wrong with Leclerc?"

Barber basically stayed with Qin Miao, so he was relatively familiar with Qin Miao's social circle.

Moreover, when he stayed with Qin Miao, he basically didn't talk much and just observed, so Qin Miao felt that this guy had more or less his own opinions.

However, Barber's words did not disappoint Qin Miao: "I think it's very simple. If you think about it from his perspective, he was stabbed in the back by the team with a stupid pit stop strategy and various tactics for a season, including mechanical failure.

And this happens not once or twice, but seven or eight times, and it will repeat every season.

The most important thing is that you can't win the driver's championship here, you can only see hope, and then waste your time in the team. What do you think? "

Qin Miao took the role of herself.

"Hmm...it's a bit scary." Qin Miao pondered for a while, and then said: "If it were me, I might just change teams.

Even if this team doesn't win the championship, I don't want to be tortured by the team.

And I don’t think the other top teams wouldn’t want me. "

"This is the difference between you and Leclerc. You know that you are capable, and you have proven your talent on the court, so even if you change the team, there will be someone who wants you to join them. of fleet.

But Leclerc already has a very strong influence on Ferrari, and it is unlikely that he will change teams.

Leclerc is now betting that Ferrari will suddenly rise to prominence one day. "

Qin Miao shrugged. They had already reached the entrance of the team lounge. The two were about to separate, so Qin Miao turned to Barber and shrugged and said, "Then he will have to wait."

"Who says it isn't?"

……

Qualifying stage, although this qualifying stage only determines the starting ranking of tomorrow's sprint stage, and the points given in the sprint stage are also very few.

But tomorrow's sprint race will still determine the starting ranking of the main race, so Qin Miao has no reason to relax.

After resting for a while, when Qin Miao appeared in the broadcast footage again, Qin Miao had already changed into his own equipment.

There were no encouraging looks and words from everyone when he was a novice at the opponent's home court. Qin Miao entered his car after a handover with Reyes.

It's not that everyone in the team doesn't care about Qin Miao's mood and his results on the track.

This situation occurs purely because of trust. Everyone knows Qin Miao's strength and believes that he can carry out his consistent performance.

After qualifying started, neither Qin Miao nor Hamilton in Q1 showed their full strength.

But despite this, the two advanced easily.

In the Q1 stage, there were no flags on the track, but after all, the Red Bull Ring is a relatively short track and the speed is fast, so many drivers still encountered traffic jams during the last flying lap.

But in the end, no one failed to achieve a suitable result due to traffic jams.

On the other side, while Qin Miao successfully advanced, Zhou Guanyu stopped at Q3.

Although he was eliminated at the closing line of Q3, that is, he was eliminated at the 15th position, Zhou Guanyu was eliminated.

The reason is actually not difficult to guess.

After Qin Miao actually knew that the Austrian Grand Prix was a sprint race, he knew that Zhou Guanyu might not be as good as he was in the qualifying stage of today's game.

It is undeniable that Zhou Guanyu's current speed can be ranked in the middle of all F1 drivers.

His various abilities are pretty good, and even his defensive ability, which he learned from Qin Miao, ranks among the top among F1 drivers.

It can be said that apart from Verstappen and Qin Miao, the driver who has been overtaken the least times this season is Zhou Guanyu. (End of chapter)