How did I become an F1 driver?

After parting ways with Verstappen, Qin Miao came to Frankie and the others.

After hugging Franky and shaking hands with his chief technician, Reyes suddenly lowered his voice and asked, "Did you see something?"

Qin Miao was stunned for a moment, and then realized what Frankie was asking was whether he could see anything as he had just stood in front of Verstappen's car and watched it for a long time.

Qin Miao rolled his eyes. He was not an expert in aerodynamic design like Newey. He could tell at a glance what effect a certain component would have on the car. When the car was running at high speed, the airflow would probably go in that direction.

"No, I couldn't understand anything. I was just wondering why they were so fast."

"Okay, that's normal." Reyes nodded.

Afterwards, Qin Miao went to sort out his image and came to the post-game interview booth.

At this time, the two Red Bull drivers had completed their post-race interviews, and Qin Miao was the last one to appear.

"Qin Miao, congratulations on winning third place in this competition. How did you feel about today's competition?"

Qin Miao clicked her tongue, and then said: "To be honest, I feel as good as ever at Spa. The weather today is also very good, and I started well both times. Everything is under our control." The best location in the plan, but it didn’t turn out that way.”

"Before the start of this race, did the Mercedes-Benz team ever think that the speed gap between itself and Red Bull would be so huge?"

This question is actually a bit tricky and difficult to answer, but what is surprising is that Qin Miao nodded and spread his hands and said: "After the qualifying match, we had expected that today's game would be a severe one for us. Challenge, Red Bull showed speed in the qualifying stage that is unlike anything on this planet, but we didn’t expect them to be so fast. We will study what happened in the middle when we go back.”

After answering the two questions, Qin Miao turned and left.

Then came the podium stage. Qin Miao used to like this stage quite a lot. No matter where he got, it was good to have the podium after all, right?

Now Qin Miao only feels that the Dutch national anthem is a bit noisy.

After the Dutch national anthem ended, the Belgian Grand Prix came to an end.

After the game, the final driver rankings and scores are as follows:

P1: Verstappen +26 (fastest lap)
P2: Perez +18
P3: Qin Miao +14
P4: Sainz +12
P5: Alonso +10
P6: Leclerc +8
P7: O'Connell +6
P8: Vettel +4
P9: Gasly +2
P10: Russell +1
The most unlucky driver in today's race was Leclerc. Originally ranked fifth, he fell to sixth due to the team's "inspiration", and in the end he only scored 5 points.

It can be called the F1 version of picking up sesame seeds and losing the watermelon.

In today's game, Russell also defeated his teammate Albon and became the last F2022 driver to score points in the 1 season.

After this game, all the drivers who participated in the 2022 season race also had different points recorded.

At the same time, Zhou Guanyu could have gained a point in this game.

But during the battle with Albon, Zhou Guanyu's gearbox had another problem.

Other gears can be shifted up and down normally, but Zhou Guanyu's 8th gear cannot be moved up.

Therefore, Zhou Guanyu's normal driving will not be affected, but his tail speed on the straights will not be able to increase at all.

In the end, Zhou Guanyu couldn't even keep his position as goalkeeper in the points area, and could only finish in 13th place, behind his teammate Bottas.

At the same time, after this race, the overall driver standings is as follows:

1: Qin Miao.238
2: Verstappen.225
3: Perez.178
4: Leclerc.172
5: Sainz.129
6: Hamilton.110
7: Norris.64
8: O'Connell.62
9: Bottas.38
10: Alonso.37
11: Magnussen.19
12: Zhou Guanyu.19
13: Vettel.19
14: Gasly.17
15: Ricardo.14
16: Tsunoda.9
17: Mick.6
18: Stroll.2
19: Albon.1
20: Russell.1
After this game, Qin Miao's lead in the standings was almost nonexistent. He was only 13 points ahead of Verstappen.

If the Red Bull Racing Team can still show its terrifying speed in the next race, I believe the top spot in the standings will change hands after the next race.

Meanwhile, Leclerc is back to his familiar fourth place in the standings.

After this race, the team’s overall standings are as follows:
1: Red Bull: 423
2: Mercedes: 391
3: Ferrari: 324
4: Alpine: 111
5: McLaren: 78
6: Alfa Romeo: 64
7: Haas: 25
8: Little Red Bull: 26
9: Aston Martin: 22
10: Williams: 2
Although it seems that the points gap between the top three teams in the team standings is very small, based on the speed shown by the Red Bull Racing Team, Red Bull will soon widen the points gap with the teams behind it in the second half of the season.

……

The game ended, but the ripples of the game did not disappear.

Obviously, everyone can find that the Red Bull car became so fast only after the FIA ​​issued the TD039 technical directive during the summer break.

Therefore, many people in the paddock are questioning whether this technical directive issued by the FIA ​​is deliberately helping Red Bull.

But the FIA ​​also felt that it was wronged. It clearly did nothing, and the TD039 technical instruction was clearly written in black and white. It only asked the team to control the bounce of its own car, and did not even restrict the team or how to control the bounce.

In short, no matter how aggrieved the FIA ​​is, public opinion in the paddock is united against the FIA.

There is a lot of debate on this issue on major social platforms.

Qin Miao took a passive attitude towards this. After all, he knew that Toto was behind this technical instruction.

And now it seems that the technical instruction promoted by Toto has indeed had its due effect.

However, the effect of this technical instruction was not as good as the Mercedes team expected, and its effect was only half completed.

The knife was originally aimed at Red Bull and Ferrari, but in the end it only hit Ferrari. Red Bull didn't have any trouble, but it went faster.

And Ferrari was directly destroyed by this knife. When they came back from the summer break, even Mercedes couldn't outrun it.

In short, Qin Miao is a bad driver, and he doesn't understand the twists and turns of these paddock politics. Now he wants to know whether the upgrades brought by the team at next week's Dutch Grand Prix can solve the current lack of performance of the car. The problem.

Speaking of the Dutch Grand Prix, Qin Miao couldn't help but feel a little unlucky.

Red Bull Team B seems to have played a few home games a bit too many times.

On the one hand, the Austrian Grand Prix is ​​Red Bull’s home field, which is nothing to say. On the other hand, as Perez is a Mexican, the Mexican Grand Prix can also be regarded as Red Bull’s home field. At the same time, the Belgian Grand Prix that has just passed can also be regarded as Red Bull’s home field. .

Because Verstappen's mother is Belgian, most of the local spectators at the Belgian Grand Prix supported the Red Bull Racing Team.

This Dutch Grand Prix can also be regarded as Red Bull's home field, because Panzi is Dutch.

One team, four home grands prix.

As for Mercedes, there is only one British Grand Prix that is their home stadium.

After all, there is no news that Qin Miao's home race, the Chinese Grand Prix, will be reorganized.

Anyway, next week's Dutch Grand Prix is ​​Verstappen's home race.

Qin Miao has already anticipated that Red Bull, whose racing characteristics are more suitable for the Zandvoort circuit in the Netherlands, will bring it back to the Dutch Grand Prix next week.

Now Qin Miao only hopes that during the Dutch Grand Prix, the upgrades brought by the team can effectively increase the performance of the car, at least narrowing the somewhat jaw-dropping time gap between Mercedes and Red Bull.

After the game, Qin Miao returned to the UK.

After resting at home for a night, Qin Miao was called to the team factory the next day.

At the team factory, Qin Miao got some pretty good news.

Next week's Dutch Grand Prix, the team will bring upgrades to the new sidepods.

This new sidepod upgrade is a sidepod upgrade based on the new W13 chassis architecture. It still maintains Mercedes' zero sidepod concept, and the overall shape is a compact Coke bottle shape with a large front and a small rear.

There are still some changes in the appearance of the new side cases. There are more bulges to guide the airflow. At the same time, there are also a few more deflectors on the side cases, which can be combined with the vortex generator on the bottom plate to block the high-pressure airflow inside the bottom plate. .

Most importantly, the new sidepods reduce weight by 500g and leave room for subsequent car modifications.

The only disadvantage is that the overall projected area of ​​the car is increased, and the resistance of the car is increased a lot.

Of course, this resistance is nothing compared to the 500g weight loss.

Although the weight of 500g is not much, some people may eat more than this in one meal.

However, this 500g can increase Qin Miao's single lap speed by about 0.04, and can also allow Qin Miao's tires to run one more lap, and consume 1g less fuel during the race.

Coupled with its own aerodynamic upgrades, the car's potential is quite high and worth looking forward to.

Of course, at the team meeting, it was different from Qin Miao who was satisfied with the team's upgrade.

Hamilton spoke actively at the team meeting and solemnly said: "What about moving the cockpit backward? What about moving my cockpit backward?!"

Qin Miao takes the upgrade of the team very lightly. As long as you upgrade and the performance of the car is significantly improved, Qin Miao will be satisfied.

But Hamilton, he really wanted the team to move the damn cockpit back a centimeter or two to change the overall balance of the car.

But the team really has no other better solution in recent times. Replacing old parts after changing the chassis of the car is a step-by-step process, and changing the position of the cockpit is the most difficult and most time-consuming of all changes. Time.

Because after the cockpit is moved, whether it is the engine, air intake, cooling system, or floor, all have to be changed accordingly.

Now only the chassis and sidepods have changed. Being able to complete these modifications in such a short period of time is already an extraordinary performance of the team.

Originally, the team expected that this sidepod upgrade would only be implemented in Singapore, but it was beyond the team’s expectation that it would happen so soon.

The team really doesn't have the production capacity to modify so many parts of the car at once.

And this is still a big project.

Because improvements need to be made one by one, even the improved parts will still have a certain design that is compatible with the previous generation parts.

After all the improvements to the racing car are completed, it will take time to remove these designs to achieve the design purpose of reducing weight or reducing the overall projected area of ​​the components.

The meal must be eaten one bite at a time, and the journey must be taken step by step.

The team really couldn't give Hamilton a satisfactory answer within a short period of time, but the team still gave a final time point under Hamilton's repeated urging.

Although in Qin Miao's opinion, this guarantee came a little too late.

The Mercedes team assured Hamilton at the meeting that they would adjust the W13 racing seat position to Hamilton's desired position before the United States Grand Prix.

The United States Grand Prix is ​​the fourth to last race of the 2022 season...

Even if Hamilton gets the car he hopes to be comfortable enough to drive by then, it is unlikely that Hamilton will be able to compete with Qin Miao in the standings.

Of course, it's possible that Hamilton didn't think that much. He might simply be a little overwhelmed by the garbage truck he's not used to driving this season, and he just wants to quickly regain his original competitiveness.

Qin Miao did not go to Hamilton to ask about this matter, so naturally the final result of this matter can only remain in speculation.

Because this week is a back-to-back game, no, strictly speaking, the recent games are three consecutive back-to-back games.

There is no break between Belgium, the Netherlands and the Italian Grand Prix next week.

However, this is also the last three consecutive back-to-back races this season. Although the team and drivers have complained about this, everyone is gritting their teeth and persisting.

Qin Miao spent a day in the team on Monday, mainly participating in simulator testing and attending meetings.

But the next day, Tuesday, Qin Miao went to the Netherlands in advance.

Qin Miao didn’t have any feeling in the past. He usually went to the competition venue on Wednesday or Thursday.

But after getting familiar with Hamilton, the old man would occasionally teach Qin Miao some tricks that F1 drivers can learn during the Grand Prix.

Back-to-back races are very tiring. Although the team gives drivers time to rest, the energy and physical effort an F1 driver puts in during a Grand Prix weekend is unimaginable.

Let alone the triple back-to-back.

Therefore, Hamilton taught Qin Miao a method. If you encounter three consecutive back-to-back games, you should go to the competition venue some time in advance. Whether it is to adapt to the venue environment or something else, go there first.

In this way, you will at least stay in the local environment for a longer period of time, and your body can better adapt to the local climate.

After staying in a place for a longer period of time, your subconscious mind will think that you are familiar with it, and you will feel more relaxed.

However, Qin Miao came over first as Hamilton said, but did not feel the effect Hamilton said.

Of course, it is also possible that Qin Miao's physical fitness is particularly good and there is no need to come in advance to prepare.

But now that it’s here, it’s quite comfortable not having to go to the team simulator department every day.

Qin Miao also spotted Leclerc while wandering around the paddock on Tuesday afternoon.

Leclerc has his own industry in the Netherlands, and there is also an F3 race this week.

Leclerc's younger brother, Arthur Leclerc, will also have a race in the Netherlands this week, so on the one hand, Leclerc has to come over to take care of his property, and on the other hand, he needs to take care of his younger brother and teach him a little about his skills. My experience on this track.

Qin Miao saw Leclerc, and Leclerc naturally saw Qin Miao.

He waved his hand and said hello to Qin Miao: "Qin Miao!"

Qin Miao smiled and walked over to hug Leclerc: "Charle, why did you come here so early this week?"

"It's rare to see you on the track at this time." Leclerc did not answer Qin Miao's question, but approached the topic from another angle.

"I'm going to come to the track early this week to adapt to the environment." Qin Miao didn't say anything. Another reason is that the team members said that there will be team meetings in the next three days until the start of the Grand Prix, and Qin Miao will hold them all. If you get bored, come to the track in advance for some peace and quiet.

Leclerc smiled and shook his head: "Sometimes I really envy you."

Qin Miao spread her hands and said, "What do I have to envy?"

"Freedom, not so much marketing work, you can get off work whenever you want, and there are no taboos about eating food." Leclerc counted them one by one on his fingers, but Qin Miao had a feeling that there were a lot of them. If Leclerc wants to, he can do it, but he just needs to pay some price.

But Qin Miao can be sure that the only thing Leclerc really envies is that he doesn't gain weight no matter how much he eats, and he doesn't add any important weight to his body.

"Are you envious? I paid for it with my salary." Qin Miao spread his hands.

Just as Leclerc was about to say something, cheers suddenly came from the distance: "Qin Miao!"

Both of them looked towards the person who made the sound. A person who looked about the same age as Qin Miao, but looked very similar to Leclerc came over.

"Qin Miao! Long time no see." As soon as Arthur Leclerc came over, he ignored his brother and gave Qin Miao a hug with a smile.

Qin Miao responded with a smile. After patting the other person on the back and letting him go, Qin Miao said with a smile: "I heard that your performance in F3 has been very good recently? Are you likely to enter F2 next year?"

The other party's face, which was a little happy after seeing Qin Miao, suddenly fell.

Although the difficulty of entering F3 from F2 is not as great as that of entering F2 from F1, it is not that easy either.

You are either very rich, like Zhou Guanyu or Ma Zeping, who directly buy or invest in an F2 team, or you are very talented and are spotted by the F2 team leader, or you join the F1 team's youth training academy. Take the assessment to get the upper hand.

Although Arthur Leclerc has a certain amount of talent, he is indeed a little behind compared to his brother Charles Leclerc.

And although the Leclerc family lives in Monaco, middle-class families can only be considered entry-level in the racing industry.

Leclerc really has no way to provide the expenses for two racing drivers at the same time, so Arthur has delayed the best opportunity for growth.

Especially Arthur is still staying in the Ferrari Driver Academy.

Although this place often lets go of some talented riders, such as Qin Miao.

But Ferrari's huge reputation and historical heritage are here. For those young people who don't know much about the paddock but have a racing dream, the Ferrari Driver Academy is a very good place to go.

Therefore, there is no shortage of talented young drivers in the Ferrari Driver Academy. Therefore, in this environment, Arthur has the possibility of obtaining F2 driver qualification at this stage, but it is not high.

"I don't know, but I'll try my best," Arthur said.

"Today I specially brought Arthur here to familiarize himself with the Zandvoort circuit. There are F2 and F3 races this week." Leclerc explained.

Qin Miao patted his head: "Recently, my focus has been on the F1 competition and the upgrade of the car. The team's affairs have also made me a little anxious. I forgot that there are F2 and F3 competitions this week, so you guys first If you’re busy, I won’t interrupt.”

Just as Qin Miao was about to leave, Leclerc smiled and hooked Qin Miao's neck: "Don't leave in a hurry. We haven't had a good meal together after the summer break. I want to treat you tonight!" Eat whatever you want, and eat as much as you want, there’s no work tomorrow anyway.”

The corners of Qin Miao's mouth twitched crazily: "I said I still have urgent matters to deal with. Do you believe me?"

Leclerc smiled and said nothing.

Qin Miao helplessly spread her hands: "What a bad luck."

Qin Miao knew Leclerc very well, and with his current expression, Qin Miao had already guessed what he was thinking.

This bastard obviously saw that no one from the team was following him when he came to the paddock today, and knew that he was just here to hang out.

Then today I am going to take my younger brother to the track to get familiar with it.

Isn't this just right?
You can bring Qin Miao to check and fill in the gaps.

It is not easy to get guidance from a world champion, and given his relationship with Qin Miao, Leclerc will not feel any psychological burden if he tries to trick him.

Seeing Qin Miao's expression that she hated him so much but couldn't do anything about it, Leclerc smiled and patted Qin Miao on the shoulder: "Okay, accept your fate.

And didn’t I say I’d treat you to dinner? Don't look like you've lost millions, be happy and smile. "

Although Qin Miao seemed to agree with what he said, Leclerc did not let go of his hand around Qin Miao's neck, as if he was afraid that Qin Miao would run away.

Then Leclerc said to his brother Arthur: "Thank you Qin Miao quickly. He is willing to walk the track with us. The opportunity for a world champion to coach you does not come often, so cherish it." (End of Chapter)