How did I become an F1 driver?

He also sent a text message of congratulations to the other party. After putting away his phone, Qin Miao began preparations for the practice match.

Because of the rain this week, the Mercedes team did not get very good data in the two practice sessions on Friday.

Therefore, today's third practice is particularly important. Basically, what kind of training can be found in the third practice will determine the afternoon qualifying and Qin Miao's performance in the race tomorrow.

Qin Miao didn't have any worries in this regard, and found the most comfortable adjustment for him in about half an hour.

In the following time, Qin Miao mainly spent his energy on improving lap times.

After all, Suzuka Circuit is not a very easy track for overtaking, so Qin Miao still hopes that he can get a good result in the qualifying stage.

However, compared to normal qualifying, when Qin Miao set the fastest lap speed in the practice session, the team added 30 liters of fuel to Qin Miao's fuel tank.

After adding this 30 liters of extra fuel, the single lap speed of Qin Miao's car is 0.3-0.7 more than the fuel load in the normal qualifying stage.

But even so, when the clock was stopped in the third practice, Qin Miao and Hamilton still ranked second and third.

As for number one?

In the hands of Verstappen.

His lap speed was 0.2 seconds faster than Hamilton who finished second.

I don’t know if he put more fuel in his car.

However, the results of the opponent's practice session are really of no reference value. You only need to know roughly what speed you can run in qualifying.

The third practice session in the morning is over.

During the period between the third practice and qualifying, Qin Miao reviewed his practice flight lap at the team home. The team's technicians were nervously changing the car engine and making final adjustments to the overall tuning of the car.

Soon, it was time for qualifying.

There is nothing to elaborate on in Q1. Qin Miao advanced to Q2 in seventh place, and other drivers who could safely advance to Q2 did not suffer upsets at this stage.

In the Q2 stage, Zhou Guanyu may have awakened some power of his bloodline in Suzuka.

In the Q2 stage, he withstood the pressure and killed his idol Alonso with an advantage of 0.002 seconds. He was stuck before the cutoff line of Q3 and entered Q3 in tenth place.

In the end, the drivers eliminated in Q2 were: Alonso, Ricciardo, Bottas, Tsunoda, and Mick.

By the way, in this game, in addition to Zhou Guanyu defeating his teammate Bottas, Mick Schumacher also defeated his teammate Magnussen.

Although Mick still fell in second place.

Of course, even with such results, the possibility of Mick Schumacher renewing his contract with the Haas team after the crash in the practice session has been infinitely close to zero.

After all, compared to Magrusen, Mick Schumacher is a bit too expensive as a driver, and Haas is a famously small team and not rich.

The most important point is also the most critical point. Mick Schumacher cannot achieve results in F1. Because of his father, the sponsors who were very optimistic about Mick Schumacher gradually withdrew their support from Haas. investment.

To put it bluntly, F1 is ultimately a business alliance, especially after it was taken over by Liberty Media Group.

If you don’t have grades, you won’t have money. If you don’t have money, you won’t be able to move forward here.

Q3.

As usual, the two Mercedes drivers Qin Miao and Hamilton came out later than the drivers of other teams when they were running the first flying lap.

At the end of Q1, when other drivers were doing cooling laps, Qin Miao and Hamilton were released one after another.

The Mercedes car is actually a little acclimated to the Suzuka circuit. The overall aerodynamic effect of the car is not particularly strong. Compared with the Red Bull car, the Mercedes car at this time is more like a muscle car. .

Therefore, on a multi-turn track like Suzuka, Mercedes' car cannot fully utilize the engine power of the car.

Although Qin Miao tried his best in today's game, this relatively unfamiliar and difficult track was not friendly to Qin Miao after all.

So after the first flight lap of Q3, Qin Miao only came to fourth place with a time of 1:30.111.

Although Qin Miao was holding back during this flying lap, it was not too much. Even if Qin Miao pushed forward with all his strength, he would only feel that his single lap speed could be increased by 0.2-0.3.

Qin Miao had a feeling that even if he ran even more extreme in the next flying lap after this flying lap, his single lap time would only be 1:29.8 at most.

The Suzuka track really has too many high-speed corners and is not suitable for the current W13B.

But at this time, Verstappen's first flying lap time came to 1:29.699.

Looking at the speed of the Red Bull racing car, Qin Miao was really helpless.

However, Qin Miao's result in the last flying lap of Q3 was much faster than Qin Miao expected. After this lap, Qin Miao's score came to 1:29.617.

But after completing this flying lap, Qin Miao was only ranked fifth.

The speed of the first few was really fast, and Qin Miao had nothing to do.

After the final qualifying session, the driver rankings are as follows:

1: Verstappen

2: Leclerc

3: Sainz
4: Hamilton

5: Qin Miao

6: Perez
7: O'Connell

8: Vettel
9: Zhou Guanyu
10: Norris
Q3 of the Japanese Grand Prix gave domestic fans mixed feelings.

You have to say that they feel bad when they see Qin Miao not performing well in the qualifying stage in today's game... Zhou Guanyu's performance in the qualifying stage in today's game is not bad. Not to mention entering Q3, the ranking After the qualifying race, he was ranked ninth on the grid.

Although this starting position is not the best starting position in Zhou Guanyu's career, Zhou Guanyu's speed in this game is obviously in better condition than his teammate Bottas.

But you have to say you are happy... Qin Miao ended up only ranking fifth after Mercedes' racing performance had significantly improved.

The most important thing is that Qin Miao, who has suppressed his teammates for almost a season, failed to outperform his teammate Hamilton in qualifying for today's game.

……

"P5, Qin Miao, now adjust the engine power output mode to Z and bring the car back." Franky's voice reached Qin Miao's headphones.

Qin Miao heard her ranking and saw the time gap between herself and Hamilton displayed on the steering wheel display, and her mind was a little confused.

Why didn't I outrun the old man?
It shouldn’t be! He is obviously faster than Hamilton, so there is no reason to lose!
With a puzzled mood, Qin Miao returned to the P room of the team.

Because Qin Miao did not finish in the top three today, the post-match interview after the game had nothing to do with Qin Miao.

But the post-race interview of today's race was quite interesting. The two Ferrari drivers defended Verstappen.

After parking the car in the inspection area and getting off the car, Qin Miao did not say hello to Hamilton. He did not even go to congratulate Zhou Guanyu who finally entered Q3 and achieved good results in Q3.

After Qin Miao completed the weighing, he returned directly to the P room of the team.

"Qin Miao, don't be discouraged. As long as you are a human being, you will have bad times. Just stabilize your mentality. You can definitely solve this problem with your talent. And this may not be your problem at all. Even so, It’s not appropriate, but there are no outsiders around now, probably because the characteristics of W13B are not as suitable for the Suzuka Circuit as Red Bull and Ferrari.”

"After all, you have seen that Hamilton is not as fast as Ferrari and Red Bull." When Qin Miao completed the post-race interview and returned to the team's P room feeling a little depressed, Toto was already waiting for Qin at the door of the team's P room. Miao.

As a boss, Toto is good at observing the status of his employees. After seeing Qin Miao's qualifying results today, Toto had already guessed that Qin Miao's mentality would be affected today, so he came over in advance to wait. Qin Miao.

Qin Miao nodded: "Thank you, Boss, but I'm fine."

"Very good. You have always had the best mentality among all the young drivers I have seen. Don't be too burdened. Take a shower and sleep after you go back. I'm looking forward to your performance tomorrow."

After chatting with Toto for a few more words, Qin Miao went directly to Hamilton's track engineer to get the telemetry data of Hamilton's car during the queuing stage without waiting for the team's review meeting after the game.

Then compare Hamilton's telemetry data with your own.

Regardless of the difference in driving habits between the two, Qin Miao can indeed find his own shortcomings in these data.

Compared with the data of other team drivers, Hamilton's data is the most useful to Qin Miao. After all, Hamilton drives the same car as Qin Miao. Only by driving a car with the same performance can we see the abilities and differences of the two drivers.

Not to mention, Qin Miao's own research, coupled with the review of today's qualifying stage at the team meeting after the game, Qin Miao really found many corners where Hamilton could widen the time gap with himself.

After summarizing, Qin Miao found a problem that made him scratch his head.

Hamilton did not open up a large time gap with himself in any specific corner or timing section. Hamilton's last lap of Q3 in qualifying was 0.1 seconds faster than his own lap, but he was 0.01 faster than himself in many corners. -0.02 seconds. In the end, when a small amount becomes a large amount, it becomes apparent that the time difference is very large.

Even in the third period, his speed was faster than Hamilton's...

When this happens, either Hamilton's car has seven or eight more horsepower than himself, or his understanding of the track is not as deep as Hamilton's.

After getting this result, Qin Miao was suddenly stunned.

I have a system, so why am I not as familiar with the track as Hamilton?

At this moment, Qin Miao suddenly realized.

I slacked off. Winning the world championship in the first year he entered F1 allowed him to touch the fruits of victory prematurely that other F1 drivers could not touch in their lifetime.

The lack of performance of the car at the beginning of the second year and the sense of crisis that he was about to lose his qualification to defend the title kept him from slacking off. However, the performance of the team's car improved, and he regained the lead over Verstappen in the driver standings and won the championship. After gaining enough points to take the lead, I subconsciously slacked off...

Although I still haven't given up on physical training and simulator training, the overall training volume is much less than at the beginning of the season and last season.

After realizing this, Qin Miao suddenly stopped.

Barber on the side saw Qin Miao suddenly stopped beside him, and also stopped his steps. He asked Qin Miao with some confusion: "What's wrong?"

Then before Barber could react, Qin Miao slapped him in the face.

Barbour: ...? !

"Hey, hey, what's going on? Why is it so good..." Barber hurried up and held Qin Miao's hand.

Fortunately, Qin Miao and Barber have left the paddock and are walking from the hotel's underground garage to the hotel room.

Basically every race week, the Mercedes-Benz team will book the entire Ritz-Carlton hotel near the track. In other words, only Mercedes-Benz team staff will be present in the hotel during this period, and there is no need to worry about Qin. Miao's sudden move, which surprised everyone, will spread to the outside world.

Qin Miao mainly thought that he had been so slack during this period, so he couldn't help but slap himself.

Qin Miao made no further moves after being held down by Barber.

"Even if we didn't do well in qualifying, it wouldn't be like this." Barber seemed to realize why Qin Miao acted like this and persuaded: "Today is just your first day competing at Suzuka Circuit. But despite this, Hamilton is only 0.1 seconds faster than you in a single lap.

How many years has he been racing at Suzuka Circuit? And Hamilton has so many more years of racing experience than you, but didn’t he even make it into the top three when qualifying? "

I have to admit that Qin Miao still thinks what Barber said is quite reasonable, but Qin Miao still explained: "I'm not angry because of this reason..."

"I just realized that I have been a little slack in my racing training and track familiarity recently." Qin Miao said: "In the past, I faced these tracks that I was not familiar with. Before the game started, I You will spend at least 6 hours on the simulator to familiarize yourself with the track.

Before every grand prix, I spend at least 6 hours a day on the simulator to familiarize myself with a new track, but at Suzuka, I only spent the same 4 hours in daily training. Come and get familiar with the track. "

“In the review at the team home in the afternoon, the time difference between me and Hamilton in many corners was basically within 0.0 seconds. This shows that my talent and ability are still no worse than Hamilton’s. I lost because of my hard work and my knowledge of the track. The degree of familiarity..."

"In other words, I drifted, although I also know that this is almost inevitable. After all, in the entire history of F1, I was the only one who was crowned world champion at the age of 20.

It’s just that I didn’t expect that I realized this a bit late…”

Barber:…

After hearing Qin Miao's words, Barber really didn't know what kind of expression he should use to respond to Qin Miao's various questions.

Because it's too outrageous.

Are you praising yourself, or are you deeply reviewing your mistakes?

Barber can be considered a worker related to the racing industry, so he is no stranger to racing simulators. It can even be said that he loves racing himself. He even won the regional championship in go-karts when he was a child.

But due to family reasons, he did not continue on this path.

But for people like him, after sitting in a racing simulator for more than two hours, he will feel a little bored, and he will have a great disgust for the racing game and steering wheel in front of him.

As for Qin Miao, he can sit directly on the racing simulator for 6 hours in daily training. During these six hours, Qin Miao not only needs to drive, but also needs to resist the G force and vibration caused by the simulator equipment.

In addition, Qin Miao also needs to take time to train.

And it persisted for more than two years.

Now that the time has only been reduced from 6 hours to 4 hours, Qin Miao feels that he has been a little too slack. To be honest, Barber feels that it is almost inevitable for people like Qin Miao to become the top driver among F1 drivers.

"Then... what are you going to do now?" Barber let go of Qin Miao's hand and asked cautiously, "Are you going to train?"

Qin Miao rolled his eyes: "There is still a race to run tomorrow, so you can't sacrifice your rest time by cramming. This will seriously affect tomorrow's competition status. Go back to sleep."

"Are you sure?" Barber was still a little worried.

Qin Miao thought for a while and then said: "You can think of my state just now as an epiphany, just like you suddenly understood the calculation method of a certain equation or read a certain book."

……

After returning to the hotel in the evening, Qin Miao still took the time to look at Verstappen's lap car.

This force's lap time is really a bit fast, especially when you compare his results with his teammate Perez, you can really feel how powerful Verstappen is.

But the final result was naturally not what Qin Miao expected.

Verstappen is indeed powerful, and Qin Miao can also understand many of Verstappen's cornering skills. Even if Qin Miao and Verstappen's positions were swapped, Qin Miao would drive the current RB17.

Qin Miao can also show the speed of Verstappen in the Red Bull Racing Car. Qin Miao is even confident that he can be faster than Verstapan.

But these are all based on the current Red Bull RB17 car.

Qin Miao was driving a W13B. The racing characteristics of W13B and RB17 are fundamentally different. Qin Miao naturally had no way to gain any skills or methods to improve his lap speed through Verstappen's cornering method and braking points. Mostly just for reference.

After watching the video, Qin Miao went to bed and spent the whole night without talking. The next day, Sunday, was the start of the Japanese Grand Prix.

Open the curtains.

It rains, it rains hard.

The data provided to Qin Miao by the team's meteorological department stated that the rain would last all day, including today's race.

And the rain at the scene will get heavier as the game starts and continues.

On the contrary, this piece of news is good news for Qin Miao, because if the rain gets heavier, he will have to change to full rain tires.

During the entire Grand Prix weekend, only Qin Miao ran a test on the track with full wet tires, although there was an accident in that test that frightened all the Mercedes team staff.

But looking at the weather, Qin Miao couldn't be happier. That bit of information advantage couldn't bring about any improvement in lap speed.

He didn't go well in qualifying on Saturday, and it was going to rain in the race. Sure enough, there must be something dirty in this bad place targeting him.

Qin Miao cursed angrily: "Bad luck!"

After scolding, an idea suddenly popped up in Qin Miao's head.

He took out his cell phone and called Barber directly.

"Good morning Qin Miao."

Qin Miao usually doesn't call Barber. He can even count the number of times Qin Miao took the initiative to call Barber in one season on both hands.

Qin Miao's self-care ability is still acceptable.

But Barber did not forget his own job, so the other party picked up the phone as soon as Qin Miao called him, even though his voice sounded a little dazed, he must have just woken up.

"Barber, go see if there is anyone selling cinnabar yellow paper writing brushes around the track, and buy some for me."

"Huh? What?" Barber was confused by the unfamiliar words, but when these Chinese words he had never heard of popped up, he almost woke up from his sleepiness.

Qin Miao explained it on the phone, but Barber still knew it but didn't know why.

Qin Miao simply called Barber over and wrote him a note asking him to look for him nearby before sending him away.

Qin Miao actually doesn't believe in this, or it can be said that Qin Miao is a typical traditional Chinese thinker. Believe it when you need it. If you don't need it, I don't care who you are.

This Grand Prix weekend, Qin Miao really felt that everything was not going well for him, so he was ready to trust the wisdom of his ancestors.

As for the talisman...

Qin Miao actually doesn't know how to do it, but there are too many templates on the Internet, so just follow them and draw them.

Whether it is of use to Qin Miao is actually not important. Qin Miao does not expect this thing to work. The main thing is just this Grand Prix. Qin Miao did feel that something was not going well for him over the weekend, so he wanted to find some psychological comfort for himself.

After the arrangements were made, Qin Miao put on her coat and went to the paddock.

The Japanese Grand Prix is ​​held on October 9th. It is already autumn, and Japan is in the subtropical zone, so the temperature drops quickly.

Coupled with the rain, the temperatures around the track were even cooler.

The body temperature is only about 20℃.

However, today's rain did not dampen the enthusiasm of the Japanese audience for F1 racing. When Qin Miao entered the paddock, there were many spectators at the entrance wearing raincoats and holding umbrellas, waiting for the drivers to enter.

After Qin Miao appeared, he immediately saw many fans wearing Mercedes-Benz team uniforms and holding up their own avatars even in the heavy rain.

Qin Miao didn't have that strong judgment. He could tell at a glance whether these were Japanese car fans or domestic car fans, but Qin Miao still lowered the window and waved to them despite the rain.

No matter what, these fans braved the rain to watch their game, and it was impossible for me to stay in the car and greet them through the window glass.

As for the clothes getting wet? It's a small matter. After all, you have to change clothes after arriving at the paddock, and in order to avoid the rain today, Qin Miao wore boots and a Mercedes jacket, which are waterproof. (End of chapter)