How did I become an F1 driver?

Although Verstappen was still nervous, at least the team's instructions gave Verstappen a goal in mind.

People are like this sometimes. When they don't have a clear goal in mind, they will be confused and have all sorts of random thoughts. But once they have a very clear goal, their whole spirit will change immediately.

So in the next lap, Verstappen pushed forward with all his strength without reservation.

This can be regarded as Verstappen's fastest lap time in the last 8 laps.

After all, Verstappen had been running on soft tires for so long, so even if Verstappen pushed hard, his lap speed would only be 0.5 seconds faster than Qin Miao.

But at least faster than Hamilton who just came out of the pit lane.

The Red Bull Racing team is now basically in a state of leaving everything to fate and making a desperate effort.

After all, if Verstappen still wants to win the championship, in addition to winning the race today, Qin Miao must also finish somewhere other than fifth.

Such conditions are basically impossible for Qin Miao, who is still in the lead.

Therefore, before the race started, many Red Bull team staff felt that Verstappen had once again missed the hope of competing for the world championship this season.

But Red Bull's strategy team and tire changers are naturally very professional.
Although many people did not believe that Verstappen could do it, after Verstappen entered the maintenance area, their tire changing speed still maintained the consistent high level of the Red Bull Team.

Even compared to the past, the tire changer of the Red Bull team was even faster this time.

It was a direct tire change in 2.0 seconds.

This tire change was undoubtedly the fastest tire change during the race phase of this Grand Prix weekend.

Also because of this excellent tire change, after coming out of the maintenance area, Verstappen was just 0.1 second ahead of Hamilton.

Not successfully undercut by Hamilton.

In fact, Mercedes gave instructions to Hamilton, and in the lap after coming out of the maintenance area, Hamilton really pushed himself to the limit and bought himself a lot of time, but the ability of Red Bull's tire changer is also unique in the paddock.

After that lap, the Red Bull team also obtained Hamilton's single lap speed data.

Hamilton on the medium tires was a full 0.8 seconds faster per lap than Verstappen on the old soft tires.

That is to say, if Verstappen did not pit, he would definitely be undercut by Hamilton after one lap.

Even after entering the pits, it was only thanks to the extraordinary performance of the Red Bull team's tire changer that Verstappen successfully prevented Hamilton from undercutting.

While Red Bull breathed a sigh of relief, Hamilton started cursing at his own team TR.

There is no way around it. If Hamilton had ended up with a time gap of more than 0.2 seconds behind Verstappen in this attempt to under-cut, Hamilton would not have been so emotional. But with this 0.1 second, Hamilton was indeed a little overwhelmed.

If the team had been 0.2 seconds faster when changing tires for Hamilton, Hamilton would have been confident of overtaking Verstappen, but he was just 0.1 second short.

This feeling of being just a hair's breadth away is often the most frustrating.

But no matter what, the two drivers who had a chance to compete for the championship finally completed their first stop on the track, and it is likely that they will run the entire race directly.

After they both put on new neutral tires and came out of the maintenance area, they began to chase Qin Miao in front at a speed of 0.4 seconds per lap, and the pursuit speed was accelerating as the race progressed.

Even though the two of them are steadily shortening the time gap between themselves and Qin Miao, and they are still using neutral tires, the final analysis is that the soft tires on Qin Miao's car have been traveling on the track for nearly thirty laps.

Compared to the current appearance, what really makes the Red Bull team's strategy team helpless is why, after running nearly 30 laps, Qin Miao's soft tires can only allow Verstappen and Hamilton to catch up by 0.4 seconds per lap?
On the track, Qin Miao's speed was very stable today, and his lap time was steadily declining as the tire grip decreased, but it was always within the team's pre-race calculations.

Finally, on the 33rd lap, Qin Miao chose to pit and change tires when he was actually 3 seconds behind Verstappen, who was in second place.

Qin Miao's stint left the team with a lot of room for error. Taking into account the 2.5 seconds for tire change, there is still 3 seconds of room for error, which is larger than Hamilton's room for error.

In other words, as long as the team did not give Qin Miao a pit stop time of more than 5.5 seconds to change tires, Qin Miao could still stay in the first position and lead after coming out of the maintenance area.

And judging by the ability Qin Miao has shown on the track to protect his tires, after this pit stop, Qin Miao will never pit again to change tires unless a safety car or a red flag appears.

This also means that if there were no accidents during this pit stop for tire changing, Qin Miao would have completed 2% of the road to his second world championship in his career, and the remaining 99 laps would be the remaining 38%.

……

"Okay, we see that Qin Miao has also entered the maintenance area." The three commentators from Five Star Sports were all very relaxed at this time.

This is inevitable. After all, Qin Miao is sure to win today's game. He doesn't even need to win the championship of today's race. As long as he is in the top five, he can defend his title in advance. To be honest, the three commentators of Five Star Sports don't know how Qin Miao can lose in this state.

Zhou Haoran said: "After Qin Miao comes out of the pit this time, he should be three seconds ahead of Verstappen."

"That's right. Qin Miao has a lot of margin at this moment. I believe that with such ample time, the psychological pressure on Mercedes' tire-changing team will be very small, and the possibility of tire-changing errors will be greatly reduced." Brother Bing said with a smile.

The three commentators of Five Star Sports were full of confidence at this time, and were madly cheering for Qin Miao in the studio.

Qin Miao, one of the protagonists of today's game, was a little nervous. It was not because of distrust, but it was the final moment, so Qin Miao couldn't help but feel nervous.

So when Qin Miao drove his car into the maintenance area and turned on the speed limit, he said to the TR of the team: "Brothers, I have fought for a long time. Don't be too stressed about changing tires this time. I believe in you."

After Qin Miao finished speaking, he also came to the team's tire-changing area.

Thousands of times of practice made Qin Miao very familiar with this position, and he could easily and accurately park his car in the most standard position.

Although they told the tire changers not to have too much pressure, the position where Qin Miao parked his car was the one that the tire changers in the fleet were most familiar with, most accustomed to, and most comfortable for.

Qin Miao's car had not yet come to a complete stop when the front and rear jack technicians had already used their jacks to support Qin Miao's car.

As Qin Miao's car came to a complete stop, the next moment the car was lifted up on the spot. Instantly, the sound of a tire-changing pneumatic cannon was heard.

Four badly worn soft tires were removed and four new, reflective neutral tires were installed on the car.

After tightening the bolts, four tire changers raised their pneumatic cannons at almost the same time, indicating that the tires had been tightened.

Qin Miao's car was then lowered, and the front and rear jack technicians withdrew immediately, and the tire change was successfully completed.

Ever since Qin Miao entered the maintenance area, the on-site director has fixed the camera on Qin Miao.

After all, Qin Miao is the defending champion of this season, and everyone knows how important this tire change is.

Almost as soon as Qin Miao's car was put down, the time it took Qin Miao to change tires was displayed in the lower right corner: 2.1 seconds.

This should be considered one of the best tire changes for Mercedes this season.

"Beautiful!" After the tire change was completed, the three commentators of Five Star Sports who had been waiting for it clenched their fists and cheered.

After seeing this scene, Brother Fei and Brother Bing stood up and cheered.

It is hard to imagine that this is the passionate cheer that can be burst out from three people whose average age is 38.

"Well done, brothers!" After being let down, Qin Miao stepped on the gas and drove out of the parking space. He also did not forget to thank the tire changers in the team's TR.

The tire changers themselves were naturally very satisfied with the speed of the tire change, so after Qin Miao's car drove away, everyone started celebrating with a smile.

Qin Miao then returned to the track, and at this time Verstappen was 3.3 seconds behind Qin Miao.

Looking at Qin Miao, who appeared in front of him at the end of his vision and could only be seen at the end of the straight road, Verstappen felt a little desperate.

Verstappen now even has the idea of ​​giving up competing with Qin Miao for the world championship. After all, let alone finishing outside of Qin Miao's fifth place, he can't even meet the prerequisites for winning the race.

In the following time, the only thing that made Verstappen feel a little comforted was that Qin Miao's single lap speed was not faster than his own.

That's right, during the race, Mercedes' car lapped slower than Red Bull's at the Interlagos circuit in Brazil.

It was not obvious in the early stages of the race, mainly because Verstappen and Hamilton were entangled.

But the Mercedes car was not much slower, only about 0.2 seconds per lap.

The main reason is the design of the car and its adaptability to the track, which caused the performance gap between the two cars.

It is difficult to say what specific disadvantages the Red Bull car has. After all, this is a trade secret of the Red Bull team and it is impossible to tell Qin Miao, but the DRS efficiency of the Red Bull car is indeed uniquely high.

It can even be said that the DRS efficiency of the Red Bull racing car is higher than that of Mercedes' W13B.

The reason why the W13B has a fast speed on the straight is that the overall wind resistance of the W13B is smaller than that of the Red Bull car. In addition, after turning on DRS, the wind resistance is naturally strengthened.

Therefore, on some specific tracks, like today's track, starting from T13, Qin Miao and Hamilton's racing tires will begin to cool down.

By the time they finally reach the T1 braking point, the tires of both drivers will often fall below the optimal operating temperature.

This 0.2 second time difference is also caused by the three consecutive turns in the first timing section.

Therefore, Verstappen can continuously shorten the time gap between himself and Qin Miao on the track.

But the rate is very low.

But for Verstappen, he was already extremely satisfied with the closeness between himself and Qin Miao.

Verstappen no longer considers the possibility of winning the world championship. He only wants to win the race. In short, Verstappen knows that he is bound to lose, but even if he loses, he wants to lose standing.

However, the only thing on Verstappen's mind now was catching up with Qin Miao, and he never thought that Hamilton was always eyeing him from behind.

Not to mention that after catching up with Qin Miao, how can Verstappen surpass Qin Miao under Qin Miao's defense that can be called the Wall of Sighs...

In the following races, the positions of the four drivers in the front were relatively stable.

Although the distance between Verstappen and Qin Miao was obviously narrowing, neither of them was able to overtake on the track.

On the contrary, the drivers in the midfield group are always exchanging their track positions frequently.

But what is difficult for all domestic fans and Arrow fans to accept is that Zhou Guanyu's condition in today's race was obviously not very good. While his teammate Bottas moved up to fifth place, Zhou Guanyu was still hovering in the 15th place in actual position.

A stark contrast to his excellent performance at the end of this season.

It's just that when these people were dissatisfied with Zhou Guanyu's not-so-good performance in today's race, they all overlooked one thing, that is, Zhou Guanyu is, after all, only a first-year rookie driver. He does have impressive competitiveness on those tracks where he has raced in F2, but Zhou Guanyu has never raced on Interlagos, a track that also has a sprint race. Zhou Guanyu's original shortcoming of being slow to warm up was fully demonstrated in the race with only two practice sessions. Coupled with his unfamiliarity with the track, slowness was almost inevitable.

But even so, the ability and speed that Zhou Guanyu demonstrated on the track this season have proved his worth to the Arrow team.

Therefore, disappearing from a race will not affect Zhou Guanyu's position in the Alfa Romeo team.

On the 44th lap, after Hamilton tried to overtake Verstappen several times without success, he finally tried to learn the overtaking routine commonly used by Verstappen and Qin Miao, charging the battery of his car to more than 80%, and then using it all up in one go on a long straight.

Finally, on the 44th lap, he overtook Verstappen.

Verstappen, who was originally ambitious, calmed down after being overtaken by Hamilton. I don’t know if it was an illusion, but Verstappen felt a little tingling, as if he had missed something very important to him forever.

However, Verstappen did not give up the race. He continued to work hard and entered Hamilton's DRS zone again on the next lap. (End of this chapter)