How did I become an F1 driver?

But on tracks dominated by straight lines, such as Miami, Azerbaijan and Bahrain, this W14 will have unparalleled dominance.

Especially the Azerbaijan Street Race.

This track is full of right-angle turns and long straights, which is the best stage for the W14 to perform.

For a moment, Qin Miao didn't know whether this was a good thing or a bad thing.

However, Qin Miao still asked curiously: "Under such extreme working conditions of a racing car, can the engine withstand it?"

In fact, Qin Miao was just asking casually. After all, the durability of Mercedes' engine was there last season. The engine of the Mercedes-Benz car never failed during the entire season and was always very stable.

Therefore, the stability of Mercedes-Benz's engine after entering the ground effect era left a very stable impression in Qin Miao's mind.

There is also more confidence at this time.

But after hearing Qin Miao's question, Elliot's face looked a little embarrassed.

However, Elliott did not hide it, but explained: "Because the car has added a lot of weight to the aerodynamic kit, the team's engine department has reduced the weight of the power unit to a certain extent. In addition, we have upgraded the power unit to a certain extent during the winter break, and the horsepower has increased by at least 5 horsepower. Therefore, we cannot guarantee that there will be no problems with the car's engine during the race."

Qin Miao:......

Although this news is not very good, it is actually the normal situation in the F1 arena. It is abnormal that Mercedes-Benz did not retire due to engine failure throughout the entire last season.

"Well, at least you told me the truth, but when I was on the track, I tried my best to drive the car gently," Qin Miao said.

But after hearing what Qin Miao said, Elliot's mouth twitched.

mild?

Drivers like Qin Miao and Hamilton can't wait to step on the accelerator directly into the fuel tank when driving a racing car. What they consider to be gentle may just be that they are 0.1 second slower than the normal qualifying when they step on the accelerator.

After chatting with Elliott, Qin Miao had a general impression of his car for the new season, and then he left the team's P room.

After arriving here, Qin Miao had completed all his work for the day.

After returning to the team’s home and packing up his things, Qin Miao prepared to leave the paddock and go back to the hotel to rest.

However, after leaving the paddock, Qin Miao saw a lot of fans outside the drivers' parking lot. When they saw him, they all shouted his name excitedly.

Qin Miao smiled and went over to sign for them before leaving the enclosure.

After returning to the hotel, Qin Miao subconsciously opened his mobile phone and started looking at the paddock information.

Most of the news was about the paint jobs of various teams during the recent winter tests, the aerodynamic design of the teams, and speculation about the situation on the track in the new season. Qin Miao was just watching for fun.

Of course, what everyone is most concerned about is Mercedes-Benz. After all, only the Mercedes-Benz team's cars do not have side boxes.

In fact, if Mercedes' design is too strong, other teams will definitely jointly report to the FIA ​​and declare that Mercedes' side box design is illegal.

After all, your method is faster than any of ours. Even if you do it legally and in compliance with regulations, we will still deal with you.

But what no one, including Mercedes itself, expected was that this racing car design would fail miserably at the very beginning.

Because of this incident, no one opposes Mercedes-Benz's design anymore.

As for whether Mercedes will improve the performance of the car later?
Mercedes didn’t win the team championship in the 22nd season, so even if other teams have opinions about it, they can’t raise them.

This incident just passed.

After watching for more than ten minutes, as the alarm clock rang, Qin Miao began to get ready for bed.

Nothing happened that night. The next day, Friday, was the day when the first and second practice sessions of the Bahrain Grand Prix, the opening race of the 23rd season, began.

It is worth mentioning that with Qin Miao winning two world championships in F1, the sport of F1 is no longer a niche circle in China.

Although F1 is still not a popular entertainment activity among the middle-aged population, in the eyes of young people, F1 has become a must-see competition.

It’s a bit similar to the LPL during its peak period.

As a result, all major domestic F1 race broadcasting platforms have now begun to fully broadcast practice sessions.

This also includes commentators from Five Star Sports.

Qin Miao's figure also appeared in the broadcast screen amid the words of the Five Star Sports commentators.

At this time, Qin Miao was already sitting in his No. 66 racing car, with the visor of his helmet open, staring at the display in front of him.

With the telephoto lens, the audience watching the live practice match could even count Qin Miao's eyelashes one by one.

"Qin Miao, our Chinese F1 driver, is the youngest double champion in F1 history." Looking at Qin Miao appearing on the monitor, the commentators were also filled with emotion.

"I heard that Qin Miao and his team's racing car has good performance this year? Qin Miao said at the press conference that the overall characteristics of their car this year are very suitable for the driving styles of the two drivers compared to last year."

"I hope Qin Miao and his team can win the championship again this season."

……

In addition to taking pictures of the two-time world champion for a while, the photographers on the scene focused more on Mercedes' W14.

After all, the W14 at this time is very different from the W14 during the winter test period, especially in appearance, there have been very obvious changes in many places.

It's not just the photographer in charge of the broadcast. Teams like Red Bull and Ferrari have also sent a lot of people to study the aerodynamic design of Mercedes' cars this season.

The only difference is that they can wear FIA vests, hold cameras in their hands, and dress like professional photographers.

At this time, the advantage of Mercedes-Benz's insistence on zero side box design was reflected.

Because many of the W14's aerodynamic designs are designed based on the characteristics of zero side boxes, even if people from Ferrari and Red Bull understand the reasons and ideas of Mercedes designers in designing this component in this way, and can understand the purpose of such a design, they cannot use it immediately.

It's like using Windows on one side and Linux on the other.

It is the same program, but the program on the Windows system cannot be moved to the Linux system for use without being decoded and recompiled.

However, by observing in this way, they will definitely be able to obtain some information that they did not know before.

For example, they know that the Mercedes cars will be particularly fast on the straights this season.

Of course, they don’t have a clear answer yet as to how fast it can be.

On the track, after the practice session started, Qin Miao did not stay in the team's P room, but drove the W14 out immediately.

When Qin Miao just left the maintenance area, he didn't have a clear feeling because of the speed limit.

But after coming out of the maintenance area entrance, the speed limit was lifted and Qin Miao started to accelerate with the floor accelerator, he immediately felt the difference.

This season's W14's acceleration ability is obviously stronger than that of W13B.

And the entire acceleration process is stronger than W13B.

Although this feeling is very slight and even ordinary people may not be able to feel it, Qin Miao does have true feelings in this regard.

if so……

Does this mean that I don’t have to worry about being trapped in the DRS train?
The straight-line acceleration capability of the W14 is already incredible, and if DRS is available...

Qin Miao didn't dare to think about how fast he could run on the straight when he had the slipstream of the car in front and DRS to take advantage of.

Maybe this season's W14 can break F1's top speed record for so many years.

As Qin Miao drove into the Bahrain Sakhir Circuit and began his warm-up lap, Qin Miao's work for the day began.

To be honest, Qin Miao also knew that after the introduction of the budget cap rule, the team did not have the resources to develop a bucket car. Qin Miao was even mentally prepared that the cornering performance of this W14 would not be as good as last year's W13B.

As for the driving experience on the simulator?
The reason why the simulator is called a simulator is because the feeling of driving on a simulator is not the same as driving in reality.

If it is possible to do it exactly the same, why bother running a race in real life at such a high risk? Why not just run it on a simulator?

So more often than not, the data and feelings on the simulator can only be used as a reference. After all, the simulator cannot simulate the ever-changing reality.

After starting the test, what really surprised Qin Miao was that while the W14 had excellent acceleration ability and tail speed on the straights, its cornering performance in medium and low-speed corners was not as bad as he had imagined.

It is basically on the same level as last year's first-generation muscle car W13B.

To be honest, this incident surprised Qin Miao even more than the incredible straight-line speed of W14 this year.

After the warm-up lap, Qin Miao was not familiar with the car, so he used the race training he had done on the simulator to run a flying lap in the practice session.

Qin Miao did not push with all his strength in this lap. Although Qin Miao had a thorough understanding of this car and could control it with ease with the help of system skills, Qin Miao could not guarantee that pushing so hard in the first lap would not affect the engine and other components inside the car system.

At the same time, you also have to consider the mentality of the team members. After all, if you squeeze the car to death right from the start, they will be nervous and worried when they see it.

So Qin Miao’s first flying circle was relatively restrained.

However, when running in a restrained manner, this W14 still gave Qin Miao a big surprise.

On the one hand, the characteristic of the car is still understeer, which is in line with Qin Miao and Hamilton's driving habits. On the other hand, the tail speed of this car on the straight road is indeed terrifyingly fast.

Qin Miao tried to turn on DRS with the W14 in full condition. When using white tires, Qin Miao ran a final speed of 1 kilometers per hour before the braking point of T330. This speed is the same as the final speed when Qin Miao ran the flying lap with soft tires and DRS during the winter test.

From this we can see how terrifying the tail speed of W14 is, and this is not even in its complete state, which also means that there is still room for improvement in the tail speed.

Next, the new chassis structure improves the mechanical grip of the car, making Qin Miao feel like he is driving a W11 when driving the car through low-speed corners.

It's like a rail car.

Of course, this car is not without its shortcomings.

The car's advantages are in low-speed corners, high-speed corners and long straights where aerodynamics have little effect, but its grip in medium-speed corners is obviously insufficient and it has severe nose-pushing.

Moreover, the consistency is a bit poor. When you came through in the last lap, you only turned the steering wheel halfway and kept the throttle unchanged to turn. But for the next turn, you may need to turn the steering wheel 2/3 to turn.

Another problem is that the tires have difficulty heating up. Because a lot of the airflow from the front wing is used to guide the sealing of the car floor, the overall downforce at the front of the car is actually relatively low.

But overall, the W14 is still a good car.

And these shortcomings can be solved in the subsequent upgrades.

"Awesome! The overall feeling of the car is great." This is what Qin Miao said to Reyes and Elliott after returning to the team's P room after a practice session in the first training session.

Hamilton also highly praised the performance of the car after returning to the team's P room: "This is definitely the best car I have driven in the past two years. Well done, everyone. I really like this car. You have created a work of art!"

In the subsequent practice sessions, Qin Miao and Hamilton also installed Pitot tubes on their cars and began to test the airflow direction of the cars.

In fact, other small teams, such as Lynk & Co., have completed their airflow testing during the winter test in Bahrain.

They don't have so many twists and turns. The aerodynamic layout of the car during winter testing will be the same as the system layout during the race.

Even if there are changes, it is not because they want to hide their shortcomings like Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull. It is most likely because they found that the original parts data was not very good during the winter testing period, so they replaced them with another set.

Of course, Mercedes-Benz’s retesting process is not complicated, and the data is collected while running.

Mercedes is also an old racing team, and it must have plans and reasonable arrangements in this regard.

Soon, Friday's two practice sessions were busy.

After Qin Miao finished his work for the day, he also came to the post-match interview area to accept the post-match interview.

At this time, Qin Miao happened to see Verstappen and Perez here.

Moreover, all the spots in the post-race interview area are occupied by drivers, and now is the peak period for interviews.

Basically all the drivers finish weighing at this point and then come to be interviewed, so it just happens to be a crowd.

In fact, normally, this phenomenon only occurs at the end of qualifying and the end of the race.

But it rarely appears in practice.

The reason why there were so many people today was, on the one hand, that there were not many reporters today, after all, it was just a practice session, and on the other hand, it just so happened that all the drivers got together.

Qin Miao was not in a hurry and found a pillar to lean against while waiting for the interview to finish.

Coincidentally, Qin Miao's position was just right for hearing Verstappen's interview.

After all, it was the first post-match interview of the new season, and it was a post-match interview after the practice session. Naturally, the questions the host asked were related to the performance of the new season's car.

The host naturally also asked Verstappen about this aspect.

There was no smile on Verstappen's face. Instead, he said seriously: Red Bull's start to this season has not been good. There are many problems with this season's car that need to be solved urgently. It should not be possible to challenge Mercedes in a short time.

To be honest, Qin Miao really didn't mean to eavesdrop.

But Qin Miao was still very happy after hearing what Verstappen said.

If nothing unexpected happens this season, Mercedes will be stable again.

Soon it was Qin Miao's turn to be interviewed. Facing the host's questions, Qin Miao's answers were quite standard, but at least Qin Miao did not underestimate the performance of his team's racing cars.

Qin Miao's work on Friday came to an end after the post-match interview.

However, Qin Miao was in a good mood after the interview, after all, his opponent was unlucky.

Qin Miao returned to the hotel and rested for a night.

The next day, Saturday, was the start of practice three and qualifying.

It is worth mentioning that Qin Miao is now a hot commodity in the paddock.

When Qin Miao arrived at the paddock on Saturday, many team leaders had also returned to the paddock.

After all, everyone was busy with work at that time, so there was no one on the track who specifically went to block Qin Miao just to chat with him. However, basically, as long as the senior management of the team met Qin Miao on the road, they would greet him with a smile or chat with him.

Some people came up to ask about Qin Miao's well-being, while others were more direct and asked Qin Miao directly if he was interested in joining their team. Qin Miao could propose any conditions, and they could even give Qin Miao shares in the team.

Of course, they can only be given dry shares and enjoy the right to dividends, but they cannot participate in management.

To be honest, looking at the olive branches and good gifts offered by other teams, Qin Miao not only did not feel any joy, but also felt a little headache.

He really didn't want to deal with such a situation, nor was he used to dealing with such a situation.

But there is no way. Before Qin Miao's contract is officially finalized, it is estimated that all the teams will continue to extend olive branches to him.

As for Qin Miao's own thoughts, to be honest, looking at Mercedes' W14 this season, Qin Miao still wants to stay in Mercedes-Benz. At least if he stays in Mercedes-Benz, the performance of the car he drives is guaranteed.

And if he joined other racing teams... no matter how good they were at bragging or how good they were at making PPTs, Qin Miao wouldn't dare to gamble until they actually got a racing car that could win the championship.

As for Ferrari, which Qin Miao’s agency is also in contact with... Qin Miao decided to see if Ferrari, led by Vassell, has any say this season.

If there is a saying, it is not impossible for Qin Miao to consider the Red Leaping Horse.

Anyway, the negotiations between his agency and the racing team won't produce results so quickly. Even if a charter is really issued, he can still consider it for a while.

I won’t go into details about the three exercises here.

As the sky gradually darkened, it was time for the qualifying round to begin.

"Okay, welcome to watch the live broadcast of the 2023 Formula One World Grand Prix Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying brought to you by Five Star Sports. I am Bingge."

"I'm Brother Fei."

"I'm Brother Ran."

After the familiar opening, the three commentators also started chatting familiarly:
"Okay, after a whole winter, it's finally time for the new season."

"Yes, I never felt that the two months of winter break were so difficult before. But since Qin Miao and Zhou Guanyu joined F1 one after another, Lynk & Co also gave all domestic F1 fans a huge New Year's gift during the Chinese New Year. I believe that all the audiences at home and abroad have been looking forward to this year's F1."

"This winter break is getting harder and harder every year."

"Of course, as fans, we naturally sincerely hope that Qin Miao, Zhou Guanyu, and our friends including Lynk & Co., will have a good start in the first race of the 2023 season."

When the commentators of Five Star Sports were making their opening remarks, Qin Miao and Hamilton had already driven the car out of the team's P room.

Both drivers used medium downforce rear wings today.

And if nothing unexpected happens, the two Mercedes drivers will use the same downforce rear wing throughout the season.

As the two began their warm-up lap, the drivers from Red Bull and Ferrari also drove out of their team's P rooms.

Q1 has begun.

In the first round of flying laps, Qin Miao and Hamilton began to test the limits of their cars, and the drivers of other teams were similar.

In the first flying lap, relying on the experience accumulated from three practice sessions and a set of comfortable-to-use tuning settings, Qin Miao finally ran a time of 1:31.120.

This result is not good for Mercedes-Benz, and is even 0.15 seconds slower than Qin Miao's teammate Hamilton.

But this is Q1 after all, and it is only the first flying lap of Q1, especially considering that the person who achieved this result was Qin Miao.

Well... that's not surprising.

However, this is a new car after all, and it is also the first time for Qin Miao to drive a racing car of this nature. The novelty has not yet worn off, so Qin Miao did not clock out after getting a result that could stably enter Q2 as usual.

I ran another flying circle in the second round.

However, Qin Miao used the same set of soft tires that he had just used in the flying lap for this flying lap, and Albon also disrupted Qin Miao's racing rhythm while he was running the flying lap.

Although the impact was not that great, Qin Miao's flying circle naturally did not break the record of his first flying circle.

In fact, Mercedes Benz wanted to stop him, but Qin Miao had already gone out.

Finally, Q1 ended and the drivers eliminated in Q1 were:
Norris, Gasly, Magnussen, Piastri, de Vries.

To be honest, although McLaren was not a top team at the beginning, it has always been an upper-middle team. However, no one expected that an economic crisis would directly turn McLaren into a bottom team.

I didn’t even make it to Q2 in the first qualifying race of the year.

And De Vries...

His performance in today's game was indeed very different from his performance when he was a substitute player.

All I can say is that young people still need to be tempered.

Lynk & Co is also willing to give young people more opportunities.

Q2, the first flying circle, Qin Miao successfully advanced.

After Qin Miao finished his first flying circle, he created a flying circle that would allow him to advance to Q1.

Just when Qin Miao still wanted to run another lap on the track, he was called back by Toto.

Since we have already advanced to Q2, there is no need to waste engine life on the track.

This season is still long. If you are really interested in a car with this kind of characteristics, Mercedes-Benz cars will develop in this direction in the future.

By that time you'll be able to drink until you vomit, so don't be stubborn anymore.

Moreover, last season the engine was very durable, so you could drive it as you wanted without worrying about its service life.

But this season is not the time, the engine durability still needs to be used sparingly. (End of this chapter)