How did I become an F1 driver?

After seeing this, Qin Miao leaned back in his chair with his arms folded across his chest, and couldn't help but laugh and said to Frankie beside him: "I feel that in this year's Netflix show "Need for Survival", there will definitely be a funny scene where we open champagne at the beginning of the season, and then encounter Waterloo in the first qualifying race."

After hearing what Qin Miao said, Frankie nodded: "This is indeed what they like to do."

While saying this, Qin Miao happened to see a very hidden corner next to the Mercedes team's P room. Several Netflix staff members were stealthily pointing their cameras and microphones towards this place.

Seeing this scene, Qin Miao jokingly said: "Maybe they will edit my words in as well."

Franky also smiled, but this was just a normal topic of conversation between the two and neither of them took it seriously.

In fact, this conversation between the two was actually edited in.

Although it did not become a classic joke like Steiner teaching English, it is still a topic that veteran car fans talk about with relish.

……

"By the way, the strategy team has already made the pit stop strategy for tomorrow's race. You also know from the practice session that the durability of the neutral tires is the same as that of the soft tires at the Sakhir circuit, but the lap time is only 0.2 seconds faster than the hard tires per lap, so it is basically impossible for us to use the neutral tires on the track this Grand Prix weekend. So if nothing unexpected happens, your pit stop strategy tomorrow will probably be red, white and red."

Qin Miao was a little surprised: "I want red, white and red too?"

Franky nodded: "The asphalt of the Sakhir circuit is the roughest in the whole year. The team expects that if you use the red-white-red pit stop strategy, you don't need to worry about tire wear throughout the race. You just need to follow the normal pit stop strategy."

"Of course, if the lap times and durability of your two sets of tires remain as strong as before, the team will also try their best to make you finish the red and white races in one stop."

Qin Miao nodded: "We'll see when the time comes..."

After chatting with Franky for more than ten minutes about work and the things that needed attention in tomorrow's main competition, Qin Miao packed up his things and went back to the hotel to rest.

Nothing happened that night. The next day, the Bahrain Grand Prix began.

Qin Miao arrived at the paddock early as usual.

It is worth mentioning that as Qin Miao came to the track, he saw many Middle Eastern fans wearing white robes, and these fans were holding the national flags of their own countries when they entered the paddock.

But perhaps because of cultural differences, the national flags brought by these fans had a lot of things painted on them.

But Qin Miao remembered that there was no custom among car fans in the Middle East to raise such flags when supporting others.

This behavior of bringing a flag to support the driver is generally only done by spectators in Europe with a strong racing background.

But it's obvious that these guys are oil guys.

Although the paintings were well done and some were quite creative, Qin Miao still felt somewhat uncomfortable looking at them.

After all, the origin of our country's national flag is different from that of other European and American countries, and our country's national flag has a national flag law...

So after Qin Miao saw this, he asked his agency to prepare an article on their social media platform.

Of course Qin Miao was not planning to send it out at this time.

Regardless of whether they know the country's national flag protection law or not, as car fans, they most likely come here to watch Qin Miao's race with the national flags they designed just because they like Qin Miao.

From a car fan's perspective, if you come to the paddock with your carefully crafted flag full of expectations, you want to cheer for your favorite driver and hope that your carefully crafted flag can attract the driver's attention and make him give you praise or unexpected looks.

And at this moment, your favorite driver directly sends a social media update to tell you that he doesn't like you doing this and hopes that you won't do it in the future.

All your hard work is worthless in front of the other party and may even make the other party unhappy.

What a disappointment this is.

So Qin Miao planned to release this video two or three days after the British Grand Prix, and the words he used in this video should be as gentle as possible.

The next period of time is spent on pre-match activities and preparations.

Qin Miao was still playing games in his lounge, and Hamilton was still listening to music, which was no different from the previous two seasons.

Time soon came to the time before the main race.

In the night of Bahrain, Qin Miao drove his car around the track. After making sure that all parts of the car were functioning well, Qin Miao parked his car in the fourth starting grid position.

After parking the car, Qin Miao got out and heard the fans at the edge of the track greeting him through the guardrail.

After waving to them, Qin Miao began his routine pre-match preparations.

In short, it's just slacking off.

The temperature on the track tonight is very comfortable, with the air temperature at 25℃ and the track temperature at 24℃. The wind speed is very low, so there is no need to worry about the impact of crosswind on the bends. At the same time, because the race is held in the desert, there is no need to worry about rain during the race.

This is undoubtedly good news for Qin Miao.

It took more than half an hour to prepare.

In fact, during this period, drivers can move freely.

However, in order to be in good condition during the race, most drivers either meditate at their positions or use tennis to train their reaction ability and body coordination.

No one would wander around...right?

Under the broadcast camera, Qin Miao had already strolled to the side of Verstappen's RB19, which started from pole position. Under the vigilant gaze of the Red Bull team staff, Qin Miao began to look at the car from a safe distance.

However, Qin Miao didn't watch for long before he was pulled away by Reyes.

Qin Miao's behavior was indeed a bit too rude.

As time passed, Qin Miao also completed the final preparations before the game.

After putting on his equipment, hood and helmet, Qin Miao entered the W14 and fastened his seat belt with the help of Reyes and others.

"The countdown is over in the last ten minutes. Good luck in the race. We are all waiting for your good news!" After completing the tire replacement of the car and installing a new set of soft tires on Qin Miao, Reyes helped Qin Miao check the preparation of various equipment of Qin Miao. After confirming that there was no problem, he said so.

Qin Miao stretched out his hand and shook it with the other party, and said with a smile: "Are you still not sure about me?"

Reyes also smiled and patted Qin Miao's helmet: "Good luck in the game. Also, although I know it's a bit inappropriate to say this, I still hope you pay attention to safety while pursuing your limits."

Qin Miao didn't say anything, just gave Frankie a thumbs up.

After completing all the pre-race inspections, Franky and his team evacuated the track with Qin Miao's spare tire, leaving only a few people to continue keeping Qin Miao's tires warm with tire warming blankets.

Five minutes later, following the signal from the indicator lights on the track, all the remaining staff members of Qin Miao's crew also lifted Qin Miao's tire warming blanket, revealing Qin Miao's brand new set of soft tires.

Then all the technicians from all the teams evacuated to the side of the track with their belongings.

After everyone had evacuated, the indicator light on the scene turned green.

Verstappen drove out of the parking position first and started the warm-up lap of the opening race of the 2023 season.

After one lap, Verstappen returned to his position and parked the car, and Qin Miao also parked his car in the fourth starting position.

For some reason, during the time when he parked the car and waited for the driver behind to park his car on the starting grid, Qin Miao actually felt a little nervous?
Although Qin Miao's inner nervousness now is much less than the first game of the first season, it is still much more nervous than last year's opening game.

Qin Miao had a feeling that his heart rate was approaching 120 beats per minute even before the game started.

As De Vries parked the black and gold Lynk & Co, the pursuit car also got into position.

The game is about to begin.

At the same time, the three commentators of Five Star Sports have been gearing up for a whole season, and today the F1 race is finally about to begin.

"Okay, we can see that the pursuit vehicle is in position and there are five red lights!"

"Five red lights go out! The 2023 Bahrain Grand Prix officially begins!"

The moment the five red lights went out, Qin Miao instantly released the clutch button, the new racing clutch and the engine drive shaft engaged with each other, and the W14 shot out like an arrow.

Qin Miao's starting speed was as amazing as always, without any mistakes.

In fact, after the start, Qin Miao's main attention was on Hamilton in front of him.

Because Qin Miao's reaction speed at the start is faster than that of his teammates, there is a probability that Qin Miao will overtake Perez and then attack his teammate Hamilton.

But as he was running, a red shadow flashed in Qin Miao's left rearview mirror.

When Qin Miao looked over, he saw that Leclerc's Ferrari was almost side by side with his own.

Perez was pushed to the outside.

Qin Miao was stunned. It’s fine that Red Bull is playing dirty, but now you, Leclerc, with your thick eyebrows and big eyes, are also playing dirty?
However, it was obvious that Qin Miao was overthinking this, because Leclerc's reaction speed at the start of today's race was extremely fast, only 0.14 seconds.

Qin Miao ranked first in the whole game, and even his reaction speed was 0.22 seconds.

Leclerc's starting reaction speed is enough to compete for the fastest starting reaction speed in the 23rd season.

With such a fast reaction speed at the start, by the time they reached T1, they could only barely keep pace with Qin Miao.

It can even be said that with such a fast reaction speed at the start, Leclerc had not yet completed the parallel with Qin Miao when almost reaching the braking point of T1, and even brought pressure to Qin Miao. This is enough to illustrate the weakness of Ferrari's speed this season.

Leclerc has completely taken Ferrari to a level that does not belong to him.

It's somewhat like Qin Miao from last season.

Qin Miao's reaction speed at the start was faster than Hamilton's, but after the start, Hamilton was forced to take the outside line due to the pressure from Perez, who was in third place.

Qin Miao had Leclerc inside, his teammate Hamilton in front, and Perez blocking the road on the left front. For a while, he couldn't find any space to display his abilities.

So after Qin Miao started, he was trapped in the traffic and could hardly find a gap to overtake. Of course, the red Ferrari on the left was in the same situation as Qin Miao. Leclerc had the best start of the race, but after the start, he did not move up even one place.

Therefore, at the first start of the 2023 season, there was no change in position among the top six drivers.

The next two turns, T2 and T3, did not have any overtaking points, but they also successfully straightened out the crowded traffic ahead.

Verstappen was still in the lead, and after three turns he had pulled at least 0.4 seconds ahead of Hamilton behind him.

After Perez came out of the corner, he was within 0.3 seconds of Hamilton.

Qin Miao's exit line at T1 was interfered by Leclerc on the outside, so he was not able to start accelerating so early when exiting the corner, so the distance between Qin Miao and Perez was relatively far, about 0.4 seconds.

But no matter what, a slightly bigger disadvantage is better than losing the position.

Leclerc wanted to compete with Qin Miao for position in T2, but was squeezed by Qin Miao and his left tire went off the track, causing him to lose a little speed. He missed the only attacking opportunity for Qin Miao in this race.

At that time, Leclerc felt that Qin Miao, who was sitting in the racing car, was a little strange.

Because although Qin Miao’s defensive ability was fierce in the past, he was also very disciplined.

It’s a bit like the mafia who understands the law.

He may be dirty, but he will never cross the bottom line.

For example, as long as it is within the scope allowed by the rules, he will push his defense to the limit, and be particularly tough. If you force your way in, I will dare to push you out.

But now, Qin Miao's defense seemed to have broken some kind of restriction.

He is no longer that nice guy and he is starting to touch the gray area.

The squeeze on Leclerc just now did not cause any loss of position, but only missed an opportunity to attack Qin Miao, but that squeeze on defense was still suspected of being a violation.

Leclerc was a little confused at this moment.

What the hell did Qin Miao go through during this winter break?

Just when everyone thought the race would get on track after it started.

Wonderful scenes on the track began to appear one after another.

At T4 on the first lap, Stroll wanted to defend against Ocon's attack behind him, so at the braking point of T4, he took the inside line.

But perhaps because he focused all his attention on Ocon behind him, Stroll's braking point when entering T4 was still the normal braking point for entering the corner.

But this braking point is not suitable for Stroll who is now on the inside line, it is a bit too late.

In addition, Stroll was driving on the inside line, which is not a regular driving line. There is not much rubber on the track and the overall grip is not as good as the driving line.

As a result, Stroll missed his braking point.

Then, as expected, the young master's racing car couldn't stop and rushed forward.

The driver in front of the young master is his teammate Alonso.

Then the young master directly torpedoed his tutor.

Fortunately, the impact of the collision was not serious and Stroll was turning right all the time.

The collision occurred between Alonso's right rear wheel and Stroll's left front end panel. Strictly speaking, the left front end panel of Stroll's car hit a relatively soft object.

Moreover, the quality of Martin's racing car is not like that of a certain green team. This time, the front nose end plate of the young master's racing car was not even damaged. After being torpedoed, the boss just slightly corrected the steering wheel of his racing car and stabilized the car again.

After being hit, the leader said nothing and continued driving.

The boss actually has a bad temper. After all, can you imagine that he could mock Honda's engine as a chicken-skin rabbit in front of all Honda fans at Honda's home ground?

If he isn't crazy, who would be?
Therefore, when encountering such a situation, he would usually directly criticize the TR in the team, or at the very least make a few sarcastic remarks.

But I looked through the rearview mirror and saw which idiot it was... Oh, it's the young master, then it's okay...

Young Master, you hit me well. The force was just right, not too big nor too small, and it didn't even cause any damage to the car. The key is that you went into the race with injuries, and in such an extreme situation, you were able to avoid further losses. That's really amazing!

After all, he is 42 years old, and his temper has become much more restrained than before. Moreover, he was angry with his teammates more than once or twice last season, so he seems to be relatively indifferent to all this.

On the bright side, at least the young master didn't hit me on purpose to disgust me like O'Connell did.

The young master... is just a little unskilled.

In the F1 arena, no matter how minor the collision is, the impact on the car will be huge.

Although there was no damage to the car, the collision caused both drivers to lose their rhythm out of the corners.

Both of them dropped two places to 9th and 10th.

Lion Ocon and substitute king Hulkenberg both rose two places.

Meanwhile, at the front row of the track.

After one lap, Qin Miao had shortened the time gap between himself and Perez to 0.3 seconds, and he could attack as soon as DRS was turned on.

Unlike Qin Miao, Hamilton looked at the back of Verstappen's car running farther and farther away, and a big question mark popped up in his head.

No, man.

If nothing unexpected happens, the race has only just finished one lap, right? The time gap between me and Verstappen...

Why does it seem like only one second? ? ?

The director seemed to have a telepathic connection with Hamilton. When Hamilton was stunned, the director gave the time difference between the drivers on the left side of the broadcast screen.

The time gap between Verstappen in first place and Hamilton in second place is 1.131 seconds.

You don't even have to look at the data on the left. Just by looking at the broadcast screen, you can clearly see that there is a distance of at least three cars between Verstappen and Hamilton, while the distance between Hamilton and Perez is at most the size of one car.

When the race reached the third lap and DRS was turned on, the time gap between Verstappen and Hamilton had reached 1.8 seconds.

You know, the Bahrain Sakhir Circuit is to a certain extent very suitable for Mercedes-Benz's W14 to give full play to its advantages in straight-line speed and acceleration.

But before the start of this season, no one expected that Verstappen would be able to create such a big time gap in just three laps in the first race.

Although Red Bull Racing was indeed the team champion last season, the wind tunnel and CFD that were cut after Red Bull Racing won the team championship are as if they had not been cut at all. On the contrary, Red Bull's performance has become even stronger.

"What did Red Bull do during this winter break? Why did it suddenly speed up?" On the Five Star Sports side, the commentators also expressed deep incomprehension and confusion about Red Bull's sudden increase in speed.

And here in the Mercedes team's P room.

After two rounds of confusion, he said: "WTF? This doesn't make sense! Why is the Red Bull so fast?" Toto, who had been crossing his arms, now spread out his arms, his face full of helplessness and confusion.

On the track, Hamilton was also quite helpless at this time. He was running very fast! Really fast! Why couldn't he catch up with Verstappen?

And as time goes by, Verstappen is getting further and further away.

According to the team's calculations, Verstappen's average lap speed was 0.3 seconds faster than Qin Miao and Hamilton.

This time difference is normal for the cars in the Earth Group and the Center of the Earth Group.

However, no one had expected that there would be such a large time gap between the two Mars rovers before the race started.

Ah, maybe Red Bull thought of it.

As time goes on, Verstappen will get further and further away.

Looking at the Red Bull racing car that was gradually moving away and whose taillights were almost out of sight, Hamilton suddenly had a bad feeling: Damn, Verstappen won't finish the race more than 10 seconds ahead of me, right?

At the same time, with the DRS turned on, Qin Miao, who had been biting Perez tightly, couldn't help but smile cruelly.

"Finally I got the chance!"

In the DRS area between T3 and T4, Qin Miao entered the DRS area behind Perez and turned on DRS.

The moment DRS was turned on, the W14 seemed to have unloaded all the burdens on its body, and the final speed increased by 20 kilometers per hour.

The reason why it was so much slower than the DRS efficiency in the qualifying round was that Qin Miao's car was still full of fuel at that time. When the weight of the car was too heavy, the acceleration would naturally be slower.

But this did not affect Qin Miao's rapid pursuit of Perez in front of him.

Perez looked at Qin Miao, who had finally left the lead behind him to 0.7 seconds, and then he caught up to 0.2 seconds behind him in a DRS zone.

It was as if all my efforts during these three laps were a joke.

But to be honest, Perez felt more helpless inside.

Perez has been at Red Bull for almost three years, and he has had many battles with Qin Miao over the years.

At the beginning, Perez even looked down on Qin Miao and wondered why Mercedes would directly promote a rookie driver from F2 to Mercedes' main team. He didn't even follow Mercedes' tradition of sending rookie drivers to Williams for two years of training before promoting them.

After seeing Qin Miao's speed on the track, Perez also understood why Mercedes did this.

The youngest world champion, if Perez were the team leader of the Mercedes team, he would keep Qin Miao at all costs. (End of this chapter)