How did I become an F1 driver?

Chapter 514 Chapter 518: The gap between ideal and reality

On the track, after Qin Miao made the right bet, the first thing Verstappen thought of was to counterattack.

In T10, Qin Miao did have the advantage of the inside line, but Verstappen still wanted to try, so he took the cross line in T10.

But after the two reached T10, the acceleration of Qin Miao's car itself plus Qin Miao's ERS and DRS.

With the help of three acceleration modes, Qin Miao even widened the distance between himself and Verstappen at a speed visible to the naked eye.

By the time Qin Miao reached the braking point of T11, the time gap between Verstappen and Qin Miao had been widened to 0.7 seconds. All the advantages accumulated during that period of time were directly wiped out by Qin Miao's combination of punches.

At this moment, Verstappen not only regretted his impulsiveness, but also felt more stunned and puzzled.

He really couldn't understand how Qin Miao dared to do that?

Are you, Qin Miao, the worm in my stomach? How could you brake so late at that position?

Aren't you really afraid that I don't have any extra thoughts?

In fact, there was indeed an element of gambling in Qin Miao's move.

But Qin Miao also had his reasons. On the one hand, Qin Miao knew that the Red Bull car's straight-line acceleration was not as good as his without DRS.

On the other hand, Qin Miao and Verstappen have been fighting for so long, and Qin Miao also believes that Verstappen has made some progress and will definitely have other ways to attack him.

Moreover, the F1 arena is a place where only results matter. No matter what the process is, at least now the facts have proved that Qin Miao made the right bet.

After seeing Qin Miao's incredible performance, Toto, who had been watching the game in the team's P room, couldn't help but say to Qin Miao through the team TR: "Well done Qin Miao, that's it, keep it up."

And Verstappen.

Compared to when he was brake tested by Qin Miao just now, Verstappen was much calmer at this time.

Because Verstappen knew that although the brake test just now was dirty, at least the rules did not explicitly state that the car behind could not be braked for testing.

And the braking just now made Verstappen convinced Qin Miao. Qin Miao is really awesome, courageous and daring to take the gamble.

But this does not mean that Verstappen has no chance.

He still has one more chance.

However, what Verstappen didn't know was that after the attack and defense was over, his father, Jos Verstappen, who was watching the game in the Red Bull Racing team's P room, sighed.

From his point of view, if Verstappen had not attacked Qin Miao after seeing Qin Miao's mistake just now, Verstappen would have probably attacked Qin Miao in the second DRS zone.

At that time, relying on the time gap of less than 0.4 seconds between Verstappen and Qin Miao, as well as the super high DRS efficiency of the Red Bull car, it was easy to surpass Qin Miao.

But to the old father's regret, Verstappen did not resist the temptation.

Of course, Jos also admitted that his judgment was based on a third-party perspective. He had not experienced Qin Miao's brake test, and he had not made this judgment in a calm state after driving 56 laps of high-intensity racing on the track.

Even Jose himself had a feeling that if he was the person on the field at that time, he would probably try to seize this opportunity just like his son.

And to be honest, I don't know whether Qin Miao's accident should be called a mistake or if there was indeed something wrong with the tire locking.

It just so happened that only the left front wheel was locked, and the right front wheel was fine. The rear wheel also remained normal to facilitate the rear wheel grip during the subsequent acceleration. Moreover, Qin Miao locked the wheel for a very short time, and the adjustment time was even shorter.

It can be said that Qin Miao's loss due to that mistake was only about 0.1 to 0.2 seconds, and more of the time he gave up the inside line of the track to Verstappen.

In short, no matter what, Qin Miao has taken advantage of Verstappen's negligence to take the lead.

After Verstappen's attack failed again, he regained a little composure.

At the end of the 1th lap, after passing the DRS zone and closing in on Qin Miao within second, Verstappen knew he had no chance to waste.

In the DRS area on the starting straight and the DRS area between T3 and T4, you must get as close to Qin Miao as possible.

But during this process, no matter what mistakes Qin Miao made, he could not do anything to Qin Miao, and it would be best not to even have the idea of ​​doing so.

Verstappen silently stamped his own thoughts.

The DRS area between T10 and T11 is where you should start.

As for the DRS zone on the last lap…

Verstappen didn't even consider it.

One reason is that it is too difficult to overtake in this position, and the other is that the acceleration ability of the Mercedes car is too strong this season. If it comes to competing in acceleration ability, Verstappen doesn't have much confidence.

Last but not least, Verstappen did not dare to save his limited battery power for last.

Even if it is used, the entire DRS area between T10 and T11 will be used up.

Verstappen is ready to go all in in the DRS zone between T10 and T11!
"Okay, we see both cars crossing the finish line again and it's down to the final lap of the Bahrain Grand Prix."

"It's the last lap. I hope Qin Miao can withstand the pressure from Verstappen."

……

On the track, Qin Miao's car still had 60% battery left.

In fact, Qin Miao can also charge his racing car.

However, the FIA ​​stipulates that the ERS can only be used for 33 seconds per lap.

When the electric energy is fully released, about 33% of the power in Qin Miao's racing car can be used up in about 65 seconds.

It would be a waste if you save too much.

After finishing the DRS zone on the starting straight, Verstappen was 0.5 seconds behind Qin Miao.

It can be seen that as the race progressed, Verstappen's tires began to become a little overwhelmed.

If it were the tires from the previous lap, Verstappen would most likely be able to catch up to Qin Miao, 0.4 or 0.3 seconds behind him.

After a long chase and the intense driving in the last lap, Verstappen's tires were getting closer and closer to the cliff.

At least this is good news for Qin Miao.

In the next two corners, Verstappen caught up with Qin Miao by 0.4 seconds.

However, in the DRS zones of T3 and T4, Verstappen only caught up to the position 0.3 seconds behind Qin Miao.

You heard it right, in one DRS zone Verstappen only caught up with Qin Miao by 0.1 second.

As a result, Qin Miao did not take the inside line at the end of T4, but entered the corner at a normal angle.

Obviously, Verstappen did this on purpose. He knew that this might be his last chance to attack and overtake Qin Miao in this race.

In the next few bends of the second period, Verstappen was carefully guarding against Qin Miao's brake test on the one hand, and on the other hand, he tried his best to keep the time gap between himself and Qin Miao in the range of 0.3~0.2.

And always be on guard against possible "mistakes" that Qin Miao might make.

But Qin Miao also knew that it would never happen again.

Even this second move was useless to Qin Miao. Qin Miao did not make any mistakes in this round.

After successfully passing the six bends of the second timing section, Qin Miao arrived at T10.

Before Verstappen arrived at T10, he focused almost all of his attention on Qin Miao. He even had two different plans in mind at this moment.

The first one is how he should route if Qin Miao makes a mistake.

Another way is that if Qin Miao is testing himself by braking at the center of a curve, which route should he take to avoid it without braking or losing speed.

But so many ideas in Verstappen's mind were destined to fail.

Because Qin Miao didn't do anything this time, nothing weird happened, he just came out of the corner normally and arrived at the DRS area.

On the contrary, because of Verstappen's high concentration during the long race and the huge physical consumption, coupled with his timidity at the last corner, the time gap between him and Qin Miao was widened to 0.5 when they exited the corner.

But Verstappen didn't care about that. As Verstappen entered the straight, he sucked in Qin Miao's tailstream, turned on ERS, and then entered the DRS area and turned on DRS. Verstappen's speed in chasing Qin Miao increased sharply.

The only extra kinetic energy Qin Miao had was his ERS, and he began to use it.

However, Qin Miao did not directly activate the ERS mode which would be used up in a short period of time.

After all, Verstappen doesn't have to consider the final section after crossing the finish line.

But Qin Miao couldn't help but consider it.

In the past, Qin Miao’s outstanding feature was that he was a barefoot man who was not afraid of wearing shoes, but the problem is that now Qin Miao is the one wearing shoes. The double champion is now facing Verstappen, the strongest background in his career.

Verstappen is no less inferior to you, Qin Miao, now.

A person will be hanged in the sky after death, but will live forever. This may be Verstappen’s greatest belief at this moment.

Verstappen's car began to approach Qin Miao's car quickly, visibly.

0.4 seconds.

0.3 seconds.

0.2 seconds.

Qin Miao, sitting in the racing car, sighed. So far, he had done everything he could.

Whether or not the team can retain its championship title will depend on how well the team's engineers increase the horsepower of its W14 during the winter break.

Soon, Verstappen caught up with Qin Miao by 0.2 seconds, a position where he could threaten Qin Miao. Qin Miao took the initiative to change lanes and went to the inside.

However, Qin Miao did not change route directly to the inside, but once again predicted Verstappen's idea and changed route to the inside before the opponent was ready to go to the inside.

It just happened that Verstappen wanted to change lanes and make a breakthrough on the inside.

Although his rhythm was somewhat disrupted by Qin Miao's blocking, Verstappen sneered. He now had at least a 10 kilometers per hour speed advantage over you, Qin Miao. What else can you do to defend against me except disgusting me from time to time?
So even though Verstappen did not get the advantageous position in the inside at this time, Verstappen did not despise the outside and started to shoot from Qin Miao's outside.

Although Qin Miao's wake effect was gone, Verstappen had been absorbing the wake behind Qin Miao for long enough, and had a large enough relative speed advantage over Qin Miao.

Qin Miao looked at the Red Bull racing car that was approaching him quickly on the right side, and was even side by side with him when it was still 1/3 DRS zone away from the braking point.

Although he knew it was useless to do so, Qin Miao still subconsciously exerted force with his legs and stepped on the accelerator even harder.

After discovering that his car's speed didn't improve much after doing this, Qin Miao quickly realized that he couldn't hold back any more.

If I fail to withstand Verstappen's attack in this corner, then the last DRS zone will not leave me any room to maneuver.

The moment he realized this, Qin Miao turned the ERS mode adjustment knob on his steering wheel with his left hand, and the ERS full output mode was activated.

Although Verstappen was still gradually overtaking Qin Miao amid the worried and even desperate eyes of all Qin Miao's fans, Verstappen's overtaking speed began to slow down gradually after Qin Miao turned on the ERS full-release mode.

So when it came to the T11 braking point, Qin Miao's front nose was still dangerously stuck on Verstappen's left rear wheel.

Seeing that he had not completely overtaken Qin Miao before the braking point, Verstappen immediately had a bad feeling.

How come you still have electricity?
After running for so long, why do you still have electricity?
Although he was a little surprised, Verstappen also knew what he would face next.

If nothing unexpected happens, that bastard Qin Miao will definitely brake late and grab the T11 position from me.

Verstappen simply made up his mind and prepared to squeeze towards Qin Miao in the inside line little by little.

He didn't plan to give Qin Miao a very good route into the corner, and he was on the outside and always had the advantage over Qin Miao.

But Qin Miao's idea at this time was exactly the opposite of Verstappen's. Qin Miao wanted to go to the outside and get a wider line, so that he could have more room to operate if he braked late.

……

"We can see that Verstappen has surpassed Qin Miao, but not completely. Can Qin Miao seize the last braking opportunity?"

"Qin Miao brakes...what?!!"

"There was a collision, Qin Miao and Verstappen collided!"

On the field, the situation suddenly changed.

After the two drivers made the same choice at the same moment, the consequences were obvious.

After all, Qin Miao is not a real worm in Verstappen's stomach, and he has no way to predict Verstappen's ideas.

In Qin Miao's opinion, the best way for Verstappen to defend himself at this time is to take a wider line into the corner, brake as late as himself, and rely on the Red Bull car's faster speed advantage in the corners than the Mercedes car to try to outflank himself from the outside.

Then Verstappen will briefly overtake himself, but after that he will be side by side with Verstappen after leaving T11.

After all, he was on the inside line at that time. No matter how bad the Mercedes car was or how bad the cornering line was, with the advantage of the inside line, Qin Miao didn't think that he would be left behind by Verstappen with his control over the car.

Then he and Verstappen came all the way to T12.

In T12, there is a high probability that he will be left behind by Verstappen because Verstappen is on the inside at this time.

After reaching T13, Verstappen's ERS was exhausted. Coupled with the damage caused by the three off-road bends, Verstappen's already dilapidated tires must have been even worse.

In a U-turn like T13, you can take the cross line.

After reaching the straight, he can rely on the Mercedes car's terrifying acceleration and straight-line speed this season as well as Verstappen's wake to overtake Verstappen on the straight between T13 and T14, which is second only to the starting straight in length.

There were no overtaking opportunities in the last two corners. Even if Verstappen was hit by his DRS, the opponent would not be able to overtake him before crossing the finish line.

Even if Verstappen really has an idea, Qin Miao doesn't mind giving Verstappen another braking test.

As for being hit?

It was the last lap and Qin Miao was about to cross the finish line. The most that would have happened if he was hit was that the rear diffuser was damaged.

Can Verstappen directly smash my gearbox?

Finally, he won the opening race of 23 years, the Bahrain Grand Prix, without any trouble.

It can be said that Qin Miao has already calculated everything that might happen next in his mind.

But Qin Miao never expected that Verstappen would squeeze him to the inside at this time.

You don't want to enter the corner space? ? ?

(End of this chapter)