How did I become an F1 driver?

For a moment, Qin Miao really didn't know what to do.

But Qin Miao's inner inclination is still to transfer to Ferrari.

After all, car fans all know that I, Qin Miao, have always been a steadfast fan of Tiefo Temple.

You can tell from my youth training days!
Of course, Qin Miao doesn’t think Mercedes-Benz will offer the same conditions.

This is true even if Toto is the boss of the Mercedes team.

After all, Toto only owns one-third of the team's shares, not one-third of Mercedes' shares, and he does not have the final say in the team.

Even if Toto wants to follow suit, Mercedes is unlikely to meet the conditions offered by Ferrari.

Therefore, Qin Miao's main concern was how to tell Toto about this matter.

After all, to be honest, Toto has been very good to me in the past two years, both in terms of his kindness to me and the preferential treatment he has given me in daily life.

Qin Miao was really a little entangled for a while
However, when Qin Miao was still struggling, the phone rang again. This time the person who called was no longer a stranger without a note, but the person in charge of Qin Miao's agency.

After the call was connected, the other party told Qin Miao about the sudden price increase from the Ferrari team, and strangely agreed to all the additional terms previously proposed.

When the other party talked about this with Qin Miao, he was shaking with excitement.

Because he thought this contract was extremely incredible, and what was even more incredible was that Ferrari actually agreed to it.

Qin Miao was naturally prepared for this. He nodded to indicate that he understood and hung up the phone.

Rubbing his brows, Qin Miao took out his cell phone and started looking through the address book, but for a moment, Qin Miao really couldn't think of who he should call at this time.

However, Qin Miao did not hesitate for too long. As Barber notified him, Qin Miao had to attend a dinner in the UAE.

Qin Miao is already familiar with these tasks.

Moreover, being busy will make Qin Miao forget the things he is struggling with.

What followed were various gatherings and recording of promotional videos.

Time flies and it is Thursday.

Qin Miao once again came to the Jeddah Marina Bay Circuit, the venue for the Saudi Grand Prix.

The entire Mercedes team is full of confidence for today's race.

Because whether in the team's simulator or in the supercomputer's calculations, Mercedes' W14 is undoubtedly extremely suitable for high-speed tracks like the Marina Bay Circuit.

Although the Marina Bay Circuit looks twisty from a bird's eye view, friends who have driven this track in an F1 car know that it is a very enjoyable high-speed track.

All teams will switch to low-drag aerodynamic kits when they come to this track.

Mercedes-Benz is no exception.

At the same time, the team factory also brought new car upgrades to Qin Miao and Hamilton.

Today's upgrades aren't huge, they just further optimise the car's cooling system.

Although it is impossible to completely prevent the car from overheating, the heat dissipation efficiency is 20% higher than before, and the hot air flow can be mixed into the downwash airflow of the car's zero side box after being discharged, which can reduce drag and increase tail speed when driving at high speed.

However, because the W14 had been pushed to the edge of the weight limit by Mercedes at this time, this cooling system sacrificed weight for the sake of cooling efficiency and drag reduction in high-speed corners, and the car gained 400g.

However, this weight is within an acceptable range for Mercedes-Benz. After all, after the upgrade, the improvement in the car's performance and lap speed is greater than the reduction of 400 grams in weight.

That's all the upgrades for this game.

Although this upgrade only improves the car's lap speed by a small amount, perhaps less than 0.05 per lap.

But this upgrade can effectively extend the service life of Mercedes engines.

Such an upgrade can be considered a long-term benefit, which both Qin Miao and Hamilton are happy to see.

The longer the season, the greater the benefit of this upgrade.

This is why this upgrade was applied after the opening battle.

Qin Miao spent the rest of Thursday mainly participating in various activities.

Of course, the team also knows Qin Miao’s hobbies, and the activities arranged for Qin Miao are basically what Qin Miao is more interested in.

Add to that a walk on the track, and Thursday was pretty fulfilling.

Time quickly came to Friday.

The day when two practice sessions begin.

Originally, Qin Miao wanted to tell Toto during this Grand Prix weekend about the conditions Ferrari offered him, and that he also had the idea of ​​leaving Mercedes-Benz.

But this weekend, Toto didn't come to the paddock because he had something to do.

This matter can only be put on hold.

Qin Miao also began to worry. If he told Toto the news in advance, would he be targeted in the team?
For example, normal resources are not given to himself, and the team instructions on the track favor Hamilton.

But Qin Miao soon came to his senses.

Given their own tire-preserving capabilities, the team would most likely not be able to implement this idea even if they had it.

On the other hand, although Mercedes' cars this season have strong performance, Verstappen's speed in the opening race proved that Mercedes' cars have not regained their competitiveness before the ground effect era.

Compared with Red Bull, there is still a performance gap that cannot be ignored.

If Mercedes wants to win the driver's championship, or even the team's championship, it has to rely on itself.

This is the reason why I was confident in being honest with Toto. Even if Toto knew that I was about to leave, he would not dare and would not break up with me.

After thinking about this, Qin Miao felt a little relieved.

After two practice sessions on Friday, Qin Miao entered into normal working state.

It is worth mentioning that the Jeddah circuit has made modifications to the track this season.

First, the walls of turns 8, 10, 14 and 20 were optimized and moved slightly outward.

After all, Jeddah is strictly speaking a street race, and the buffer zones on both sides of the track are very small. Apart from the limited buffer zones, the outside of the track is surrounded by guardrails.

This is why any car accident involving people like Miklatifi is a major one.

Before the revision, these corners would affect the driver's vision of the track behind.

During the practice sessions last year, drivers found themselves running flying laps on these streets, with slow cars behind them on the bends. They couldn't see anyone before entering the bend, so they had to slow down and give up their lap after entering the bend.

Many drivers were fined for this.

Qin Miao didn't have this feeling. On the one hand, the time that Mercedes team chose to release the car for Qin Miao was very good. On the other hand, Franky was very dedicated to his job and told Qin Miao in advance about the cars coming behind him and the bends ahead where he might encounter drivers.

After being prepared, Qin Miao had enough mental preparation and reaction time even if he encountered a slow car on the track.

In addition, the curbs along the entire track have been optimized.

The original steel shoulder was replaced with a sloped shoulder.

At the same time, the S-shape of Turns 22 and 23 is tightened, and the speed of vehicles passing through the corners is slowed down by 50 km/h.

Previously, you could accelerate as fast as you could after entering Turn 22, but with this change, you can still refuel here, but you can't just floor the gas and kill the car. Because of these new changes, Qin Miao focused on the third period in today's practice session, and used it all to familiarize himself with the changes in these two corners.

And by the way, find out the training for today's game.

The result is quite satisfactory.

Although in the rankings, the performance of the two Mercedes drivers is not as good as Verstappen and Perez of Red Bull.

But at least according to the data from the two practice sessions on Friday, Qin Miao and Hamilton's long-distance single-lap speed was only 0.14 seconds slower than that of the Red Bull drivers.

This time gap means that the two still have the possibility of catching up with Red Bull.

Of course, the results of the practice sessions can only be used as a reference. After all, you cannot know how much your opponent has limited the engine output of the car during the practice sessions for the sake of the life of the car's components.

Work was done on Friday and post-game interviews were completed.

Qin Miao's work day is over.

After a day, Qin Miao had completely mastered Turns 22 and 23. Hamilton even came over to ask Qin Miao about his ideas for these two consecutive combination turns.

Of course, Hamilton is not incapable of doing it. He just came here to understand Qin Miao's cornering ideas and see if there is any room for improvement in his own cornering ideas.

Saturday.

Today, Qin Miao fully unleashed the 50 horsepower limit on his racing engine on Friday. He needed to thoroughly familiarize himself with and understand his racing car in the third practice session.

Then run a good result in qualifying.

Of course, this is not a difficult task for Qin Miao and Hamilton.

There is not much to say about the third practice session. Qin Miao still successfully completed all the work of his practice session.

There were even a few extra minutes so Qin Miao could leave work early.

As night falls, it is evening time in Bahrain.

For domestic car fans, the Grand Prix in the Middle East, especially the one held at night, is pure hell.

Today's qualifying match will be held at around 1 a.m. in China.

Brother Fei is indeed getting old and can’t bear it any longer.

Therefore, Libao will take charge of today's qualifying match and tomorrow's main race.

……

"The meteorological department just sent a message that the probability of rain for today's game is zero, but the north wind is very strong."

While Qin Miao was listening to Franky reporting the current situation on the track to him through the team TR, he was checking each part of the car.

After the other party finished speaking, Qin Miao asked, "What's the wind speed?"

"At least 25 kilometers per hour."

In fact, the guardrails on both sides of the Marina Bay Circuit also isolate the impact of seaside side winds on the cars on the track to a certain extent.

However, it is impossible for the organizer's retaining wall to be fully enclosed to block all wind.

After being weakened, the wind blowing onto the track is estimated to be around 10 kilometers per hour.

Qin Miao calculated in his mind the speed at which he would reach the braking point and adjusted the braking points of each curve accordingly.

The braking point on the windward side is selected later, and the braking point on the leeward side is selected earlier.

While sitting in the racing car waiting for the qualifying session to begin, Qin Miao had already calculated all the braking points on the track based on the weather conditions on the day of the race.

In the first flying lap of the qualifying stage later, Qin Miao will not only run the qualifying results, but also leave some room to verify all his calculations.

As the pointer of the Rolex watch hanging at the exit of the maintenance area pointed to 7 pm local time, the green light in the maintenance area came on.

The drivers who had been waiting at the exit of the maintenance area for a long time released their brakes and clutches and drove their cars forward.

The qualifying round has begun.

In the first flying lap of qualifying, Qin Miao used a set of old soft tires that he had run four laps on during the first practice session.

There is nothing much to say about using this set of tires at this time. It is just to let Qin Miao go on the track to test the depth of the track, and by the way, let Qin Miao find his own form for the competition.

In the first flying lap, Qin Miao encountered some obstacles due to the crowded track.

However, Qin Miao's result after the run was still 1:29.729.

Qin Miao's result is not good, but if he can achieve this result on a set of soft tires that can run 4 laps, what else does he need a bicycle for?

Moreover, Qin Miao's result will allow him to advance to Q2.

After confirming that this result would allow him to secure a place in Q2, Qin Miao punched out directly.

Qin Miao's fans are no longer surprised to see him returning to the team's P room to rest after running a lap.

The drivers who were eliminated in the end in Q1 were: Tsunoda, Albon, De Vries, Russell, and Norris.

Time quickly came to Q2.

Qin Miao's performance in Q2 of today's race was still stable. This time he used a set of soft tires that he had run for 5 laps. This set of soft tires has the least number of laps among all the soft tires Qin Miao has used.

Then Qin Miao's performance in this lap still left his colleagues in the team a little confused.

Because Qin Miao's score after completing this flying lap was 1:29.499.

Although this result will most likely not allow him to enter Q3, Qin Miao's ability to protect his tires is truly incredible as he was able to achieve such a result using a set of old soft tires.

Naturally, Qin Miao went on the track and ran the second flying lap of Q2.

When Qin Miao changed to new soft tires, he still felt a little regretful that he was unable to keep four sets of new soft tires for Q3.

After putting on the new tires there is nothing much to say.

Qin Miao didn't even use his full strength for one flying circle, and the engine horsepower limiter on the steering wheel was still at 20 horsepower.

But despite this, Qin Miao still ranked first after finishing the lap.

1: 28.435.

Qin Miao's result was 0.2 seconds faster than Perez, who came in second.

Although everyone knows that Perez's performance is because Red Bull has not yet used its full strength, Qin Miao also has something hidden.

But in addition to this, Qin Miao and his team also received good news.

That was when Verstappen encountered a mechanical failure in Q2.

There were no results for Q2.

Naturally, Verstappen was eliminated in the 2th place in Q.

The drivers who were eliminated in Q2 were: Gasly, Hulkenberg, Magrusen, Bottas and Verstappen.

Zhou Guanyu once again defeated his teammate in the qualifying stage and entered Q3. Domestic fans were also pleased to see this. (End of this chapter)