How did I become an F1 driver?

第521章 525：火力全开的暴躁W14（6K，加更8/14）

After dealing with Frankie, Qin Miao naturally turned his attention to Reyes.

However, this guy seems to have a non-compete agreement, so it is still difficult to take him away.

And they are very busy during this period. After all, technicians are not like track engineers. They have much more things to do than Franky.

So Qin Miao decided to wait until the Saudi Grand Prix was over before talking to him.

After chatting with Frank for a few more words, Hamilton's track engineer sent a message to Qin Miao that Hamilton's telemetry data was ready.

After saying hello to Franky, Qin Miao went to Hamilton's track engineer. After getting Hamilton's telemetry data, he began to review the game.

Compared to Perez's data, Hamilton's data is much more comprehensive, including satellite maps, accelerator and brake circuit diagrams, and even the G-force of the car while driving.

After all, the data of the two Mercedes drivers Qin Miao and Hamilton are shared, so it is not difficult to check them.

Perez's data cannot be made public. Since we can only collect public data, it is naturally impossible to be too detailed.

At this glance, Qin Miao saw that it was almost time to get off work, and the notebook in front of Qin Miao was filled with three or four pages of precautions written by Qin Miao.

The main reason is that Qin Miao can completely reproduce in his mind his running style in the qualifying stage today. Also because of this ability, looking at Hamilton's telemetry data, Qin Miao can also put himself into the data, find out his own shortcomings, and understand where Hamilton ran poorly.

Writing it down helps to deepen my memory, and of course I can also show it to Hamilton.

Although the two are in a competitive relationship, they can still unite to face the outside world at this time.

After finishing all this, Qin Miao reviewed it again while looking at the notebook in front of him.

If Qin Miao were allowed to run another qualifying race on the track, although Qin Miao is not confident of breaking 27 seconds, it would not be a problem to improve his qualifying result by 0.06.

At the level of Qin Miao and Hamilton, there is really little room for improvement in lap time.

Unless there is a huge leap in vehicle performance, the improvement that the driver can get by improving his driving skills is only a few tenths of a second.

Although there is a high probability that he will not be able to catch up with Perez, after all, the RB19 with DRS is too strong.

But Qin Miao is still confident of defeating his teammate Hamilton.

After arriving here, Qin Miao completed his work for the day. After putting the notebook in the Hamilton lounge, Qin Miao left the paddock.

Hamilton will look at Qin Miao's notes when he comes to the paddock the next day.

However, because of this incident, Qin Miao was often criticized by Hamilton.

Because Qin Miao's English grades in high school were not very good, and after staying abroad for so long he only mastered basic reading and writing skills.

After more than three years of exposure to the professional vocabulary used in the F1 arena, Qin Miao can speak and understand it, but he just can't write it.

After all, English is not like Chinese. Any new words in English have to be created from scratch, but in Chinese, you can just combine two characters and roughly guess the specific meaning of the character through the literal meaning.

One side requires rote memorization, while the other side requires analogy. It is obvious which one is easier to remember.

Now, after a long time, Qin Miao can only spell the word based on the approximate syllables, but often makes mistakes.

Because he often wrote the wrong words, Qin Miao was often complained by the old man, who said that when he read what Qin Miao wrote, he felt like a high school teacher reading students' English homework.

So much so that Qin Miao now speaks directly in Chinese.

At least when writing Chinese, the vocabulary is small and the number of strokes is less. On the other hand, Qin Miao feels comfortable writing it!
At worst, I can let the old man translate it himself, but he will be the one who suffers.

After completing these tasks, Qin Miao went off work.

After returning to the hotel, in addition to video chatting with his wife almost every day, Qin Miao also took the time to play a game of CSGO.

Enjoy both life and entertainment!
Sunday.

The day when the race begins.

I won’t go into detail about the pre-race driver parade, press conference, interviews, and activities.

Perhaps for fans who come to the paddock for the first time, it is a very happy thing to be able to meet their favorite drivers during the event and interact with their favorite drivers.

However, for drivers who have to face fans with a smile and actively interact with them in every race, participate in various interviews in front of the camera and face all kinds of questions from reporters in more than 20 races a year, they will still be more or less tired after a year.

If you are a driver like Ricciardo who enjoys the feeling of being the center of attention, then there is no doubt that this is the life you want.

But if you are somewhat autistic and just want to enjoy the fun of driving, then Kimi is your best template.

Qin Miao seems to be more inclined towards Kimi.

There is nothing wrong with dealing with the fans, he is willing to do so, after all, they are paid for it.

But after a long time, Qin Miao got used to the feeling of being the center of attention and inevitably felt a little bored.

This is also the reason why Qin Miao has always insisted on asking the team for the right to not participate in commercial activities.

Therefore, Qin Miao ended his business schedule very early today and returned to the team lounge almost an hour earlier than Hamilton to prepare for the race.

……

When Hamilton returned to the team's P room, he naturally saw the notebook that Qin Miao gave him.

After opening the notebook and looking at the Chinese words on it, the old man shook his head helplessly, then skillfully took out his mobile phone and started a one-on-one translation.

In fact, the old man could just take a photo of the words on the notebook and send it to someone who knows Chinese and ask him to help translate it. Even if he doesn't want to owe anyone a favor, he can just find an outsourcing company.

But strictly speaking, what Qin Miao wrote in the notebook for Hamilton involved the Mercedes-Benz team's commercial secrets.

If it is leaked, it is likely to be used by other teams.

Qin Miao was slacking off while waiting for the game to start, while Hamilton was doing his final intensive study. Time passed quickly.

It is impossible to say which of the two choices is better or worse at this time. We can only say that each has his own strengths.

Time soon came to the period before the start of the main competition.

Qin Miao, wearing a black racing suit, went to the team's P room. After the handover was completed, he drove his car onto the track. After running a lap around the track, he parked his car in the third position.

At this time, Perez was in front of Qin Miao and Alonso was on his left.

To be honest, if Mercedes' cars do not regain their former competitiveness this season, Ferrari will be the driver that everyone pays the most attention to besides Verstappen this season.

After all, this is a revival of old trees in the F1 arena.

This scene is even rarer than the emergence of a new talented driver on the F1 track.

But no matter what, the fact that Tou Ge could start in fourth place in today's game has already proved his strength.

At the start, Qin Miao used neutral tires.

The Jeddah Circuit does not actually require much tire consumption from the cars, and the mainstream pit stop strategy is to stop once.

There is a high probability that yellow and white will stop, and a low probability that red and white will stop.

Qin Miao's pit stop strategy today was to stop once at the yellow or red lane.

A pit stop strategy full of Qin Miao's personal characteristics.

The reason for choosing to use neutral tires first is actually because the durability of the soft tires will increase after the weight of the car is reduced in the later stages of the race. Coupled with Qin Miao's ability to protect the tires, this pit stop strategy is acceptable to Qin Miao.

The main concern is that Verstappen will overtake in the later stages.

Using a new set of soft tires, it will be much easier for Qin Miao to defend if Verstappen catches up.

Moreover, with Qin Miao's ability, this pit stop strategy choice can also allow Qin Miao to drive normally throughout the entire journey without having to deliberately protect the tire.

So at the start, Qin Miao and Perez and Alonso, who started in the front row, both used neutral tires, while Hamilton started with white tires.

It is a common occurrence for Mercedes fans that the two Mercedes drivers adopt completely different tire strategies at the start.

After all, the characteristics of these two drivers are indeed too distinct.

After completing all the pre-race preparations, Qin Miao did a stretching next to his car, and after a simple exercise of his body, he sat in the car.

In the following time, Qin Miao turned on the starting simulation program on his steering wheel.

This thing is just a reference and cannot fully reflect all the processes in the initial stage.

At most, test the reaction.

It's more or less a pastime.

The start of today's race was very important for Qin Miao, because the first turn after the start in Jeddah was a right-angle left turn. He started third on the outside line, which was a disadvantage, but the same was true for Perez.

If I could catch Perez's mistake after the start and start leading early, I would probably be able to leave Perez behind before DRS was turned on.

This can greatly reduce the trouble when fighting with Perez.

Of course, this was just Qin Miao’s expectation before the race started. After all, no one could predict what would happen in the F1 race.

As time went on, most of the team's staff evacuated the track.

The tire warm-up lap begins.

After the warm-up lap, Qin Miao parked his car precisely on the starting grid according to the reference he had just found on the side of the track.

If you do more, you will be fined, and if you do less, you will suffer a loss.

However, if you look at Qin Miao's car from the rear, you can clearly see that while Qin Miao's car is parked, the body of the car is slightly crooked.

The front of the car is more inclined to the inside of the track, which is the inner line of T1.

This is also a common starting method for F1 drivers.

When parking, just turn the front of your car in the direction you want to go. After starting, you don't need to waste the traction of the car to turn.

The acceleration after starting will naturally be faster. Of course, the disadvantage is that the drivers behind you and the drivers in front of you can roughly guess what you want to do after starting, and can prepare in advance.

But Qin Miao didn't care. Anyway, his starting ability was always one of the best in the paddock. Even if he couldn't gain any advantage at the start, he was unlikely to suffer any loss at the start. This was the confidence of a two-time champion.

As Norris, who was in last place, stopped his car on the starting grid, the medical pursuit car behind him took position.

Five red lights began to light up one by one.

Qin Miao pre-pressed the clutch button on the racing car's steering wheel, stared at the indicator light above him, and at the same time lightly stepped on the accelerator to keep the racing car's engine speed at 8000 rpm.

In fact, normally, when starting, Qin Miao will usually increase the speed to around 9000 rpm, and there are many cases where the starting speed of soft tires is maintained at 1 rpm.

But today's race was special. On the one hand, the temperature in the desert dropped quickly at night. On the other hand, Qin Miao was using neutral tires. Even if they reached the working temperature, the grip was still not as strong as that of soft tires.

If the engine speed is high, the car may slip when starting.

Therefore, lowering the engine speed at the starting stage will help Qin Miao get started.

If an F1 Grand Prix is ​​compared to walking on a tightrope, then the tightrope walked at the start is the thinnest tightrope in the entire process.

Not only is it difficult to start, but it is also difficult to control the position of the car after starting.

……

As the five red lights above his head went out, Qin Miao instantly released the clutch button he had been pressing.

The racing engine gradually began to roar.

Qin Miao also felt the familiar push on his back.

At the same time, Qin Miao looked helplessly at Perez, who started a little slower than himself and then changed lanes to the inside.

Because of the direction the front of the car was pointing, Perez blocked his path ahead.

Although the distance between himself and Perez was still long after the start, Perez's starting speed was slow, and the acceleration ability of the Honda engine was not as outstanding as that of the Mercedes engine.

The end result was that when Perez squeezed towards the inside, he failed to squeeze past Hamilton, who was in second place, and instead blocked Qin Miao's acceleration route.

Although Qin Miao didn't know whether this could be considered an unintentional success, it was really annoying.

When everyone arrives at the T1 braking point, they still need to enter the corner from the outside.

Hamilton's starting speed in today's race was only average, but compared with his peers, Perez's start was neither as fast as Qin Miao's nor as fast as Hamilton's, so Hamilton, who started second and was in the inside, got an absolute advantage before T1 and blocked Perez's inside.

After passing T1, Hamilton, who entered the corner first, came in first.

And Qin Miao is still third.

This was the umpteenth time that Qin Miao had the advantage at the start, but lost it because of the car blocking his way.

But you can't say that Qin Miao didn't try hard. After all, most of the time when Qin Miao started, it wasn't because he didn't want to overtake, but his overtaking route was blocked by others.

After passing T2, the pressure from other drivers around him was not so great, and Qin Miao shook his head with some regret.

It was like this again, he was even a little used to it.

But at least at the start of today's game, Qin Miao did not lose any position as usual.

Although the reaction speed of the boss next to him was too fast to be like that of a 42-year-old man, his reaction speed was ultimately no match for that of a young man who was not even 24 years old.

Moreover, Mercedes and Aston Martin use the same engine. Mercedes' W14 is specially optimized for straight-line acceleration and tail speed. It is normal that the first brother cannot start faster than Qin Miao.

After completing the start, there were no accidents in the area in front of Qin Miao, but Qin Miao had a headache.

Because after Hamilton came to first place, he did not quickly widen the distance between him and Perez because Hamilton was using hard tires.

The average lap speed of the hard tire is 0.63 seconds slower than that of the medium tire.

Hamilton couldn't get rid of Perez at all until Perez's soft tires started to slow down due to excessive wear.

At the same time, Red Bull's DRS efficiency is higher than that of Mercedes' cars.

In other words, if Hamilton had not left Perez out of the DRS zone by more than one second within three laps, then given the characteristics of the Jeddah circuit, Hamilton's leading career in this race might have come to an end.

And this is indeed the case.

On the third lap, despite Hamilton's best efforts, he still couldn't get Perez out of the DRS zone.

Even though Hamilton could significantly widen the time gap between him and Perez on the straights, Perez was always able to make up for the time gap by relying on the cornering performance of his car in the second and third timing sections with more bends.

Qin Miao felt a little uncomfortable following behind Perez.

Because Qin Miao's single lap speed is faster than Perez, but not much faster.

After catching up a little, he was left behind by Perez in the corner.

After all, the turbulence of the car in front has a great impact on the car behind on the curve. The W14 is relatively not so good at curves. Coupled with the turbulence caused by the Red Bull car in front, before DRS was turned on, Qin Miao could not even bring too much pressure to Perez for a while.

After DRS was turned on on the fourth lap, Perez shortened the time gap between himself and Hamilton to 4 seconds in the DRS zone in the second period.

Then in the DRS zone in the third period, he directly ate Hamilton from the outside.

Although the old man was well prepared, after all, the improved DRS efficiency of Red Bull's cars this season is already a well-known fact within Red Bull.

But when he saw the Red Bull racing car that passed him directly on the outside like a mad dog, Hamilton still cursed in the team TR: "What the fk? He rushed past me like a rocket, man."

Hamilton's track engineer was also helpless after hearing Hamilton's complaint: "Got it, now pay attention to protecting the tires."

The old man just complained at this time and had no intention of making things difficult for his track engineer.

But at the same time, Hamilton did not forget to take a look at Qin Miao behind him.

Qin Miao also had Perez's DRS just now. After two DRS zones, Qin Miao has now come to the DRS zone behind Hamilton.

However, the old man was not anxious about being attacked by his teammate. After all, the two of them did not have the same pit stop strategy.

Coupled with the private friendship between the two, Hamilton did not think it was a wise decision to block his teammate on the track.

But the old man still asked: "Do you need me to let Qin Miao go?"

"Hold on."

It was impossible for Bono to agree directly, so he asked Qin Miao's track engineer Franky.

Then this question was passed to Qin Miao's ears through Franky's mouth.

After hearing Franky's question, Qin Miao said without thinking: "No, I can surpass Hamilton by myself!"

Franky:…

Okay, you are the boss.

Of course, Qin Miao wasn't bragging.

On the 5th lap, Qin Miao quickly shortened the time gap between himself and Hamilton in the DRS zone in the second and third time periods.

Then try to attack from the inside at the T27 turn.

But when the old man knew that Qin Miao didn't need him to give way to the car, he sneered, and at the same time, he began to feel a little playful in his heart.

After all, he couldn't catch up with Perez in a short time, and he was bored anyway.

You don't appreciate it, right? Well, let me, the seven-time champion, teach you what defense is!

The old man also squeezed towards the inside, just blocking all of Qin Miao's routes to Hamilton's inside.

Seeing this, Qin Miao could only go to the outside line to prepare for the turn before entering the braking point.

The old man seemed to have predicted the future. He changed lanes to the outside before Qin Miao went to the outside.

Hamilton also predicted Qin Miao's next move.

Qin Miao also didn't find any chance to get into Hamilton's inside line until the braking point because of Hamilton's repeated blocking, but Qin Miao was not in a hurry.

Following silently behind Hamilton.

T27 Hamilton took the normal line into the turn, while Qin Miao took the cross line.

Qin Miao took a wider line into the turn, and when exiting the turn he also straightened the car body in advance and started to accelerate.

During this process, the old man was always observing his teammates in the rearview mirror.

After seeing Qin Miao's actions, Hamilton shook his head, not knowing whether he was feeling emotional or frustrated.

The next scene is very simple.

Although the performance of the cars driven by the two men are exactly the same in all aspects, the difference in tires is an undeniable objective fact. Moreover, Qin Miao not only has DRS, but also has Hamilton's wake. Coupled with DRS on the starting straight, it is too easy for Qin Miao to surpass Hamilton.

Both Hamilton and Qin Miao knew this very well.

Speaking of DRS, after experiencing several heavy braking before the DRS detection point before T27 last season, in order to avoid giving opponents DRS, the organizers of the Saudi Grand Prix changed the DRS detection point from the braking point of T27 to 27 meters before the DRS start line after T25.

Therefore, before the DRS checkpoint, neither Qin Miao nor Hamilton braked late.

After entering the DRS area behind Hamilton, Qin Miao turned on the DRS, sucking in Hamilton's tail flow, and also turned on his own ERS.

It can be said that the W14 is in a full-fire state at this time.

And this season the horror of W14 has also been revealed.

At this time, Qin Miao's car was almost full of fuel, but despite this, Qin Miao still ran a terrifying 341 kilometers per hour at the end of the straight in this DRS zone.

It was even faster than the final speed after DRS was turned on in the Red Bull qualifying stage.

If we have to find a word to describe W14 at this moment, it would only be "irritable".

(End of this chapter)