How did I become an F1 driver?

At this time, the time gap between Verstappen and Alonso has been widened to 1.8 seconds.

The time gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen has reached 2.7 seconds.

To be honest, Qin Miao sometimes feels that the performance gap between Mercedes-Benz Red Bull's racing cars and those of the midstream group's racing cars is too big.

The race has only started a few laps and the time gap is already so big.

After surpassing the young master, Qin Miao began to gradually shorten the time gap between himself and Alonso.

Qin Miao caught up with Alonso at the end of the 12th lap.

Qin Miao is also clear about Alonso's defensive ability. In fact, it's not just Alonso. As long as they are older F1 drivers, their defensive ability will not be too weak.

After all, defending against the driver behind you often depends more on experience than on technique.

So Qin Miao knew that Alonso was not as easy to control as Stroll. If he wanted to overtake Alonso, he had to use the speed of DRS in the DRS zone.

Faced with the absolute speed gap, even if Alonso wanted to resist Qin Miao, he was powerless.

On the other side, on the 13th lap, Hamilton, who had been resisting the attack from Verstappen behind him, finally failed to withstand the pressure brought by Verstappen.

Verstappen took the DRS zone on this lap.

There is no way. This season, the overall speed of the Red Bull car is faster than that of the Mercedes car, coupled with the Red Bull car's terrifying DRS efficiency.

And a DRS zone was added to the second time sector of the Albert Park Circuit, so Verstappen can catch up with Hamilton faster.

It wouldn't be a surprise to see Hamilton taken down.

Qin Miao overtook Alonso in the DRS zone in the second timing period of the 14th lap.

Alonso also knew that Qin Miao's attack this time was because he had saved up tires and ERS power for a long time. The old man had a clear idea about today's race. He just wanted to run the race normally and get the ranking and points that belonged to him. As for competing with Qin Miao and others, that was unnecessary.

Anyway, no matter how hard he tried, he would not be able to defend against Qin Miao's attack.

So the boss didn't show any defensive intention towards Qin Miao's attack and just let Qin Miao go.

"I have to say that Alonso's approach was very smart. He knew he was no match for Qin Miao, so he just let Qin Miao go. This is a best of both worlds approach. On the one hand, it does not delay Qin Miao's pursuit, and on the other hand, it also preserves his own tires." Brother Bing explained after seeing this scene.

After Qin Miao surpassed Alonso, Qin Miao's ranking nominally came to third and he entered the podium, but in fact the time gap between Qin Miao and Hamilton, who was in second place, had reached 5 seconds, and the time gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen, who was in first place, was 6.6 seconds.

This wrong pit stop delayed us too long.

And as the race progressed, the time gap between Qin Miao and Hamilton widened at a rate of about 0.05 per lap.

As for Verstappen?

The time gap between the two widened by 0.2 seconds per lap.

However, despite the bad situation, both Qin Miao and the Mercedes team's P room were relatively calm and restrained about the situation on the track at that time.

At this time, Franky also timely inserted the TR of Qin Miao's team: "OK, Qin Miao, our car is running very well now, please keep it up. The driver in front will most likely not choose to pit again to change tires. Please protect your tires and wait for our counterattack moment to come."

Qin Miao's answer was very concise: "Got it, I'll try my best."

In the following period of time, Qin Miao began to protect his tires as Franky said. However, during this process, Qin Miao's lap time was not much slower than Verstappen and Hamilton. In fact, as long as the two of them made mistakes, Qin Miao's lap time could be slightly faster than theirs.

It can be said that when protecting the tire, Qin Miao's lap time stability is the most stable among all active drivers.

But overall, Qin Miao was gradually being left behind by them.

In fact, strictly speaking, Qin Miao's long-distance single-lap speed at this time can already match Hamilton's speed, but after all, Qin Miao has to protect the tire, so the state shown is that Qin Miao's single-lap speed is slightly slower than Hamilton.

In the following games, the director will still give Qin Miao, Hamilton and Verstappen a few shots from time to time.

But these three people were concentrating on following their own pace at this time, and had no intention of taking any action, so their importance in the director's mind had dropped sharply.

The live broadcast cameras were now focused on Perez at the back of the track.

After all, at this time on the track, Perez was the only one overtaking easily from behind.

However, many veteran racing fans also clearly know that the truly exciting part of this race has not yet begun.

Of course, before that, the Mercedes team's strategy group held a simple meeting.

It can’t be said that they were having a meeting. It was just that several people from the strategy group got together to discuss something.

As for the content of the discussion, after Qin Miao's tire advantage is revealed in the later stages of the race, he will definitely catch up with Hamilton. When he catches up, should Hamilton give up his position to Qin Miao?

After all, everyone knows Qin Miao's characteristics.

Moreover, internal fighting at this time will not be good for either of the two Mercedes drivers.

One loses time, the other wastes tires, and no one benefits.

Considering the team's own interests, the strategy group naturally hopes to see Hamilton let Qin Miao pass.

But when they discussed it, Toto made the final decision: "We will not participate in the discussion of this matter. Let the drivers make their own decisions on the track."

After hearing what Toto said, the staff of the strategy team paused for a moment, then looked at each other and didn't say anything more about it, and everyone continued to work on their own things.

On the track, Qin Miao and the other three people who were capable of competing for the championship did not appear in any shots for a long time.

This situation continued until the 43rd lap.

Because of this lap, the time gap between Qin Miao and Hamilton did not increase for the first time in today's race, but decreased instead.

Qin Miao was 0.1 second faster than Hamilton in this lap.

It was obvious that the old man's tires were beginning to fail, and at the same time, the lap time gap between Verstappen and Qin Miao became 0.09 seconds.

It is undeniable that the lap times of these two people are indeed faster than Qin Miao. Now one is 7 seconds ahead of Qin Miao and the other is 4.5 seconds ahead. However, as the race entered the later stage, Qin Miao's tire protection advantage came into play, and these were no longer a problem.

On the 44th lap, the director realized that the main focus of the game had changed, so he immediately focused the main camera on Qin Miao.

The lap time difference between Qin Miao and Hamilton was also displayed in the middle of the screen.

"Oh? We can see that Qin Miao's single lap speed is now faster than Hamilton. It seems that now is finally the time for Qin Miao to perform." After seeing the data given by the on-site director, Brother Bing finally smiled.

After all, what they are most looking forward to when watching this game is this moment.

"There are still 14 laps to go. Let's see if Qin Miao can catch up with Verstappen before the end of the race."

"In fact, I am still confident in Qin Miao's ability to chase in the late game. My only worry now is that Qin Miao will catch up with Verstappen and overtake him with a few laps left before the end of the race." As a die-hard fan of Qin Miao, Zhou Haoran has full confidence in Qin Miao's driving skills.

"Hey, hey, hey, it's not appropriate to talk about this now. Qin Miao has just started pursuing you." Brother Fei hurriedly stopped Zhou Haoran. It was really not appropriate to brag now.

Zhou Haoran felt that it didn’t matter. After all, they had helped Qin Miao on the track in the first two races of this season.

Therefore, Zhou Haoran still maintained his own opinion: "Qin Miao has a great chance of winning the game today. The later the game goes, the greater Qin Miao's advantage will be. It is really only a matter of time before Qin Miao catches up."

Brother Fei didn't think that Zhou Haoran was being hypocritical by saying this, he just felt that it was not appropriate to say such confident things at this time.

On the track, Qin Miao also knew from the car's instrument panel that his lap speed was faster than Hamilton's, and he couldn't help feeling a little excited.

However, just after running a timed section, Frankie reminded Qin Miao, "Qin Miao, your pace is a bit too fast now. You can slow down a bit and protect your tires. The race is still long and we can catch up."

Qin Miao realized belatedly that he had run too hard in that flying circle just now.

After taking a deep breath in the straight area and adjusting his mentality, Qin Miao started running the race normally again.

"No rush, no rush."

……

On the 46th lap, the race between Qin Miao and Hamilton had completely turned into Qin Miao unilaterally shortening the time gap between himself and Hamilton.

At this time, Qin Miao was 0.41 seconds behind Hamilton in one lap, and it is foreseeable that Qin Miao's pursuit speed will become faster and faster in the later period.

On the other hand, Hamilton had actually been paying attention to the distance between himself and Qin Miao. Looking at Qin Miao who was gradually approaching him, the old man admitted that his body, which had been sweating constantly due to running in a high temperature environment, was now sweating profusely.

At the same time, Hamilton also began to worry that if Qin Miao caught up with him, the team would give him instructions to give up his position to Qin Miao.

This is not something Hamilton said without a purpose. Any team leader who considers the interests of the team will definitely give himself team instructions when encountering the current situation.

At this time, Hamilton had complicated feelings towards Qin Miao.

It’s a bit like the feeling that Da Mao has now when looking at the rabbit. Clearly, it was still a little brother who needed his care not long ago, but in the blink of an eye, it has grown to a height that he can hardly reach.

However, Qin Miao didn't have so many thoughts. He didn't even consider how Hamilton was doing. At this time, the only thing in Qin Miao's eyes was Verstappen, who was in the first place.

Hamilton was sweating profusely because of Qin Miao, and Verstappen, who was in front of Hamilton, was also somewhat nervous.

At this time, Verstappen really wanted to see Qin Miao and Hamilton have conflicts within the team, and the two would fight as soon as they met.

But obviously, none of this is likely to happen.

On the 50th lap, Qin Miao's pursuit speed was getting faster and faster. In the third timing period of this lap, he reached the DRS area behind Hamilton. At this time, the lap time gap between Qin Miao and Hamilton had reached 0.7 seconds.

With such a big time gap, it must be very difficult for Hamilton to defend Qin Miao.

But the old man was quite relaxed at this time.

Because when Qin Miao caught up with him, the Mercedes team did not give Hamilton any team instructions to let Qin Miao give way.

This alone was enough to relieve most of the pressure on Hamilton.

Although I don’t know why the team didn’t give way to the car themselves.

But Hamilton will not waste the opportunity given by the team and will definitely try to defend Qin Miao's attack on the track.

So the audience saw that in the DRS zone of the second timing period, the two Mercedes drivers began their offensive and defensive battle.

After the old man saw Qin Miao hit by his DRS, he directly blocked the inside line of the track.

However, Hamilton's action made Qin Miao stunned, because in Qin Miao's mind, the speed of his car and Hamilton's car were not at the same level, and the other party had no need to defend himself. At this time, he was still a bit far away from Verstappen, so he had to hurry up and attack.

But from Hamilton's actions, it was clear that the other party didn't think so.

Originally, Qin Miao was thinking about surpassing Hamilton directly from the outside, but after seeing Hamilton's actions, Qin Miao directly gave up the attack.

Normally, if the old man was willing to let Qin Miao pass, then Qin Miao could completely overtake Hamilton from the inside this time, and the two could continue to run at their own pace on the track, and no one would suffer.

But if the old man had defended seriously, Qin Miao’s opportunity to overtake would not have been very good.

After returning to Hamilton, Qin Miao did not take any action in the DRS area on the starting straight.

On the one hand, the DRS zone was too short. On the other hand, Qin Miao, who was blocked by Hamilton, had lost his rhythm a little and needed to close the time gap with Hamilton again.

But at the same time, Qin Miao did not forget to report to the team.

In the past, when Qin Miao faced his teammates, he might have just thought about defeating them on the track, but now Qin Miao knows the principle of taking a two-pronged approach both on and off the track.

Although off-track tricks may not necessarily work, it is good to have more possibilities.

"Lewis should have let me pass. He is wasting our time!" Qin Miao started to complain righteously after opening the team TR.

Frank was also helpless. In fact, when Qin Miao caught up with Hamilton and Hamilton did not take the initiative to give up his position, Frank began to report this problem to the team, but the team did not agree and stated that the team would not interfere with the fair competition between the two drivers on the track.

...(End of chapter)