How did I become an F1 driver?

Although in a normal Grand Prix qualifying round, Qin Miao would be off work on the spot as long as he completed a flying lap and was sure that his performance in this flying lap was enough to advance to the next stage.

But today is different. After all, this sprint race weekend is short of a practice session, and the Mercedes team still has a lot of data to collect.

So Qin Miao decided to continue running on the track for a while longer, to help the team collect more data.

Qin Miao did not waste his brand new soft tires, but used a set of old soft tires to run a long distance on the track.

Then at the end of Q1, Qin Miao received bad news for him.

That is the C5 soft tire, which is completely unusable on the Baku track.

This soft tire formula is fine for running a qualifying race. This softest tire can indeed give the car a very terrifying single lap speed.

But the problem is that tires with this formula have very poor durability.

Even though Qin Miao ran very carefully when running long distances, and tried his best to avoid tire wear in almost every corner, after running 4 laps on the track, Qin Miao's soft tires reached the cliff point.

Even if we include the flying lap just done, this set of soft tires can only last for 6 to 7 laps on the Baku circuit before the tire's grip begins to decline significantly.

You have to know that Qin Miao's car is equipped for the qualifying race, and the car only has enough fuel to run 5 laps on the track.

Therefore, Qin Miao could not run with differentiated tires in the main race and sprint race.

The yellow and white must stop, or the white and yellow must stop.

The sprint race will most likely be completed with a set of neutral tires.

To be honest, Qin Miao still felt a little regretful.

Q1 ended quickly and Qin Miao advanced successfully. His result was actually ranked third.

Qin Miao himself was a little bit unbelievable.

However, as the qualifying race reached Q2, Qin Miao discovered why these people were so slow?
In the first flying lap of Q2, Qin Miao's single lap time improved to 1:40.998.

He directly reached 1 minute and 40 seconds, and the key point was that Qin Miao still held back in this lap.

Qin Miao was still thinking at the time that he just needed to finish the lap normally and get a result that would allow him to advance to Q3.

Then Qin Miao found himself ranked first again.

Finally, in the last flying lap of Q2, Verstappen set a time of 1:40.822, and Qin Miao finally advanced to Q3 in second place.

Qin Miao also suddenly realized it after Q2 ended.

My understanding of racing cars is actually better than most drivers in the paddock. In today's race, everyone only had one practice session, Q1, to familiarize themselves with the car. Except for being a little vague about the car's limits during that practice session, my car tuning was the best among all the drivers.

Otherwise, it would be impossible for him to use the slacking method he has always used in the Grand Prix qualifying rounds, but his speed is so much faster than theirs.

No matter how unbelievable the answer is after eliminating all the impossible, it is the fact.

That is, one practice session is not enough time for other drivers to find the tuning settings that best suit them.

This is true for almost all drivers, including Verstappen.

What a win!

Moreover, after two qualifying sessions, Qin Miao now has his own understanding and knowledge of the limits of his car under the current tuning settings.

So when the race came to Q3, Hamilton started to help Qin Miao pull the slipstream on the starting straight according to the team meeting on Thursday morning. Qin Miao ran his most serious flying lap of the race.

In addition, he inhaled Hamilton's tail wind and DRS before crossing the finish line.

Qin Miao's speed before crossing the finish line soared to a terrifying 339 kilometers per hour.

At this time, someone will ask, why did Qin Miao only run at a speed of 339 kilometers per hour with Hamilton's wake and DRS?

This involves the issue of track layout.

There is a distance of about 1 meters between the finish line of the Baku Circuit and the braking point of T300 of the Baku Circuit. Under normal circumstances, Qin Miao can use this distance to accelerate the car.

But Qin Miao's flying lap ended after he crossed the finish line, so Qin Miao released the accelerator of his car in advance after passing the finish line and did not refresh his top speed.

Naturally, the tail speed is not so amazing.

In the end, Qin Miao crossed the finish line in the first flying lap of Q3 with a time of 1:39.897.

Not only did he break the 1:39 mark, he was also 2 seconds faster than his fastest lap time in Q1.1.

This shows that what Qin Miao said to Reyes after the end of Q1 was not bragging, and he really didn't run seriously.

As expected, Qin Miao's Q3 result allowed him to take first place.

And Qin Miao maintained the first place until the clock stopped in Q3.

Although Hamilton, who was in second place, was also very fast, compared with Qin Miao, Hamilton did not even get into 1 minute and 39 seconds.

The old man was also confused after seeing Qin Miao's results.

How can this guy run so fast?
Although I also know that the W14 is suitable for the track characteristics of the Baku circuit, isn’t your speed, Qin Miao, a little too fast?

It was not until the end of the qualifying race and the morning when he returned to the team's P room to look at Qin Miao's car telemetry data and satellite maps that the old man saw the clue.

The acceleration capability of Qin Miao's car is basically the same as his own, and it may be one or two horsepower stronger. This is a normal change caused by the wear and tear of the racing engine.

Hamilton has also studied Qin Miao's racing car over the past two years. Qin Miao's personal driving habits are particularly good, and basically all of his operations are designed to protect the durability of the car to the maximum extent.

Some operations are complicated and troublesome, but Qin Miao uses them as if it were instinct.

Hamilton also tried Qin Miao's driving method, but the energy invested and the benefits obtained were completely disproportionate.

Because this overall durability improvement of around 5 percent will not play a decisive role in Hamilton's position in the drivers' standings.

So the old man simply gave up trying to solve this problem.

Ignoring the differences in vehicle performance, Hamilton found that Qin Miao's driving was obviously more extreme than his own when he was cornering.

Qin Miao was able to handle many corners with ease, which Hamilton himself was not confident about.

Especially the castle bend in the second time section, which is the very famous i am stupid bend.

Qin Miao drove extremely hard in this position. When entering the turn, his left front wheel rubbed the left guardrail. When exiting the turn, his right rear wheel even slightly rubbed the right guardrail. Although it did not bring down the guardrail, it left scratches on it.

Therefore, the old man concluded that Qin Miao was the only one who was silently running at his limit on the track when everyone else's familiarity with racing had dropped drastically due to the reduction in practice time and they were afraid to pursue their limits.

Such a huge speed advantage was carved out in those extreme turns.

But the old man was still puzzled. We are all human beings, so how dare you, Qin Miao, run like this? Aren't you afraid of getting hit?
...Of course, this is all in the past.

At this moment on the track, Qin Miao breathed a sigh of relief after knowing that he had regained the pole position.

Before the qualifying session started, Qin Miao had never thought that he could get pole position in today's race.

After all, Qin Miao himself didn’t quite understand the limits of this car, and he was still a little timid on some corners where he could drive more extreme.

But I didn't expect that others were worse than me.

It can be said that the FIA ​​helped me invisibly.

It is worth mentioning that the pole position of this race is the first time that Qin Miao has won the pole position in the qualifying stage since the start of the 23rd season.

Finally, the starting order for Sunday's race is as follows:
1: Qin Miao 1:39.897
2: Hamilton

3: Leclerc

4: Verstappen

5: Perez
6: Sainz
7: Alonso
8: Norris
9: Tsunoda

10: Stroll

There is nothing surprising about the fact that the pole position and second place in qualifying were Qin Miao and Hamilton.

After all, the speed of the two Mercedes drivers is indeed good, and the Mercedes car is indeed suitable for this track.

But what was really surprising was that Leclerc actually got third place, while Red Bull did not even make it into the top three.

When Qin Miao brought the car back to the maintenance area and parked the car to prepare for the interview, he was a little surprised to see a red Ferrari parked next to him.

After parking the car and jumping out, Qin Miao did not say much to his teammate Hamilton. Instead, he looked at Leclerc next to him and asked curiously: "How did you beat Red Bull? Verstappen and Perez made mistakes on the track?"

Leclerc rolled his eyes as he took off his helmet and said, "Can't I just rely on my own strength?"

Leclerc is not just showing off. He really got this ranking by relying on his faster ability to adapt to the car and his familiarity with the track.

It is possible that Leclerc has been quietly practicing the corners of this track over and over again in an unknown corner, just to get himself closer to the limit of this track in qualifying and the race.

But what made Leclerc a little helpless was that even though he had pushed the car to the limit, he still couldn't outrun the Mercedes car on the track.

The tail speed of this Mercedes car is really too fast.

There was even a voice in Leclerc's heart telling him that if he and Qin Miao were driving a racing car with the same performance, he might not be worse than him.

……

After chatting with Leclerc for a while, Qin Miao ignored Leclerc.

Whether it was good luck or the upgrades brought to Ferrari's car in these three weeks had significantly improved the performance deficiencies of Ferrari's car this season, it was not what Qin Miao needed to worry about now.

Weigh-in, receive awards, and sign autographs for the little tires.

Qin Miao was tired of this process last season. This season is the first time he has experienced it, and it is a different feeling.

After completing the post-race interview, Qin Miao did not celebrate, but returned to the team's P room to look at his qualifying telemetry data.

After all, there is still a qualifying race to run tomorrow. The sooner you understand the limits of your car, the easier it will be to run in tomorrow's sprint qualifying race.

It can also be faster.

After all, tomorrow's sprint qualifying will determine the finishing position of tomorrow's sprint race to a certain extent.

In a race like that, if you are not absolutely or 100% sure, no one would risk damaging the car and try to overtake at that stage.

But no matter what, Mercedes won a big victory on Friday, with the two Mercedes drivers taking the front row on Sunday.

Saturday is the day for sprint qualifying and the start of the sprint race.

At the pre-race driver meeting in the morning, Toto personally told the two drivers: "The points for the sprint race are limited, and our main focus cannot be on this race, so try not to cause damage to the car during the sprint qualifying phase. After all, if there is damage to the car at this time, you will be penalized in the race on Sunday."

Both drivers expressed their understanding. After all, from the team's perspective, these 8 points have little impact on the team's overall ranking and the driver's position in the standings.

Instead of fighting hard for these eight points, it is better to just start. If you can get the points, you can be happy for a while, and if you can't get them, it won't be a pity.

Because Saturday was an independent mini-Grand Prix, all the stands in the paddock were full before today's race started.

The buildings on both sides of the street were also full of people.

Maybe the FIA ​​reform was intended to see such a grand occasion.

But to be honest, the FIA's actions did lead to most of the tickets for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix being sold out.

At least there weren't any general admission tickets left for Friday and Saturday like on a normal Grand Prix weekend.

After arriving at the paddock, Qin Miao's Grand Prix weekend process remained the same.

Soon it was time for the sprint qualifying round.

With the familiarity of yesterday's qualifying session, Qin Miao now has a deeper understanding of the tuning settings of his car, but the problem still exists, because the time for a practice session is a bit too short.

So when Qin Miao looked back, he found that there were still many areas for improvement in the car tuning he had used in the first training phase. For example, the overall balance of the car could still be improved based on the tuning. The downforce at the rear was too low. If the rear wing attack angle was increased by about two degrees, the overall balance of the car would be better.

The increase in the rear wing attack angle will not excessively affect the acceleration of the W14, but it can provide the W14 with higher mechanical grip during the acceleration phase.

Overall, the latter provides greater advantages to racing.

In addition, there are many tuning details that can be improved. All in all, Qin Miao feels that his lap speed still has room for improvement of about 0.1 seconds.

Don’t think that 0.1 second is not a lot. In fact, for drivers at Qin Miao’s level, their lap times are deducted by 0.1 second or 0.01 second, and their results are achieved by accumulating small amounts.

But after seeing Hamilton's car tuning settings before the race, Qin Miao felt balanced, because the old man's tuning settings were worse than his own.

Although the two have different driving habits and use different racing car tuning, the performance of their cars is the same.

The two have similar driving habits, so most of the time the training between me and Hamilton is based on analogy.

Therefore, Qin Miao could understand Hamilton's training settings, and Hamilton could naturally understand Qin Miao's training settings.

And it just so happens that these two people share the same training settings.

The consequence was that when the old man came to participate in the sprint qualifying on Saturday, his face was full of worry.

It seems that I can’t outrun Qin Miao in this Grand Prix again… (End of this chapter)