How did I become an F1 driver?

Of course, even though Hamilton discovered that Qin Miao's tuning settings were much better than his own, he had the idea of ​​changing his car tuning.

But in the end Hamilton did not take action.

After all, it is a bit late now, and even if it is optimized, it will only bring an improvement of about 0.2 seconds per lap.

Although this 0.2 seconds per lap looks tempting, compared to being penalized to the end of the team, this 0.2 second speed difference is not unacceptable.

Moreover, if an accident occurs during the sprint race or sprint qualifying, and the suspension or other part of the car is damaged, the driver will have to go straight to the maintenance area to start the race.

So after weighing the pros and cons, the old man could only look at Qin Miao's racing settings with envy, but he could do nothing.

To be honest, it's a bit disgusting.

However, there is no need to waste the results obtained in the qualifying race just for the eight points in the sprint race.

Moreover, Hamilton estimated that in today's race, only Qin Miao's tuning settings were relatively close to the best state, and the car tuning of other drivers should be about the same as his own.

Of course, this is indeed the case. Qin Miao's tuning settings are the closest to those of a regular Grand Prix weekend among all the drivers.

Saturday, sprint qualifying.

Because it is a sprint qualifying, it is different from a normal qualifying. The three stages of the sprint qualifying are shorter than those of a normal qualifying.

Moreover, only neutral tires can be used in the first two stages, and only soft tires can be used in the last stage.

SQ1、SQ2、SQ3的时间分别为：12、10、8分钟。

Therefore, except for SQ1, when drivers have the opportunity to pit for tire changes, in SQ2 and SQ3, drivers can only run two flying laps on the track using a set of neutral tires and soft tires respectively.

Don’t underestimate the 10 and 8 minutes, which are not short, but you have to consider that the Baku circuit is one of the longest tracks in the F1 calendar.

Even if you run the flying lap at full speed on the 6-kilometer track, it will take nearly two minutes to complete one lap, not to mention the exit lap and cool-down lap.

So the time for sprint qualifying is really tight.

In the SQ1 stage, Qin Miao still maintained his familiar rhythm, but because there was enough tire reserve, Qin Miao used a new set of neutral tires to run three flying laps in the SQ1 stage.

The result was pretty good, 1:41.730, advancing to Q2 behind Alonso.

In fact, today's weather conditions are not much different from yesterday's. The reason why the lap was so much slower than yesterday's is mainly because of what Toto said in the pre-race meeting today. The weight of the sprint qualifying is much lower than that of the main race. Everyone can clearly distinguish the more important 8 points and 25 points.

So in today's sprint qualifying, everyone ran more conservatively than in yesterday's qualifying.

The speed is naturally not that fast.

It's not just Qin Miao, nor just Mercedes, it's like this for almost all teams.

I won’t go into details about SQ2 here.

However, in the final SQ3, Qin Miao's performance was not ideal.

Although the team allowed Qin Miao to complete a pit stop and change tires during the race after he completed his first flying lap.

However, during the second flying lap, Leclerc lost his grip on the wall at the T5 corner, which directly affected the race rhythm of Sainz and Qin Miao.

Therefore, Qin Miao could only use the results of SQ3's first flying lap.

In the end, it only ranked fifth behind SQ3.

This is also Qin Miao's worst qualifying result this season.

In addition to the yellow flag that Qin Miao encountered on the track, it was also because Qin Miao felt a little inflated after the qualifying race yesterday.

After all, Qin Miao finally got a pole position in the qualifying race yesterday, Friday, and he did not feel any pressure at all.

So Qin Miao subconsciously thought that the conditions of other drivers in the sprint qualifying stage should be the same as they were yesterday, Friday.

But it was obvious that Qin Miao underestimated the heroes of the world.

They are all top F1 drivers. Even if the car's tuning settings are not in their ideal state, isn't a whole day enough for them to adjust their driving style?

Give these top drivers a suitable car and they can indeed reach unimaginable speeds.

But they are experienced and can also drive a car that they are not familiar with and achieve a good result.

In addition, during the SQ3 race, basically all drivers helped their teammates to pull the tail stream during the process.

Coincidentally, the lap in which Hamilton helped Qin Miao pull the slipstream was the last lap of SQ3.

In short, Qin Miao's sprint qualifying result was not ideal. Besides being a bit unlucky, it was also because he ran the first flying lap of his SQ3 too casually.

But at least from the perspective of the Mercedes team, this was not an unacceptable mistake. It was only eight points, so it was lost.

Besides, Qin Miao didn’t get a good result in the qualifying round, but wasn’t there Hamilton ahead of him?
In the final sprint qualifying, the ranking of SQ3 is as follows:
1: Leclerc 1:40.203
2: Verstappen

3: Hamilton

4: Perez
5: Qin Miao

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

10: Stroll

Four hours after the sprint race qualifying, the sprint race will begin.

In the sprint race, the Mercedes team implemented its original policy of protecting the car, which is that it would rather not score any points in this sprint race, but would try its best to ensure that its car is not damaged during the race.

All preparations before the sprint race are exactly the same as those for the main race.

After completing the pre-race preparations, warm-ups, and inspections, Qin Miao came to the track.

I got into my car, completed a self-check of the car system, and after making sure all functions were intact, I began waiting for the sprint race to begin.

Of course, the team agreed that they would not rush too hard in today's race.

But on the eve of the game, Qin Miao still simulated several times in his mind, including his own positioning after the start and possible accidents on the field.
After all, as a driver, no one would mind getting a few more points on the track.

Of course, this is based on the premise that the team guarantees the safety of their cars.

In this sprint race, Qin Miao's starting position was on the right side of the track, without the advantage of the inside line, but looking at Perez on his left, Qin Miao felt that his starting reaction speed must be faster than Perez's. After the race started, it should not be a problem for him to get to fourth place.

Soon, the warm-up lap began, and Qin Miao also started to warm up his set of neutral tires.

As all the cars completed a warm-up lap, everyone parked their cars in their original starting positions. Five red lights came on and off.

Game start.

Qin Miao's start was as good as ever, and he had already finished side by side with Perez before reaching T1.

And he clearly left Sainz and Alonso behind him.

Qin Miao even felt that his position was stable, but Perez's next move made Qin Miao feel a little upset.

Strictly speaking, Perez is the one who is barefoot.

I have to consider my ranking in tomorrow's competition. After all, I still have a great chance of winning the third world championship in my career this year.

The data from the first three races of the season have proved that Perez's speed cannot match that of his teammate Verstappen, so Perez's mission this season has basically been determined to help the Red Bull team score points, and at the same time, if there is an opportunity, interfere with drivers from other teams on the track.

At this time, Qin Miao was delivered directly to Perez's door.

Although the Red Bull team said the same thing to Perez and Verstappen before the race, they still had a prerequisite, that is, if they met Qin Miao on the track, it would be best if they could interfere with and influence the opponent.

So, at this time Perez focused all his attention on Qin Miao.

At the braking point of T1, Perez braked late against Qin Miao's car on the outside, directly blocking Qin Miao from entering the corner.

This is the downside of street racing.

If this was a normal Grand Prix track, there would be some curbs on the outside, and some tracks would even have concrete outside. Even if Qin Miao saw Perez's defensive action, he could go to the buffer zone outside the track, and even if he was squeezed out of the track, he would not lose too much position.

However, Perez on the inside braked late and directly interrupted Qin Miao's rhythm of entering the corner.

Perez didn't leave Qin Miao any space to enter the turn.

Qin Miao, who was behind Perez, could only helplessly wait for Perez to enter the corner before following Perez's rhythm to enter the corner.

This gear directly disrupted Qin Miao's original rhythm. Not only did he fail to use his excellent start to overtake Perez, but his position dropped back one notch, allowing Sainz to take advantage.

Come on, this guy will definitely defend himself as hard as Perez on the track.

If he wanted to get more points in the sprint race next time, he would have to face two drivers who were extremely willing to defend themselves.

Qin Miao even had a feeling that Perez's defensive ability was much stronger than last season, but there was no change in his single lap speed. Could it be that he had special training?
Just to target myself?

Qin Miao didn't know all this, but now his main goal had changed from surpassing Perez to surpassing Sainz in front of him.

However, Qin Miao had just planned to kill all the opponents after DRS was turned on, when a yellow flag appeared on the track.

Lynk & Co's Tsunoda collided with Piastri at the start, causing damage to the front wing of the car, which reduced the overall grip of the car, but Tsunoda did not feel it at the first time.

Next, when entering the high-speed corner T13, due to the decrease in the overall downforce of the car, Yuki Tsunoda's car experienced understeer. As a result, the car rubbed against the right guardrail after exiting the corner, and the right rear wheel burst on the spot.

Then the tyres had a mind of their own and stayed on the track.

The original virtual safety car also became a physical safety car because of the tire left on the track.

After this collision, Kakuda retired directly from the race.

Lynk & Co is in a gloomy mood. After all, in today's race, the Lynk & Co team has a chance to win their first points since the team was founded. After all, Yuki Tsunoda started from ninth place in today's race, and they can get points as long as they move up one place.

It’s a pity that Yuki Kakuda withdrew from the competition.

But there is no way, this is F1, and we can see from the broadcast that the right rear suspension of Tsunoda's car is completely damaged. If he continues to run on the track, the rear suspension may explode directly. At that time, only the rear suspension will be scrapped, which will be ok. However, if the suspension suddenly breaks when driving at high speed, and the car loses control and crashes into the wall, the loss will be great.

Although Geely has given the Lynk & Co F1 team a sufficient budget, the FIA ​​has a budget cap and they cannot waste money like this.

On the sixth lap, the race restarted.

This time it's a dynamic start.

Leclerc started accelerating before Mathieu's entrance on the main straight.

Qin Miao stepped on the accelerator almost at the same time as Leclerc.

Although DRS was not turned on at this time, the advantage of Mercedes' car in straight-line acceleration this season was demonstrated.

In addition, Qin Miao had some experience in guessing Leclerc's personal preferences, so Qin Miao's reaction speed at the start was obviously faster than Sainz in front of him.

Then on this long straight, Qin Miao directly pulled away from the outside line behind Sainz while Sainz was in the tailstream of Perez's car, and completely surpassed Sainz before the braking point of T1.

That's right, he used the horsepower and terrifying acceleration of the racing engine to directly beat Sainz from the outside.

Sainz looked at Qin Miao who quickly overtook him from the outside and said in the team TR: "This is crazy."

After the race restarted, Qin Miao returned to fifth place, with Perez ahead of him.

In fact, Qin Miao had the opportunity to overtake Sainz and attack Perez in front of him at the same time by using his reaction speed and the terrifying acceleration ability of the car.

However, thinking of what happened at the beginning and Perez's defensive attitude, Qin Miao did not choose to rush into it, but stayed slightly behind Perez to stabilize himself.

Otherwise, Qin Miao might very likely return to sixth place again.

The race then came to the starting straight on lap 7, with DRS turned on.

During this period of time, Qin Miao has been following Perez.

Due to the characteristics of the track, although Qin Miao would be left a little behind by Perez in the multi-turn area of ​​the second timing period, Qin Miao was always able to catch up in the first and third timing periods.

On the starting straight on the 7th lap, the time gap between Qin Miao and Perez in front of him was only 0.6 seconds.

On a normal track, although this 0.6-second time gap will allow the rear car to enter the DRS area of ​​the front car, the rear car basically has no possibility of threatening the front car because the time gap is too large.

But this rule doesn't really apply at the Baku track.

Because the starting straight in Baku is too long.

Qin Miao's car is tuned to have a faster speed on the straight.

Plus the DRS is turned on at this time.

Qin Miao absorbed Perez's tail flow and when he came to the front of the DRS area, the time gap between Qin Miao and Perez had been narrowed to 0.3 seconds, and the final speed of Qin Miao's car reached 327 kilometers per hour.

With DRS turned on, Qin Miao's car speed soared, and it was like a nitrous car accelerating, reaching 340 kilometers at the end. (End of this chapter)