How did I become an F1 driver?

Given Qin Miao's terrifying car speed at this time, what he needed to consider was no longer which direction to attack Perez from. All he had to do now was to rely on his absolute speed to overtake Perez before the braking point.

Perez actually has a strong desire to defend Qin Miao.

So when Perez saw Qin Miao coming up from behind, he immediately changed lanes and went to the inside to defend.

But by the time Perez reacted, Qin Miao was too fast and he would basically have no effect by going inside.

He immediately squeezed Qin Miao's offensive line to the outside, but during this process, Perez kept staring at his rearview mirror.

During the entire process, Qin Miao's car did not move, and he just kept his steering wheel moving forward and accelerated.

It was as if he didn't see the Red Bull racing car squeezing in from the inside.

Perez originally wanted to interfere with Qin Miao. He didn't think about having a direct fight with Qin Miao on the track.

So when Perez saw that Qin Miao was not going to avoid him, he withdrew his threatening defensive move.

In the end, Qin Miao surpassed Perez on the outside.

In fact, Qin Miao was able to overtake this time thanks to the old man’s help.

Because of the characteristics of the track and the car, Qin Miao did not bring too much pressure to Perez during the race, so Perez could be relatively focused on running at his own pace on the track.

However, despite this, Perez did not catch up with Hamilton in the DRS zone on the track.

You should know that the DRS efficiency of Red Bull's racing cars this season is extremely terrifying, even higher than that of Mercedes-Benz. If Perez had Hamilton's DRS when overtaking this time, it would not be an easy task for Qin Miao to defeat the opponent.

However, surpassing Perez is a good thing after all. Although everyone in the team was scared to death when they saw Perez squeezing directly towards Qin Miao on the outside and Qin Miao not dodging or evading, they

But at least the final result satisfied everyone.

After overtaking Perez, Qin Miao began to focus his attention on his teammates in front.

However, the time gap between Hamilton and Qin Miao was a bit big at this time, at 1.9 seconds.

Moreover, Qin Miao didn't think that Hamilton would give up his position to him after he caught up with him.

So on the eleventh lap, Qin Miao started looking for opportunities after he was 0.4 seconds behind Hamilton.

It’s not that Qin Miao doesn’t want to take action against Hamilton, but because Leclerc in today’s race was like a chicken with blood injected.

After being overtaken by Verstappen on the ninth lap, Leclerc relied on DRS to absorb Verstappen's tailstream, and then he was not thrown out of the DRS area by Verstappen.

Although Hamilton's car has a good tail speed and terrifying DRS efficiency, with Ferrari having Red Bull's DRS and slipstream, Hamilton has no good way to deal with Leclerc.

Hamilton and Leclerc were now trapped in the DRS train.

At this time, Qin Miao also joined the DRS train.

Qin Miao has reason to suspect that this DRS train was deliberately created by Verstappen in order to prevent himself and Hamilton from posing a threat to his sprint championship on this track that is very suitable for Mercedes-Benz cars.

If you think about it carefully, this is indeed the easiest way for Verstappen to win the sprint race championship under the current competition environment.

After all, the DRS train was already very destructive last season when it was not so difficult to follow the car. Qin Miao was so blocked that he was in ecstasy. This season, it is more difficult to follow the car than last season. When trapped in the DRS train, it is difficult for you to move up a few more places unless the car in front makes a mistake.

Moreover, Pan Zida's driving of the small train was not only to protect his own tires, but also to use Leclerc to defend the two Mercedes cars and reduce his own defensive pressure.

As it turned out, Verstappen's tactics did significantly reduce the pressure on him in today's race.

Although Qin Miao and Hamilton's cars accelerated quickly, neither Hamilton nor Leclerc in front of Qin Miao wanted to give up their positions to the cars behind them. At the same time, they did not dare to fight too hard for this one point in the sprint stage.

Moreover, after the 13th lap of the race, Qin Miao had another Red Bull car behind him.

After Verstappen suppressed Qin Miao's speed, Perez also caught up with the rhythm of this DRS train, and he even began to put pressure on Qin Miao.

In the first two laps, Qin Miao still had the opportunity to try to tap on Hamilton's inside or outside lines and find a chance to attack the old man.

But after Perez came behind Qin Miao, he would be eager to try as soon as Qin Miao made a move.

Others might be thinking about avoiding car damage during the sprint race, but Qin Miao had a strong feeling that Perez might not have this idea in today's race. The most likely thing he was thinking about was how to have a fight with him.

Even after he and I broke up, his position in the Red Bull team would not be unstable, but would become more secure.

Qin Miao has now begun to hate the DRS train.

So even though Qin Miao felt that he still had the energy to try to attack Hamilton at this time, there was Hamilton's full defense in front and Perez behind him was eager to try.

Plus, this was just a sprint race, and if he took the risk of overtaking Hamilton, he would only get one more point than his current position, and the race was almost over.

Under various constraints, Qin Miao finally gave up the adventure.

This is already the 13th lap, and there are only 4 laps left until the end of the race. The income is no longer proportional to the effort.

At the end of the race, Verstappen still maintained his lap time, crossed the finish line and won the championship.

Qin Miao didn't even make it to the podium and only finished fourth.

Finally, the ranking and scores of the sprint race are as follows:

P1: Verstappen +8
P2: Leclerc +7
P3: Hamilton +6
P4: Qin Miao +5
P5: Perez +4
P6: Sainz +3
P7: Alonso +2
P8: Stroll +1
"It's a pity that Qin Miao lost the race today. Everyone can see that Qin Miao is fast, but he was trapped in the DRS high-speed train." Brother Bing said in the studio of Five Star Sports after the sprint race.

However, Qin Miao did not have any negative emotions after the game, nor did he feel very sorry as Bingge and the others said.

Originally, Qin Miao started this race from fifth place, and it was good news that he was able to move up one place and get an extra point at the end.

The reason why it is a pity that Qin Miao finished fourth is mainly because Qin Miao's performance on the field over the years was indeed too outstanding, which subtly raised the expectations of Qin Miao for many people.

And Qin Miao himself is still that young man.

In the standings, the points gap between him and Verstappen was narrowed by three points, but Qin Miao did not feel anxious.

Anyway, I will start from pole position in the race tomorrow, and Verstappen will even be ranked fourth. I will get 25 points in the race, and these two or three points will be wiped out.

After getting off the car, Qin Miao went to weigh himself. After completing the weigh-in and on the way to the post-match interview, Qin Miao met Barber who had been waiting for him.

After taking the helmet and HANS system from Qin Miao, Barber comforted Qin Miao and said, "Our rhythm in today's race was actually very good, and the car did not suffer any damage. However, because Verstappen was driving in the front, the strategy team did not collect Verstappen's single-lap speed data. However, the strategy team is optimistic about Verstappen's tire consumption. Our tires will establish enough advantages over Verstappen in the fifth lap after the start of the race, so you can look forward to the race tomorrow."

Qin Miao drank water, nodded, and listened to what Barber was saying in his ear. Soon he returned to the team's home.

After attending the post-match meeting, Saturday's game came to an end.

No conversation overnight, Sunday.

Similar to the information obtained in Friday's qualifying, no driver will use soft tires in today's race, because the durability of soft tires on this track is too poor, and they will reach the cliff point after running 5 laps under heavy fuel conditions.

There is no value for money.

Qin Miao's pit stop strategy today was decided during the team meeting this morning. He finished the race as soon as Huang Bai stopped.

In fact, according to the calculations of the team's strategy group, the best pit stop strategy today is actually two stops: white, yellow and yellow.

Normally, if the drivers stop in the yellow and white, even if most drivers drive the car in a tire-protecting manner throughout the race, there will still be two or three laps in the later stages of the race when the tires have passed the cliff point.

But Qin Miao had no such worries. Although one stop in this race was not enough for Qin Miao to finish the race without any tire pressure, as long as Qin Miao did not waste his tires, he would most likely not have any anxiety about tire wear after finishing the entire race.

At the same time, at the team meeting before the race, Toto also reiterated to the two Mercedes drivers the rules of engagement between the two drivers within the team for today's race.

Qin Miao and Hamilton's starting positions are too close, so there is a high possibility of internal fighting between them, so it's okay for you two to fight.

After all, both drivers are world champions, and they are even living legends in the paddock.

A seven-time champion, the youngest world champion in F1 history, and the youngest double champion.

Having two such drivers in a team is really a happy trouble for the Mercedes team.

There is no need to explain what happiness is, and troubles are also easy to understand.

Such drivers are extremely competitive, and it is unrealistic to expect them not to fight each other when they meet on the track.

Therefore, Mercedes has no other requirements for these two drivers. They should try to leave some space for each other when fighting on the track and not go to extremes.

However, Toto is still quite confident in Qin Miao. Although Qin Miao sometimes gets a little carried away on the track, most of the time Qin Miao is still a relatively sensible driver.

As for the old man?

No need to say anything...

Soon, after a series of activities including pre-race interviews, press conferences, fan meetings, etc. were all over, the time came to the eve of the start of the 2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

At this time, the two cars of the Mercedes team in the front row have stopped at their starting grids, and the team's technicians are performing final maintenance on the two cars before the start of the race.

Qin Miao sat in the shadow next to the track guardrail, waiting for the FIA ​​staff to notify him that the race had started.

When the time was almost up, Qin Miao came to his racing car, checked it, and after making sure that there was no problem with the car, Qin Miao got into his racing car.

Soon, the tire warm-up lap began.

After one lap, all drivers returned to their starting positions.

Qin Miao came to the pole position.

As the last driver slowly stopped at his starting position and the pursuit car got into position, the stewards started the starting procedure before the race began.

"Okay, we see, five red lights are on!"

"The red light goes out! The 2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix officially begins!"

On the Five Star Sports side, the commentators for today's game are still the same three old ones.

After all, the time for today's game is very normal, which is 7 o'clock in the evening in China.

The three commentators also have time.

"Let's see how Qin Miao's pole position start went today!"

On the track, Qin Miao was very fast after the start, although Hamilton, who started second, wanted to threaten Qin Miao's position by relying on the direction of his car's front.

However, Qin Miao's reaction speed at the start was faster than Hamilton's, probably only taking about 0.2 seconds.

In addition, Qin Miao's car tuning was more focused on the car's acceleration ability, so Hamilton was unable to reach a position that could pose a threat to Qin Miao before T1.

In the end, Qin Miao got off to a smooth start and maintained his first place.

"Qin Miao had a great start today, as good as ever. It seems that Qin Miao was not affected by not getting on the podium in yesterday's race." The three commentators of Five Star Sports were pleased to see that Qin Miao did not make any mistakes at the start and said, "As long as Qin Miao does not encounter too much interference on the track, it will be easy for him to win a race today."

On the track, after a successful start, Qin Miao made sure that Hamilton behind him was no longer a threat to him, and then he started his own race rhythm.

By the third lap, Qin Miao had already widened the time gap between himself and Hamilton to 1.3 seconds, and directly threw Hamilton out of the DRS zone before DRS was turned on.

Qin Miao's car tuning this week is obviously better than Hamilton's. Qin Miao's single lap speed in the race is naturally faster than Hamilton's.
Then on the 4th lap, the first lap after the race turned on DRS, Verstappen, who was behind Leclerc, attacked Leclerc.

After turning on DRS, Leclerc, with Hamilton's slipstream and DRS, had a tail speed of only around 330.

And what about Verstappen? The Red Bull car ran a crazy 348 kilometers per hour in the final stage of the race.

You have to know that the race has just begun and Verstappen's car tank is still full of fuel.

Because of this terrifying speed on the straight, Verstappen had already completely surpassed Leclerc before the finish line. (End of this chapter)