How did I become an F1 driver?

Qin Miao was really gnashing with hatred when he saw the Red Bull racing car in front of him.

Damn, I was too careless in this game.

After all, in the four races of this season, Qin Miao has never been overtaken by anyone on the track, and defending Verstappen has made him miserable. In addition, Qin Miao's defensive ability is recognized as the strongest in the paddock, so Qin Miao is somewhat inflated.

Seeing that Verstappen caught up with him but did not attack him, Qin Miao subconsciously thought that Verstappen knew the gap in strength between him and himself and gave up attacking him in this game.

Damn, who would have thought that this guy was saving electricity! He didn't do this before.

"Oh, Qin Miao didn't defend Verstappen!" After seeing Qin Miao being overtaken, Brother Bing was visibly frustrated.

However, Zhou Haoran explained: "Even if Qin Miao went to the inside line, he couldn't hold the position where Verstappen overtook. Red Bull's final speed was too fast after turning on DRS this season. In addition, Verstappen was still using neutral tires, so it was normal that Qin Miao couldn't hold the position, after all, Qin Miao was using a set of old hard tires."

"It's a pity indeed. If the Miami circuit didn't have the long straights between T16 and T17, Qin Miao might have been able to withstand the pressure from Verstappen."

Not only the three commentators from Five Star Sports, but even the strategy team in the Mercedes team's P room felt that after being overtaken by Verstappen, Qin Miao's chances of winning the race today would be reduced to zero.

But Qin Miao himself hasn't given up yet.

After all, there are still 9 laps to the end of the race.

Verstappen's set of neutral tires will not have any problem completing the remaining 9 laps on light oil, but in the later stages of the race, the disadvantage of the neutral tires being less durable than the hard tires will definitely be exposed, and Verstappen's speed will inevitably slow down in the later stages of the race.

By then, there is a great possibility that I will catch up with Verstappen and put pressure on him.

Maybe we will surpass it.

Don't say it, really don't say it.

Qin Miao’s judgment was indeed correct.

On the 50th lap, the speed gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen began to shrink significantly.

After overtaking Qin Miao, Verstappen began to pull away from Qin Miao at a speed of 0.5 seconds per lap. However, three laps later, on the 3st lap, Verstappen only pulled away by 51 seconds per lap.

At this time, the time difference between the two was 1.9 seconds.

By the 53rd lap, there was no speed difference between the two.

In this lap, both of them even set a time of 1:30.889 on the track.

At this time, the time gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen was fixed at 2.2 seconds.

2.2 seconds, four laps left.

Qin Miao really has the possibility of overtaking Verstappen.

Although this possibility is very slim, it is not completely impossible.

However, Qin Miao himself sighed, because he felt that it was impossible for him to surpass Verstappen.

Of course, Qin Miao's tires still have enough power left at 40%, and he still has the ability to attack Verstappen, so unless he really crosses the finish line, Qin Miao will still try to attack Verstappen.

However, when the race reached the 54th lap, Qin Miao was only 0.2 seconds behind Verstappen.

In the next three laps, Qin Miao only chased to the DRS zone behind Verstappen, but did not really bring any substantial pressure to Verstappen at the last moment.

Facts have proved that although Verstappen's tire grip declines much faster than Qin Miao's, the performance advantage of the Red Bull car is there after all, and it is not something Qin Miao can easily overcome if he wants to.

Finally, amid the celebrations in the Red Bull team's P room, Verstappen was the first to cross the finish line, followed closely by Qin Miao, who ultimately only finished second.

Perhaps for the audience at the scene and the fans who only watch the result of the race and do not understand the deeper reasons and process of the race, this race was about Qin Miao failing to defend against Verstappen's attack in the final stage. Although he started to chase in the later stage, it was too late and he ultimately missed the championship of the race.

So after the game, many Mercedes fans on the Internet began to settle accounts with Qin Miao.

They don’t care if you are a two-time world champion or not, or how big the performance gap is in this race.

In their eyes, you, Qin Miao, did not make any defensive moves on the track and let Verstappen overtake you directly.

You are the biggest sinner.

Then they started to criticize Qin Miao's social media account directly.

But it’s not a big problem since Qin Miao won’t watch it anyway.

Of course, there are also some experienced viewers who watch the race more carefully and go to F1TV to watch the drivers' telemetry data. They know that Qin Miao's runner-up place in today's race was actually not a crime.

After all, everyone can see that when Qin Miao was on the track, his lap speed was always very stable and there was no obvious decline. When Verstappen caught up, Qin Miao's lap speed was even faster.

But from beginning to end, Verstappen's lap time was more than 0.3 faster than Qin Miao.

So the loss of this game really cannot be blamed on Qin Miao.

Although the performance of the Mercedes car this season is also very strong, and it can rank second among the 10 teams in the paddock, it is only second, and there is still a gap from the first-placed Red Bull car.

After the game, Qin Miao was still somewhat depressed.

"Damn, what exactly did Red Bull upgrade for this race?" Qin Miao, who was sitting in the racing car, couldn't help but curse.

This is not because Qin Miao is incompetent and furious. Qin Miao really can't figure out what Red Bull upgraded in this race that made the car so fast.

In the first few races of this season, he could still rely on the advantage of tire preservation to compete with Verstappen on the track, and even managed to win more and lose less.

But in today's race, Qin Miao felt that the performance of Verstappen's car was so powerful that it made him feel a little desperate.

Especially the all-out attack by Verstappen after he had been holding back for two laps behind him.

Really, Qin Miao’s biggest feeling at that time was powerlessness.

It's a bit like a martial arts master who has mastered the art of horizontal training, is invulnerable to swords and spears, and then the opponent takes out a gun... "P2, well done Qin Miao, your performance today has far exceeded our expectations. Toto said we will have two days off after the game!" Qin Miao had just cursed when Franky's TR came over.

But Qin Miao was not in the mood to reply to Franky at this time. After all, you had a championship, but it was gone just like that. No one would be happy about it.

Then Qin Miao just went back to the maintenance area without turning on the microphone and kept cursing.

Compared to Qin Miao's overflowing negative emotions, Hamilton, who also performed well in today's race but ultimately only finished third, was in a good mood.

Sometimes competitive sports are like this, the person who wins the championship is the happiest, because he has won the championship and has done something to the extreme.

Compared to the person who won the third place, the person who won the second place is the most unhappy one, because he was only one step away from winning the championship, but missed the championship because of this one step.

After getting off the car, although Qin Miao didn't want to talk at this time, he still greeted the old man and Verstappen with a smile.

After quickly completing the weigh-in and tidying himself up, Qin Miao completed the post-match interview.

However, it is not difficult to see from Qin Miao's post-match interview that Qin Miao was not in a very good mood at the time.

So the host didn't ask too many sharp questions.

In the end, Qin Miao hurriedly completed all the subsequent processes on the track.

After receiving the awards, the tournament also gave the final ranking and scores of the game:

P1: Verstappen +25
P2: Qin Miao +18
P3: Hamilton +15
P4: Perez +13 (fastest lap)
P5: Alonso +10
P6: Sainz +8
P7: Leclerc +6
P8: Gasly +4
P9: O'Connell +2
P10: Magnussen +1
There is nothing much to say about the top four. All four drivers performed normally without any mistakes and arrived at the positions they should be.

The finishing positions of the following drivers were similar to the predictions before the race, and they happened to be the teams with five cars that were competitive enough.

The only points gap is because the young master did not enter the points zone.

It’s interesting to say that the two drivers of the Aston Martin team finished one twelfth and the other fifth. It’s hard to believe that they were driving the same car.

At the same time, after this race, the drivers' overall standings are as follows:

1: Max Verstappen: 113
2: Qin Miao: 91
3: Hamilton: 81
4: Perez: 71
5: Alonso: 56
6: Leclerc: 35
7: Sainz: 33
8: Stroll: 23
9: Norris: 10
10: Gasly: ​​8
11: Ocon: 6
12: Zhou Guanyu: 4
13: Bottas: 4
14: Hulkenberg: 4
15: Piastrid: 3
16: Kakuda: 2
17: Magnussen: 1
There is no change in the rankings in the drivers' standings, except that Gasly surpassed Ocon after scoring 4 points and entered the tenth place in the drivers' overall standings.

In general, there were no unexpected events on the track in today's race, and most of the results were as expected.

After the final race, the team standings are as follows:

1. Red Bull: 184
2. Mercedes: 172
3. Aston Martin: 79
4. Ferrari: 68
5.Alpine: 14
6. McLaren: 13
7. Alfa Romeo: 8
8. Haas: 5
9. Lynk & Co: 2
10. Williams: 0
Like the drivers' standings, the team standings remained unchanged after this race.

……

After returning to the team's P room with his trophy and celebrating, Qin Miao was busy for more than three hours.

After completing the post-race press conference and post-race meeting of today's Grand Prix, Toto actually gave all the technicians and drivers of the Mercedes team two days off.

You can spend two days in the US, or return to the UK early and the team will reimburse your airfare.

Qin Miao took his wife and left the United States, the sad place.

There will be a week-long break after the US Grand Prix, when the F1 schedule will return to Europe and start a European schedule.

Returning to Europe means that the teams that have set up their headquarters in Europe can now upgrade the performance of their own cars with minimal losses.

At the same time, after the upgrade, you can get feedback from the team as quickly as possible and make modifications.

So it is not surprising that this European schedule will not only reduce the logistics pressure on each team, but will also greatly improve their progress in upgrading their cars.

After all, in Europe, upgrading the car is the cheapest option.

After the competition, Qin Miao went back to China and sent his wife back home.

This girl has been out for some fresh air long enough. Qin Miao originally thought that after she came out, it would be ok if she didn't come to watch him during the practice and qualifying rounds, but she would have to come to watch his race on Sunday, right?
But in fact, this girl was still staying in the hotel playing on the computer during the main competition on Sunday.

However, Qin Miao would not say anything to this girl. If he put himself in her shoes, if he had been held back for so long, he might have played even crazier than her.

However, the next day after sending Qiu Meng home, Qin Miao returned to England.

It is undeniable that during the period after his child was born, Qin Miao was really overwhelmed by various things.

It has been nearly a month since Qin Miao has been able to sit down and polish his driving skills and mentality.

Sending Qiu Meng back was a good opportunity, so Qin Miao returned to Brackley, England. While keeping an eye on the upgrades made by the team to his car, he ran data on the team's simulator and tried to familiarize himself with the upcoming Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, which is actually the Italian Grand Prix, but it uses the name of a small country next to Italy.

Italy is the only European country with two Grand Prix, the first at Imola and the other at Monza.

Qin Miao is actually not unfamiliar with the Imola circuit. After all, since joining F1, Qin Miao has already run two Grand Prix on this track.

Therefore, Qin Miao is now focusing more on consolidating and adapting to the performance of the current car on the Imola circuit, and finding the benchmark adjustments for the main race on the simulator.

After entering the working state, Qin Miao felt that he had a very comfortable time in the team.

After all, Qin Miao is already familiar with this work rhythm.

Of course, some small incidents happened during this process. For example, on Mother's Day on May 5, when Qin Miao called his mother and wife to congratulate them on the holiday, another call came in.

After speaking quickly to his mother and the others, Qin Miao hung up the phone and found that it was Wasser who called him.

Although he was a little confused as to why Vassell called him at this time, he would be his team leader starting next year after all, so Qin Miao still answered the call despite his doubts.

"Good afternoon, Vasser."

"Good afternoon, Qin Miao." Vassell's voice was a little tired, but as soon as the call was connected, he told Qin Miao the main reason for calling Qin Miao: "I called you this time to tell you that Ferrari plans to announce the news that you will join Ferrari next season on Thursday morning at the Imola Grand Prix." (End of this chapter)