How did I become an F1 driver?

Qin Miao raised his eyebrows. This was really good news, but he was still a little surprised and asked, "Really?"

Franky nodded. "This matter has both advantages and disadvantages for us. Once we are on the track, you have to find the markers for the parking position at the start. The ERS power output mode for the start of the car also needs to be adjusted. Before the race starts, remember to adjust the steering wheel."

Qin Miao nodded to show that he understood, and then asked: "Who did Leclerc penalty to?"

"Don't you know this?"

Qin Miao shrugged: "I didn't even know he was sent back, so how would I know who he was sent back behind. And to be frank, does it matter who's behind me?"

"That's right. With your defensive ability, it doesn't matter who's behind you." Franky scratched his head and said, "I was penalized to be behind Ocon, but with the performance of the Ferrari, it's only a matter of time before he catches up.

That’s all I have to say today. We will have the pre-race parade soon, so don’t forget your stuff. I’ll see you in the team TR then.”

"it is good."

……

Qin Miao had also changed into the Mercedes team's uniform and watched Frankie leave.

Qin Miao used the remaining time to complete the pre-race parade.

It is worth mentioning that during the parade, Qin Miao enjoyed the same cheers as Leclerc and support from the audience.

There were even more people shouting Qin Miao's name than Sainz's name.

What Sainz? I don't know him.

All in all, many things before the race made Qin Miao happy, but Mercedes-Benz people would feel dizzy after seeing them.

But no matter what, Qin Miao is still a driver of the Mercedes-Benz team. In order to appease other staff members in the team and to appease the team's top management, Qin Miao did not interact too much with the Ferrari fans at the scene. He just waved, nodded and smiled normally.

Soon, the drivers' parade ended and Qin Miao returned to the track to make final preparations before the start of the race.

However, there is still an activity before that, that is, the drivers need to listen to the Monaco national anthem together on the track.

This is a process that happens every Grand Prix weekend and almost all drivers are familiar with it.

Originally Leclerc thought that apart from being his home race today, it was just an ordinary Grand Prix weekend. Until the pre-race national anthem session, Leclerc found that Qin Miao was sitting next to him. He didn't know who arranged this.

The moment he saw Qin Miao's name, Leclerc had a bad feeling.

Sure enough, when Qin Miao arrived at the venue before the game started and found that the person next to him was Leclerc, Qin Miao smiled and moved closer to Leclerc.

Then, under Leclerc's vigilant gaze, Qin Miao reached out and patted Leclerc on the shoulder, saying sincerely: "Thank you! I didn't expect that your home game would give me such a big gift."

Leclerc was shocked. The moment he heard Qin Miao's words, both his mentality and expression could not hold back.

Originally, this Grand Prix was Leclerc's home race, and he had driven the car to its full potential during the qualifying round. However, due to the stupidity of the team, he was penalized three positions. Leclerc was furious about this.

Now that Qin Miao had done this, Leclerc was really furious.

"Nmd!" Leclerc reached out and hooked Qin Miao's neck and choked him.

As for Qin Miao's coming to Leclerc this time, he had no intention of provoking him, but just came to say hello? Did Leclerc misunderstand?

Rather than believe this, Leclerc believes that sows can climb trees.

Qin Miao didn't expect Leclerc to be so angry. After being strangled for a while, he quickly patted Leclerc's hand, indicating that he couldn't bear it anymore.

After a while, Leclerc calmed down.

After letting Qin Miao go, Leclerc looked at Qin Miao and said unhappily: "Don't let me catch you on the track, or I'll overtake you to death!"

Qin Miao didn't care. Let alone Monte Carlo, if Leclerc could overtake him in Monza, Qin Miao would consider him awesome.

Qin Miao just asked curiously: "By the way, what were you thinking at that time? Why didn't you get out of the way?"

Leclerc recalled and said: "My track engineer did not inform me that there was a car coming from behind, and I was in the tunnel at the time. The environment was too dark and I couldn't see any car coming from behind through the rearview mirror...so." Leclerc shrugged here, and the meaning was very clear.

Qin Miao sighed and said, "Is this Ferrari's strategy team? I have always been amazed by this, but I can't help but feel a little nervous when I think about experiencing it myself next season.

Hopefully Frankie and I won't have this kind of problem on track, otherwise I'll be pissed."

Leclerc: ...

"You know, Ferrari always likes to do things. Even if your track engineers don't do things for you, they will do things in other aspects..."

Leclerc stopped talking here, but the meaning was clear.

Qin Miao scratched his head: "I regret it now, but there is nothing I can do. Although the contract has not been officially signed, there is already a memorandum of cooperation. Now as long as the contract is drafted, it should be signed. There is no way to refuse."

Leclerc nodded without asking Qin Miao about the content of the contract. After all, strictly speaking, it was a trade secret.

The rest of the process before the game starts proceeds normally.

After completing this set of processes, Qin Miao entered the racing car and made final preparations before the start of the race.

Today's weather is still good, and the forecast before the game was much better, with only a 20% chance of rain.

However, people who live by the sea know that during the rainy season, the weather forecast is likely to be inaccurate and it may rain at any time.

In terms of starting, because of Leclerc's big gift package, Qin Miao's starting position for today's race moved from fifth to fourth, on the left side of the track, which is the outside line.

And T1 at the Monaco Grand Prix is ​​a right turn.

So when Qin Miao was preparing for the race, Reyes came to Qin Miao's car with a tactical board with precautions recorded on it. He checked the fastening of Qin Miao's seat belt and whispered, "Monte Carlo is indeed a difficult track to overtake on, especially the characteristics of our car this season are not suitable for Monte Carlo. But you should have an understanding of the acceleration performance of the car, so whether you can get on the podium in today's race depends entirely on your performance at the start. Although you are on the outside, you also have the advantage of acceleration on the outside. We will try to do something after T1."

Although Reyes didn't say it explicitly, it was equivalent to telling Qin Miao directly.

Given the characteristics of this track, the only way to overtake during the race is if the car in front makes a mistake, but the three cars in front of you are unlikely to make mistakes, so if you want to get on the podium you have to make some efforts at the start. Even though this is indeed difficult, it is the only way for Qin Miao to get on the podium in today's race.

Qin Miao didn't say anything, just nodded at Reyes.

Soon, all the outsiders were cleared from the track and the final preparations before the race began.

"Radio check, can you hear me?"

Qin Miao said teasingly: "I can't hear it."

Franky was used to it and didn't repeat the radio check. Instead, he said, "The weather is good today. There is no wind measurement at the Monte Carlo circuit, so there is no need to worry about interference from the wind measurement during the race. However, the sun is a bit scorching today, so when you exit the tunnel, pay attention to the position of the car in front of you so that you don't get blinded by the sun. You can feel it in advance during the warm-up lap later. Good luck."

"Got it. Keep an eye on the weather for me."

"Don't worry, we will notify you as soon as there is any change in the weather."

"Ok."

……

Soon, as time went on, the remaining staff on the track also withdrew from the track.

Because the Monte Carlo track is too narrow, the track staff withdrew directly from the track instead of retreating to the grass on both sides of the track as in normal track races.

The tire warmer on Qin Miao's tires was lifted up, revealing a set of neutral tires.

In today's race, Qin Miao actually wanted to finish the race directly after stopping after the red and yellow lines, but the team did not allow Qin Miao to adopt this method.

The reason was that the team wanted Huanghong to stop and let Qin Miao wait for the safety car on the track.

Or you can take advantage of the neutral tire's tire-protection advantage and try to over-cut the driver in front.

Protect the tires in the early stages, wait for the driver in front to pit, then start pushing forward with all your strength, and then pit to change tires after the tire performance is no longer good.

Because according to the calculations of the Mercedes team's strategy team, Alonso and Verstappen, in addition to Hamilton, are likely to stop on the yellow and white tires. In the later stages of the race, even the new hard tires may not be faster than Qin Miao's neutral tires. That will be a great opportunity for Qin Miao to try to over-cut the driver in front.

But honestly, this approach is still very difficult.

In addition, the team also prepared another pit stop strategy for Qin Miao, which was a bit risky.

That is, during the race, when there is a wide enough pit stop window behind Qin Miao, he will pit early and try to under cut the driver in front.

Of course, anything can happen during the game, and no one knows what will happen specifically during the game.

So although Qin Miao's established strategy is to stop at yellow and red lines, he still needs to adapt to the situation on the track according to the staff of the Mercedes team's strategy group.

After all the team staff and track driver Matthew evacuated to both sides of the track, the warm-up lap began.

Naturally, there were no accidents during the warm-up lap, and the drivers soon returned to their starting positions.

Qin Miao also parked his car in the fourth position.

Five red lights came on and off, and the race began.

Qin Miao did not make any mistakes at the start. In fact, Qin Miao's reaction speed at the start was considered the fastest among all drivers in today's race.

When the statistics were taken after the race, Qin Miao only took 0.13 seconds to react to the start.

Rather than saying that Qin Miao started by looking at the traffic light, it would be better to say that he predicted the traffic light. Just when Qin Miao thought that his excellent start could be converted into a higher ranking or something else, Qin Miao found that his position was stuck.

The Monte Carlo starting straight is too narrow and short.

Although the Monte Carlo starting straight can accommodate three cars abreast, the left guardrail of T1's turning angle will move inward. Therefore, T1's turning angle can only allow two and a half cars abreast at most. So at this time, if Qin Miao goes to the outside line, he will be at risk of being cut into the inside line by Leclerc behind him. Forcing himself to go to the outside line will easily lead to a loss of a lot of time.

At this time, Alonso was in front of Qin Miao and he couldn't overtake on the outside line. Hamilton was next to him and he couldn't squeeze in on the inside line at all.

This is equivalent to going to jail directly on the field.

Numb, this is Qin Miao's most real feeling at this moment.

Qin Miao couldn't remember how many times this season he had an excellent or even perfect start, but because his ranking in qualifying was not very good, his starting position was stuck behind other drivers and he had no way to overtake.

No wonder when Qin Miao watched the race before, he saw some drivers would pull their heads to the outside line after the start, pulling the entire car out.

Either you get stuck at the back and get pissed off, or you pull away to the outside, but your advantage at the start will be wiped out by the pull.

You have to choose between the two, the one that is slightly more comfortable.

"Let's take a look at Qin Miao's start in today's game!"

"Qin Miao's start was great, is there a chance to overtake? Qin Miao?! Oh no, the advantage is not big enough."

"In Monaco, as long as you don't make mistakes at the start, you rarely lose position. It's a pity that Qin Miao had an excellent start but was blocked."

"That's right. Moreover, the characteristics of Monaco's street race make the starting space too narrow. Qin Miao can't perform well. It's a pity."

After seeing Qin Miao's start, the three commentators of Five Star Sports all sighed in regret.

In fact, they don't do this in general Grand Prix, but they also know that the Monaco track has been difficult to overtake in recent years. Basically, your finishing position after the start will be determined by your position at the end of the race.

So after the start, they assumed that Qin Miao would most likely not even be able to get on the podium in today's race.

……

On the track, after an excellent start did not translate into a better position, Qin Miao, who had long been accustomed to this feeling, was relatively calm.

But you can't blame Qin Miao for being cowardly in the initial stages of the fight.

Because this has nothing to do with Qin Miao himself. If the performance of the Mercedes-Benz car was better, and Qin Miao's qualifying result was 0.2 seconds faster, Qin Miao could start second, and there would be no car blocking him in front, Qin Miao might really be able to challenge Verstappen's position in T1 with this perfect start.

But there is really no way, Mercedes' racing performance is not as good as Red Bull's, especially in a street race like Monte Carlo.

After the race started, Qin Miao stabilized his car's position behind Hamilton.

But at the same time, Qin Miao also complained in his heart: "The game is over."

At least in Qin Miao's heart, he felt that today's game was likely to end like this.

It’s hard to say about the drivers at the back, but the rankings among the drivers at the front are basically fixed.

On the second lap, Perez and Hulkenberg chose to pit directly and change to hard tires. It was obvious that the two of them were ready to finish the race on one set of hard tires.

But you know what, although it is risky to do this in Monte Carlo, Monaco, it is not impossible.

After all, knowing that the drivers behind them cannot overtake their cars, basically all drivers will try their best to protect their tires and keep their speed very low.

This is also the main reason why audiences have complained that the Monaco Grand Prix has not been as exciting to watch in recent years.

But you know what, this method is really useful, because when the race reached the 9th lap, the two people who entered the pit early had already caught up with the main group.

In the following period, the race maintained the consistent rhythm of the Monaco Grand Prix.

Everyone was cruising around the track and no one could overtake anyone else.

This situation continued until lap 11.

Sainz, who was seventh at the time, tried to overtake Ocon.

Oh yes, the reason why Leclerc was not behind Ocon was mainly because Leclerc surpassed Ocon at the start, moved up one place and came behind Qin Miao.

As for the harsh words Leclerc said to Qin Miao before the race, such as overtaking Qin Miao to death... Qin Miao didn't take it to heart at all.

At the start, Leclerc started from the inside and had a longer acceleration distance than Qin Miao. In addition, Leclerc was excited enough for the home Grand Prix, so his starting speed and reaction were particularly fast.

Although not as amazing as Qin Miao, he was only slightly worse than Qin Miao. In addition, Qin Miao stuck behind Alonso after the start, which left Leclerc with some braking area. So at T1, Leclerc squeezed into Ocon's inside line and completed the overtaking.

Focus back on the track.

Sainz was ready to attack Ocon in front of him in T10.

Strictly speaking, there are only two regular overtaking points on the Monte Carlo circuit.

One is T1 at the end of DRS.

If you brake and cut into the inner line at this curve, there is a chance you can overtake the car in front.

Another braking point is T10 just out of the tunnel, because T10 is a curve that requires heavy braking.

Inserting the inner line at this point also has the possibility of attacking the car in front, of course, the premise is that you brake late and the opponent does not have time to take the defensive line.

Sainz's attack this time was a bit too hasty.

Although Sainz found an opportunity to attack before the braking point of T10, who is Ocon?
That's a lion!

Although his defense is special against his teammates, when facing others, especially on the easy-to-defend track of Monte Carlo, Ocon's defensive ability and desire will be even stronger.

So when Ocon discovered that Sainz intended to attack him, he went straight to the center line of the track.

Moreover, when Ocon was walking along the center line, he was stuck before Sainz could make a shot on the inside line of Ocon.

So when Sainz really pulled away and found that Ocon had walked to the center line, Sainz had nowhere to hide.

Although Sainz tried his best to turn right to avoid Ocon in the center of the track, it was too late. In the end, the left front nose end plate of the Ferrari car hit the right rear wheel of Ocon's car.

Ocon's car was fine, after all, it was the tire that was hit, but the left front nose end plate of Sainz's car was broken.

Only a fragment was left hanging on the racing car, dancing in the wind.

Under normal circumstances, if a car has this degree of damage, the race organizers will use the fault flag to force it back to the maintenance area to replace the front wing.

But if he had pitted at this time, it would have been a devastating blow to Sainz. After all, in Monaco, those who understand know that if you pit at the wrong time to change tires, your race will be ruined.

But Sainz did not choose to pit. After all, the damage to the front nose end plate of the car did not have as much impact on the car as imagined on the Monaco track. There might not even be a speed loss of 0.1 seconds per lap.

Ferrari wanted Sainz to try walking on the shoulder and rubbing against the wall on the track to see if he could rub the debris off, so that he wouldn't have to pit and lose time.

And Sainz actually did it. On the straight from T1 to T2, Sainz used his left front nose wing to lightly rub the guardrail and actually rubbed the fragment off.

However, due to inertia, the fragment finally stopped outside T3.

And in the next lap, as luck would have it, both Alonso and Hamilton had the debris rolled under their cars.

Although the sharp piece of carbon fiber created a large amount of sparks when it entered the bottom of both drivers' cars.

However, Qin Miao, who had been following Hamilton 1.7 seconds behind, did not feel that the speed of Hamilton or Alonso's cars had slowed down.

It was most likely that it only scraped the wooden board on the bottom of their cars and did not cause any substantial damage to their cars.

Although he knew it was wrong to think this way, Qin Miao still felt a little regretful when he saw this.

The game continued in a dull manner.

But what makes Alonso, Hamilton and Qin Miao uneasy is that

The Mercedes car has a very good long-distance speed. Both Hamilton and Qin Miao can easily keep up with Alonso's pace, but they just can't surpass him.

Alonso was a little upset because by the 20th lap, the time gap between him and Verstappen had reached 8.4 seconds.

And the time gap was still widening, and Qin Miao and Hamilton were trapped behind Alonso because of their position.

But to be honest, even if the two of them surpassed Alonso, they could not avoid the fate of being gradually left behind by Verstappen on the Monte Carlo track. Verstappen's Red Bull car was simply too fast in Monte Carlo.

On the 30th lap, world famous paintings appeared.

Verstappen lapped his teammate Perez on the track.

Perez was also very clever. While being lapped by Verstappen, he sucked in Verstappen's tailstream in the tunnel and overtook Stroll who was giving way before the T10 braking point.

As for why Alonso, also an Aston Martin driver, will continue to write Hamilton's defensive outline in the second position, while Stroll has already begun to be lapped by Verstappen in the back...

Young Master, those who understand will understand. (End of this chapter)