How did I become an F1 driver?

Perez, who had overtaken Stroll in T10, had obviously tasted the sweetness and was ready to repeat the trick in T10 on the next lap to overtake Hulkenberg...

Then it crashed...

Perez's front nose wing end panel was extensively damaged, with a large piece of the left half of the front nose wing missing, which also had a significant impact on the speed.

Although Perez, like Sainz, had his front nose damaged, his speed loss was obviously greater, and Perez was not in the points zone at the time and had a high probability of not getting any points, so Red Bull called Perez back.

Because of this operation, Perez completely lost the possibility of competing for points in today's game.

To be honest, if the venue for today's race was a track where overtaking was a little easier, even if it was the Hungaroring, Perez, driving the fastest car in the paddock, would not have felt so frustrated. But there is no way, this is Monte Carlo, the jewel in the crown of F1.

The following game fell into silence.

Although the team's weather forecast before the race said that there was only a 20% chance of rain today, halfway through the race, the Mercedes team's meteorological department had already discovered through radar that a cumulonimbus cloud was moving towards the track.

It wasn't even just Mercedes, basically all the teams with weather departments knew that there would be showers on the track and that they would fall before the end of the race.

This is good news for all drivers except Hulkenberg.

Because it was raining, it meant that everyone had to pit for change to semi-wet tires, and everyone could get a free pit stop, except Perez and Hulkenberg.

As a result, everyone delayed their pit stop.

Even though the tires' grip was obviously failing, there was no choice but to pit for a change of tires.

After all, compared to other tracks, defending against the cars behind you in Monte Carlo is a particularly easy thing. Even if your tire grip is obviously failing, as long as you don't let go of the inside line at some overtaking points and run normally during the race without any serious mistakes, it is basically impossible for the cars behind you to overtake you, unless you are using a GP2 engine.

Therefore, they have the reason and ability to continue to persist on the track.

But this was a bit torturous for Qin Miao.

It is well known that Qin Miao's ability to protect tires is the best in the field.

Therefore, after the race was halfway through, Qin Miao's tire grip was the best among all the drivers.

Even if Qin Miao and Verstappen were allowed to run a flying lap together in Monte Carlo at this time, Qin Miao could rely on his better tire grip to run faster than Verstappen.

But the shitty thing is that at this moment, there was a Hamilton blocking Qin Miao.

The old man was particularly adept at defending Qin Miao.

Even though Qin Miao used the skill of putting pressure on the old man in front of him at the beginning of the game.

But the game was already halfway through, and the pressure on the old man was only 62%.

The growth rate is extremely slow, and it will most likely only increase to 70% before the end of the game.

Qin Miao felt that it was this track and Alonso in front of the old man that gave him enough sense of security.

Qin Miao had no idea what to do about this.

And it's really frustrating when the driver in front of you obviously has worse tires than yours, but you just can't overtake him.

At this time, the only road Qin Miao could take was blocked by the rain that was about to fall.

This road is for pit stops to change tires. A 7-second vacuum zone has been created behind Qin Miao at this time, which means that there is no driver in front of him for 7 seconds after Qin Miao comes out of the pit stop to change tires. Qin Miao can set the highest lap time possible in these 7 seconds.

But the shit is, the weather forecast says it's going to rain soon.

If you can still hold on to the track with dry tires when it rains on other tracks, it is completely impossible in Monte Carlo.

Because there are too many low-speed corners on the Monte Carlo track, and in low-speed corners, if you use dry tires, the tires will not be able to provide your car with any grip.

You will absolutely lose control of your car in the slow corners of Monte Carlo.

Therefore, Qin Miao had no choice but to continue to hold back behind Hamilton.

Qin Miao held his breath for the 53rd lap.

Finally, on the 53rd lap, the change that all fans except Red Bull fans had been waiting for finally came.

Because it finally rained in Monaco.

It can be said that since F1 cars have become bigger and bigger, in recent years at the Monaco Grand Prix, spectators no longer expect any fights on the track. The only thing they expect is rain during the race.

Because only rain can bring some variables to the unchanging stadium.

And this grand event was indeed as the fans wished, with laps, giving way, overtaking, skidding, and going up the wall. For a moment, all the factors that the fans love to see were combined together, one after another, and it was dazzling.

As the rain gradually approached the track, Qin Miao narrowed the time gap between himself and Hamilton to 1 second.

This distance allowed Qin Miao to put more pressure on Hamilton. After he made a mistake, Qin Miao also had the opportunity to immediately take his podium position.

Although at this time the pressure bar above the old man's head was still rising very slowly.

In fact, on the 52nd lap, it started to rain on the track, but the rain at that time did not affect the drivers' driving, but only interfered with their vision.

But by the 53rd lap, the rain suddenly got heavier and many drivers started cutting watermelons because they couldn't stop on the track.

However, Qin Miao did not pit to change tires on the 53rd lap.

Although this lap will be a bit difficult, it is really too early to change to rain tires at this time.

As it rained, the speed of almost all the drivers changed, and at this time Qin Miao also trapped Zhou Guanyu. The situation on the field was extremely chaotic. The staff of Mercedes-Benz Strategy Group were almost burning their brains, and they really had no time to calculate the benefits of pit stop at this time.

But there are always some people who become pioneers, and Bottas and Stroll are among them.
They changed to neutral tires on the 53rd lap, and now almost all drivers of all teams use the lap speed of these two as a reference.

Whenever other teams discover that these two drivers are driving faster than those using hard tires, they will ask their drivers to pit and change to rain tires.

At this time, Franky was also reminding Qin Miao to keep a little distance between himself and Hamilton.

It’s not that Franky has betrayed Qin Miao. As a track engineer who has been with Qin Miao since F2, he can be said to be one of the few people in the entire Mercedes-Benz team who only serves Qin Miao.

The reason why Qin Miao kept some distance from Hamilton was that Frankie knew it would definitely rain soon.

If the rain is too heavy, the team cannot call one car into the pit every lap to change tires. They must call two cars in at once.

Although the car will suffer some speed loss after being called in together, it is still less than putting another car on the track to run an extra lap.

Since there are two cars entering the pit, if the distance between Qin Miao and Hamilton is too close, Qin Miao, who is behind Hamilton, will suffer a loss during the tire change stage. He will definitely have to wait for a while behind Hamilton and only change his tires after Hamilton has changed his tires.

This period of time was enough for Leclerc, who had been sticking behind Qin Miao, to complete an under cut on Qin Miao.

Since it is inevitable to suffer a loss, try to keep as much distance as possible from Hamilton, at least to give the Mercedes tire changer enough time to prepare when changing tires, and also to reduce the possibility of being undercut by Leclerc in the maintenance area.

Speaking of Leclerc, if Qin Miao felt aggrieved in today's race, Leclerc was more helpless.

Before the race, Leclerc did have the idea of ​​using force on Qin Miao on the track, but after overtaking Ocon at the start, Leclerc no longer had this idea.

Because throughout the entire race, even if Leclerc tried his best, he couldn't bring enough pressure to Qin Miao.

In fact, Leclerc also tried to attack.

Leclerc knew that his car's cornering performance was better than Qin Miao's, so he stuck very closely to Qin Miao at the beginning of the first and second timing sections, and finally tried an attack in the tunnel after leaving T8.

This attack was promising because before the braking point at T10, the gap between Leclerc and Qin Miao was only 0.2 seconds.

If Leclerc had braked late, he could have gotten into Qin Miao's inner lane and overtaken him, but the shit thing was that Qin Miao habitually walked along the center line and blocked Leclerc's attack.

There was no big problem up to this point. From the third timing section until T19, Leclerc shortened the time gap between himself and Qin Miao to 0.2 seconds.

After exiting the corner and arriving at the DRS area, Leclerc tried another attack using Qin Miao's wake and DRS.

Then Qin Miao habitually took the center line at T1. Leclerc now had only two choices: either force his way into the inside line, but doing so would likely cause him to run off the track with a small probability of blocking Qin Miao's route, or give up the attack.

If the team was still in the race for the championship, Leclerc would probably find a relatively good opportunity within these 50 laps to take a risk, but Ferrari does not have the strength to compete for the championship this season.

And at this time, Leclerc himself does not feel any urgency in the standings, and Ferrari is also in a state of reconstruction, so the demand for points is not too high.

So Leclerc was just a little helpless, but he was not overwhelmed by Qin Miao.

He knew that compared to taking the risk of competing for the 4th place, the current profit of the 5th place was already good enough.

Moreover, Leclerc, who had been running behind Qin Miao for almost half the game, also knew that Qin Miao was the more annoying person at this moment compared to himself.

Because he could see that Qin Miao's tires were in very good condition, there weren't even any scars or bulges on them. Leclerc didn't dare to imagine how fast his lap speed would be if he replaced Qin Miao's tires on his own car.

But even with such a perfect set of tires, Qin Miao had no way to deal with Hamilton in front of him.

It may be because of this reason that Leclerc feels more balanced.

On the other hand, Qin Miao naturally followed the team's requirements and extended the time gap between himself and Hamilton from the original 1 second to 3.5 seconds.

However, while doing this, Qin Miao couldn't help but wonder if the team was worried that if he continued to follow Hamilton, coupled with the current weather conditions, it would put pressure on Hamilton and cause him to make mistakes on the track.

Although the possibility of such a low-level mistake occurring with Lao Deng's driving skills is very low, it is not impossible. After all, he has been putting pressure on him from behind.

Qin Miao couldn't help but think so. After the news that he was going to Ferrari next season was revealed, Qin Miao's treatment in the team did decline.

Moreover, suspicion is like a crack. Once there is a crack, it will continue to expand uncontrollably.

However, after weighing the pros and cons, Qin Miao still chose to follow the team's arrangements.

After all, compared to the small probability of Hamilton making a mistake, it is more likely that you will be overtaken by Leclerc due to a delay in tire changing due to following Hamilton too closely.

The race reached the 54th lap after the rain started to fall heavily on the track.

The lap speed of Bottas and Stroll, who entered the pit on the previous lap, was not as fast as everyone expected, so at this time no driver chose to enter the pit to change tires.

Even Verstappen started complaining about the track being so slippery.

Qin Miao also felt more and more like he was ice skating.

But everyone is still holding on on the track.

After all, the pit stop in Monaco is so important.

At the hairpin turn on the 54th lap, Qin Miao really felt like he was ice skating when he came here. The originally dry road surface of the track had been completely wet by the rain. The only difference from the rainy day was that there was no water on the track at this time.

When exiting the T8 corner, Qin Miao drifted briefly on the track, but fortunately, he managed to stay stable and successfully entered the tunnel.

After Qin Miao entered the tunnel, Franky finally informed Qin Miao through the team TR: "The single lap speed of the semi-wet tires is now faster than that of the hard tires. We will stop and change tires in this lap."

After hearing Franky's words, Qin Miao, who had been skating on the track for half a day, finally breathed a sigh of relief.

Finally, I have passed this torturous period.

Then before that, Alonso, who was in second place, also chose to pit and change tires.

The current track conditions are indeed not suitable for using dry tires, and the driver has been under pressure from Hamilton behind him and has been on the track for 54 laps on a set of hard tires. His tires really can't hold on.

So the lower right corner of the broadcast screen showed that Alonso's track engineer said BOX to Alonso.

However, to the surprise of the drivers behind, Verstappen did not choose to pit on this lap.

He still used neutral tires to persist on the track.

However, no one would be surprised that Verstappen did not pit. After all, the time gap between him and Alonso had been widened to 12 seconds. With such a large time gap, even if he pitted a lap later, there would not be much loss.

He has the capital to spend money.

In the broadcast screen on the left, Verstappen did not make the pit stop, but after Alonso entered the pit, the three Five Star Sports commentators were surprised.

Fei Ge even said directly: "If Verstappen didn't pit, and Alonso pitted a lap earlier, Alonso would have taken a big advantage!"

As soon as he finished speaking, everyone thought that Martin would call Alonso into the pit this time to change him to a set of semi-rain tires.

In the small window broadcast on the left, Martin used 2.4 seconds to change Alonso's tires to a set of neutral tires.

When the commentators of Five Star Sports saw the two yellow lines on the tires of Alonso's car from the broadcast screen through that small window, they thought they were seeing things, or that there was some problem with the broadcast video.

The three commentators were still denying their own judgment based on their usual commentary habits, believing that Aston Martin replaced Alonso with semi-rain tires this time.

"Did Martin change Alonso's tires to yellow tires or something?"

"Half-rain tire, half-rain tire, it should be half-rain tire."

"Yeah, there's no reason for Martin to change Alonso to dry tires at this time!"

“Is it green?”

"The display should have color difference..."

……

Just when the three commentators themselves were a little uncertain.

Alonso's car came out of the maintenance area, and the broadcast camera on the side of the track captured Alonso's car at the first moment.

Then when Alonso came out of the maintenance area, the live broadcast video on the side of the track captured Alonso's car, and everyone realized that Alonso had actually changed to a set of neutral tires.

"Ah? It's a yellow fetus!"

"What's going on?"

"What does Martin think?"

"Why change yellow tires for Alonso at this time?"

The commentators of Five Star Sports were stunned, and the barrage on the other side also exploded.

I don’t understand

[Martin is so cool, change to yellow tires on rainy days]

Martin is wise

[《Big Bargain》]

【《Color Difference》】

[Another scene of five-star poisonous milk is born]

【broken】

[As a fan of the boss, I don’t understand Martin’s tire choice]

【Martin is confused! 】

[Martin in today's race has a lot of Ferrari legacy]

……

On the other hand, Mercedes was the first to know about Martin's outrageous decision to change tires.

However, Franky did not tell Qin Miao what was happening on the track at this time. After all, it would not affect Qin Miao's pit stop for tire change.

"Mercedes chose to pit with two cars. Let's see how fast the tire change is."

On the track, Hamilton was the first to enter the tire changing position, with a tire changing time of 2.4 seconds, an excellent tire changing speed.

Also because Qin Miao had slightly distanced himself from Hamilton before coming in to change tires, Qin Miao did not need to wait behind Hamilton until the old man drove away before stopping to change tires. Qin Miao stopped at the tire changing position right after Hamilton, and neither of them was delayed.

After parking the car, Qin Miao looked at his rearview mirror nervously. Through the rearview mirror, he could just barely see a person's silhouette and a Ferrari racing car behind him that was also entering the pit to change tires.

Mercedes did not let down when changing tires this time. In fact, Qin Miao only took 2.1 seconds to change tires because of Hamilton's practice.

But in Monaco's current state, the extra 0.3 seconds of time advantage will not play any role.

After Qin Miao came out, Leclerc behind him also came out at the same time.

Ferrari did not give Leclerc any opportunities at home this time. Although the tire changing speed was not as fast as Qin Miao, it was maintained at 2.5 seconds.

After returning to the track, there was no change in the rankings among the top drivers.

But just when Qin Miao thought it was just an ordinary routine pit stop, the team brought Qin Miao good news: "Qin Miao, Alonso just changed to a set of neutral tires. Although we don't know what Martin is thinking, this is good news for us.

If the rain gets heavier they will have to pit and we can move into the podium area.

Now you and Hamilton have to push as far as possible and reduce the gap between you and Alonso."

Qin Miao's eyes lit up after hearing this. Is there such a good thing?
In the next few laps, Qin Miao naturally did as Franky had just said. Qin Miao increased his speed and began to approach Hamilton.

The old man also began to speed up and chase Alonso in front.

After all, compared to Hamilton, the air in front of Qin Miao was clean most of the time, and even if there were cars, they were slow and they quickly gave up their seats to Qin Miao.

During this time, Qin Miao suddenly discovered a yellow flag on the track.

But soon the yellow flag disappeared again.

Qin Miao didn't ask either.

It's just a little disappointing. After all, in Qin Miao's impression, it rained so heavily in today's race, and there were still four drivers on the track who had not changed to rain tires. No matter what, one of them would make a mistake on the track and hit the wall or something.

After another lap, Verstappen returned to the maintenance area to change to semi-rain tires.

As time went by, the rain on the track became heavier and heavier, and Verstappen really couldn't continue running on the track without changing to semi-rain tires.

The final tire change time was 2.4 seconds, and Verstappen was still in first position after coming out of the maintenance area.

There is no way, the advantage Verstappen accumulated in the early stage is too great.

Behind Verstappen, Alonso also chose to pit to change tires on this lap.

Although Martin knew that letting Aloso pit for a change of seats at this time would be equivalent to ending his chances of winning the podium in today's race.

But if he didn't make the pit stop, Alonso might not even be able to enter the points zone.

But as mentioned before, the drivers' performance in today's race was actually weaker than the team's decision.

The quality of the pit stop phase is the key to winning today's race.

After Alonso entered the pit to change tires, he naturally fell behind Leclerc.

Aside from being angry, the only thing that may give Alonso some comfort is that he did not fall behind Ocon.

After Alonso entered the pit, the two Ferrari drivers also chose to enter the pit.

These two were the last drivers in the front row to enter the pit.

After they came out of the maintenance area, the specific rankings on the track were as follows:
1: Verstappen

2: Hamilton

3: Qin Miao

4: Leclerc

5: Alonso
6: O'Connell

7: Sainz
8: Gasly
9: Tsunoda

10: Piastri
It can be said that Qin Miao's ability to enter the podium had nothing to do with him. He was defended tightly by Hamilton throughout the race and could not move at all.

It's all set off by peers.

In the Five Star Sports studio, the three commentators and the audience in the studio have been lamenting the Martin team's stupid pit stop strategy.

After all, the three commentators are all quite old, and Brother Bing and Brother Fei still have some feelings for these veterans in the paddock.

They really hope that Alonso can win a race today.

After all, anything can happen if it rains. What if Verstappen suddenly gets upset and crashes into the wall and retires from the race?
It's just a pity that with the Martin team's stupid strategy, Alonso lost a lot of time and fell directly to fifth place.

Now, the possibility of winning the championship falls on Hamilton and Qin Miao, two Mercedes drivers other than Verstappen. (End of this chapter)