How did I become an F1 driver?

Chapter 564 548: Le Lao Si: Spicy!
However, Qin Miao is quite familiar with the first and second timing sections of this track.

So even when driving on the track, Qin Miao mainly watched the two timing sections to see if there were any changes and whether the road shoulder had been moved or raised.

In addition, Qin Miao and his crew focused their main attention on understanding and studying the revised three corners from T11 to T13.

At these three bends, Qin Miao mainly studied the route and braking points.

This process is not complicated. Check the height of the curb to see if the tires can press up when the car enters the corner, how much of the curb can be eaten, where the center of the corner is, and then find the braking point before entering the corner and the exit angle.

Then record all the data in a notebook. After returning, test it on the simulator first. Once you are familiar with it, start to verify it one by one in practice matches, and then make modifications to the settings.

Qin Miao has already become familiar with this set of procedures.

Thursday passed quickly and it was Friday, the day when the first and second practices began.

This big prize also brought a lot of upgrades to Mercedes-Benz over the weekend.

There are two aspects. On the one hand, the power unit. Mercedes' engine department optimized the exhaust system of the W14 power unit. Qin Miao was not clear about the specific working principle, but at the pre-race report meeting, the person in charge of manufacturing the power unit at Mercedes clearly stated that this upgrade can greatly improve the ERS charging efficiency of the W14 and increase the durability of the exhaust system.

As for the aerodynamics of the car, the head of the team's aerodynamic department upgraded the side boxes, front nose end panels and rear wing.

This upgrade just happened to cover the damage to Qin Miao’s front nose caused by the car crash.

Moreover, this upgrade does not replace the front nose and rear wing according to changes in the track.

This is a general upgrade.

The direction of the upgrade is naturally to optimize the overall downforce of the car, while not excessively increasing the car's air resistance, enhancing the car's downforce while driving.

It also makes up for the shortcomings of the W14's insufficient cornering performance.

Moreover, the negative impact of this upgrade can only affect the W14's straight-line speed. If you really go to those tracks that particularly value the acceleration performance and tail speed of the car, the worst that can be done is to replace it with a low-drag rear wing.

So this is a very positive upgrade.

Moreover, even if we take a step back, the downforce provided by the aerodynamic components of the car cannot act on the car before its speed really increases, so this rear wing will not have any effect on the W14's early acceleration ability, it will only affect the terminal acceleration performance and tail speed.

As for the upgrade of the front nose end plate...

The front downforce provided by this thing is actually very limited, and its main function is to cooperate with the upgraded side boxes of the racing car.

The main job is to help the side box sort out the airflow blowing to the tire, create a clean airflow channel for the side box position, and at the same time guide the turbulent air discharged from the tire to a certain extent.

At the same time, it also discharges more dirty air to the sides of the car, affecting the car behind that wants to overtake.

As for the upgraded function of the side boxes, it is to streamline the airflow.

Moreover, the side box looks a bit weird this time. Although the air intake position is still an Arabic numeral 1, there is a small downwash at the rear end, which is a bit like a smaller version of the RB19 side box.

Although Qin Miao didn't know how effective this thing was, according to Elliot, in the simulator and CFD and wind tunnel simulations, this upgrade of the car could increase the car's mechanical grip and stability at high speeds without almost increasing the car's frontal projection and resistance.

It sounds like that's the case, but Qin Miao is just a bad driver and he doesn't understand these things. Since Elliot said so, then it is so.

But no matter what, at least from Qin Miao's current perspective, he still hopes that Mercedes' upgrade this time can really have the effect that Elliott said.

Time flies. After all the preliminary preparations for Friday were completed, it was time for the first practice.

Qin Miao and Hamilton have both appeared in the P room of the track, waiting for the start of the first practice in their cars and making final adjustments to the cars.

Soon, the first practice session began, and Qin Miao's two Mercedes-Benz cars were fully inspected three minutes after the start of the first practice session and drove onto the track.

Qin Miao was using a set of neutral tires when he came out.

While making the entrance lap, Qin Miao saw that there were already quite a few fans in the Spanish viewing area.

And these fans are obviously not very friendly to me.

After seeing their car coming, some spectators with grass-roots tickets even gave Qin Miao the middle finger.

Especially the fans wearing Ferrari No. 55 jersey.

Qin Miao was not angry when he saw this, but just thought helplessly: It seems that in addition to Verstappen's home ground Zandvoort in the Netherlands, he now has another away ground in Catalonia, Spain.

Of course Qin Miao also understands the fans at the scene.

After all, he will join Ferrari next season to replace Sainz. If the driver Qin Miao likes has such an experience, Qin Miao himself will definitely not be happy with that person.

Of course, in addition to this, there is another reason, that is, Sainz's contract with Ferrari will not expire until one year later.

According to Bottas's treatment at Mercedes, many Spanish fans believed that Sainz would be a reserve driver for Ferrari for a year like Bottas.

Therefore, Spanish car fans will definitely not have a good attitude towards Qin Miao, the culprit.

But in fact, because there have been no fierce conflicts between Sainz and Ferrari during the period of cooperation, Ferrari is not preparing to sign Sainz's contract.

Because there is no need. Sainz can't beat Leclerc in Ferrari, let alone Qin Miao. If he is released, he will pose no threat to Ferrari.

At the same time, Sainz also knows that at your age, if you are really locked up in Ferrari for a year, your value will definitely plummet after you get out. After all, you haven't touched a racing car for a year, and no one can say what your condition will be like after you get out.

So after discussions between Sainz and Ferrari, they are planning to terminate the contract voluntarily after the end of next season.

At this time, Sainz had already started looking for a job in the paddock.

Although Sainz's recent situation is not very good, it is certainly not as bad as the local Spanish fans expected.

But Sainz didn't say this, and Qin Miao couldn't explain it.

And Spain is not like the Netherlands, where everyone is a fan of Verstappen.

The driver with the most fans in Spain is actually Alonso, at least twice as many as Cience, and the rest are fans who like both drivers.

Therefore, compared to the total number of fans who came to watch the race today, the fans who gave Qin Miao a bad look were actually a minority.

On the track, Qin Miao spent the first few laps mainly getting familiar with the characteristics of the upgraded car.

After two laps, Qin Miao already had a clear feeling.

The characteristics of the car have definitely changed significantly since last week in Monaco.

First of all, the mechanical grip and downforce of the W14 have increased, so Qin Miao felt that the front of the car was more sensitive and the car accelerated faster in the early and middle stages. Although it is not a big improvement, it is certain that the car is easier to drive than the W14 in the first two races.

After spending a few laps to familiarize himself with the characteristics of the new W14, Qin Miao began the qualifying simulation that takes place every Grand Prix weekend on the track.

Pit in to refuel and change to a set of soft tires.

I went on the track and ran a flying lap to simulate the qualifying race.

After one lap, Qin Miao's lap time was 1:14.90.

This result was actually very average. Qin Miao even made a little mistake. He should have downshifted when passing T12, but he didn't, causing the car to push slightly when exiting the corner. Fortunately, Qin Miao controlled it and did not lose control.

However, compared to Qin Miao, the others didn't even run the qualifying simulation at full strength, so Qin Miao's result unexpectedly ranked first in the Q1 rankings.

This caused Mercedes and Ferrari fans to open the champagne for a while.

After Qin Miao finished this lap and returned to the team's P room, his tires were in pretty good condition. This week, Pirelli gave him the three hardest tires, and the tire wear was obviously better than expected, so there is a high probability that Qin Miao will be able to finish the race tomorrow with one stop on the red and yellow tires.

Of course, the specific pit stop strategy used in the race will still depend on the data collected by the racing team in the next two practice sessions.

I won’t go into details about the second practice session. Both Mercedes drivers are experienced and very stable drivers, and they rarely lose control of their cars or make mistakes on the track.

Even if there is, as long as it is not a sudden and huge sidewind, the impact on the two drivers will be extremely limited, and they can also save the car before it is completely out of control.

In the end, Qin Miao ranked second in the first practice and fourth in the second practice on Friday.

After finishing work on Friday, Saturday came quickly.

During the third practice session, Qin Miao had basically fully understood the track. 15 minutes before the end of the third practice session, Qin Miao had completed all his work and had an extra set of new soft tires in reserve.

Qin Miao felt bad for not using the soft tires at such a good opportunity.

So Qin Miao filled up the gas and went to the track ready to run an all-out qualifying simulation.

After all, this track has a brand new layout, and Qin Miao doesn't know how far he can run if he goes all out on this track, so Qin Miao wants to have a rough idea in his mind.

After completing this flying lap, Qin Miao's score was 1:15.633.

Qin Miao's flying lap result is not even as good as Ocon, who ranks 15th in the driver performance ranking list. The result is very ugly.

Not many people even paid attention to it. Red Bull even thought that Qin Miao just ran a practice lap on soft tires.

But when Qin Miao was running this flying circle, the fuel tank was full.

After removing the weight of the racing fuel, Qin Miao's flying lap result was actually between 1:12.5 and 1:12.6.

In fact, this is already a result that can compete for pole position, provided that Verstappen's qualifying results this week are not too outrageous.

Qualifying stage.

There was actually a little rain on the track before qualifying started.

Fortunately, the rain on the track stopped before the qualifying session officially started.

The drivers all used soft tires on the track to run their results.

Qin Miao is no exception.

Compared to Friday's practice session, there were more fans on site today, and there were also more hostile voices towards Qin Miao.

But Qin Miao still doesn't care.

During Q1, many drivers lost control and ran off the track due to residual water in some areas of the track.

But at least there was no damage to the car due to driver error at this stage.

In the first flying lap of Q1, Qin Miao's performance was acceptable, and he ran a time of 1:13.111 in the first flying lap.

This result is not even like what Qin Miao could have achieved in the past.

Not too bad, but too good.

In the end, Qin Miao ranked first in Q1 with a time of 13.111:1 and advanced to Q2.

The drivers who were eliminated in Q1 were:

Bottas, Magnussen, Albon, Russell, Leclerc.

Yes, you read that right, Leclerc was indeed the last one to be eliminated.

In the team TR after the race, Leclerc himself was a little bit unbelievable.

When many Ferrari fans saw Leclerc was eliminated in Q1 and was in last place, a big question mark popped up in their minds. But what greeted them was not anger, but relief.

No one thinks that the fact that Sainz advanced to Q4 in 2th place and Leclerc was eliminated last in Q1 was a problem with the performance of the car, nor is it possible that Leclerc's own strength suddenly declined overnight.

After seeing Leclerc's results, those who have a full understanding of Ferrari roughly judged that these idiots at Ferrari must have modified some settings, which ultimately led to Leclerc's car performing poorly on the track.

This is indeed the case. After the qualifying race, Ferrari stated that there was indeed a problem inside Leclerc's car. After the race, it will be disassembled for a detailed investigation, and the possibility of modifying the car's tuning before the start of the race is not ruled out.

After all, Leclerc was already the last one to start, and the penalty for later would be nothing more than starting from the pit area.

But if Qin Miao joined Ferrari at this time and exchanged positions with Leclerc, Qin Miao would definitely be happy to be punished, modify the car tuning, and start a whole new power unit.

Since you have been penalized to start in the maintenance area, you will not be penalized to start in the team's pit lane for driving a power unit that exceeds the number of units allowed by the rules.

Why not get a brand new power unit for free without suffering any greater losses?

But unfortunately, Qin Miao is still a Mercedes driver.

Recalling the meeting with Wasser on Monday, Qin Miao remembered that Wasser said he couldn't stay there for another day in the past 23 years. Qin Miao was relatively calm at that time, but now he actually has the same feeling.

Maybe it’s everyone’s nature to like the new and dislike the old…

(End of this chapter)