How did I become an F1 driver?

Hamilton, who suddenly lost this feeling, discovered that Qin Miao suddenly did not slow down to curb his speed after exiting the corner in the third timing period.

Hamilton was somewhat surprised to find that even though he had turned on DRS after exiting the corner, his approach rate to Qin Miao was not as fast as before.

It was only at this time that Hamilton realized that the condition of his tires had been almost used up after several laps of attack and defense.

Only then did Hamilton realize that he was using a set of soft tires.

Damn, I’ve been tricked by this bastard!
At this moment, Hamilton suddenly felt a little upset.

He also realized the specific meaning of Qin Miao's actions during the game.

They are all over-consuming the durability of their tires.

With a sigh, Hamilton really had the urge to slap himself, but he was wearing a helmet at the moment, so he couldn't slap himself even if he wanted to.

In the next few laps, the old man found that he went from being a threat to Qin Miao to being able to barely keep up with Qin Miao's race rhythm, and he could not find a suitable attack window at all.

After realizing that he was outshined by Qin Miao, the old man cursed helplessly with a word starting with F.

On the tenth lap, Qin Miao basically didn't pay much attention to Hamilton behind him. After all, the old man's lap speed began to decline rapidly during this period, and the durability of his soft tires had gradually fallen apart under Qin Miao's tireless seduction.

On the contrary, Qin Miao's soft tires are in very good condition.

On the 17th lap, the time gap between Qin Miao and Hamilton had been widened to 2.1 seconds, and the time gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen had also been widened to 4.7 seconds.

Although Verstappen was penalized five seconds for blocking Qin Miao, it was obvious that if the race continued, it would only be a matter of time before Verstappen would create a five-second gap between himself and Qin Miao.

And it should be noted that Verstappen was using neutral tires at this time, not soft tires.

If Verstappen used soft tires, Qin Miao would be left further behind by Verstappen on the track.

Of course, if Verstappen really uses soft tires, the time gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen at this point in time will be very large, but Qin Miao is likely to be gradually shortening the time gap between himself and Verstappen, rather than being gradually left behind by Verstappen like now.

At the same time, the Ferrari on the track found that its presence was low and started its daily activities.

On the track, the top three drivers who were using neutral and soft tires did not pit at this time. Instead, Leclerc, who started from the pit area using hard tires, was called into the pit area by Ferrari.

To be honest, this pit stop strategy is really stifling.

And in the middle and late stages of the race, when Ferrari was preparing to let Leclerc make a second stop, Leclerc made it clear that he wanted to use neutral tires after entering the pit. Then Leclerc's track engineer agreed on the surface, but after entering the pit, he replaced Leclerc with a set of hard tires.

To be honest, Ferrari's strategy group is really abstract.

After the race, many of Qin Miao's fans learned that Ferrari's strategy team was so abstract, and they began to worry that their two-time champion would be tortured to death by Ferrari's strategy team after joining Ferrari.

Of course, they didn't know the details of Qin Miao's contract with Ferrari. If they knew, they could only sigh that Qin Miao's negotiation team was really awesome, as they had predicted all this.

If Qin Miao joined Ferrari and Ferrari's strategy team dared to do this, Qin Miao would really be fired.

All in all, 80% of the credit for Leclerc's silence on the track in the later stages of the race should be attributed to Ferrari's strategy team, and the other 20% should be attributed to the fact that Leclerc himself did not find a satisfactory tuning setting for this Grand Prix.

These are all things for later.

On the Mercedes side, Hamilton chose to pit for tire change on the 24th lap.

Because of the long driving and the early pit stops of the drivers behind him, the old man was still in third position after he came out.

As for Qin Miao, he entered the pit later than Verstappen.

Verstappen chose to pit on the 26th lap, while Qin Miao did so on the 27th lap.

However, in addition to replacing 4 new hard tires for his car, Qin Miao also replaced a set of front nose wings of the car during this pit stop.

Although in the eyes of the spectators, after Qin Miao's front nose wing end plate was damaged on the track, his single lap speed did not suffer a significant loss due to the damage to the front nose wing.

He even started to gradually leave the old man out of his DRS zone from the 10th day of the competition.

But in fact, the damage to the front nose end plate has a great impact.

However, Qin Miao overcame these difficulties with his skillful driving skills.

Don’t think that the loss of this thing only results in a loss of speed. In fact, the front nose end plate is a very important thing.

It can sort out the airflow, reduce resistance on the tires, and optimize the balance of the car.

Don’t be fooled by the fact that Qin Miao ran so many laps on the track as if nothing had happened.

But Qin Miao knew his own business. After the front nose end plate was broken, the resistance on both sides of the car was actually different.

Although the difference in resistance between the two sides is small, an F1 car is a very sensitive thing.

A slight change in resistance can make a world of difference in the driving experience.

According to Qin Miao's own experience, after the W14 was damaged, the resistance on the right side was obviously greater than that on the left side. Therefore, when driving at high speed on a straight road, Qin Miao's steering wheel was slightly biased to the left, otherwise the car would run to the right.

Fortunately, this is not a big problem, at least it is basically not noticeable in slow and medium speed corners.

But at the same time, the consumption speed of Qin Miao's tires on both sides is also different. Because there is less end plate airflow on the right side, the temperature of the right tire is higher and the temperature of the left tire is lower.

Therefore, the right tire consumes more energy than the left tire.

If the front nose end plate had not been damaged, the time gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen would not have been so large, and Qin Miao's soft tires could have lasted at least three more laps on the track.

But now that things have come to this, there is no point in saying these things.

Entering the maintenance area and changing to new tires, it took about 2.2 seconds, which is the normal tire changing speed of the Mercedes-Benz team. But including the total time for changing the front nose wing, Qin Miao's total time for this pit stop to change tires was 7.1 seconds (War Thunder players were furious).

After Qin Miao came out of the maintenance area, he couldn't keep his second place and went to third place.

At this time, the time gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen was 11.6 seconds, and the time gap between him and Hamilton was 3.3 seconds.

There are still 39 laps to go before the end of the race.

After returning to the track, Qin Miao's lap speed was 0.5 seconds slower than Hamilton's and 0.3 seconds slower than Verstappen's.

He is slower than the old man because the old man uses neutral tires. In the later period, Qin Miao's speed will gradually catch up with Hamilton. But he is slower than Verstappen...this is purely the difference in car performance. Both of them use hard tires, and Qin Miao can't do anything about it.

All we can do is wait for Verstappen to make his second stop. As for why Qin Miao was so sure that Verstappen would make his second stop...

Qin Miao really didn't believe that Verstappen would follow his example and finish the race on a set of hard tires.

Putting aside the question of whether he could surpass Verstappen, the five-second penalty alone made Qin Miao invincible.

After all, Qin Miao's ability to protect his tires is well known throughout the F1 paddock. If Verstappen really stops, all Qin Miao needs to do is rely on his tire advantage in the later stages of the race to catch up to Verstappen within five seconds and he can easily win the championship.

Therefore, neither the Red Bull team nor Verstappen himself would choose such an unwise pit stop strategy.

After the three drivers in the front row came out of the maintenance area, they all started their own race rhythms. It would be difficult for a fight to break out between the three of them in a short period of time.

The next game will focus on the competition for the entrance to the mid-level points zone.

Zhou Guanyu was in a close fight with Kakuta and Hulkenberg at the entrance of the points area, and all eyes were focused on him.

It seems that Qin Muchu's godfather also wants to show off in front of his goddaughter at this time.

Zhou Guanyu's Arrow racing car finally found a track that suits it.

Because of Arona’s age-old transmission problems, the C43’s acceleration capabilities have been criticized.

However, the revised Catalunya circuit is very suitable for the racing characteristics of the C43.

Because the third timing section gave the C3 a very long time to accelerate and absorb tailwinds, coupled with the late acceleration capability of the Ferrari engine and the DRS of the car in front.

Zhou Guanyu also contributed a lot of overtaking shots on this track.

On the other hand, Qin Miao's single lap speed in today's race finally matched Hamilton's lap speed on the 45th lap.

And on lap 46, his lap time was faster than Hamilton and the same as Verstappen.

When the race reached the 50th lap, Qin Miao had overtaken Hamilton by 2.3 seconds and came to the DRS area behind the old man.

Just when all the spectators thought that the two Mercedes drivers would fight on the track again like they did at the beginning of the race.

Mercedes called Hamilton into the maintenance area.

After seeing this scene, the audience who were originally prepared to have fun suddenly became unhappy.

The old man's fans believe that he was treated unfairly on the track.

After all, no matter how you looked at the scene at that time, it seemed that the Mercedes team was deliberately helping Qin Miao clear obstacles on the track.

But in fact, Hamilton's tires did break down on this lap, and the Mercedes team's strategy team had originally scheduled this time for Hamilton to pit and change tires.

It was just that Qin Miao happened to catch up with Hamilton at this time.

After the old man entered the pit, Qin Miao returned to his original position, and the time gap between him and Verstappen remained at 9.9 seconds.

Qin Miao is only slightly faster than Verstappen per lap now.

At this time, Verstappen and Red Bull's strategy team had already started discussions.

Should Verstappen slow down a bit and start protecting his tires, preparing to defend against Qin Miao who has an advantage in tires in the later stage, or should Verstappen pit for a tire change according to the originally planned pit strategy in today's race, and after Verstappen comes out of the maintenance area, use a new set of soft tires to attack Qin Miao on Catalonia, a track that is particularly easy to overtake.

The Red Bull Racing team is actually more inclined to choose the latter.

Because according to the calculations of the team's strategy group, the latter is the pit stop strategy that takes the shortest time for Verstappen in today's race, and naturally it is also the fastest.

Moreover, Red Bull's strategy team is fully confident in the performance of Red Bull RB19. With DRS, the rear speed of RB19 is definitely much faster than Mercedes' W14. RB19 can rely on its absolute speed advantage to crush W14 on the track.

They've even done it many times.

At this time, the only concern for the Red Bull strategy team was Qin Miao's defensive ability, which was as incredible as his ability to protect the fetus.

Can Verstappen break through Qin Miao's defense?

However, the decision on the offensive strategy for today's game is still in Verstappen's hands.

Strictly speaking, Verstappen's position in Red Bull can be compared to Qin Miao, who will join Ferrari next season.

Although Verstappen's status in the team is certainly not as high as Qin Miao's, he can also be regarded as a little Qin Miao in the future Ferrari era.

The final decision rests with Verstappen himself.

When the team asked Verstappen this question, Verstappen said without thinking: "I want the BOX."

The meaning is very clear. Verstappen has sufficient confidence in his offensive means. He feels that he can catch up with Qin Miao in the later stages of the race and can use his huge speed advantage to kill Qin Miao.

And this is not without precedent. Verstappen has broken through Qin Miao's defense several times this season. In Verstappen's view, today's game will not be an exception.

In Verstappen's opinion, he already knew Qin Miao well enough and had also thought of a way to restrain Qin Miao's defensive ability.

"Qin Miao, Verstappen has made his second pit stop. Our chance has come." Franky informed Qin Miao in the team TR as soon as Verstappen entered the pit to change tires.

Qin Miao heard this and asked, "How far behind me will he be after he comes out of the maintenance area?"

"6.2 seconds, if Red Bull didn't make a mistake in changing the tires for Verstappen, we would have a time advantage of 6.2 seconds."

……

On the track, Verstappen finally entered the maintenance area on lap 52 after completing the communication with the team.

Red Bull's Grand Prix weekend was in great form. Not only was the team's star driver Verstappen in hot form, but even their tyre changers were extremely fast and stable in changing tyres.

A 2.1-second tire change allowed Verstappen to complete this Grand Prix weekend smoothly. The only risk point for Verstappen was the final pit stop.

Just as Frank said, after Verstappen came out of the maintenance area, he fell 6.5 seconds behind Qin Miao.

And there were still 14 laps left to the end of the race.

If Verstappen can catch up with Qin Miao by one second in each lap, then Qin Miao will still owe Verstappen 8 seconds after the race. (End of this chapter)