How did I become an F1 driver?

第583章 567：妖风（6K，加更4/5）

Before the yellow flag appeared, Qin Miao discovered that there was a yellow flag on the track, and this was already the 14th lap.

So Qin Miao went straight into the pit without even communicating with the team.

There is one rule at the Red Bull Ring.

That is, if you need to pit for a tire change in this Grand Prix, you have to walk inside the white line at T9 before the entrance to the pit lane.

So if you miss the white line, you can't pit on this lap.

When Qin Miao walked inside the white line and prepared to enter the pit, Verstappen had already left T10.

Qin Miao's pit stop naturally attracted everyone's attention. After all, for a championship driver, Qin Miao's pit stop time was indeed a bit too early.

"Hey? Qin Miao was quite decisive in pitting this time!" Brother Bing stroked his chin and said, "But isn't it a bit too early for Qin Miao to pit at this time? There are still 51 laps to the end of the race."

"Let's see what tires Qin Miao changed. After knowing what tires Qin Miao changed, we can roughly see what Mercedes' pit stop strategy is."

In the maintenance lane, after Qin Miao entered the pit, not only the Mercedes team staff were watching Qin Miao, but even Red Bull and Ferrari were also paying close attention to Qin Miao's movements.

They also didn't understand why Qin Miao came into the station at this time.

Even if you, Qin Miao, have a strong ability to protect your tires, there are still 57 laps to the end of the race. Can you, Qin Miao, last 57 laps on your white tires?
Under the premise that Qin Miao could not last 57 laps on white tires, Red Bull guessed that Qin Miao would most likely make a second stop. In fact, Red Bull was looking forward to Qin Miao's second stop.

As Qin Miao entered the maintenance area, the tire changers of the Mercedes team rushed out of the P room holding tires and their equipment, and waited in their positions, ready for action.

At this time, the Red Bull team staff finally saw clearly the specific color of the tires that Mercedes was going to replace for Qin Miao.

White fetus.

Although it is common sense to change Qin Miao to white tires at this time, the Mercedes team is most likely preparing to let Qin Miao stop twice on the track.

Even Red Bull hopes so, after all, there is no way Pirelli's C3 can last 57 laps at the Red Bull Ring.

If it could really last that long, Pirelli wouldn't be nicknamed "Pirelli's Endurance".

But Red Bull always feels that Qin Miao may only have this one pit stop to change tires in this race...

……

Time moves forward three hours.

In the meeting room of the Mercedes team.

Looking at the durability report of Qin Miao's hard tires, everyone in Mercedes' strategy group had a headache.

Now they are stuck in an awkward dead end.

If you want Qin Miao to suppress Verstappen on the track, the best way is to let Qin Miao stop on the track.

But now they are in big trouble.

“Even if you are the one who can only run 10 laps on a set of soft tires, there is no use of soft tires in the race.

So it is impossible for red and white to stop and red and yellow to stop! You don't have to think about it." Franky said.

Qin Miao nodded.

"But your hard tire data..."

The reason why Mercedes-Benz was so hesitant was that according to the data obtained by Mercedes-Benz, Qin Miao's set of hard tires could allow him to last 56 laps on the track.

You read that right. During the practice session, Qin Miao ran several long-distance tests on hard tires. The result was that Qin Miao could run 56 laps on a set of hard tires without a significant drop in lap time.

The lap time difference between the first lap and the last lap on Qin Miao's hard tires was probably only about 0.5 seconds.

"I know that if the yellow and white ones stop, it will be a waste of tires." Qin Miao thought about it and suddenly said, "What about the white and red ones stop?"

Franky shook his head. "No, even if you try your best to protect the tire, you can only last 66 or 67 laps on the track at most. Your lap time will drop rapidly in the last few laps. In the last few laps, it is possible that Verstappen will catch up with you by 2 seconds per lap. If you were defending Verstappen at that time, the consequences would be..."

After that, Franky added: "And white tires are not good for your start."

Qin Miao helplessly spread his hands: "Does this mean I have to push with all my strength from the beginning to the end again?"

Franky nodded, tactical board in hand, "I'm afraid so."

Qin Miao looked at his track engineer and asked, "What if a yellow flag or safety car appears early?"

Franky thought for a moment and said, "If you really encounter this situation, you can just pit directly. Our pit room is close to the entrance of the maintenance area. We will have enough time to react when you pit. We will definitely install hard tires on your car as soon as possible."

Time returns to the present.

This is why Qin Miao entered the station at this time.

It took Qin Miao 2.5 seconds to change the tire this time.

Compared with the normal speed of changing tires during a pit stop, Qin Miao's tire change this time was obviously slower.

However, sometimes people are better than others, and the same is true for teams. Mercedes' tire changing speed this time may be about 0.2 or 0.1 slower than its previous tire changing speed, but compared with Arrow, it is really incredibly fast.

You should know that when Zhou Guanyu entered the pit to change tires on the 8th lap, Arrow gave him a 5.3-second tire change.

It took twice as long as Qin Miao's tire change and was even 0.3 seconds less.

After Qin Miao changed his tires and came out of the maintenance area, he did not fall far behind and was still in second place.

After all, after Qin Miao entered the pit, the yellow flags in the second and third periods were converted into full-course yellow flags.

The drivers behind Qin Miao will not miss such a good pit stop window either.

Therefore, most drivers chose to pit and change tires during the yellow flag period.

As for Verstappen...

He actually missed the best time to pit, but the yellow flag was not a safety car. After running a lap on the track, Verstappen entered the maintenance area on the next lap, and he was still in first place when he came out.

However, the time gap between him and Qin Miao, which was originally almost 4 seconds, was shortened to 1.8 seconds.

After the yellow flag ended, there were no more accidents on the track.

Instead, off-field factors became the biggest highlight in the late stages of the game.

The FIA ​​went crazy on the track, issuing fines one after another without paying.

Of course, there is nothing wrong with saying that the fines are free. After all, the FIA ​​does not have to pay for issuing the tickets. On the contrary, the drivers need to pay them after they issue the tickets.

Corruption Method +1
……

Of course there was no fine this time, but it was mainly a time penalty on the track.

The reason is that many drivers ran off the track at T9 and T10.

There is no way around it. The speeds on these two bends are too fast. If you are not careful or drive too fast, you may very likely run off the track.

Moreover, many drivers, after running on the track for a long time, get used to running in the way that is most comfortable for them, that is, after turning T10, they will habitually rush out of the track to maximize the use of the track width when turning.

But most drivers may only make one or two mistakes on the track, and they will definitely restrain themselves after being reminded by the team.

But Taijun in today's race was quite awesome. When statistics were kept after the race, he exceeded the track limit 8 times and was penalized a total of 15 seconds.

As a result, Kakuta's originally good position was directly relegated to the end of the team because of the 15-second penalty.

In addition, Qin Miao's teammate Hamilton also received a 5-second penalty ticket.

Because of this 5-second penalty, when the old man entered the pit on the 42nd lap, he was directly penalized to be behind Sainz.

The podium was directly confiscated.

Of course, it is possible that the old man will catch up later.

Also because of Hamilton's departure, the driver behind Qin Miao became Leclerc.

At this time, the time gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen was 12 seconds.

After another 7 laps, at the 49th lap, the time gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen was widened to 15 seconds by Verstappen.

It was also on this lap that Verstappen entered the pit and changed to neutral tires.

After coming out, he landed 4 seconds behind Qin Miao.

At this time, Qin Miao needed to use a set of hard tires that he had run 28 laps on to face Verstappen's brand new set of neutral tires.

To be honest, it is not easy to defend against Verstappen.

"Okay, we see that Verstappen has made his final stop and the main event of the race now begins."

"Now it's up to Qin Miao. If he can stop him, he will be the champion of the race."

……

After Verstappen finished changing tires and came out of the maintenance area, almost everyone's eyes were focused on Verstappen.

Because everyone knows that the real highlight of today's race only begins when Verstappen completes his final pit stop.

"Qin Miao, Max has come out of the maintenance area."

"How far away is he from me?"

"4.3, the Red Bull car is too fast in this race."

After hearing this, Qin Miao sighed helplessly. Verstappen, who was playing at home, did have something.

In a normal two-stop race, Verstappen is usually more than ten seconds behind Qin Miao after his last pit stop, but today he was directly 4.3.

Who is not confused after seeing this?

“How much faster is he than me in a single lap?”

Franky looked over and said, "Wait a minute, we are calculating."

After two timed periods, Franchi replied: "0.9 seconds faster per lap, we expect Verstappen to enter the DRS zone behind you on lap 52."

Qin Miao clicked his tongue, meaning that he had to use a set of hard tires to defend Verstappen, who was using neutral tires, for a full 19 laps.

Although Qin Miao thought that his defensive ability was invincible in the paddock, he couldn't help but feel a little headache.

Next, Qin Miao continued to cruise, waiting for Verstappen to catch up. However, as time went on, the speed at which Verstappen caught up was somewhat different from what Frankie had expected.

Verstappen entered the DRS zone behind Qin Miao on lap 53.

There were 18 laps left to the end of the race.

At this time, the battery power of Qin Miao's racing car has reached 80%.

After studying Verstappen's offensive tactics in the previous game, Qin Miao has roughly come up with a defensive idea to deal with Verstappen's offensive tactics.

And this 80% of electricity is Qin Miao’s confidence.

But as expected, an accident happened on the track.

At least it was a surprise to Qin Miao.

On lap 52, after passing the starting straight, it came to lap 53. Qin Miao chose the braking point at T1 relatively late.

After all, Qin Miao himself had no worries about the remaining tires. Choosing a later braking point when defending Verstappen would help Qin Miao judge the opponent's thoughts based on the movements of Verstappen's car in the rearview mirror and have enough time to respond.

The later braking point also helped Qin Miao improve his lap time.

So when Qin Miao braked, he was a little far away from Verstappen's car.

It was nothing special, a very normal bend, no different to any other bend in this Grand Prix.

But after Qin Miao stepped on the brakes at the braking point he had calculated, he was horrified to find that his car did not stop.

At this moment, Qin Miao used all his life's learning to feel the current state of his car.

But in Qin Miao's feeling, his car at this moment was no different from its normal state.

Whether it's brakes, tires, or the aerodynamic kit on the exterior.

All are where they should be, and nothing is broken.

But for some reason, Qin Miao's brakes didn't stop.

The good news is that there is a huge buffer zone outside the T1 line of the Austrian Grand Prix, and Qin Miao just failed to stop the car, not that the car lost its brakes.

So Qin Miao just missed his best point to enter the turn and did not reach the center of the turn.

After exiting the turn, Qin Miao rushed directly to the buffer zone outside T1.

And because of the track restrictions, Qin Miao could not go directly back to the track after rushing out of the track, and had to enter the track from the safety passage on the outside of the track.

While walking on the safety passage outside the track, Qin Miao suddenly realized, damn, he might have encountered a demonic wind!
For well-known reasons, F1 drivers are actually terrifying people who know the track as well as their own bedroom.

The chances of them making mistakes on the track are low.

There are reasons for most of the top drivers' mistakes on the track, most of which are caused by a sudden gust of wind.

Qin Miao has been racing in F1 for three seasons, and this is the first time he has encountered such a bad wind in his career.

To be honest, this wind really caught Qin Miao off guard and made him feel confused and puzzled.

He now suspects that this evil wind is the result of some mysterious witchcraft cast by local Austrian car fans in some dark corner.

Otherwise there is no reason for it to affect myself and not affect Verstappen.

On the other side, Verstappen on the track couldn't help feeling a little nervous after he caught up with the DRS area behind Qin Miao.

It was as if Qin Miao didn't know whether his defensive ability could withstand Verstappen's attack in these 19 laps.

Verstappen was not sure whether he could overtake Qin Miao on the track before the grip of his neutral tires was exhausted.

But just as Verstappen was full of anxiety and eagerly following behind Qin Miao waiting for the opportunity, Verstappen saw Qin Miao miss the braking point.

It can’t be said that he missed the braking point. From Verstappen’s perspective, there was actually nothing wrong with Qin Miao’s choice of braking point.

It's just the right braking position.

When his RB19 came over, the braking point was basically the same. Maybe because of the advantage in his tires, the braking point would be a little more extreme than Qin Miao's, but not by much, only about five or six meters.

Although Qin Miao's braking method puts a lot of pressure on the tires, it does bring certain advantages.

But what Verstappen didn't expect was that Qin Miao couldn't brake...

Although Qin Miao's car did not have any tire locking problems, the overall posture of the car looked normal.

But as just said, Qin Miao rushed directly to the safe passage outside the buffer zone of the track.

At first, when Verstappen saw Qin Miao's amazing moves, he subconsciously thought that Qin Miao was showing weakness to the enemy again.

After all, Qin Miao has done this many times on the track, and Verstappen's mistakes against Qin Miao are enough.

But Qin Miao rushed out of the track and seemed to be heading towards the safe passage of the track.

Verstappen then realized belatedly that Qin Miao was not showing weakness to the enemy, he really made a mistake!
To be honest, when Verstappen was fighting with Qin Miao, he thought that Qin Miao might play dirty, defend with iron blood, or force himself out of the track when he was attacking, or even torpedo him directly.

But Verstappen never thought that the two-time world champion would make such a low-level mistake on the track.

The feeling of seeing Qin Miao's own mistake on the track is a bit like when you are walking on the road and suddenly see someone in front of you who was walking just fine suddenly fall to the ground.

For Verstappen, this kind of thing is indeed a bit difficult to understand.

However, no matter how difficult it is to understand, since everyone already knows that it was Qin Miao's own mistake on the track, Verstappen naturally has no reason to miss this great opportunity.

Verstappen, who had originally planned to continue charging his racing battery before taking action, directly used up 70% of the power in his racing battery. As soon as the ERS was turned on and the accelerator was stepped on, the RB19 started to run wildly on the track.

Qin Miao only had time to curse in his heart: "Damn wind", and then quickly straightened the car body and turned on all the systems of the car as soon as possible.

Start accelerating out of the corner with full force.

It is worth mentioning that when Qin Miao rushed out of the track, Verstappen was quite far away from Qin Miao, about 0.7 seconds away.

Therefore, the two of them straightened their cars out of the corner and started accelerating at exactly the same time.

And at this time, the two cars are just in the same relative position and start at the same angle at the same time.

These are two different racing cars that are rarely seen in the paddock, and two different engines are competing in a pure horsepower competition on the track.

Although it seems that the two are running side by side and pushing forward madly, anyone who knows a little about racing can see that the W14 is better than the RB19 on the track.

Because Qin Miao entered the track from the safety passage, there was a lot of dust in the safety passage, with rubber particles and debris on the ground, and it was not as clean as the lane where Verstappen's car was located.

But Qin Miao's acceleration is basically the same as Verstappen's RB19.

From this point, we can see the performance gap between the two cars.

It's a pity that although Qin Miao relied on the powerful performance of W14 to keep pace with Verstappen on the straight between T1 and T3.

But Verstappen was on the inside after all, and he used neutral tires in this race.

Since Verstappen's tire grip is stronger than Qin Miao's, he naturally dares to brake later than Qin Miao.

Qin Miao also knows Verstappen's character.

If I take the outside line and brake, Pan Zi will definitely come up to me and find a chance to push me off the track.

But if he suppressed Verstappen on the inside and braked out of the corner, Qin Miao was worried that he might not be able to keep his current ranking from Verstappen.

After all, this is not the first or second time that Verstappen has lost control of his brakes and directly pushed the drivers on the outside off the track.

In yesterday's sprint race, Qin Miao took advantage of the gap left by Verstappen defending his teammate Perez in this way, surpassed Verstappen and Perez, and won the sprint race championship.

Therefore, in order to avoid Pan Zi's signature brake, Qin Miao chose to brake early before the braking point of T1.

He planned to let Verstappen pass, and then take the cross line behind Verstappen.

It is worth mentioning that Qin Miao braked early at the DRS detection point before T3 of the Red Bull Ring.

Before passing the DRS checkpoint, Qin Miao's car was already behind Verstappen's RB19.

In other words, in the next long straight, Qin Miao has Verstappen's DRS.

Verstappen was quite happy when he saw that he picked up the wallet that Qin Miao dropped by mistake in T1.

On the one hand, Qin Miao's mistake was indeed rare to see. On the other hand, because of Qin Miao's mistake, he no longer had to face this iron-clad defense on the track.

Therefore, Verstappen, who was overly happy, ignored the possibility that Qin Miao, who was driving side by side with him, braked in advance before the DRS monitoring point.

When he realized that Qin Miao had deliberately braked early, Verstappen couldn't help but feel uneasy again.

In fact, before entering the braking point of T3, Qin Miao had been completely overtaken by Verstappen.

However, as the two of them exited the T3 turn one after the other and started to go downhill, Qin Miao showed his claws.

DRS, ERS, wake, all solutions! Three open!

At this time, someone would ask, didn’t Qin Miao already turn on ERS after turning T1? Why is there still power now?

You don't understand this. Although Qin Miao's car did not have much power left, the straight road did not consume all the power of Qin Miao's car, and the braking point at T3 also charged a lot of power for Qin Miao's car.

At this time, Qin Miao charged his racing battery from 15% to 25% in this bend, which didn't seem like much.

But there aren’t many Verstappen!

After discovering that Qin Miao made a mistake on the track, Verstappen went all in, wanting to defeat Qin Miao in one go.

On the track, after coming out of the corner, Verstappen noticed Qin Miao's pursuit speed and had an ominous premonition.

Verstappen found that Qin Miao sucked in his tailwind and approached quickly with DRS after coming out of the corner. He had no choice but to draw a dragon on the track.

Although the act of drawing dragons is despised by many drivers.

Not just the drivers, many F1 paddock professionals including spectators think that drawing dragon defense on the track is a very unclassy behavior.

But it is undeniable that it works!

ps. Dads, monthly tickets.

(End of this chapter)