How Did I Become an F1 Driver?

Chapter 1177 - 444: A Rare Mistake_2

The basic strategy for running a qualifying race with intermediate tires is to put on a set of intermediate tires and keep going around the track doing flying laps.Watch for when the track conditions improve, or if you’re lucky, catch a good flying lap window and achieve a decent result.

Q1 is not difficult nor is it stressful for Qin Miao, but for his fans, watching Qin Miao’s qualifying races as usual makes them feel their blood pressure rise.

Due to the water on the track, even though Qin Miao’s 4 flying laps in Q1 all marked green, having improved compared to his original times each lap, his overall speed was still not fast enough.

Qin Miao’s speed was even slower than Zhou Guanyu’s.

Of course, as mentioned before, Qin Miao’s qualifying race only made his fans feel a rise in blood pressure, not an explosion.

Qin Miao advanced to Q2 in P11, just behind Zhou Guanyu.

The drivers eliminated in Q1 were: Bottas, Ricardo, O’Kang, Albon, and Russell.

Time moved to Q2, and as time progressed, and with so many cars continuously driving on the track, the track conditions noticeably improved.

After running one flying lap on intermediate tires in Q2, Qin Miao said on the team radio: "The track conditions are gradually improving, I feel we can switch to slicks."

Frankie, as if he expected Qin Miao to say this, flatly rejected Qin Miao’s suggestion: "I’m afraid not, Qin Miao. Currently, only the racing line is dry, while there is still standing water off the racing line. Switching to slicks in such track conditions, there’s simply no way to heat up the tires.

"What if I switch to hard tires?" Qin Miao still wanted to struggle a bit.

Because hard tires require a lower working temperature than soft tires, a bit of water shouldn’t matter too much in Qin Miao’s view.

"I’m afraid not," but Frankie ruthlessly refused.

Qin Miao could only nod helplessly, then continued running his pace on intermediate tires.

Although the current track didn’t let Qin Miao feel comfortable running, Qin Miao’s own strength and the car’s performance are evident, so even if not comfortable, Qin Miao’s results couldn’t be too poor.

Eventually, when Q2 ended, Qin Miao advanced to Q3 in 8th place.

After Q2 ended, the broadcast showed Qin Miao holding a fan from the team and blowing at himself, Fei commented: "Even though we have said this multiple times before, I still want to say, as Qin Miao’s fan, your heart must be strong enough because Qin Miao’s qualifying is truly challenging the psychological limits of us fans."

Now, Five-Star Sports commentators no longer hide their identities as Qin Miao fans, daring to openly say so during the broadcast.

At this moment, Zhou Haoran said: "On the bright side, at least Qin Miao dares to play like this during the qualifying phase, which shows the upgrade brought by the Mercedes team this week indeed provides Qin Miao with great confidence. After all, when the W13’s performance was lacking this season, Qin Miao was trying hard during qualifying, unlike last season when he only ran one lap in Q1 and Q2 to save tires."

Hearing Zhou Haoran say this, the other two commentators deeply nodded in agreement.

The drivers eliminated in Q2 were: Zhou Guanyu, Tsunoda, Stroll, Mick, and Vettel.

Zhou Guanyu was eliminated in 11th position again, once again becoming the gatekeeper for Q3.

Despite the result being somewhat tragic, at least Zhou Guanyu’s result compared to his teammate Bottas is a lot better.

Moreover, Zhou Guanyu is starting to win more when compared with his teammate.

Also considering Zhou Guanyu’s salary, and Bottas’s salary.

Zhou Guanyu’s cost-effectiveness suddenly rose.

Although Bottas indeed might have suffered a decrease in personal ability after not racing for a year, Bottas’s driving skills are there, and a decline wouldn’t mean he’d slip to be below a second-line driver.

Therefore, Zhou Guanyu’s current results can only indicate that Zhou Guanyu, much like Qin Miao, is gradually familiarizing himself with F1 racing and the intensity of competitions, beginning to showcase his real talent.

The track conditions in the Q3 phase were noticeably better than in Q1 and Q2.

All drivers switched to soft tires at this stage.

Qin Miao was no exception.

After no longer using intermediate tires, Qin Miao’s lap times immediately had a very noticeable improvement.

His first flying lap secured second place.

First place was Qin Miao’s teammate Hamilton.

It proved that Hamilton indeed fulfilled his promise to the team, after the team changed the car’s center of gravity and cornering characteristics, Hamilton’s speed improved dramatically.

On the track, Hamilton didn’t need to spend more effort controlling the car, but could, like before, focus more on pushing the car to its limit.

And Qin Miao’s flying lap was only 0.09 seconds slower than Hamilton.

It was also a very good result.

Even though everyone’s first flying lap served as a baseline, but Qin Miao being able to achieve such results also in some degree proved Qin Miao’s current status.

After the first flying lap ended, Qin Miao returned to the team’s pit room to review whether there was anything lacking in his first flying lap.

Very soon, Qin Miao was sent out again.

This final flying lap, Qin Miao completely pushed the car to the limits which he could achieve.

Starting from the warm-up lap, he exerted all effort to unleash the car’s full potential, the extremity of cornering was akin to the final flying lap in qualifying that Qin Miao achieved at Monte Carlo this season.

The difficulty of Marina Bay Circuit is almost indistinguishable from Monte Carlo Circuit in Monaco, and it might even be a bit more challenging.

Because compared to Monte Carlo, Singapore is more humid and steamy, meaning physiological pressure on drivers is greater.

Also due to this characteristic, Marina Bay Circuit is harder for overtaking compared to an ordinary circuit, but only slightly easier than Monaco.

So Qin Miao knows that if he wants to maintain his current position on the driver’s leaderboard in this race, he needs to secure a relatively good result in qualifying.

Thus, he can rely on his tire preservation and defensive abilities to hold on to first place.

Yet, Qin Miao was not as familiar with Marina Bay Circuit compared to Monte Carlo Circuit, so in many corners, Qin Miao didn’t push his car to the extreme like in Monaco, although he scraped some paint off the SINGAPORE GP sign at T18, Qin Miao felt that overall he ran somewhat conservatively in these laps.

Other drivers: ???

However, just as Qin Miao was preparing to exit the last corner to complete his final flying lap in qualifying, at the exit of T23, Qin Miao’s speed was a bit too fast, although after exiting the corner Qin Miao’s four wheels didn’t cross the white line, the outer tire went beyond the curb and touched the paint outside the track.

And just at this moment, Qin Miao’s right tire kicked up a mist.

But Qin Miao didn’t see it, the visibility for an F1 driver sitting in the car is actually quite limited.

And due to touching the mist outside the track, Qin Miao didn’t anticipate that the grip of his right-side tire would decrease due to temperature when accelerating.

So he had a slight understeer when exiting the corner, though Qin Miao quickly counter-steered and saved the car.

Yet, this mistake directly cost Qin Miao at least 0.15 seconds.

Therefore, when Qin Miao crossed the finish line, he could only rank behind Leclerc and Hamilton, in third place.

It should be known that Qin Miao has always been a very consistent driver, seldom making mistakes on the track.

So Qin Miao’s mistake this time surprised many, and fans near corner 23 were particularly shocked upon witnessing Qin Miao’s mistake.

The team’s Toto had a tactical lean back, somewhat helpless, yet somewhat relieved watching the broadcast in front of him.

Indeed, Qin Miao’s strength almost made him forget Qin Miao is just a 21-year-old young man, many his age are not even contending for the world championship yet, some might still be struggling in F2, F3.