How Did I Become an F1 Driver?

Adding to that, it’s just a sprint race; even if he risked overtaking Hamilton, he would only gain one extra point compared to his current position, and the race was nearing its end at this point.

Faced with various constraints, Qin Miao ultimately decided not to take the risk.

This was already the 13th lap, and with only 4 laps remaining, the income and effort were not proportional.

At the end of the race, Verstappen maintained his lap speed, crossed the finish line, and won the event’s champion title.

Qin Miao, on the other hand, didn’t even make it to the podium, finishing fourth.

In the end, the sprint race rankings and score situation were as follows:

P1: Verstappen +8

P2: Leclerc +7

P3: Hamilton +6

P4: Qin Miao +5

P5: Perez +4

P6: Sainz +3

P7: Alonso +2

P8: Stroll +1

"Qin Miao was quite unlucky in today’s race; everyone could see that Qin Miao had the speed, but unfortunately, he was stuck in the DRS train," Bing commented at the Five-Star Sports studio after the sprint race.

However, Qin Miao didn’t show any negative emotions after the race and didn’t feel as regretful as Bing and others suggested.

Qin Miao originally started the race in fifth, and ending it with a position higher, gaining an extra point, is considered a good outcome.

The reason Qin Miao finishing fourth felt regrettable to some is mainly because Qin Miao’s performance on the track over the years had been too outstanding, leading people to subconsciously raise their expectations for him.

Yet Qin Miao remains the young man he is.

On the leaderboard, the score gap between him and Verstappen has narrowed by three points, leaving Qin Miao without any anxious feelings.

After all, tomorrow in the main race, he starts from pole position, while Verstappen will start from fourth.

If he brings back 25 points from the main race, these few points will be easily offset.

After the race, Qin Miao went for a weigh-in, and on the way to the post-race interview, he met Barber, who had been waiting for him.

Taking the helmet and Hans System from Qin Miao, Barber comforted him by saying, "Today’s race pace was actually good; the car didn’t suffer any damage. However, with Verstappen leading the train, the strategy group couldn’t collect single-lap speed data for Verstappen. But they’re optimistic about Verstappen’s tire consumption. Our tires will start to show a significant advantage over Verstappen’s from the fifth lap of the race tomorrow, so you can look forward to the main race stage."

As Barber murmured in his ear, Qin Miao nodded while drinking water and quickly returned to the team base.

Participated in the post-race meeting, and so ended the Saturday race.

Silence enveloped the night, and Sunday came.

Just like the data from Friday’s qualifying, no driver would use soft tires in today’s main race because the durability of soft tires on this track is really poor; running with heavy fuel takes only 5 laps before reaching the cliff point.

No cost-effectiveness.

As for Qin Miao, today’s pit stop strategy was decided during the team meeting this morning - a straightforward run with one stop: yellow-white.

According to the calculations from the team’s strategy group, today’s best pit stop strategy is actually two stops - white-yellow-yellow.

Normally, if drivers opt for one stop using yellow-white, even if trying to conserve tires throughout the race, in the later stages, there would be two to three laps where the tires have surpassed the cliff point.

But Qin Miao doesn’t have such worries. Although one stop isn’t enough for him to race the whole event without tire pressure, as long as he doesn’t waste his tires, he’s unlikely to face tire wear concerns throughout the entire race.

Meanwhile, in the pre-race team meeting, Toto reiterated the internal team battle rules for today’s race to the two Mercedes drivers.

With Qin Miao and Hamilton starting positions being too close, internal battles are likely to occur, so they’re allowed to battle internally.

After all, both drivers are world champions, and they are living legends in the paddock.

One being a seven-time champion, the other the youngest champion and double champion in F1 history.

A team having two such drivers, for Mercedes, is truly the sweetness of trouble.

No need to elaborate on the sweetness, the trouble is also easily understood.

Such drivers have strong competitiveness; it’s unrealistic to expect them not to battle once they meet on the track.

Therefore, Mercedes has no other requests; when they tussle on the track, try to leave a little space for each other and avoid being ruthless.

However, Toto is quite confident in Qin Miao, despite Qin Miao occasionally being impulsive on the track, most of the time he is a relatively measured driver.

And the Old Man?

Not worth discussing...

Activities like pre-race interviews, press conferences, and fan meeting sessions soon ended, marking the eve before the main race of the 2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

The two Mercedes cars at the front row were now parked in their grid positions, with the team technicians performing final maintenance before the race started.

Qin Miao was sitting in the shade beside the track’s protective wall, waiting for someone from the FIA to inform him of the race’s start.

When the time came, Qin Miao moved beside his car, checked it thoroughly, confirmed everything was fine, and then entered it.

Soon, the warm-up lap began.

After one lap, all drivers returned to their starting positions.

Qin Miao arrived at pole position.

As the last driver slowly settled into their grid position, the chase car lined up, and the race officials started the pre-race startup procedure.

"Alright, we see the five red lights shining bright!"

"Lights out! The 2023 Azerbaijan Grand Prix main race officially starts!"

At Five-Star Sports, the commentary team for today’s race remained the same trio.

After all, today’s race is held at a very normal scheduling time, at seven o’clock in the evening in the country.

The trio of commentators all had time available.

"Let’s see how Qin Miao’s start from pole position pans out today!"

On the track, Qin Miao’s speed after the start was quick; although Hamilton had intended to use his car’s steering precision to threaten Qin Miao’s position.

Yet, Qin Miao’s starting reaction was faster than Hamilton’s, taking only about 0.2 seconds.

Furthermore, Qin Miao’s car tuning geared towards acceleration, so Hamilton couldn’t reach a position to threaten Qin Miao before T1.

Ultimately, Qin Miao made a smooth start, maintaining his lead.

"Qin Miao’s start today was beautiful, as always. It seems he wasn’t affected at all by not getting onto the podium yesterday," said the trio of commentators at Five-Star Sports after seeing Qin Miao’s flawless start, "As long as Qin Miao doesn’t encounter major interference on the track today, winning the race should be quite easy."

On the track, after a smooth start, Qin Miao ensured Hamilton behind him posed no threat, starting his race pace.

By the third lap, Qin Miao had already extended the time gap between him and Hamilton to 1.3 seconds, effectively pushing Hamilton out of the DRS zone before DRS opened.

Qin Miao’s vehicle tuning this week was evidently better than Hamilton’s, so naturally, Qin Miao’s lap speeds were faster in the main race.

Then, in the fourth lap, when the DRS opened for the first lap, Verstappen started targeting Leclerc.

With DRS open, Leclerc had Hamilton’s slipstream and DRS, but his car’s tail speed was only about 330.

While Verstappen, in the Red Bull car, clocked a wild 348 kilometers per hour tail speed during the main race.

Bear in mind the race just began, and Verstappen’s car was still heavy on fuel.

Due solely to this terrifying straight-line tail speed, Verstappen completed his overtake on Leclerc before the finish line.