How Did I Become an F1 Driver?

Actually, given the time gap between Perez and Verstappen, along with Red Bull Racing’s strong tire change ability, even if both cars entered the pit stop at the same time, there wouldn’t be much of a problem.

However, in today’s race, Verstappen started with hard tires. Starting from such a rearward position, if he used soft tires and followed the same pit stop strategy as other drivers, it would easily waste time in overtaking. It’s better to undercut most of the slower drivers with hard tires.

Therefore, Verstappen’s tires still have a lot of mileage at this point, making a pit stop now is completely unwise.

Soon, as the race reached the 20th lap and the drivers ahead all pitted, Qin Miao became the leading driver.

Moreover, Qin Miao effectively completed an undercut on Perez on the circuit.

Qin Miao managed to get behind Perez but couldn’t overtake him, partly due to the upgrades Red Bull Racing brought to this Grand Prix, significantly enhancing the straight-line speed of the Red Bull cars, and also due to Perez creating a lot of turbulence ahead.

This made Qin Miao’s car’s ineffective downforce in the corners become almost none.

Thus, Qin Miao couldn’t catch up behind Perez in a threatening position before the DRS zones in the mid-segments of the second and third timed sections.

This is completely a vicious cycle, and it can even be said that this is characteristic of the Miami Circuit.

Because before the DRS zone on the Miami Circuit, there are always winding bends, and after passing the bends, one enters the DRS zone.

This makes it easier for cars that aren’t typically successful on straights to defend in the DRS zone.

With Perez no longer blocking in front, Qin Miao, using medium tires, has better tire management, allowing him to lap faster than Perez’s new hard tires. Though only 0.09 seconds faster per lap.

Some might wonder, why doesn’t Red Bull ask Perez to stay ahead of Qin Miao to slow down his race pace, wait until Verstappen catches up to a position threatening Qin Miao, or until Perez’s tires are really struggling, before letting Perez pit?

Here’s the thing, Perez is human too, and currently, Red Bull is still somewhat satisfied with Perez’s performance this season and does not intend to directly give up on Perez.

They cannot immediately transition Perez seamlessly into the second driver position.

Furthermore, Red Bull believes Perez can compete for the stage victory in today’s race while Verstappen is stuck in a DRS train.

Although there’s indeed a certain skill gap between the two drivers, under the circumstances, Perez has a slightly higher probability of winning the race than Verstappen.

As time went on, Qin Miao smoothly led the race, gradually expanding his time gap with Verstappen after removing the blockades.

However, the expansion pace is slow, approximately 0.1 seconds per lap.

On the 25th lap, the time gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen stabilized at 5.2 seconds.

Qin Miao in first, Verstappen in second, third is Perez, fourth Hamilton, Brother Tou has moved to fifth.

The time gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen remains stable, sometimes Verstappen even has faster lap times than Qin.

Clearly, even as strong as Qin Miao, the tires have begun to degrade.

If Qin Miao pits during this lap, he will fall to a position 17 seconds behind Verstappen, and 1.7 seconds ahead of Perez.

This marks Qin Miao running out an appropriate pit window on the circuit.

If there are no errors in this tire change and it is completed within 3 seconds, Qin Miao will reappear approximately 1.3 seconds ahead of Perez.

But if it exceeds 3 seconds, determining Qin Miao’s exact position becomes uncertain.

Considering Qin Miao has just exited the pit lane, his tire temperature won’t reach optimal working temperature immediately, proving a disadvantage both offensively and defensively.

If blocked by Perez, Qin Miao would be in trouble.

"Okay, we see that Qin Miao is going to pit."

"A set of soft tires lasting 25 laps, maybe a usual pit stop for Qin Miao," Zhou Haoran commented.

"Let’s see how long the Mercedes tire change takes this time..."

Last week’s race featured many coincidences in the Five-Star Sports studio.

For example, right after the commentators praised Zhou Guanyu and Qin Miao’s performance on the circuit, the two Chinese drivers directly retired one after the other.

Although clearly, this matter had nothing to do with the Five-Star Sports commentators, the key lied in how coincidental it was.

It’s not quite like Norris wreaking havoc, crashing immediately after words were spoken, leaving McLaren debris scattered everywhere.

Yet nonetheless, they retired one after the other with issues right after the words were uttered.

As a result, quite a few domestic enthusiasts believing in this group of matters criticized Five-Star Sports’ commentators severely.

Though the three commentators didn’t want to believe these things subjectively, the native practicality in Chinese people made the three commentators more cautious narrating Qin Miao’s races.

At key moments like these, the commentators on Five-Star Sports didn’t dare make judgments as decisively as before.

Slowing down, entering the pit lane, pressing the speed limit button, Qin Miao slowly guided his car into the tire change position at the Mercedes team’s pit entrance.

By now the team technicians were fully prepared, awaiting Qin Miao to park perfectly.

Qin Miao’s parking was flawless.

It was exactly perfectly timed to deliver his tires and front wing into the team’s tire changers’ hands.

Thus, before Qin Miao’s car settled, the car was lifted, and the motions of removing lug nuts and tires happened almost simultaneously.

Once the four tires were removed and taken away, four new hard tires were fitted onto the car.

As soon as the four tires were mounted, the front and rear jack technicians simultaneously released their jacks.

And amidst the car’s descent, the four bolt-locking techs had already tightened the bolts on Qin Miao’s car.

Upon completing this series of operations, the four gun technicians raised their pneumatic guns high, signaling the tire change complete.

Then Reyes gave the release signal, Qin Miao stepped on the throttle and left the pit stop tire change position.

Meanwhile, a timestamp popped up on the upper-right corner of the broadcast screen monitoring Qin Miao’s tire change the whole time.

[2.0]

"Perfect!"

"This pit stop is practically perfect, Qin Miao successfully overcuts Perez. Next, it’s time for Qin Miao to utilize his long-distance speed advantage!"

...

Seeing this tire change time, the initially hesitant commentators of Five-Star Sports happily popped open the champagne.

As the Miami Circuit isn’t particularly hard on tires, and with Pirelli providing medium-hardness three tire options for this race, the durability is sufficiently provided, hence under normal circumstances, all the drivers adopt a one-stop pit strategy.

And with Qin Miao switching to hard tires, it’s clear Qin Miao intends to run the rest of the race on a single set, no longer entering the pit lane for tire changes.

Thus, eliminating the risk of Five-Star Sports commentary causing incidents with their coverage, the three commentators opened their champagne in the studio.

On the track, Qin Miao felt the tire change was quick, praising in the team TR after exiting the pit lane: "Awesome."

Frankie laughed: "Now it’s your turn."

"Watch me!"

Thanks to the team’s perfect tire change, Qin Miao exited the pit lane not only ahead of Perez but the initially estimated 1.7 seconds time gap widened to 2.0 seconds owing to the excellent tire change.

As Perez glanced at the Mercedes car now leading ahead, he sighed briefly, realizing the stage victory was out of reach...

ps. Dear folks, I’ll take a day off tomorrow.