How Did I Become an F1 Driver?

The next stretch of the track is relatively calm; at least for the three drivers in the leading group, they’re all just cruising for a while.

On lap 24, Qin Miao’s advantage in tire preservation shows itself completely; he can’t keep helping his teammate Hamilton anymore.

Because right now, they’re both on softs, but even running with the pace dialed back, Qin Miao’s lap time is still 0.3 seconds faster than Hamilton’s.

Not to mention this race, thanks to that yellow flag period right after the start, Qin Miao’s tire wear has been very low; he basically doesn’t need to save his tires at all.

So even though Qin Miao still wants to manage his little DRS train at the back of the lead pack, his pace simply won’t allow it anymore.

Plus, with the team’s plan to pit on lap 32, Qin Miao can’t just keep nursing the durability of this set of softs; he needs to burn up all the remaining life on these tires before lap 32.

After saving the tires for so long, wouldn’t any leftover tire life be a waste?

And during this period, with Qin Miao up ahead no longer giving Hamilton DRS, Hamilton finally can’t hold off Verstappen’s attacks; on the main straight at the start of lap 25, Verstappen overtakes him.

To be honest, if Hamilton were just running his own race normally, there’s no way he’d be this miserable out on track.

But unfortunately for him, he’s had Qin Miao in front the whole time, constantly towing him in the slipstream.

Granted, because of the weather, Hamilton’s tires aren’t overheating, he’s not suffering degradation from overdriving, and in fact with Qin Miao there, Hamilton’s softs have stayed in a very good operating window.

But it’s "thanks to Qin Miao" and "because of Qin Miao" at the same time.

With Qin Miao pulling him along up front, Hamilton doesn’t have to worry too much about Verstappen behind; but because Qin Miao is also holding him up ahead, Hamilton’s pace never really comes alive, and whenever Verstappen is threatening him in certain sections, he has to move onto the defensive line.

Taking the defensive line makes it easy enough to block Verstappen behind, but the problem is that once you’ve blocked him, your own tires take more wear than with a normal turn-in.

So in that process, Hamilton’s tires have still been overused to some extent.

Now that Qin Miao’s gone, the downside of Hamilton’s excessive tire wear starts to show.

Honestly, for a moment, Hamilton feels like he’s being manipulated on track by Qin Miao; whatever he wants to do, whatever he’s going to do, this young guy has it all calculated.

Of course, that’s just Hamilton’s own suspicion; there’s no real hard evidence.

Anyway, at the end of lap 25, Hamilton dives into the pits for a set of mediums, getting ready to try an undercut on Verstappen out on track.

After all, Verstappen has been following right behind Hamilton the whole time, so at this point the remaining life on Verstappen’s tires won’t be great either.

Out of nowhere, Verstappen gets the message that Hamilton has pitted for mediums.

Honestly, for a split second, Verstappen really wants to kill Hamilton.

But there’s nothing he can do; Hamilton has been on track blocking him for the sake of his teammate, and however you look at it, in Mercedes’ eyes and in the eyes of Mercedes fans, Hamilton’s doing the right thing.

Verstappen has to admit, he’s getting a bit anxious now.

"What should I do?" Verstappen asks over Red Bull’s team radio.

Verstappen’s question isn’t hard to understand: should I pit now for fresh tires to prevent Hamilton’s undercut, or should I stay out and keep pushing, trying to close the gap to Qin Miao as much as possible?

Red Bull, of course, understands what Verstappen is asking, but for the moment they don’t know how to answer either; Verstappen has only just freed himself from Hamilton, and they’re not sure what Verstappen’s actual lap pace is right now.

On the other hand, they also don’t have a clear idea of how quick Hamilton is on the mediums.

And they have even less clue whether Qin Miao, who’s been cruising up front, has any more pace left in hand.

But they can’t afford to wait a lap, let Hamilton run one and grab the seven-time champion’s lap data before giving Verstappen an answer, because by then it’ll be too late.

So after a brief discussion, Verstappen’s race engineer comes on the radio: "We box this lap. Max, push with everything you’ve got now! Use up all the tire."

"Copy."