How Did I Become an F1 Driver?

Meanwhile, Qin Miao felt that something was not quite right with his race car.

Qin Miao has the Man and Car Unity ability with his season’s car.

So naturally, Qin Miao was able to detect the car’s issue at the first opportunity.

It was the 38th lap, and while running this lap, Qin Miao felt the car’s straight-line acceleration was somewhat sluggish, especially when the engine reached high RPMs, there was a certain power failure, albeit very slight and hard to discern in the telemetry data.

However, the only thing Qin Miao could feel was the car’s power failure, but the specific reason, which position was causing it, Qin Miao sitting in the car was unclear.

At the same time, Qin Miao realized that if there was indeed a problem with his car today, the division race victory he was about to achieve today would be for naught.

𝑓𝑟𝑒𝘦𝓌𝑒𝑏𝑛𝑜𝘷𝑒𝘭.𝒸𝘰𝑚

So Qin Miao immediately felt tense and sought help from the team via TR: "Guys, I’m feeling something is wrong with the car, there’s a drop in power, tell me what’s happening! How do we solve this?"

Qin Miao’s sudden TR took the entire Mercedes team by surprise; after glancing at the telemetry data, they frowned slightly because they did not find any data abnormalities.

But Qin Miao is ultimately the person closest to the car, and many times on the track, the telemetry data does not reflect the true situation. In most cases, the strategy group technicians have to reference the driver’s current feeling on the track to make judgments.

Therefore, although they did not see any anomalies through the data, the team immediately began to handle and check.

"Hold on, don’t panic, we haven’t found anything abnormal in the main telemetry. It should not be a big issue; let’s check what’s happened." Frankie calmed Qin Miao on the track while reminding him: "Switch the engine output mode to D mode now."

This mode limits the maximum RPM of the car’s engine through the electronic control system, thus protecting the engine.

Although it was unclear what exactly happened to Qin Miao’s car on the track, the power failure was most likely engine-related. Lowering the engine’s RPM could protect the engine to some degree, so it’s never wrong to do so.

While notifying Qin Miao, Frankie remembered to call the other team staff to immediately check the data of Qin Miao’s car.

However, after inspecting all the data they could access, the team found no abnormalities in the data.

By the 39th lap, Frankie hesitantly spoke to Qin Miao via TR: "Qin Miao, we checked and didn’t find anything unusual with the car."

But Qin Miao replied: "Do something! You should be able to see my throttle graph; the car’s engine power is significantly down!"

In fact, Qin Miao did feel the car’s power dropping, although the magnitude was small, with a reduction of just about 5 horsepower compared to normal engine power.

However, a normal engine power decline due to durability wear is usually a linear process and traceable.

But today was different; the car’s power suddenly dropped by around 5 horsepower.

With Qin Miao’s understanding of the car, such a power drop shouldn’t happen under normal circumstances.

Therefore, Qin Miao was certain that the car had an issue.

But what confused Qin Miao was that the team couldn’t pinpoint which part of the car had a problem.

Nevertheless, the longstanding inertia subconsciously led Qin Miao to trust the team’s judgment.

Thus, Qin Miao did not strongly demand to retire.

And continued to drive on the track.

However, due to the speed drop, Perez had started closing the time gap between him and Qin Miao.

The commentators from Five-Star Sports had just observed Zhou Guanyu’s retirement, and now saw Qin Miao’s speed drastically slowing down on the track.

They immediately recalled some unpleasant memories.

Perez, seeing Qin Miao’s speed suddenly decreased on the track, instantly became more alert, and his originally concentrated energy and spirit became more exuberant.

But this state didn’t last too long.

By the 45th lap, Perez had reached the DRS zone behind Qin Miao.

Seeing that the next lap, Perez was about to launch an attack on Qin Miao, Qin Miao decided to give up.

Feeling that the car’s condition was very wrong and worsening over time, Qin Miao chose to trust his judgment and feelings. After telling the team, he drove the car back to the pit.

"I’m retiring; I feel the car is about to fail."

"Are you sure?" Frankie asked.

"Yes, I have a strong feeling that something’s wrong with the car’s engine."

"Alright, switch the engine mode to E mode and bring the car back; we’re retiring."

"Why is this happening? We had a chance to win today!"

"We don’t want to see this happen either, but this is F1..."

The last line was spoken by Toto.

...

Driving back to the pit lanes, Qin Miao confirmed his car’s engine was malfunctioning; if he continued driving on the track, there was a risk of engine blowout.