How Did I Become an F1 Driver?

In everyday life, 0.2 seconds is hard to notice and is often not given any thought.

But in the arena of F1 racing, 0.2 seconds can determine the victory or defeat of a race, and can also decide the ownership of millions of US dollars.

And it was precisely because of Qin Miao’s 0.2 second mistake that Verstappen had to slightly slow his own pace, otherwise his cornering rhythm would definitely be affected by Qin Miao.

Being too close behind Qin Miao could very likely result in a rear-end collision.

If he rear-ended Qin Miao at this moment, leaving aside vehicle damage or penalties from the stewards, Verstappen’s reputation in the paddock would be completely ruined.

So Verstappen again held back his impatience and reduced his speed a bit.

However, Qin Miao’s "mistake" only targeted the driver directly behind him, and Hamilton, beside Verstappen, was not affected by Qin Miao at all.

Next, Qin Miao exited the corner normally, while Hamilton took advantage of his lead at the front and aggressively closed the door at the exit of T3, pushing Verstappen back to third.

Aggrieved, truly aggrieved.

Despite the two defensive maneuvers from the two Mercedes drivers, Verstappen could have forcibly ignored them and attempted to attack.

But Verstappen knew that both attacks would carry the risk of collision.

However, Verstappen’s position on the drivers’ standings would not allow him to take those risks.

But it must be said, those two Mercedes bastards are damn sneaky! Not a single thought towards fair play, it’s two against one! Despicable!

Yet Verstappen could only curse them in his heart; if he had the chance, he certainly wouldn’t reject such a two-against-one opportunity with his teammate on the track.

"Beautiful! Qin Miao and Hamilton coordinated so exquisitely," Bing remarked as he observed the situation on the track at this moment, "Honestly, seeing Verstappen start so well today, I was really worried he might threaten Qin Miao’s leading position, but it’s hard to believe you could see such a coordinated and harmonious scene between two world champions of Mercedes on the track."

"It seems Qin Miao has indeed got some skills in managing interpersonal relationships within the team; at the very least, he doesn’t seem like a young man," Fei commented.

"But isn’t this what we hoped to see?"

...

After experiencing so many races on the F1 circuit, Qin Miao clearly understood that the most accident-prone period on the track is actually the startup phase.

Now that the start is over, and he is still maintaining his leading position, defending his title in today’s race is already a high probability.

The last hurdle is the pit stop tire change, which might come soon.

Qin Miao is confident in ensuring his own error-free performance on the track, but he isn’t confident the team’s tire changers won’t mess things up, so Qin Miao hopes to give their tire changers a bit more time before the stop.

In fact, compared to usual, Qin Miao would even prefer his team’s staff to change tires more slowly, as long as it’s a stable change, without any major mistakes.

Just as Qin Miao was about to enter cruise mode based on his muscle memory from daily practice and insights from practice races...

The first lap’s T7.

Ricardo rear-ended Magelsen at T7.

Frankly, the nature of car accidents on the F1 circuit is not drastically different from those in everyday life. PIT, brushes, off-road incidents—these are all errors and accidents that frequently occur on the F1 track.

Such accidents are also common in real life.

However, the biggest difference between the F1 circuit and real roads is that rear-end accidents are rarely seen on the F1 track.

Compared to other types of accidents, rear-end collisions are much less frequent.

You can count the rear-end collision occurrences in a single season on one hand.

After all, F1 drivers have very focused attention on the track, along with their mature driving skills and experience. While losing control of the car is possible, losing control and rear-ending the car in front is absolutely impossible, because such a mistake is too elementary.

But ironically, it was in such an environment that a rear-end accident occurred on the track, and this was not the end of the incident.

After being rear-ended by Ricardo, Magelsen, in a high-speed cornering state, had his car’s balance disrupted on the spot; the car spun out of control, its nose veering to the right, drawing a circle on the track.

Since he was cornering, Magelsen’s vehicle speed wasn’t fast, so Magelsen’s car on the track quickly regained traction with the ground.

Once traction was regained, Magelsen’s car inertia did not disappear, so under its own inertia, Magelsen’s car continued sliding backward, almost on the verge of going off track.

Coincidentally, the instigator of this accident, Ricardo, after colliding with Magelsen, also wanted to leave this troubled spot from the outside of the track.

Then Magelsen’s reversing car’s left rear wheel collided with Ricardo’s car’s left rear wheel.

Both of their left rear wheels deformed on impact.

Subsequently, both cars crashed into the wall under their own inertia.

The race officials immediately deployed the safety car.

This could be considered Magelsen not bearing grudges; after all, if he had a grudge, he avenged it promptly.