How Did I Become an F1 Driver?

The drivers eliminated in Q2 are:

Zhou Guanyu, Bottas, Tsunoda, Albon, Russell.

After losing the weight advantage that their cars had over all other teams last season, Alfa Romeo was immediately brought back to their original state.

However, as the saying goes, a lean camel is bigger than a horse, Bottas and Zhou Guanyu still managed to qualify 11th and 12th in the opening race of this year.

There is still a possibility to compete for points in the main race phase.

Then there are Tsunoda from Lynk & Co, Albon, and Russell.

After Q2 ended, there was a short break before Q3 began.

In the first flying lap, Qin Miao was once again the first to be sent out.

Now that it was Q3, Qin Miao saw no need to hold back any longer. All the experience and insights accumulated from the three practice sessions and two qualifying sessions over the past two days were used by Qin Miao in the first flying lap of Q3.

Throughout the flying lap, Qin Miao drove incredibly steadily, without any mistakes, and his racing line was textbook perfect.

If you didn’t look closely, you’d really think Qin Miao was driving on the exact line drawn to scale according to the Sakhir circuit.

This way of driving naturally pushed the regular performance of W14 to the limits.

Finally, with all the fans’ expectations, Qin Miao crossed the line with a time of exactly 1:30.000.

He managed to hit the exact whole number of 1:30.000, not a fraction more, not a fraction less.

Coincidentally, Leclerc’s first flying lap also ended with a time of exactly 1:30.000.

But since Qin Miao was the first driver to complete the flying lap, he was ahead of Leclerc on the leaderboard.

Shortly after Qin Miao and Leclerc crossed the line, Qin Miao’s teammate Hamilton also completed his first flying lap.

After crossing the line, Hamilton’s time broke into the 29-second range.

Although Hamilton’s time was only 1:29.998, just 0.002 seconds faster than Qin Miao and Leclerc,

anyone with experience in racing knows that the difference between 1 minute 29 seconds and 1 minute 30 seconds is akin to the difference between a diamond rank and a master rank.

It may seem like just one tier, maybe even just a couple of points, but the actual difference in skill is significant.

Of course, Qin Miao’s time still has room for improvement; it only requires Qin Miao to drive more to the limit on the track, less conventionally, and more aggressively at some points.

However, after finishing the first flying lap and returning to the team pit for a rest, Qin Miao checked Hamilton’s GPS and telemetry data.

Qin Miao also wanted to know why Hamilton was faster than him.

Then Qin Miao found out that Hamilton’s racing line and cornering style were the same as his, but Hamilton’s line was more extreme.

Hamilton achieved this time by treating the first lap of Q3 as if it were the last lap of Q3.

To this, Qin Miao could only marvel at Hamilton’s daring, as even the slightest mistake during this process would have sent Hamilton off the track, thus having his time canceled by the FIA.

After reviewing the data briefly, Qin Miao felt at ease, because he knew that he could also achieve Hamilton’s racing style, so it wasn’t surprising.

Then Qin Miao prepared to see how much slower Verstappen and Leclerc were compared to him.

But then Qin Miao froze.

Leclerc was indeed slower than Qin Miao.

Ferrari had just changed their team principal, and now there’s a mess internally that needs handling. Naturally, there’s not much energy left for development.

Changing to a new team leader would definitely cause internal instability, and along with Vassel needing to familiarize himself with Ferrari’s operational processes, Ferrari’s car performance might not improve anytime soon.

As the saying goes, ’Before dealing with external matters, one must first settle internal affairs.’

Vassel will certainly have to handle Ferrari’s internal affairs well before he can focus on improving the car’s performance.

So the expectation for Ferrari’s performance improvement should be set for mid-season or next year.

Leclerc being slower is normal, but what stunned Qin Miao was that on the drivers’ leaderboard, Hamilton was not first, not even second, but third.

And he himself was fourth.

The current rankings:

Verstappen: 1:29.897

Perez: +0.1

Hamilton: +0.001

Qin Miao: +0.103

...

Qin Miao wondered why Frankie, who usually sings his praises after his finish, didn’t say anything today. Well, there’s the reason!

At that moment, Qin Miao, who had been filled with the "significant performance improvements" of Mercedes ever since winter testing, suddenly felt a bit tense.

Damn, have Red Bull been putting up a smokescreen all this time?

Are they stronger now?

For some reason, Qin Miao suddenly felt somewhat nervous. Don’t tell me that Red Bull developed something new over this winter break.

Suddenly, Qin Miao recalled Verstappen’s post-practice interview from yesterday.

Damn it, this bastard actually said that Red Bull’s car was unlikely to be a challenge to Mercedes in the short term.

Is this what Verstappen meant by not challenging Mercedes?

Dude, you left me 0.1 behind, eh?

Even though he felt his feelings had been betrayed, Qin Miao did not give in to despair; after all, this wasn’t Monaco, and qualifying didn’t mean everything.

Even if he couldn’t beat Verstappen in qualifying, isn’t there still the main race tomorrow?

On the last flying lap of Q3, since it was the final flying lap, Qin Miao also began to pursue the limits.

He even navigated certain corners, like T1 and T5T6T7, at the absolute limits, practically riding on the curbs.