How Did I Become an F1 Driver?

Although in a normal Grand Prix qualifying session, as long as Qin Miao completes a flying lap and confirms that this lap’s result can advance him to the next stage, he’ll call it a day right on the spot.

But today is different, as this sprint race weekend is missing a practice session, and the Mercedes team still has a lot of data that hasn’t been collected.

Therefore, Qin Miao decided to stay on the track for a longer period, also serving to help the team gather more data.

Qin Miao did not waste his brand-new soft tires, instead opting to run long distances on the track with a set of old soft tires.

Then at the end of Q1, Qin Miao received bad news.

Which is that the C5 soft tires are completely unusable on the Baku circuit.

Using this soft compound tire for a qualifying session is fine; this softest tire can indeed bring terrifying single-lap speed to the car.

But the problem is that the durability of this tire compound is too poor.

Even though Qin Miao ran carefully during long distances, trying to avoid tire wear in every corner, after running 4 laps, his set of soft tires reached their cliff point.

Even counting the one flying lap he just ran, this set of soft tires can only last 6-7 laps on the Baku circuit before the tire grip starts to drastically decline.

It’s important to note that Qin Miao is still running with the qualifying configuration, with only enough fuel added for 5 laps on the track.

As a result, Qin Miao cannot run a differentiated tire strategy during the main race and sprint race.

He must either do a yellow-white one-stop or white-yellow one-stop strategy.

The sprint race is likely to be completed with a set of medium tires.

To be honest, Qin Miao still feels a bit regretful.

Q1 ended quickly, and Qin Miao advanced smoothly, his results surprisingly ranking third.

Even Qin Miao couldn’t quite believe it.

𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝐰𝚎𝕓𝐧𝚘𝘃𝗲𝐥.𝐜𝚘𝕞

However, as qualifying progressed to Q2, Qin Miao discovered that these guys were running so slow.

The first flying lap in Q2 saw Qin Miao’s single-lap time improve to 1:40.998.

He directly broke into the 1-minute 40-second range, and crucially, Qin Miao still held back during this lap.

Qin Miao was thinking at that time of just completing the lap normally and putting up a time that would safely secure him a place in Q3.

Then Qin Miao found himself parachuting into first place once again.

Ultimately, only Verstappen’s last flying lap in Q2 posted a time of 1:40.822, and Qin Miao advanced to Q3 in second place.

It was only after the end of Q2 that Qin Miao suddenly realized.

His understanding of the car is actually stronger than that of most drivers in the paddock. Today, everyone only has one practice session in Q1 to familiarize themselves with the car, whereas his one practice session left him with only a vague understanding of the car’s limits but the best setup among all drivers.

Otherwise, it wouldn’t be possible for him to use his usual Grand Prix qualifying casual running method and yet be faster than them by so much.

After excluding all impossibilities, the remaining answer, no matter how unbelievable, is still a fact.

That is, one practice session’s time cannot allow other drivers to find the setup most suitable for them.

Almost all drivers are like this, and even Verstappen is no exception.

Absolutely crushing it!

Moreover, after familiarizing himself with the two qualifying sessions, Qin Miao now has his own understanding and recognition of the limits of his car under the current setup.

So when the race came to Q3, and Hamilton, following the Thursday morning team meeting, started helping Qin Miao by providing slipstream on the main straight, Qin Miao ran his most focused flying lap of the race.

Plus, before crossing the finish line, he caught Hamilton’s slipstream and DRS.

Before crossing the finish line, Qin Miao’s terminal speed soared to a terrifying 339 kilometers per hour.

Now people might ask why Qin Miao only achieved a speed of 339 kilometers per hour with Hamilton’s slipstream and DRS?

This involves the track layout.

The finish line at the Baku circuit is about 300 meters away from the braking point at Baku’s T1, a distance that Qin Miao can normally use for acceleration.

But Qin Miao’s flying lap ends as he crosses the finish line, so he released the throttle early after crossing the finish line and didn’t refresh his maximum terminal speed.

Naturally, the terminal speed wasn’t extraordinarily high.

In the end, Qin Miao’s first flying lap in Q3 crossed the finish line with a time of 1:39.897.

Breaking into the sub-1 minutes 39 mark, and it was 1.1 seconds faster than his fastest single lap in Q2.

This shows that what Qin Miao said to Reyes after Q1 wasn’t just boasting; he really hadn’t been running seriously.

And as expected, Qin Miao’s Q3 result smoothly led him to parachute into first place.

Moreover, Qin Miao maintained that first position until the end of Q3.

Hamilton in second place was also very fast, but compared to Qin Miao, Hamilton didn’t even break into the sub-1 minute 39 mark.

Old Man was full of bewilderment when he saw Qin Miao’s result.

How did this kid run so fast?

Although Old Man knew that the W14 suited the characteristics of the Baku circuit, does your speed Qin Miao seem a bit too fast?

It wasn’t until after the qualifying ended, returning to the team’s headquarters in the morning to look at the telemetry data and satellite map of Qin Miao’s car, that Old Man saw the clues.

Qin Miao’s car’s acceleration ability was basically the same as his own car, possibly with one or two more horsepower, which is considered a normal change due to engine wear.