How Did I Become an F1 Driver?

He was already prepared for the possibility that when he was being interviewed or accepted the award, there wouldn’t be a single person cheering for him. He even prepared for jeers from the crowd.

But Qin Miao never imagined that the audience’s reaction to him would be like this.

What is going on? Didn’t I provoke you all before the race? I remember running back to the pit and seeing quite a few Japanese spectators giving me the middle finger and booing.

How come now, after the race, they’re cheering and applauding me?

And Qin Miao remembered correctly; after provoking the Japanese crowd, quite a few people indeed felt animosity toward him.

But the Japanese, well, everyone knows, they respect power, not virtue.

After Qin Miao won the race, in their eyes, Qin Miao was a strong contender, moreover, he was an Asian who defeated the black Hamilton.

From a Japanese perspective, this was extremely satisfying. After all, since World War II, there has always been an overlord weighing down on the entire Japan, so seeing Qin Miao perform like this naturally excites them.

After the race, the hosts naturally focused on the tire choices after the red flag restart, between Qin Miao and Hamilton.

The questions asked mostly related to the pit stop for tire changes.

After all, not everyone watches the first practice session. Many fans were curious about why Mercedes’ choice was different from all other teams, opting for intermediate tires.

Actually, there wasn’t anything much to hide, it was just some coincidental data.

Many fans from other teams were aware that Mercedes chose to start with intermediate tires after the race restart only because on Friday, due to Qin Miao’s sudden whim, they tested full wet tire performance. Suddenly, they felt completely off.

And full wet tires, after this race, were added to every team’s blacklist; probably, no matter how heavy the rain is next time, they won’t use full wet tires.

After the interview concluded, Qin Miao and Hamilton naturally went to the podium preparation area above the track.

As Qin Miao sat down to rest, Hamilton came over and sat beside him.

"Qin Miao, I’m still a bit puzzled, how did you accelerate so quickly between T2 and T3?" Hamilton asked while wiping sweat.

This was the aspect of the race that perplexed Hamilton the most; how could Qin Miao be so fast?

Qin Miao thought for a moment and recalled Hamilton was asking about the time he took the crossover line, yet still arrived at the T3 braking point simultaneously with Hamilton.

After briefly recalling the events, Qin Miao said, "At the time, I remember the ERS charge level was at 15% before the T1 braking point. The ERS system in T1 and T2 recovered about 6%, then down that short straight, I used roughly all 21% of ERS power."

Hearing Qin Miao’s explanation, Hamilton looked more astonished: "You still had that much ERS power left at the time?"

Since Hamilton began countering Qin Miao’s attacks, his car’s charge never exceeded 15%.

Qin Miao nodded as a matter of course: "Yeah, late in the race, in those two laps without attacking you, I was constantly charging the car. Actually, I planned to save some power for T11 or T16, but then I thought holding back too much power wasn’t a good strategy, so I basically used all the power in the first time sector."

Upon hearing Qin Miao’s statement, Hamilton gulped visibly.

What kind of monster is this, wasn’t his rain combat ability supposed to be weak? Why did he suddenly become so formidable today? Was he pretending all along just to vex me?

My race victory!

Of course, Hamilton didn’t show any internal collapse visibly on his face.

After listening to Qin Miao, Old Man Hamilton only sighed helplessly.

Then Verstappen also came up from downstairs, and the three exchanged greetings, tidied up their appearance, and wearing the Pirelli hats, prepared to go on the stage for the awards ceremony.

The first to ascend the podium was naturally Verstappen, who came third.

Japan is considered a semi-homeground for Red Bull, so when Verstappen went up to accept the award, Japanese fans very graciously sent warm applause and cheers.

The second to take the podium was Hamilton.

Old Man Hamilton still had the clout of a seven-time champion, so the cheers and applause from the Japanese fans for him were noticeably louder than for Verstappen.

Then it was today’s biggest winner, Qin Miao, who came out from backstage with Mercedes’ representative Elliott.

As soon as Qin Miao appeared, the audience immediately sent him the most enthusiastic cheers and applause. Qin Miao was in good spirits, smiling and waving to the audience.

Next, naturally, everyone stood on the podium, Qin Miao standing and taking off his hat.

Soon, music played that brought a spontaneous smile to Qin Miao’s face.

In other Grand Prix events where the national anthem plays, Qin Miao might just be happy for a moment.

But during the anthem, Qin Miao’s expression is generally quite serious.