How Did I Become an F1 Driver?

After all, the traffic situation in Q1 was really too bad, and Qin Miao’s fastest flying lap in Q1 reached 1:12.717.

He was already assured of entering Q2, so the team didn’t insist on Qin Miao going out to run.

After all, if a traffic problem occurs in Q1 and blocks the car behind, depending on the severity of the situation, there could be a three-position penalty in the race.

There’s no need to take unnecessary risks.

But in this process, some events occurred that were at least welcomed by Mercedes.

Because in the 11th minute of Q1, Perez, who was preparing to run his second flying lap, made a mistake at T1 and hit the wall.

The car crashed hard into the barrier on the outside of T1.

Although the vehicle’s overall structure appeared intact, practically all parts on the left side of the car suffered varying degrees of damage.

For example, the front wing, front suspension, rear suspension, side pods, gearbox, and rear wing.

With such severe damage, naturally Perez’s car was stuck on the track, and the session was temporarily stopped as the red flag was brought out.

After all, Perez’s car had tire damage at this point, so even though just 20 meters behind Perez was Matthew Passage, the Matthews couldn’t push Perez’s car off the track.

Then, Red Bull encountered a scene that raised everyone’s blood pressure: Perez’s car was lifted up.

In the course of a Grand Prix, the three teams in the top 4 of the team standings were exposed undercarriage-wise, with Aston Martin being the only exception.

At that moment, Qin Miao had already left the car and intended to follow Leclerc’s method to go to the restroom to relieve some pressure, seeing with his own eyes several senior figures from the team’s design department running with their phones to the broadcast screen to frantically photograph the Red Bull car’s underbody.

𝙛𝒓𝒆𝙚𝒘𝒆𝓫𝙣𝓸𝙫𝓮𝒍.𝒄𝒐𝓶

Elliott got hold of the photos of the Red Bull car’s underbody and immediately ran down from the command platform on the second floor, holding his phone while calling and rushing toward the Mercedes team headquarters to contact the Brackley team headquarters.

While loudly shouting: "Analyze, I want the analysis of the Red Bull car’s underbody! Get moving right now, call back even those on vacation!"

And not just him, the Ferrari, McLaren, and Aston Martin side, too, went crazy with the photos of the Red Bull car’s underbody.

Meanwhile, the professional photographers from various teams also went wild, grabbing their expensive cameras and rushing towards the Red Bull car being slowly lifted by a crane.

As professional photographers, they know that if they capture high-resolution footage of the Red Bull car’s underbody and send it to their respective teams, this single photo could provide them with at least $20,000 in income.

It’s important to note, even though the points gap between Mercedes and Red Bull isn’t large, just 12 points, the performance of the Red Bull car is evidently superior to the Mercedes car.

Mercedes clinging onto Red Bull on the standings without being left too far behind is purely because Mercedes is going to extremes, with pure acceleration capability and top straight speed giving them a natural advantage on certain tracks.

Mercedes at this time is like a heavily biased student, while Red Bull is like a well-rounded hexagonal warrior excelling in every aspect.

Therefore, compared to Ferrari and Mercedes, many designs of the Red Bull car are highly referential.

Especially the car’s underbody, which cannot be seen under normal conditions.