How Did I Become an F1 Driver?

As the two of them completed their post-race weigh-in, Verstappen also climbed out of his car.

After greeting Pan, Qin Miao briefly celebrated with his team members.

But honestly, neither Qin Miao nor his team’s technicians were particularly happy about today’s result.

The only thing bringing smiles to their faces was the bonus from the team.

After finishing this routine, Qin Miao was the first to go for the post-race interview today.

Today’s interviewer was David Cookhard.

Meanwhile, as Qin Miao accepted the interview, the broadcast screen on the right showed the "Driver of the Day" voted by the audience for today’s race.

This honor went to Qin Miao.

However, Qin Miao’s vote percentage was only 0.2% higher than second place Verstappen, which could be considered a narrow victory.

Perhaps the fans felt that Qin Miao didn’t get the victory he deserved today, but they saw his efforts on the track and the impact of the two red flags on him.

Out of sympathy or some strange reason, it can be regarded as a consolation prize.

"Qin Miao, congratulations on your second place. Today, your speed in the latter part of the race was fast, but it’s a pity you encountered two red flags during the race. So it’s somewhat unfortunate for you, isn’t it?"

Qin Miao shook his head with a wry smile: "It’s not really unfortunate, after all, this is F1, anything can happen.

I have nothing much to say about today’s race; I’ve done everything I could. Not winning the podium this time was just because my luck wasn’t great, we can only choose to accept it.

After the race, during the spring break, we’ll take the time to improve and upgrade the car, to see what we can do better."

"We noticed that during the second red flag’s start phase, you had a chance to catch up to Verstappen, but you braked early before the T1 braking point. Was something happening at that time?"

Qin Miao scratched his head; this person really knows how to bring up the sore spots.

Yet Qin Miao thought about it and decided to answer truthfully: "At that time, I needed to pay attention to Verstappen’s car position while looking at my braking point.

In the process, Verstappen suddenly let off the throttle, and his car disappeared from my peripheral vision. I thought he was preparing to brake early and take my cross line, so I braked early to block Verstappen’s path, and only realized after he overtook me that my reaction was a bit excessive. He just let off the throttle.

As a result, from a third-person perspective, it probably looked like I braked early."

Qin Miao shrugged: "This doesn’t count as a mistake, just that Verstappen’s tactics tricked me well, he deserved today’s race victory, but he won’t fool me with this trick again."

When Qin Miao said these words, his expression was calm and his speech was well-reasoned and orderly.

It could be seen that Qin Miao genuinely believed this.

And you know, Qin Miao really has the ability to back up his words.

Looking at the skill he’s shown in the paddock over the last three years, no one thinks he’s bluffing.

Standard post-race interviews for the runner-up usually have only two questions, and with this, Qin Miao’s interview concluded.

He waved to the audience who had been cheering for him, and his main work for the day was mostly done; next only was to go for the award ceremony.

He went upstairs, switched hats in the post-race rest room, and afterward, started watching the replay of today’s race incidents.

During incidents on the track, Qin Miao and the other drivers were racing, and there was no replay screen in the car, so even if aware of incidents, they would either find out after completing a lap or know through the team’s radio, not understanding the full incident, nor having time to delve into it.

Therefore, in rare free time post-race, unable to do much else, naturally, they started watching the incidents replay from today’s race.

Seeing Leclerc retiring, Qin Miao shook his head feeling helpless, saddened for his friend and future teammate.

Why’s this kid so unlucky?

At least in previous seasons, he had the nickname Le the Fourth.

Although it didn’t sound nice, at least consistent top-four finishes per race, he was barely counted among the top drivers.

But this season even fourth was taken by Alonso.

How tragic.

And as Qin Miao pondered this silently, Hamilton also came up.

After greeting each other, they sat down together to watch the race replay.

When seeing both Alpine drivers retiring together, Qin Miao subtly glanced at his teammate Hamilton beside him.

Old Man noticed Qin Miao’s gaze but didn’t comment further, just said: "The crash was too severe, Alpine’s budget cap might have about 1/10 spent on repairs."

Qin Miao nodded knowingly: "Who knows, maybe this is just the fate of the French team."