How Did I Become an F1 Driver?

Chapter 958 376: Mercedes Team's Root Cause

Basically, if you can reach halfway, it's considered to be a race with a large turnout.Should I say, as expected of Great America?

There's not much to say about the first day's two practice sessions. With Qin Miao's adaptability to race cars, he quickly found the settings that made driving most comfortable for him.

However, a minor headache for Hamilton was that after the car upgrades, there was indeed a significant improvement in straight-line speed.

Acceleration also met the team's expectations. Now, in the third DRS zone at Miami Circuit, the W13 can hit a top speed of 329 km/h in qualifying mode.

But the floor's performance was a bit too excellent.

With a heavy fuel load, the car was particularly bouncy at the end of the straight.

Even more so than before.

As a result, when there were 10 minutes left on the clock in the first practice, Qin Miao, who had completed all the testing tasks, was called back to the pits. When the second practice began, Qin Miao's floor was switched back to the original one.

After putting on the old floor, the porpoising in heavy fuel mode was indeed less lively than with the new floor.

However, Qin Miao's lap times weren't faster than with the new floor, and were even a bit slower.

So after the second practice concluded, the team reinstalled the new floor parts onto Qin Miao's car.

Anyway, Qin Miao is young and can withstand the car's wear and tear.

It's just that when this issue was handed to Hamilton, he hesitated a bit.

The car's porpoising did bring him considerable trouble, but as a professional driver, Hamilton doesn't allow his speed to slow down when it comes to balancing speed and his physical safety.

Ultimately, Hamilton chose not to switch to the old floor and continued with the new one.

It's worth mentioning that during practice, Hamilton tried the method Qin Miao shared with him last week about setting the brake balance toward the rear wheels.

Indeed, using this method greatly alleviated the car's oversteering problem, and the car's overall speed gained some improvement.

However, Hamilton found that this approach had certain drawbacks, mainly that it made attacking and defending during the race a bit challenging, with no advantage in corner entry.

Thinking about this, Hamilton suddenly recalled this season, Qin Miao's overtaking strategy wasn't like the previous season, attacking within corners. Qin Miao relied more on his precision in corner entry, tightly holding onto the slipstream of the car ahead in the early corners, then using DRS to overtake the car in front within the DRS zones.

At the start, Hamilton thought this was due to a decline in Qin Miao's personal skills. In retrospect, Hamilton realized he was gravely mistaken.

In summary, the upgrades of these two components on the Mercedes did indeed have a positive effect, at least for Qin Miao. Although the average lap time can't be said to catch up with the Red Bull and Ferrari ahead, it did widen the time gap with the McLaren behind.

Soon, the three practice sessions ended smoothly in orderly training.

The weather in Miami has been nice these days, and this Saturday was no exception.

Having completed the third practice, Qin Miao, waiting for the race to start, was soaking in the team's enclosed tire storage area.

Only, unlike ordinary people, the tub in which Qin Miao was soaking was filled with ice cubes.

This was to cool Qin Miao's body before the race started.

Today, the air temperature is 33°C, and the track temperature is 52°C.

For drivers who need to drive at high intensity in the car for long periods, this temperature is definitely a severe test.

The driver's body temperature can reach at least 40°C.

Combined with the barely functional ventilation system within the monocoque, the entire race process is akin to a sauna.

So, for Qin Miao to have better stamina and clarity during the race, the team had him soak in an ice bath before the race.