How Did I Become an F1 Driver?

Chapter 932 369: The First Yellow Flag

Qin Miao secured fourth place with a time 0.09 seconds faster than Hamilton.Surprisingly, McLaren, which performed poorly in the first two races, quickly regained its form in the third race of the season, securing sixth and seventh in qualifying.

Meanwhile, Haas, which made it to Q3 in the first two races, returned to its rightful position.

Leclerc shook off the slump from the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix and took pole position for the Australian Grand Prix.

Although both the Australian and Saudi Arabian Grands Prix are high-speed tracks, Jeddah Circuit in Saudi Arabia has more corners, whereas Albert Park in the Australian Grand Prix features more straights and DRS zones, allowing Ferrari to fully exploit the maximum performance of its engine developed a season in advance.

As a result, in qualifying, Leclerc's speed was noticeably faster than Red Bull's.

After the race, Qin Miao went to weigh in and, through a glass wall, watched Leclerc and others being interviewed on the track. There was no joy in his eyes after defeating his teammate, only envy as he looked at the track.

What seemed inevitable last season now felt somewhat out of reach to him.

He shook his head to clear his chaotic thoughts and turned to focus on his work.

At least Qin Miao now had something to look forward to.

In the Bahrain and Saudi races, the average lap speed gap in qualifying between Mercedes, Ferrari, and Red Bull was about 0.6 seconds.

In this race, excluding Hamilton, Qin Miao's lap speed was only 0.4 seconds slower than the average of the leading group ahead.

Although Qin Miao spent a long time helping the team develop the new season's car, most of his work was done on the simulator, using its feedback to inform the team about the impact of their designs on the car's overall aerodynamics and how he felt driving it.

As a result, Qin Miao was unaware that this rear diffuser upgrade would not be long-lasting.

This means that the improvement of the Mercedes car in the future may not be as immediate as the effect of this rear diffuser.

The rear diffuser actually solved the problem of excess rear downforce on the W13, alleviating a burden on the W13, thus offering a significant speed boost. Strictly speaking, this was the speed the W13 should have been achieving this season.

...

A night without words, the next day, race day.

Unlike the pre-race parade in the previous two races where they rode on truck trailers, this race's pre-race parade saw Qin Miao riding in an antique car.

Riding such a car has the advantage that you don't have to give interviews during the pre-race parade, as these antique cars typically only have two seats, one for the driver and one for the racer, leaving no space for reporters to interview the racer.

However, the pre-race parade can't just have drivers going around the track in silence, so the organizers still arranged for pre-race interviews, although because of vehicle constraints, it's not possible to interview everyone; usually, it's the pole position driver for that race who gets interviewed.

Thus, Leclerc sat in a four-seater antique car, with cameras in the front seat and Leclerc and a reporter in the back seat.

At this moment, Qin Miao was relatively relaxed, just needing to sit in the car and wave to the spectators on both sides of the track.

It's worth mentioning that while in China, they were still conducting mass COVID tests, abroad, they had completely opened up, highlighting a sense of freedom.

Therefore, the stands at Albert Park were almost full, and in the crowd, Qin Miao also spotted many fans wearing red caps and the white uniform of the Mercedes team.

And as Qin Miao drove past them, their cheers were louder than those of all the other spectators.

Qin Miao was quite moved, as these people hadn't left him even during challenging times.

However, where did this group get this picture of me with a wide grin???

Qin Miao recalled that he always managed his expressions well, so he shouldn't have smiled that broadly.

Nevertheless, Qin Miao pointed at those clearly international students with a "Husky pointing" gesture.

These people could tell that Qin Miao wasn't angry, which only spurred them on, making them wave Qin Miao's photo more enthusiastically.

After this little interlude, the post-race parade concluded, and Qin Miao returned to the team area.

After changing into his racing gear and attending to personal matters, Qin Miao returned to the team pit.

At that point, Reyes and the others were still performing final checks on the car.

Qin Miao wasn't in a rush, grabbed a chair, and sat beside Frankie.

Seeing Qin Miao approach, Frankie made some space for him.

"The weather's nice today, and the track temperature is suitable, which will make tire management a bit easier. The team, following your input, has planned a one-stop strategy using soft and medium tires. However, this race is using C5 softs and C3 mediums, so if you choose a soft-medium one-stop strategy, based on the team's simulation, you might struggle with tire wear towards the end of the race."

Qin Miao nodded indifferently and said, "No problem, trust my tire management skills, I can handle it."

Seeing this, Frankie didn't continue the topic but switched subjects instead: "I know, given the current performance of the team's car, driving on the track might be a bit dull for you, but if you can keep the gap with the leading group within 17 seconds, they'll drop behind you after their pit stops. If you choose a medium-hard one-stop, you might be able to defend against them."