How Did I Become an F1 Driver?

Chapter 1163 - 440: Three Phrases to Infuriate Leclerc (6K, Extra Update 9/17)

Lap 12, Sainz overtakes Norris ahead to move into fifth, just behind Gasly.Meanwhile, Vettel is forced to retire at the trackside due to an ERS failure, prompting the deployment of a virtual safety car.

This actually isn’t an optimal pit stop window, so no drivers opted for a tire change at this point.

Lap 20, most drivers’ pit window is around lap 20, so drivers began to pit for tire changes one after another, and the three DRS trains on the track disbanded during this time.

Qin Miao’s window for the medium tires is lap 35, so Qin Miao can continue running comfortably on the track for now.

After the drivers ahead of Qin Miao pitted for tire changes, the track ahead cleared, giving Qin Miao over 6 seconds of clean air to run his own lap times.

Lap 30, Sainz, who was also on mediums like Qin Miao, couldn’t hold on any longer on the track, and to prevent an overcut from Qin Miao behind him, Sainz pitted for soft tires.

After switching to soft tires, Sainz came out 1.4 seconds behind Perez, who was still on that set of hard tires.

Apparently, Perez executed an undercut on Sainz.

It’s notable that when Perez pitted, there was almost a 4-second gap between him and Sainz, which highlights Perez’s impressive tire management and speed.

A long stint gave him a 5.4-second advantage.

However, Ferrari didn’t feel too pressured or nervous, because Perez was on old hard tires while Sainz had fresh soft tires.

Lap 31, Sainz on the new soft tires overtook Perez easily.

The overtake wasn’t even at T1 but at T2.

This had nothing much to do with engine power, purely a demonstration of tire grip.

Finally, on lap 36, Qin Miao, who stayed on the track for an extra lap, chose to pit for a tire change.

Despite running 36 laps on a set of medium tires, before pitting, Qin Miao managed to set three green sectors on his last unabated lap.

This scene left Five-Star Sports commentator Zhou Haoran stunned.

After all, among the three commentators, it was mostly him who closely monitored these data.

"Qin Miao just managed to set three green sectors," Zhou Haoran said.

Watching Qin Miao pit, Bing subconsciously said, "With Qin Miao’s ability and speed, isn’t setting three green sectors quite normal for him?"

Zhou Haoran added, "He set those with that set of medium tires that have already done 36 laps..."

Bing: ...

Fei: ...

"Although we know Qin Miao’s tire management capability is excellent, he has quite the reputation as a tire management master among the domestic fan community. I sometimes wonder if Pirelli really, as the rumors suggest, provides Qin Miao with specially tweaked tire compounds."

...

The set of medium tires that Qin Miao ran for 36 laps was finally removed and replaced with a brand-new set of soft tires.

With 17 laps remaining in the race, Qin Miao, with his tire management ability, could maintain a very respectable speed to complete the whole race effortlessly on these soft tires.

The tire change took 2.4 seconds, and the team, besides focusing on car development, had recently spent a lot of time training the pit crew, significantly improving tire change efficiency.

Coming out of the pits, Qin Miao ended up right between Sainz and Perez.

Behind Perez in the DRS zone was Hamilton, Qin Miao’s teammate.

The current standings are as follows:

1: Verstappen

2: Leclerc

3: Sainz

4: Qin Miao

5: Perez

6: Hamilton

7: Ricardo

8: Norris

9: Gasly

10: De Vries

Although it seems Qin Miao still has a chance to chase down Verstappen and Leclerc, that’s only if Qin Miao can overtake Sainz.

In reality, Qin Miao’s only real opportunity in this race is to contest the podium with Sainz.

Because the gap between Verstappen and Leclerc is already close to 20 seconds.

And the gap between Sainz and Leclerc is also 20 seconds.

So, at most, Qin Miao can just touch the podium unless the engines of the two cars ahead explode right then and there, otherwise Qin Miao has no chance of moving further up.

And if you’re talking about Ferrari’s engine, there’s indeed a chance of sudden failure, but in the second half of the 2022 season, Honda made significant improvements in engine reliability, and since then, Honda engines haven’t had reliability issues during the race.

Lap 46, with 7 laps remaining in the race.

Qin Miao caught up to Sainz in the DRS zone behind him.

Before this, Qin Miao had tried to attack Sainz ahead of him, but today, Ferrari’s car was indeed faster than Mercedes.

And Sainz using the same pit strategy as Qin Miao has indeed diminished Qin Miao’s strength in tire management considerably.

So Qin Miao could only barely stick behind Sainz for now.

However, this situation might gradually improve as the race progresses.

Because as the race continues, Sainz’s soft tires will inevitably suffer more wear.