How Did I Become an F1 Driver?

Chapter 953 375: Letting Bygones Be Bygones

Hamilton thoughtfully nodded and finally said to Qin Miao seriously, "This conversation has been very enlightening for me, thanks a lot for your generosity. However, I'm still quite curious, and I'm sure I'm not the only one. Why do your tires last so long?"Facing this common question, Qin Miao smiled and shrugged, "Sorry, Lewis, I really can't explain this to you guys—it's entirely a driver's instinct. I just do it naturally whenever I want."

Hamilton stood up with a smile, "Oh, come on, I don't believe you. You must be hiding something."

After saying that, Hamilton waved to Qin Miao, "But I won't push further. I've got a meeting soon, you carry on with your work, and I shouldn't interrupt you any longer."

Qin Miao nodded helplessly, feeling that he couldn't quite explain the situation clearly to them.

After Hamilton left, Qin Miao leaned back in his chair with his hands on his head, turned to look at Hamilton's telemetry data on his computer screen, and quietly chose to delete it.

It's noteworthy that in the post-race team meeting, Allison happened to bring up the issue that Qin Miao and Hamilton discussed during their chat.

In fact, it was not an issue discovered during their own testing, but rather one found by observing the Ferrari and Red Bull cars' posture during corner entry and exit throughout the race.

Ferrari was relatively fine; their remarkable competitiveness this season is mainly due to the new engine introduced by Binotto.

Ferrari this season is somewhat like Mercedes in the past few seasons.

What truly caught Allison's attention, however, was that Red Bull's car showed hardly any changes in the nose angle during braking into and out of corners.

In contrast, during high-speed braking points, the center of gravity of Mercedes cars shifts forward, causing the nose angle to tilt downward.

Simply put, the front suspension gets compressed due to braking force, which disrupts the aerodynamic shape of the front wing, reduces downforce, increases braking distance, and diminishes the aero package's performance during corner entry, lowering the car's grip.

Recollecting the issue Qin Miao had reported to them some time ago, the team now considers it a crucial point. The upcoming primary upgrades will revolve around the front wing, while also focusing on suspension issues.

Of course, upgrades to the new floor and side pods intake, already in preparation and development for weeks, are set to be ready before the Miami Grand Prix.

These two upgrades have two main objectives: one, to improve the sealing of the floor, making the airflow beneath the car more contained, so the floor's downforce can better counter the rear suspension, reducing porpoising frequency.

On the other hand, the side pod intake will further reduce its size while channeling more airflow towards the rear diffuser area.

This gives a greater straight-line speed advantage without worrying about engine overheating issues.

After several races, Mercedes has discovered a significant improvement in engine durability compared to last season.

Its high-temperature operational stability is also impressive, allowing for a further reduction of the car's frontal area.

Even with reduced airflow from the intake, the engine can operate normally during the main race.

However, the design of the Mercedes engine intake conflicts somewhat with those of other teams.

The Red Bull's intake design resembles a horizontal line in Chinese from the front, while Mercedes's resembles the Arabic numeral 1.

Most other teams have intake designs like the English letter D.

It's fair to say the designs of these two teams are each more extreme than the other.

Currently, Qin Miao can't be certain what specific effects these two upgrades might bring, but undeniably, he is quite anticipatory of whether the team, empowered by his skills, will surprise him.

After the meeting, Qin Miao flew back to Monaco that day.

With some rare downtime, Qin Miao couldn't just hang around the team factory.

So after finishing work, he went home once.

Comfortably spent two days at home.

During those two days, Qin Miao took the opportunity to have a meal with Leclerc.

Strictly speaking, last week's third place should have been Leclerc's, but due to his own mistake, he regrettably finished sixth.

If it were Qin Miao, he absolutely couldn't stand such a thing.

But when Qin Miao actually met Leclerc, he was surprised to find that Leclerc was quite calm.

Though it can't be said that he had no emotional reaction to his performance that day, when talking about it, Leclerc just sighed and then carried on with his activities.

It can only be said that while Leclerc's stability on the track is lacking, often making mistakes that shouldn't happen, at least his emotional regulation ability is commendable.

Time quickly moved to Wednesday, and after two days of rest, Qin Miao returned to the UK.