After completing a task, Qin Miao got a new test task.
Qin Miao also searched for a tuning setting that was comfortable enough for her to use through testing again and again.
The day's work ended quickly. Qin Miao's results in the first and second practice sessions were relatively average. He ranked 6th in the first practice and 16th in the second practice.
But the results of the practice sessions are just for fun. Neither the audience nor the technicians of the major teams pay too much attention to it.
After a day of rest, Qin Miao devoted himself to work again after the regular meeting the next day.
At the beginning of the third practice, Qin Miao ran another long distance. This time, Qin Miao used a set of training that had been temporarily determined to be used in the main competition.
The results obtained have made great progress compared with yesterday's results in the Q1 stage, and the degree of tire wear has been further reduced.
Looking at Qin Miao's tire wear report, Toto even bluntly said that if the rules allowed, Qin Miao could even run the entire race on hard tires on any F1 track.
Of course, it is a pity that the FIA rules do not allow this to happen.
It is worth mentioning that Qin Miao only used four sets of tires in the three practice sessions.
One set of hard tires for the first practice, one set of medium tires for the second practice, and two sets of soft tires for the third practice.
In fact, Qin Miao originally wanted to use only a set of soft tires in the third practice.
But Toto stopped him.
You're not a hamster. You can't take these tires home with you. And if you really want to hide your lap time, it's more straightforward to do it directly on the engine. Just set the system and turn the power on. Just reduce the output a little.
In the first half of the third practice, I confirmed my tuning settings, and in the second half, I simulated the rankings in the light-load fuel mode.
Qin Miao ran a time of 1 minute 15 seconds 911. This result can only be said to be okay, but not very good.
The final results of the third practice are of little reference to other teams, but they are still of some reference to Qin Miao.
Because Hamilton also restricted his engine in the last practice session of the third practice before running the qualifying test, and the restriction level was the same as Qin Miao's, which was 7%.
After finishing the race, Qin Miao's qualifying time was 0.219 seconds slower than Hamilton's.
To be honest, this gap is still a bit big. Of course, it is also possible that Qin Miao is not that familiar with this kind of track with many medium and low speed corners.
But Qin Miao at least knew that there was still a big gap between himself and Hamilton.
At the end of the third practice session, while the team was replacing Qin Miao's qualifying gear and race-specific gearbox, Qin Miao was alone in his lounge watching the video of his and Hamilton's lap test.
Although Qin Miao's utilitarianism is not strong, and Qin Miao can be considered relatively stoic in this paddock, Qin Miao's love for racing and driving racing cars cannot be faked.
There are many competitors in the Mercedes team, and the drivers often fight to the death, but the drivers' real opponent is actually only one person, and that is their teammates.
Because the vehicle performance of each team is different, and only your teammate has the same performance as the car you drive, the comparison between you and your teammate is the most direct and accurate.
Now that Qin Miao was beaten violently by Hamilton, Qin Miao would naturally be a little unconvinced, and naturally wanted to find out where the gap between himself and Hamilton was.
In fact, if Hamilton's throttle and brake data were obtained, Qin Miao's comparison would be much more intuitive. However, these data are only transparent to the team, but opaque to other drivers. These data are commercial secrets to a certain extent.
Qin Miao is not a shameless person, so he did not go to Hamilton or the team to apply. He just relied on the public in-car videos and his familiarity with Mercedes-Benz cars to hone his skills.
Naturally, the final progress was not so ideal, and Qin Miao was also a little overwhelmed.
But just as Qin Miao continued to struggle, the door of Qin Miao's lounge was suddenly pushed open from the outside.
Qin Miao took off his headphones and looked over, and saw Hamilton sticking his head outside the door.
"I knocked on the door, but you didn't hear it," Hamilton explained.
Qin Miao did not shy away from Hamilton. He paused the scene of comparing two Mercedes-Benzes, opened the door and said to Hamilton: "Come in and sit down."
Naturally, Hamilton also saw the picture on Qin Miao's laptop. As he entered the door, he asked curiously: "What are you looking at?"
Qin Miao turned his laptop to Hamilton: "The in-car video of the two of us in simulated qualifying just now. I want to see how the 0.2 second gap between you and me is achieved."
Hamilton was surprised by Qin Miao's frankness, but when faced with Qin Miao's questions, Hamilton couldn't give an answer. After all, he had gone to participate in the event recording after the third practice and had just come back.
However, there is no way Hamilton can help Qin Miao solve the confusion he is currently encountering.
"wait for me a while."
After finishing speaking, Hamilton opened the door of Qin Miao's lounge and poked his head out to his track engineer, who was looking down at the monitor in front of him in deep thought: "Pete, please send me the simulation data of the qualifying session at the end of today's third practice session." Send a copy to Qin Miao's mailbox."
After hearing Hamilton's words, Peter glanced at him in surprise, but Peter did not question Hamilton's decision. He directly found the file on his computer, made a compressed package and passed the file through Mercedes' internal system. Sent to Qin Miao.
Qin Miao, who had been struggling for a while, happened to be the most itchy at this time, so when faced with the document sent to him by Hamilton, Qin Miao did not refuse, but after Hamilton sat back, Qin Miao still said sincerely. Say: "Thank you."
"I haven't found a chance to express my gratitude to you for helping me block Verstappen on the track. This little thing is nothing, and even if it didn't happen, I wouldn't mind giving it to you if you need it. The data is shared with you." Hamilton looked very generous, and his demeanor as a seven-time champion was undoubtedly evident.
Qin Miao didn't care about being polite to Hamilton at this moment. After dealing with it perfunctorily, Qin Miao hurriedly downloaded the compressed file in the mailbox, then decompressed the file, opened the throttle and brake data package, and compared her own data with Hamilton's. While comparing the data together, I also started playing the video I started researching early in the morning.
Qin Miao has indeed lost a lot of hair in this matter. Now that there are signs and opportunities to solve it, it becomes more urgent.
Qin Miao watched the one-minute-long video over and over again more than seven times before letting out a sigh of relief.
It's not that there's anything wrong with Qin Miao's operation, Qin Miao's problem lies in his exiting rhythm.
Qin Miao's accelerator exiting the corner was a little slower than Hamilton's, only about 0.05 seconds.
Qin Miao's timing of refueling is indeed not as good as Hamilton's. You may not be able to see the difference in one or two corners. After more corners, the speed difference between Qin Miao and Hamilton will be very obvious.
In addition, Qin Miao also has many details that are not as good as Hamilton's. These details are basically some tricks on the track, accumulated through competition experience. It is understandable that Qin Miao's ability in this aspect is not as good as Hamilton's.
After reading it, Qin Miao, who found the crux of the problem, lay down on the sofa in the lounge and let out a sigh of relief: "I feel comfortable~"
"What?" Hamilton's voice suddenly sounded.
After hearing this, Qin Miao was stunned for a moment, and then realized that Hamilton was still in his room. He patted his head with some annoyance. Qin Miao said with some embarrassment: "My fault, I just struggled with the problem on the track. I was so absorbed that I didn’t notice you, Lewis.”
"It doesn't matter."
"What do you want to drink? I have a drink in the refrigerator that my girlfriend prepared for me."
"No, you should know that we can't drink randomly." Hamilton decisively refused without thinking.
Qin Miao didn't force it. He took his thermos and took a sip of it comfortably before remembering that he hadn't asked Hamilton why he was here: "By the way, I haven't asked you why you came to me?"
"Oh, yes, I didn't bother you since I saw you were so absorbed. As time went by, I even forgot about it. The main reason I came to see you this time was because we will have a small Vlog arranged by the team later. Originally, this video was shot It belongs to Toto and I, but I think you need more exposure than Toto, so I wanted to ask if you are interested?"
Hamilton now also knows about the weird contract signed between Qin Miao and Mercedes. When he first learned about it, he really didn't understand why Qin Miao avoided something like the plague that could increase his popularity.
But adhering to the attitude of seeking common ground while reserving differences, Hamilton did not delve into it.
It's just that Hamilton still feels a certain degree of gratitude to Qin Miao at this moment, so he also wants to give Qin Miao a hand outside the court.
Hamilton still has some experience in managing fans and how to increase fan stickiness.
But what Hamilton didn't expect was that Qin Miao directly refused: "I'll forget it, qualifying will be held later, and I have to make adjustments during this time. After all, there are still three races above my head, so I won't be able to run well." The Sword of Damocles hangs in the air and will be kicked out of Mercedes, so there is no room for sloppiness.”
After hearing Qin Miao's reasons, Hamilton curled his lips in his heart.
It’s okay for you to fool other people with this excuse, but I’m not an outsider. You conquered the top management of Toto and Mercedes in the first race. The position of Mercedes’ second driver has already been decided, so what’s the point? The Sword of Morcris.
But since Qin Miao didn't want to go, Hamilton didn't force it.
After chatting with Qin Miao for a few more words, Hamilton left.
Qin Miao waited in the lounge until the qualifying match was about to begin.
When they arrived at the P room of the team, Qiu Meng and Boss Zhou had been waiting here for a while.
After blinking at his wife and nodding at Boss Zhou, Qin Miao gathered her thoughts and started preparations before the game.
After sorting out the equipment and getting into the car, he used the screen in front of his car to confirm the tires he was going to use later. After handling all the miscellaneous things, Qin Miao took advantage of the gap where the steering wheel of his car had not yet been connected. Miao reached out and added another buff to her racing car.
As for Qin Miao's pre-race preparations, Qin Miao's crew members have long been used to it. After all, Qin Miao did this before every race started when he was in F2.
But sometimes you really have to admire these metaphysical things, because sometimes these things are really useful.
Just like Qin Miao, when he was in F2, his car never had a mechanical failure. Even if there were some minor problems, they could be solved through remote settings from the podium.
After the preparations were completed, Qin Miao was waiting in the garage for the game to start.
"Radio test, can you hear me?"
"Can."
"Okay, Qin Miao, the probability of rain in this game is 20%. The probability of rain is very low, so you don't have to worry about rain."
"receive."
“However, the weather is a bit cold and the tires will heat up very slowly. The team recommends that you do an extra warm-up lap. However, due to the weather and the fact that we have upgraded the cooling system during the offseason, you don’t have to worry about the car. will overheat and you can keep the engine revving high for a long time.
That's all, Good hunting. "
…
At the 14th minute of qualifying Q1, Qin Miao was also released by the team.
However, it had only been two minutes since Qin Miao had finished his first warm-up lap. When he was about to start sprinting in the second warm-up lap, a red flag appeared on the track.
Because Tsunoda made a mistake and crashed at the two combined turns T14 and T15.
After the brief yellow flag, the red flag was immediately shown.
As the rookie driver who performed best in Bahrain besides Qin Miao, Tsunoda's mistake surprised many people.
After driving the car back to the maintenance area and parking it, Qin Miao watched the replay of the scene.
Tsunoda's impact directly destroyed the rear spoiler of a gearbox and the rear suspension, and the floor should also be damaged.
The F1 bottom plate is a single piece of carbon fiber, so if Tsunoda's bottom plate is damaged, even if only a small piece is damaged, then basically the entire bottom plate will have to be replaced.
If nothing else goes wrong, repairs will start at US$1.5 million, and there is no cap. If the engine breaks down due to this, the cost may be doubled.
Three minutes later, Qin Miao, who moved his body again, drove onto the track again.
Qin Miao's speed after the first lap was not outstanding, 1 minute, 15 seconds and 119 seconds, temporarily ranking first. However, as Hamilton and Verstappen exerted their strength, Qin Miao's results quickly reached the third position. And some trends continue to fall.
When Qin Miao returned to the maintenance area to prepare, Qin Miao's position had fallen to seventh.
For Mercedes, such results are absolutely unacceptable.
However, Qin Miao also started slowly in the first qualifying match and did not become more serious until Q3.
In the end, Qin Miao's last lap of Q3 just moved his position forward, and he advanced to Q2 in fifth place.
Qin Miao encountered traffic problems in the Q2 stage, and Sainz blocked his driving route slightly. Therefore, his results in the first lap were not good, and Qin Miao was even squeezed out of the promotion zone.
However, after Qin Miao put on a new set of soft tires, he still advanced to Q3 in sixth place.
In the Q3 stage, Qin Miao started his first flying lap using a set of soft tires used in Q1. This time, he mainly wanted to achieve a guaranteed result, and ended up in seventh place.
With about four minutes left before the clock stopped in Q3 of qualifying, Qin Miao drove out of the pit area and prepared to start his last flying lap of this qualifying race.
ps. I'm so angry... Arrow's crappy car. (End of chapter)
