How Did I Become an F1 Driver?

Chapter 1104: Chapter 420: Ferrari’s Standard Procedure

Meanwhile, even though Mercedes noticed Ferrari’s actions, they weren’t in a rush at all.

Not to mention that Qin Miao’s lap times with the current set of soft tires were still stable, and even if Sainz, who had just exited the pit lane, was faster per lap, the 5.7-second advantage Qin Miao accumulated over 16 laps was enough for the Mercedes strategy team to temporarily lower their intelligence to the same level as Ferrari’s and make a mistake.

Even so, Qin Miao had sufficient time to maintain his lead after exiting the pit lane.

Moreover, after the last Grand Prix, Toto was quite strict with the team, making everyone nervous, so Qin Miao’s pit stop at lap 22 went flawlessly.

After coming out of the pit lane, Qin Miao’s position remained unchanged, as he was the last among the front-row drivers to pit.

Once Qin Miao came out, he was 1.7 seconds ahead of Leclerc.

After Sainz pitted, Leclerc’s pace was noticeably faster than Sainz, so upon exiting the pit lane, the car behind Qin Miao was Leclerc.

At this point, Leclerc had already pitted once, but like Sainz, he switched from medium tires to medium tires, which meant he needed to pit again.

Following this, Qin Miao’s pace noticeably decreased, and Leclerc caught up to Qin Miao and entered Qin Miao’s DRS zone.

It won’t be long before Leclerc begins his attack on Qin Miao.

Lap 24, an extraordinary scene unfolded on the track.

O’Kang, in eleventh place, firmly blocked all his teammate Alonso’s attack paths, allowing Ricardo, behind Alonso, to easily reach the perfect distance for attacking both, which didn’t bother O’Kang.

Then, Ricardo, amidst O’Kang’s defense against Alonso, overtook two cars at once, jumping from twelfth to tenth.

During the process, O’Kang had no intention to block Ricardo, as his attention was entirely focused on his teammate Alonso behind him.

Thus, Ricardo entered the points zone.

Sitting in the McLaren car, Ricardo was bewildered, having endured a string of bad luck after joining McLaren for nearly a season, only to suddenly find his fortune reversed today.

Alonso was utterly frustrated at this point.

Since the start of the race, he had attempted numerous attacks, but all of Alonso’s efforts were in vain.

If F1 drivers fear anything on the track, it’s being faster than the car ahead but unable to overtake for various reasons.

If this wasn’t painful enough, there’s another layer: the car ahead is your teammate, doubling the frustration.

This means the cars have the exact performance, and your superb attacking skills cannot capitalize when the vehicle performances are close.

This scenario is aptly described as "When frustration opens the door, frustration comes home."

The most astonishing part. freēwēbηovel.c૦m

Alonso reported this to Alpine, and Alpine decided not to interfere, allowing the two drivers to compete freely on the track.

Upon realizing this, Alonso laughed in disbelief.

Meanwhile, Qin Miao was overtaken by Leclerc on lap 30.

But everyone at Mercedes remained calm upon seeing Qin Miao overtaken, as the team intended for Qin Miao to run a 48-lap long stint on the track.

Being overtaken at this point was entirely fine for Qin Miao, as he was conserving his tires.

Even the usually sensational Five-Star Sports commentators were uncharacteristically calm this time, explaining to the viewers: "Qin Miao being overtaken at this point doesn’t matter much. Anyway, Qin Miao is on a one-stop strategy for this race, intending to use this set of tires for the whole race, while Leclerc and others will definitely have to pit again.

Then the 22-second time advantage will allow Qin Miao to complete the race with Ferrari unable to catch up."

Lap 32 saw other drivers pitting to switch to hard tires.

Though Qin Miao never considered switching to hard tires throughout the race, he still kept an eye on the lap speeds of other drivers who opted for hard tires.

Then Qin Miao was stunned to find his pace with the soft tires was about 1 minute 23 seconds per lap in heavy-fuel conditions, while medium tires were 1 minute 24 seconds, yet those drivers with hard tires saw their lap speed drop to 1 minute 26.

Bear in mind the race had already covered 32 laps, most cars had used more than half their fuel; the vehicles were at least 20 kilograms lighter compared to the start, which significantly impacts lap times.

Soon, Frankie also informed Qin Miao: "Qin Miao, based on our observations, hard tires are performing poorly, not suitable for the current track."

Qin Miao remained calm about this, having no intention to switch to hard tires.

Then at lap 40, Leclerc was summoned into the pits by Ferrari.

At the same time, Ferrari pulled out a brand new set of hard tires from the team pit box.

To note, Alfa Romeo and Alpine had already demonstrated to Ferrari that hard tires were unsuitable under current track conditions.