How Did I Become an F1 Driver?

Chapter 1105: Chapter 420: Ferrari’s Standard Procedure (2)

Yet despite this, Ferrari still called in Leclerc to switch to hard tires...

The Ferrari strategy group’s idea was simple. From practice, their data showed that the first ten laps on hard tires would be slightly slower than on medium tires, but after ten laps, the hard tires were consistently 0.2-0.4 seconds faster per lap than the mediums.

That would be Leclerc’s counterattack moment!

It’s safe to say, this is Ferrari—they didn’t consider the temperature issue during the race phase.

Currently, the track not only has cold winds but also occasional light rain in some areas, making the track temperature lower than the data they got during practice sessions.

So, after switching to hard tires, Leclerc couldn’t keep his position for even one lap and was immediately overtaken by the charging Verstappen behind him.

Although Verstappen, having just overtaken Leclerc, spun 360 degrees at Turn 4 on the track, allowing Leclerc to pass again.

But by lap 45, Verstappen reclaimed his position.

On the track, Leclerc had no room for resistance, getting effortlessly overtaken by Verstappen from behind.

Then, by lap 48, Ferrari realized that not only was Leclerc’s lap time slower than Verstappen’s, but it was also slower than Perez behind him.

However, Leclerc had just come out of the pits, so it wasn’t feasible to pit him again—such a loss would be too much.

Then the Ferrari team called Sainz into the pits to switch to soft tires.

To be honest, when Qin Miao heard about this, Qin Miao couldn’t help but start doubting whether Ferrari truly didn’t differentiate between the two drivers like they claimed, having no first or second driver.

To be honest, Qin Miao felt that Sainz was now Ferrari’s number one driver, while Leclerc was merely a tester helping Sainz avoid pitfalls.

After Sainz pitted, the driver behind Qin Miao became his teammate Hamilton.

Both Leclerc and Sainz pitted, switching tires and began their three-stop strategies.

At this point, despite Qin Miao’s lap times being slower than when the medium tires first came out of the pits, his speed remained extremely stable, continuously within the team’s expected pace.

Meanwhile, Verstappen in third was rapidly closing in on Hamilton in second, reducing the gap by 0.4 seconds per lap.

By this time, it was nearly Hamilton’s pit window. frёeωebɳovel.com

But considering Qin Miao was still running his long stint at the front.

Understanding that Qin Miao had a strong chance of winning with his tire management ability, Hamilton saw Verstappen closing in and asked the team if, at the current pace, Verstappen would threaten Qin Miao’s position.

The team responded truthfully: "If Qin Miao maintains his current pace without significant changes, Verstappen would reach the DRS zone behind Qin Miao by lap 64.

Then, Qin Miao would have only his defensive skills to rely on."

Hamilton didn’t deny Qin Miao’s formidable defensive skills. In private, Hamilton had once practiced attacking and defending with Qin Miao, and back then, Hamilton found himself almost doubting life due to Qin Miao’s defense.

It’s worth noting that their cars’ performance was equal at that time.

This naturally made defense easier for Qin Miao.

After that sparring session, Hamilton even had the illusion that if Qin Miao wanted, Hamilton might never break through Qin Miao’s defense.

But as Hamilton’s understanding of Qin Miao deepens, he gradually realizes that his original thought might not be an illusion...

Yet the current situation differs from the past, with Verstappen behind clearly faster than Qin Miao.

Even after deeply experiencing last season just how difficult overtaking is on the Hengelo circuit, Hamilton still worries that Qin Miao might not hold off Verstappen’s attack.

So he decided to help Qin Miao defend against Verstappen as much as possible, at least reducing Qin Miao’s pressure by the time Verstappen reaches him.

Thus, Hamilton deliberately missed his pit window, defending against Verstappen behind him with a set of worn-out medium tires for two laps, from lap 52 to lap 54, securing at least a 2-second advantage for Qin Miao.

Hamilton pitted only after getting overtaken by Verstappen.

With 16 laps remaining in the race, Hamilton naturally switched to soft tires.

Coming out of the pits, Hamilton found himself surrounded by clean air.

In front was Sainz, behind was Perez, and both drivers had more than a 5-second gap with Hamilton.

This was why Hamilton was willing to help Qin Miao defend against Verstappen; after all, even by doing so, Hamilton wouldn’t suffer a substantial speed loss.

After being overtaken by Verstappen, Qin Miao also received this news from the team via TR: "Hamilton helped you gain a 2-second time advantage from behind. Now it’s estimated Verstappen will enter the DRS zone behind you on the final lap. What’s the tire status now?"

Hearing the team’s report, Qin Miao was indeed a bit surprised. He genuinely didn’t expect Hamilton would help him during the race; originally, Qin Miao had readied his mind for a final lap duel with Verstappen, even keeping his ERS power consistently around 70%.

But Hamilton’s unexpected assistance caught Qin Miao off guard.

Actually, Qin Miao may have been overly protecting his tires. Simply put, the tire wear was less than Qin Miao had imagined.

Given the current tire wear, Qin Miao could speed up his lap times by another 0.2 seconds to finish the race.

Doing so, Verstappen wouldn’t catch up with Qin Miao by the end of the race.

Initially, Qin Miao entered a state of unity with man and car, not overthinking, simply running long stint laps in his most comfortable state and rhythm.

But after regaining focus, Qin Miao stopped conserving and picked up speed in single lap times.

This left Red Bull’s strategy group baffled because they realized that at Qin Miao’s current pace, even with the race ending, Verstappen might only close the gap between him and Qin Miao to 3 seconds.

He simply wouldn’t catch up to Qin Miao.

On lap 55, Ferrari called in Leclerc to switch to soft tires.

Ferrari finally realized Leclerc’s car wasn’t performing well on hard tires. Despite those tires having run only 15 laps, they still called him in.

This meant that Leclerc, who was initially leading, completely lost any chance to compete for the race win.

It’s worth noting that today, Ferrari’s car was the fastest among all the cars, without a doubt. fгee𝑤ebɳoveɭ.cøm

No one expected Ferrari to play such a good hand so poorly.

To put it bluntly, even if you put a dog in the Ferrari strategy group, the pit strategy arranged by that dog would be better than the current group of Ferrari’s drones.

In the later stages of the race, Verstappen in second furiously chased down Qin Miao in first, while Hamilton in fourth furiously chased Sainz in third.

However, by lap 60, the gap between Hamilton and Sainz ahead was only 2.7 seconds.

And there was still a 5-second gap between Verstappen and Qin Miao.

But Verstappen’s closing rate on Qin Miao wasn’t reaching 0.5 seconds per lap, and even if it did, by the end of the race, Verstappen would only just catch up to Qin Miao without enough time left to attack him.

Not to mention breaking through Qin Miao’s defense,

So at this moment, Verstappen never wished so much for Hamilton’s demise.

Without Hamilton’s two laps of defense, he might really have caught up to Qin Miao.