How Did I Become an F1 Driver?

Chapter 1188: Chapter 450: Overtaking

"Ah, I’m jealous!" Qin Miao teased.

At this moment, Leclerc’s eyes almost rolled to the sky, but he couldn’t retort, so he could only curse his bad luck silently in his heart.

After joking with his friend for a bit and giving a hug, Qin Miao went to pack up his things.

He reinstalled the steering wheel back into the car, completed the weigh-in, then took off his helmet to wipe his sweat.

Very soon, it was time for the post-race interview session, with Hamilton being the first driver to be interviewed today.

The influence of the seven-time world champion is still evident here. As Hamilton stepped onto the podium, Qin Miao could hear the enthusiastic cheers from the audience.

However, upon hearing this cheering, Qin Miao laughed and leaned over to Leclerc, saying with pride, "The cheers for Lewis from the live audience aren’t as loud as the ones for me!"

Leclerc: ...

Are you a kid? Why are you so happy about this?

Besides, this is practically your home turf, with more than half the audience being your compatriots, and you are the race winner. It would be unusual if their cheers for you were any quieter!

Soon, after Hamilton’s interview ended, it was Qin Miao’s turn.

Even before Qin Miao appeared fully on the broadcast screen, the audience on-site, having seen Qin Miao move after whispering with Leclerc, began to roar.

Quickly, the chaotic sounds merged into a wave of chants: "Qin Miao! Qin Miao! Qin Miao! Qin Miao!"

With clear and articulate Mandarin, the shouts were overwhelming like a tidal wave, and Qin Miao couldn’t even hear what the host in front of him was asking for a moment.

The host also knew that in the face of such cheers from the live audience, even talking face-to-face might not guarantee hearing the other’s words clearly, so he appropriately kept silent.

Seeing this, Qin Miao naturally smiled and waved to the fans on-site, which made the cheers and shouts for him grow even louder.

However, unlike the cheers abroad, which can last for half a minute or a minute once they start, the domestic fans are still influenced by the doctrine of the mean, and soon the cheers on-site settled, lasting only about a dozen seconds.

Only then could Qin Miao’s interview continue.

The questions the host asked in this post-race interview naturally focused on Qin Miao’s late pit stop today.

After all, if it weren’t for that late pit stop waiting for the safety car, considering Leclerc and Hamilton’s pace ahead of Qin Miao and the fact that the DRS wasn’t activated by the race officials.

It would have been almost impossible for Qin Miao to overtake these two at the Marina Bay circuit.

So it can be said that Qin Miao’s victory in this race was entirely due to that safety car.

Qin Miao could only attribute it to his good luck and his sudden inspiration.

As for the matter of disobeying the team’s orders during the race...

It’s all about the result, not the process.

No loss but a gain, so it doesn’t count as disobeying the team’s orders; it can only be said that Qin Miao had a burst of inspiration!

After the interview, back in the drivers’ lounge post-race, Hamilton puzzledly asked the question again.

Facing his teammate, Qin Miao had nothing to hide, so he explained the truth to the other party.

After listening, Hamilton could only shake his head helplessly, saying that Qin Miao got incredibly lucky for such a thing to happen.

But in reality, the possibility of such an occurrence is very small, not nonexistent.

After all, besides Qin Miao, McLaren’s two drivers also chose to delay their pit stops.

Their thoughts on the track were likely different from Qin Miao’s, but McLaren still preferred to let their two drivers persist on the track.

Perhaps at this intersection between intermediate tires and slick tires, a technically poorer driver might make a mistake due to the warming of the slick tires.

Anyway, due to internal turmoil at the beginning of the season, McLaren’s car performance wasn’t particularly good, and the number of points their two drivers could secure was very limited. Ricardo might not even score points.

Thus, this gamble posed no loss for McLaren; after all, finishing 11th or 20th makes no essential difference—they both don’t result in any points.

On the contrary, if they won the gamble, they’d profit massively without any point loss if they lost. So why not take the chance?

Even if they lost the gamble, it would just look a bit worse in terms of results. With McLaren’s performance this season, they’re no longer concerned about reporting to the board; anyway, McLaren’s board won’t directly cut the entire McLaren F1 department.

After chatting with Hamilton for a while, Leclerc also came over.

Seeing him, Qin Miao handed Leclerc his water and towel. Waiting for Leclerc to start wiping his sweat, Qin Miao curiously asked, "At the start of the race when I was pressuring you from behind, why did it seem like you weren’t affected at all?"

Leclerc paused his actions and then smiled, "Actually, there was some pressure, but your attacks felt a bit too weak and powerless to me. Handling it wasn’t too difficult."

"Speak plainly," Qin Miao crossed his arms.

"The Marina Bay circuit favors defense, and throughout the process, I felt the pressure you gave me wasn’t particularly big. I was confident I could break away from you, so I didn’t feel you exerted any significant pressure on me." Leclerc shrugged, seeming nonchalant.