How Did I Become an F1 Driver?

Chapter 1194: Chapter 452: Trick Moves (6K, Extra Update 1/19)

"Understood. Given the current track conditions, it’s not suitable for practice anymore, so come back." Frankie hurriedly said.

He was really worried that Qin Miao might have another incident on the track.

"Okay."

Despite Qin Miao’s mistake on the track this time, which made all Mercedes team staff break out in cold sweat,

for the spectators on-site and fans watching this practice session through various channels, seeing F1 racing in such heavy rain was a rare opportunity, let alone watching F1 cars drift on the track.

They had never seen such a scene.

So when Qin Miao’s car returned to the Mercedes team paddock, the crowd gave Qin Miao extremely enthusiastic cheers and applause.

Watching Qin Miao, who got out of the car and waved to the spectators at the practice session, Toto asked Elliott beside him, "Do you think it’s possible that Qin Miao, who never really liked rain battles, suddenly went on the track for a lap just to drift on it?"

Elliott was analyzing Qin Miao’s telemetry data from his laps and was taken aback by Toto’s question. After thinking for a moment, he said uncertainly, "It’s probably not likely, right?"

Seeing Qin Miao finish greeting the audience and heading back, Toto said, "Who knows, maybe only he knows his true intentions."

...

The only highlight in the early part of the first practice was Qin Miao.

In the 50 minutes after Qin Miao returned, no other drivers went out for practice, still due to the same problem, the track was too wet.

As a result, all the broadcast footage in the early part of the first practice was related to Qin Miao, and even his drift was replayed in slo-mo at least seven times in the broadcast.

Subsequently, most of the broadcast focused on the rain on the track, the fans by the track, and the drivers’ conditions inside the team paddocks.

Of course, the happiest were Qin Miao and Mercedes’ sponsors. Although the attention from practice sessions doesn’t match that of races and qualifying, the large F1 audience base ensured that even a practice session had no fewer than 50,000 viewers worldwide.

In front of these 50,000 people, at least the car without breaking down was shown for over ten minutes, and during these ten minutes, these viewers would mostly keep watching, unlike an advertisement they’d watch with disdain and try to switch channels.

In short, winning big!

It wasn’t until 15 minutes before the practice ended that track conditions improved slightly.

Drivers all left their paddocks, driving their cars onto the track for testing.

At this time, drivers had different tire choices, some opting for full wet tires like Qin Miao, but most were using intermediate tires.

However, after getting on the track, they were still sliding, mainly at corners like T8 and T9, while T7, where Qin Miao drifted, was relatively stable.

They are all F1 drivers; although no one turns a slide into a personal show like Qin Miao, they managed to easily bring their cars back from the brink of losing control.

The worst they did was drive onto the grass at the track edge, almost like rally drivers.

However, overall weather conditions in the first practice remained poor, so many drivers didn’t stay long on track, most running only seven or eight laps.

The same problem persisted; in such conditions, collecting any useful data for car setup was almost impossible.

In the end, when the first practice concluded, Brother Tou achieved the fastest lap of the practice session.

The old veteran has his own unique understanding of Suzuka Circuit, especially when the lap times aren’t fast...

Before the practice ended, everyone returned to the track for starting practice.

After all, during a normal Grand Prix weekend, the only distractions-free times for starting practice are just before the end of practice or when leaving the pit lane.

With Qin Miao’s starting ability, he normally wouldn’t join the starting practice crowd, but today was special due to heavy rain.

Opportunities to practice starts in such conditions are rare, so the team called Qin Miao out for starting practice.

The starting practice went smoothly without issues, but the problem occurred when Mick crashed during the in-lap...

Originally, Mick had gradually adapted to the F1 race rhythm in the second half of the season. Although he couldn’t score like his teammate occasionally, he was getting used to the F1 scene, and his crash frequency had significantly dropped.

Last week at the Singapore Grand Prix, Mick completed the first round of contract extension talks with the Haas Team, with both sides expressing initial intent to continue cooperation, and the second round of talks was scheduled for Austin. Hopefully, he could stay another year with Haas Team.

However, this crash might directly cost Mick Schumacher his F1 seat, especially since it was such a low-level mistake, not even during practice but in the in-lap after practice.