How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 675 - 285: Continuous Rain at the Turkish Grand Prix
At this moment, an option was presented to the Mercedes team strategy staff, with Verstappen behind Qin Miao having pitted, should Qin Miao pit as well?
They only had one lap to consider this issue and make a decision before Qin Miao pitted the next lap.
The good news is that Qin Miao, due to the time advantage created before pitting, faced the choice more calmly, whether it be for the Mercedes team or Qin Miao himself.
After all, even if he pits, Qin Miao would still have a time advantage over Verstappen once he comes out.
The Mercedes team actually leaned more towards having Qin Miao pit for a tire change.
Despite Qin Miao's current tires being in good condition, with the most worn right front tire just starting to show signs of the tread being smoothed out, the team still felt it would be safer for Qin Miao to pit for a tire change.
However, Qin Miao, being the driver, sometimes feels the car's handling better than the team's judgment, so the team consulted Qin Miao's intention.
"Do you want to come in?"
Qin Miao felt he could finish the race directly, but he truly wasn't sure whether he should pit.
So Qin Miao spoke honestly: "If the regulations don't require pitting once during rainy conditions, I feel I could finish the race on these tires.
But if you want me to pit now, I won't refuse."
Frankie, upon hearing Qin Miao's words, knew Qin Miao wanted them to help him make the decision, so Frankie quickly had a brief conversation with the team strategy staff, received their response, and then said over the team TR: "Okay, BOX, pit next lap."
"Okay."
On lap 38, Qin Miao chose to pit, swapping for brand new intermediate tires.
After coming out, Qin Miao was positioned behind Leclerc and ahead of Verstappen.
After all, Qin Miao and Verstappen pitted one after another, and no matter how extraordinary Verstappen was, he couldn't catch up the 5-second gap to Qin Miao in a single out lap.
Perez helped Verstappen block Hamilton behind him, also aiding Qin Miao.
But Red Bull had to act because Verstappen was too slow today.
After Qin Miao came out, he was 6 seconds behind Leclerc ahead and 4.5 seconds ahead of Verstappen behind, in a relatively comfortable position.
Now Qin Miao needed to study whether Leclerc ahead of him would choose to pit, and if Leclerc wanted to finish the race on his current intermediate tires, how Qin Miao could overtake him.
Qin Miao had guaranteed lap time speed in rainy conditions, but his overtaking ability was indeed mediocre, and he didn't dare to guarantee he could definitely overtake Leclerc ahead.
Of course, with twenty laps remaining until the end of the race, if Leclerc really didn't pit, Qin Miao still had plenty of time and opportunities to attempt overtaking Leclerc.
It's worth mentioning that in the same lap Qin Miao pitted, Vettel also chose to pit. 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺
However, unlike other drivers who pitted for intermediate tires, Vettel changed to slick tires after pitting.
So it was foreseeable that as Vettel came out of the pit lane, he began to slide all over.
Despite several corners on the track having developed racing lines, contrary to the Martin Team's expectations, although there were racing lines on the track, using slick tires resulted in Vettel's car sliding with no grip at all on the racing line.
Of course, for the Martin Team, this was just a gamble.
But they lost the gamble.
However, the failed gamble by the Martin Team sounded the alarm for all other teams that the current track conditions did not allow them to use slick tires.
Many teams, like the Martin Team, upon seeing the obvious racing lines on the track and wanting to have their drivers pit for slick tires, quickly dismissed their unrealistic thoughts.
