How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 696 - 292: Qin Miao Chases with DRS Like a Little Train (6K, Extra Update 12/20)

Libao asked worriedly, "There are still sixteen laps until the end of the race, Qin Miao's set of yellow tires is meant for chasing the cars ahead. Can his set of yellow tires last until the end of the race?"

"That is indeed a concerning issue," Wang Yang nodded, beginning to worry for Qin Miao.

In contrast, Zhou Haoran crossed his arms and said with more confidence than the Mercedes strategy team, "Actually, there's no need to worry about that. Qin Miao's tire preservation ability is just as strong as his defensive ability. I've checked Qin Miao's lap records since he entered F1.

Compared to other drivers, Qin Miao's lap time degradation is the slowest, even slower than Perez's.

This means that compared to other drivers, Qin Miao's tire degradation is slower.

If there are no surprises, this upcoming time period is when Qin Miao will push forward with full force to chase down his rivals." 𝑓𝓇𝘦ℯ𝘸𝘦𝑏𝓃𝑜𝘷ℯ𝑙.𝑐𝑜𝓂

During the tire change, the team slightly increased the intensity, but the left front tire changer made an error during the tire change, failing to install the new tire immediately after removing the old one.

They had to remove it slightly before installing it correctly.

This mistake resulted in a 3.4-second pit stop for Qin Miao.

Of course, this was just a slight increase in intensity, and when Qin Miao rejoined, he was not behind Norris but 4 seconds ahead of him.

This was as estimated by the team's strategy group, except the original 2-second gap with Sainz turned into 3 seconds.

Of course, Qin Miao took the team's mistake in stride, thinking that as long as he didn't lose position, the time might be recoverable if there were no blockages from other drivers.

On the 41st lap, Qin Miao spent one lap bringing his medium tires up to the optimal working temperature and reducing the gap with Sainz.

At this point, the time gap between him and Sainz was 1.4 seconds.

After crossing the finish line of the 41st lap, Qin Miao began to launch his attack on Sainz ahead of him.

Sainz, noticing Qin Miao's pit stop and drop behind him, was eager to defend.

However, he noticed that Qin Miao, now behind him, didn't slow down like other drivers to charge the battery but instead sped up to chase Ricardo ahead.

Sainz knew that not only were Qin Miao's tires newer, but he was also on medium tires, and given the name Qin Miao, Sainz didn't think he had any chance of winning if he defended in the usual way.

So he could only adopt other defensive strategies, such as the dreaded DRS train which all midfield drivers hated.

At this point, Sainz was only 1.5 seconds behind Ricardo ahead.

On the 42nd lap, Qin Miao had already chased into the DRS zone behind Sainz, but seeing Ricardo ahead of Sainz, Qin Miao gritted his teeth in frustration.

Goddamn, it's another DRS train!

By this time, the race was in its final stages, and Qin Miao couldn't pit for an undercut like when encountering the Red Bull's DRS train.

So facing another DRS train, all Qin Miao could do was force an overtake.

After checking his battery level, Qin Miao asked on the team radio: "How's my fuel situation?"

"Temperature is normal, and you have about 1.7 laps of extra fuel so you can do whatever you need to." Frankie naturally understood Qin Miao's dilemma and provided him with the information he most wanted to know.

Once Qin Miao got the information he wanted, he knew his limits roughly.

On the 43rd lap, Qin Miao's battery was at 90%.

Although not at 100%, Qin Miao felt it was enough.

The medium tires were enough to compensate for the 10% battery shortfall.

After crossing the finish line, Qin Miao started closing in quickly on Sainz.

However, Qin Miao did not attempt to use full battery on the start/finish straight.

Compared to the DRS zone between T11 and T12, the start/finish straight's DRS zone was not long enough.

So Qin Miao used most of his battery in the first and second timing sectors to stay behind Sainz, not allowing him to increase the gap.

Sainz, of course, also realized that the distance between him and Qin Miao was too close.

Sainz knew clearly that Qin Miao was likely preparing to make a move on him this lap.

Considering Qin Miao's tires and the Mercedes car's performance, in the second timing sector's DRS zone, Qin Miao really had the possibility to overtake both him and Ricardo ahead.

Sainz naturally wouldn't be caught without resistance, or he wouldn't have started chasing down Ricardo in front of him once Qin Miao appeared behind him, forming a DRS train to defend against Qin Miao.

So from the exit of T9 to the middle of T11, Sainz took the defensive line, and Ricardo ahead also noticed the threat behind him.

Observing Sainz's moves, Ricardo proactively slowed down his pace.

Clearly wanting to continue providing Sainz with DRS and a slipstream.

Ricardo hasn't been doing particularly well since switching to McLaren, and this race was one of the few occasions this season where he could run ahead of his teammate Norris.

So in the face of Qin Miao behind him, Ricardo didn't want to easily give up his position.

As a result, the two of them effectively blocked both of Qin Miao's exit lines.