How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 802 - 324: Abu Dhabi Qualifying

Qimeng didn't even need to remind him, and the alarm he set didn't even go off.

Lying on the sofa in the lounge with his eyes closed, Qin Miao suddenly opened his eyes, his breathing steady as if he had fallen asleep.

After getting up, Qin Miao started putting on his racing suit.

Once fully equipped, Qin Miao moved his limbs around a bit, making sure there was no discomfort before opening the door to his lounge.

As Qin Miao was leaving, he happened to bump into Hamilton, who was also on his way out.

The two met but didn't speak, and strangely, there wasn't even a tension-filled atmosphere between them.

Hamilton even took the initiative to nod and smile at Qin Miao.

Qin Miao smiled back at Hamilton, but like Hamilton, he didn't say much. After smiling and greeting each other, he turned and headed downstairs to the team's paddock.

Sitting on a rest chair at the entrance of the team home, chatting with his colleagues, Barber quickly grabbed his backpack and followed Qin Miao after seeing him come out.

By this time, it was already past five in the afternoon local time in Abu Dhabi, and the sun was about to set. The air and track temperatures had noticeably dropped, but it was still quite comfortable.

And because Abu Dhabi is situated by the edge of the Persian Gulf, the air humidity was also considered pleasant at this time.

"The night's temperature is at 25℃, track temperature at 30℃, and air humidity at 54%, with a mild southeast wind," Barber said to Qin Miao as they walked to the team's paddock. "According to the strategy group's forecast, the track temperature during the Q1 phase should be around 27℃, while Q2 and Q3 should hover around 25℃."

All the way, Barber kept updating Qin Miao on the track conditions during the qualifying stage.

Although Qin Miao kept his eyes on the path ahead as he walked, he remembered everything Barber said.

Soon, the two arrived one after the other at the team's paddock.

It was only at this point that Qimeng got up from the lounge in the team home and started walking toward the paddock.

Taking the pre-race car inspection sheet handed by Reyes, Qin Miao confirmed the data and requirements on the sheet, then rechecked each item on his car according to the sheet, making sure there were no issues before signing off, thus completing all pre-race checks.

Next, Qin Miao went through the routine of putting on noise-canceling earphones, a sweat-absorbing headpiece, and a helmet, then jumped into the driver's cockpit of the race car, following that he put on gloves and checked the TR and hydration systems.

Once he confirmed everything was in order, Qin Miao started observing the current track conditions through the two screens behind his flipped-back toes.

These two screens showed content customized by Qin Miao.

The screen on the right displayed the broadcast images from the live director's feed at the scene.

The screen on the left showed, besides Qin Miao's tire choices for this race, the tire reserves of other drivers, and the current fastest lap time.

However, because the qualifying races hadn't yet started, the column displaying other drivers' speed was still blank.

Besides this data, the display offered many features, all customizable, which Qin Miao could control using his steering wheel.

After waiting in the car for almost ten minutes, Qin Miao finally heard Frankie's voice in the team's TR: "The qualifying race has started."

After Frankie said this, Qin Miao glanced at Toto sitting right behind him.

From Toto's angle, Qin Miao could just see half of his face through the rearview mirror of his car.

Not letting Qin Miao wait too long, as other drivers started to file out of the team's paddock during the qualifying stage, Qin Miao and the others heard Toto's voice: "Alright, let's give it our all, go!"

Upon hearing this, Reyes immediately began directing Qin Miao.

Hamilton's chief engineer also released Hamilton.

Once on the track, Qin Miao started his warm-up laps.

It's worth mentioning that, thanks to the introduction of new upgraded components, not only was Hamilton's slow tire warming problem solved, but Qin Miao also needed to perform fewer warm-up maneuvers during the warm-up lap phase.

The most direct effect was that after finishing the warm-up lap before the qualifying flying lap, the usual tire wear on Qin Miao's soft tires should be around 4%.

But with the new components, after the warm-up lap, tire wear for Qin Miao was only 3%.

Though it only reduces by 1% compared to normal conditions, in terms of lap times, this 1% tire difference could make Qin Miao's single qualifying lap 0.1 seconds faster.

In racing, there's no need to elaborate on what a 0.1-second speed boost means, right?

This 0.1-second difference can sometimes easily decide the championship and runner-up outcomes.

Q1's first flying lap, Qin Miao ran smoothly.

The afternoon grip felt excellent, even though due to the lower track temperature, Qin Miao felt his car's traction wasn't as strong as during practice, but after finishing this lap, Qin Miao's score came first in Q1 with 1:23.000, a particularly precise number.

After completing this lap, Qin Miao was guaranteed to smoothly advance to Q2 in this race.

Meanwhile, at Five-Star Sports, the three commentators had been a bit worried since the start of this race week.

The reason isn't hard to guess, after all, on Thursday, Mercedes publicly announced that Qin Miao had replaced a complete new engine power system on Friday due to a potential hazard in the car's engine power system.