How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 494 - 220:

As for whether it’s easy to drive? The tuning window is narrow?

The team already has Verstappen, and Pan is top-notch in adaptability to the car.

Because of Pan’s presence, when Red Bull designed the car, they only needed to slightly adjust the car’s characteristics according to Verstappen’s driving habits. After that, they didn’t need to worry about anything else, just focus on stacking the car’s performance, as Pan could solve other operational issues himself.

With such a driver, all Red Bull needed to do was to devote all their energy to development, striving to catch up with Mercedes.

Then find an experienced driver who can match Verstappen’s pace to be the number two driver.

According to Red Bull’s current car design philosophy, it’s inevitable for their car to have a narrow tuning window.

They rely entirely on the driver’s personal skills and the car’s power to compete fiercely with Hamilton on the track.

Perez frequently going off the track when he first joined Red Bull is the best proof.

The other extreme is Mercedes, under the small sidepod design concept. Mercedes’ aerodynamic layout, chassis structure, suspension, and brakes were developed to perfection in last season’s W11.

Thus, at that time, the W11 was aptly dubbed the "Mars Rover."

But this year’s W12 is somewhat embarrassing, as chopping the floor reduced the car’s downforce by about 30%.

And because this design concept was already pushed to its limit in W11, there are no more areas to develop in the current W12, only minor tweaks are possible with little room for overall upgrades.

Nonetheless, the excessive drag issue on high-speed tracks must be addressed, as Red Bull’s steadily closing gap suggests that if not resolved, the second half of the season will be challenging for Mercedes.

So, Qin Miao and Hamilton spent the day meeting with the team’s engineers in the team conference room.

They discussed the main upgrade directions for the car this season and ways to improve the car.

This wasn’t just on Friday, but also on Saturday and Sunday, continuing until Tuesday of race week when a solution was finally reached.

The solution agreed upon by the team over these days was to redesign the car’s floor and rear wing.

At this point, one might ask, with the front wing accounting for the most, why not adjust the front wing but redesign the floor and rear wing?

This leads to aerodynamic concepts.

When a car runs on the track, a part doesn’t just pass through normal air, it may also be affected by the airflow from other parts.

The front wing is an area for airflow distribution. After the airflow passes over it, it goes to other parts of the car, such as the sidepod intake, floor, air scoops, brake ducts, etc.

So a car is an integral unit, not calculated by individual part’s aerodynamic effects, but by the overall aerodynamic effect of all parts that comprises the whole car.

How much airflow passes through those areas at what speed, providing how much downforce to the car, are things engineers gradually understand and intricately design step by step, like tightly fitting gears in an engine.

It’s an integral unit, and if you cancel and redesign the concept of the front wing, the most direct consequence is that other parts of the car must also change.

Not to mention the trouble, the biggest headache for the design department is: even if you change it, the effect after the change might not even be better than before.

So the first to undergo changes are the floor and rear wing, which are less connected to the overall aerodynamic effect.

Don’t underestimate the floor; it actually contributes 17% of the overall drag of the W12, while the rear wing provides around 20%.

Redesigning these two parts can increase the car’s top speed by at least 3 km/h on high-speed tracks like Baku without DRS, and the effect is even more pronounced with DRS.

However, for Qin Miao, these things have little to do with him at the moment. As the day of the French Grand Prix approaches, Qin Miao and Hamilton devoted more time to simulator training.

Besides practicing Paul Ricard Circuit at the factory, Qin Miao also started running laps at the Red Bull Ring during his training time at home.

Like last year, two races will be held at the Red Bull Ring again this year. 𝕗𝐫𝐞𝕖𝕨𝐞𝗯𝚗𝕠𝘃𝐞𝚕.𝐜𝗼𝚖

But unlike last year, F2 will not have races at the Red Bull Ring this year.

Before Wednesday, through relentless efforts, Qin Miao raised his proficiency for Paul Ricard Circuit and the Red Bull Ring to 1000.

He received two Purple Lotteries.

The speed of this achievement mainly came from Qin Miao’s extensive experience racing on the Red Bull Ring during his F2 days. He had accumulated significant experience and increased his proficiency in a short training period.

Adding these two Purple Lotteries brought Qin Miao’s total Purple Lotteries to eight.

Meanwhile, on Wednesday, the system issued a new task to Qin Miao.

[Task: Complete Throughout]

[Requirement: During the entire race period, the car must not suffer any collisions or damage.]