How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 922 - 364: The Fall of a Legend?

But Qin Miao didn't go to find Qimeng now, he just nodded to them as he passed by.

After all, the preparation process before the race is quite cumbersome, and Qin Miao also needs to check if the parameters set during the practice sessions and the preset car modes have been tampered with.

Indeed, although everyone at Mercedes is very satisfied with Qin Miao, he still needs to prevent anyone from manipulating things secretly.

Actually, this is something Hamilton taught Qin Miao.

Although the relationship between Qin Miao and Hamilton has become strained, apart from what appears on camera, they hardly talk in private.

Nevertheless, Qin Miao has learned a lot from Hamilton.

For instance, your teammates are always your biggest competitors.

Because compared to other drivers on the track, you might have a performance gap in the car, so even if you lose, you have excuses to justify yourself.

But if you lose to a teammate, it can only be said that your personal skills are inferior to your teammate's.

As a result, you will be overshadowed by your teammate in team resources, media coverage, and even income.

After all, the F1 paddock emphasizes strength as the key.

Once this situation arises, no one can ensure your teammate will willingly remain as your number 2 driver.

Never underestimate human malice; some people will resort to any means to defeat their teammates.

For example, bribing the mechanic of the teammate's crew to discreetly alter the preset modes in their car.

Like altering the engine's output power in this mode, although your teammate originally used this mode for long distances to reduce fuel and tire wear.

But once the mode is activated, your teammate will find something amiss midway — how come my tires and fuel aren't enough?

This kind of thing can't be detected until after the fact, and even if discovered, one could blame it on carelessness during work or mistakenly setting the wrong values.

These are all experiences Hamilton shared with Qin Miao.

They have become instinctive to Qin Miao, and he checks these settings in his car before every qualifying session and race.

Once the pre-race inspection is complete, there are less than ten minutes left until the qualifying begins; at this moment, Qin Miao has no intention of getting out of the car, just sitting and awaiting the start of the race.

At Beijing time, 1 AM on March 21, 2022, the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix qualifying officially begins.

Amidst the commentary from Five-Star Sports, many domestic racing fans watch the qualifying with mixed emotions.

In the Q1 stage, Qin Miao delivered a good result on his first flying lap, 1 minute and 29.333 seconds.

This is a time sufficient to move directly into Q2, and after completing this lap, Qin Miao's rank rose to fourth in the session.

The top three were Sainz, Verstappen, and Leclerc, and Qin Miao managed to appear here, partly due to Perez's less-than-ideal performance.

However, after finishing this flying lap, Qin Miao continued with another flying lap on the circuit.

The characteristics of the Jeddah Circuit, with few high-speed corners, allow the C4 soft tires to have enough durability for two flying laps without significant speed loss.

However, though significant loss might not occur, soft tire wear is an objective reality, hence Qin Miao's speed on this lap wasn't as fast as his first flying lap.

Despite Qin Miao's fourth position, the gap between him and Leclerc, ahead, reached 0.5 seconds.

This is essentially an insurmountable chasm.

Notably, Hamilton's time on his first flying lap was far from ideal, ending 1.3 seconds slower than Qin Miao, let alone Sainz, who was first.

However, neither the audience nor commentators felt Hamilton was not performing; they merely thought he might have made an error, and with some adjustment, could likely regain competitiveness.

Though it seems unlikely Hamilton could compete head-to-head with Ferrari and Red Bull at this moment, at least he should catch up or surpass his teammate.

On his second flying lap, Qin Miao used a set of soft tires that had been used for a few laps during practice, accomplishing the lap without enhancing his time, but he didn't mind, as he was preserving the tires.

Unexpectedly, Hamilton's second flying lap was as unsatisfactory as the first.

Luckily, after completing his second flying lap, there remained over two minutes until Q1 stopped, enough time for Hamilton to run one last flying lap on the Shanghai track with the current set of soft tires.

Although commentators and spectators hold confidence in Hamilton at this moment, seeing it as a simple track incident, Hamilton hasn't fully exerted his potential.

Yet Hamilton explicitly told his track engineer in the team radio: "No, I can't go any faster."

And indeed, once Hamilton finished his final flying lap, his result remained unimpressive, with a daunting 1.488-second gap from Sainz, the first place holder.