How Did I Become an F1 Driver?

Chapter 1161 - 439: Qin Miao’s Racing Lesson

The key is that there’s still one lap to go before DRS opens, and at this moment, Sainz is lurking menacingly behind Qin Miao.However, Qin Miao didn’t struggle in his position for long.

After exiting Turn 11 on Lap 2 and crossing the finish line into Lap 3, the terrifying engine of Sainz’s Ferrari closed the gap to 0.3 seconds behind Qin Miao, even before reaching the DRS activation point. Sainz was already making a move on Qin Miao’s inside line.

Qin Miao didn’t even have time to perform any defensive maneuver.

Halfway through the DRS zone, Sainz completed the overtake on the outside line over Qin Miao.

At that moment, the DRS even just barely opened, and since Qin Miao and Sainz had passed the DRS detection point before T11, Sainz overtook Qin Miao without using DRS.

Although the Ferrari fans on site were extremely forgiving of Qin Miao, ultimately, Qin Miao is not a Ferrari driver. So, when Sainz overtook Qin Miao on the main straight, the crowd of Ferrari fans erupted in enthusiastic cheers, and Ferrari flags waved wildly in the stands.

However, all of this was unnoticed by Qin Miao, who was sitting in the car with his full attention on the track.

At that moment, Qin Miao didn’t feel much anger or negative emotions inside, but rather a sense of helplessness.

If the most notable characteristic of the Mercedes this week on the Monza circuit is balance, then Ferrari’s specialty here is speed, pure speed.

Nonetheless, Ferrari’s speed is understandable. After all, Italy is Ferrari’s home turf, and Ferrari making advance optimizations and adjustments specifically for the track on their home ground is normal.

After all, Ferrari surely has a more substantial data reserve for the Monza circuit compared to other teams.

The race continued.

On Lap 3, Sainz also easily overtook Perez in front of him.

After seeing this, for some reason, Qin Miao felt a bit comforted, as it at least indicated that being overtaken by Sainz wasn’t due to his own incompetence, but rather that the Ferrari was just fast.

On Lap 4, on the main straight, Qin Miao also smoothly overtook Perez in front of him.

Clearly, with a mistake at the start plus being overtaken by Sainz, Perez seemed to lose his rhythm, so Qin Miao capitalized on Perez’s misstep.

This was an instance of the engine’s pure power crush; Qin Miao didn’t feel much pressure overtaking Perez.

While Qin Miao was busy overtaking Perez, Sainz ahead of him had already started making moves on Magelsen.

It is worth mentioning that Bottas, due to a last-minute brake, rear-ended Mick at the start.

Bottas’s car had a damaged front wing, and Mick’s car had a damaged rear diffuser. Both ended up at the back of the pack, and by all odds, this grand prix probably has little to do with these two drivers now.

What followed was an interesting scene on the track.

It might not be visible on the track, but on the leaderboard to the left, Sainz would overtake one car, and in the next lap, Qin Miao would overtake the same car Sainz did, then one more after that it’s Perez, and then Hamilton.

Without exception.

This group of drivers was fiercely inflating their overtaking statistics here.

The overtaken drivers, although knowing it’s only a matter of time before being overtaken by these guys, being overtaken once per lap, always at T1, for four consecutive laps without stopping, would mess with anyone’s mindset.

However, by the time the race reached Lap 6, after Sainz overtook Stroll and got behind Zhou Guanyu, the pace slowed.

Due to a 2-second gap between Stroll and Zhou Guanyu on Lap 6, and Zhou Guanyu using the same Ferrari engine, although the Alfa Romeo car struggles a bit, overall, it was quite adapted to the high-speed nature of the Monza track compared to other backmarker teams.

Meanwhile, the intense driving for six laps also rapidly depleted Sainz’s car’s battery reserves, and tire wear was also affected, requiring a clean lap to catch a breather and cool the tires.

However, Qin Miao encountered none of these issues; after overtaking Stroll in front of him on Lap 7, he began to close the gap to Sainz by 0.2 seconds per lap.

The roles of attack and defense had switched!

But facts proved that Qin Miao was clearly overthinking; Sainz was only catching his breath on the track. When Qin Miao began pursuing him, Sainz quickly found his pace again.

By Lap 9, Sainz had already overtaken Zhou Guanyu and De Vries, reaching 7th place, with Alonso ahead.

Meanwhile, Qin Miao was still in the DRS zone behind Zhou Guanyu.

To be honest, this week the Alfa Romeo car was fast, but due to the gearbox of the Alfa Romeo car, its acceleration wasn’t as terrifying as Ferrari’s, so Qin Miao still managed to overtake Zhou Guanyu in the DRS zone on Lap 10.

Zhou Guanyu even made quite a few defensive maneuvers against Qin Miao at the time, causing Qin Miao’s eyelids to twitch, but fortunately, the lousy car wasn’t much of a threat or obstacle for Qin Miao.