Chapter 1539 - 564: Qin Miao Gradually Gets Used to Racing in the Rain

Chapter 1539: Chapter 564: Qin Miao Gradually Gets Used to Racing in the Rain

This indeed sold out all three-day passes for the Austrian Grand Prix.

After all, there are races to watch every day, although Friday tends to have fewer events in comparison.

Saturday even features a brief Grand Prix.

However, during the main stage of the Grand Prix, drivers generally have little desire to attack.

It resembles more of a long-distance test race with points income.

But this racing format greatly reduces the time drivers have to get familiar with the cars before the main race.

Still, there are benefits, as not only is there little time for personal familiarization with the cars, but drivers from other teams face the same situation.

Additionally, compared to last season, the layout of the Red Bull Ring track hasn’t changed much, and the tire hardness provided by Pirelli remains unchanged, though the compound differs from last season.

But overall durability is about the same.

So strictly speaking, the pressure on teams is rather low in this race.

The team just needs to help drivers with car setups and test tire wear; as for track data, reusing data collected last season is no problem at all.

During the practice session one.

Qin Miao got familiar with the track on his first lap after leaving the pit, then ran five laps focusing on long-distance lap times and tire wear tests.

Throughout these five laps, Qin Miao managed to be 0.1 seconds faster each lap than the previous one.

However, Qin Miao’s lap times throughout the process were not particularly outstanding.

Since before hitting the track, the team had filled Qin Miao’s car with fuel.

As for car upgrades...

Qin Miao personally feels that the upgrades are effective, though the impact isn’t as good as what the simulator presented.

During simulator simulations, the upgrade supposedly gave a 0.4-second improvement, but in reality, Qin Miao feels the single lap might have only improved by about 0.15 seconds.

However, there is a benefit; the upgrade increased the overall downforce on the W14 while acceleration and top speed remained largely unaffected.

Initially, Qin Miao thought it might be his error or that his car was too heavy.

But after the first practice session took a slight pause, during the alteration of setup in the team’s P room, Qin Miao and Hamilton chatted together about the upgrade.

Then Qin Miao realized Hamilton’s feelings were similar to his own.

The team’s upgrade was effective but not as effective.

If only Qin Miao felt this way, it might be his feeling being off.

But if both Qin Miao and Hamilton think this way, then the team’s upgrade indeed didn’t meet expectations.

After informing Elliott about this, the other party rubbed his forehead a bit frustrated and said "Got it" before pulling out his phone to make a call.

Qin Miao actually wanted to comfort him, as regardless of anything, the upgrade is genuinely effective.

However, judging from his demeanor, he probably didn’t have the time.

After informing him, Qin Miao and Hamilton continued engaging in practice session one.

Soon the practice ended, Qin Miao found a setup that felt relatively comfortable, usable for both qualifying and the race.

But it surely wasn’t optimal, since an entire practice session couldn’t fully capture all the data; some remaining data would rely on tomorrow’s sprint qualification and sprint race for collection.

The setup Qin Miao used for this Grand Prix weekend leaned towards high downforce.

Though the Red Bull Ring track features many turns, it is indeed a proper high-speed track.

Many corners can be taken full throttle, but due to the W14’s characteristic as a muscle car, though dominant in sector one, upon reaching sector two and three, lots of turns require lifting off the throttle or braking to pass through.

So Qin Miao adjusted his setup towards high downforce.

Even with a full tank, these curves still require throttle lifting, but by mid to late race, when the car lightens, the handling essentially feels very smooth, no throttle lift or braking needed.

Afternoon, qualifying session.

Not much to elaborate on Q1 here, Qin Miao ran a 13th place to advance to Q2 using a set of soft tires he used in practice.

What’s that? Why is Qin Miao so frugal? Using old soft tires for qualifying.

Damn FIA arranged two qualifying sessions this Grand Prix weekend, yet only provided all drivers 8 sets of soft tires.

A normal driver would generally use one set in practice, three sets across qualifying’s three stages, but this Grand Prix weekend has two qualifying sessions, meaning six sets of soft tires are needed just for qualifying.

This doesn’t account for situations in qualifying stages where mistakes require a new set of soft tires, or if desired data isn’t gathered in practice, necessitating another run on soft tires.

Adding a sprint race and a main race, if not saving, soft tires simply won’t last.

Any unexpected situations would leave you without soft tires.

So unsurprisingly, many drivers in sprint qualifications will likely use medium tires as if they were soft tires.

And for Qin Miao, who likes to keep some tires for backup, having no tires is tantamount to torture and agony.

He can’t help but save them.

Eventually, the drivers eliminated in Q1 were: Bottas, Zhou Guanyu, Tsunoda, Magelsen, De Vries.

In Q2, Qin Miao initially wanted to continue using that set of old soft tires for a lap on the track.