How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 905 - 357: The Unlucky Alfa Romeo Duo (Part 2)

When Qin Miao realized this during Friday's practice session, he was stunned, followed by a heartwarming feeling of being highly valued.

However, at the beginning of the pre-race phase, Qin Miao did not focus all his attention on listening to music.

What appeared in front of Qin Miao at this moment was the detailed task interface within his system.

[Task 1: Reach the podium at the 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix]

[Reward: Team Free Attribute Point*1]

[Task 2: During the main race of the 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix, do not get overtaken by any driver]

[Reward: Team Free Attribute Point*1]

[Task 3: Overtake four cars during the main race of the 2022 Bahrain Grand Prix (undercut not counted)]

[Reward: Attack Ability Score +1]

Looking at this season's tasks, Qin Miao discovered a pattern: last season, the rewards given by the system mainly focused on improving Qin Miao's personal abilities, while this season it has shifted entirely toward the team's attributes.

Moreover, the tasks given by the system for this race weren't very difficult, so the rewards ultimately given to Qin Miao weren't particularly great, certainly not as good as last season's.

After finishing, the music in Qin Miao's earphones also stopped, and Frankie's voice came through: "Radio test, Qin Miao, can you hear me?"

"Yes, very clearly. I've never heard your voice this clearly while sitting in the car."

"Haha, glad you like it.

Alright, back to business, the race starts in 5 minutes, the staff on the track are about to withdraw, please prepare in advance."

"Received, I'm ready."

"Good luck."

After speaking, Reyes gestured to Qin Miao, and then the team staff responsible for transporting tires and other equipment left the track with their large boxes.

Only the 4 technicians responsible for Qin Miao's tires and front and rear jacks were left.

Not long after, the tire warmers on Qin Miao's four tires were removed, and they were kept in a semi-enclosed state on the car's tires to maintain their temperature.

At the same time, Qin Miao's car was placed on the ground, and the engine started.

A few minutes later, with the reminder from the race marshal, all the team's driver engineers withdrew from the track, waiting beside it for the start of the race.

While sitting in the car, Qin Miao looked at the rarely seen rear of the Red Bull car in front, feeling somewhat complex inside.

Meanwhile, it was inevitable to have a strong sense of discrepancy, but fortunately, Qin Miao's adaptability was strong enough that there was no significant fluctuation in mindset due to the sudden change in position.

After all the staff on the track withdrew, two green lights lit up in the distance, and Leclerc, who was in first place, stepped on the brake pedal and drove the car out from his parking position.

The Bahrain Grand Prix warm-up lap thus began.

During the warm-up lap phase, Pirelli offered two pit stop strategies for the race.

Both suggestions were two-stop strategies.

They are respectively red-yellow-red and red-white-red.

Since there is no mandatory requirement for the teams to use the set of tires with the single fastest lap time during the second practice qualifying, almost all teams have different degrees of tire life extension.

This provided teams with many different choices during the main race stage.

Due to his incredible tire-saving ability and data obtained during the three practice sessions, Qin Miao chose a yellow-white one-stop pit strategy for this race.

So it could be seen that while all the front row drivers started with soft tires, Qin Miao was using a set of yellow medium tires.

As Stroll parked in his position and the medical car was in place, Matthew waved the green flag.

On the Five-Star Sports channel, upon seeing this scene, Bing commented: "Notice, the 2022 season, the Bahrain Grand Prix main race is all set... Five red lights illuminate... Extinguish, the race begins!"

Qin Miao's start reaction speed was very fast, even noticeably faster than Perez ahead of him.

However, due to the difference in tire performance, even though Qin Miao started faster than Perez, the time gap between him and Perez only decreased very slowly after the start, not achieving an immediate decisive effect.

On the other side, Hamilton's start wasn't bad, even better than Qin Miao's, so after the start, Hamilton stayed on the outside, preparing to enter the corner from the outside.

After Perez started and noticed that Qin Miao was faster but the approach rate was low, he relaxed his guard against Qin Miao and focused mainly on Hamilton, who was at his left rear.

Perez felt an extremely strong threat from Hamilton.

Hamilton's start speed was quite good, but unfortunately, Sainz ahead of Hamilton didn't get a good start.

Moreover, after the start, both Sainz and Hamilton chose to seek overtaking opportunities on the inside.

This directly led to Hamilton avoiding Sainz ahead of him, and adjusting to the left.

It's crucial to know that any turning during the initial stage of an F1 car affects the car's speed significantly, because part of the power originally used for a straight start is consumed in turning.

Therefore, a lane change to the inside and a lane change to the outside completely nullified the advantage of Hamilton's start.

It could be said that both Mercedes drivers had an unremarkable start this time, without any mistakes, but they also failed to gain any advantage from the start.

But just as Qin Miao and Hamilton both thought this start was over.

Perez noticeably slipped while exiting T1.

This gave Hamilton an opportunity.

Hamilton directly forced into Perez's inside at T2, and after accumulating enough leading advantage at T2 and T3, he overtook Perez in one fell swoop.

But due to position reasons, Qin Miao couldn't seize Perez's flaw.

However, in T2 and T3, while Perez and Hamilton were in wheel-to-wheel combat, Qin Miao was always in their slipstream, leading to a stunning rear speed as Qin Miao came to the straight between T3 and T4, directly squeezing into Perez's inside before T4.

Then, with a late brake at T4, Qin Miao completely blocked Perez's entry line, naturally taking Perez's position after exiting the corner, elevating his rank to fifth.

And when it seemed Perez's troubles with the two Mercedes drivers taking his position were over.

Magelsen seized the opportunity at T8 when Perez was in unstable condition after being overtaken by the two Mercedes drivers, at T8 late braking and forcing into Perez's entry line, and overtook Perez too.

This was a highlight for Haas Team, having shone in the qualifying results, and in the main race start phase, directly overtaking a Red Bull.

Meanwhile, the faces of Perez and everyone at Red Bull didn't look good, as no one would be pleased to see their driver not only failing to gain any advantage at the start but also dropping three positions without completing a single lap.

With someone asking, wasn't Bottas behind Qin Miao? How come it turned into Magelsen?

The reason for this unpleasant situation was simple: Alfa Romeo's self-developed gearbox never disappoints when it comes to being disappointing.

This gearbox, during the first 2022 F1 Grand Prix main race, unsurprisingly had an unexpected issue.

Both Alfa Romeo drivers encountered unsuccessful start situations during the initiation phase.

Leading both to lose a significant number of positions at the start, with Bottas dropping from 7th to 14th, and Zhou Guanyu suffering even more, plummeting directly to the back of the grid after starting from 11th.

From the broadcast footage and audience view at that time, it seemed like a complete personal error by the two Alfa Romeo drivers.

But in reality, Zhou Guanyu and Bottas both encountered a problem where the car entered anti-stall mode right after the start.

If one driver makes such a mistake, it could be attributed to their personal issue, but if both do, then it's undeniably the team's problem.