How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 502 - 222: Red Bull’s Resolve

Furthermore, it’s worth mentioning that after Verstappen made a mistake entering T1, in the Red Bull team paddock, Horner was just a little annoyed with a clap of his hands but didn’t get too anxious.

But as Qin Miao subsequently overtook Verstappen, Horner really started to worry.

In the director’s replay, viewers saw Horner both talking into his headset microphone and hurriedly jogging from the team paddock to the command booth, presumably ready to issue team orders.

When Mercedes replaced Bottas this season, Horner and Red Bull were fairly pleased, as Bottas leaving meant Red Bull was rid of a major threat.

But when Qin Miao truly appeared on the track, Horner realized Bottas’ value.

Although Bottas’ single-lap speed and qualifying results were indeed impressive, during the race phase, his offensive and defensive capabilities were average, perhaps even somewhat weak.

Qin Miao is different; his qualifying speed may not be as fast as Bottas’, but it’s still top-tier, meanwhile, his long-distance race pace is excellent. His outstanding abilities are tire management, attack, and defense.

Seeing Qin Miao’s performance on the track, Horner understood why Toto took notice of Qin Miao.

He also regrets not being as firm in his decision to choose Qin Miao initially, and Marco likely shares the same sentiment as Horner now.

Because Horner knows Qin Miao’s strength, after seeing Verstappen overtaken by Qin Miao, Horner immediately orders Verstappen to overtake Qin Miao as quickly as possible, avoiding prolonged entanglement.

But this isn’t something solved with just a word.

Verstappen knows Qin Miao is the biggest obstacle on his path to winning this race, but overtaking him is truly challenging.

However, Pan is indeed Pan; despite the difficulty, he managed to overtake Qin Miao using DRS on the sixth lap.

Yet after overtaking Qin Miao, Hamilton in front had already pulled away by over three seconds.

Meanwhile, Qin Miao clung tightly behind Verstappen, consistently pressuring him. 𝒇𝙧𝙚𝓮𝔀𝓮𝒃𝙣𝓸𝒗𝒆𝒍.𝙘𝒐𝒎

On the other side, Perez had been protecting his tires from the start, focusing on conserving strength and eventually fell behind the trio ahead.

By lap 15, the gap between Hamilton and Verstappen closes to 1.9 seconds, while Qin Miao still stays within DRS range behind Verstappen. His tire condition is better than Verstappen’s; though he’s slightly slower, he manages to keep pace with Verstappen using two DRS zones on the track.

Perez, who initially preserved his tires, has fallen back over 7 seconds behind Qin Miao.

This 7 seconds gap occurred when Perez realized something was wrong and began chasing Qin Miao without conserving his tires.

If he kept conserving all the way, the gap would be even larger.

Red Bull finds itself in a dilemma over Verstappen’s pit stop.

With Hamilton ahead and Qin Miao behind, teammate Perez offers no support.

At this moment, whether Verstappen pits before or after, Mercedes has corresponding strategies to effortlessly control Verstappen.

In the eighteenth lap, amidst Red Bull’s anxious waiting, Mercedes finally makes the first move: Hamilton pits while Qin Miao continues tailing Verstappen, ramping up the pressure increasingly.

It’s hard to believe that despite running for so long, Qin Miao’s tires still have enough grip, and his speed hasn’t dropped significantly.

By the nineteenth lap, considering Hamilton’s possibility of widening the gap with Verstappen using new hard tires, and given Qin Miao’s persistent harassment behind, Red Bull is forced to let Verstappen pit first.

At this time, the pace of the new hard tires is faster than the old medium tires.

If Verstappen pits a bit late, it would be challenging for him to contest the championship in this race.

When Verstappen exits pit lane, he remains behind Hamilton, and Hamilton even slightly increases the gap between him and the car behind, mainly thanks to Qin Miao’s relentless disturbance and pressure on Verstappen from behind.

After both teams’ number one drivers pit, only the number two drivers from both teams are left at the front, struggling to maintain their tire management mastery.

On lap 20, as the tire temperature rises, Verstappen begins his attack on Hamilton.

There’s a speed difference between Mercedes and Red Bull cars, but it isn’t large; drivers can rely on their own abilities to compensate.

However, it’s somewhat uncomfortable when trailing the car in front through corners, as the rear car loses up to 50% of its downforce due to the turbulent air from the front car.

Thus, for now, all Verstappen can do is follow Hamilton closely, applying pressure, yet finding overtaking opportunities proves almost impossible.

By the twenty-fourth lap, Qin Miao has pulled over 10 seconds ahead of Perez.

There’s no choice; with the same tires, Qin Miao’s tire wear rate is much slower than Perez’s. As the race progresses, the speed gap between them becomes increasingly noticeable.

Seeing this, Perez stops insisting and chooses to pit this lap for a tire change.

After exiting, he finds himself 18 seconds behind Hamilton and Verstappen, a gap that can’t be described as small.