How Did I Become an F1 Driver?-Chapter 886 - 352: The Agonizing Dolphin Jump

After receiving the message, Reyes and his team immediately installed the tires on Qin Miao's car, smoothly removing the tire warmers from the medium tires.

As the staff on both sides of the track withdrew, Qin Miao gently pressed down on the accelerator, finally hearing the first engine roar of the W13.

Then naturally, Qin Miao skillfully drove his car onto the track.

The appearance of the defending champion naturally caught everyone's attention immediately.

The live broadcast camera also instantly focused on the W13 driven by Qin Miao.

On the other side, the three commentators from Five-Star Sports, upon seeing Qin Miao, happily exclaimed, "Here he comes, Qin Miao is out."

"To be honest, I'm somewhat looking forward to Qin Miao's speed today. The characteristics of ground-effect cars are very different from last season's cars."

"I still believe in Qin Miao's adaptability. Last season, Qin Miao quickly adapted to car upgrades and new tracks. This car shouldn't be a big issue for Qin Miao."

It is worth mentioning that F1 has now become Five-Star Sports' highest-rated program. Thus, many times, unless it's for finals of other competitions, F1 events take precedence, even if it's just testing.

Therefore, during this period, the three commentators from Five-Star Sports have regularly appeared in the studio to meet with the audience.

On the track, Qin Miao did not actually encounter the issues mentioned by the commentators. Adaptability wasn't even a question. The moment Qin Miao touched the car, he established a connection with it and fully understood it.

However, today Qin Miao didn't have the chance to push the car to its limits. Rather than lacking the opportunity, it was more that the team didn't dare to take the risk to let Qin Miao push the car to the edge.

Due to changes in technical regulations, only 30% of the parts on the W13 were inherited from the W12, while the remaining 70% were newly designed.

No one could guarantee there wouldn't be unexpected issues when the car was running at high speeds.

If there were any accidents causing the car to crash, it's not a big deal; they can just build another one. Mercedes has deep pockets and doesn't lack money.

But if the incomplete car design led to Qin Miao encountering an accident during testing, surely the Mercedes team would be harshly criticized by the fans.

So, after Qin Miao went out, besides testing the car's overall balance and collecting data on various parts of the car, he was also responsible for checking for issues with the car.

Therefore, the car surely couldn't be driven too fast.

Meanwhile, Qin Miao's teammate Hamilton returned to the team paddock shortly after Qin Miao headed out.

During his absence, he actually went to look at the exterior designs of cars from other teams in their paddocks.

This demonstrates what it means to know yourself and your enemies to be invincible in any battle.

Given that Hamilton is a seven-time champion, even when other team staff noticed Hamilton peeking around their paddocks, they couldn't really chase him away.

They had no choice but to let him look.

After Hamilton casually checked out the other teams' cars, Angela informed him that Qin Miao was about to hit the track.

With the new season designating Qin Miao as his main competitor, Hamilton naturally didn't want to miss the moment Qin Miao started his track test, so he came back.

For the rest of the morning, Hamilton stayed with Toto in the team paddock, watching the footage of Qin Miao's tests and reviewing track data and feedback from Qin Miao.

As for Qin Miao, by the tenth lap, when the team had collected most of the data, Frankie said over the team radio, "Qin Miao, you can try to speed up a bit now, let's see the car's condition at high speed.

You have two laps to do so, after which return to the team paddock as we will install aero rakes for the car."

Qin Miao gladly obliged.

Qin Miao had distinctly felt that this season's car had more grip than last season's, especially through high-speed corners where the car's cornering speed was much higher.

Last season's mid-high speed corners required easing off the throttle and even braking at times, but this season he could swiftly pass through them.

This is the frightening aspect of low-efficient flooring.

Of course, Qin Miao also noticed quite a few issues now.

After entering mid-high-speed sections, the stability of the car's rear was a bit too high.

In simpler terms, the rear downforce of the car was too great.

This could cause the car to overheat the tires while on the track.

Moreover, the new suspension design posed a disadvantage on circuits with high and tough curbs, where the car easily lost grip over the curbs, causing significant vibrations.

Additionally, Qin Miao also felt that at the end of the straights, this season's car's acceleration was not as sharp as last season's.

After reaching 300 kilometers per hour, it easily showed signs of slow acceleration.

Besides this, there were several other minor and major issues.

Most of which were setup-related, which could be resolved by adjusting the car's software and programs back in the team paddock.

Of course, the purpose of these tests by the FIA is to resolve these issues, so Qin Miao didn't feel upset about them. In fact, he was quite pleased to see problems surfacing during testing because the more issues identified in testing, the fewer problems there would be in the actual race.