came to Qin Miao for a meal, and several people got together again at night and chatted for a while.

After that, Leclerc said goodbye, and he had to stay in the United States for two days, while Qin Miao took Zhou Guanyu and Qiu Meng back to the UK on his own plane.

Because it was the night that they embarked on the journey back to the UK, Qin Miao and Zhou Guanyu slept directly on the plane, so when they arrived at the place, the sky was also bright, and there was no jet lag.

However, after arriving in the UK, Qin Miao was a little unexpectedly idle.

Because when he came to the fleet factory, there were basically no people working in the factory, and more people were responsible for equipment maintenance.

After careful inquiry, I found out that because Mercedes was still checking the simulator and evaluating the design concept of the car, the production of team parts was directly stopped.

After all, the team is also worried that the W13 will go the wrong way, the parts produced will not be effective, and the team's budget cap will be wasted.

Because of this, there was no work in the team that Qin Miao needed to be busy with.

So Qin Miao, who has been busy since entering F1, has not stopped much this week.

After meeting with Toto, having a meal, and chatting about racing, Qin Miao went to Hamilton's house for another meal.

Later, Qin Miao invited the technicians of his team to have a meal together, and this week Qin Miao's maintenance work on the team's interpersonal relationships was also completed.

There was no need to deal with the sophistication of human affairs, and the team had no work, so Qin Miao and Qiu Meng returned to their home in Monaco.

In the next few days, in addition to her daily training, Qin Miao was more tired of being with her daughter-in-law and unlocked a lot of new postures she learned from the Internet.

In addition, Qin Miao also took Qiu Meng out to sea to catch fish for two days.

It's also a comfortable and undisturbed little long vacation.

After a comfortable week, it's Wednesday again.

Obviously, while the team was evaluating the car, there was no way for the W13 to continue with any further upgrades.

Of course, this is not absolutely true, as the team has a rear wing with high downforce in this race.

It is also the rear wing that the team prepared for a more balanced track like Catalonia before the start of the season.

There is also an aerodynamic kit for tracks where ultra-high downforce is the majority, such as Monaco, Hengaroring, etc.

But the good news is that after two weeks, the Mercedes team has also discovered the source of the simulator problem.

This proves that there is a problem with the simulator of the car, and that the team has already started to modify this problem.

But when it will be completed, no one knows.

At the same time, the team's assessment of the current W13 was in a difficult situation, because if they wanted to fully understand the W13 as a car, they would need to take up CFD time to analyze the car's overall aerodynamics.

And it takes a lot of time.

The team has calculated that if it is used normally, the total CFD time remaining for the team after the W13 evaluation report comes out may only be a dozen hours.

What about the subsequent upgrades of the car this season?

But if you don't, there's no way to evaluate the car, either in terms of efficiency or accuracy.

As for the treatment of the W13, in addition to these two evaluation schemes, a third voice was born within the team.

That is, it is not evaluated directly, and this season is abandoned, and the existing W13 is used for development in a specific direction.

For example, to improve the car's grip in the low-to-mid corners, and to try to gain enough advantage on the track where there are more low-to-medium corners, at least the team can compete for one or two races this season.

Either it directly strengthens the car's tail speed in the straights, further reduces drag for the car, reduces the downforce brought by the baseplate, and curbs the appearance of dolphin jumps.

Tuning the W13 in the direction of a muscle car can also achieve good results on specific tracks.

Wait until the end of the season when the team standings are basically stable and there are basically no fluctuations, and then invest all the resources into the B version of the car after the simulator has been fully modified.

Now there is a lot of bubbling within the team over these three proposals, and everyone has their own reasons to come up with and make a generous statement.

Fortunately, Qin Miao has a system, no matter what kind of car the team gives him, he can give full play to the best performance of this car.

The one that stands out is not picky.

Hamilton, on the other hand, leans more towards the third option.

As a result, he is often involved in team meetings, and Hamilton's idea is simple: he wants the team to develop a car that is comfortable with him, modeled after his own driving habits.

After all, although the current car is no longer as slow as in the previous races, he is still a little uncomfortable driving in the new way of driving, and he can't squeeze out the limits of this car.

However, regardless of the outcome of the discussions within the team, there will be no performance improvement in the W13 used by the team at the Spanish Grand Prix after the Miami Grand Prix.

There is even a possibility of performance degradation, as after a Grand Prix in Miami, the car's engine wears out, and the lap may drop by about 0.05 seconds.

Of course, this loss of engine will not affect the results of the two drivers.

And the team can't just embarrass themselves here, because a contradiction has caused the team's internal development of the new car to stalemate.

It is always necessary to come up with a solution in a short period of time.

So on Wednesday night, Qin Miao had already checked into the hotel near the Catalunya circuit in Spain, and when she started her daily physical exercise, Brackley's side finally came to a result that most people were satisfied with after arguing for almost half a month.

That is, this season is still about trying to compete for a better position.

This season, the design of the W13 is still the same, and the W13 is based on the upgraded simulator.

But at the same time, the resources invested in the upgrade of this car have been directly halved, and the other half of the resources that have been vacated are all invested in the development of new cars next season.

On the other hand, the new base plate and sidebox design that Alisson had developed before the start of the season that only existed on drawings were also brought back out.

As for the design investment in the new car, it was a bit out of budget after an evaluation......

Qin Miao had heard that the frequency of communication between the engineers on the team's side and the team's sailing department had increased significantly recently.

Although the FIA has set a cap on the budget cap of the team, there will always be a way for the rich team to get around the FIA's scrutiny, and basically the big teams with the money do the same.

Like Ferrari and Alpine's Le Mans cars, Red Bull and Aston Martin's supercars.

These are all products of the FIA's budget cap.

The sailing department of Meppen is also a product of this.

Many of the team's aerodynamic components are simulated and tested here.

Moreover, Qin Miao also heard people in the team's work group that this department has been working overtime every day recently.

But in any case, these things have little to do with Qin Miao now.

All he needs to do now is get ready for the Spanish Grand Prix.

It is worth mentioning that both Ferrari and Red Bull brought new upgrades this week.

Red Bull is mainly about reducing the weight of the car, while Ferrari is about updating the aerodynamic efficiency of the car.

In fact, normally speaking, the upgrade of the last race of Meiben will only be applied in this race, but the development of those two new parts exceeded the team's expectations, so it was put forward in advance.

But that's not a bad thing.

Friday.

Because Qin Miao was too familiar with this track, and Qin Miao also fully understood his car in the last race, Qin Miao did not play in the first practice stage on Friday.

The driver who drove Qin Miao's car for a practice test was De Vries, the reserve driver of the Mercedes team.

This is actually the FIA's rule, which requires each team to give new drivers at least two practice sessions per season.

This race was just the chance for the team to be eliminated.

However, because of this, after Qin Miao entered the racing car in the second training stage, he had a lot of work.

But Qin Miao has always been known for her efficient work, so these jobs are not too stressful for Qin Miao, and they can be completed easily.

And although the main goal of this test is to get familiar with F1 cars and accumulate his F1 mileage, he is also a professional driver and has done a lot of work for the team.

Soon, Friday was over and time came Saturday.

Qualifying.

Circuit de Catalunya is a track that all teams have mixed reviews for, as the track is so average that the more professional teams, or the more extreme ones, simply don't play here.

However, most of the riders gave this track a good review, because after finding the right tuning, the track is quite comfortable to run.

This week Pirelli gave out the tyre formula the stiffest of the three tyres, from C3-C1.

But the Circuit de Catalunya is another high-speed, curve-rich circuit.

Therefore, even though the hardest tires are used, it is estimated that some drivers will choose one stop in the race stage, and there is a high probability that there will be two stops, and three stops are not impossible.

Therefore, Qin Miao left two new sets of soft tires for himself in the practice stage of this game.

In Q1, Qin Miao showed a good speed as soon as she came up, and the lap speed was 1:19.999 after the run.

This was only Qin Miao's first flying circle.

Because of this result, Qin Miao easily entered Q2.

In the last flight lap of Q1, the team released Zhou Guanyu two minutes early, so he was in extremely good traffic conditions in his flight lap, and naturally he did not encounter obstacles, so Zhou Guanyu also had the opportunity to fully exert his strength and enter Q2.

It's not so easy.

In the end, the drivers eliminated in Q1 were: Vettel, Alonso, Russell, Stroll, Albon.

This season's Williams is already developing towards muscle cars, so the car's straight-track acceleration and tail speed are considered to be in the first echelon.

But at Circuit de Catalonia, a track that tests the overall performance of the car, the performance of Williams cars simply cannot be brought into play.

As a result, neither Williams driver was able to get a satisfactory result.

It's Q2.

Qin Miao's fastest lap in Q2 came to 1:19.400.

This result was directly in second place when Q2 was discontinued, behind Verstappen.

Hamilton also easily ran in Q2 and could easily reach Q3.

Qin Miao and Hamilton's results at most only made domestic fans feel happy, although the Meiben team is not good, but the heritage is still there, and it is no problem to easily enter Q3.

But what really surprised and excited the domestic audience was that in the Q2 stage, Zhou Guanyu beat Mick Schumacher with a score of 1:20.336, just 0.1 seconds faster than Mick, and entered Q3.

In the end, the drivers eliminated in Q2 of this race were: Mick Schumacher, Norris, Ocon, Yuki Tsunoda, Gasly.

Stage Q3.

Qin Miao's Q3 practice matches have new soft tires that can be used.

Therefore, Qin Miao can be said to have no scruples when she runs.

And Qin Miao's qualifying match not only brought his consistent stability, but also showed his limits.

Qin Miao scored 1:18.995 on the first flight lap in Q3.

Directly after the first flight lap of Q3 ended, I came to the first position.

It was a full 0.4 seconds faster than Verstappen, who was second at the time.

This result not only stunned the competitors of the Mercedes team in the paddock, but even Toto himself rubbed his eyes in disbelief after seeing Qin Miao's results, is our racing performance so strong this season?

Five Star Sports is also very puzzled.

Fei Ge said directly: "How can Qin Miao's speed be so fast? You must know that Hamilton's speed is only 1:19.512, and Qin Miao is 0.6 seconds faster than his teammates. ”

After thinking for a while, Brother Bing gave the answer: "Is it possible that this circuit in Catalonia is suitable for the car of Mercedes?" And Qin Miao ran better in this flying circle. ”

Zhou Haoran nodded and agreed: "I don't rule out this possibility, because there is no upgrade for the Mercedes team in today's race, but Ferrari and Red Bull have upgrades, and to be in this position, it can only be said that Qin Miao ran better this lap." ”

And it is true, Qin Miao's speed in the last lap was so fast purely because Qin Miao ran well in the last lap.

Many corners Qin Miao was stuck in the extreme state of racing tires.

Basically, at the exit of every corner, Qin Miao is the kind that will directly rush out of the track boundary if he is one or two centimeters away.

Even when he finished this lap and went back to the field, Qin Miao had a feeling that he might not be able to run such a perfect flight lap on the Catalan circuit in his life.

Therefore, Qin Miao, who was originally going to use two sets of new soft tires in the last flight lap of Q3, saved another set of tires.

Because Qin Miao knew that his performance in the last flight lap of Q3 could not be improved, so the last flight lap of Q3 was directly run on old soft tires.

But despite this, Qin Miao finally finished the qualifying competition in second place.

Leclerc was first, Hamilton was sixth, and Zhou Guanyu was ninth.

After Leclerc won first place in qualifying, he shouted directly and excitedly in the team's TR: "Let's go!!! ”

After the final qualifying session, the rankings are as follows:

1: Leclerc

2: Qin Miao

3: Verstappen

4: Sainz

5: Pérez

6: Hamilton

7: Bottas

8: Magnussen

9: Zhou Guanyu

10: Ricardo

After this qualifying match, Qin Miao also came to the post-game interview seat in the qualifying stage for the first time this season.

After getting out of the car, looking at a Ferrari and a Red Bull next to him, Qin Miao suddenly had a feeling that things were wrong.

But he quickly gathered his feelings, shook hands with the two competitors, said hello, and then briefly celebrated with the team staff before weighing in for an interview.

This game didn't have as many bells and whistles as the American station, and after going through the normal process, Qin Miao stood in front of the interview desk.

The host first congratulated Qin Miao on his ranking in this race, and then asked about Qin Miao's results in this race, as well as his abnormally fast first flight lap.

Qin Miao naturally told the truth, and made it clear that he might not be able to run such a good flying circle in his life.

Naturally, it also caused a burst of laughter from the audience inside and outside the paddock.

In addition, Qin Miao's pre-game interview is just some formulaic work.

After the interview, Qin Miao returned to the team and was busy for a while, but he didn't eat in the team's canteen at night, and went out for a meal with Zhou Guanyu.

In fact, it was mainly when Zhou Guanyu chatted with Alonso that he learned about a restaurant with very good local cuisine from Alonso, and Zhou Guanyu was told the name and address, and Zhou Guanyu definitely wanted to try the taste after knowing it, after all, strictly speaking, this is also Zhou Guanyu's first time in Spain.

The most important thing is that this is a restaurant recommended by my idol, so I have to come and have a meal.

But going to eat alone seems a little dry, so Zhou Guanyu simply pulled Qin Miao up.

This week, Qin Miao came to Spain alone, mainly because Qiu Meng needs to go back to her agency to deal with some things related to the contract, Qin Miao's endorsement contracts are about to expire, Qiu Meng needs to communicate in advance here, whether the other party is ready to renew the contract or what to do.

If the contract is not renewed, Qiu Meng also needs to help Qin Miao find an endorsement again.

And Qin Miao also felt that he didn't have much chance to play in this Grand Prix, and the possibility of winning the podium was not too high, so he simply didn't come to Qiu Meng this week.

So when eating, there were only Qin Miao and Zhou Guanyu.

The two ate together, and there were no outsiders or girls around, so the topics they talked about were very casual.

And I don't know why, when I am with Zhou Guanyu Leclerc and the others, I can pick up everything and talk about it, and I will soon be able to start to extend the branch branch indefinitely along a topic.

Maybe the first 10 minutes the two of them were eating and chatting about gossip about the paddock, such as who had a new girlfriend and so on, and after 10 minutes, the topic of the two might be whether the black silk was better or the white silk was better, and after a while, they drifted to the United States to land on the moon whether the matter was really on.

As they chatted, the conversation between the two turned to their own convoy.

"Speaking of Arlo, I'm really convinced by these people, and I basically have to have some problems in every Grand Prix." After talking about this, Zhou Guanyu naturally began to pour bitter water on Qin Miao.

Qin Miao took a sip of Coke, and then said calmly: "Normal, the Ferrari series of teams have this kind of problem, although the ancestors have been wide, but they are now down, and I don't know where this problem was developed, when I was in Prema, there were often all kinds of small problems in the car, I was used to it." ”

"Huh?" Zhou Guanyu looked at Qin Miao in surprise: "Can there still be problems with Prema's racing car?" And there's a problem with their car, how can you still run so fast? ”

Qin Miao shrugged his shoulders and said: "There is no big problem, after all, F2 is a standard car, and if there is a problem with the F2 car, there is basically only a team that does not maintain the car in place, and what I encountered at that time were small problems such as some screws were not tightened, the coolant of the radiator was not changed, and the pedals were not adjusted in place."

Although it's not fatal, it can be called a big mistake and not a small mistake, but fortunately, the buddy is tough enough and has a deep enough understanding of racing to overcome these difficulties one by one. ”

Zhou Guanyu wanted to scold Qin Miao for his boasting, but with Qin Miao's performance in F2 at the beginning, his words could not be regarded as boasting, and could even be said to be stating the facts.

After all, his record at that time was indeed a bit too rebellious.

"I know you're obviously pretending, but I'm speechless in the face of your words." Zhou Guanyu said helplessly.

Qin Miao grinned: "What are you talking about?" Dude, this is seeking truth from facts, what is pretending to be forced, this is called honesty. ”

"Hey, let's not talk about that, I just hope that the team won't give me a whole moth in this race now, I have a good starting position for today's race, I don't expect to go up a position or two in the race, I'm thankful for maintaining my current position and finishing the race." Zhou Guanyu skipped this topic and talked about what he was most worried about in this game.

Qin Miao actually wants to say that the biggest feature of the Ferrari series team is that they never disappoint in terms of disappointing.

That's true of Ferrari, it's also true of Arrow, and even Haas has a bit of Ferrari verve.

However, in the face of the worry in Zhou Guanyu's eyes, Qin Miao could only comfort: "Ah Luo is not so stupid, it is impossible to make a mistake twice for one type, relax and run well." ”

"I hope so." Zhou Guanyu shook his head.

The two quickly moved on to other topics.

Eat with friends, there are not so many twists and turns, idle nonsense, pay the bill after eating almost enough, have time to play games, or go do something else.

And both of them have a game tomorrow, so after eating, Zhou Guanyu went to pay the bill, and then went back to rest. (End of chapter)

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