Mei Ben's side mainly relied on the stable performance of Qin Miao and Hamilton, while Leclerc wasted a lot of time when struggling in the slow car pile in the late stage due to the car failure in the qualifying stage, so that Leclerc did not get a good result in the late race.

Moreover, Qin Miao also killed Sainz in front of him in the final stage of the main competition and won the second.

With two factors in mind, Mercedes was now second in the standings, seven points ahead of Ferrari.

In fact, these seven points were all obtained by Meiben relying on the stability of the car.

After the Canadian Grand Prix, it's time for the British Grand Prix, which everyone is looking forward to.

It's also the home of the Mercedes team.

Because the sport of F1 was originally developed from the United Kingdom, and the United Kingdom is also the main gathering and working place of F1 practitioners, and many teams have factories and R&D bases in the United Kingdom, so this is the home of most F1 teams.

Among them, of course, also includes Mercedes.

For Hamilton, it's a double home of his own.

And at the same time, after the race, Qin Miao, who was still happy for the second place in the Canadian Grand Prix, received good news.

All three of the team's upgrades have been developed and are sure to be applied at the British Grand Prix.

According to the adjusted simulator data, these three upgrades will give the car at least a 0.2-second lap time boost.

This isn't a huge improvement, but the rear suspension and new floor design are effective in increasing the car's consistency and predictability.

The most important thing is to expand the tuning window of the car, so that Qin Miao and Hamilton can have different tuning options on different tracks.

At the same time, work in the simulator department is proceeding in an orderly manner.

However, including bug fixes and final debugging tests, we will have to wait until the eve of the British Grand Prix to have a final number.

Although time may still be a bit tight, there is a simulator available on the team's side.

The speed of development of car upgrades can also be increased accordingly.

This week's Zhou Guanyu was not autistic, and after the race, Lele and He bragged in the group of several drivers.

However, there is one thing to say, Zhou Guanyu's performance this week did have the capital to boast, and he defeated his teammates and Bottas anyway, which is basically the best way for a rookie driver to show his strength.

After the game was over, Qin Miao did not return to Monaco, but directly returned to the UK with his technicians by plane.

After all, he is the technician of the Meiben team, and everyone in Qin Miao's crew basically lives in the UK.

Even if you don't live in the UK, you live nearby.

Although the technicians are all food and lodging in the team, and they also have round-trip economy class tickets, the dates of the tickets are all on Tuesdays.

The reason why it was a Tuesday after the Grand Prix, not a Monday, and it wasn't a day.

Mainly because the staff of the team packed all the supplies of the team until Monday night, which is naturally Tuesday.

At that time, everyone can take a flight back, which will save a little money for the fleet.

This is also something that can't be helped, when there was no budget cap before, the Mercedes team didn't search so much, basically after a Grand Prix is over, you can go whenever you want, and then you can take the invoice and find the team for reimbursement.

This is no longer the case.

All teams have strict budget constraints, and in some places where they can be saved, they can naturally do it, and don't think about it if they are comfortable.

And after the game is over, everyone naturally wants to go home early to rest, or to spend time with their families or something.

After all, the salaries of the team technicians are not very high, and it is not cheap to book a plane ticket from Canada back to the UK.

And Qin Miao was just preparing to return to the UK after the game on Sunday, and asked who wanted to go with him during the dinner party in the evening.

Then Qin Miao returned to the UK with all the staff of his crew.

After getting off the plane, Qin Miao bid farewell to her colleagues one by one, and she took the car back to her home in Brackley.

After that, Qin Miao rested comfortably at home for two days.

However, after the third day, Qin Miao returned to the team and began his work as a professional driver.

It is worth mentioning that when Qin Miao was at the team headquarters, he heard Hamilton's nutritionist and Barber chatting about Hamilton's recent schedule.

It's really like going to a market, going to a company for a party in the morning, and at the same time going to a catwalk, like having dinner with a celebrity at noon, going to a magazine shoot in the afternoon, and having a dinner party in the evening.

And it's basically like this for several days in a row.

Qin Miao was a little stunned when she heard it.

Should it be said that the British are proud of the sport of F1?

My home Grand Prix, which has not officially started, is already so busy.

Qin Miao suddenly had some bad premonitions, if next year or the year after, the domestic Grand Prix was also held again, would he be so busy?

Will it be as soon as you land in China, as long as you nod your head, someone will fill all your itineraries, all kinds of activities, meet all kinds of people, parties, chats, interviews.

As soon as she thought of this, Qin Miao couldn't help but shudder.

Qin Miao silently decided in her heart that if the domestic Grand Prix was held, she would never participate in any activities and interviews, so she would adjust her state and do her best to run the race.

After all, the most important thing for a driver is the results and how well you perform on the track.

The convoy was busy until August 29th.

On this day, Qin Miao still got up in the morning, took a shower after completing her daily workout in the gym, and went to the team after lunch.

However, to Qin Miao's surprise, a lot of people came to the convoy today, and even Hamilton, who had been busy in the past few days, also came.

After seeing these people, Qin Miao knew that something big was going to happen on the side of the convoy today.

Sure enough, after Qin Miao arrived at his office, Barber came over after a while to inform Qin Miao that he was going to have a meeting later.

Qin Miao cleaned up a little and went to the conference room of the convoy.

Qin Miao is already quite familiar with this.

Different from the previous team meetings, there were many acquaintances of Qin Miao in today's conference room, but they couldn't see them in ordinary meetings.

These are the same people who are in charge of the simulator in the team.

In the past, they basically didn't come to the meeting very much, because there was no need, just one person in charge, but this time the whole department came.

The simulator department is mainly responsible for testing the performance of new components, as well as giving evaluations and proofreading the data.

And seeing them in the conference room today, Qin Miao had a bottom in his heart, it should be that the simulator department has completed all the upgrade work of the simulator, and the simulator bug of the team should also be corrected.

I don't know why, Qin Miao suddenly began to look forward to it.

This was also evidenced by the content of the subsequent meeting, where the head of the simulator department personally took the stage to make a presentation.

Briefly talking about the problems found in the simulator of the current Mercedes team, when the corresponding changes have been made, and what specific effects these changes will have, and finally in the applause and cheers of everyone in the team, it is announced that all the bugs and problems in the team simulator have been fixed, and then the development of the Mercedes team will be back on track.

After the head of the simulator department finished speaking, the other senior management of the team came up to report on the work and explain the work arrangements of their departments in the next period of time.

Finally, it was Qin Miao and Hamilton who took the stage to cheer up the team's staff.

Although it is said that within the team, the main people are the team leader and the CTO and technical director.

But it is undeniable that within the Mercedes team, the influence of the two world champions, Qin Miao and Hamilton, is stronger in the hearts of most of the low-level employees than Toto.

Even many people wanted to work with Qin Miao and Hamilton before joining the Meiben team.

After some cheering, the meeting was almost over, Toto took the stage to make a summary, and then everyone returned to their respective jobs.

And Qin Miao, Hamilton and the team's test driver De Vries couldn't wait to come to the team's simulator department.

Then, under the surprised gaze of the two, Qin Miao easily entered the car tuning of his last Canadian Grand Prix into the computer, and was the first to enter the team's simulator, and began to test whether the data of the simulator was the same as that of the car in reality.

After all, it's as good as Hamilton, and he doesn't remember how he set up his car in the first place.

And Qin Miao on the simulator was pleasantly surprised to find that after running two flight laps on the simulator, Qin Miao didn't feel any difference between the simulation data of the simulator and when he ran on the track last week.

The speed of the car was still the same, but at least the simulator gave Qin Miao accurate feedback.

It can be regarded as solving the basic problem of the development of the team in the era of ground effect, and the foundation is laid, and then the team will rebuild a high-rise building on this foundation.

However, the budget for the rest of the season is limited, and the team is not ready to abandon the development of W13 this season.

Therefore, the resources that are not too large should be directly halved.

Of course, this is not a headache for drivers like Qin Miao and Hamilton, it is Toto and Elliott who should be worried about.

After briefly experiencing the simulator that he hadn't touched for a long time, Qin Miao crawled out of the monocoque used by the simulator.

Hamilton helped Qin Miao for a while, and waited for Qin Miao to stand up before asking curiously, "How do you feel?" You saw that the lap speed of the first two laps was quite good. ”

Qin Miao smiled and signaled that De Vries could go up and try it before saying to Hamilton: "You should be able to see it by looking at the results, right?" I didn't have much adaptation to get to this point, which only means that the simulator has been improved. ”

"Yes, yes!" Hamilton clenched his fists hard, then looked at De Vries, who had just sat into the car's monocoque, and didn't even have his seat belt fastened.

The eyes are full of impulse.

Qin Miao had a feeling that Hamilton at this moment really wanted to rush over, directly pull De Vries out of the monomer, and sit in it by himself to run two laps.

However, Hamilton finally resisted his impulse, and after finding a seat with Qin Miao, he waited for De Vries's test to end.

De Vries didn't run long either, crawling out of the monocoque in about 10 minutes.

In fact, De Vries, who has never actually driven a F1 car, has no way of feeling whether the performance of the current car simulator has improved and whether it is the same as the car.

But Qin Miao had just tested it before, and the world champion would never be wrong, so after De Vries came down, he also gave the team a new simulator affirmation.

Then there is Hamilton, who can't wait.

……

After the team's simulator problem was solved at a speed that no one expected, Qin Miao's work also returned to the same two-point and one-line life of the team and home last season.

As if it was retaliatory research and development, Qin Miao had just returned to his daily work, and he and De Vries worked day and night to help the team test new components and collect data.

Qin Miao alone saw four different side box and bottom plate designs.

Although Qin Miao knew that many parts were prepared for next season's car, Qin Miao was also a little surprised by this kind of work efficiency.

Even because of this, the relationship between Qin Miao and Dove has improved a lot.

Although it is not like Zhou Guanyu Leclerc, it can be regarded as a good friend.

The time spent indulging in work always passes very quickly.

By the time Qin Miao reacted, the time had already come to Thursday.

The British Grand Prix is about to begin.

As the home stadium and one of the birthplaces of the sport of Formula 1, the streets of the UK are full of Formula 1 at this time.

Advertisements, events, posters and other F1 promotions can be seen everywhere in the streets of the UK.

Even Qin Miao, who usually doesn't participate in many activities, was begged by the team to participate in many activities, such as TV interviews, variety show recordings, and the like.

Fortunately, the team did not forget to leave Qin Miao two hours to walk the track.

Although Qin Miao was already familiar with the Silverstone Track, even the Silverstone Track was not far from Qin Miao's house.

He's also come here to test Mercedes' AMG ONE, and he's also raced here in his own car.

But the ancestors have a good saying: Reviewing the past and learning the new can be a teacher.

Thursday's time passed quickly.

Friday, the day when the first and second exercises begin.

All three upgrades for the Mercedes team this week have been applied.

One is the rear suspension, which increases the rigidity of the rear suspension, increases the stability of the car at high speeds, expands the tuning window, and most importantly reduces the dolphin jump.

One is a modification of the baseplate, which optimizes the shape of the venturi channel inlet, as well as the shape of the vortex generator at the edge of the baseplate.

This upgrade allows for a slight drag reduction while better combing the airflow in the floor plate, while increasing the vortex strength of the vortex generator at the edge of the floor and guiding the vortex to better adhere to the edge of the floor plate, allowing the floor to have a better seal and reduce the occurrence of dolphin jumps.

At the same time, it is also a linkage with the nose wing of the next upgraded car.

However, Qin Miao had already received a notice before this, and this upgrade would be the last upgrade for the bottom plate of the car this season.

Because the entire F1 car is made of carbon fiber, there is no way to melt it down and recast it like steel.

After the carbon fiber is finalized, it can only be like that.

So this time, the floor modification was to rebuild a base plate for both riders, and there were spare parts for two base plates.

With four floors, the team spent almost $3 million, which is a lot of money for the current team budget for W13.

The final upgrade is the front nose wing of the car.

The overall appearance of this forenose has not changed, the most obvious change is that a piece of the wing surface has been removed from the wing root position of the front nose.

The normal Mercedes nose has four wings, the inside and the outside, all arranged at an upward angle, in order to provide more downforce to the car.

Normally, when this wing is removed, the downforce at the front of the car is inevitably reduced.

But after almost a quarter of a season, the team has a better understanding of today's ground effect cars, which is that the total amount of downforce provided by the car's floor is not just 60%, but 75%.

After re-evaluating the W13, the team found that their own engine was not too bad, at least compared to the Ferrari engine, the horsepower output may be only about 5 hp less.

The reason why they were hoisted up by Ferrari and Red Bull on the straights and acceleration was mainly because Mercedes itself provided too much downforce to the car in terms of aerodynamic design.

Especially the tail.

At the same time, the downforce of the ground effect floor designed by the Mercedes team itself is also a little unbalanced, and the center point of the downforce is a little too far back.

As a result, the car's characteristics on the track make the front of the car relatively light, and the steering is too agile, and Hamilton will naturally be a little unaccustomed to driving.

At this time, someone is about to ask, since the problem of the car is too much downforce, and this problem also appears in the rear, why not change the rear wing, but change the front nose wing.

This brings us to the question of the integrity of the car.

All the parts of the F1 car are not independent, they are combined into a whole and together to play their own characteristics and strengths in the car, and the parts complement each other, so that a car is competitive enough.

Due to the restrictions of the FIA's rules, the rear wing can be changed in very few places, and the difficulty of changing is also high, and the most important thing is ...... Expensive.

A new set of rear wings that cost at least $1 million from design finalization to manufacturing.

This is not a small amount of money for the Mercedes team, which already has a budget cap, not to mention that half of the money for upgrading the car this season has to be used to develop the car for next season.

Compared with the anterior alar, it is much cheaper, and the adjustment of the anterior alar is more about subtraction, and there is very little addition.

Crucially, behind the reduced wing is the entrance to the Venturi passage of the Mercedes Racing Cars.

The reduction increases the airflow throughput of the Venturi channel, resulting in higher quality and velocity of the airflow in the floor and the vortex generator.

On top of that, the weight of the floor is higher than that of the nose and rear wings.

Therefore, for the aerodynamic designers of the Mercedes team, among the three upgrades this week, only this one is truly satisfying and happy.

After seeing their new car, Qin Miao and Hamilton got together to study for more than an hour after the pre-race meeting, and the two took out their understanding of the design and purpose of the new race car and discussed it, and judged which direction the car needed to be tuned.

After the first practice began, Qin Miao and Hamilton got on the track as soon as possible.

As soon as they hit the track, the two of them felt that the car was different.

Qin Miao felt that the problem of the front of this car being too sensitive had eased a lot, and it was much more comfortable to drive.

Hamilton's most intuitive feeling is that in high-speed corners, the car's grip is stronger, and in the light fuel load, the car's dolphin jump will only occur after the track straights reach 310 km/h, and the amplitude is very small.

Beyond that, dolphin jumps are only made when there are bumps in the track, and the amplitude is not large, and it disappears after two jumps.

All in all, at the end of the session, both drivers gave extremely positive comments about the upgraded cars.

And what makes all Mercedes fans happy is that in the first and second training stages, Meiben's two cars rarely directly won the first and second.

However, in terms of competition with her teammates, Qin Miao still won the first place in the first practice with a lap speed 0.05 seconds faster than Hamilton.

After a short break after the practice, Qin Miao and Hamilton shared their feelings on the track and the settings for the details of car tuning.

The second practice began.

If it is said that Qin Miao is still indulging in excitement and happiness after one practice, in the second practice stage, Qin Miao's car poured cold water on Qin Miao and Meiben team.

At the beginning of the second practice, Qin Miao didn't feel that there was anything wrong with his car when he just drove onto the track, and as he ran, Qin Miao felt that the engine of the car was a little overheated through his skills.

Qin Miao just wanted to talk to the team about the problem of the racing car, and a cluster of open flames directly rose behind the exhaust pipe of the car, and white smoke came out.

Normal drivers can't see the fire behind their racing butt now, and although there is an open flame, the flame of Qin Miao's car fire this time is not big.

But Qin Miao's skill of integrating people and vehicles, he felt it the first time the racing butt caught fire.

In the end, I naturally found a Matthew passage entrance to park the car, and a yellow flag appeared on the track.

Qin Miao's second practice ended before it began.

This is also the first time that Qin Miao has retired on the track due to a car failure since entering F1. (End of chapter)