How Did I Become an F1 Driver?
Chapter 119 - 91: Small Power, Great Shock

Chapter 119: Chapter 91: Small Power, Great Shock

After testing the radio and confirming there were no issues, Qin Miao felt the grip of the steering wheel with both hands.

The steering wheel was a bit large, but since this was someone else’s car, Qin Miao, as the guest, couldn’t be too picky about it.

He calmed his excited mood a bit. Although sitting in a formula racing car again felt awesome, driving in such a constantly excited state could easily lead to some irrational actions.

Once he felt calm, Qin Miao took one last deep breath, then pressed the clutch, shifted gears, and very gently drove the car out of the parking spot.

The whole process went smoothly, clearly showing he was no stranger to racing cars.

And Fini noticed all this from a distance.

Under the guidance of the team staff, Qin Miao drove the car into a P room at Silverstone Circuit.

Qin Miao vaguely remembered that during the British Grand Prix, this was supposedly Haas’s spot. However, after the F1 Grand Prix ended, all the black and gold paintwork belonging to Haas inside the P room was removed.

In its place was just an ordinary unfurnished room. The unfurnished part meant it had no interior decoration, just white-painted walls and ceiling, with some lighting fixtures and electrical outlets left behind, a typical P room.

After passing through here was the pit lane of Silverstone Circuit.

Qin Miao couldn’t wait to drive onto the pit lane. Today wasn’t an open day, only some teams near Silverstone Circuit were practicing on the track, so there weren’t many cars in the pit lane.

Most of the teams’ cars were parked in their own P rooms for inspection and tuning, and some even reviewed their drivers’ recent performances on the track and proposed some improvements.

While driving in the pit lane, Qin Miao also saw Zhou Guanyu’s team and his car.

However, Zhou Guanyu wasn’t in the garage at that time, and Qin Miao didn’t feel like greeting him. Seated in the car, he was eager to experience the adrenaline provided by the F3 racing engine, so he simply drove out.

On this track, which was both familiar and unfamiliar, Qin Miao didn’t do any warm-up laps. Since he hadn’t gone over the track, he wasn’t bold enough to do flying laps.

If Qin Miao dared to do flying laps in this state, then the car under him might just let him take off.

So for the first few laps, he mainly wanted to familiarize himself with the car under him and the upcoming track.

The first thing was to see if the braking points on this real track matched the ones he commonly used in the game.

For example, in the game, when there were not many suitable references in corners, Qin Miao liked to use some distinctive asphalt patches on the ground as his braking points. But in reality, he worried that those braking points he was used to in the game might have disappeared due to track repairs.

Of course, the final result was mixed; some asphalt patches in certain corners had indeed disappeared, but Qin Miao could still find one or two familiar braking points in some corners.

Because there were fewer braking points, Qin Miao had to spend a few more laps finding a braking reference that felt comfortable to him.

But honestly, even if he found the braking points, Qin Miao didn’t dare to brake at those familiar points until he completely familiarized himself with the car and the track.

After all, his usual simulator practice involved either F1 or GT3, and he hadn’t really played with F3 on the simulator.

Moreover, without using the Man and Car Unity skill card once he got in the car, Qin Miao needed to gradually familiarize himself with the real Silverstone Circuit and continuously explore the performance limits of the F3 car under him.

Although he had buffed the car and wasn’t worried about mechanical failures, Qin Miao genuinely had no clue about the car’s actual performance.

But no matter how many challenges Qin Miao faced at this moment, being able to drive an F3 car already made him very satisfied. So, despite needing to collect a ton of data, he could still find joy in it.

...

The morning passed quickly, and upon notification from the team, Qin Miao, who had no idea how many laps he had already run on the track, was called back.

This was the second time he returned to the pit lane. The first time was because the tires were almost worn out by Qin Miao, and he was also called back to refuel.

This time, Qin Miao was called back mainly because it was the lunch break for the team staff.

After turning off the engine and getting out of the car, the staff handed him a tablet.

After taking off his helmet and wiping the sweat, Qin Miao accepted the tablet given by the staff.

It clearly recorded the data Qin Miao had accumulated over the morning.

To be honest, what stood out the most was Qin Miao’s lap time chart.

From his first contact with the F3 car to the last lap before noon, there was an enormous gap of five full seconds.

The whole chart showed a clear downward trend. Although the decrease became less pronounced later on, Qin Miao’s speed improved with almost every lap.

Because of this, the team staff generously praised Qin Miao: "Qin! Your performance is excellent, and your progress is obvious."