"Good evening, viewers. Welcome to Five-Star Sports’ live broadcast of the 2021 Formula One World Championship, Bahrain Grand Prix qualifying round. I’m Bing."
After the opening remarks, the three commentators started chatting.
"Today is also our first broadcast of the F1 third practice session, as everyone is eager to see Qin Miao’s performance with the Mercedes team."
"The director really gave our Chinese driver Qin Miao a lot of screen time during the third practice, although unfortunately, after the session, Qin Miao’s ranking wasn’t very high, just in eighth place."
Fei smoothly took over: "But fans familiar with F1 should know that practice session results are just a reference; a driver’s true ability shows in the qualifying round and the actual race."
"Exactly, now we see some cars already at the pit exit waiting." Content originally comes from novel~fire~net
In the broadcast footage, two Haas and two Williams cars were the first to hit the track.
"During the practice, I was focused on watching Qin Miao, forgot to tell the audience about the personnel changes at Haas this year. They’ve decided to invest all their resources into developing next year’s new car under the new regulations."
"It wouldn’t be surprising if the Haas drivers have an easier time this year, since even if they don’t achieve good results, it doesn’t matter much because the team isn’t investing in this aspect."
Qin Miao, already equipped with a new engine and gearbox, was waiting early in the car but wasn’t immediately sent out, continuing to wait for Frankie’s notice in the P room.
Mercedes, being a major team, lacks nothing but money.
During a Grand Prix, Mercedes prepared a total of six gearboxes and four engines for the two cars.
One set of gearbox and engine is used only for practice, another set just for the race, and a spare set can be replaced on site if there’s a breakdown.
This strategy lowers the probability of engine and gearbox faults during the qualifying and race stages to a minimum, while also ensuring the engine’s output is consistently stable.
After all, the engine is actually a consumable; the lower the durability, the less power it provides.
But only financially strong teams like Mercedes, Ferrari, and Red Bull can afford to play this way; usually, other teams can’t handle having so many spare parts.
Team strategy director James Vincent waited for a relatively clean window before signaling Qin Miao and Hamilton to leave the P room.
At this time, seven minutes had already passed since Q1 started, and Russell, the first to come out, had completed a valid lap.
Hamilton went out first, followed by Qin Miao.
After a warm-up lap, Qin Miao reached T11, ready to complete his first flying lap in F1 when Toto Wolff’s German-accented English suddenly came through his TR: "Stay calm, our car performs very well, you just need to give your usual performance to smoothly advance to Q2."
Toto was clearly worried about Qin Miao’s performance on the track, so he offered reassurance, really taking care of him.
Responding briefly in the TR, Qin Miao reached T14.
To let the driver ahead get farther away and give himself more space, Qin Miao held back the car for about 5 seconds.
Only then did he start accelerating out of the corner for his flying lap.
Numerous simulator practices as well as his winter testing and practice sessions have made Qin Miao’s movements instinctive.
Nonetheless, Qin Miao made a slight error after exiting T15.
Even though it’s his first time at a Grand Prix, Qin Miao managed to keep a composed expression, showing no signs of nervousness, but internally, he was under constant pressure.
Whether from the pressure of having a strong teammate, the pressure of performing well in a team like Mercedes to avoid criticism, or the pressure of competing in a Grand Prix for the first time.
These pressures objectively exist.
Considering such massive pressure, Qin Miao only making minor errors is already testament to an extraordinary ability to withstand pressure.
Moreover, this mistake wasn’t due to operational issues on Qin Miao’s part; it was mainly because he habitually drove in a practice session style during the qualifying round.
It’s important to know that Mercedes deliberately limits engine power during practice sessions, partly to hide their strength and partly to prolong the lifespan of the practice session engine.
Now, with a newly unrestricted engine, the power output differs slightly from what Qin Miao was accustomed to. The throttle depth he was used to applying on soft tire traction limits would now cause the rear wheels to lose grip.
Fortunately, Qin Miao’s Man and Car Unity skill card brought his car compatibility to a mind-boggling level, so as soon as the rear wheels started spinning, Qin Miao slightly backed off the throttle and gently adjusted the steering wheel, stabilizing the car.
From the outside, it was even hard to notice Qin Miao had made such a small error.
But this incident did occur, and Qin Miao’s speed after exiting the corner was at least 3 km/h slower than his teammate Hamilton.
Since Q1’s first lap result is meant to establish a baseline, giving himself a basic score, Qin Miao didn’t push to the limit, running a whole flying lap at his practice session pace.