Chapter 1207: Chapter 456: Scheming to the Extreme? Pure Coincidence! (2)
But before Qin Miao could open his mouth to ask anything, Frankie was already speaking at his side: "Qin Miao, according to the estimates from the team strategy group, there will still be a lot of water left on track when the race restarts, the rain might not even stop. Since the FIA chose to restart the race in that window, we expect the other teams will all run full wets at that stage."
"But the current air temperature and track temperature are similar to FP1 on Friday, which means right now we’re the only one of the ten teams in the paddock that has full-wet tyre test data under these exact track conditions."
Qin Miao froze for a moment, then asked, "So what you’re saying is..."
"Only we know that the full wets have no pace in these conditions." When Frankie said this, there was even a hint of excitement in his tone.
Because with the right answer in hand, Qin Miao would need one less pit stop than the drivers from other teams.
"But if we bolt on inters in advance, there’s a good chance we’ll alert Red Bull and Ferrari, so for now don’t mention this on the team radio. We’ll first put you on full wets just like everyone else, then before the FIA orders all team personnel to clear the grid, we’ll switch both you and Hamilton onto inters."
"So, just sit tight and trust the strategy group."
Looking at Frankie, Qin Miao could only give him a thumbs-up. "You guys are really filthy."
Frankie gave a tactical cough and said, "There’s one more thing. Even though the full-wet data was collected by you, we’re still one team after all, I can’t stop Hamilton’s race engineer from pulling those numbers, so..."
"Frankie." Qin Miao cut him off and said seriously, "It’s fine. Leaving aside the fact I still have a chance to pass Hamilton on track, even if because of the weather I can’t get by him and I only finish second in this race in the end.
On the drivers’ standings I’m still firmly in first place, aren’t I? Even if Hamilton wins every single remaining Grand Prix this season, with the points he has now he still can’t threaten my title defense."
"I’m really glad you see it that way. I was just worried you’d feel Hamilton’s presence would stop you from opening up the gap to Verstappen."
"After all, even though you’re leading the standings right now, the gap to Verstappen isn’t that big. One mistake or a single DNF and all your effort this season could go up in smoke. But whether Hamilton takes wins or not doesn’t make much difference anymore to his own championship fight or final ranking this year..."
Qin Miao waved a hand, cutting Frankie off. "You know I’m not that kind of person."
"Alright." Frankie shrugged, then reached out and gripped Qin Miao’s hand, saying earnestly, "Today’s opportunity is rare. The team will try its best not to hold you back. Hope you bring home a big result. Go get it."
Qin Miao patted the back of Frankie’s hand. "Relax. When have I ever let the team down?"
After nodding, Frankie went over to brief Reyes about a few things, then walked to the crew in front of Qin Miao, Hamilton’s side of the garage, and gave them a few instructions as well, before heading straight back to the Mercedes pit wall.
From there, all the various preparations by every team proceeded step by step according to plan.
And just when everyone was methodically going through their last checks before the restart, in the final thirty seconds before the pit lane tyre-change ban came into effect...
Just like every other team’s mechanics, the Mercedes crew were originally squatting by the four corners of the cars, holding the tyre blankets. All of a sudden, they grabbed the low-powered portable wheel guns lying on the ground.
Then the eight mechanics started rapidly removing all eight wheels from the two Mercedes cars, and very quickly bolted the tyres back on—only this time, what went on were inters.
By the time Mercedes had finished their tyre change, the other teams’ crews finally realized what was happening. But even though they’d caught on, there simply wasn’t enough time left for them to copy Mercedes’ move and swap full wets for inters.
On top of that, while the others were still processing it, Red Bull’s strategy group—who were actually the quickest to react out of everyone—wanted to do the same switch to inters, only to find that their tyre trolleys had already been pulled back in advance.
So the strategy crews at Red Bull and Ferrari could only watch helplessly as Mercedes put a set of inters on Qin Miao’s car.
But an F1 team is full of hidden geniuses; very soon some people realized Mercedes were the only outfit this weekend that had done any meaningful running on full wets in heavy rain. That naturally meant Mercedes knew whether full wets or inters were quicker in these conditions.
At that moment, quite a few strategy engineers who’d figured this out smacked themselves on the forehead. How had they not thought of this earlier?
How had they forgotten something as important as FP1 this race weekend?
If they’d remembered, they would’ve glued their eyes to the two Mercedes cars at the restart stage. The second they saw anything unusual, they’d have followed Mercedes’ lead and changed tyres on the spot.
Only after replaying it in their heads did the strategy guys at Red Bull and Ferrari realize: ever since Q1 this weekend, the only thing stuck in their brain was that damn near impossible drift Qin Miao pulled off in an F1 car.
For fuck’s sake! Qin Miao, you bastard! Hiding this deep? Was this all part of your plan too?
When in fact, Qin Miao really had just made a mistake back then.
...
Once this tactic came off, the fans at the circuit and the audience in front of their TVs, even the commentators, might still not understand what had just happened. But with every other car on full wets and only Mercedes running inters, the live director immediately cut to a shot of Toto in the Mercedes pit box.
Right now Toto had his arms folded across his chest, looking like a man completely in control.
Plenty of team members who’d already realized the inters were actually quicker than the full wets saw that expression on Toto’s face and were grinding their teeth in frustration.
They practically wanted to storm into the Mercedes pit box and put a boot straight into this guy.
But there was nothing they could do about it.
The reason Toto was so happy wasn’t hard to guess either: Hamilton and Qin Miao were already P1 and P2 on track in real terms.
The only tiny bit of comfort for Red Bull was that Qin Miao was only running second at that moment. At least with Verstappen coming out of the pits in third, the points gap wouldn’t be stretched too far by this race.
What? Attack Qin Miao?
...
In the rain, no DRS, and the guy you need to overtake is Qin Miao...
Honestly, in this situation, even if Schumacher suddenly sat bolt upright on his sickbed, regained his peak form, and took Verstappen’s seat, he probably still wouldn’t have much of an answer to Qin Miao.
Soon, all the drivers headed out onto the track, and after more than two hours of red-flag suspension, the race was finally restarting.
But just after exiting the pit lane, both Qin Miao and Hamilton could clearly feel that the inters were more slippery than the full wets.
However, after two laps behind the safety car and with the track conditions obviously improving, the stability of Qin Miao and Hamilton’s cars became clearly better.
By the time the safety car was on its third lap, both of them could feel they had plenty of grip.
The car felt great to drive.
In the end, with 40 minutes left on the race clock, the safety car had already led the field for six laps. At the end of the sixth lap, the lights on top of the safety car went out, signalling that the race was about to go green.
The race was finally about to restart.
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