CHAPTER 528: CHAPTER 230: AN EXPERIMENT

The pre-race activities like interviews won’t be described in detail here.

What’s worth mentioning is that during Qin Miao’s interview, Leclerc snuck up on Qin Miao when he wasn’t paying attention and jabbed his ribs forcefully.

Anyone who’s been poked in the ribs by a friend knows that it’s a mix of discomfort and tickling, almost making the body soften and making it hard not to laugh—Qin Miao was no exception.

After being poked, Qin Miao’s whole body softened.

Realizing it was Leclerc, Qin Miao stopped the interview and turned to chase after Leclerc.

Under the watchful eyes of the camera, Qin Miao finally tickled Leclerc under the arms twice before letting him go.

...

During the second practice session, knowing that Silverstone is particularly tough on tires, even though Pirelli provided the hardest C3-C1 tire options for this race, and the rear tires received special reinforcement, tire wear is still rapid on this track.

So during the second practice, most drivers in the top ten positions have already used up their soft tires.

According to their tactics, they won’t have the chance to use soft tires during the sprint qualifying and race stages later.

The exception is Qin Miao’s team, which reserved a set of soft tires for Qin Miao to use during the sprint qualifying.

This decision wasn’t made to sacrifice Qin Miao. Based on the tire wear data from the first and second practices, with Qin Miao’s tire management skills, he can run the entire sprint qualifying on a set of soft tires. Moreover, if Qin Miao drives normally, it’s unlikely the tires will reach the cliff point after completing the 17 laps of sprint qualifying.

Qin Miao naturally had no objection to this.

And by using soft tires in this race, as long as he protects the tires and doesn’t lose positions at the start, Qin Miao can both preserve the tires and pace the car later on.

According to the team’s calculations, Qin Miao’s speed on soft tires is about 0.2 seconds faster per lap than Hamilton’s.

As long as Qin Miao keeps his tires in check, he can slow down the pack’s speed during the sprint qualifying phase, giving Verstappen a chance to attack Hamilton.

With Hamilton being attacked by Verstappen, he obviously won’t have the opportunity to challenge Qin Miao. Qin Miao has long wanted to try this "drive the tiger to swallow the wolf" strategy, but he previously lacked the skills. Now, there’s a perfect opportunity.

After the second practice, Qin Miao also decided on his car setup for the sprint qualifying stage and opted for a set of soft tires.

Before the start of the sprint qualifying race, Qin Miao took some time in the team’s resting area to relax with Hamilton in an ice bath.

Earlier in the season, the lower air temperature meant the average track temperature was low, so there was no need for ice baths.

But as the season progresses into summer, both the track temperature and the temperature inside the racing cockpit are very high.

Ice baths are needed to cool the drivers’ bodies, tone their muscles, and relieve muscle soreness and fatigue from racing.

The sprint qualifying opening process is similar to a normal race, where the teams first push the cars onto the track.

Once preparations are complete, the team staff withdraw, and twenty cars begin their warm-up lap.

After the warm-up lap is finished, the cars park in their positions, awaiting the extinguishing of five red lights.

Prior to the sprint qualifying race, the three commentators from Five-Star Sports were saying that Qin Miao chose the soft tires today to help Hamilton block Verstappen for a few laps.

From their remarks, it’s clear that even though Qin Miao outperformed his teammate Hamilton during yesterday’s qualifying rounds, they still believe Qin Miao’s speed is slower than Hamilton’s, and during the sprint qualifying, Qin Miao might give up his position to Hamilton due to team orders.

Of course, it’s not that they didn’t consider the possibility of Qin Miao winning first in the sprint qualifying and then bringing home first in the race.

But at this time, no matter how well Qin Miao performs, they don’t believe he can bring home first.

It’s not because Qin Miao lacks the talent to achieve these things—many in the paddock believe Qin Miao’s talent is on par with Verstappen and Hamilton.

Truth be told, Qin Miao is arguably the most talented driver in the younger generation, and without question.

But he has a long way to go and needs continuous growth and experiences—this is only his first season in F1. Although he started off strong, accomplishing feats in less than half a season that some mid-to-lower tier drivers might never achieve in their entire career, he still has considerable room for growth, and that’s undeniable.

So no one doubts that Qin Miao will one day challenge Hamilton, but everyone thinks it won’t be today, and not at the British Grand Prix with Hamilton on home turf.

Aside from Qin Miao’s partner Qimeng, perhaps the only ones believing Qin Miao can challenge Hamilton are the neighbors watching the race in Qin Miao’s hometown community and his mom.

On the circuit, Qin Miao continuously checks various conditions of his car using the onboard detection program.