Chapter 1495 - 545: Aftermath of Monaco Conclusion_2

Chapter 1495: Chapter 545: Aftermath of Monaco Conclusion_2

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After completing the post-race interview, Qin Miao was the last one to head to the podium area in Monaco for final preparations.

After picking up his Pirelli cap below the podium, Qin Miao went upstairs.

Then, introduced by the on-site host, Qin Miao took the stage.

It is worth mentioning that last year when Qin Miao won in Monaco, when reaching this step, he only politely shook hands with Monaco’s officials and Albert II along with Princess Charlene.

But today, during this race, when Qin Miao was preparing to repeat the previous gesture, Albert II and Princess Charlene took the initiative to give Qin Miao a hug.

Qin Miao didn’t mind at all, and proceeded to embrace each person directly.

It is worth noting that while hugging Albert II, Qin Miao curiously asked: "Did Yak not come today?"

Albert II softly replied: "At home doing homework..."

Qin Miao: ...

Originally, Qin Miao thought that children from such a wealthy family like the Monaco royal family would receive elite education and have little to do with things like homework, but who knew...

After briefly greeting his two acquaintances, and shaking hands with Ben Sulayem, Qin Miao returned to his third-place podium position.

Following this, Hamilton and Verstappen also took the stage.

Once the three were all positioned on the podium, Verstappen’s track engineer joined the Red Bull Team’s position.

Then the main representatives of the Monaco royal family begin to present the trophies to the drivers.

After receiving his trophy and medal, the next familiar segment for all drivers is the national anthem.

Then there’s the champagne spraying, and group photos.

After finishing all that, the Monaco Grand Prix came to an end.

Meanwhile, the broadcaster provided the championship standings for drivers and teams after the end of this race.

Driver Championship Standings:

1: Verstappen: 138

2: Qin Miao: 106

3: Hamilton: 100

4: Perez: 71

5: Alonso: 66

6: Leclerc: 47

7: Sainz: 39

8: Stroll: 23

9: O’Kang: 14

10: Gasly: 12

11: Norris: 12

12: Zhou Guanyu: 4

13: Bottas: 4

14: Hockenheim: 4

15: Piastri: 4

16: Tsunoda: 2

17: Magelsen: 1

After this race, Verstappen continued to widen the gap against Qin Miao.

Regarding this, Mercedes hardly has any good solutions. The recent race locations haven’t been favorable for the W14.

Coincidentally, the Imola Grand Prix, which is favorable for the W14 and could have helped Qin Miao close the gap, got canceled due to Italy’s incessant rainstorms, causing the gap between Qin Miao and Verstappen in the driver standings to stretch out to 32 points.

Simultaneously, the Team Championship Standings are as follows:

1. Red Bull: 209

2. Mercedes: 206

3. Aston Martin: 89

4. Ferrari: 86

5. Alpine: 26

6. McLaren: 16

7. Alfa Romeo: 8

8. Haas: 5

9. Lynk & Co: 2

10. Williams: 0

While the Red Bull team drivers triumphed in this race, it was Mercedes taking the lead in the team standings.

After this race, Mercedes has narrowed their gap with Red Bull from the original 12 points down to just 3 points.

If Perez still cannot contribute significant points for Red Bull in the next race, then Mercedes is poised to overtake them.

Moreover, knowing Red Bull, if Perez consistently performs below par in several races, he might likely be shuffled by the team.

As it happens, after the Monaco Grand Prix ended, because the Spanish Grand Prix is happening next week, Qin Miao completed all his tasks and promptly boarded a flight to Spain that day.

Then Qin Miao saw the news on the plane.

In an interview with Sky Sports after the race, Horner and Marco hinted that if Perez’s performance remains as it currently is for the upcoming races, the team will have to consider other options.

Though not explicitly stated, the implication was clear:

"Hang on, Perez, the team doesn’t want to replace you, but your performances at the start of this season have truly been subpar. If this continues, a change will have to be considered."

At the same time, Qin Miao also spotted another interesting point.

That is Martin.

After the race, Aston Martin’s team leader Mike Clarke explicitly mentioned that having Alonso make a pit stop for a tire change during rain was not a mistake by the team strategy group.

Instead, the team observed from radar data that the rain would soon stop, lasting for merely two or three laps; thus, it was deemed adventurous yet a worthwhile choice to equip Alonso with dry tires.

At least then, under Martin Team’s judgment based on weather conditions, expecting the rain to stop soon, it seemed a viable decision.

However, things did not turn out as Martin anticipated, and the rain did not cease as quickly as expected.

Over time, the rain actually intensified.

Therefore, Martin Team eventually had Alonso relinquish his podium position to the two Mercedes drivers.

Honestly, when Qin Miao saw this news, he saw through this as merely an excuse crafted by Martin.

Martin has no shortage of funds, so their weather radar couldn’t be this unreliable; casting the blame on this instead of other issues might seem a bit more credible to general racing fans.

It’s more likely that something went wrong within Martin Team’s internal processes leading to the illogical decision to pit Alonso for dry tires during rain.

Without Martin openly discussing what truly transpired with the fans, no one could catch wind of the internal scoop.

Even seasoned professionals like Qin Miao in the F1 community remain unaware.

But Martin’s explanation appears insufficient for some fans, who are quite savvy themselves.

Thus, despite the given explanation, Alonso’s fans continue to express their discontent, lashing out on Martin’s social media with rather unpleasant remarks.

Furthermore, Qin Miao also received from the team a detailed analysis of the car damage while on the airplane.

The G-force from the impact when Qin Miao’s car crashed wasn’t particularly high; the total inertia was divided over three decreasing impacts, peaking at only 8G, dropping down to 5G, possibly even lesser than some high-speed cornering G-force values.

Under such circumstances, it was truly a blessing that Qin Miao’s car’s front suspension wasn’t broken off.

Subsequent checks did not reveal any cracks or other damages in the car’s front and rear suspension, and even the team’s mechanics assessed that Qin Miao’s suspension setup could still be used for the Spanish Grand Prix.

However, as a precautionary measure, the team chose to replace all the front and rear suspension parts on the right side of Qin Miao’s car.

Consequently, the repair costs for Qin Miao’s incident saw a noticeable rise.

Adding the front wing damage to the front and rear suspension replacement, Qin Miao’s crash resulted in car damage totaling 60 US Dollars.

From the perspective of ordinary people, 60 US Dollars is equivalent to 300 million RMB; Qin Miao’s single crash amounted to wrecking an AMG GT.

However, in the eyes of an F1 team, this was merely a routine minor mishap; the collision expense barely scratched the surface of the team’s car damage budget.

Having reviewed these amusing insights and data, Qin Miao smoothly landed in Catalonia, Spain.

The Catalonia circuit is actually a very balanced track.

Before Saudi Arabia’s affluent individuals joined the scene, F1’s pre-season and post-season testing were always conducted on this track.

For no other reason than this track’s exceptional balance, allowing teams to test scenarios that a car might encounter throughout an entire season.

High, medium, low-speed turns, long straights, heavy braking zones, and elevation changes—all available in one place.

Qin Miao used to quite favor this track, as it allowed for competitive lap times—who wouldn’t like that?

But this season, as Qin Miao regards his W14, he finds it hard to like this track.

Balance signifies that this circuit doesn’t favor any particular car characteristic, which doesn’t bode well for the W14, a car with significant bias.