Chapter 1501 - 548: Le the Fourth: Spicy Ball!_2

Chapter 1501: Chapter 548: Le the Fourth: Spicy Ball!_2

Based on the treatment Bottas used to get at Mercedes, quite a few Spanish fans figured Sainz would end up like Bottas and spend a year as a reserve driver at Ferrari.

So of course, the Spanish fans didn’t have any friendly faces for Qin Miao, the so?called culprit behind it all.

But in reality, Sainz and Ferrari hadn’t really had any explosive conflicts during their time working together, and Ferrari weren’t planning to freeze Sainz’s contract.

There was no need—Sainz couldn’t beat Leclerc in a Ferrari, let alone Qin Miao, so letting him go posed no threat to Ferrari.

At the same time Sainz knew his own age; if Ferrari really locked him up for a year, his market value would tank once he left, because after a whole year without touching a race car, nobody could say what his form would be like.

So after talking things through, Sainz and Ferrari agreed to terminate the contract by mutual consent at the end of next season.

And by that time Sainz had already started job?hunting around the paddock.

Sainz’s situation wasn’t exactly great, but it definitely wasn’t as miserable as the Spanish local fans had imagined.

It’s just the sort of thing Sainz didn’t say out loud, and Qin Miao couldn’t really explain.

And Spain isn’t like the Netherlands, where basically everyone is a Verstappen fan.

The driver with the most Spanish fans is actually Alonso—at least twice as many as Sainz—and the rest are the ones who like both drivers.

So compared to the total number of spectators at the track today, the fans giving Qin Miao nasty looks were actually in the minority.

Out on track, in the first few laps Qin Miao was mainly getting familiar with the characteristics of the upgraded car.

After two laps he already had a clear feel for it.

The car’s traits had indeed changed quite a bit compared to Monaco last week.

First of all, the W14’s mechanical grip and downforce had both increased, so the feedback Qin Miao was getting on track was a more responsive front end and stronger acceleration in the early and middle phases.

It’s not some massive step, but what’s certain is this W14 is easier to drive than in the last two races.

After spending a few laps getting acquainted with the all?new W14’s traits, Qin Miao started the usual qualifying simulation you get every race weekend.

He pitted, refueled, and bolted on a set of softs.

Then went back out and did a qualifying?sim flying lap.

One lap later, his time was 1:14.90.

That time was actually pretty average, and Qin Miao even made a small mistake—through T12 he should have shifted down, but he didn’t, which meant the car understeered a bit on exit. Fortunately he caught it and didn’t lose the car.

But compared to everyone else, nobody had really gone all?out on their quali sims yet, so Qin Miao’s time unexpectedly put him P1 on the Q1 timesheet.

That gave both Mercedes and Ferrari fans a good excuse to pop some champagne for a while.

After finishing that lap and coming back to the garage, his tire condition was still decent. Pirelli had brought the three hardest compounds this weekend, and with tire wear clearly better than expected, odds were high that in tomorrow’s race Qin Miao could go red?yellow one?stop to the flag.

Of course, the exact pit strategy for the race would still depend on the data the team gathered in the next two practice sessions.

As for FP2, there’s not much to dwell on—both Mercedes drivers are very experienced and extremely stable, rarely losing the car or making big mistakes on track.

And even if something does happen, as long as it isn’t a sudden massive crosswind, the impact on them is minimal; they’re able to save the car before it fully gets away.

In the end, on Friday Qin Miao was P2 in FP1 and P4 in FP2.

With Friday’s work done, time quickly rolled over into Saturday.

By FP3 Qin Miao basically had the track fully figured out, and with about fifteen minutes left in the session, he’d already completed all his program—and had an extra brand?new set of softs in hand.

With that kind of opportunity, not using the softs would make him feel sick.

So he filled the tank and went out to do an all?out qualifying simulation.

This track layout is brand new after all, and Qin Miao had no idea what kind of time he could do here at full attack, so he wanted a reference point in his mind.

After that flying lap, his time was 1:15.633.

On the timesheet that lap wasn’t even as good as O’Kang in fifteenth; it was downright ugly.

Almost nobody paid attention—over at Red Bull they just assumed Qin Miao had thrown on softs for a practice run.

But when Qin Miao did that flying lap, his fuel tank was full.

Once you strip out the fuel weight, that lap was actually in the 1:12.5–1:12.6 range.

That’s already a pole?contending time, assuming Verstappen doesn’t post some absolutely ridiculous quali lap this weekend.

Qualifying.

Just before quali started, there had been a light drizzle over the track.

Luckily the rain had stopped by the time the session officially got underway.

All the drivers went out on softs to set times.

Qin Miao did the same.

Compared to Friday practice, there were more fans at the circuit today, and more hostile voices directed at Qin Miao.

But he still didn’t care.

In Q1, quite a few drivers lost control or ran off because of lingering patches of standing water in some parts of the track.

At least nobody damaged their cars with a mistake in this phase.

On his first Q1 flyer, Qin Miao’s time was solid—1:13.111 right out of the gate.

That time didn’t even look like something the "old" Qin Miao would produce.

Not that it was too bad—it was too good.

In the end he topped Q1 with that 1:13.111 and went through to Q2.

The drivers knocked out in Q1 were:

Bottas, Magelsen, Albon, Russell, Leclerc.

Yep, you read that right—Leclerc really was the last one out.

On the post?session team radio, even Leclerc himself sounded a bit in disbelief.

When Ferrari fans saw Leclerc eliminated in Q1 as dead last, a giant question mark popped into their heads first—and then, instead of anger, what settled over them was a sense of relief.

Nobody who knows the score thinks that with Sainz up in P4 and through to Q2, Leclerc ending Q1 dead last is down to car performance, and it’s definitely not that Leclerc’s ability suddenly fell off a cliff overnight.

The Iron Buddha Temple crowd, who know Ferrari inside out, took one look at Leclerc’s time and pretty much concluded: Ferrari’s bunch of idiots must have fiddled with some setup again, and the end result was Leclerc’s car just not performing on track.

And that’s exactly how it was—after quali Ferrari admitted there was an issue inside Leclerc’s car, and said they’d strip it down and investigate in detail after the session, and that they didn’t rule out changing the car’s setup before the race.

Because Leclerc was already starting last; any further grid penalties would just mean starting from the pit lane at worst.

But if Qin Miao were to join Ferrari at this moment and swap places with Leclerc, Qin would happily take the penalty, adjust the car’s setup, and bolt in a whole fresh power unit.

Since he’d already be penalized back to a pit?lane start, using a power unit beyond the allowed allocation wouldn’t get him sent back to starting from the garage itself.

With no greater loss, he’d be farming a brand?new power unit for free—why wouldn’t you?

Unfortunately, right now Qin Miao is still a Mercedes driver.

Thinking back to his meeting with Vassel on Monday, Qin remembers Vassel saying he couldn’t stand another single day of ’23, and Qin had been pretty calm about it at the time—yet now he’s starting to feel the same.

Maybe it’s just that everyone’s nature is to love the new and hate the old...