CHAPTER 59: CHAPTER 53: HOW TO SAVE FUEL

How can you be so unambitious?

Qin Yun was slightly surprised in her heart, and then felt a bit disappointed.

Initially, upon seeing the second place result, Qin Yun thought she would have a competitor to duel with this time, but unexpectedly, there was an extra person in the other car.

With an extra person in the car, Qin Yun thought she could shake Qin Miao out of her slipstream zone within a lap.

This wasn’t confidence, just that with extra weight, the opponent’s car was bound to have many negative effects.

Qin Yun never imagined that the B was already in Qin Miao’s car during the qualifying, and even after the qualifying, Qin Miao’s fuel tank still had over ten liters of fuel.

If she knew these Debuffs, she might have been thinking about how to secure her position.

"Five-minute countdown." The engineer’s voice sounded.

"Roger that..."

After responding, Qin Miao turned her head to Yu Jialiang: "The race starts in five minutes, you still have time to get off the car now."

Yu Jialiang stiffened his neck: "Getting off the car is impossible, even if I die before the race finishes, I’ll die in the car!"

"You’re tough, but this is my race, and the contract with the top three drivers is quite important to me, so no matter how much you beg later, I won’t stop to let you off." Qin Miao finally stated her thoughts.

"Don’t worry, buddy, I definitely won’t hold you back."

"I drive aggressively, if nothing unexpected happens you’ll certainly puke, the kind where you’ll puke abdominal acid."

"If I puke, I’ll call you dad." Yu Jialiang followed up, stiffening his neck.

Qin Miao blinked her mouth a bit regretfully and didn’t persuade any further.

As for Qin Miao’s mind... actually cursing, because with such a big person in the car, his lap time would be at least 0.3 seconds slower each lap, but Qin Miao is rather thin-skinned, too embarrassed to blatantly drive the other off.

...

"One minute... Thirty seconds... 10 seconds... 5... 4... 3... 2... 1..."

"Go, go, go! Warm-up lap starts!"

"Maintain distance, seize the opportunity, pay attention to safety."

Qin Miao gently pressed the accelerator, following the safety car, slowly moving out of the starting grid.

Nothing much to say about the warm-up lap, Qin Miao just kept a two-car length distance behind the AMG GT in front, and whenever possible, did an S-shape to warm up the tires.

The cars behind were imitating as well.

Soon the car line, with the unique low roar of the AMG GT, reached T16.

The safety car pitted before entering T16, while the racers, including Qin Miao, maintained a speed below 80 kilometers per hour, waiting for the extinguishing of the five red lights at the starting grid.

Though Qin Miao looked calm at this moment, his heart rate was surging to 160.

Even Yu Jialiang, sitting beside him without any racing operation pressure, had his heart rate over 130.

This involves a sense of immersion, just like watching your favorite racer compete, since you like him, you subconsciously put yourself in his shoes.

Subconsciously, you start to sweat for him.

This was exactly Yu Jialiang’s state now, even more thrilling than watching his favorite racer compete on TV, because he was sitting right in Qin Miao’s car at this moment.

The two were in a relationship where one would share the other’s glory or suffering, so he began to feel nervous too, worried that Qin Miao’s start might have an accident.

Although countless start simulations were done in "ACC", the vibration from the engine ahead, the speed sensation when scenery on both sides of the view retreated rapidly, the thirst for first place, all were invisibly putting pressure on Qin Miao.

Finally, as those five red lights in view went out, Qin Miao slammed on the accelerator.

This car had a traction control system, and with a base speed of 79 kilometers per hour, there was no possibility of the car spinning out with one jam on the gas pedal.

After starting, Qin Miao instinctively looked towards the left at the AMG GT in pole position.

Qin Yun’s start was excellent, equal to Qin Miao’s.

Qin Miao didn’t close the distance to Qin Yun through the start, but also wasn’t left behind right at the start.

At this moment, Qin Yun had half a car advantage over Qin Miao; seeing this, Qin Miao wasn’t flustered.

The start at Shanghai, as long as the driver in P2 isn’t left behind by the pole-sitter during the start, then it’s a win for the P2 driver.

Because Shanghai’s T1 and T2 are a broad right turn, and as long as Qin Miao, starting in P2, doesn’t get left behind entering T1, he can easily block the inner line.

And he can easily overtake and secure the first position by utilizing the significant inner line advantage at Shanghai’s T1 and T2.

With the engine roaring, Qin Miao and Qin Yun approached the T1 corner.

Qin Yun took the standard brake point on the left path, even leaving a bit of space for Qin Miao.

Whereas Qin Miao’s brake point was at least 50 meters later, this wasn’t a mistake by Qin Miao; a mentally tense Qin Miao would be nervous, but he would never make an operational mistake on the first corner due to nervousness.

He braked late purely because he was afraid of being hit by the drivers behind him acting as torpedoes, pushing himself out of the inner line.

Fortunately, although the drivers behind weren’t as fast as Qin Miao, they were also cautious and didn’t push to the extreme, avoiding a torpedo situation.

This late braking by Qin Miao caused him to hand over the advantage that should have been his to Qin Yun.

Qin Yun used the crossover line to overtake the slightly wide Qin Miao at the T1 turn.

If it were a hairpin turn, Qin Miao could have gained an edge on the straight by opening the throttle early, but unfortunately, Shanghai’s T3 and T4 didn’t give Qin Miao much room to maneuver.

From the start of the race until the exit of T3, the top three positions remained unchanged, and as for the drivers behind, Qin Miao had no idea since he couldn’t see them.

After exiting T4, both Qin Miao and his co-driver Yu Jialiang’s heart rates calmed down.

Qin Miao’s heart rate maintained around 130, while Yu Jialiang’s stayed at 100, which is normal for a racing driver in competition.

Although Qin Miao often complained about this AMG GT’s shortcomings, claiming that it was useless except for acceleration,

when it came time to run this relatively long race, the advantages of this AMG GT over those professional race cars became evident.

This car has air conditioning! It even has a radio to listen to music! Most importantly, the car’s suspension is softer, making the drive not as bumpy as an F4.

Of course, to avoid distracting Qin Miao, Yu Jialiang didn’t turn on the radio; feeling a bit hot, he just turned on the car’s air conditioning.

In fact, Qin Miao, who was fully engrossed in the race, didn’t feel hot, just like the first time he drove an F4, when the sweat-wicking lining was drenched with his sweat, he didn’t feel tired, realizing only when he stepped out of the car that he was too exhausted to stand.

However, the sudden cool breeze still made Qin Miao feel refreshed, his mind clearer and calmer.

His attention soon returned to the race.

On the first lap, after starting in first place only to lose his position at T1, Qin Miao stayed within one second behind Qin Yun the whole time.

But most of Qin Miao’s attention wasn’t on the car in front, but rather on the gray AMG GT behind him.

For Qin Miao, today’s task was to maintain second place with a chance to fight for first. The race was long, and his primary focus now was to hold his position rather than immediately attack Qin Yun in front.

Right now, the most crucial information for Qin Miao was the speed of the car behind. If during the race, the third position started encroaching on the advantage he gained at the start, then Qin Miao needed to quickly seize first place before being attacked, letting third and Qin Yun fight each other.

If he couldn’t secure first place, Qin Miao would then have to defend against the attack from third place.

Qin Miao was confident in defending against the car behind, but getting entangled in a fight would inevitably sacrifice his speed, lowering his chances of catching up to Qin Yun over time.

Most critically, the fuel Qin Miao carried would fall short by at least two laps if driven normally, meaning his car didn’t have enough fuel to complete the entire race.

However, Qin Miao’s concerns were somewhat unnecessary, as people like them, who have a certain understanding and decent skills in racing, were few and far between.

As the first lap finished, Qin Miao and Qin Yun naturally formed a leading group, distancing the third-place car by almost a second in just one lap.

This alarming gap left the third-place guy with a face full of discontent and despair. If Qin Miao observed closely, he could tell that it was the general manager of the so-called Fengtai Group, Fu Hai, who approached Qin Yun when he and Qimeng were waiting for the race to start in the rest area.

But setting these trivialities aside, once he confirmed that third place couldn’t pose a substantial threat, Qin Miao started slowing his pace and entered cruising mode on the second lap.

Despite the system tasks offering rewards for first place that were almost ten times that of second, which immensely tempted Qin Miao, he had a clear self-recognition and a rather calm mind.

He understood that rather than increasing the risk of not finishing for an uncertain first place, safeguarding his second position was the choice for maximizing benefits.

Operating in fuel-saving mode wasn’t too difficult; it just required some adaptation.

The first method was to ease off the throttle roughly a hundred meters before the hard braking points on Shanghai’s back straight and the starting straight, using the vehicle’s inertia for those hundred meters before beginning to decelerate and downshift.

The idea behind this is to let the engine, which is at a high RPM stage, ease off fuel at the final stretch of the straight, effectively and noticeably reducing fuel consumption.

Additionally, because you don’t continue accelerating in this last stretch, the braking point can be slightly earlier, which may reduce some braking time.

This approach can save at least 4%~6% fuel per lap for Qin Miao.

The second method involves during the acceleration phase, where when shifting gears from third to fourth, Qin Miao wouldn’t wait to hit the optimal RPM before shifting, generally shifting at half or three-quarters of the RPM.

This method protects the engine, saves fuel, and conserves tires, with the only downside being a slower acceleration.

Of course, Qin Miao was particular about when to shift early; he usually chose to shift early when the AMG GT’s engine performance couldn’t achieve rapid acceleration in the mid to late phase, keeping the acceleration loss within an acceptable range.

Certainly, the early shifting method also needs to be adapted to the current track; generally, for a long straight, later gears are shifted early, whereas, for short straights, earlier gears are shifted early.

Also, consider the current state; if you’ve caught the slipstream of the car ahead or opened DRS and ERS, you can shift earlier.

In any case, this method is much more flexible compared to the first fuel-saving strategy.

This driving style can save 5%~7% fuel per lap.

With both methods working together, Qin Miao can save at least 9%~13% fuel per lap.

Over ten laps, he could extend for at least one more lap.

Of course, this approach naturally reduces Qin Miao’s speed, but for Qin Miao, it didn’t matter.

After all, his primary goal was to keep up with the car ahead and not be overtaken by the car behind. From the current state, Qin Miao could distance the car behind by one second per lap, and losing 0.6 seconds per lap in fuel-saving mode was completely acceptable.