"Looks like the team is in trouble with the transition."

Alessi said lightly that Zhang Yifei is a newcomer and has never seen a transition in the F1 season.

But Alessi has been racing in the F1 paddock for more than a decade, has seen countless team transitions, and already knows the procedures and steps of the transition.

In general, F1 teams are the most convenient and affordable to transfer in Europe, and only need to use trucks for logistics transportation.

There are even some of the more "extravagant" big teams that use their own motorhomes (team offices, lounges, restaurants, etc.) for European races. This ensures that the team and drivers can always be in a familiar and comfortable environment, and meet the event in a better condition.

However, when intercontinental transportation is required for overseas races, the logistics and transportation of the team will be greatly difficult.

In most cases, F1 Grand Prix races are held every two weeks, or half a month. However, there will be special circumstances, and it will be held directly back-to-back, compressing the preparation time to a week.

This required the team to pack all the belongings and deliver them to the local international airport within a few hours of the race.

And the F1 team has a lot of things, and the car parts are the most basic. For example, the number of radio stations alone is as high as dozens of radio stations, and then hundreds of wireless communication equipment, wireless network base stations, and so on.

In this way, it is possible to ensure that the team's instructions can be clearly received from any corner of the track for several kilometers and two-way communication can be carried out.

In addition to these electronic products, there are many consumables and spare parts that need to be transferred to the fleet.

For example, up to 28 sets of tires, 2500L of fuel, 200L of engine oil, 90L of coolant, enough food for hundreds of people to eat the entire stage and so on.

All things add up, and the weight will be up to tens of tons, which will require a special charter flight to get it.

And these things do not include worthless things such as tables, chairs and benches, otherwise a charter flight may not be enough. Cheap and unimportant things are sometimes used by sea or by renting the logistics provided by the track.

Of course, the most important thing is the two official race cars and a spare car for transport.

These three F1 cars are the most important thing for a team to transfer to the field!

In order to ensure the absolute safety and integrity of the car, all the car transportation needs to be disassembled, such as the engine, gearbox, front and rear wings and other parts, will be wrapped in special foam, indicating the design details and the remaining service life, and then transported uniformly.

And the severity is very high, not to mention any collision damage, not even the paint of the car.

Although some small paint problems do not affect the performance of the competition, the supplier and the team sponsor are absolutely unwilling to have any traces of bumps on their LOGO.

It's close to the wee hours of the morning, and theoretically everything is almost packed at this point in time. Especially the most important race cars, which should be disassembled and boxed.

However, Alessi saw that the team's main technical staff were all gathered in front of a disassembled car, which was completely inconsistent with the team's transition packaging process, so he said that the team was in trouble with the transition.

"Really? Then go over and take a look. ”

Zhang Yifei replied with some puzzlement, it was the first time he had experienced this kind of team event transition, and he didn't have Alessi's experience, so he didn't know what happened.

But Korcel and the others were all discussing around a dismantling car, which was definitely not a normal scene. If you want to find out what's going on, just go over and see.

Maserati stopped at the door of the repair station accurately, and saw that it was Zhang Yifei and Alessi coming, and the boss Prost nodded to them, which was regarded as a greeting, and then continued to direct the disassembly of the parts of the maintenance station.

Tomorrow morning is the time for the plane to take off, and it is necessary to complete the customs declaration and security check of everything, the time is very urgent, and Prost has no time to chat with Zhang Yifei and them.

Naturally, Alessi didn't pay attention to the dismantling and packing of the pit, he and Zhang Yifei walked straight to the disassembled car, and asked the technical director Cod, "What happened?" ”

"In this racing car, there is another problem with the engine tightness, and we are trying to find a way to fix it."

Originally, Zhang Yifei's expression on his face was very relaxed, but after hearing this, he instantly became solemn.

The engine is the heart of a racing car, although the Peugeot engine is not very good, and even compared to the previous Honda engine of the Prost team, it has been criticized and criticized.

However, in this competition, Zhang Yifei saw various failures and withdrawals of other teams, and only 60% of the completion rate. Suddenly, I felt that the Peugeot engine didn't seem to be as rubbish as the legend, and it was able to finish the race normally, but the absolute performance was a little weaker.

Therefore, many things are set off by peers, and the Peugeot F1 race engine, which can be called garbage in history, Zhang Yifei actually feels that it is passable.

As a result, as soon as I raised a little confidence in the Peugeot engine, I was hit back by the engine sealing problem, is this really mud that can't support the wall?

"Why is this happening?"

"You've got a more aggressive driving style, especially on a lot of overtaking sections, where you're full throttle and full rev, which puts a lot of pressure on the engine block. The seal of the previous secondary reinforcement is still a little unable to withstand such a cylinder pressure, so there is a problem with air tightness again. ”

Hearing this explanation, Zhang Yifei felt a little headache, overtaking does not rely on the full speed of floor oil to overtake, does he rely on the slow honking of the horn to ask the other party to give way?

The problem is that the F1 car has not yet been equipped with horns, and even if they are, it is still a question of whether the opponent can hear the engine noise and the sound insulation of the helmet. As long as the aggressive and high-intensity overtaking, the cylinder block will not be able to withstand the pressure, and there will be air tightness problems.

"Cord, don't you think it's a bit funny for this reason? Is there any solution to this? ”

Zhang Yifei's words made Kede a little helpless, and he also knew that for F1 events, aggressive overtaking has a chance to cause engine failure, which is indeed a bit funny, and can even be said to be self-contradictory.

But the problem is that now the Peugeot engine is just this virtue, he designs the shape of the racing car, the engine is the supplier's business, and he can't solve it with funny.

So Cod could only reply: "There is no good way to solve it, but to reinforce and seal it again." ”

"Is that guaranteed to finish the Malaysian Grand Prix?"

Under the new F1 rules, one race engine must complete two races. This is not the first time that the air tightness problem has been solved, and the Australian Grand Prix is no big problem, as long as this reinforcement can ensure the smooth completion of the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Next, don't say it's "air leakage", even if the cylinder bursts, Zhang Yifei doesn't care, anyway, the engine is scrapped.

"I don't know."

Cod shrugged his shoulders, without any F1 engineers, who could guarantee that the race engine would not fail in any way.

This answer made Zhang Yifei not know what to say, which means that whether the next stop can fail depends on fate?

"Let's pack it first, it's too late."

At this time, Korcel said that this kind of mechanical failure is not something that the Prost team can easily solve, because they are only chassis manufacturers.

Only by letting factories like Ferrari, Renault, and Toyota come, it is estimated that they can still think of some way, after all, they still have the identity of engine suppliers and have a special engine research and development department.

But even if it is a factory team, there is a high probability that what can be done is to tinker, and there is no essential difference from Prost's next rescue measures.

From Kossel's point of view, the root cause is still the performance problem of the Peugeot engine, which is designed and manufactured to meet the power required by F1 races, and can only barely meet the standard by over-squeezing.

Engine suppliers of other brands also rely on the performance of the engine, but their foundation is better than Peugeot, and they are not so ruthless, so the failure rate is a little lower.

Hearing what Coatel said, Zhang Yifei could only show a wry smile on his face. The Peugeot engine is really a ticking time bomb, and it seems that the problem can only be solved at the root by waiting for the financial situation of Prost to improve this season and change the engine supplier next season.

I just don't know if Prost at this time will be as stubborn as he was at the beginning, insisting on using parts from French companies.

There is no way to let the drivers interfere with the packing of the team's equipment. Because in the process of packing and handling, any accident that causes the rider to be injured is a thing that outweighs the loss.

This is more than many special professions, such as pianists, who do not let their hands come into contact with anything that may be dangerous, even if it is just a small wound, which will greatly affect the performance.

So there was nothing Zhang Yifei did here, and after he said hello to Kossel and Ah Hu, he returned to the hotel where he stayed to rest.

On the morning of the second day, all the team members will go to the airport to prepare for the next venue.

Just as charter flights are required to transport equipment, the number of members in each F1 team is quite large. Take the Prost team as an example, there are 30 professional dismantling and construction personnel, 15 catering personnel, and 50 on-site technicians, adding up to almost 100 people.

But that's not even the biggest, like Scuderia Ferrari, which is probably twice as big as Prost.

Only two drivers can be seen competing on the track, but behind them, there are a large team members supporting them, relying on the cooperation and operation of each position, together forming a high-precision "racing machine".

Zhang Yifei on the plane looked at Melbourne, which was getting smaller and smaller, through the porthole, and felt a little emotion in his heart, his debut was over.

But the end represents another beginning, the Sepang Circuit in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, waiting for Zhang Yifei to conquer!