In the hospital, Zhang Yifei, who was leaning on the hospital bed, was looking at the newspapers and magazines that Junko Takeda bought with great interest.

The headlines in the media these days are basically about his crash at the Brazilian Grand Prix, and Prost's accusations against the Peugeot engine.

Of course, the so-called accusations have been reported by various media, in fact, Zhang Yifei knows that the Prost team is in a weak position, and it is impossible to tear up the skin with Peugeot unless it is absolutely necessary.

After all, it also takes capital to tear the skin, and the Prost team does not have this capital.

Historically, the Prost team was in a similar situation, and it couldn't bear to tear up the skin with Peugeot, causing the other party to cut off the supply.

It's just that the fuse at that time was on Heidfeld and Alessi, these two people competed in paddling, fought in the lounge, and retired from various failures, which simply made the Peugeot engine "notorious".

Providing the event engine itself is a way for car companies to prove their R&D strength and open up the automobile market. At that time, Honda became popular with the F1 engine and became one of the world's car companies.

The result was counterproductive, which made the Peugeot Group feel unacceptable, and the Peugeot engine was half sold and half given away without making money, both sides felt that the other party was a pitfall, so in a fit of anger, the PSA Group directly terminated the cooperation.

However, it turned out that the Peugeot Group dug a little bigger in this hole, because since the Prost team was useless, there was no second team willing to use the French Peugeot engine, and since then the Peugeot Group has also withdrawn from the ranks of F1 event engine suppliers.

The world has changed and the Prost team has maintained its relationship with the Peugeot Group. Although the poor performance of the engine last season once caused a rift in the cooperation, and both sides had the idea that the other was a pit, but in the end they chose to "break the mirror and reunite".

After all, the Prost team has no money, and has been wandering wildly on the verge of bankruptcy, and the poor are about to be pants, where is the capital to replace the engine supplier? Poor than not qualified to pick and choose.

Peugeot is basically in a similar situation, this broken engine, according to F1 standards, is simply a tractor level. Last season's high failure rate was terrible, and it is estimated that the rest of the teams will have to consider it for free, and there is no way to spend money to buy it!

So this pair of difficult brothers and sisters continued to walk on the road of mutual pit until Zhang Yifei appeared.

And the appearance of Zhang Yifei has brought the direction of history to its original trajectory. Because of the weak performance of the race in Brazil, fans and the media once again pointed the finger at the Peugeot engine, which led to the two sides parting ways.

To be honest, this situation was completely unexpected by Zhang Yifei.

But then again, Prost is really too uncompetitive to win this race, and even if you win this race, you will never want to win the title of world champion. And there are more than a dozen F1 races in a season, and the gold content is far less than the championship title.

Zhang Yifei's highest goal in life has never been satisfied with a sub-station championship title, he wants to surpass Schumacher, or even replace Schumacher and become a new generation of car gods.

To accomplish this ultimate aspiration, it is necessary to have a car that is not inferior in terms of performance in order to compete with Scuderia Ferrari's ultimate Mars rover next year.

Maybe this track accident is a big loss in terms of the current situation, but if it can change the weak performance of Prost car, it will create a strong competitiveness in the future, at least Zhang Yifei no longer has to worry about being eaten hard by his teammates on every straight.

In addition, if the historical trajectory is really reversed, then Zhang Yifei has a more arrogant ambitious plan in his heart, and he will have a chance to implement it, which will be a dream that will be called a madman!

"Junko, now that the media reports are boiling, what is the negotiation process between the team and the PSA Group?"

Zhang Yifei put down the newspaper in his hand and asked Junko Takeda beside him.

He is now in the stage of recuperation, and according to the traditional Chinese concept, he will break his muscles and bones for 100 days. Although the bone crack is not so exaggerated, judging from the current injury, Zhang Yifei should need two or three months of recovery time before he can consider returning to the F1 track.

Otherwise, just step on the brake pedal of up to 70 kilograms, not to mention that there is a bone injury, even if it is not injured, a little osteoporosis, it is estimated that it will not be able to bear it.

Therefore, Zhang Yifei stayed in the hospital to recuperate with peace of mind for the past few days, and Junko Takeda was by his side to take care of and pass on some news about the team. After all, this accident is also a big test for the current Prost team.

For example, the issue of the reserve car, the problem of the third driver, and the post-race transition problem, etc., each of which tests the team's ability to cope with the current situation. Unfortunately, Prost is just a small team that is at the bottom of F1 under normal circumstances, and its strength is limited.

So even Ah Hu, who was taken care of before, returned to the team to assist in the transfer, of course, as far as Zhang Yifei's injury is concerned, there is no need for a few people to stay in the hospital to take care of him.

"It is impossible for the team to agree to the Peugeot Group's request, otherwise it will directly lead to a split within the team. So the cooperation is basically over, and a joint statement should be issued in two days. ”

Peugeot Group's request to either let the team's R&D department take the blame, or let the drivers take the blame, Prost could not be stupid enough to agree to this request even if he was poor as pants.

Once agreed, it will be a fatal blow to the Prost team, which is currently united, and even directly lead to a self-explosion within the team!

"Which engine supplier is the boss considering? Now that the JS54 prototype has already been built, it should soon be necessary to adapt the engine to the body. ”

"I don't know, it shouldn't be at the stage of contacting the new engine supplier, but according to the current engine performance, the boss should be most satisfied with the Mercedes-Benz engine."

Mercedes engines? When he heard this, Zhang Yifei frowned, which was a little incomparable to the historical trajectory in his mind.

Historically, after Prost parted ways with Peugeot Group, he faced the desperate situation of being at the bottom of the team's performance and performance. In a desperate bet, he sold 40 percent of the team's shares, and together with some borrowings, raised a total of $30 million for the 048 engine supplied by Ferrari.

However, the Ferrari engine in 01 is not very good, and can only be described as decent. The main reason for winning the world championship is that Schumacher and Barrichello are too strong and do not need a rover, and the mid-to-upper performance is enough for them to defeat their opponents.

With the new race engine, the Prost team showed a trend of "returning to the light" in the winter testing stage, with Alessi ranking first in the track test in a row, and Barcelona in the absolute speed rankings, and Prost also came to second place.

Judging from these statistics alone, Prost's performance is very strong, far from the bottom level of last season.

However, in F1, the performance of the car is not the decisive factor, and whether you can get good results depends on the person who drives the car. As long as the level is about the same, the advantages of racing performance can be reflected, not on a horizontal line, and the Mars rover cannot surpass Schumacher.

In addition, the team atmosphere is also one of the foundations to ensure the victory of the race, take the Brazilian Grand Prix, the team members are united, the potential to burst out is amazing, not counting the deceleration stage, the fastest single stop time has been reduced to 6.5 seconds, has not lost to Ferrari, Williams and other giant teams.

At that time, Prost's collapsed atmosphere, the crew members were in chaos, and everyone was holding the mentality of living one day at a time, and the time to enter the pit stop would be greatly extended. The standard time, which only takes about 8 seconds, may be delayed to 18 seconds at the slowest speed!

Think about how to catch up on the gap in the F1 paddock where every second counts, a stop is about ten seconds slower than the opponent? Even if Schumacher is asked to drive the rover, he can't guarantee that he can be dozens of seconds ahead of his opponent in every game, right?

As a result, the Prost team also collapsed after replacing the Ferrari engine, and the 02 season could not be sustained, counting the operating expenses of more than 30 million US dollars, and finally filed for bankruptcy protection, and even the AP05 prototype that had just been developed was forced to be auctioned.

"The Mercedes engine is not bad, but has the boss considered a Ferrari engine?"

Zhang Yifei asked sideways, now a year faster than the historical progress, if the Prost team still follows the historical trajectory, then it will get the strongest 051 V10 engine in Ferrari's history.

Scuderia Ferrari relied on the F2002 car, with the 051 event engine, in the 19 races throughout the year, won 15 races, and other teams were added together, which was not enough for Scuderia Ferrari to play, which really felt like "all the saints are ants".

That's why, Zhang Yifei has always had lingering fears about the Ferrari Mars rover in the 02 season, that is, he understands that the Ferrari team this year is too strong, and it has been so strong that people feel irresistible, and even transferring to a stronger team can't solve the problem!

Because McLaren and Williams can't beat together, where else can they go?

"I don't know, there is a lot of pressure on the team to change at the moment, and the third driver, Boerdais, will take your place for the rest of the race, so how to get along with the crew is also a problem. It is estimated that the boss does not have enough energy, so he will negotiate with the engine supplier at this stage. ”

After saying this, Junko Takeda continued to ask in a puzzled tone: "This year's Ferrari engine is definitely not as good as the Mercedes-Benz engine, and the power parameters are not as good as the BMW engine of the Williams team, why do you want the Ferrari engine first, shouldn't you choose the strongest Mercedes-Benz?" ”

Hearing Junko Takeda's question, Zhang Yifei smiled at the corner of his mouth and did not answer directly.

Because this year's strongest engine does not mean that next year will be the strongest, but the reason behind it, he can't explain it to Junko Takeda.