After the entire winter break, Alonso has completely brought himself into the identity of Prost.

A driver who is purely motivated to never run at the top of his game must have a sense of pride, both for himself and for the team.

Even Zhang Yifei, if it weren't for the dreams of Chinese drivers and the fact that he didn't want to disappoint the crew members, he would not have been so desperate on the track many times.

After all, racing cars can run for many years, and there is only one life, so you must come up with something to convince the inner instincts such as fear of death and fear. This thing can't be done with money and interests, only dreams and honors can!

Alonso is selfish, but he is definitely not a driver who lacks accolades, and even in the final years of his career, he is not really without a team. As long as he lowers the bar a little, there is no problem with going to a small team.

The reason why he left F1 was more for the Indy 500 championship title and to prove that he was "not old and still able to eat." ”

Because in the field of formula formula, in addition to the three super grand slam honors of Le Mans, Indy, and F1. There is also a minor Grand Slam honor, which is the conquest of three top circuits, which is called the "Three Crowns".

These are the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the F1 Monaco circuit and the Indy 500 circuit.

You don't need to run the whole season, and being able to win the sub-races of these three tracks represents the complete success of a formula driver's career, and he wears the crown of the three highest tracks on his head.

In a sense, Zhang Yifei only has half a crown at present, that is, he has conquered the Indy 500 event.

At that time, the battle of the Formula Century could not be considered an official event, and the winner could not engrave his name on the BorgWarner Trophy of the Indy 500. But seriously, there is really no shortage of gold content, and it has defeated almost all of the Indy annual champions in the past decade.

So it may be a bit too much to put the whole crown on your head, but half is not an exaggeration.

Prost's Alonso is ready to test, along with Minardi's Yoong Dragon, Jordan's Frenzen, Renault's Barton and Williams' Montoya.

As the champion of the last Indo, Montoya's winter test debut undoubtedly attracted a lot of attention, but at the same time, many people will compare him.

Let's not talk about comparing with the old rival Zhang Yifei, at least it is inevitable to compare it with the lap time of last year's new champion Helio. Montoya drives a Big Three car, and if he can't even compare with the "same door", it will have a big impact on his evaluation of his strength this year.

Montoya understood this too, and as he got into the car, he looked at the Renault pit next door. It just so happened that Helio was also standing at the door of the pit, and a defiant expression appeared on his face in the face of Montoya's gaze.

This is Helio's character, really the kind of idea of heaven and earth, self-esteem. Even if it is the predecessor of the IndyCar champion, he also did not pay attention to the opponents who are destined to beat and surpass, why should he bow his head and be humble?

In the face of Helio's eyes, Montoya's gaze also became sharp, failure may have polished a lot of edges and corners on his body, but it never made him completely succumb, at least it is not the turn of an Indy junior to despise and humiliate himself!

The five drivers started to start in turn, with Montoya being the most famous driver in the first three rounds, so the focus was basically on him. And this is also the first appearance of the new season for the Williams FW24 car, and other teams want to know what kind of chemistry will happen between the BMW engine and the Williams chassis this year.

After all, the new Ferrari, Renault, McLaren and Prost cars that have been tested before are all performing very well, and there is a feeling of competing in the crowd. If Williams' new car doesn't show strong performance, it will be a tough new season this year.

The five cars picked up speed and raced, with Montoya leading the way, followed by Alonso and then Minardi Yoong Long.

With Marques being kicked out of the team last year, Yang also team-mates Alonso in a short period of time, but he has no good impression of the Spaniard.

It's okay if he doesn't get along well in terms of personality, mainly in the process of team races, he often asks the team's resources to tilt towards him. You must know that in the later stage of the Minardi team, there is no difference between the first and second drivers, anyway, they are all the same, just compete fairly.

Alonso's behavior made Yang Long very disgusted, and he didn't run decent results, what kind of car superstar did he really think of?

Therefore, the goal of Yoong's test this time, in addition to feedback on the tuning of the car, is to be faster than Alonso. Let this "garbage" kicked out by the team understand that he is not qualified to get the team's resource tilt at all!

Yoong was confident in this and he was well prepared, but when he heard from the team's voice that Alonso had run a time of 1:23.566 on the first lap, he was so surprised that he couldn't even close his mouth.

"BOSS, is this really Alonso's lap time?"

You must know that the first lap of Schumacher's first test was only 1:23.337, and Alonso was more than 0.2 seconds slower, which is simply unscientific!

Normally, a garbage driver like Alonso, who finished at the bottom of last season, started one second slower on the first lap of the first test. For example, Yang Long himself, the first lap of the first test was 1:24.434, which is the normal speed of a driver in the middle and lower reaches of the F1 paddock.

"That's right, that's his lap time."

Minardi reaffirmed in a cold tone, because he was also surprised in his heart, how did the Spanish rookie, who had a mess in his team last year, run such a first-class lap time this year?

Speaking of the improvement of strength, Minardi does not believe that in just a few months of winter break, where can it be improved?

Improved racing performance?

Truth be told, Minardi agrees that Prost's new car is performing well this year, but it is definitely impossible to be strong enough for a rookie driver to run into the ranks of first-class drivers.

After thinking about it, it can only be Alonso's burst of feeling, and he wants to prove himself on the first lap, which is why he has this amazing lap time.

Another driver who was equally surprised was Williams' Montoya.

When he first learned that he had run 1:23.342 on the first lap, he was still very satisfied. is only slightly inferior to Schumacher, Helio and Zhang Yifei, which means that they are at the same level in terms of strength, and they have not been thrown away.

However, when Montoya learned Alonso's lap time from the team, the previous satisfaction dissipated a lot. How did this driver, who didn't even want Minardi, not much slower than himself in the first lap time?

And soon another news hit Montoya's self-confidence, that is, Renault's Barton, the lap time was only slightly behind Alonso, basically in the same class as himself.

FUCK！

Barton is also a "garbage" driver that the Williams team doesn't want, and last year's season results were at the bottom of Alonso's, did he take medicine this year, how did he run so fast?

If Alonso is a lone person who has advanced by leaps and bounds, it can be described as accidental. Now even Barton is running at such a fast speed, which can only show that the former rookies have been greatly improved in strength.

And Prost and Renault must have also thrown off the hat of "tractor", otherwise these two people would not have been able to run today's lap time no matter what!

What Montoya didn't know was that Barton was able to run such an amazing lap time, and he had a part to blame.

Jenson Button, the British driver, known as the most non-existent WDC, if he didn't win the world championship title, was really like a dragon role.

But the problem is that not showing personality does not mean that there is no temper. Jenson Button's kicking out of the team by Sir Williams to make way for Montoya would be a humiliation for anyone, let alone a proud F1 driver.

Barton was always looking for an opportunity to show the Williams team what they were capable of and prove that they were wrong!

Last season, Renault had just acquired the collapsed Benetton team, which was in a stage of reconstruction, without developing its own new car, and all aspects of resources were not integrated, so Barton naturally had to peck at each other among the bottom drivers.

However, today is completely different, Renault Racing officially erected the flag, showing the strength and capital of the world's No. 1 car manufacturer. The new generation of Renault cars is very powerful, and the introduction of a madman like Helio has also helped to improve the team's competitive atmosphere.

Therefore, this year's Barton can finally give full play to his strength and let the world understand that he is not garbage that has been swept away!

The two "garbage" drivers on the track were holding their breath in their hearts, so they could run such a lap time.

Not to mention that other teams were surprised by Alonso's speed, even the Prost team itself was surprised that he could run so fast.

'Alonso is doing very well, much better than we expected.

Henry said to Prost with satisfaction, the team management was purely the idea of a short man to pull a general, and the well-known driver could not afford to pay the transfer fee, so he chose Alonso, who was passable in the rookie test.

But judging from the current performance, he is much better than previously estimated, and can take on the responsibility of wingman and even number two driver, rather than a drag bottle.

"Looks good, Fly, what do you think?"

Prost asked Zhang Yifei, wanting to hear his thoughts.

Although Zhang Yifei did not have the idea of using the No. 2 driver as a wingman, it does not mean that the team management will think so.

The team is not a charity, and when sacrifices must be made in order to win, the number two driver has no choice but to be a wingman or cannon fodder. In Prost's eyes, Alonso is serving Zhang Yifei, so go and ask for his opinion.

"That's what he's capable of."

Zhang Yifei replied lightly, maybe the only person in the audience who was not surprised was him.

No one knows better than Zhang Yifei how strong Alonso's skills are, how can he be regarded as a garbage rookie who can end the Schumacher and Ferrari dynasties?

The current Alonso is nothing more than showing the strength he already has, and he will be stronger in the future!

Faced with Zhang Yifei's indifferent tone, Prost and Henry both felt incredible. From the beginning to the end, he seemed to be very sure that Alonso was not a rookie and would definitely be able to show his strength.

But the question is, Alonso's rookie performance last year, even a driver like Minardi who doesn't want the bottom team, where can you see that he is more than that?

Is it just a rookie test? I guess no one believes it. If Alonso can maintain his current strength and state, it can only be said that Zhang Yifei is too accurate to see people, genius-level vision!

In fact, Alonso really kept his pace going, and managed to hit the realm of 1 minute and 22 seconds in the first test, trailing Montoya by less than 0.2 seconds, and surpassing the fastest lap time of Massa before with Barton.

In addition, Montoya still surpassed the lap time of Helio in the first round with an advantage of five thousandths of a second, defending the dignity of his Indy.

This result made Helio of the Renault team feel very unhappy in his heart. His original plan was to win the fastest lap of the first round, and if he had to lose to one person, it would be Schumacher.

But now he is not only behind Schumacher, but also behind Zhang Yifei and Montoya. Zhang Yifei, in particular, took the lead in stepping into the field of 1 minute and 21 seconds, almost leading by one level in terms of numbers.

With Helio's character, he will not succumb to others, and this time he fell behind mainly because of the loss of the first test of the first round. In the next few days of winter testing, he will let the drivers on the track feel the crazy speed of the Indy champion!

Alonso drove the car back to the pits, and in the face of the congratulations of the crew members, he was more of a shock than happy.

Only after really running once on the track can you feel the gap between yourself and Zhang Yifei, with Alonso's personality, you can't imagine how Zhang Yifei ran into the 1 minute and 21 second field when he didn't adjust it in the first test?

"The first test was good."

Zhang Yifei looked at Alonso who walked into the pit and congratulated him with a smile.

"You're really strong."

Alonso replied with a little difficulty, when he said this, it meant that he completely agreed with Zhang Yifei's strength.

Hearing this, Zhang Yifei's smile on his face was still as usual, and he was not particularly proud.

"You'll be so strong in the future."

"Is this politeness, or sarcasm?"

In the face of Zhang Yifei's response, Alonso asked a rhetorical question very defensively.

In his thinking, the stronger he is, the more he will threaten Zhang Yifei's status, under the conflict of interest, how can the other party sincerely agree with him?

Looking at Alonso's guarded appearance, Zhang Yifei smiled with a slight hint of bitterness, then patted him on the shoulder and said, "It's not politeness, it's not sarcasm, it's recognition." ”

"You're really going to be so strong in the future."

After finishing speaking, Zhang Yifei did not continue to talk to Alonso, but walked to Caser and discussed with him the content of tomorrow's test.

Alonso, who was left with a confused face, looked at his back in the distance.