The time soon came to mid-to-late November, and Zhang Yifei gradually adapted to the atmosphere of the F1 team, and his driving skills have also been greatly improved.

Take the lap speed of the Mont Lirui track as an example, Zhang Yifei came to the track twice during this time, and the lap time increased from 3:06.73 at the beginning to 3:04.52, which is more than 2 seconds faster.

Almost every time he tried to run, Zhang Yifei improved by more than 1 second, which is simply the speed of light for a rookie F1 driver!

Even Henry and Charlie, who once had doubts about Zhang Yifei's strength, have to sigh at Zhang Yifei's potential. At least among the new F1 drivers they have come into contact with, none of them can achieve Zhang Yifei's speed.

You must know that it has only been less than half a month, and if this trend continues, Zhang Yifei's lap time will soon surpass that of test driver Emile and reach the qualification line of an official F1 driver.

"Charlie, the talent for flying is really amazing, if you don't see it with your own eyes, I really can't believe that this will be the result of a Chinese driver."

Henry looked at Zhang Yifei, who was running on the track, and said in an exclamatory tone.

Because Zhang Yifei's lap time for the third test run just now has reached 3:04.16, which is only about 0.5 seconds away from the fastest lap of 3:03.61 by test driver Emile.

Although 0.5 seconds is placed in F1, it is a big gap, but you must know that Emile has joined the Prost team for almost a year, and Zhang Yifei has not even been a month, and the time gap is also huge.

"Who would have thought? It can only be said that the boss's vision is really powerful, and he is worthy of being an F1 driver who has won four championships and sees the potential of Fei. Otherwise, no one in Europe would believe that a Chinese newcomer can adapt to F1 cars so quickly. ”

Charlie didn't know about the conversation between Cosell and Prost at the Renault party that day. Therefore, in the eyes of the outside world, choosing to sign Zhang Yifei as an official driver is Prost's risky move.

succeeded, of course, just like now, praising Prost's good vision and discovering Zhang Yifei's potential.

failed, naturally, Prost was blind, and he was simply old and confused to sign a Chinese rookie.

Anyway, if you win and blow, if you lose, it is simply the eternal truth of human beings!

"Do you think Fei can reach the height of Kimi this year, the first F1 race, and get points?"

Before Zhang Yifei was questioned by the outside world, there was another driver who endured no less doubts than Zhang Yifei, and this person was naturally Kimi Raikkonen who created the miracle of the "triple jump".

It's just that Kimi used his results to respond to the outside world's previous doubts about his strength, and in this year's F1 season, he got points on his debut. It can be said that among the F1 drivers, there are few newcomers who can get points on their debut.

You must know that it is as strong as Senna and Schumacher, and their debuts ended miserably, not to mention getting points, and even the game was not completed.

On the eighth lap of the race, Senna blew off the car's turbocharger and became the first driver to retire from the 1984 season. Schumacher was even worse, retiring on the first lap of his debut due to a clutch failure.

Therefore, Kimi Raikkonen, after experiencing the "triple jump", can still make his debut and get points, which shows the difficulty and strength.

"It's hard."

Charlie shook his head, it was too difficult to get points on his debut, the time, the place, and the people were all indispensable.

In addition to the strength of the driver himself, the stability and reliability of the car are also required, just like Senna and Schumacher, who both retired due to car failures.

Unfortunately, the Prost JS51 is not a reliable car.

Because the level of the team's own R&D center is slightly poor, and it is also equipped with an unreliable engine from Peugeot, the combination of the two has led to the overall completion rate of this year's Prost team is only 30%.

From this "touching" finish rate, you can see how unreliable the JS51 car is. To tell the truth, Zhang Yifei is now the third time to try to run, and the car didn't leave him on the track once, I really don't know if this is Zhang Yifei's luck.

"Hey, I hope Fei can run a result, he may be the last hope of the Prost team."

Henry sighed at this time, as the manager of the Ligier team, he had already witnessed the collapse of the team once. Now the business status of the Prost team, he as a management is naturally very clear, so he does not want to experience the team's bankruptcy again.

The Renault Group, the only one in France that has the strength to form an F1 team, has already acquired the Benetton team, so it is naturally impossible to take over the Prost team.

Therefore, if the Prost team can't hold on, there will not even be a chance to be acquired, and it will go into bankruptcy liquidation and completely disappear into the long river of history.

The conversation between Henry and Charlie, Korsell and Yamamoto Ukyo did not pay attention, and all their attention was on Zhang Yifei on the track.

With the signing of the entry contract, Korsell has begun to officially exercise his duties as a competition engineer, standing in front of the console, and comprehensively following the progress of Zhang Yifei's training.

At present, Zhang Yifei's lap speed and progress speed have fully reached Cosell's psychological standards. Although this lap time is placed in F1, it is still at the bottom, and even if you participate in qualifying, it is very likely that you will not even be able to qualify for the main race.

But you must know that Zhang Yifei has not even been in contact with formula racing for a month, and as a pure newcomer, this result is good enough.

And Zhang Yifei's efforts during this time, Cowel also saw it, and the daily learning of F1 materials and racing simulator training will definitely not add up to less than ten hours.

The problem is that in addition to these two things, Zhang Yifei also has a lot of physical training every day to ensure his physical fitness and adapt to the intensity of future F1 races. Therefore, Zhang Yifei's actual training time can reach almost twelve hours a day.

Almost except for eating and sleeping, whenever he sees Zhang Yifei, he is trying to improve himself.

For a teenager to be able to achieve this level of self-discipline and hard work, what else can Sell say?

And in addition to the driver's own strength, the slow lap time also has a certain reason for the car's performance.

Zhang Yifei has never touched an F1 car, not even an F3000 car, and without comparison, he naturally can't feel the difference in performance.

The JS51 car of the Prost team, compared with the Renault and Dallara cars, can undoubtedly press these junior cars to the ground and rub them hard.

So Zhang Yifei drove the JS51 for the first time, and his heart was full of admiration and respect for the performance of the F1 car, and he didn't feel that there was anything wrong with the performance of the car.

But Kossel was different, he had spent time at the top McLaren team and had seen what the championship cars of the top teams looked like. Ever since the agreement with Prost, he has been focusing on the performance of the JS51.

Not to mention anything else, this Peugeot engine can really be described by the word "garbage".

In terms of horsepower, it is not advantageous to the previous low-quality and inexpensive Honda engine, and the stability is even more of a mess. Especially after being exposed to the team's data these days, Korsell can finally understand the criticism of Prost's stubbornness.

It is true to replace the Honda with a Peugeot, and only a person who is stubborn to the extreme, would make such a stupid choice.

But these complaints are useless, things are already like this, and the result can not be changed by relying on two complaints.

The only thing I can do now is to improve my strength and run better results under limited conditions.

I can feel a little relieved that although the Peugeot engine has a high failure rate and the horsepower does not occupy any advantage, it is not much inferior in terms of power, and it can still run. There are countless examples of small teams in F1's history using more rubbish engines, which is nothing compared to Prost.

Everyone knows that the large team has the strength to develop and can have a "Mars rover" with performance advantages. But the problem is how can the big team be so good to enter, Zhang Yifei didn't have a choice at that time, and the Prost team was his last chance.

Just as Zhang Yifei was returning to the pit for ten laps, Junko Takeda recorded Zhang Yifei's training data in his notebook and received an email from the Renault Organizing Committee.

Junko Takeda casually clicked on it and looked at it, and soon a smile of surprise appeared on her face.

"Kossel, Youjing, Formula Renault ended today, and Yifeijun won the Renault 2000 European Cup championship with a total score of 34 points!"

Hearing the news, Kossel's expression was as usual, but Yamamoto Ukyo and Ah Hu were instantly excited. This Renault championship can be said to have witnessed the dedication and hard work of the whole team, and it was once the goal of everyone, and today it is finally rewarding!

Zhang Yifei also happened to drive the car into the pit at this time, and when he saw Junko Takeda's excited expressions, he thought that he had broken some record in his training lap just now.

Before he could ask, he heard Junko Takeda say excitedly: "Yifeijun, I received an email from the Renault Organizing Committee just now, and you won the Renault European Cup championship with a total score of 34 points!" ”

"Damn, the dust has finally settled, and I have a series championship title too!"

Zhang Yifei also replied excitedly, how to say that this is also the first championship title in his life, even if the level is not very high, it is still worth being happy and clear, after all, this championship title has witnessed his own growth and hard work.

"That's right, it's just a pity that you can't go to the awards ceremony in person."

Yamamoto Ukyo said with a little regret that if Zhang Yifei can appear at the award ceremony, he will definitely be able to enjoy cheers and applause, which is the encouragement he deserves.

"It's nothing, but we have to give the other riders a way to live, otherwise they will have no hope of competing for the championship after running seven races. How uncomfortable it must be for me to suddenly come out of nowhere to steal the limelight at the celebration. ”

Hearing Zhang Yifei say this, Yamamoto Ukyo felt that there was really a little bit of truth.

Anyway, the honor already has a home, as for cheers and applause, Yamamoto Ukyo believes that Zhang Yifei's future career will not lack these two things.

The Renault European Championship is over, and two days later, the final leg of the F1 season comes to an end, with the Japanese Grand Prix.

This year's Drivers' Championship was won by Ferrari's driver Schumacher, his third Drivers' Championship title and the first Drivers' Championship in 21 years for Scuderia Ferrari.

When he heard the news, Zhang Yifei had a fluctuation in his heart, because history changed again, and Schumacher, who was supposed to win the drivers' championship in 2000, started the era of the Ferrari dynasty a year ahead of schedule.

However, Zhang Yifei is used to this kind of change. The advance of Renault's European Championship has already heralded a change in the world, and many big things have been advanced by a year, including the change of the Prost team.

Historically, they only had zero eggs in the 2000 season, and the world has eaten zero eggs now.

The end of the F1 season also represents another event, that is, all the members of the Prost team will return from Japan to the headquarters in France, and Zhang Yifei will face all the team members for the first time.