The predecessor of the Prost team is the famous French veteran team Ligier, which used to compete in the F1 team for more than 20 years from 1976 to 1996, with a total of 326 races, 50 podiums and 9 victories. Wild Sand Literature Network

But in the end, because of the poor results, he chose to withdraw from the F1 paddock, and it happened that Prost had a dream of building a French team, so he took over and established the Prost team.

Therefore, the current team headquarters is actually the headquarters of the Ligier team, and all the workshop equipment, including the wind tunnel, is the legacy of the Ligier team.

The news that Zhang flew over, after the Grand Prix, had already communicated with the Prost team.

When the group arrived in front of the team building, the leader of the Prost team, Le Goff Henry, and Zhang Yifei's future chief technician, Cullen Charlie, were already waiting here to welcome Zhang Yifei on behalf of the Prost team.

"Hello, Mr. Zhang Yifei."

Henry opened his arms and hugged Zhang Yifei, after all, even if they are members of a team in the future, everyone will stand on the same front.

"Hello."

Zhang Yifei also responded with a smile on his face, he never forcibly pretended to be a bī for his own people).

Although Henry is only the title of team leader, in fact, because the team manager is Prost and is also the founder and owner of the team, Henry actually exercises the duties of team manager.

In addition, the chief mechanic, Charlie, used to serve in the Ligier team, and later joined the Prost team with the acquisition, and is a very experienced ace technician.

Charlie was the chief mechanic of the No. 1 driver of the Prost team before, and Prost did not have the idea of transferring Charlie to Zhang Yifei.

However, Zhang Yifei's strong victory in the Grand Prix on Ao Island this time made Prost's estimate of Zhang Yifei's potential increase by a few points.

You must know that the current No. 1 driver of the Prost team is French veteran Jean Alessi, who is 35 years old this year.

The best result in history is a race victory, and the total points are the drivers' rankings. But as he grew older, Alessi's results began to decline dramatically.

Taking this year's Prost team record as an example, Alessi has participated in 17 races, but only five races have been completed, and the completion rate is barely 30%.

Although the F1 completion rate in this era cannot be compared with that of later generations, there is still a 78 percent completion rate, and the top drivers can achieve a 90 percent completion rate.

Less than 30 percent, no matter how many accidents, failures, state declines and other factors, can not rule out the suspicion of paddling in the game.

Of course, the No. 2 driver newcomer Nick Heefeld is no better, the finish rate is half a pound and eight taels with Alessi, and the two of them have fought more than once, so they really get together Big Brother Don't laugh at Second Brother.

This is the current situation of the Prost team, the twilight is not enough to describe, it is simply a template for people to scatter and the team is not easy to bring.

It is based on this premise that Prost, who is known for his stubbornness and conservatism, will choose to let Zhang Yifei join and use this seemingly extremely radical way to carry out a major change in the team.

Anyway, if it doesn't change, it's going to die, and maybe Zhang Yifei joins with some miracles.

So now the hope and fire of the team are mistakenly placed on Zhang Yifei, to see if he can create a miracle and bring the Prost team out of the brink of collapse.

"It's getting late today, I'll take you to the room to rest first, and then I'll go to the garage tomorrow."

After finishing speaking, Henry took Zhang Yifei and his party into the racing building, which was decorated with various Prost team racing logos, and the entire decoration style was mainly blue.

This is the colour of the French tricolour and the colour of the previous ligier team. After the acquisition of the Prost team, it also inherited the main color of the team and became the blue army on the track, which contrasted sharply with the yellow and black tones of Renault.

There are apartments for team members, and F1 drivers don't normally choose to live in such a team building.

After all, F1 drivers are there with the entry standard, what formula do you run without money?

So even if an F1 driver is unpaid, it's unlikely that he's a poor driver. Either rent a more comfortable and luxurious accommodation outside, or live in a five-star hotel. Anyway, except for special circumstances, I basically don't live in an apartment like a fleet building.

Zhang Yifei is not poor now, but he is far from being rich, and the contract given to him by the Prost team is only a base salary of $130,000.

This amount of money is definitely not enough to take team members and live outside to eat and drink spicy food. So before I received a big endorsement contract, I could only live in an apartment temporarily.

But seriously, the accommodation conditions of the apartment are actually not bad, far from being comparable to the kind of apartments in the factories of later generations. Zhang Yifei didn't feel any inconvenience at all, he was not a person who pursued enjoyment and was picky.

The next morning, Henri had already prepared two cars and led Zhang Yifei and his party to the south of Paris, which is now the eastern direction of Versailles, the Ontlhéry circuit.

The Montrière circuit is one of the oldest professional circuits in France, founded in 1924 with a total length of 12,497 kilometers, and hosted the French Grand Prix in 1925.

However, because the specifications of the track were too old, and many standards could not keep up with the needs of later cars, the Montrier circuit was later abandoned, from a top-level professional track, to a normal track, and then rented by the Ligier team as its own test ground.

Basically every F1 team has a private track like this one that is used to test the latest developments.

Of course, some wealthy local tyrant teams can be satisfied with more than just one track. Scuderia Ferrari, for example, has three different private circuits to test the car's adaptability in different terrain and climates.

Why is it that twenty years later, the once triumvirate teams of Ferrari, McLaren, and Williams have become Red Bull, Mercedes, and Ferrari?

It is because with the development of science and technology, F1 racing has become an increasingly money-burning sport, and without the support of world-class car manufacturers behind it, the average private team will not be able to play at all.

It's like a Ferrari, if you have money to buy three tracks, Prost is still rented on one track, how can you fight with the krypton boss as a non-chieftain player?

However, compared to the poorest teams that don't even have a wind tunnel, Prost has inherited the rich legacy of the Ligier team, and the racing chassis and frame can be developed by itself.

Although it can be developed very well, it is still a little cheaper than buying it outside, and most manufacturers with top R&D capabilities already have their own F1 fleet, and it is impossible to sell you the best things.

The Montrier Circuit has not held events since the 70s, so even if it is rented, it is actually similar to a private racetrack.

To the right of the entrance to the track, a long warehouse was built, which housed the prototypes of the Prost team, as well as the current F1 vehicles.

Zhang Yifei and his entourage got off the car and entered the garage under the leadership of Henry, and the first thing that caught their eyes was a row of blue painted racing cars, and there were quite a few of them.

In addition, there are all kinds of maintenance equipment in the garage, and there are racing car parts on the tool racks around it. In one corner, there is a mountain of racing tires, which can also be seen from the fact that the F1 car test has exaggerated the consumption of tires.

"Alright, let's let Charlie take you to learn about racing."

After Henry finished speaking, he looked at Charlie on the side, he is the chief technician of the team, and the technical things are far superior to Henry, the team leader.

It's like Junko Takeda is the team manager, but in terms of racing, Korcel and Yamamoto Ukyo are in charge, which is the specialty of the art industry.

Of course, there are some exceptions, and many team managers are retired drivers. In terms of professionalism, they may not be inferior to the average race engineer. Therefore, this kind of team manager will come to the field in person, and together with the team strategy team, issue team instructions.

In addition to the racing cars, there are several maintenance technicians in the warehouse, but these people are not the core figures in the team's maintenance team, but more like substitutes. Prost's official maintenance team, still preparing for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, will not return to base until the entire F1 season is fully over.

"The cars placed here, except for an active official racing car, are all prototypes and retired racing cars developed by the Prost team in the past few years since its establishment."

After Charlie introduced a sentence, he took Zhang Yifei to a blue racing car.

The few team maintenance technicians who stayed behind greeted him and nodded when they saw Charlie coming over.

The Chief Technician is the absolute boss under management and is responsible for directing all members of the Technician team. The millimeter-accurate pit stop maintenance of the F1 car is done under the coordination and command of the chief technician.

The F1 maintenance team represents the highest standard of current maintenance teamwork, if the chief technician does not have absolute authority, everyone has their own ideas to follow, then it is impossible to achieve perfect teamwork at the millisecond level.

F1 drivers can have their own driving style, but the F1 technician team has never been a place to talk about style. What they need is a screw-like member, solid and stable.

Only such a cornerstone can take on the most technical automobile race on the planet.

"This is the latest car of the Prost team, codenamed JS51, inherited from the JS series of the Ligier team, with a redesigned chassis and aerodynamic shape, and a racing engine supplied by Peugeot."

Listening to Charlie's introduction, Zhang Yifei looked at the blue car in front of him, which was completely different from the Formula Renault car and the F3 Dalra car he had driven before.

The car in front of you, just from the pleasing aerodynamic shape, you can feel the technological content of the F1 car.

Even if Prost doesn't have the kind of "Mars rover" that crushes all living beings, it still doesn't stop it, it's one of the most cutting-edge vehicles on the planet. Thinking that he would soon be able to drive this capable beast, Zhang Yifei had an urge to try it in his heart!