"Shumi, how long do you think the Chinese newcomer can carry it?"

In the Scuderia Ferrari pits, Michael Schumacher did not sit in the car, and the first practice session will be replaced by a test driver from the Scuderia Ferrari.

After all, for Schumacher, he no longer needs to run every track like a rookie, and one or two of the three practice sessions are assigned to the test drivers, which will not affect the tuning of the car's stats and maintain his physical strength, which is the best of both worlds.

He was asked this by Scuderia Ferrari manager Jean Todd, who later became president of the FIA. It was in his hands that Scuderia Ferrari completed the achievement of six consecutive championships and became the top team among the Big Three.

And this foundation is extremely solid, even after two decades, Williams and McLaren are behind, Ferrari is still standing, and it still maintains the dignity of its own Big Three team.

However, the reason why he became known to Chinese was not the manager of the Ferrari team or the president of the FIA. It was his love affair with a Chinese Hollywood actress that made many melon-eating people who love gossip recognize this old French man.

After all, at the beginning of the twentieth century, movies such as "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", "Rain of Swords", "Memoirs of a Geisha" and other movies were still relatively popular, in addition to bringing Zhang Ziyi to the position of an international superstar, Michelle Yeoh was also at the peak of her career.

I have to say that compared with the influence of racing in China, it is obvious that the audience in the entertainment industry is much larger. This kind of legendary manager who has created the pinnacle of the Ferrari team, when he is the most well-known in China, still relies on falling in love with an actress, and he really doesn't know what to say.

In response to Todd's question, Schumacher only replied lightly: "Hold up a lap or two at most." ”

Judging from Schumacher's current experience, Zhang Yifei has a very hard time dealing with Barrichello's attack. Many times, blocking cars relies on dangerous limit lines and aggressive brutal blocking, otherwise Barrichello would have already surpassed it.

After all, what Barrichello wanted to do was to crush the Chinese newcomers, not to die with the other party, so he didn't do some extremely risky overtaking, otherwise Zhang Yifei would not be able to bear it.

"But as a newcomer, Fei is already doing very well now."

Schumacher added that in the first lap of the practice session, he faced Barrichello, and on this completely unfamiliar track, to challenge a home driver, Zhang Yifei was completely defeated and overtaken without a fight, which is already a very good performance.

And I can clearly feel that Zhang Yifei's handling level is actually very good, but he is not familiar with the track, and his line and braking points are slightly inferior to Barrichello.

But Schumacher knows that Barrichello is going all out in this matchup, occupying almost all the advantages, and can be blocked by Zhang Yifei for a few laps, which is enough to see the strength of the Chinese newcomer.

Todd nodded at Schumacher's opinion, after all, this is the strongest driver in the F1 paddock at the moment, there is no one, and it also pulls up other drivers to be called a notch.

Therefore, there is no doubt about the accuracy of Schumacher's vision, otherwise Todd would not have taken the initiative to ask Schumacher.

"Shumi, you seem to be very optimistic about Chinese newcomers."

Few newcomers on the track can get Schumacher's "good" evaluation, especially now that Zhang Yifei is Barrichello's "enemy", Schumacher can still give such a high evaluation, which can only show one thing, that is, Schumacher's impression of Zhang Yifei is very good.

"I think he has a lot of potential and the rain has shown me Senna. But his driving style is a bit too tough, and many times he relies on luck to save him from the brink of losing control, and when there is no such luck one day, it is a real test of a driver's endurance. ”

Schumacher said it very directly, he believes that Zhang Yifei seems to be performing well now, but in fact, he has successfully survived on the brink of thrilling, and has not really experienced a heavy defeat, or faced the test of a strong enemy.

Career is like life, many times only in the trough can you really see a driver's potential and endurance. There are too many talented drivers in the car world who are similar to Zhongyong, and as a result, after a flash in the pan, there is no such person.

Schumacher believes that two games are not enough to really define Zhang Yifei.

"Luck is also a kind of strength, and the drivers from China can get to this point, which has exceeded many people's imagination and predictions. I guess both Renault and the Jaguars regret that they should have been given a full-fledged driver's position in the first place, at least it would have been much better than it is now. ”

Todd said with a smile, now the Ferrari team belongs to the kind of overlooking from above, except for Williams and McLaren, who can pose a little threat, the other teams are no longer enough, so they can judge these things more objectively.

Zhang Yifei can play well in the Prost team, and if he enters the Renault or Jaguar team, he may really be able to soar into the sky. After all, behind these two teams are Renault and Ford, two major car giants, and their strength and capital are not comparable to Prost.

F1 is a money-burning game, and the absolute hard power of the driver may only account for 50% of the results of the performance, and the other five achievements depend on the performance of the car. If you really encounter a super Mars rover, unless it is a special track situation such as a rain battle, you will really try your best to keep up with the opponent.

"By the way, what do you think of Jenson Button?"

Todd asked again, in the last Malaysian Grand Prix, in addition to Zhang Yifei's shocking counterattack, there was actually another driver who performed amazingly, and he was Jenson Button, who finally ran to sixth.

You must know that his qualifying score is 17th, although it is not as good as Zhang Yifei's brilliant performance of more than 18 opponents, but it is also more than 11 opponents. And Todd found that the driver was very stable on the rain track, with almost no thrilling scenes, and everything was under his control.

The performance came as a surprise to Todd, and his instincts told him that the rookie driver, who had been dropped by Williams, had more potential than that. If he could, he had the idea of poaching Jenson Button as the third driver.

"The fundamentals are solid, and the performance on the track is very consistent, but there is nothing bright about it."

Schumacher had only seen some clips of Jenson Button in the game footage, and he was not very impressed with him. In comparison, Zhang Yifei alone accounted for more than fifty percent of the rookie light in this year's F1 season, even Montoya and Raikkonen were suppressed.

Jenson Button, who can't do it well and shine, is naturally a lot worse.

"Hmm."

Todd nodded, and didn't go any further, he was just a whim.

The structure of the Scuderia Ferrari is very stable now, and Schumacher and Barrichello are the perfect pairing, and it is not too much to say that they are the strongest combination in the F1 paddock at the moment.

And both men are at their peak, and Scuderia Ferrari won't have to worry about having to prepare drivers for years to come. So even if Barton came to Ferrari, he didn't give him an official driver's place.

A truly ambitious and capable top driver is one who doesn't waste his career on being a test driver. It's not a question of phoenix tails and chicken heads, but a question of whether or not they can play, and there is an insurmountable gap between the third driver and the No. 2 driver.

When Schumacher and Todd were discussing, the situation on the track was also moving in the direction of Schumacher's prediction.

After Zhang Yifei blocked Barrichello for two laps, he was already a little powerless. Especially in several low-speed sharp corners, because the suspension was too stiff and the mechanical grip was not enough, Zhang Yifei felt that the car showed slight signs of tail flicking.

At this time, he had to use the control mode of playing two steering wheels to adjust the cornering trajectory of the car.

If it weren't for the narrowness of the Interlagos circuit, such sharp corners are not easy to overtake, and Barrichello didn't plan to "end up together". Maybe when Zhang Yifei makes a tail flick mistake, he can seize the opportunity to overtake.

After Zhang Yifei passed the No. 10 Kaffee Turn at Interlagos, he came to a long straight at the start of the link.

It may be a bit inaccurate to describe it as an extra-long straight, as the track has some curvature and the speed does not reach the limit of 320 km/h in 7th gear, averaging only about 270 km/h.

However, this section of the track is more than 1 kilometre long, and it is the place where the cars can show their absolute performance. A large part of the reason why Zhang Yifei chose hard suspension is on this ultra-long straight.

After all, as Korcel said, Prost is not a great car, to be precise, it is one of the last cars in the absolute speed ranking of the current F1 team.

If you don't have a lot of downforce to maintain your speed, you'll be beaten up by your opponents in minutes.

In the first two laps, Zhang Yifei used a crazy lane change to block the car and block Barrichello behind him. It may be said that he did his best to make up for the shortcomings with technology in the case of the performance disadvantage of the car.

But this time, Barrichello doesn't plan to give Zhang Yifei any more chances.

His provocative move today is to prove to his compatriots on Brazilian home turf that the Brazilian driver is still strong and has a day to regain his glory.

Now the time and place are all on their side, and they are still infinitely entangled with a Chinese novice on the track, so they will not get any Liwei effect.

This chase has come to this point, and for Barrichello, it's time for the game to end.