The beginning of March is the start time of the new F1 season, which is not fixed on a certain day in March, but it is usually held in March.

Eleven F1 teams have assembled in Melbourne, Australia, a southern coastal city, ready for the upcoming F1 season.

Zhang Yifei is the first time to come to Australia, and it can even be regarded as his first time in the southern hemisphere. From the severe cold of winter and spring that the northern hemisphere is experiencing, it is really a little uncomfortable to transition to the sunny summer and autumn.

However, in order to ensure the most suitable temperature for the F1 car, Australia in the southern hemisphere is chosen for the first race of the FIA every year, so as to ensure the best temperature conditions and avoid some extreme weather.

For example, if it is placed on a Russian or Nordic circuit at this time, there may be snow and ice on the track, which will greatly affect the performance of the car and the driver.

After the group arrived at the hotel, Prost called everyone to the conference hall of the hotel, and the members of the Prost team strategy group were officially decided.

As the saying goes, three stinkers are the best of the best, and F1 teams have evolved from individual race engineers in the early days to strategy groups. The most famous of these was Scuderia Ferrari, which reduced the role of the race engineer and replaced it with the issue of directives by the race strategy team.

At the same time, this approach also leads to a very strong command of the team and the strategy team, and if you are not the star driver, there is basically no room for negotiation and refutation, unless you don't want to get mixed up with Ferrari.

For example, in the famous 2002 Austrian season, Barrichello received the team's assignment to give Schumacher a car, which led to Schumacher becoming the Austrian champion.

Later, in an interview with TV, Barrichello expressed his mentality at the time: "I didn't want him to pass, but I got instructions from the team and they told me to think about what to do, so I had to lift my foot off the accelerator. ”

From this passage, you can feel the strength of Ferrari's strategy team, and there is no room for bargaining for Barrichello, who was under the aura of Schumacher at that time.

At the same time, the handicap incident also sparked a wide discussion after the race, with the president of Scuderia Ferrari and subjectively insisting that this was a reasonable and legal tactical arrangement, with the goal of winning the championship for the team and drivers.

But many people disagree with this statement, thinking that this kind of car giving incident is a blasphemy and insult to the competitive sport of F1 racing! Even in Italy, Ferrari's hometown, many media have issued a voice that competitive sports should have competitive rules, and this kind of unfair victory is no different from losing.

The car accident also became one of the black spots of Schumacher's career, and until later, some people considered it unsportsmanlike and shameful.

However, things were not as dark as the public thought, and Schumacher won the world championship in the driver's points at that time, more than doubling the lead over second place. The reason for the handicap was that Schumacher had won all races except Austria, and Scuderia Ferrari wanted to be beautiful and set a more beautiful track record.

It's just that they didn't expect it to cause such a big controversy afterwards, but the team could have done something smarter, such as adding 10 kilograms of petrol to Barrichello's car, or pitting for tyres.

It's really not good to play a wave, let Barrichello pretend to surpass Schumacher, don't let it be so obvious. But if you do this, it will be even more unfair to Barrichello in a sense.

At least he gave in, and the fans would have recognized that the Austrian championship belonged to Barrichello, and by means of concession, Barrichello not only did not have a trophy, but even the honor did not belong to him.

In a sense, Scuderia Ferrari's strategy team, while strong, at least did not play any shady tricks.

At the same time, Schumacher also knew in his heart that this championship was well deserved, and at that time, on the podium, Barrichello still held the championship trophy. And in the United States, after Schumacher took the lead, he slowed down at the last moment and gave up the championship seat that should have belonged to him to Barrichello in second place.

In a sense, it can be regarded as a kind of gratitude and compensation to Barrichello. It's just that what happened later has far less influence than the sensational "give the car" incident, and Schumacher still bears the infamy.

……

In the Melbourne hotel office, the core personnel of the team arrived in turn, including two official drivers, owner Prost, team leader Henry, Zhang Yifei's race engineer Koser, data analyst Ukyo Yamamoto, Alessi's race engineer Cod, chief technician Charlie, and the new car development and design director Leo and so on.

In addition to these old faces, Zhang Yifei also saw a newcomer, who was the new test driver Sebastian Boerdais who joined the Prost team.

Bourdais is a French driver, runner-up in Formula Renault in 1997 and French F3 Rookie of the Year in 1998. Following the success of Formula Junior and later in the International F3000 Championship, he joined the Prost Youth Team.

Historically, with the dreams of Prost purebred France racing shattered, the Frenchman moved to F3000 DAMS and became one of the most successful drivers in the history of Formula International, eventually joining Toro Rosso.

However, with the departure of the Emil in this world, Berdais was promoted and became a test driver for the team.

Prost had also planned to let Bouldais hone in F3000 for a year or two, after all, his current results are not very good and he is not up to the standard of an F1 test driver.

But now that Emile is gone, Prost can't find a better candidate at once, so he can only let Berdis come up as a replacement. Otherwise, there will be no test driver and no third driver, and if the official driver is not able to compete, then the team will have a race shortage.

Seeing that everyone had arrived, Prost said: "After personnel changes and adjustments, you are all the backbone of the team, in order to ensure the competitiveness of the team in the new F1 season, I have decided to set up a race strategy team to give instructions to the team. ”

Hearing this, the expressions on everyone's faces were very flat, and they all knew the purpose of Prost's gathering of members, so they were not surprised.

"The strategy group represents the team's highest command authority, so this time the strategy team will be composed of five people, namely myself, Henry, Kossel, Cod, and Charlie."

When he heard the list of personnel, Zhang Yifei frowned slightly, because Yamamoto Ukyo did not become a member of the strategy group. In the absence of the team owner, the track instructions will be given by the strategy team, and in the event of any disagreement, the majority strategy team will adopt the principle of minority obeying the majority.

Yamamoto Ukyo did not join, which means that Cosell, the chief race engineer, may not have absolute decision-making power in times of strategic differences and conflicting interests of the drivers.

Although Zhang Yifei did not consider using the identity of the No. 1 driver to instruct Alessi to do things such as giving way, blocking the car, and giving way. But people are still selfish after all, and the situation on the track is also changing rapidly.

Ensuring his own results and the interests of the driver, of course, is Zhang Yifei's first choice, competitive sports is based on results, Zhang Yifei is not a virgin, he will not pay attention to friendship with Alesi first, competition second!

But the next words, dispelling Zhang Yifei's doubts, Prost continued: "If I don't show up in the team, then the chief race engineer Kossel will have the command of the track. ”

There is no doubt that this sentence means that in Prost's absence, Cotter has the final decision-making power.

The reason why Prost did this was not because he supported Zhang Yifei, but because he believed in Korser's ability. And when there is a disagreement in the command of the team, there must be a voice for decision-making, rather than civil strife on both sides.

Last season, the Prost team was so chaotic that there was no absolute master. Once Prost did not follow the team to the track, the No. 1 and No. 2 drivers were not convinced by each other, and when the anger came up, they went straight to the pits.

Having already suffered a loss once, Prost will not make the same mistake twice in a row!

The expression on Alessi's face was not good for Prost's decision, but he still agreed with it.

Not to mention anything else, if you lose the intra-team race, you have to be willing to gamble and lose, and the No. 1 driver himself has the resource privilege of the team. Another point is that after last season, the veteran also understands what the consequences of chaos are, and instead of many disagreements, it is better to have a strong decision-maker, even if it hurts his own interests.

After all, Alessi is at the end of his career and plans to retire from the Prost team, and he doesn't want the team to go out of business before he retires!

In addition, Zhang Yifei's performance in the winter test, in a sense, has also been recognized by the French veteran, serious, hard-working potential newcomers, Alessi feels that Zhang Yifei can lead the Prost team out of the predicament, which makes his inner resistance a lot lighter.

Of course, there is a more important point, that is, Koser's qualifications and ability can convince the public, and Alessi believes that Kosell will not issue some malicious orders purely for the benefit of Zhang Yifei, and relative fairness can still be guaranteed.

After a short day of rest, all the team drivers will have a grand F1 driver meeting the next day, answer some questions about the new season related to the media, and interact with the fans, which can be regarded as a reward for the support of the team and fans.

On this morning, Zhang Yifei put on a racing suit with the Prost logo, a red national flag on his belt, and a Huaxia Petrochemical logo sewn on his chest by Junko Takeda.

Zhang Yifei smoothed out some of the wrinkles on the racing suit, and his actions were very formal, because this was his first public appearance as an F1 driver.

In any case, he has to show his best image and not embarrass the Chinese drivers!