Hearing Cosell's reconfirmation, Zhang Yifei felt that what he said was not a counterstatement.

"It seems that I am indeed a genius driver, ahhahahaha~~!"

Originally, Zhang Yifei was more excited to drive an F1 car, but now he has been praised by Korcel, so he is even happier, so his face has become thicker.

But soon Zhang Yifei found that there seemed to be no one to cheer, so he could only cough twice to hide his embarrassment.

After the test drive, it was time for the car to be overhauled, because Ah Hu and Zhi Ge were not yet members of the Prost team, so they had no way to touch the car.

This is not like the Renault and Dallara racing cars that Zhang Yifei drove before, they belong to standard racing cars, all parts are mass-produced, can be rented and purchased at will, and the technology content is not high.

For an F1 team, the cars produced are the team's biggest core secret, and it is naturally impossible for irrelevant people to overhaul them.

Not to mention overhauling the racing car, if it weren't for Zhang Yifei being here today, and Ah Hu and a few of them were about to join the company, even the accurate racing horsepower, weight, fuel load and other data would be confidential to the team.

The simplest example is that once the size of the fuel tank leaks out, it is easy for the opponent to calculate the number of pit stops and the time based on the amount of fuel you carry.

For F1 teams, this is equivalent to the opponent has seen half of you, and the strategy is at an absolute disadvantage. So a lot of seemingly inconsequential data can determine the outcome of a game.

"Let's go here for the time being, let's go back to the company building first and sign the employment contract."

Henry opened his mouth to say that the most important reason for him to rush back from the Suzuka Circuit in Japan was to replace the team manager and sign an employment contract with Zhang Yifei's team members.

Otherwise, there is no need for a "civilian" person like him to come forward, and letting Charlie return to the headquarters is enough to deal with Zhang Yifei's matter about the test drive.

"No problem."

Zhang Yifei nodded and agreed, the reason why he returned to China to run the Ao Island Grand Prix was to let all members of the team enter F1, and now this wish has been achieved, which can be regarded as a matter of heart.

After Ah Hu and Chen Zhi heard this, they also looked forward to it with expressions on their faces, and only by signing the entry contract can they truly become a member of the F1 team.

Just as the driver's highest temple is in F1, any car maintenance personnel is also the highest temple in the F1 maintenance team. Only in F1 can you feel the maintenance cooperation down to the millimeter level, and only then can you get in touch with the world's most cutting-edge racing technology!

After Zhang Yifei changed back into his regular clothes, Henry and his group prepared to return to the headquarters building, and when passing by the F1 car, Zhang Yifei saw a new car without any logo, which looked like a prototype, so he asked the opening.

"Henry, what kind of car is this?"

"The JS53, the latest generation prototype of the Prost team, will be used in next year's F1 season."

A new race car? When he heard this, Zhang Yifei was a little interested again, if nothing else, JS53 will be his own car in the F1 paddock next year.

"Will I be able to drive this prototype the next time I test it?"

Because of the pursuit of extreme performance in F1 races, the cars used by the teams are replaced and upgraded every year, in order to apply the latest technology born in the year to the new cars.

In other words, the JS53 prototype in front of him is the latest and strongest car of the Prost team, and Zhang Yifei naturally wants to feel it.

"No, this prototype has not yet been finalized, and it needs to be tested on the track to collect data and fed back to the R&D center before it can be officially confirmed to be the next generation of the Prost team."

"At the moment, the test driver Emil is still in Japan, and you don't know enough about Formula 1 cars to give you accurate feedback on your racing experience, so now is not the best time to drive it."

Henry rejected Zhang Yifei's request, and although he had performed well on the track just now, the F1 foundation was still very weak. Before the prototype was finalized, there were many small design and aerodynamic problems, which required detailed feedback from test drivers and then modifications through the team's R&D center.

This is also an important reason why the F1 team must have a test driver, Zhang Yifei is still too "young" to drive a prototype car.

"Okay then."

Zhang Yifei replied with a little regret, but he also knew in his heart that he didn't know enough about F1 cars, and it was not a wise move to blindly drive a prototype.

Back at the team headquarters building, Henry took out the team contract that had been prepared a long time ago and signed a contract with Zhang Yifei's team members.

According to the team's contract, Korsell will be Zhang Yifei's race engineer and will also serve as the team's chief race engineer in the team's strategy group.

It has long been agreed that Korsell will become Zhang Yifei's race engineer. But it's a bit intriguing to have Korcel as the lead race engineer for the strategy group.

Because an F1 team is made up of two official drivers, each driver has his own independent race engineer and chief mechanic, and then shares a team of technicians.

The strategy team of the F1 team is composed of these two race engineers, plus team managers, data analysts and others. At the same time, in order to ensure the unity of decision-making power of the event, a chief race engineer will be selected to have the highest command effect.

In general, the Chief Race Engineer is either the team owner or manager. After all, the main role of this position is not to give advice, but to give final instructions at critical moments.

If it is not the team owner or manager, then the chief race engineer will be the race engineer of the number one driver.

This is because in the future, it is very likely that the issue of handicapping will be involved, and for the sake of the team's performance and interests, the personal interests of the No. 2 driver will be sacrificed if necessary, and even the championship will have to be forced to give up.

Race engineers are the people who have the closest relationship with the drivers, and in most cases follow the drivers rather than the team, so the two people are bound together in terms of intimacy and interests.

If the No. 2 race engineer were the chief, he would inevitably not give orders such as handing over to the car due to selfish concerns.

If there is a conflict with the decisions of the team management, it will be a very troublesome time and will affect the stability of the team.

Therefore, this position, in addition to the team management, can only be held by the No. 1 driver race engineer, and there is no choice.

Does having Korsell as the future chief race engineer mean that Prost has decided to make Zhang Yifei the No. 1 driver for his team?

In fact, this point is a bit unreasonable in terms of logic. Because the driver Zhang Yifei wants to replace is Nick Heidfeld, a newcomer to the Prost team, and the French veteran Alessi is likely to continue to stay in the team.

There is such a French veteran who far surpasses Zhang Yifei in terms of status, qualifications, and identity, and it is impossible for Zhang Yifei to replace Alessi as the No. 1 driver in his rookie season.

So even Korsell couldn't guess Prost's intentions at all, but to become the chief game engineer, from the perspective of interests, Zhang Yifei was on the profit side, and Korsell didn't care what Prost thought, so he simply signed the entry contract.

In addition to Kossel, Ukyo Yamamoto became the team's race engineer, and Ah Hu and Brother Zhi naturally joined the technician team according to the original sponsorship agreement.

The only one whose positioning has changed is Junko Takeda.

Her previous position was the manager of the Toyota youth team, but the manager of the Prost team was directly held by the founder Prost, and even the team leader position was held by former Ligier team manager Henry.

There is no vacancy for Junko Takeda at all, and her qualifications and status make it difficult for her to become the manager of an F1 team.

Therefore, Junko Takeda's position is only Zhang Yifei's assistant status, and he did not get the opportunity to enter the team management.

However, this is actually expected, so Junko Takeda simply signed a contract and became Zhang Yifei's driver assistant.

After the contract was signed, it was time for the team to officially operate, Ah Hu and Zhi Ge were directly transferred to the garage to receive training from Chief Technician Charlie, striving to become a qualified F1 technician before the next season.

Cosell and Yamamoto Ukyo began to get in touch with the huge database of the Prost team, and only by understanding these things can they fully integrate into the team and better serve the drivers.

As for Zhang Yifei himself, he is not idle, and he must learn all the basic knowledge and control of F1 cars during the winter break, so as to be eligible for next year's F1 season.

In addition to theoretical knowledge and data learning, Zhang Yifei also has one more task, that is, to drive a racing simulator every day.

Considering that F1 Grand Prix races are located all over the world, drivers can't fly around the globe to familiarize themselves with the track. Moreover, in order to balance the gap between the strong team and the weak team, the FIA strictly forbade drivers to train privately on the track.

To solve these problems, the racing simulator was born, which consists of a real F1 cockpit, plus a ring screen.

The simulator's database contains data from all F1 tracks, allowing drivers to familiarize themselves with global tracks without leaving home through simulated driving. To put it simply, it's like the kind of racing game machine you drive in a playground.

Of course, compared with ordinary racing game consoles, the technical content of F1 racing simulators is far from being at the same level. Especially in the cockpit, all the dynamic feedback is not much different from the actual racing car, and strives to bring the most realistic experience to the driver.

The driving experience is similar, but limited by the technology of this era, the display effect is much worse. is still a traditional multi-screen combination, rather than the super-large curved integrated screen of later generations, which makes Zhang Yifei look very awkward.

But it's nice to have a simulator to drive these days, what more bike can you ask for? After all, the cost of a test run in an F1 car is far greater than that of a junior formula car, and it is impossible to train on the track every day.

So racing simulators are often the only way for F1 drivers to train.