The clock began to tick by, and the competitors were already lining up on the maintenance lane, waiting for instructions from the event command center.

Soon Zhang Yifei flew into the headset, and the departure instructions from the command center came, and all the vehicles went to the starting area of the track to prepare for warming up the tires.

As the command is given, the roaring sound of the engine explodes instantly, as a special engine for high-revving tracks, even if it does not deliberately step on the accelerator to pull the revs to make a roar, the sound wave emitted is not inferior to the exhaust sound of any sports car.

One by one, the Renault cars drove away from the pit lane, merged into the main track, and then drove a distance of about a few hundred meters, found the stop sign on the track, and stopped precisely behind the horizontal line, waiting for the next warm-up command.

Watching the car in front of him, Zhang Yifei also followed, and when he drove on the main track, he could already see the spectator seats on the side of the track.

Looking from a distance in Zhang Yifei's line of sight, the audience was already densely packed at this moment, and it was estimated by visual that it should not be less than 10,000 people.

The Monza circuit has a maximum capacity of 56,000 spectators, but don't think 10,000 is a small number, you must know that this is not an F1 race, but just a junior formula that is better than karts and combus.

There are no world-class star drivers here, they are all a group of newcomers who have just risen from karting, many of whom can't even be named, and tens of thousands of people can come to watch the race, and I have to say that this must have a solid racing culture to have this kind of grand scene.

In later generations, Zhang Yifei also watched a few races of the Renault Asian Cup, and the attendance rate was not even this one-third, and he still remembered a Renault junior event with the least audience, and there were only a few thousand people in the stands, which was really a bit "bleak".

After Zhang Yifei drove a few hundred meters, he also came to the starting area of the track, which can be described as a "sea of people" at this moment, not only the cars are parked here to standby, but the team members of each driver are also on the track, making final preparations.

In addition to the driver team, there are also Renault racing committee staff, media reporters, and racing girls in cool clothes and hot bodies, holding various signs and standing on the track, becoming a different kind of scenery.

Of course, Zhang Yifei was not in the mood to appreciate these blondes, so he parked the car in a vacant parking space, and Yamamoto Youkyo immediately brought Toyota technicians to surround him, using various instruments to detect the current tire temperature and tire pressure.

Brother Zhi and Ah Hu also pushed the tire rack over, with a new set of tires on it, and if they found any problems, they would replace the problem tires as quickly as possible.

On the other side, Junko Takeda held a kettle and gave Zhang Yifei pre-game guidance. And because of the short schedule, Renault does not have the drinking device of the F1 car, and drinks water before the race.

"Yifei, how do you feel, are there any problems?"

"No problem."

Zhang Yifei replied very calmly, the more he came to this kind of pre-race moment, he didn't have the excitement when he started, just like the feeling of standing on the track in his previous life.

"Good, thirsty?"

Junko Takeda was previously an assistant for the Toyota Endurance Racing Team, and she has a lot of pre-race experience, just like the usual feeling of chatting, and does not give Zhang Yifei any pre-race pressure.

Zhang Yifei took the kettle casually and took a few sips with a straw, which was filled with functional drinks that supplemented various trace elements. Because it is now in the hot summer, the thick racing suit is almost like a steamer, and Zhang Yifei is already sweating before the official competition.

On the other side, Ukyo Yamamoto and Toyota technicians finished the final test, he took the tactical board and said: "Now the air temperature is 2°C, the ground temperature is 41°C, the tire temperature is 55°C, and the relative humidity is 20%. ”

"In this state of road, the tyre temperature rises very quickly, and there can be a fierce battle on the first lap, so you have to pay attention to the distance between your defensive route and other cars to avoid accidents on the track."

"I understand."

Zhang Yifei nodded, Yamamoto Youkyo is very professional in this area and is a qualified competition engineer.

Immediately after that, Yamamoto Ukyo instructed two more sentences on several key points, and did not say anything more, because too much at this time would put a lot of pressure on the driver.

The media reporters on the track also took advantage of this time to start interviewing the drivers.

Today is the opening match of the Renault Euro 2000 Cup, and there is really no shortage of media reports on the track, with all kinds of long guns and short shots aimed at the drivers.

It's just that among these drivers targeted, Zhang Yifei is not included, because there are a total of 4 drivers participating in the qualifying race today, and 14 drivers will be eliminated directly, and they don't even have the opportunity to play in the race, which is pure cannon fodder.

Unfortunately, Zhang Yifei is one of the cannon fodder in the eyes of these people, because most of these drivers have several professional karting race records, and one-third of the drivers have a kart championship record.

Take today's opponent Kubica, for example, he can only be regarded as a second-rate lower level in F1, and has only won pole position and one race championship in his career. But he was swept in the Polish karting event, with six championships in three years!

Even if he came to Italy, a racing powerhouse, he also won the international Italian karting Grand Prix, and successfully defended the title, so it can be said that the karting championship is soft.

The same media reporter, will you interview such seeded players, championship contenders, or interview Zhang Yifei, a driver with a high probability of cannon fodder, who may not even have a figure tomorrow?

I want to know the answer with my ass, so Zhang Yifei once again became the background board and passer-by.

But Zhang Yifei doesn't care about this kind of scene, he doesn't like to be interviewed very much, because he has made a lot of baskets because of interviews in his previous life.

Whether he is young and frivolous, or he is open-mouthed, he can't do the kind of tactfulness of Tai Chi in the face of interviews many times, and he can just say what he has.

In foreign culture, it may be more acceptable to Zhang Yifei's behavior and feel his true temperament. But under the idea of moderation in China, too many people have become accustomed to hiding their true thoughts, so Zhang Yifei seems very different.

The first whistle sounded at this time, alerting the unrelated people on the track to start leaving.

Soon the driver team members, media reporters and some of the racing girls on the track began to leave the race, leaving only the race engineers and the race committee staff.

Yamamoto Youkyo squatted next to the car, glanced at the countdown above and said, "Yifei-kun, Junko and I both believe in your strength, come on!" ”

"Don't worry."

Zhang Yifei nodded in reply, then gave a thumbs up to Yamamoto Youkyo, and then put down the mask.

It was at this time that the whistle of the race staff sounded again, indicating that the track was completely emptied and everyone was to stand behind the wall.

With the Race Engineer and the last lady holding the cards out of the race, all the cars left on the track were lined up, and all the drivers fixed their eyes on the electronic timer on the bar and began to press the accelerator lightly, waiting for the start time.

15:20:00, this is the number on the red LCD screen above the track.

When the clock came to 3:20, the cars in the first row rushed out and started the warm-up lap.

There's no fierce competition for the warm-up laps, and most cars are constantly changing lanes on the track, snakeskin, and all kinds of hard acceleration and heavy braking, just to get the brake pads and tires into the operating temperature quickly.

At this moment, Zhang Yifei was in the middle of the position, and he didn't do anything in the tire warming circle, just ran the circle normally to let the tire temperature rise.

After a quick warm-up lap, all the cars returned to the starting point and stopped in their previous spaces in turn, waiting for the upcoming qualifying session.

The qualifying format of F1 at this time is to adopt a one-hour system, that is, in a specified hour, the drivers run twelve laps on the track, taking the fastest lap of the course, and later added a limit, that is, no more than four laps in a row.

Formula 1 is all based on Formula 1 standards, and then changes are made according to the performance of the car.

Therefore, the qualifying rules of the Renault 2000 Euro Cup did not adopt a one-hour system to determine the pole position, but a more direct half-hour fastest lap, which was the previous rule of Zhang Yifei's simulation at the Toyota Youth Training Base.

Within half an hour, the fastest lap rider takes pole position and will start first in the race, and so on. After 20 drivers, they will be eliminated and will not be able to enter the main race, and the points for the Monza race will be zero.

When all the cars were stopped, the five race lights on the bar began to light up one after another, and when all the lights went out at the same time, the roaring engine sounded wildly, and all the drivers rushed over to run their fastest lap.

Zhang Yifei's starting reaction was very fast, and the oil separation cooperation allowed the engine to better burst out of torque, seizing the center of the track, and pressing the other driver on the left behind him.

"Beautiful!"

Yamamoto Youkyo on the sidelines couldn't help but praise, as Toyota's former chief data analyst, he naturally knew the huge gap between the strength of Asian drivers and European drivers, but in terms of Zhang Yifei's starting reaction and starting operation, he definitely reached the level of European drivers.

The first gear broke hundred, the second gear, the third gear, the fourth gear, and in less than two seconds, Zhang Yifei frantically raised the gear to sixth gear and began to chase the car in front of him, wanting to enter the leading group.

Because 4 cars are too dense, especially in the starting stage, many cars are spaced in centimeters, and the slightest mistake will cause the two cars to collide together.

You know, even in Formula Renault, on a high-speed track like Monza, all drivers are close to 200k/h on the long straights after the start.

At this speed, there are cars shuttling all around, and the excitement and difficulty are far greater than those of street racing, which is the real feeling of dancing on the tip of a knife.

But unlike Zhang Yifei's previous events that were easy to overtake, the European Renault driver is definitely not a rookie, Zhang Yifei is crazy at the same time, the other drivers are not slow, and the surrounding cars are too dense, there is no room for him to operate.

Qualifying is not a race, it only looks at the fastest lap, not the overall time.

In the face of the intensive situation of racing in the starting stage, Zhang Yifei did not choose to forcibly overtake, but stubbornly held his route and maintained the current middle echelon.

It was at this moment that Zhang Yifei suddenly understood why the Asian drivers of later generations would be too conservative in the face of "white-knuckle battles".

With the current density of cars and the distance of half a meter, no driver dares to say that he can make all kinds of extreme overtaking, and move to the front with perfect flashes.

Taking the initiative to attack represents a multiplied risk, not to mention the major accidents such as damaging the engine and gearbox, taking the glass fiber body shell of the Renault racing car and the carbon fiber frame, there is no way to repair and must be replaced as a whole.

If you bump into it casually, hundreds of thousands of dollars will be gone, and the local tyrant will forget it, a poor person like Zhang Yifei really has to think about whether he has money in his pocket!

Soon came to the front of the No. 1 slow bend, this bend Zhang Yifei ran before, must be from the current 6th gear more than 200k/h, heavy braking to 1st gear about 80k/h, in order to safely corner.

So Zhang Yifei saw that the brake light in front was red, and all the riders began to slow down, ready to turn at a safe speed.

Zhang Yifei didn't plan to start working hard in the first lap, this is not a three-stage elimination, so the real bayonet scene is in the last few laps. Because the fuel carried at this time begins to consume about the same, the weight of the vehicle will be reduced by dozens of kilograms, and the speed will be significantly improved.

But at this moment, a car quickly overtook the outside line, and the numbered number on the front of the car was.

The driver of this car, Zhang Yifei remembers very well, because his name is Philippe Massa, a first-class F1 driver in the future, and he is also the overall champion of the Renault 2000 European Cup in history.

Massa was very fast, overtaking Zhang and the other driver with precision, and then applied the brakes very late. When he came out of the corner, because the speed was too fast, he borrowed the shoulder of the road to get out of the corner smoothly, but this made him enter the first echelon and distance himself from Zhang Yifei's group of median drivers.

it!

At this time, only a capital slot appeared in Zhang Yifei's mind.

He knows that to become an F1 driver, they are all talent-level players, but Zhang Yifei has never been in contact with F1 drivers before, and his two lifetimes of racing experience have made his karting career a smooth ride.

If you win more, people will always swell, even if Zhang Yifei is not a complacent person, and he has always been vigilant that he is a master in the world.

But after all, there is still a bit of a change in mentality, and I feel that I should not be bad, maybe I can wrestle with these future F1 drivers.

But Massa's overtaking corners and braking timing just now made him really feel a completely different kind of magic driving skills.

It is worthy of winning the Renault 2000 championship, directly entering the F000 European series, and winning the championship six times in eight sub-races, and creating the fastest lap five times.

In the face of a strong opponent, either give in or challenge, Zhang Yifei chose the latter.

Maybe Massa is a genius and history is destined to enter F1 drivers, but sorry, Zhang Yifei also intends to leave his name in the history of F1.

Stimulated by Massa, Zhang Yifei did not have the previous conservative mentality, the formula car was expensive, and it was estimated that his house in Guangshen would be gone.

But the question is, what is the meaning of such a career in such a conservative race in the formula race, like those Asian drivers in the future, who will always be stuck in the bottleneck and unable to become an official F1 driver?

On the racing track, Zhang Yifei has played all his life, and he is still afraid of losing money by crashing? It's because I think too much and worry too much, but I don't have the courage to go out on the street and see who is 700 to turn him.

I saw that at this time, Zhang Yifei stepped on the accelerator deeply after passing the corner, and the paddle geared up frantically to speed up, he didn't say that he could surpass Massa, at least he had to have a heart to catch up!