Cosell was a little confused. Could it be that Zhang Yifei was in poor condition today?

During the race, the driver's condition is often a decisive factor, especially in the F1 field. There is no saying that any driver can defeat other drivers and can absolutely crush every event.

If there is no absolute difference between technology and vehicle performance, the results on the track are nothing more than the status of the driver at that time.

Zhang Yifei's current results are not bad, and he may not have done well yet. In addition, this is just a qualifying match, and Kossel rarely doesn't want to put pressure on Zhang Yifei.

Of course, there is another possibility, that is, Zhang Yifei is a little too relaxed and has not forced out his own strength.

If it is the second situation, then Cosell can't bear it. He can accept that the driver is not strong enough to lose the race. But he can't accept that the driver does not work hard or dares to challenge him. In Cosell's eyes, this is a coward!

Yamamoto Ukyo didn't say anything after seeing Cosel ask, so he also glanced at the lap speed on the circular screen.

However, compared to Cosell's doubts and dissatisfaction, Yamamoto Ukyo felt that he could accept it completely.

The track record is not so easy to break, and this is a formal qualifying race, not a test run by Zhang Yifei alone. There is no interference from the opponent in the test run, and there is no pressure in his mind, so it is normal to run faster results.

This is like a sprint. Many players have achieved breakthrough results in training, but standing on the track, under the influence of wind speed, opponent rhythm, weather, and even the audience, the speed is not as good as during training. This is not an unexpected thing.

Otherwise, why the sports world would praise those big-hearted players is because they can withstand various variables and pressures and still exert their strength.

Zhang Yifei's current lap speed does not seem to be unable to withstand the pressure at all. It can only be said that it is affected by objective factors and will be slightly slower than the test run.

But this is not a big problem. Other players are not happy either. Moreover, the fifth lap is only available, and there is still a schedule of more than ten laps later. And as the number of laps increases, the amount of fuel in the car decreases, and the weight of the car will be further reduced. This is the time to truly create the fastest lap.

In this regard, Yamamoto Ukyo was optimistic and did not worry about Zhang Yifei at all.

But Zhang Yifei on the track is far less optimistic than Yamamoto Ukyo imagined.

Because he felt that the arrogance in the gear position became more and more obvious, and even at some point, there was a slight lag!

Things like jerk are very common for serial gearboxes, because racing cars do not pursue silent, comfortable and other functions like civilian vehicles.

Racing requires only one thing, that is fast!

Therefore, the transmission of the racing car does not consider the noise or the comfort and sexual feeling of the passengers. The stuttering is very obvious when violent shifting.

But this is different from the conventional pauses, but it is a feeling of slow shifting and even the gear position is a bit uncut.

This situation was completely beyond Zhang Yifei's previous expectations. He began to think that it might be mechanical wear and metal debris appeared. As long as the time goes by, these metal debris will grind into smaller particles, and then deposit the gearbox oil to the bottom, it will not affect the vehicle's driving.

As a result, this kind of lag feeling is now not something that small metal debris can do. But Zhang Yifei is not a graduate of car repair after all, so there is no problem with the help of car repairs or other things. It is impossible for him to find the reason for the complex mechanical structure of the gearbox.

The competition continued, and Zhang Yifei was thinking about whether to call the repair station and asked them what the reason was.

This scene is very common in F1 competitions. The driver team can understand the current state of the car through various sensors on the car and then give suggestions to the driver.

At the same time, the driver can also tell the racing problem and ask the team to provide a solution. If it really doesn't work, they can only enter the station and find a way to solve it quickly. If it cannot be solved, they can only withdraw from the race.

However, Renault Racing did not arrange the so-called pit stop. Once it leaves the track, it means giving up the race voluntarily and dealing with the unfinished race. So unless it is a simple thing to solve, it will be useless to ask Zhang Yifei if he asks.

Racing failures are very common in Formula racing in this era. The mechanical stability is really poor. Zhang Yifei can run three stops and test runs safely without any problems. He is already very lucky.

Of course, there are also contributions from the Toyota technical team. After all, this team of top Le Mans professional technicians feels a bit overused in the primary formula, and the racing maintenance can be arranged clearly.

After ten laps, Zhang Yifei's lap speed has not increased, and even declined.

At this time, Kubika, who had been following Zhang Yifei closely, found an opportunity. He took advantage of Zhang Yifei's shifting acceleration and sluggishness when he was out of the corner and directly kicked the floor to the bottom, surpassing Zhang Yifei's racing car!

This is not the first time that Zhang Yifei has been overtaken on the track, but it is Zhang Yifei showing his strength at the Hoganheim Track, and the first time someone can surpass him.

Even Kubika, who surpassed, could not believe it at this time, because Zhang Yifei's tangent line was very good when he passed the corner, and he could not find any opportunity to surpass the corner.

He originally thought it was impossible to surpass it, but he didn't expect that Zhang Yifei's speed would slow down after the turn, which made Kubica hope. He had ambition to surpass Zhang Yifei and was successful!

"What's going on? How could Zhang Yifei be surpassed?"

"Isn't it normal to be surpassed on the track? Senna is still overtaken by someone."

"But Fei was overtaken after leaving the corner. With this basic acceleration operation, how could a mistake be made with Fei's strength?"

"Who knows?"

"Fei, Chao is back, I want to see you get the pole position!"

"Come on, fly, complete the miracle of three-link position, and let other drivers see your terrifying dominance!"

Zhang Yifei was overtaken, which made the audience outside the yard start to get a little turbulent, and many people were surprised, but many people also thought that this was no big deal, and Zhang Yifei would definitely be able to surpass him.

Some people directly cheered Zhang Yifei, hoping that he could complete the "great achievements" of the three-way connecting position, setting a record for Renault's European Cup.

In the repair station, when everyone, who was originally relaxed, saw the broadcast screen, the smile on their faces began to solidify a little.

They basically believe that Zhang Yifei is sure to win this game, and it is difficult to have any unexpected situations. After all, the test run leading the track record of 0.3 seconds is definitely an amazing breakthrough. Is there no big problem with the pole position?

As a result, the scene in front of me was really unexpected. Even if Zhang Yifei didn't show up, he shouldn't run slower and slower, right?

Cosel finally couldn't help it, pressed the call button on the headset and asked Zhang Yifei: "What exactly happened, why is it getting slower and slower?"

"The gearbox seems to be a little problem, the gear shifting connection is very slow, and even there is a lag and requires a secondary shift."

“There is a problem with the gearbox?”

Upon hearing this news, Kossel turned around and asked Ah Hu and Chen Zhi: "How did you do pre-race maintenance? Why did there be problems with the gearbox?"

Faced with Cosel's harsh questioning, Ah Hu was a little scared. After all, he was just an apprentice in the Guangzhou-Shenzhen Automobile Repair Store before, and he had never seen such a scene.

Chen Zhi was relatively calm and replied: "There was no problem before the race maintenance. It was just that when the test run ended, we found that the transmission synchronizer was a bit malfunctioning, but it had been solved at that time."

"There is something wrong with the synchronizer?"

When Cosell heard this, based on the current problem of Zhang Yifei's racing, it should be confirmed that there is a problem with the synchronizer.

There are many limitations in serial transmissions, such as high transmission efficiency, fast shifting speed, and there is no possibility of being in the wrong gear.

However, the durability of the serial transmission is not high, especially the loss of the synchronizer is even more serious.

Because the function of the synchronizer is to automatically match the vehicle's speed with the wheel speed. Old drivers who have driven early manual gears know that if there is no synchronizer, you must clutch two feet to match the engine speed with the wheel speed before you can get into gear.

Formula racing cars do not need to step on the clutch, and they keep shifting at high speed throughout the whole process, so the shifting impact force brought is several times that of ordinary civilian cars, and these impact forces are all with the synchronizer.

Whether there is a problem with the synchronizer is not so easy to detect. Moreover, Formula racing cars in this era lack many sensors. Unlike later vehicles, if there are any faults in them, you can read the fault code and understand the general problem by plugging in the obd.

Moreover, there is one biggest difference between Formula Racing and ordinary vehicles, that is, the maintenance technician cannot drive the fault for two laps without sensors confirming the fault, and ordinary people cannot drive this car!

Therefore, the maintenance of Formula racing is purely based on the rich experience of the technician team to eliminate possible faults bit by bit. This is why the F1 technical team, even the most basic tire replacement, needs to go through layers of selection, because the requirements for them are very high.

Ah Hu and Chen Zhi have no such experience. When they inspected the air shift after the game, they felt a little slow to shift. However, this phenomenon was minimal and the subsequent test did not appear, so they returned to the hotel very late that day.

Unexpectedly, there was a malfunction after all, and it still happened in the game!

"Fly, it should be a transmission synchronizer failure."

Cosell told Zhang Yifei the cause of the failure, but he had no good solution. Replacing the synchronizer is equivalent to a major repair. Unless you choose to withdraw from the race and return to the repair station, you cannot handle it on the track.

Synchronizer failure? Zhang Yifei's face was a little serious when he heard this. He didn't expect that the racing gearbox in this era would use a synchronizer.

It is precisely because the synchronizer is prone to failure when subjected to high speed shocks that later race-level serial transmissions actually do not have synchronizers, but instead use claw clutch with greater structural strength and simpler and more crude.

"So Is there any way to deal with it?"

Zhang Yifei asked Cosel, if it was confirmed that it was a synchronizer failure, if it was not handled, the problem would become more and more serious.

Because the car is still driving at high speed, the wear of the synchronizer will intensify, and eventually ablation or failure will occur, and the entire transmission synchronizer will be completely damaged.

In fact, there is already this trend now. Zhang Yifei began to feel that it is becoming more and more difficult to get off the gear, which can be felt from his slowdown.

"No."

A very clear answer came from Cosell. Although he is a PhD in aerodynamics, he has not studied mechanical engineering deeply. However, the synchronizer is one of the most common faults in racing cars and there is no possibility of self-repair, so the answer is already very obvious.

Just when Zhang Yifei was talking to Cosell, Suarez and Dixon discovered something wrong with Zhang Yifei and chose to surpass him at this opportunity.

At the same time, such a scene gave other drivers great motivation. Because they were almost thinking that Zhang Yifei was invincible before, but they didn't expect that he suddenly showed such a weak side, and it turned out that he could be easily surpassed.

Under this kind of motivation, more and more drivers plan to surpass Zhang Yifei to prove themselves. And the lap speed on the track has also begun to increase rapidly, unlike the deep despair before, and now they have seen hope of defeating Zhang Yifei!

"What should I do? Did I cheat Brother Fei?"

At this time, Ah Hu said in a crying voice, since it has been confirmed that it was a failure of the racing transmission synchronizer, it is naturally the responsibility of the maintenance team. It is impossible for the driver to repair the car by himself.

"It's our responsibility, we're sorry for Yifei."

Chen Zhi also said in a heavy tone that he should stand up and take responsibility as the eldest brother.

In fact, when the maintenance problem was found after the race, they had already decisively changed the gearbox directly and did not leave hidden dangers. But they also knew that Zhang Yifei was short of funds, and he came from a small place like a car repair shop, and his thinking had not changed to the level of spending money like the ground in F1.

I always think that the tiny little problem did not appear, so I don’t have to spend such a big price to help Zhang Yifei save some money. Unexpectedly, the hidden dangers turned into bad diseases, which affected Zhang Yifei’s performance.

However, the team members did not mean to blame the two of them, because they both knew that it was impossible for the technical team of two people to do everything in full.

Moreover, Ah Hu and Chen Zhi have only been in contact with the equation for more than two months. Can they be asked to compare with the chief technician with decades of experience?

Cossel did not focus on who is responsible, but instead thought about solutions to the problem.

The situation in front of us seems like a dead end, but in fact there is still a faint hope.

"Fei, there is actually another way to deal with it."

“Do you synchronize manually?”

Before Cosell could tell the method, Zhang Yifei said it out by himself.

"Well, step on the clutch instead of synchronizer to switch gears."

In theory, the serial transmission is a manual upgrade version, which saves the process of stepping on the clutch. In this case, you can only choose to use a clutch instead of the synchronizer.

But there is another difficulty, which is that the efficiency of stepping on the clutch is very low. If you want to improve it, you must achieve a perfect gear shift speed difference. This is undoubtedly an amazing challenge, using manpower instead of mechanical calculations.

It can be said that this is not a solution, but only a theoretical possibility of handling it.

"The synchronizer has not completely failed, but it can't withstand the engine speed when the speed difference is large. I can shift the paddles when the speed difference is matched, and the clutch contract is synchronized when the speed difference is huge to reduce the impact on the synchronizer."

"But this requires too high control and it's difficult to do."

Kossel also knows the principles, but knowing the principles is one thing, and it is another to achieve them.

"I think I should be able to give it a try."
Chapter completed!