The predecessor of the Prost team is the famous old French team ligier (Likiah). It once competed as the F1 team for more than 20 years from 1976 to 1996, played in 326 events, and took the podium 50 times and won 9 of them.

But in the end, because of the poor results, he chose to withdraw from the F1 paddock. Prost had the dream of building a French team, so he took over and established Prost team.

So the current fleet headquarters is actually the headquarters of the Ligier fleet back then. All workshop equipment, including wind tunnels, is the legacy of the Ligier fleet.

According to Zhang Yifei's news, after the Grand Prix race ended, he had already communicated with the Prost team.

When the group came to the convoy building, Prost team leader Legov Henry, and Zhang Yifei's future chief technician Kulun Charlie were all waiting here to welcome Zhang Yifei's arrival on behalf of Prost team.

"Hello, Mr. Zhang Yifei."

Henry opened his arms and gave Zhang Yifei a warm hug. After all, even if he is a member of a team in the future, everyone will stand on the same front.

"Hello."

Zhang Yifei also responded with a smile on his face. He never pretended to his own people.

Although Henry is only the title of team leader, in fact, because the team manager is Prost and is also the team founder and boss, Henry actually performs the duties of team manager.

In addition, chief technician Charlie once served the Ligier team. Later, as he was acquired, he joined the Prost team. He is considered a very experienced ace technician.

Charlie was the chief technician of the No. 1 driver of the Prost team, and Prost did not have the idea of ​​placing Charlie to Zhang Yifei.

However, Zhang Yifei's strong victory in the Grand Prix on the Island of Australia this time has improved Prost's estimate of Zhang Yifei's potential.

You should know that the number one driver of Prost team is French veteran Jean-Alessi, who is 35 years old this year.

The best result in history is to win a branch championship and the total points drivers ranked points. However, as they grow older, Alessi's scores began to gradually decline.

Take Prost team record this year for example. Alessi participated in 17 races, but only five races were finished, and the finishing rate was even 30%.

Although the F1 finishing rate in this era cannot be compared with that in later generations, there is still a finishing rate of 78%, and top drivers can achieve a finishing rate of 90%.

Less than 30%, no matter how accidents, failures, status declines, etc., it cannot rule out that the game is suspected of being paddled.

Of course, the second driver, Nick Heifeld, is not much better. The finishing rate is half a pound with Alessi. The two of them have had a fight more than once. It’s really together that big brother, don’t laugh at second brother.

This is the current situation of the Prost team. It is not enough to describe the twilight atmosphere. It is simply a template for people to lose their hearts and the team is not easy to lead.

It is precisely based on this premise that Prost, known for his stubbornness and conservatism, chose to join Zhang Yifei and carry out a major change in the fleet in this seemingly radical way.

Anyway, if you don’t change, you will die. Maybe Zhang Yifei’s joining may have some miraculous effects.

So now the team's hope and fire are put on Zhang Yifei by chance to see how he can create miracles and take Prost out of the brink of bankruptcy.

"It's already very late today. I'll take you to your room to rest first, and then go to the garage tomorrow."

After saying that, Henry took Zhang Yifei and his party into the racing building, where various Prost team racing logos were placed. The entire decoration style was mainly blue.

This is the color on the French tricolor flag and it is also the iconic color of the previous Ligier team. After the acquisition of the Prost team, it also inherited the main color of the team and became the blue legion on the track, forming a sharp contrast with Renault's yellow and black tones.

There are apartments for team members in the building. Generally speaking, F1 drivers will not choose to live in such a team building.

After all, the F1 drivers are in the entry standards. What equation do you run if you don’t have money?

So even if the F1 driver is not paid, he is unlikely to be a poor man. He either rents a more comfortable and luxurious residence outside, or stays in a five-star hotel. Anyway, except for special circumstances, he basically does not live in an apartment like a fleet building.

Zhang Yifei is not poor now, but he is far from reaching the point of being rich, and the contract Prost team gave him is only 130,000 US dollars in basic salary.

This amount of money is definitely not enough to bring team members and live outside with delicious food and spicy food. So before receiving the big endorsement contract, you can only live in the apartment temporarily.

But seriously, the accommodation conditions of the apartment are actually not bad, far from being comparable to those in later factories. Zhang Yifei did not feel any inconvenience at all. He was not a person who pursues enjoyment and pickyness.

The next morning, Henry had already prepared two cars and led Zhang Yifei and his party to the southern part of Paris, which is now the ontlhéry (Monrily) track in the east of Versailles.

Montrerey Racing is one of the oldest professional tracks in France. It was built in 1924 with a total length of 12,497 kilometers. It once hosted the French Grand Prix in 1925.

However, because the track's specifications were too old and many standards could not keep up with the demand for racing later, Montrere Racing was later abandoned, and changed from a top professional track to an ordinary track, and then rented by the ligier team to use it as its own test yard.

Basically every F1 team has a private track like this to test the latest developed cars.

Of course, some wealthy and wealthy teams can not only meet one track. For example, the Ferrari team has three different private tracks to test the performance of the car under different terrain and climatic conditions.

Why did the former Ferrari, McLaren and Williams Big Three teams become Red Bull, Mercedes-Benz, and Ferrari twenty years later?

It is because with the development of technology that f1 racing has become an increasingly expensive sport. Without the support of the world-class car manufacturers behind it, ordinary private teams cannot continue to play.

Just like Ferrari, you can buy three of them directly with a rich track, and Prost is only one track or rented. How can you fight against a krypton gold boss?

However, compared with the poorest teams that don't even have a wind tunnel, Prost has inherited the rich legacy of the Ligier team, and can develop the racing chassis and frames by itself.

Although the performance of R&D is not very good, it is always a little cheaper than buying it outside. Moreover, most manufacturers with top R&D capabilities have their own F1 fleets, so it is impossible to sell you the best things.

There were no events held in Montrerey Circuit in the 1970s, so even if it was rented, it was actually similar to a private track.

On the right side of the entry of the track, a long warehouse was built, which houses the prototype car of the Prost team and the current F1 tank.

Zhang Yifei and his party got out of the car and entered the garage under the leadership of Henry. The first thing that caught my eye was a row of blue-painted racing cars, with a large number of them. I just took a look at it and there should be about ten.

In addition, there are various maintenance equipment in the garage, and there are racing parts on the tool holders around. In one corner, there are mountainous racing tires. From this, you can also see how exaggerated the tire consumption of the F1 racing test is.

"Okay, let Charlie take you guys to learn about racing next."

After Henry finished speaking, he looked at Charlie beside him. He was the team's chief technician, and the technical aspects were far superior to Henry, the team leader.

It’s like Junko Takeda is the team manager, but in terms of racing, Kossel and Ukyo Yamamoto are responsible for it. This is the professionalism that specializes in it.

Of course, there are some exceptions, that is, many team managers are retired drivers. They may be no less professional than ordinary racing engineers. Therefore, such team managers will visit the arena and issue team instructions together with the team strategy group.

In addition to racing, there are also several maintenance technicians in the out-of-warehouse, but these people are not the core figures in the team's maintenance team, and they are more like substitutes. Prost's formal maintenance team is still preparing for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix. It takes the entire F1 season to completely end before they can return to the base.

"The racing cars placed here, except for one of the active official racing cars, are all prototypes and retired racing cars developed by the Prost team in the past few years."

After Charlie introduced it, he took Zhang Yifei to a blue racing car.

Several left-behind maintenance technicians greeted him and nodded when they saw Charlie coming.

The chief technician is the absolute boss under the management, responsible for commanding all members of the technician team. The precise millimeter-level pit-station maintenance of the F1 racing car is done under the coordination and command of the chief technician.

The f1 maintenance team represents the highest standard for the current maintenance team cooperation. If the chief technician does not have absolute authority and everyone has their own ideas and personality, then it is impossible to achieve perfect team cooperation in milliseconds.

F1 drivers can have their own personality and driving style, but the F1 technician team has never been a style-oriented place. What they need is members like screws, reliable and stable.

Only such a cornerstone can we undertake the most technical car events on this planet.

"This is the latest racing car of Prost, codenamed JS51, inherited from the Ligier team JS series racing car, redesigned the chassis and aerodynamic shape, using the racing engine provided by Peugeot."

Listening to Charlie's introduction, Zhang Yifei looked at the blue racing car in front of him, which was completely different from the Formula Renault racing car he had driven in the past and the Dalra racing car of F3.

The car in front of you can feel the technological content of the F1 racing car from its pleasing aerodynamic appearance.
Chapter completed!