561 Unyielding Red
"Fei, we checked the steering mechanism and the turret suspension and found no obvious problems. How did you feel before?"
Charlie asked, except for some loose screws on the highway, no obvious fault was found in other aspects, and they also felt a little confused.
"It feels like the steering is not that accurate, and the traces are slightly offset."
Zhang Yifei told him about his feelings during the practice competition. It was precisely because of the deviation of the route that he was more conservative in the cornering stage. In addition, he needed to slow down to get familiar with and experience the track. Various factors combined, and finally he ran a slower lap.
After hearing Zhang Yifei's answer, Charlie did not doubt it. Because more than ten years of career as a technician, he has taught Charlie a truth, that is, don't easily doubt the control skills of F1 drivers. They are all a group of people with terrifying professional skills!
The steering ratio of the f1 steering wheel is much smaller than that of normal civilian vehicles, and is still nonlinear. Any 1mm steering offset, placed on a racing car with a speed of hundreds of kilometers per hour, will be magnified many times, and there will be a large error in the wiring.
Therefore, it is more difficult to find such extremely subtle faults. The directly related components are steering mechanisms, suspensions, etc., and there are too many indirect factors. Almost any component of the racing car is possible, such as chassis, tires, brakes, shock absorbers, etc.
Even if the aerodynamic shape is unbalanced and the wind force on both sides is not equal, it may lead to deviation from the other side.
"There are many factors that go off the wrong way. If you want to figure it out thoroughly, you need to complete the dismantling of the car and have a thorough inspection. However, there will be a second practice race in the afternoon, so there is not enough time."
Charlie explained the current difficulties. According to the F1 schedule, there will be two practice games on Friday, with only a few hours apart.
It is definitely too late to disassemble and install it in just a few hours, because it also needs to include various ignition preheating and inspection times. However, if the problem is not solved, it will always be a hidden danger, so it is in a dilemma.
As an old man, Cosell can understand the current difficulties very well. He just thought for a few seconds and made a decision directly.
"Charlie, the steering mechanism does not need to be removed. If there is a problem, it will be obvious. This deviation mainly checks the chassis and suspension, and the Indianapolis track is counterclockwise. Have you adjusted the steering balance of the car?"
"Yes! The steering was adjusted clockwise before, but this time it was the opposite direction. It may have something to do with this, so I will correct it immediately!"
After saying that, Charlie stood in front of Cosell and Zhang Yifei and said guiltily: "I'm sorry, I made such a low-level mistake."
"What's the point of apologizing for this? Practice racing is originally used to train racing cars. And the rhythm of the racing assembly was disrupted by the supply of parts this time, so it's normal for you to not pay attention to it."
Zhang Yifei didn't care at all. These were actually some small details, and they were discovered in a reasonable period of time. Now the members of the Prost crew have performed well enough, and are not even inferior to the top teams like Ferrari. Zhang Yifei doesn't think they are demanding on them.
You should know that in order to reduce the pressure on crew members and ensure that there will be no accidents, many teams in later generations even require that the tire change time must be maintained at more than 2 seconds, rather than pursuing the extreme advantage of zero point and a few seconds.
Prost crew members have done well enough!
"I will make sure the car is foolproof in the second practice race."
Charlie still made a promise because in his opinion, this was the negligence of the technician team.
"Of course it will be foolproof."
Cosell also agreed, and he also understood the pressure on the technician team.
During the race interval, the technician team members did not choose to rest, but almost flipped the suspension and territory of the JS53 racing car to ensure that there would be no problems in the second practice game in the afternoon.
On the other hand, Zhang Yifei didn't rest. He sat in the lounge and played the pictures recorded by the car camera over and over again to consolidate his memory points of the track route in his mind.
Alaixi's performance in this training session was also not very good, and he was comparable to Zhang Yifei, so he also sat in the lounge and watched the game video with Zhang Yifei.
"You have many of the same routes in the same circle, and there is indeed an error. You need to constantly correct the steering wheel, so you are slowing down.
If it might have been Zhang Yifei's mistake before, then now through reviewing the game video and Alaisi's confirmation, it can be 100% sure that there is a problem with the racing car.
"By the way, did you have this situation?"
Zhang Yifei asked back, although the suspension of Alaisi racing is fine, it is not adjusted counterclockwise. In theory, if there is a problem with him, Alaisi will have the same problem.
"Well, but not as obvious as you."
After hearing that Alaisi was sure, Zhang Yifei basically locked his symptoms on the adjustment problem, which would not have a big impact on the next game.
"The other is the performance weakness of Prost racing, which was magnified on the Indianapolis track. Maybe I can't help you in this race."
In fact, Alessi hesitated for a long time, because speaking it out was equivalent to recognizing his status as a No. 2 driver and wingman.
But after so many games, it is impossible to be unwilling to accept it. Zhang Yifei's performance and strength are indeed worthy of the identity of the No. 1 driver of the team.
Of course, more importantly, Zhang Yifei saved the Prost team, and Alessi has always been grateful.
Although there is another French Renault team on the track and the Prost team is no longer the only one, it has always carried Alessi's original French dream, even this dream may never be realized.
"Alessi, you're underestimating me. Don't forget, I'm a driver who claims to challenge the whole world."
Zhang Yifei replied with a smile, using a half-true and half-false joke to alleviate the embarrassing scenes that might occur.
In fact, Zhang Yifei also understood that Alessi's crazy offensive in the Austrian Grand Prix dragged down the joint cooperation between Barrichello and Schumacher. It was not that he really had the strength to fight Barrichello alone, but it was more like a "returning back" performance.
Now at the US Grand Prix, Alessi has returned to his normal level. Moreover, the weak racing performance and complex and dangerous curves have magnified the gap in technical level, making the strong stronger and the weaker weaker.
In this game, Alessi will definitely not be able to help him.
However, Zhang Yifei is still very grateful for the help this French veteran has given him, and he has long been used to the scene of fighting alone. Therefore, these things cannot affect Zhang Yifei anything.
Hearing Zhang Yifei say this, Alessi is not pretentious. His dignity makes him unable to completely put down his airs and position himself as a wingman. If he talks too much, he will seem inferior.
The second practice match arrived on time at 3:00 pm. After experiencing the "defeat" of the practice in the morning, the American car fans and Indy fans at the scene were obviously even more proud. Many people saw Zhang Yifei appearing and made various boo and whistle sounds and began to laugh at him wantonly.
Most viewers believe that Zhang Yifei cannot adapt to the Indianapolis circuit, and the super rookie performance of the Austrian Grand Prix cannot be performed again.
But this time, Zhang Yifei found a red area among the crowd of more than 100,000 American audiences.
This is not a Ferrari red, but a Chinese red!
As the world's leader and immigrant country, the United States actually has a group of millions of Chinese people. If international students, overseas Chinese, etc. are added, the number will be even greater.
So compared with places like Brazil and Austria, the United States is more likely to gather a considerable number of Chinese and overseas Chinese supporters.
During the training stage, there were actually many Chinese and overseas Chinese in the audience, but these thousands of people were almost like a splash of water in the ocean of more than 100,000 people, and they could not make their own voices at all.
And they didn't expect that Zhang Yifei would be ridiculed and ridiculed by the whole audience, and they did not prepare anything before the game.
However, the ridicule and contempt that Zhang Yifei suffered after the game aroused their indignation, so they used the game interval to find ways to get some national flags and banners supporting Zhang Yifei.
And because of the insufficient number, there are even a lot of red cloths on the scene. Anyway, at least in a sea of star and stripes, the Chinese red belonging to Zhang Yifei is shown!
"Come on, Zhang Yifei!"
"Come on, and we support you!"
"Chinese car god, Zhang Yifei!"
"Zhang Yifei, let the Americans see how powerful Chinese drivers are!"
The shouts were actually not obvious in the sounds and whistles, but Zhang Yifei still heard the familiar "Come on" sound.
"No wonder Montoya has rekindled his fighting spirit. It feels so good that there is someone to support him."
Zhang Yifei muttered with a smile, then walked back to the repair station, put on headphones and helmets.
There will never be a lack of supporters behind him!
The second practice race was held as scheduled, with the track temperature remaining at 16 degrees Celsius, which is the most suitable temperature range for the race. All teams have adjusted the racing car and started testing on tires, which is faster overall than once.
The speed of Zhang Yifei's practice competition was compared with the 1 minute, 16 seconds, 603 in one practice, and the improvement was very large, only 1 minute, 15 seconds, 207.
However, this improvement is compared to himself. In the overall driver, it is still ranked around ten, which is completely different from the amazing results in previous practice competitions.
Even Malaysian driver Xiong Long ran into the 1 minute and 14 seconds field, which also improved a lot compared to the lap speed of one practice, ranking fifth among all drivers.
The top three still have no major changes. With the support of Colombian compatriots and American Indy fans, Montoya really has a small universe explosion trend, suppressing the dissatisfied Schumacher.
Chapter completed!