On both sides of the parking space in the maintenance channel, the technician team of the Prost team has been ready for simulated tire change training and began to walk to their own stations.

Although the Prost team is not a first-class F1 team in F1, and the best result is hovering in the middle and lower reaches, the team has a first-class maintenance team.

After all, the Prost team has inherited the legacy of the old French team Ligier, with more than two decades of experience in Formula 1, and cannot be seen entirely as an emerging team.

The advantages of acquisition and inheritance are reflected, if the Prost team is a completely new team, with their financial situation and technical reserves, they will hardly have to play in the F1 paddock.

That's why, Toyota has already set up a youth training team and is ready for a complete echelon plan. But in the end, instead of starting from scratch, he acquired the Arrow team.

It is because the advantages brought by the acquisition are too great, as long as the acquisition target is not with huge debts, then it is equivalent to crossing the most difficult "self-made" stage, and can be competitive in the first year, participate in FI events, and avoid many detours.

This time is different from Zhang Yifei's super "shrinking" version of the pit stop to change tires in the Aodao F3 before, and at this moment, more than 20 maintenance technicians are already waiting, including Ah Hu and Brother Zhi.

It's not an official competition, so it's just a good time for the two of them to practice and get familiar with the team.

"Brother Zhi, I'm a little nervous."

Ah Hu whispered, he doesn't know how many times he has changed the tires of the car, but it is the first time for him to carry out a simulated pit stop tire change in F1.

The team's requirements are that the slowest time cannot exceed 4 seconds, and the tire must be replaced, otherwise it will be judged as unqualified.

You must know that although Prost agreed to let Ah Hu and Chen Zhi join the team, it does not mean that they can "fill the numbers" in the F1 technician team. If the technology and strength do not meet the requirements of the event, even if they have a relationship with Zhang Yifei, they will be eliminated.

Of course, the criterion for judging whether you pass or not is not just this one pit stop training, but the performance of the entire F1 winter training period. But even so, Ah Hu is still a little nervous in his heart, he doesn't want to involve Zhang Yifei, let alone lose the face of the Chinese maintenance technician!

"Don't worry, just like normal training, don't be nervous."

Chen Zhi comforted them, for a period of time, they have been screwing and changing tires in the maintenance station almost every day.

It is no exaggeration to say that Ah Hu and Chen Zhi can complete the tire change even with their eyes closed.

However, the problem is that training is training, and it is unknown whether the results of training can be achieved in actual combat.

However, Chen Zhi is confident that as long as they can maintain calm and stable performance, the skills and speed of the two of them will not be slower than ordinary maintenance technicians!

Hearing Chen Zhi's words, Ah Hu nodded, and his nervousness was slightly relieved, but his palms were still full of sweat.

This time, Ah Hu and Chen Zhi are two people, the task division is to change the left front tire, in addition to the two of them, there is also a veteran technician of the team, the most difficult to control the pneumatic wrench.

The reason why F1 pit can change tires in just a few seconds is because the procedures and division of labor are subdivided in great detail. Just to change one tire, three technicians were arranged.

One of them is in charge of the pneumatic wrench, the loose screws and screws are in charge of the air wrench technician, the second person is responsible for removing the old tires, and the third person is in charge of replacing the new tires in his hands.

The process is divided into three steps, which may seem like an easy one, but considering the incredible speed of two or three seconds, you can feel the shock of the team's extreme cooperation.

If you are an ordinary person, or even an ordinary car mechanic, you may not even be able to unscrew the first screw in two or three seconds, let alone change the tire.

The furious engine sound of the engine began to come from afar, and after the technician team heard this sound, they all began to bow their waists slightly, maintaining the best attitude of action, waiting for Zhang Yifei to enter the station.

On the other hand, Zhang Yifei also drove the car into the maintenance lane, and then he braked with one foot and reduced the speed to 80km/h very accurately, with only a very slight jump in the speedometer number, and the speed error did not exceed 1 km.

These can only be regarded as the basic operations of an F1 driver, and if an F1 driver does not even control the speed of the car accurately, it will make people laugh out of their teeth when they say it.

The real difficulty of changing tires in the pit stop is not to slow down the speed, but to pay attention to how to stop perfectly.

From a distance, Zhang Yifei saw Charlie, the chief technician, holding a sign in the shape of a lollipop in his hand, with the words brake written on it.

It is precisely because the sign resembles a lollipop that the technician holding the sign is also called a "lollipop man". He is often the number one person on the mechanic team, in charge of the overall situation and coordination, and is the only pit technician who can communicate directly with the driver via radio.

Therefore, in general, this position is held by the chief technician, so that you can understand the state of the car more directly and communicate with the driver.

Charlie placed the sign slightly horizontally to tell the rider exactly where to park. You must know that although the F1 car has an open cockpit, it does not mean that you will have a good view when you sit in the car.

Basically, when a driver drives an F1 car, he has broken away from the word "sitting", and it is no problem to describe it as "lying". Therefore, the focus of the F1 driver's gaze is placed in the distance, and the area around the car can be called a blind spot, so signs are needed to assist the parking position.

Zhang Yifei drove the car into the parking space, and then stopped accurately with one foot of the brake, and the sign was in front of his helmet.

If you stand from the perspective of a bystander at this time, you can see that Zhang Yifei's car is impartial and parked in the center of the parking space very accurately. This is a very good performance for a rookie driver who pits for the first time, and it also means that Zhang Yifei has solid basic skills.

Charlie is the chief technician who returned to the headquarters ahead of schedule, and he has been following Zhang Yifei on the track during this time, and he has already let go of his prejudice against Zhang Yifei's rookie drivers.

On the contrary, he now admires Zhang Yifei's efforts and unexpectedly solid basic skills. Sure enough, the riders who can create miracles and complete the "triple jump" cannot be mediocre.

As soon as the car stopped, all the technicians began to work with a clear division of labor, such as changing tires, simple mechanical inspections and repairs, wiping mirrors and wiping helmets, etc.

This is just the tire change procedure in the pit stop, and Zhang Yifei will also have more complex pit stop refueling training later. However, because refueling is more dangerous than changing tires, refueling training will be put later before the first step is not fully coordinated.

"Is there a problem with the car?"

Charlie asked Zhang Yifei through the team's voice system, in the pit stop time, it is the only moment when the chief technician has the right to call, and he also enjoys the highest priority call rights.

"No problem."

Zhang Yifei replied briefly.

Almost at the moment when Zhang Yifei's voice fell, the replacement steps of the four tires had been completed, and the front and rear jack technicians left synchronously.

Seeing this scene, Charlie turned the sign in his hand over, from the word "stop" on the front to "shift" on the back.

This word is to tell Zhang Yifei to put the car from neutral to first gear and prepare to start. When Charlie is sure that all the work has been done and there is no interference from the exit line, he will lift the slightly horizontal sign and the car will be able to leave the pits and drive back to the track.

So when Zhang Yifei saw the sign in front of the helmet raised, he directly stepped on the accelerator, and the car began to speed up and rush out of the pit, continuing to test run on the track, waiting for the second round of pit stop training.

During the whole pit stop process, it can be said that there is no superfluous action, and all the maintenance technicians are like a whole to the extreme. That's why teamwork in Formula 1 is seen as a model of teamwork.

It is because of this extreme division of labor that dozens of people are not bad in milliseconds that it has surpassed the event itself and brought people a sense of teamwork!

Watching Zhang Yifei's car go out of the station smoothly, the team technician team cheered, although this is already a routine operation in their careers.

But today it is not only the rookie drivers, but also the two rookie technicians in the team, who can successfully complete the pit stop training without any mistakes or omissions, which is naturally a happy thing.

However, Prost and Cosell in the pit did not rejoice at this small success.

"Prost, what's the average time it takes for your team to pit for a tyre?"

"3.1 seconds."

Prost replied briefly.

3.1 seconds? This average speed was a bit of a surprise to Kossel, because the average pit stop time of a giant team like McLaren, that is, 3.1 seconds, did not open up the gap with the Prost team.

Of course, this is the old yellow calendar almost ten years ago, and the F1 tire change time is constantly improving, from 1 minute and 10 seconds in the 50s to about 3 seconds in the 90s. Perhaps in another ten or twenty years, the fastest tire change time will enter the range of 2 seconds.

In fact, it is true that the fastest pit stop held by Red Bull Racing is 1.923 seconds, and the 2-second limit that has been broken is really not an exaggeration to describe it in the blink of an eye.

"It took 3.9 seconds to make a pit stop, and the pit stop was very accurate, but the reaction to the departure was slow. There is also the fact that the cooperation of the technician team has not reached the extreme, and it may be a problem for Ah Hu to follow Chen Zhi if it is slower, but it is 0.8 seconds slower, and it should be a problem for the entire technician team. ”

Korcel pointed out the key point of the pit stop practice just now, and the slower time can be said to be because the newcomers joined, resulting in unskilled team cooperation.

But it's 0.8 seconds slower, which is not the normal range. This kind of waste of time in the race can mean a position, or even a few positions, which is absolutely unacceptable for the ultimate F1 sport!