The reason why Korcel said this is not without reason, it can be said that Renault's success in acquiring Benetton today represents the complete failure of the Prost team!

In 1997, Prost bought the French team Ligier, and it was a great achievement, scoring 21 points and finishing sixth in the overall constructors' standings.

This is definitely a welcome achievement for a new F1 team, standing directly in the middle of the F1 team and showing its potential.

At that time, Pros was deliberately angry, intending to build the team into "a purely French team, the cradle of young racing talent in France".

Just as later generations have paid attention to internationalization, F1 teams have always looked at strength and quality when choosing drivers and engine suppliers, and it is impossible to deliberately choose some "defective products" because of the nationality of drivers and engine suppliers.

But Prost didn't think so, he wanted to build a purely French team, and he gave up the cheap Honda engine and used the French Peugeot engine, which was not very good.

In an instant, the record of the Prost team plummeted, and the next year it only scored 1 point, and it went directly from sixth to the bottom team.

This kind of precipitous fall in performance directly caused Prost to suffer a lot of criticism. Many people believe that if he continues to hold the narrow idea of the national team, he will eventually bring this French team to the point of no return.

In fact, it was true that the team's results did not improve significantly the following year, and even the engine supplier, the Peugeot Group, was under a lot of pressure to think that they were offering junk engines.

Of course, compared with the previous Honda engine, Peugeot is really not strong enough in the F1 engine, and it is very backward in terms of power and stability, which has led to the deterioration of the relationship between Peugeot and the Prost team.

By 2000, the Prost team completely collapsed, only scored 0 points for the whole year, basically no longer had any competitiveness, and was on the verge of bankruptcy.

It's also touching to say, even if the Prost team gets 0 points, it is still not at the bottom, and there is a team called Minardi tied with it......

However, in the end, these two brothers and sisters were in a dilemma, one went out of business, and the other was acquired by Red Bull and changed to Toro Rosso II.

This is where Prost is stubborn, in fact, before the collapse, Prost still had a chance to live, for example, there are Saudi princes, South Korea's Daewoo Automobile shareholder Delaey brothers, these people have been in contact with Prost.

It's just that Prost insists on waiting until an ideal French sponsor is willing to give up control of the team, and the bottom line is that the team name cannot be changed.

The problem is that others want profit and fame, and the shopping mall is not a place to talk to you about your ideals, and they are all about to go out of business and pick and choose, which is not the end.

In fact, at this time, Prost has always had the best choice in his heart, that is, Renault, which is also a French company.

Renault has been an F1 team ever since, and has been an engine supplier to F1 cars. And it was rumored that they wanted to return to F1, which was the best choice for Prost.

As a result, Renault did not save himself from death, but instead bought the Benetton team. This was simply the straw that broke the camel's back, and Prost now felt a sense of despair, even hatred for Renault.

Historically, this is indeed the case, and the day before the Prost team announced the end of its operations, Renault officially announced its return to F1, which has to be said to be an irony!

Of course, now that history has changed, the Prost team has not completely collapsed, and it is still breathing, but Renault's party today is equivalent to announcing the death penalty of the Prost team.

"Prost, I didn't expect you to be so calculating all your life, and you failed to form a team."

Cosell sat next to Prost and spoke in a mocking tone.

At that time, he hated Prost's calculating personality, thinking that he was not bloody and aggressive enough, so that he could not show the speed and passion of motorsports at all.

As a result, I didn't expect that Prost had been calculating all his life, but he was so stubborn in building a team that he was unwilling to give up his ideals and original intentions even when he was on the verge of bankruptcy.

Although Cosell used a mocking tone, to be honest, he didn't want to laugh at Prost, at least as an idealist, he persevered to the end.

Hearing this, Prost glanced to the side, and when he found that it was Cosell, his face was surprised.

"Why are you here?"

Prost had no idea that he would meet Cosell at the Renault party, and it had been almost ten years since the last time the two of them met.

"You're all out there and building an F1 team, what's so strange about me being in the F1 paddock again?"

Hearing Cosell say that he would form an F1 team, Prost's face showed a wry smile, and it may be that soon this team will no longer belong to him.

"And which team are you on, McLaren?"

Corer spent his entire career at McLaren, and if he came out of the mountains, it would be McLaren's team.

"I didn't join the team, so I'm a race engineer for individual drivers."

"No convoy?"

Now it's Prost's turn to be puzzled, even if F1 sponsors paid drivers, they all join the team.

Even taking a step back, the F3000 class, or the following F3 events, is basically dominated by professional teams, and few individual paying drivers can gain a foothold.

Because when it comes to advanced formula, many things are no longer as simple as a simple race car, but a complex racing project, and there is no way for an individual driver to do all of this.

As for the lower level of the junior formula, or kart, Prost didn't even think about it. How could someone like Kossel who is in the F1 strategy group go to the junior formula again?

It was only soon that Cosell's answer broke through Prost's imagination.

"Yes, I don't have a team, I'm just a race engineer for a Formula Renault junior driver."

"How is it possible that your character would go to the elementary equation?"

Prost couldn't believe that even though nearly a decade had passed, some memories of working together could still come back to Kossel's mind.

When Sell was in McLaren's strategy team, he was known for his aggressiveness and popularity, and even the conservative plans of F1 drivers could not be accepted, and he could go to junior Formula Mode, which can be called an "entertainment mode"?

"Don't believe it, the rider I'm mentoring is over there."

After speaking, Korsell turned sideways and pointed in the direction of Zhang Yifei.

"Chinese riders fly?"

Prost called out Zhang Yifei's name, just as Coatel had guessed before, only the F1 team with poor results would choose to take the risk and set its sights on junior formula drivers.

This is the case now, even though Prost has always wanted to build an all-French team, but the situation has not allowed him to be stubborn.

And with the decline in the team's performance, the impact on sponsors is also very large, the team's finances have become very tight, and they can no longer afford to pay high salaries, and they can only find ways to pick up the leaks from the junior formula team.

This approach has proven to be viable, and Sauber Racing has picked up two of them, especially Kimi Raikkonen, who have already shown what it takes to be a first-class F1 driver, with six points to their name.

There are even rumours that McLaren CEO Ron Dennis admires Kimi and has made an offer to move to McLaren next season.

This will be a large transfer fee for the financially struggling Sauber team, which will alleviate the team's financial crisis.

So Prost also set his sights on Formula Renault, like Zhang Yifei, who often makes arrogant remarks on TV and also won the Hockenheim championship, it is difficult not to attract attention.

"That's right, I'm a race engineer for flying now."

Korcel admits without minus that this could be a humiliation for someone else, who has been involved in F1 and is now a junior race engineer.

But Korsell didn't care about that, and no one would laugh at it. Because he has already proven his quality in the McLaren team, he partnered Senna to win the drivers' championship.

Just like the rich pretending to be poor in later generations is called experiencing life, and the poor ghosts pretending to be rich are called vanity, strength is the factor that determines attitude.

"How did you choose to become a rookie race engineer with such a fiery and aggressive personality back then?"

Prost asked teasingly, compared to Cosell's different ways over the years, he had long since not taken those conflicts of ideas as the same thing.

After all, the grudge with Senna because of the highest honor of the driver can be put aside, so what is the conflict with Koser?

"Because flying won't be a rookie forever."

"You're very optimistic about this Chinese kid?"

"How else would I have become his race engineer?"

The two of them exchanged a few words with each other, and at this time Prost said with a smile: "Cosell, just say what you want to do, this is your character." ”

From the first moment Caser appeared, Prost knew that he must have something to do with him, so when it comes to now, it is almost obvious what Cowel wants to do.

But Prost still can't believe that Korsell would recommend such a rookie to himself?

Even if he won the Renault championship, but so what?

Kimi won seven out of 10 races in the Renault British Championship, including seven starts and six fastest laps, which is a real crushing sweep, otherwise Sauber would not have chosen to take the risk.

The cost of a pole position plus station champion is really not able to impress Prost.

"Prost, you're a professor, you should know what I want to do."

"Let Fei be the development driver of the Prost team?"

Cosell didn't answer.

"You don't want him to be a test driver, do you?"

Cosell still looked at Prost and didn't speak.

Seeing Kossel's expression, Prost suddenly understood, his face was full of shock, and Kossel's ambition was too great!