626 Irreplaceable (Chapter 2)
“OK。”
Korsell nodded, and after making sure that there was no problem with the car, he turned to Zhang Yifei and said.
"The characteristics of the Suzuka circuit, I'm sure you already know very well, the standard test track, all kinds of corners are very comprehensive, testing the driver's ability to deal with all kinds of complex sections."
"There are no standard pit stops on this track, and the number of pit stops can be selected according to the driver's habits, and the main one is two. After today's practice race, how many stops do you think you're better suited to? ”
Korsel didn't decide the final number of stoppings before the race, because Suzuka's tactics are very flexible and need to be constantly adjusted according to the weather and temperature.
At the moment, the temperature in Suzuka City is very adaptable, around 20 degrees, which makes the choice of tactics more free. Since there is no pressure on the team's performance, Korsell wants Zhang Yifei to make a choice according to his ability.
"Three stops."
"Three stops?"
Hearing Zhang Yifei's choice, Cowsell was still a little surprised. Because the mainstream of the Suzuka circuit is the two-stop tactic, followed by the one-stop, and finally the three-stop will be chosen.
After all, the track surface is not rough, and there are not many sharp braking corners on the track, so the wear and tear of the tires is within an acceptable range. If the tire protection technology is stable enough, it will completely rely on one stop to run the whole distance, saving a lot of pit stop time.
If you stop three times, it is a very risky move, and you have to chase frantically on super soft tires. And in the face of the pressure of the "tire protection master", it is necessary to exceed it in the shortest possible time, otherwise the speed is the same as that of a stopper, and it will lose all the advantages of soft tires.
"Well, one stop is a steady loss, and three stops can also be tried,
Zhang Yifei said very directly, in the current situation, he can only use the three-stop tactic to go to the edge of the sword, to see if he can replicate Schumacher's four-stop miracle in the future.
"Are you sure?"
Kossel emphasized that the three-stop strategy means that there is no room for chase and attack, otherwise it will be a stage of slow death. The current Zhang Yifei is no longer the Chinese rookie who will be despised and careless in the early days, he wants to surpass any opponent, and he will encounter the craziest obstacles!
"No problem."
The answer was very confident, and Zhang Yifei also wanted to challenge himself.
In the second training stage in the afternoon, it may have been stimulated by Zhang Yifei, and the fighting spirit and fighting spirit of the drivers were obviously much stronger than in the morning, and the speed was also significantly improved.
Even on the track, there were some gunpowder-smelling moves, such as Montoya closely following Zhang Yifei and making a move to attack.
However, I don't know what to ask, Montoya didn't provoke in the practice stage in the end, maybe this is a fierce psychological battle stage for him. Do you gamble your career in pursuit of the thrill of revenge, or do you wash away your shame with victory?
What has always kept Montoya's intellectual bottom line is the glory of his former Indy-Country champion of the year. After all, he is not an ordinary F1 newcomer, and the name of Montoya is always engraved on the trophy of BorgWarner!
On the other hand, Barrichello and Kimi Raikkonen have also improved their speed, and Barrichello's performance in the last few races has not been very good. Maybe it's because Schumacher is close to locking up the world title, and his own ranking is basically fixed, and he doesn't have that fighting spirit to win.
This is the sadness of Barrichello, even the best moments of his career can only be a shadow of someone else. When the "red flower" has bloomed, there is no need for the attention and protection of "green".
However, it was precisely because Barrichello's mental state was not very good that Schumacher's defending champion was in suspense, which made the management of Ferrari unhappy.
Now that it's the final game, Barrichello still wants to show his quality, and if the team is not satisfied with reaching a certain point, it is likely that he will replace him. Ferrari has only lacked a dominant driver like Schumacher, and there has never been a shortage of leafy drivers like Barrichello.
It is even no exaggeration to say that with the current strength of the Ferrari team, even if the middle and lower drivers join, they can enter the middle and upper levels.
As for Kimi Raikkonen, the idea is simpler, he doesn't want to go into obscurity any longer, and the final game is this season, the last chance to prove himself. Since there has been a good start, there should be a perfect ending!
At the end of the second session, Zhang Yifei fell off the fastest lap, Schumacher became the first lap, and Barrichello also showed his strength, following closely behind.
The third is Ralph Schumacher, a driver with obvious ceilings and lower limits, who has also won three races this season, which is very impressive in terms of results alone, and even once made his brother Schumacher stand in the runner-up seat.
I just don't know what to ask, this guy will always be so bad that few people treat him as a terrible opponent. Perhaps this is why Ralph Schumacher and his brother inherited the same racing talent, but in the end there was such a big gap in historical results.
It's just that there is no king's momentum!
In fourth place was Zhang Yifei, whose lap time was slightly worse than that of the first practice, mainly because he was testing the tires to ensure the execution of the three-stop strategy.
Behind Zhang Yifei is Montoya and Kimi Raikkonen, and the gap between the two of them is close. Especially Montoya, who once had a chance to surpass Zhang Yifei, but the forbearance he chose may be the moment to wait for the final outbreak.
October 13th is the time for Saturday's third practice and qualifying race, and the spectator seats on the track are more than 70% full. This means that there will be up to 70,000 spectators on the track.
You must know that this is a very high attendance rate for the closing battle without suspense, and it is not surprising that on the last day of the weekend race, the 100,000 stands at the Suzuka Circuit will be full!
And with the increase in the number of spectators, the number of Zhang Yifei's supporters has also increased rapidly, and all kinds of cheers and applause in the stands have become louder and louder.
"The second practice result of Yifei seems to have regressed, can you still catch up with the riders in front?"
"Of course, he's a miracle driver!"
"But Zhang Yifei's starting order is fixed, and no matter how fast he runs, there is no point."
"What if it doesn't make sense? It's just the starting order, not the speed! Yifeijun can let the whole world witness our Chinese speed! ”
Many Chinese spectators at the scene no longer care about Zhang Yifei's final results, he has already proved the strength of Chinese drivers in the world.
At the beginning of the third practice in the morning, compared with the first and second practice, it was more inclined to car tuning, and the third practice was closer to the fastest lap of the actual battle.
Not long after the start of the race, Schumacher broke the track record of 1:32.730 set by himself last year, running a time of 1:32.722.
Obviously, under the stimulation of Zhang Yifei, Schumacher intends to show his dominance on this Suzuka circuit. You must know that from 2000 to 2004 during the Ferrari dynasty, Schumacher won the Suzuka circuit four times, and the only time he missed was to give up to Barrichello of the same team.
It can be said that the Suzuka circuit is Schumacher's dominant circuit, and no one can challenge his authority.
Barrichello was also desperately chasing Schumacher's speed, and he was only a thousand seconds away from breaking the track record. In fact, Barrichello's strength on this track is also very strong, otherwise he would not have been able to "pull teeth from the tiger's mouth" from Schumacher's mouth.
In the final finale, whether Barrichello wants to improve his form or pay a higher signing fee next year, he will not be as sluggish as the previous two sub-tournaments.
However, Zhang Yifei overtook Ralph Schumacher to move into third place, and he had to explore the extreme speed of supersoft tyres with light fuel to achieve a crazy overtake in the race.
Maybe this is a crazy or impossible task in the eyes of others, but Zhang Yifei will always give 100% of his strength to fight!
"Yifeijun's speed has been significantly accelerated, and the complex test track can run this kind of lap speed, which means that Yifeijun's basic skills are very solid."
Japanese commentator Yuo Ito said in an adoring tone that the Suzuka track tests the basic skills of the drivers, and there must be no shortcomings in order to run a fast enough lap.
Facts have proved that Zhang Yifei has stepped into the ranks of first-class drivers in hard power, and such a stable front row lap time is the best proof.
In the past, his commentary partners were basically cynical and sneering at Chinese newcomers, so that Blundell had to give up a fair and objective position and make a balance.
As a result, I didn't expect that the commentary of this game was a fan of Zhang Yifei, and he was basically full of praise. Blundell was helpless and could only find some flaws to ensure the fairness of the commentary.
"It's true that the fundamentals of flying are very good, but the lap times of the other drivers are not bad, and he is still a certain gap from Schumacher and Barrichello."
"With a pit start and a 10-second time-lapse, if you don't have miracle control, your current results won't change the final outcome."
What Blundell said is also true, everything Zhang Yifei is showing now can only be regarded as unyielding fighting spirit, and the result of the event is already doomed.
Never before in history has a driver been able to go from the penultimate grid pick to become a champion. Even if the Chinese kid had created many miracles, he would not have been able to do it!
"I think Fei can show the strength of the Great Demon King, and he will create miracles!"
Ito Yusheng still insists on his own ideas, he can be said to be Zhang Yifei's brainless fan.
"The Great Demon King? As long as Schumacher is still on the track for a day, there is no one to take his place! ”
Blundell is very optimistic about flying, but he agrees more with Schumacher, are the Japanese so exaggerated, in terms of the current results and performance of Chinese newcomers, can also be called the big devil?