In addition to Zhang Yifei and Takuma Sato preparing to play, the two official drivers of the Jaguar team, as well as Trulli of the Jordan team, also sat in the car and prepared to start the first round of winter testing.

But just as they were about to start, there was another team that joined in, and it was still in the Big Three class, and he was Kimi Raikkonen from McLaren!

The Finnish iceman has a very low-key personality in the paddock, basically does not take the initiative to clash and compete with other drivers, and generally follows his own pace in the race.

If it weren't for the miracle of the "triple jump" he created, too many eyes would have been paid to him in the rookie stage, and perhaps with his character and performance, the attention in the F1 paddock was not much better than that of Jenson Barton, and the passer-by was positioned like a passerby.

This time it was all ready to start, and it was clearly a sudden decision for Kimi Raikkonen to suddenly join the second batch of team testing.

It's just that I don't know if this decision is the team's idea, or if he himself instructed it, if it is the latter, then only one of the test drivers can make Kimi Raikkonen change his mind, and it is naturally Zhang Yifei.

"Is the Finnish Iceman, who has entered a state of struggle, finally about to appear?"

Zhang Yifei, who was sitting in the AP05 car, had a playful smile on his face after hearing the news.

One of the main reasons for Kimi's transformation into an iceman is a strong desire to win, and he begins to challenge for stronger drivers, even the supreme like Schumacher.

In the last few games of last season, Kimi Raikkonen could already feel this change in mentality, and this year's winter test finally saw him take the initiative.

Just as Zhang Yifei thought, Kimi Raikkonen, who was sitting in McLaren's latest MP4-17 car, finally began to take the initiative to join the battle.

Because he knows how much effort Dennis has made to convince the board in order to keep himself in the team. And I know how disappointed Finnish fans are with his performance in the rookie season in the past two years.

When he entered F1 with the title of "Super Rookie" and joined McLaren to succeed Mika Hakkinen, everyone thought he would be the next F1 World Champion, and the performance got worse and worse every year.

Originally, there was no comparison, there was no harm, and Kimi Raikkonen could grow up slowly for two years. But now the newcomers who have entered the F1 paddock are more perverted than the other, Zhang Yifei and Montoya performed last year, and they have already crushed Kimi Raikkonen, and this year's Helio and Massa do not look like soft persimmons.

Even Japanese driver Takuma Sato swept a Formula 3 race, and the rookie test speed was even faster than that of Kimi!

Time can't wait for the birth of the Finnish iceman in 03, Kimi must prove himself on the track a year in advance, otherwise Dennis can't keep him, and will face the same fate as Montoya, maybe he is not as good as Montoya!

At least with Montoya's performance, if Williams can't stay anywhere, other mid-table drivers, even McLaren, will accept it. And Kimi Raikkonen's results, if he can't stay at McLaren, he can only go to the bottom team that is completely uncompetitive.

For example, Minardi and Jaguar, it is best to be a British and American team and Toyota.

"Kimi, run well, the speed of the MP4-17 will definitely not be slower than any car in the paddock!"

Inspired by talented designer Adrian Nevey, he is confident that today's McLaren cars can also be at the level of a Mars rover.

In fact, this MP4-17 car, the foundation is really good, but in the 02 season in history, it encountered the Ferrari Mars rover, and it did not show much dazzling speed.

However, in '03, McLaren Racing still used an enhanced version of the old car MP4-17D to participate in the race because the MP4-18 failed the FIA crash test and the cooling system itself also had a little problem.

And at the beginning of this year, Kimi and Coulthard won a sub-championship respectively. Throughout the year, Kimi bit Schumacher in points, and finally lost by 2 points, only to win the world runner-up title.

It can also be seen from this that the performance of the MP4-17 racing car is absolutely no problem, and the old car can be used to build a new car for a year. So engineer Nevey is very confident in the car he designed, and it depends on whether Kimi and Coulthard can give full play to the performance of this car!

"I will."

Kimi Raikkonen replied briefly, then pushed down the visor from his helmet.

As for Kimi Raikkonen's character, Nuvey has been with him for a year, and he has long been used to it. So without further ado, this young Finnish kid will definitely take this test seriously!

The track console began to direct the drivers to start in turn to avoid congestion in the pit lane, and Zhang Yifei started behind the Jaguars and McLaren, so he could see the other three cars roaring out of the pit lane in turn.

Theoretically, in the first round of the winter test, a team will send a driver to the field, so that the crew members can concentrate on completing the testing and tuning of the new cars one by one.

But this time the Jaguars team had both drivers in the field at the same time, and the situation was not so normal. According to Zhang Yifei's understanding of history, it should be that the internal problems of the team began to erupt, and even the struggle entered a white-hot stage.

Indeed, as Zhang Yifei guessed, last year's Jaguars team's bottom performance directly triggered a war between the American Ford faction and the European Stewart faction within the team, and both sides believed that it was the other party's decision-making mistakes that led to the team's poor performance.

To put it simply, I just don't want to carry this pot!

But the problem is that the black cauldron is here, and there is always someone to carry it, and after thinking about it, the two parties finally reached a certain consensus, that is, Lauda, who was parachuted into the CEO, is very suitable to be a member of this black cauldron.

Theoretically, he belongs to the parent company Ford, but he is a European, and he has no foundation in his own team, even if he gives up on the black pot, the kind that does not have much impact.

And as the CEO of the team, the results are so poor in the season, and so much money is invested, it is like the Minardi team, and it is impossible to say that there is no responsibility.

So in all aspects, Kimi Lauda must carry this black cauldron, so his rights have now been hollowed out. The two official drivers of the team also belong to two major forces, and there is no difference between the first and second drivers.

Now it's time to test the car, and they all want resources to tilt towards themselves, and then they don't give in to each other. Since they didn't regress, they simply went to the track together to test, so there was a scene of two Jaguar drivers testing at the same time.

Of course, Zhang Yifei has no interest in the internal struggles of these convoys, and it has nothing to do with him, at most he is a melon-eating crowd and feels sorry for Niki Lauda.

If it weren't for the global hegemony of the United States and the accumulation of a hundred years of capital, Ford's decades of saucy operations would have been able to raise their entire grave grass!

Gearing, loosening the clutch, and starting with oil, this set of operations Zhang Yifei has already formed a muscle effect. When the car went out of the pit lane intersection, he directly kicked the floor oil, and the surging acceleration hit, directly pressing Zhang Yifei on the seat.

Refreshing!

This is the only thought in Zhang Yifei's mind after feeling the power of racing.

This year's AP05 car, not to mention anything else, just the acceleration brought by the powerful low torque, completely exploded last year's Peugeot engine JS53 car.

You must know that what Zhang Yifei was most afraid of encountering last year was the long straight, because if the car on the long straight road was not good, it would be easy to be eaten by the Big Three cars. Therefore, his speed is relatively extreme when cornering, just to maintain a high speed out of the corner, so that he can have some advantages in straight-line acceleration.

But the problem is that a higher exit speed means that the entry speed also increases, which brings greater risk. And it also restricts Zhang Yifei's many tactical operations, after all, the cars that can make Zhang Yifei the straight are almost zero.

Perhaps the only thing that can bring a little comfort is that the failure rate of the Peugeot engine after the power reduction last year is simply terrible. Zhang Yifei experienced only one minor problem in the machine game, and did not retire because of this.

Alessi has experienced two retirements, and test driver Berdais has also experienced twice, but compared to the year before last, when two cars went on strike at every turn, I don't know how many times stronger.

Zhang Yifei now only hopes that the performance of the car will go up this year, and the stability will not come down, otherwise it will be a bit of a headache.

Zhang Yifei was followed by Takuma Sato of the Toyota team, and his face was very excited, this was the first time he participated in the winter test as an official F1 driver.

And in front of him, in the blue and red Prost car, sitting is the Asian Demon King-level driver Yi Feijun!

Although Sato Takuma did not look at Zhang Yifei with an admiring mentality like Iide Yuji, the Japanese admired the strong character in their bones, which made him full of respect for Zhang Yifei now.

If it weren't for the fact that both of them competed in the Aoshima Grand Prix back then, they were barely considered to be the same generation of drivers, otherwise today's Sato Takuma would really have to look up to Zhang Yifei as a younger brother.

Of course, whether it is respect or worship, this will not make Sato think about what fear of war will arise in his heart when facing Zhang Yifei. You must know this guy, but even Schumacher has hit the macho man a few times, the last time the car god did it on the track, it was also because of him, how could he not dare to face Zhang Yifei?

At the end of the list is Jordan's Trulli, who was originally considered a mid-range driver in the F1 paddock, lacking in aggressiveness and more than successful. But the problem is that as history changes and more and more tough newcomers enter the F1 paddock, there are not enough middle-of-the-road drivers now.

So the veteran didn't pay much attention, and all the teams and on-site reporters focused on Zhang Yifei. They want to know if the Chinese kid in the new season can continue the miracle of last season!