"quit her job as a host to train racing, went to the UK to train alone, and won the British Formula Ford women's championship two years later..." Recently, Zhang Yan, a top female racing driver in China, shared her years of association with racing on social platforms. Resigning to play racing, many people think she is "crazy", but doubts cannot hinder her determination to speed on the track. In the past few years, Zhang Yan has won good results in many international and domestic formula competitions, becoming the only Chinese female driver to win the championship in the Formula World Championship so far. Zhang Yan said seriously in an interview with the Yangtze Evening News Purple Cow News reporter: "I don't want to be limited to a certain role, whether it's a host or a racing driver, every identity is me, but not all of me." The steering wheel of life should be held in your own hands and do what you like. ”
Yangtze Evening News/Purple Cow News Reporter Wan Huijuan Intern Zhang Jingxuan
1
Playing go-kart for the first time at the age of 8 I still feel excited when I think about it
Zhang Yan is an ordinary "post-80s" born in Jining, Shandong Province, she was different from other little girls when she was a child, she was not interested in dolls, and preferred toys such as cars and pistols. At the age of 8, Zhang Yan first encountered go-karts in the park, and she was fascinated by the sense of speed and excitement brought by the speed, a childhood experience that still excites her in retrospect.
Zhang Yan told reporters that when he was a child, he also had a "special fetish", like to squat on the road to smell the smell of car exhaust, "like an addiction, especially obsessed." Later, when Zhang Yan came into contact with many seniors in the racing industry, he was surprised to find that they all had the same proclivities.
Zhang Yan's parents are very open-minded and can try anything she likes. In addition to car games, Zhang Yan has also studied vocal music, dance, piano... She especially likes dance, and was admitted to Jining No. 1 Middle School with the first place in the professional course during the middle school entrance examination, and she always thought that she would become a dancer in the future. Until the eve of the college entrance examination, Zhang Yan's mother took her to participate in the art examination of the Beijing Dance Academy, "Before the third test of the art examination, my mother talked to me a lot, my innate conditions in dance are not so good, it is difficult to go to the forefront of the industry. Mom gave me a clear understanding of my strengths and weaknesses. ”
Later, Zhang Yan gave up the art examination and successfully entered the journalism direction of Chinese language and literature at Shandong Radio and Television University through the college entrance examination. "At that time, I wanted to be a host, and I think many little girls will have that kind of dream, standing in front of the stage and having a glamorous job." After graduation, she entered Shandong TV Station and became the host of programs such as "Computer Salon" and "New Era of Communication". After two years of professional baptism, she hoped for better development, so she applied to Beijing TV as a host.
Gradually, the work entered a boring stylized stage, and the life of "makeup, broadcast according to the script, and record" day after day, Zhang Yan found that she did not like this profession so much, and she began to think about how to break through the career bottleneck.
2
Resigned to go to the UK to train racing "A lot of people think I'm 'crazy'"
In 2005, when Zhang Yan went to interview a racing team, the person in charge invited her to experience racing. "The manager felt that I had a certain talent for direction, speed and the whole vehicle, and he invited me to train in England." Zhang Yan said, "In fact, I know very well that racing as a sport, if you want to get results, talent may only account for <>%, and the remaining <>% still need to rely on hard training and professional guidance." ”
But the olive branch thrown by the team leader still moved Zhang Yan's heart, "At that time, I had a certain amount of savings, and the economic conditions were okay. Going to the UK for professional training is an opportunity that is hard to come by. After much deliberation, Zhang Yan quit his job as a host and took the first step towards his racing career.
After many friends learned that Zhang Yan was not the host, they thought she was "crazy". "My dad was angry for a while when he found out, most parents thought racing was a dangerous sport, they thought more about my life, and it took me some time to convince them." Zhang Yan said.
After resigning from his job as a host, Zhang Yan devoted himself to the training of racing drivers. Having traveled from various training grounds in China and Europe, Zhang Yan has always been the only woman in the team. In such a sport that is still dominated by men, Zhang Yan needs to put in more effort. "When I first started training, I was often in a state of collapse and my physical strength could not keep up." In order to be able to catch up with the physical fitness of male drivers, Zhang Yan carried out a lot of basic physical training, "To increase physical fitness, you need to eat more high-protein foods, and you can't eat too much." Racing is an extremely mentally draining sport, after a full stomach will be sleepy, mental thinking will not be able to keep up. ”
3
"Stepping on eggs" to train feet After two years of training, she won the Women's International Formula International Championship
Initially, many team drivers knew that Zhang Yan was a female driver from China, they were skeptical, others thought she was new and came to "play tickets", engineers would not spend too much energy on her when debugging equipment, all formula car seats were uniformly customized with male samples, and there was no seat suitable for women's figures, resulting in her having to add cushions every time to train normally. "I held my breath at the beginning, I must practice well." Zhang Yan told reporters that when she and her teammates train, they would practice foot feeling by stepping on cooked eggs, "The most important thing in racing is not to step on the accelerator, but to brake." "The feel of the driver's foot is very important, a few tenths of a pound of power deviation when applying the brakes can determine the outcome of this speed race, and the practice of stepping on eggs gives the driver a concrete sense of the power under the feet." If the strength under the feet is not well controlled and the egg is crushed, it has to be eaten, and at most a dozen a day. Zhang Yan said that for a while, she felt sick to her stomach when she saw eggs.
After more than two years of professional training, Zhang Yan officially stepped onto the field. "The results were gradual, starting with some local races, slowly starting to take places, then finishing in the top three and slowly starting to get on the podium." In 2008, Zhang Yan participated in the British Formula Ford Donington race, "At that race, I and the car were in the best condition. Zhang Yan unsurprisingly won the women's championship, making her the only Chinese female driver to win the Formula World race to date.
Since then, she has won many awards in international competitions: 2008 Spanish Formula BMW Champion, 2009 Beijing Racing Festival Formula Champion, 2010 Beijing Circuit Festival Junior Formula Champion, 2010 British Junior Formula 2011 Third Place, 3 European Formula 2012 and 3 European Formula <> Trials.
future
Have your own tournament
She has repeatedly won the Formula International competition, becoming the only female driver in China with a drift driver's license. She defines herself as "life has no limits" and "I don't want to be limited to a certain role, whether it's a host or a racing driver." Every identity is me, but not all of me, I want a colorful life. ”
Adhering to this life credo, in 2018, Zhang Yan returned to China to establish a racing training institution, and she also became a racing coach to train a new batch of racing athletes in China, among which youth racing skills training is Zhang Yan's focus. Over the years, Zhang Yan's team has sent Chinese racers such as Sun Zheng and Deng Xiaowen to the podium of the world championship.
Talking about future plans, Zhang Yan admits that there are many things he wants to do. "We will do a brand new championship this year, and we want to use this competition to let more people know about racing and go to the road of racing."
Motorsport in her eyes
Keep going through that bend to overcome the psychological shadow
Racing, racing, and collision are the keywords of motorsport, which most people consider to be a dangerous sport. But in Zhang Yan's eyes, the degree of danger of motorsport needs to be objectively judged, "Racing is not one of the ten dangerous sports, in terms of the degree of danger, racing is actually safer than motorcycles and skiing." The riders' uniforms are fireproof, the helmets are crash-proof, the track buffer zone is safe, and the body structure is constantly strengthened. ”
Zhang Yan told reporters that she accidentally overturned and rushed out of a curve during training in Beijing and hit a safety wall next to the runway. The collision caused her to fall out of a concussion, "It's actually commonplace, but the danger is limited to that." A lot of people ask me what is the most dangerous situation I encounter, and I don't want to answer that kind of question because I don't want to reinforce the misconception that 'racing is dangerous'. When asked about the impact of the rollover accident on her, she said: "There is no big impact, but there will be some psychological shadows every time you cross that corner, and the way to overcome it is to keep going through that corner." ”