My Formula 1 System-Chapter 652: A Rookie’s Rise

"To be honest, Vic, you just make this feel totally unencumbered! You are truly adapting perfectly to the job. You’ve got so much oil in your elbows!"

Niels Thiemann was sitting at his desk, flipping through a slim stack of paper reports. The content in them must be the reason why he was so impressed. Opposite him, Victor just rubbed the back of his head, trying to act cool. He did his best not to smile too much, even though getting a compliment like that felt pretty awesome.

Victor looked out the window of Thiemann’s small office and saw that it was another bright, sunny summer morning. For the past week, he had felt rejuvenated and more awake than ever. Today’s atmosphere had only poured fuel on the rolling fire burning within him.

"So, can we proceed with today’s plans?" Victor asked, hoping for a yes.

"Certainly, yes!" came the reply. Thiemann stood up, walked around his table to Victor, and placed a hand on his shoulder to lead him out of the room. "I’ll personally see to it that we get the best out of today."

It felt like things were finally moving in the right direction for Victor, and he was ready to show everyone what he could do.

Half an hour, while the training track, equipment, crew, and chassis were being prepared, Victor was encouraged to do some warm-up exercises or get on the simulator. He didn’t need to be told. He always wanted to be doing something. Being dormant or just sitting around was the worst because it always made one grow thoughts of incompetence or overthink every detail.

Almost everyone at the track was noticing this new drive he had. It made him look way more appealing and revered to the team. Plus, since he showed up yesterday with the exact same haircut as Luca, he looked like Mazerunner’s half-younger brother.

"I heard he’s only working this hard because he’s trying to get some sponsors to survive in F1?"

"Brother, isn’t that the point of being a rookie?"

"But the haircut is a bit much, right? It’s like he’s a fanboy trying to skin-walk into Luca’s life."

"Mind your own life. He’s trying to improve. What have you done about yourself?"

The gossiping crew watched Victor wander toward the simulation housing area, but the guy who was bad-mouthing him got a sharp elbow to the stomach from the other mechanic before they could say more.

Victor didn’t have a clue that any of that happened. He just focused on getting ready. He took a quick, freezing ice dip to shock his body awake and then put on a heavy ice vest. A friendly crew member helped him get everything adjusted so he wouldn’t overheat while working.

Victor climbed into the simulator, which looked like a high-tech spaceship cockpit chopped off from a real car. As he sat in the tight carbon-fiber seat, he felt the snugness of the racing harness as the crew strapped him in tight. He gripped the steering wheel, which was covered in colorful buttons and toggle switches for things like brake bias and DRS. In front of him was a massive, wrap-around curved screen that filled his entire vision, and behind the seat, huge hydraulic legs stood ready to shake and tilt the whole rig to mimic real G-forces.

The crew member toggled a row of switches on the main control panel and tapped a few commands on a side tablet to load the track data. Suddenly, the screen lit up with a blinding flash of digital daylight, showing the starting line of the track. The engine sound roared through his headset, vibrating his whole chest.

He took a deep breath.

He was ready to go.

~~~~~~

Two hours later, all the track preparations were finally finished. Victor was done with his simulation session after doing a bunch of qualifiers and one full race, where he ended up finishing in P7. That’s actually really good for a rookie in a difficult sim!

While all that was happening, Luca had arrived at HQ. He had been at the gym, had talked to people, and had had a few quick meetings with the team to make sure everything was running smoothly. He was doing all the high-level stuff that a driver of his caliber has to do.

Finally, right before the actual training session started, he met up with Vic, who was exhilarated upon seeing him again. Luca was mostly silent while they geared up in their racing suits, but you could tell he was feeling something. He had a proud look in his eyes whenever he looked at Victor. He couldn’t believe that he was about to see the boy finally get behind the wheel of the JYX-81 today. It was a big moment for their mentorship dynamic.

Luca and Victor walked out of the garage and into the bright sunlight of the pit lane, the sounds of air guns and crew yelling greeting them. They walked over to where the engineers and the Team Principal were standing next to a big metal wall, mimicking the pit wall with computer screens behind.

"Okay, we’ll be very precise today," said one of the performance trainers, a clipboard in hand. He started going over a long list of procedures. "Vic, we’re doing a systems check first. Then three installation laps. We need to check the tire sensors, the brake temps, and the ERS deployment. Do not push it until we give you the green light on the radio."

Victor nodded fast, trying to memorize everything. He had to talk to the lead engineer about the steering weight and how he wanted the radio to sound in his ears. It was a lot of technical talk about aero-balance and fuel-loads, coalescing to a complicated framework, but Victor just listened and nodded along.

Then, there was a quiet moment where he walked over to the JYX-81, the entire garage activity humming around.

The Ferrari looked like a giant, shiny insect made of carbon fiber, and polished to the brightest sheen possible. It stood unfazed as its new pilot reached out and touched its wing, feeling the cold material under his gloved fingers.

Victor couldn’t believe this was actually happening. He just stared at the machine for a second, feeling a mix of being scared and really excited.

A short distance away, Luca was standing with Valloton. They both had their sunglasses on. Luca’s hands were on his waist, while Vallotton crossed hers over her chest.

"He looks ready," she said softly.

Luca didn’t look away from Victor. "Coming from you? I won’t doubt it."