My Formula 1 System-Chapter 653: A Rookie’s Rise. 2

The scream of the Ferrari JYX-81 tore down the main straight, the engine so raucous, Victor’s soul vibrated as he flew by, blurring into a streak of scarlet and yellow. It was a different world inside the cockpit. Cramped, stifling, smelling like leaded fumes, and toasted tread. Victor was already eleven laps into the drilling session, his neck muscles starting to scream, but he kept his eyes locked on his visor’s highlight as the world turned into a messy smear of grey asphalt and green grass.

**"Copy, Vic. Losing two-tenths in Turn 8 apex. You’ve got the downforce, so stay off the brakes. Trust the entry speed. You’re clear behind.**

Victor breathed out hard after the relay. The team watched him meticulously slice through the same corner Rodnick crashed in last year at 224 km/h. He began racking up the pace again to offset what the braking zones had taken.

The 81 felt less like a machine and more like a monster trying to break out of its skin. The whole frame was supple and very sensitive, and the V6 engine right behind Victor’s ears sounded like a growling beast that wanted to go faster than the track would let it. He clicked into eighth gear, his eyes meeting the steering wheel as the shift lights flashed bright purple.

Meanwhile, up ahead, there was another red car on the track. It was Luca. He and Victor were both running the same stratum today, which was a huge deal to everyone watching. Even though their chassis were basically the same rank, Luca was like a ghost in front of the rookie. One second, he was in the back, then he was in the front again. He hit every line perfectly and clipped every kerb.

After many months of observation, Victor realized that his mentor never just drove—he flowed. It sounds impossible, but Victor could swear that Luca had a dial for every racing skill and just cranked it up whenever he needed to. Every time Luca took a corner, he seemed to carry more speed out of the exit than was humanly possible!

After another radio transmission, Victor replied, "Copy that. Watching my line on the corner."

He followed Luca’s lead.

Instead of slamming on the brakes, he just lifted off the gas ever so slightly. He let the car’s floor do all the work, feeling the ground-effect suction press the chassis into the asphalt. The JYX-81 gripped the track like it had literal claws dug into the ground, stunning even its pilot with its bizarre stability. Using his thumb, Victor clicked the diff one notch tighter for the turn-in, then bumped the brake migration back a little to keep the car from wobbling. He flicked the ERS dial and messed with the engine mode too, doing it all by feel. The car turned perfectly. No sliding, no nothing.

As he zoomed through the corner, he realized he hadn’t lost those two-tenths this time. He was actually gaining on Luca!

"Now would you look at that," Mr. Moritz whispered disbelievingly as he pointed at Victor’s telemetry. "Check the throttle trace. He’s smoothing it out. He’s finally getting a feel for the torque."

"Ha! The kid’s not scared of the lag anymore," Mr. Ruben said as the monitors bathed his face in light. "Hmm. It seems he’s using his motor to keep it stable in the slow turns. That’s actually pretty smart for a rookie."

For a moment, the engineers stared at the ever-changing numbers and the squiggly lines.

Then, one unknown engineer spoke up, from the darker area.

"No need to think much highly," the figure said. "He’s not guessing. Look at his steering input. He’s just copying Luca’s lines exactly."

After another glance back at the data, it seemed this man was right.

Colt sniffed hard to clear the subtle tension.

Also, Victor’s cracking voice further defused the moment.

**Radio check. I’ve got a massive smear on the left side of the visor. Big impact, maybe a bird or a huge bug. Mirror’s obstructed. I’m going to need a tear-off when I box**

There was a brief silence as everyone giggled softly. Mr. Ruben then adjusted his headset and mic, shaking his head in amusement.

"Haha. Copy that, Victor. We see it on the camera. Not much we can do from here since we’re not running tear-offs today. You’ll have to manage the blind spot or use your glove on the straight."

"Stay focused, gap to Luca is holding at three seconds!"

Victor wanted to laugh, but he was too busy trying not to crash. As soon as he hit the long straight, he took one hand off the wheel, which felt super sketchy with the wind pushing against his arm. He used the back of his glove to swipe at the mess on his visor. It didn’t make it perfect, but it moved the guts enough so he could actually see the track again.

He gripped the wheel again with both hands, feeling a rush of adrenaline.

After he boxed to fully wipe the visors and swap the soft compounds, the team started the heavy drilling as scheduled by the principals.

**Okay, Vic, tire-management sims," the radio crackled. "Stay within one percent of your delta for the next ten. No heroics, just hit the numbers**

This was the brutal part. It’s easy to pull off one or two fast laps, but trying to hit the exact same time over and over while the tires are turning into mush is exhausting.

After a couple of warm-ups, Victor gripped the wheel tighter, but his new chassis had begun to feel fidgety. If he pushed too hard into the turns, the front end might just wash out in a dangerous understeer.

But Victor kept at it, lap after lap. He tried figuring out how to stop the rubber from overheating while keeping the engine in the right gear. Up ahead, Luca was like a machine, hitting the same exact curbs at the same exact second every single time. Victor tried to match him, breathing in sync with the downshifts.

The training track was just about 2.5 km, but by lap 45, the rookie felt like he finally had it. He wasn’t just chasing Luca; he was actually keeping up.

He had managed to pull off a faster lap time.

Even better, his average pace over the whole stint was way closer to Luca’s than it had been before.

Driver A – (+0.00)

Driver B – (+5.65)

**Box this lap, Vic. Box, box** the radio said.

**Session complete. You’re green on the boards for the afternoon. Good job. Keep the car off the marbles on the way in**