My Formula 1 System

Having overheating problems at such a relatively early stage of the race was something bad a team wouldn’t fancy. A Grand Prix was a marathon of everything combined, including consistency and durability, and if the engines were already running hotter than safe margins before the first service stops, then performance and even the chance of seeing the checkered flag would tilt towards doubt.

A car could lose power, the brakes could fade, the tyres could damage, and ERS had a high chance of failing. These were all devastating consequences of overheating in an F1 car, and of course, no team would want such a thing to ruin their drivers’ races.

But since Luca was in P1, Trampos didn’t really want an early pit stop that could cost him position and momentum.

Victor’s case was different because he was in P17 at the time of the diagnosis. A stop for him wouldn’t make much difference in the grand scheme.

’Hmm. And I thought that I had all the skills attainable...’

Truthfully, Luca couldn’t believe that out of everything he had acquired in his arsenal, he didn’t possess a single skill that was dedicated to cooling the car down.

This reminded him of the JRX-92B and its amazing cooling Engine Feature, Heat Management. That car really never got hot! And so far, that’s the closest thing he’d ever had to a complete cooling skill.

If Luca had thought otherwise, then he’s definitely rethinking now. He assumed his grind was complete, but it seems he still had things to dig up to improve every single field.

**Luca... overheating’s rising. We’ll have to call you in, five laps from now. Victor seven. Sorry, it’s earlier than we’d like**

Luca took a deep breath.

"Negative. Not me."

**Repeat? Just to confirm, Luca?**

"I said not me. You can box Victor early, but I’m sticking to the original stop. I’m in P1—I’m not handing this away."

Into the garage, the engineering crew exchanged glances after Luca’s firm reply. The weight of his words forced everyone into utter silence, but their minds were loud with interpretations.

How should this be taken? Was this disobedience to team orders, or was this the opinion of Luca—the very figure whom everyone in Trampos, big or small, looked up to?

A stubborn refusal from their star driver, who never usually refused, meant one thing. They had to trust him, even if their data stated otherwise.

But the quiet shuffle from the nervous engineers wasn’t because of Luca’s superficial refusal, but rather the why behind it. For some reason, the team felt like he was angry at them, and perhaps, this was attributed to it.

Well, they weren’t entirely wrong.

On Day 2 of team resumption after the Monaco Grand Prix, Luca had remembered what he’d planned to report to the team concerning the rear wing.

Colt was the first person Luca mentioned it to, even though he had initially wanted about ten sets of ears. After seeing Colt’s mask of ease, Luca knew he had to fully table the issue, even though he had almost forgotten about it.

Eventually, a full team briefing was convened later that day after the drills and training. Luca wanted to use the opportunity to address the issue before it completely left his mind, or before he took it for granted.

Inviting only important figures like Ms. Vallotton, Mr. Grant, Colt, Ruben, Moritz, etc., the briefing room was occupied with the expectant faces of one big family.

However, as the meeting advanced from its starting point, the vibrant faces gradually dulled into seriousness and concern. Every sentence that left Luca’s lips scraped away comfort, and his calm delivery about it was the most unnerving. How much impact it carried without him raising his voice was something that needed to be studied.

From Canada to Monaco, Luca’s narration about the rear wing wasn’t a made-up story. He made no room for sidestepping, making it clear that the objective of the meeting was to share understanding of the whys, to take accountability, but not to blame or condemn.

By the time Luca was done with his narration of what he had experienced and suspected with the rear wing changes, the room was filled with silence. A team debrief had turned into a confrontation, and the young man stood in the center, only requesting answers and nothing else.

The funny thing was that Luca didn’t even think of it as cheating at first.

As the driver, he assumed the rear wing was just some clever new chassis addition that helped a lot. He really thought it was an upgrade or something that he hadn’t been briefed about, something innovative from Ferrari, but still within the evolving standards of current F1 engineering.

"A new thingy," he mentally called it. Luca wanted to know what exactly this was that made him attain Yaw Flex points casually, and also improved his speed noticeably.

Innocent in curiosity. Genuine in questioning. Luca hadn’t had the slightest suspicion that it was a deliberate break of the rules.

That was why he stood stunned when the team finally came clean in the room, spilling the entire lore of the rear wing. What he had thought was a harmless innovation was, in fact, an aero-aiding contraption carefully engineered to bend the rulebook,a subtle cheat masked as ingenuity.

Luca was also shown the statistical data that backed up the rear wing’s performance. Compared to the standard chassis, the aero-aiding wing demonstrated a 12% increase in straight-line efficiency, 8% improvement in downforce stability through medium-speed corners, and a significant reduction in drag when DRS was active.

All as a result of its ability to flex more than 5mm by a small but important margin.

Ms. Vallotton was the one who took the reins in explaining the reality to Luca, because the others agreed that, as a woman, it was best for her to do it. They had also noticed the shift in Luca’s expression once he realized that the rear wing wasn’t just some experimental chassis upgrade, but in fact a clear violation of standards.

Ms. Vallotton did well to narrate everything carefully, breaking down the story of the rear wing. She said it was an ongoing test, and not only a boost. Teams do a lot of experiments from time to time to measure margins and explore how far they could stretch to the ceiling before the blades of the fan could cut their fingers.

Of course, for more plausibility, she didn’t leave out the part about Ferrari’s intended help—how they lent both insight and resources to push them closer to competitiveness.

By the time she was done, the others believed they saw a sign of soundness in Luca’s face, which must mean he saw some reasonability behind everything Ms. Vallotton had narrated. This softened the tension in the room, but it was still far from zero. Luca still looked disturbed.

But from that day on, the subject was never raised again. However, that evening, to seal everything, Luca sat with Fisher and the upper management in a more private setting. The matter was officially laid to rest there.

Everything about the wing was clarified—why it had been used, and who exactly needed to know.

Luca argued whether the risk of punishment and fines was necessary, considering their already impressive points tally. The management didn’t talk back because they understood him, and it was promised before cups of coffee and biscuits that the team wouldn’t recklessly indulge in cheating like that again, at least not without telling him who was driving the car.

But leaving the headquarters that night, Luca felt a bit unsatisfied and misunderstood.

From the way things were concluded, it was as if the team saw him as someone who didn’t tolerate cheating, someone who liked to play fair and righteous, and also someone who didn’t like it when plans were made beyond his knowledge.

Shaking his head lightly while getting ready for bed that night, Luca knew himself, and that was far from the case.

He was just disturbed that Trampos Racing, a rookie team, had tested the waters that Squadra Corse were well-known for swimming in. Trampos was in second place in the standings, a current achievement they couldn’t even dream of just last year. Luca himself was topping the driver’s standings...

Was there really a need for ’adjustments?’

It made Luca feel as if his team wasn’t acknowledging his efforts, as though what he had been delivering on track wasn’t enough for them.

If he could carry a rookie team this far, why then would they feel the need to start bending the rules? Didn’t they see that his driving was already giving them everything they could ask for, and without the stain of cheating?

[12th Lap]

Back to the race, and Luca’s defensive wall had finally disintegrated. Relentless since lights out, Jimmy Damgaard eventually reaped the gains of his grind. Traction wasn’t fully on his side, but marvelously, the Norwegian’s pressure gave him the lead and a second ahead of the Mazerunner.

"WOOOOOOHHHHH!"

"...JIMMY DAMGAARD IN P1, LUCA RENNICK IN P2...!"

"...Damgaard snatches the lead from Rennick at T1, breaks through the defenses, and gives Velocità the lead in this Australian GP!"

"...for the first time since the season opener, Bueseno Velocità leads a Grand Prix...!"

**Jimmy, that’s it! That’s P1, you’ve done it! Brilliant job, we knew you’d get him. Keep it clean, keep it calm, you’re leading the Australian Grand Prix. Fantastic work, mate!**

"Haha. I copy," Jimmy replied with a cracking voice as he feathered his brake and tilted the wheel for T3 that he had already reached.

Luca’s red Ferrari flashed in his mirrors in that moment of blur, filling Damgaard with both satisfaction that he had overtaken him, and also concern to defend against Luca, who had calculated ruthlessness.

**Luca, you’re P2 now. Copy that, stay composed, still a long way to go. Keep your head down, we’ll get this back**

**Victor will box next lap**

"Understood," Luca replied flatly, still sticking to his resolve of not heading into the pits so he wouldn’t lose the top three even though he had just lost P1.

It was a bit frustrating knowing that the overheating was the reason he had lost the lead. He couldn’t afford to push the Z24 too hard; otherwise, the rising temperatures would only worsen and risk a full mechanical collapse.

Damgaard, on the other hand, had no such handicap, but he did have a monstrous supercar with him, running smoothly, balancedly, and relentlessly.

In a straight fight, Luca would have gladly matched him, but at that moment, restraint was his only option, and the Norwegian’s freedom to push eventually carved open the gap.

[Analyzing 3rd Position’s distance from host and Ferrari (Z24)...]

[3rd Position is 2.5 sec away, host.]

Busoso Di Renzo wasn’t too far away, nor was he too close, but judging by the atmosphere of the race, even though he couldn’t see his silver Ferrari yet, Luca bet Marko Ignatova was giving him a hard time.

"System, are there any internal disintegrities?"

[Running diagnostics: Internal systems integrity under review...]

[Report: No permanent damage detected. However, early signs of thermal strain observed in oil circulation and brake efficiency. Recommend caution, host.]

Lap 18–22 was the original pitstop strategy for the team, and even back then, Luca had planned to begin utilizing Wear Control to keep himself out. So, visiting the pitlane prematurely wasn’t in his schedule, and if he could avoid it, Luca would.

[13th Lap]

[Analyzing 3rd Position’s distance from host and Ferrari (Z24)...]

[3rd Position is 2 sec away, host.]

Directly behind him, Di Renzo, his former teammate, was really closing the gap because he wasn’t as fast as before. This made Luca apply more throttle and push on the home straight toward the 13th lap in order to balance the delta into something more docile.

The home straight gave him a beautiful view that revealed a horizon so vast and bending it could silence any doubt of the world’s curve. The late afternoon sky was magnificent with streaks of varying orange and red shades, but there were also thick clouds that no doubt carried the weight of rain.

Within seconds, the orange shades faded into silver streaks, and the clear sky darkened gray, giving the horizon a restless, uncertain glow.

"WOOOOOOHHHHHHHHHH!"

With his completed Spatial Awareness skill, Luca sensed the touch of a raindrop on the frame of his car.

’Rain....?’

He thought as a small smile began to creep across his lips.

A wet race here in Australia would totally change everything.

Luca would prevail with Gripper and Slipsense & Rainborne, unrivalled and undisputed in that field.

Super drivers would have a very hard time battling with the wet track and also George Park’s nature, giving him the upper hand.

Furthermore, the overheating would reduce significantly, enough to last until the initial pitstop arrangement.