My Formula 1 System

End of the month of March and April opened with the complete qualities of the Spring season. Luca returned to Germany days after the team had. He returned quietly and without ceremony, since this was more like routine now.

After all the tension in London after victory, silent movement was necessary for this young driver, because his head was occupied with a lot of foreign things that even he didn't understand.

The Hawthorne 3, ever diligent, landed at a secluded terminal in their usual admitting airport in Berlin. Luca and his team disembarked gracefully and officially marked it a successful and undisrupted tour and journey to and from the UK.

It drizzled for many days in varying cities all across Europe, and major cities in Berlin. In spite of the mistrustful weather, Germany held on to their incessant celebrations that hadn't ended since mid-March after the Qatar Grand Prix.

Trampos had won the Arabian race, venerably Luca's handwork. The following British GP win recorded it as two straight Grand Prix victories, an achievement that Trampos Racing, and Germany as a whole, never believed would be attained by them.

As the Formula 1 team received reverence throughout the country, so did Luca, and even Victor.

The thrill of the English royal podium, and the chaos of that cryptic confrontation, made German soil feel like Luca was regaining control over the course of the season. He had stimulated Isabella's emotions on that podium; she began asking for more, and was currently now angry with him for returning to Germany.

But Luca loved the training, the routine, the sense of calm and orderliness, and most importantly, the discipline of preparation for progress. The Canadian Grand Prix is a race Luca would like to win, not only because he wanted a clean sweep from now on, but also to redeem his P5 finish from last year.

The Canadian Grand Prix last season was one of the races that unforgivingly exposed the difference between the HiCE-certified super drivers and the rest of the grid. The podium at the end of that fateful Sunday wasn't as a result of smart team strategy or driver performance, but wholly car performance alone.

Luca vividly remembered running in P1 in the closing laps with the 97, a race he thought he might win by a tight margin with the hawks behind him. But at the end, he was swallowed in those same final laps, and he dropped to P5 as if it was a representative segregation or hierarchization.

Starting from Luigi, the super drivers sliced past him as if he was standing still. Mr. Berry then had no choice but to say encouraging words—that P5 was fine.

The Canadian Grand Prix last season was a cruel race that reminded everyone that the super drivers were still superior, so long as their chassis housed High-Intensity Combustion Engines.

But Luca didn't see them like that anymore. The acronym HiCE used to be Luca's number one fear before, but it wasn't to him anymore.

He felt this way not only because they had reduced to two, but because he had actually become equals with them—or less, as some might wanna argue.

But if he was below them, then what season campaign could this standings be coming from...

PROVISIONAL DRIVER'S CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS (TOP10)

Position | Team | Points

----------------------------------------

1. | Luca Rennick | 92 (+1)

2. | Antonio Luigi | 63

3. | Ailbeart Moireach | 55

4. | Luis Dreyer | 46

5. | Jimmy Damgaard | 45

6. | Marko Ignatova | 34

7. | Buoso Di Renzo | 18

8. | Hank Rice | 10

9. | Elias Nyström | 13

10. | Denko Rutherford | 9

Luca couldn't help but be excited. Had he truly become a super driver with the system?

In some free time he had while at home, he quickly moved to the system and requested the assessment to check for any category that might have reached the required 300%.

[All Modes:

—Ferrari (Scuderia Z24)

[POWER & PERFORMANCE:

—Ferrari (Scuderia Z24): 280% »»»

[AERODYNAMICS & CHASSIS:

—Ferrari (Scuderia Z24): 235% »»»

[HANDLING & DYNAMICS:

—Ferrari (Scuderia Z24): 100% »»»

[ENDURANCE & RELIABILITY:

—Ferrari (Scuderia Z24): 90% «««

[TECHNOLOGICAL INTEGRATION:

—Ferrari (Scuderia Z24): 92%««« ]

'I guess it's just a matter of time.'

On one day of rest, Luca thought as he finished an intense home workout session, with sweat clinging to his skin and the weight of discipline feeling well worth it. He realized he'd spent so much time tuning the car's performance that he'd barely checked the Self section of the system lately. Looking like Hercules already, Luca knew it was right to shift priorities.

After the refreshing bath, Luca took his time applying his usual skin products, keeping to the routine that kept him sharp and looking good. He got dressed in casual clothes for a relaxed home stay, then headed to the kitchen for a seemly breakfast.

With his stomach satisfied and the morning fully in motion, he decided to finally revisit his F1 Monoposto career mode. He hadn't touched the game in many days due to training, travel, and real-life racing. This day, a free day, felt like the perfect time to dive back in.

F1 Monoposto had a very captivating quality in its graphics and also its toggle-based setup. The only thing that was done automatically was the acceleration, but there was also a setting that could toggle acceleration to manual. As for other inputs, they were manual, requiring quick apprehension in order to mimic the mental load of real-life drivers.

The control scheme wasn't overly complex, but it demanded rhythm and awareness, especially in career mode where performance carried consequences. Luca, who understood racecraft deeply, saw it as challenging for the mind.

The name of his driver? Ken Kent. Yeah, Luca chuckled every time he saw it too. He'd just remembered the name "Ken" because the driver was black, and Kendall was black too. And as for "Kent," Kent slipped in because Superman randomly popped into his head during the setup.

Ken Kent was eighteen years old, 5'10, from Cameroon. Ken was the underdog prodigy currently racing for Iberia GP as the second driver behind the highly rated Rice. Luca's main mission for him was to take this fictional Cameroonian rookie all the way to the top and make him the first black F1 champion.

Luca had noticed there weren't many people of varying colors on the grid. For a sport as global as F1, the lack of diversity wasn't actually enough. He hoped the FIA would eventually take that more seriously—reach out, spread wider, create more accessible pathways.

Who knows? There could be someone out there, even better than him, just waiting for the right door to open. At least the inaugural RSA Grand Prix last year was a refreshing and promising start in that direction.

Buzz buzz....

Luca's phone buzzed unexpectedly. It pulled his focus from the game, and he frowned when he saw that it was an unknown number. He was almost sure he'd told Manuela to field all his calls. Why was something slipping through? And from an unlisted number, no less.

He tapped the green icon before the call expired.

The calling end was silent for the first three seconds, so Luca spoke cautiously.

"Hello? Hello?"