[TS] Formula One Streamer - Chapter 143

“Driver Yui-hyun, Driver Charles Leclerc! I look forward to a good race!”

“I’ll see you at the circuit.”

We slipped out of the venue like we were escaping, tormented by the journalists.

“Seriously… they ask everything.”

“That’s how it is.”

As Leclerc said, the journalists started with mundane questions and gradually moved to unshareable race strategies and subtly or blatantly pried for information about the new race car V-1, integrated with new technology.

For them, every word from a driver could be a scoop, so it was only natural for them to ask.

It might be embarrassing, but asking questions that they couldn’t answer was a given. The drivers could just cleverly reveal that they had no authority to speak at those moments with appropriate humor.

If not, they could drop a hint to an F1 specialist journalist they were friendly with…

“Everyone’s being sly. Did you see how they targeted me?”

The issue was that all those countless questions were directed only at me.

Leclerc, finding it amusing, patted my back.

“It’s probably more pronounced because it’s you? You’re young and just debuted as a rookie. Where else would they find such an enticing target?”

“Ha… that’s true.”

Although I found this one-sided interview exhausting, I had to admit that it was a valid point.

Leclerc, being seasoned in F1, had already become quite the cunning fox, while I, a rookie in my first season, must have seemed easy prey.

Moreover, many of the F1 specialist journalists had more experience than most F1 drivers. They had been through all kinds of experiences in this field.

While I might be at a level that I couldn’t dare approach as a driver, as a human, Yooihyun was just an easy catch.

“Still, you defended well, didn’t you? I was almost going to intervene, but you answered so well that everyone, including the journalists and I, were left stunned. That interview scene will probably go viral.”

“I’m not that naive to be caught in such things. Do you think this is my first rodeo?”

But who am I?

I am the overwhelming champion who has rolled in the harsh world of F1 for years and shattered every record there was.

How many interviews have I done? How many questions have I answered?

While I may look like a high school girl on the outside, I wasn’t someone who would fall for such shallow and mischievous wordplay.

“That’s why I say, interviews feel more tiring than races, don’t you think?”

“You have to be cautious with every word you say, so it can indeed be tiring. Sometimes, I wish I could just wear a mask and go in… But seriously, aren’t you starting to complain just after a few interviews?”

“No, I mean… just by doing it once, I got the feel for it. Ugh, yeah… you don’t have to experience everything firsthand to know!”

“That’s true.”

It’s no wonder that they’re drivers; they always have to throw a hook at everything I say. Maybe it’s because they’re so sensitive, they can’t let anything slide.

You’re out of luck with meeting girls.

Feeling embarrassed by my overly sensitive reaction, I quickened my pace toward our team’s pit at Ferrari.

“Let’s hurry! Don’t forget to check everything until the very end!”

The pit was quite busy. Mechanics and engineers were going through check after check of their tasks.

As if they couldn’t allow even a slight mistake, once someone finished checking something, another person would review it, and yet another would check it, creating an endless cycle.

Even though it was just practice, practice runs were, in fact, the real deal for testing the new race car and strategizing about the circuit.

Therefore, it could be seen as the most important first step that would affect not only the qualifying that would determine the grid the next day but also the main event happening the day after tomorrow.

It was even more crucial since today’s Bahrain Grand Prix was the beginning of the 31 season.

With a solemn heart, I moved towards the pit.

“Hmm…!”

As I entered the pit, I was met by the race car, V-1, which could only be described as stunning, glistening with a bright red cowl. The way it reflected the light of the ceiling lamps was so clear that it almost made me think it was a mirror.

While the stage of the circuit and the protagonist, the race car, were obvious, there were also spectators in the grandstands, which hadn’t been present in the previous tests.

The harmony of audience, stage, and protagonist always makes one’s heart race, doesn’t it?

For instance, it feels like one grand performance. Just looking at it sends my heart fluttering; how must it feel for the protagonist showcasing their skills on stage?

The audience’s excitement, expectations, tension, thrill, joy… they must be incomparable.

Without refusing my swelling heart, I accepted it all and approached the race car as if entranced.

“Ferrari… V-1… Yooihyun….”

At the end of the neatly printed names along the side of the race car, my real name was inscribed in white in my handwriting.

Before, it was the driver Jin Hyun-woo of Ferrari; now it is the driver Yooihyun of Ferrari.

Recalling the brilliantly shining past I had at Ferrari, I fondly stroked those names for a while.

Somehow… I felt like doing that, and it felt right.

“Haah… It’s okay, it’s okay.”

It was a new beginning. Just as a new history is inevitably written over the old. It was time to cover Jin Hyun-woo with a new page named Yooihyun.

This moment was both about erasing myself and simultaneously a process of finding myself. I had finally reached a massive turning point towards becoming the human ‘Yooihyun’ that no one in this world can understand.

While I couldn’t suppress the tidal wave of emotions surging within me, I wiped away the tears that had filled my eyes.

“Are you nervous?”

A voice casually asked as it approached silently, focusing on the race car. It was Minoto.

He had asked me the same question even in my previous life before my ‘real’ first race.

“What kind of driver do you want to be?”

Minoto was asking me the same question again.

“What kind of driver do you want to be?”

A repetition of history.

In response to this abstract question that didn’t have an answer in my previous life, I had said, “I want to be the fastest driver.”

The fastest driver. It meant champion, a response carrying the biggest dream that any driver might hold, and it was a very ordinary answer.

However,

“I want to be a driver who goes together with everyone.”

This life as Yooihyun is different. Being alone and racing without regard for others is sufficient just from being inside the race car.

My previous existence, which was nothing but a cold machine, might have had glory and honor, but it was lonely and desolate. I had drivers’ goals but lost sight of my life’s goals.

Having been given a second chance, I wouldn’t allow Yooihyun’s life to be that way.

Noticing my answer might have been vague, Minoto looked at me with wide eyes, seemingly trying to gauge my mind, then murmured into the air.

“A driver who goes together with everyone…”

“With mechanics, engineers, fellow drivers, the director… I want to be together with all those who will make the future driver Yooihyun. If possible, continuously.”

Perhaps it was something much harder to achieve than wanting to be the fastest driver.

The team’s eternal existence relies on the fundamental premise of good performance, which can be uncertain and arrogant for a rookie to harbor, both ridiculous yet ambitious.

But because of that, it became a gigantic dream that could be held.

Understanding the meaning instantly, Minoto lowered his head and replied in a low, quiet voice.

“…You’re dreaming a difficult dream.”

A difficult dream. It’s practically an impossible one, but even after condensing the phrasing for my young self, that was all that came out.

Being the director of a team leading hundreds of people, Minoto surely understands the weight of my dream better than anyone.

That’s why I didn’t expect a positive reaction. I couldn’t.

Yet despite that,

“Let’s share your dream.”

Minoto, with burning eyes, declared that he would dream the same dream as me.

He vowed to walk the same path.

Thinking it would be lucky if he didn’t scoff at me, I looked back at Minoto in surprise.

“…Huh? What did you just say…”

“Let’s create that kind of team together. Enough of firing and restructuring… I’m tired of that, so you and I. Let’s build that kind of team.”

At his age, he could still burn with passion like that.

What comes from the depths of the heart often expresses itself in the outer world.

Reading Minoto’s intense desire reflected in his eyes, I sincerely responded to him.

“We will definitely create it.”

Since this life is meant to progress together.

I will make it happen.

That’s how it will be.

Because I’ve made up my mind.