[TS] Formula One Streamer - Chapter 149

I returned to the pit, successfully and splendidly finishing the final moments of Practice Session 1 with a last-minute sprint.

Grrr-gurrrr-!

As the fuel level went down and the output dropped, the engine let out a low and slow rumble.

In the pit I returned to, Leclerc, who had started before me, arrived.

“Phew… I think I did pretty well.”

Name / Time / Team

① Lewis Hamilton 1:00:441 – Mercedes Binz

② Max Verstappen 1:00:653 +0.212 – Mercedes Binz

③ Yihyun Yoo 1:03:577 +3.136 – Ferrari

④ Charles Leclerc 1:04:290 +3.849 – Ferrari

My teammate Leclerc was in line right after me at 1 minute and 4 seconds. I had gone from being in the 1:10 range to 3rd place with a 3-second lap time in just 20 minutes.

That’s not exactly a “Hollywood goal.” Maybe it could be called a “Hollywood lap?”

The racing line I had designed throughout the 40 minutes and executed for 20 minutes had resulted in a performance close to the answer. It was a moment to prove to everyone that the path I saw and the path I wanted to take were not wrong.

To the audience and commentators watching from all over the world, to the other teams and their drivers, including Binz.

And to Minoto, Enrique, the engineers, the mechanics… our team members, who believed in me wholeheartedly.

I repaid their faith with a 3rd place result.

Of course, I’m not complacent with the current results. It’s just that this session was merely a stepping stone for Session 2.

It could be said it was a springboard to get closer to the ultimate goal of 1st place.

“Haah… It’s hot, isn’t it? The weather is making me sweat excessively. The balaclava isn’t absorbing it all; it’s too much.”

Leaving the race car with the engineers and mechanics, Leclerc came over, shaking his soaked head with a towel.

I took off my helmet and the balaclava that had been wrapped around my head and neck. Even the humid air felt refreshing.

“Yeah. The wind isn’t cool; it’s hot and muggy, so the heat isn’t getting properly managed. I’m completely boiling over here. Sweating like crazy.”

It was indeed too hot to withstand the temperature. Bahrain’s weather is generally warm, but sitting in the cockpit, constantly exposed to the engine’s intense heat, felt unbearable.

I bet other drivers were also pretty worn out by the oppressive heat.

I sat next to Leclerc, who handed me a fresh, fluffy towel, and we talked amidst the busy pit crew.

“The lap times were slow at first… Is the car okay? Looking at the final results, it seems fine.”

“Oh, no problem. At first, I just couldn’t give it my all because I was adapting to the race car and figuring out the circuit. How about you?”

“The steering was a bit heavy, so I had a hard time focusing on that.”

“Really? That must have been stressful.”

“It would be a lie to say I wasn’t disappointed. But it’s already in the past… I let the pit know, so I think it’ll be fine in the next session.”

Even though he tried to act like it was okay, I could see that Leclerc was more affected than anyone.

In his first season, during his first practice runs, if he couldn’t show his skills due to a vehicle issue that wasn’t his fault, there’s no situation more frustrating than that.

Of course, neither the engineers nor the mechanics would create such situations on purpose, but that’s why it’s the most despairing scenario for a driver.

It’s not my fault, but it’s an irritating situation where you can’t blame anyone.

I understood, even just a bit, how stressed Leclerc must have been during the one hour of Session 1.

As I was about to say a word of comfort…

“Still, even if it’s practice, the result is really good. Considering how we couldn’t even make the midfield last year, this is like heaven.”

It seemed he thought he couldn’t act like this in front of a junior. Leclerc, being both a teammate and a senior driver, smiled widely and changed the subject of our conversation.

“That’s true. Last year’s result was terrible, but now we’re right below Binz… I bet the Tifosi are going crazy, huh?”

“They’re not the only ones. Everyone’s going nuts. A team that placed 8th last year shot up like this in one season.”

“That’s true.”

Ferrari’s resurgence was so spectacular it could hardly be called anything else.

Last year, it was fortunate if we could get into the midfield, and even if we earned just 1 point, it felt like a festival. Now, both Ferrari drivers were pursuing the overwhelmingly dominant Binz team.

What could be a more dazzling resurrection than this?

“Did the change of race car really make this much of a difference? Perhaps we truly have no influence… I wonder if Alonso, who retired last year, is regretting it now.”

“What are you talking about? You’re ahead of me right now.”

“Come on, if the steering had been decent, you would’ve been faster than me.”

When I pretended to pray for Fernando Alonso, who until last year had held one of Ferrari’s two seats, Leclerc burst out laughing.

He laughed so heartily that everyone in the pit turned to look at us.

I felt sorry for Alonso, who had become a laughingstock, but he was at an age where retirement was expected, and since his teammates had regained their condition thanks to him, I thought he would understand.

…Or maybe not.

After laughing for a while, we stopped and returned to our main work.

It was time to share knowledge about driving.

“So, how are you approaching the corners?”

“Hmm… It’s a bit tricky to explain because each corner is different…”

“That’s fine. Just start with Corner 1.”

“Corner 1 is…”

I shared my knowledge and experience, and Leclerc shared his knowledge and experience in his own way.

We discussed what approaches worked and what results came out. It was a sharing of invaluable information that one could never know without experiencing it.

It wasn’t theory; it was practically knowledge, or what we could call know-how.

This precious information couldn’t be found in telemetry or analysis team charts; it was a limited resource.

That’s why drivers from opposing teams would never share it, and even teammates often wouldn’t share it.

That was their advantage, their lifeline.

Especially in relationships where drivers like Leclerc and I were both competitively in the same position (not contractually, but), it wouldn’t be possible.

In a clear hierarchy of first and second drivers, there was no reason for the first driver to share any know-how since the second driver had nothing to give.

Any rewards given would come through some sort of transaction, or it would be a matter of self-analysis and learning.

“However, from Corner 1 to Corner 3, I think it might be better to ease off a bit…”

“Hmm, the corners are too close together, so going out, in and out seems meaningless. But then again, it might not be. It could be a strategy to boost the output and exit faster. The hybrid suspension might actually give more downforce than expected.”

“Do you think that would hold up? I haven’t tried that yet, so I’m not sure. I’ll probably have to try it to find out.”

“When I tried it, it worked up to 120 km/h. Beyond that, we’ll have to test it to see.”

In contrast, we were dissecting each corner, filling in each other’s gaps.

In that sense, Leclerc and I were in a very ideal relationship. An interdependent relationship where we both exchanged knowledge and grew together.

But we shouldn’t misunderstand that this relationship stemmed purely from personal feelings.

This was possible because our interests aligned. If either Leclerc or I had been at a lower level, this beautiful sharing of information wouldn’t have been established.

Of course… I, who declared my wish to progress with everyone in this life, had no intention of ever thinking otherwise, and Leclerc, being inherently kind-hearted, would never act that way… but that was the case in general.

After sharing information and taking a break, I engaged in final discussions with my race engineer Enrique, Leclerc’s race engineer Amy, Logan, Shin Juhyun, Won-jin, and Minoto, all of whom came in turn.

Most of their advice was technical and based on automotive engineering. Except for Won-jin and Enrique, everyone had deep experience in their field, so there was a lot to learn from their insights.

Recognizing what I had missed and expanding my knowledge set the stage for further development.

[5 minutes later. The second practice session, FP2, is about to begin!]

Time flew by so quickly that even though our conversation hadn’t finished, the second session arrived. I still had a mountain of feedback to go through, but I wrapped up our discussion roughly and climbed back into the V-1.

As I prepared, Enrique’s voice came crackling through my earpiece.

-Hyun-a, from now on, it’s your time. I won’t intervene anymore. Go and drive as hard as you can. The director has already said to do that.

“Is that okay? I thought we still needed adjustments.”

-Yeah. They said they collected everything that could be gathered from FP1, so you can just drive as you like. They probably plan to analyze FP2 separately to gather varied data for you.

“Got it. Then I’ll drive freely.”

Grrr-!!

The FR3 engine of the V-1 roared to life, making a sound like air bursting forth.

Thus began FP2, the session that would change everything.