[TS] Formula One Streamer - Chapter 3
Do you know how much an F1 race car costs?
15 billion.
Yeah. It’s a whopping 15 billion for just one car.
Are you under the impression it’s just about the car?
To compete in F1, you need to mobilize hundreds of people, including two drivers, engineers, pit crew, and car designers.
Hundreds of people exist solely for the race car and drivers.
What about the number of tires used in a single season, and how much it would cost if a 15 billion race car gets into an accident during a race?
To sum it up, it costs a hell of a lot of money to be in F1.
So, an F1 race car is the ultimate engine machine that every man dreams of driving at least once, a fantasy like a midsummer night’s dream.
Virtual reality game, For One.
For One, which also signifies Formula One, has emerged to truly penetrate the dreams of such men.
An opportunity to drive an F1 race car worth 15 billion.
With a realistic feel, you can manipulate the steering wheel, press the brake and accelerator, and take a chance on a circuit that is allowed only to 20 people globally.
Competing and achieving rankings by maximizing your senses and driving techniques.
Truly simple yet macho, the racing game For One surpassed 1.5 billion users immediately upon release.
Unlike the reality of F1, where performance gaps between teams are significant, For One provides all drivers with the same performance and vehicle, entrusting the influence on results entirely to the driver’s ability.
But guess what?
Real F1 drivers, who took driving techniques as the essence of F1, flocked to join For One, and as a result, the popularity of For One skyrocketed.
With the astronomical costs associated with F1, anyone can now try it in the virtual reality of For One, leading to significant growth in its scale and popularity, meaning it would soon become a profitable business.
To nurture F1 talent, countries began establishing Formula One Academies.
Eventually, it became an official event of the Olympics, the largest sports event in the world.
“Why is that person acting like that? Is he new to the academy and trying For One for the first time?”
“Yeah. The way he behaves seems like someone who’s never done this before.”
In the grid, a casual chatting spot and waiting room for For One, someone started touching the displayed vehicles, turning the steering wheel and pressing the accelerator to make the engine rev.
As if he were not only new to For One but to virtual reality itself, he was making exclamatory remarks as he roamed the grid.
“Wow, how is this engine designed?”
A rookie who lifted a trophy right after debut, a three-time consecutive F1 champion.
In 65 qualifiers held over three seasons, he secured an astounding 61 pole positions and stood on the podium in first place 50 times.
A monster who broke all circuit lap time records.
A genius of driving not lacking even when compared to the F1 legend Schumacher.
The identity of that fierce woman was none other than Jin Hyun-woo, or Yooihyun.
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With the announcement “Attempting to connect to F1,” I felt my consciousness fading away, and soon something zoomed in and out of my sight in the dark.
Vroom!
Something disappeared, leaving behind a red afterimage.
It was a fleeting moment, but it was clearly an F1 race car.
Having heard the sound of engines roaring behind me countless times during my driving days, I instinctively recognized it.
Soon, the letters “F1” appeared, and as the spaces between the letters elongated, it changed to FOR ONE.
Wow!!
The sight of a driver lifting a trophy amid the O in ONE zoomed in, flooding the area with cheers and applause.
As the driver approached the finish line from a first-person perspective on the circuit, the background shifted to the grid, the waiting room.
[Welcome to For One. Awaken your beastly nature.]
“The intro is incredible….”
I stood in awe, unable to contain my admiration for the virtual reality technology providing sensations indistinguishable from reality among the crowd filling the grid.
From breathing to moving my limbs, everything felt as real as life itself.
In such a space, the sense of liberation and anticipation of being able to enjoy F1 without any financial or social constraints washed over me.
“The vehicle should be the same, right?”
My physical sensations were perfect, so all that was left to experience was the handling of the race car.
I walked towards the F1 car, flaunting its sleek curves for aerodynamics, thick tires, and glossy appearance like new.
Above each vehicle were inscriptions of the production year, team name, and driver’s name, likely commemorating the race car driven by each season’s champion.
Michael Schumacher, Ayrton Senna, Lewis Hamilton, Max Verstappen, etc.
Familiar names, but the letters differed only slightly from the names of F1 champions from the Earth I lived on.
The team names were also similar.
Ferrari was “Perrari,” Benz was “Mercedes Benz,” Red Bull was “Blue Bull,” McLaren was “McLarin”…
As I inspected the cars and took a test drive, a familiar voice broke through.
Jihyun Lee: Hey! Yooihyun! Are you coming? Everyone is waiting for you.
Oh right, she told me to join the practice channel as soon as I logged in.
But which channel was it…?
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Jihyun Lee: Channel 108, password 1111.
Thanks to the quick-witted Jihyun Lee, who kindly provided the channel and password without being asked, I was able to join my classmates without being late.
We were floating in the sky, overlooking the French Paul Ricard Circuit.
Observing the teacher’s focused expression as he rested his chin on one hand like Rodin’s Thinker, I asked Jihyun as discreetly as possible.
“What is the teacher doing?”
“Setting up the map.”
“What kind of setup?”
“Like weather or temperature.”
Many might not know this, but F1 is a sport greatly affected by weather.
Tires and brakes need to reach certain temperatures to perform optimally, which varies depending on the weather’s effect on track temperatures. Therefore, drivers must take even the slightest details into account during the race.
Additionally, typically slick tires are used for maximum grip, while grooved tires are used in rain.
Weather affects strategy formulation too.
So, For One, which can adjust weather and temperature, surely pays great attention to realism.
Having finished the setup, the teacher began to speak, and seeing the sun at its peak, it seemed like a typical situation was being created.
“Before starting the practice, check your lap time records on the scoreboard right here.”
A scoreboard appeared in front of us, lined up.
Name / Time
1) Song Dan-g*n 2:03:321
2) Jihyun Lee 2:03:598
3) Ahn Hyun-jun 2:04:001
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:
The friend at the top, Song Dan-g*n, had a time in the 2-minute 3-second range, which was frankly a terrible record.
It was a tough standard, but considering that I completed the Paul Ricard Circuit in just 1 minute 29 seconds 241, this was not a matter of sky and ground, but rather of ground and universe.
A difference of 34 seconds in completing 1 lap means 1802 seconds in a total of 53 laps.
That’s 30 minutes.
I grimaced.
Isn’t this an educational institution that trains F1 drivers representing Korea!
And this is the Seoul division, right? Unless a war broke out, Seoul would be the capital of Korea.
“The future of F1 in Korea is dark… tsk.”
Clicking my tongue, I checked my ranking and Yooihyun’s ranking.
Last place.
In a class of 20, matching the number of grid slots, I was in 20th place.
And it was a significant gap from 19th place.
Yooihyun 2:33:999
“….”
Did Hyun-woo even crawl around the circuit? Well, maybe he was engaging in a speed-regulation movement or something?
Even if tire punctures happen frequently, I didn’t think such a record was possible.
As the scoreboard displaying the lap times laid bare before my classmates, laughter erupted.
“Hey, Song Dan-g*n. Stop laughing. She’ll hear you.”
“Hehe! Didn’t you laugh too? You only give me grief, huh?”
“Yooihyun, what’s she even doing in the academy? I don’t even know how she got accepted.”
“What’s the point of ranking first in theoretical exams if you’re terrible in practice?”
I clicked my tongue at the 34-second difference, but how would it look if a classmate saw a 30-second gap from their performance?
“She probably looks like a loser….”
“Yooihyun! Why are you saying those horrible things? Ignore them. We just need to do well.”
Jihyun comforted me, but it didn’t hurt much.
It wasn’t my record after all, so what did it matter?
I tried to brush it off as childish nonsense from immature children, but…
“d*mn it, it’s such a waste of the insurance money you got from your dead parents!”
“Really an ungrateful child. A fire element daughter.”
The kids badmouthing me provocatively passed right in front of me as if to make sure I heard them.
“Hey! Do you think just saying things is all it takes?”
Jihyun got angry for me, but they casually raised their middle fingers and walked past.
“Do I not have parents? Is that what you’re saying?”
“Hyun, Hyun-a…. Are you okay?”
Somehow, it didn’t make sense that I didn’t have any parent contact numbers.
I roughly gathered Yooihyun’s circumstances.
Yooihyun had lost her parents in an accident and was attending the academy with the insurance money.
I don’t know why it’s called the Formula One Academy, but she must have come here to do what she wanted.
But with a bit of a lack of skill, she was bullied by the other kids and even called names, ending up writing only “I want to d*e” in her diary repeatedly.
Bullying such a poor girl?
You think her insurance money from her dead parents is a waste?
What kind of ungrateful daughter?
I wanted to let it go, but I could not.
These bastards needed to be trampled.
The one and only king of F1.
A legend reborn, eternal.
I’ll show them the fear of being a three-time consecutive champion and a four-time consecutive champion (Expected).
“Song Dan-g*n, right? My shortest record is 1 minute 29 seconds 241. I’ll break that today.”
The drive of a driver began to boil more than ever.
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Racing terms summary.
Pit: The maintenance station used for emergency repairs or fuel supply during a car race.
Pit Crew: A team composed of the director, manager, timekeeper, and mechanics. They take care of tasks not related to the driver during the race.
Grid: Starting line. It is divided zigzag from the finish line, from 1st to 20th place.
Qualifying: A prelim. It determines the grid order.
Pole Position: Refers to 1st place in qualifying, providing the advantage of starting from the front row of the grid in the final.
Lap Time: The time required to complete 1 lap.
Tire Puncture: Referring to a flat tire.