My Formula 1 System

Velocità never really plotted to exploit the MkII's radiation consequences on other cars as part of their strategy in this race. This was simply an in-race idea fathered by DiMarco, who thought it'd be a brilliant twist to retire Luca's Canada GP when he heard his teammate, Damgaard, was right behind Luca.

Even though it wasn't exactly communicated between them, Damgaard came to understand that if he kept applying pressure, Luca would eventually fall right into the taxing range of the MkII's Thermal Ion Flux radiation, ultimately ending his race in a snap. So, contrary to what Luca believed, neither the two Velocità drivers nor the team itself had planned this in advance. It was something that originated on the fly, born out of a mutual understanding of what their engineering was capable of, and mutual hatred for the driver caught between them.

Jackson Racing hadn't even realized the setup and its impending consequence until Luca yowled into the radio. That's when he was finally advised to lower his Energy Recovery System output to minimum threshold and initiate low-draw protocols, so the Thermal Ion Flux radiation would at least take a considerably longer time before having any critical impact. But Luca had already done that since.

So, he decided to take the entire matter into his own hands, because from what he had observed in recent team gatherings and training sessions, Jackson Racing had once again shifted their priorities to Rodnick and the new FRC-91. They wouldn't admit it, of course, but it was becoming clear. The FRC-91, even with its high ERS levels, was somehow not susceptible to the MkII.

How irrational was it to bulldoze another driver just to save your own race? Maybe 50:50? Those odds could shift depending on certain factors like if that driver you bulldozed had already played a hand in trying to end your race in the first place!

At the apex of Turn 10, where Luca's system had once flickered the radiation warning, he spotted a rare chance to slip out from the right of DiMarco and possibly snatch P2. With Gripper, perfect Reflexes, and high Agility, that feat was well within Luca's capabilities, and it would've been a humiliating thwack to both DiMarco and Damgaard, who had done far too much to shove him into this position.

But Damgaard must've read Luca's goal layout: a sizable span of asphalt to their right, just wide enough to fit a single-seater before it slimmed into the corner that curled around the base of a satellite dish. Acting smart the second time in this race, Damgaard dove for that space before Luca could reach it, to cut him off entirely and to trap him, killing any chance of escape.

Luca could tell he had just a few seconds before he was toast. So, without thinking too much, that was when he did what he did. The roar of the grandstands swelled both from those who caught it with their eyes and others across the circuit who relied on TV coverage. Luca lethally elbowed himself into Damgaard, muscling him off the line he originally wanted, and a menagerie of Red Bull carbon fibre sprayed into the air from the graze.

Luca didn't even care about the 10-second time penalty that was issued to him afterward for aggressive but not fully reckless driving that compromised Damgaard's car integrity. As long as their plan to retire him had failed, he was going to serve that penalty with fulfilment. Besides, after that maneuver, he claimed that racing line and managed to overtake DiMarco.

P2— Luca Rennick ↑

P3— Davide DiMarco ↓

[Strength +1]

DiMarco didn't even have the tire health to chase after Luca, so Luca was reasonably safe in that P2. Even Damgaard was severely impaired from that scrape, leaving him vulnerable and unable to mount a challenge. Luca thought he'd done well against both DiMarco and Damgaard, even though his engineers didn't sound too thrilled when notifying him about the penalty.

Perhaps, they weren't pleased because the 10-second penalty had just skewed the team's carefully laid-out pit stop strategy for this race. Rodnick's stop required meticulous tire change and ERS rebalancing, a slightly time-consuming process for these supercars, which would already increase service time by a second or two. That felt like punishment enough for the Stallions. And now, Luca was going to spend ten full seconds with them, when he should be out there gaining ground during Rodnick's outlap and tire warming.

Because of the time-consuming penalty, he failed to beat the system's pit stop entrance and exit time prediction. Upon rejoining, the top five positions had already been locked in by rivals, and Luca had to settle for P6. Ultimately, he dropped to P7 within the first sector because Luis Dreyer had no intention of waiting for him to gain tire warmth.

After the first pit stop routine, it wasn't surprising that all supercars had the top three—Ailbeart, Rodnick, and DiMarco—occupying the podium slots with an insane time differential against Luigi in P4 and the rest of the pack.

However, this structure shifted during the second pit stop phase. Ailbeart, Rodnick, and DiMarco spent more time in service before rejoining, while drivers like Luigi, Dreyer, and Nyström—who weren't teammates to any of the three—didn't have to stay out longer and were able to make their stops around the same window, emerging early and either taking positions or cementing prime spots for an inevitable rise.

For instance, Luigi claimed P1 upon reentry. Dreyer and Nyström secured P4 and P6 respectively, not the best spots on paper, but since the teammates of Ailbeart, Rodnick, and DiMarco still had to complete their own stops, Dreyer and Nyström eventually advanced into P2 and P4 respectively.

After this typical Formula racing shamble, Luca was that driver slotted right between Dreyer and Nyström, holding firm in P3. Even though he'd made his second pit stop after Rodnick, Pitstop Prodigy had made everything seamless, efficiently minimizing time loss for him. Now equipped with the 97, Nyström had become noticeably inferior to him, and Luca had his sights greedily ahead of Dreyer, and set on Luigi.

But the closer they got to the final ten laps of the race, the more Ailbeart, Rodnick, and DiMarco began to recover, gradually unleashing the full potential of those S-level engines again, speeding like rockets along the home straight and the second straight, but taking calculated care through the tighter street sections.

Luca didn't even know what outcome he should be rooting for in this scenario. Of course, he didn't want those privileged drivers to come storming back and swallow them whole, reclaiming all the podium spots and crushing whatever hope there was that the supercars could actually be challenged. But at the same time, Luca had to think logically and according to current stats.

Luigi, in his Mercedes, was sitting in P1. He also happened to be second place in the Driver's Standings, chasing him like a shadow with fangs. If the real top three didn't recover in time to swallow them, Luigi would walk away with 25 points here in Canada. Luca couldn't allow that because he didn't want that.