CHAPTER 591: TWELFTH ROUND

PROVISIONAL DRIVER’S CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS (TOP10)

Position | Team | Points

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1. | Luca Rennick | 207

2. | Jimmy Damgaard | 187

3. | Ailbeart Moireach | 169

4. | Antonio Luigi | 140

5. | Luis Dreyer | 124

6. | Marko Ignatova | 90

7. | Buoso Di Renzo | 65

8. | Elias Nyström | 40

9. | Denko Rutherford | 32

10. | Albert Derstappen | 30

The drivers’ standings prior to the twelfth round were proof of how complex and unpredictable the season had become by July.

Luca sat in first place with 207 points, followed closely by Jimmy Damgaard in second with 187.

These two were leading the most heated table in sports history. Amusingly, neither of them had been predicted to dominate by this stage at the campaign’s start.

Davide DiMarco was ranked as the top contender for the championship this season. But he’s still sidelined, so there was nothing to expect at this point.

He had recovered, but not enough to be back in action at all.

And the reigning champion himself, Antonio Luigi, trailed 67 points behind Luca.

Antonio Luigi was losing his grip on the F1 crown. If it hadn’t been clear before, it was now.

"Sounding prophetic isn’t my thing, but I’d love to assure my fans and supporters that I’ll win the F1 driver’s title," said Jimmy Damgaard in a short, straightforward interview ahead of the Brazilian Grand Prix.

It was his first time being both a major participant and a genuine contender in a championship race.

Overall, it was Damgaard’s biggest campaign yet, and by a wide margin compared to his previous seasons.

He only found himself in this position because of DiMarco’s injury.

Instead of slipping under the pressure, he rose to the challenge, seized the opportunity, and never once let the team down, earning respect within Red Bull.

Now, both fans and crew members had begun to speculate about what would happen when Davide DiMarco eventually returned.

Team principal Finazzi would have plenty to restructure by then, but the likely scenario was that DiMarco would spend a couple of months as the secondary driver to regain his rhythm and form.

Instead of contrasting his opponents as usual by being humble, Luca doubled down on the collective confidence ahead of Brazil.

Just like Damgaard, Luigi, and the rest of the grid, he didn’t hold back from declaring that the race was his to win.

Given the statistical data and his superiority at Interlagos, Luca’s self-assurance was the most justified arrogance of them all.

Winning the Brazilian Grand Prix would mark the beginning of a new streak.

Hopefully, he could stretch this one all the way to championship victory.

No bees, no honey; no work, no money. If Luca wanted a good harvest, he had to sow the right seeds.

For his own success, he consulted his System again after checking his Token count: 6.2 T.

He wasn’t a stranger to its usage.

The previous time, he had increased the number of Tokens earned per requirement met, a smart start and a helpful foundation.

But now, Luca decided to turn inward, focusing on sharpening himself as a driver.

He wanted to refine his craft to a degree that couldn’t even be calibrated on his Monoposto card.

Since Racer’s Flow, a Resonance, was a combination of multiple attributes and self-skills, Luca wondered what he could do to quicken his pace of leveling it up.

So, with the Tokens he had, he went on an administrative journey to increase the maximum limit of his self-skills.

[Current Value: 20 MAX Completion for Self Skills]

[(–) 20 (+)] —— [(–) 40 (+)]

The System gave its host a warning, indicating that it was a "broken" adjustment, but Luca didn’t mind.

He successfully edited it, the process costing him exactly 6.2 Tokens.

This development meant that he could begin earning points for his self-skills once again during races.

[ Overtaking Skill, Reflexes, Track Awareness, Spatial Awareness, Slipstream Mastery, Gripper, Yaw Flex]

The majority of Racer’s Flow accumulation came from self-skills.

In that case, the more Luca leveled them up toward this new threshold of 40, the faster he would master his first Resonance.

He couldn’t be happier to apply his new systematic approach in a race.

The Brazilian GP was his—he was sure of it. He had the feeling, and thankfully, he’d had no dream.

Luca departed Berlin punctually, but he didn’t leave his house empty like usual.

Laura had asked for a few more days at the house, saying Martin had been stooling irregularly and she needed to monitor his condition and keep him close to proper care before traveling back to Grunewald.

Luca agreed.

He did so also because he felt the two were enjoying themselves in the grand property.

As he thought about it, he began to see that perhaps Laura was terribly bored in Grunewald, and that the larger surroundings here offered her a sense of renewal and stimulation after a year shadowed by gloom.

Anything that could make the poor mother and child happy, Luca was all ears.

While walking through the terminal with his rolling suitcase, Luca’s eyes were on his phone screen.

Many of the Trampos crew members had already uploaded photos of Martin, selfies with the baby so the world could see that the late Ansel Hahn had left a son behind.

Even Victor had uploaded.

Even Trampos’ official page had joined in, posting the frowning baby as though he were a new brand face of the team.

But it seemed the world still doubted the authenticity since Luca himself hadn’t posted anything yet.

So, he did. His first photo was the one Laura had taken, the one showing their matching outfits.

The second was from Isabella’s arranged gathering, while the last was a group photo of the entire Trampos team, with him and the child at the center.

As expected, Luca’s post skyrocketed to the zenith within minutes, pulling in fourteen times more likes than Trampos’ official upload.

This new revelation to the world was bound to cause a shake-up, whether minor or major.

The FIA would no doubt send representatives to see the baby. Ferrari would too. And so would the press. Even rogue journalist groups and documentary crews would surely flock in.

Coming to the homogeneous, the German government would undoubtedly want to take part in some way.

Laura could become famous overnight, even a millionaire through the many forms of support and attention that would soon find her.

Luca smiled, wishing her the best.

~~~~~~

São Paulo, Brazil.

The city still looked the same as the last time Formula 1 was here.

The streets were still buzzing, the air, and the same gray blend of buildings crawling up the hillsides.

Being in the southern hemisphere, there were practically zero signs of summer at all.

Maybe the stark switch in climate had done some damage, because a few people, including several Trampos crew members, reported illness.

Luca himself felt fine, but the scent in the air was so acrid, it wasn’t up for debate that there were lingering pathogens.

Precautionary treatments were conducted for everyone on-site, and Luca made sure to get his shot despite feeling okay.

A nearby television screen spoke about an earthquake in a metropolis in China.

The Chinese Grand Prix was next on the calendar, so Luca hoped the hazard wouldn’t cause any problems for the upcoming motorsport event.

When the medical crew finally packed up and left, Luca didn’t know why, but he felt strangely isolated.

An F1 driver was, by nature, a lone wolf month after month, and Luca wondered if the sudden sense was a bad instinct.

So he called everyone close to him, making sure they were all safe and sound before concluding that maybe he just wasn’t punishing his body enough.

The gym at the facility welcomed him minutes later.

Victor was already there, and his presence immediately put a smile on Luca’s face.

Now mentoring the young lad was something Luca genuinely enjoyed.