My Formula 1 System-Chapter 430: St. Barca-Raval

After the tense, misgiving press conference that featured back-to-back worded attacks and remarks, the Spanish Grand Prix qualifier was underway. Race weekend was so close that many could practically taste the smoke and smell the burnt rubber.

A traditional Track Walk was conducted by Jackson Racing to inspect the legendary track and note the new changes in person rather than simply relying on photos. This Track Walk strangely reminded Luca of the same walk Trampos had assembled the last time. Memories of how he had goofed around with the others, the entire team dispersing in wild purposes until they grew tired of their gleefulness and gathered back, came flooding in.

This memory reminded Luca that things had truly changed sizably. And true to that, even the circuit itself had changed broadly, appearing much more fabled than it used to be. It was no surprise though that the FIA would put in much effort into Mandalora's caparison and expansion, since the circuit was practically treated as the Queen of F1.

It had the most seating capacity, the largest not only in Formula 1, but the entire world—and they had just incremented it even further.

Due to this massive seating capacity, the Spanish GP was also the most globally engaged F1 event, boasting up to 1.7 billion viewers worldwide. And this was the average data, meaning some years, like this one, would exceed that hallmark.

The most frustrating part about it was that no one could simply understand why it was this way. The fact that the Spanish Grands Prix always surpassed any Mega Prix in engagement and viewership needed to be studied. But history had stretched back so far that all could only accept what it had become.

Thereupon, the greed to conquer Spain historically became an obsession for teams and drivers. Track Walks were always attended, and teams had never become more serious, not just to gather points but to excel at Circuto del Barca-Raval.

Luca noticed that the circuit had greatly changed, and the track was significantly altered to sate the thirst for competition. However, those inclines and declines still remained, portions he noted that Yaw Flex would function expertly on.

The grandstands surrounded almost all parts of the track, except for that Sector 1-Sector 2 side that resembled a grand canyon. Luca's guess was that this was the only reason why stands weren't built there as well. Because from what everyone could see, the FIA only focused on expanding the viewership of Mandalora rather than the physical track itself. Only two measly turns were added, and the home straight was made miraculously longer.

[Generating track layout...]

[... successfully generated]

[.

┌———T4┐

┌T9-----┐

┌T12┐

T3

T5—┘

T8

|

T11

T13

|

└—T6------T7┘

└T10┘

|

|

|

|

|

└T2——T1—————=————————T14

.]

There were a lot of high-speed zones that the track featured, starting from the immensely extended home straight and flowing right into Turn 3's transition to Turn 4. Turns 9, 13, and 14 included, all seeming to favor ruthless acceleration and speed.

Luca was aware he could dominate these portions with Kinetic Recycling and Zero Drag all merging seamlessly with Yaw Flex and his impeccable Gripper to hold the inside perfectly. But he couldn't dominate now, not since there were others with better features and, overall, much better cars.

He groaned at these listed turns, understanding that they were exactly the segments of the track the super drivers on the grid would exploit to get further away from the pack—and from him if he was happening to be chasing one.

Ailbeart and DIMarco. The FIA might as well hand them positions 1 and 2 already. There were no hairpins, only a single chicane and a few tight bottlenecks. The track was blessed with kinks, a wind of asphalt that the entire world seemed to love to cheer for the most, for some reason.

Luca compared himself and his car to these drivers, wondering if he even had a chance to claim the fastest lap. He wanted to try out these new Top Driver Bundle features, but the only way to earn Tokens, needed to either Create or Edit, was by scoring the fastest laps.

He had no Tokens at all, so extending Syn Buff's duration to 10 minutes was out of the question. The cost was staggering, and Luca was stunned.

With such high costs, combined with the difficulty of nabbing the fastest lap in a competition where he didn't even have the fastest car, Luca wondered when he would even begin to practice the privileges that came with the Top Driver Bundle.

Maybe creating new skills and features, or editing the ones he already had to his liking, was something for the future—after he had honed himself into a beast, and pushed his car and engine up to S-level. Because right now, no one was going to hand him anything.

Only then would it be easier to score fastest laps, earn Tokens, and perform whatever administrative actions he wanted.

[Inventory:

—Catalysts: 2

—Wrenches: 2

—Tokens: 0 ]

For now, getting points and winning the championship was the main objective. With those two Catalysts and two Wrenches—earned from winning the German Grand Prix and unlocking the Top Driver Bundle respectively—he was aiming, just like every other driver, to conquer Spain.

He'd done it before in F2, with the infamous glass incident that had transpired in his favor. Now, he planned to do it again, using the same Sync Buff strategy to invest his tools into the Sync Bar progression mid-race.

And this time, he wouldn't have to worry about how long the duration would last, because it was going to be a full five minutes.

After disabling the Randomized Duration Window just to test out the Editor Feature, the system promptly asked him a question after catching him off guard with the high token cost.

[Do you wish to re-enable Randomized Duration Window?]

[Y/N]

This got Luca thinking deeply.

The memory of how the full five minutes helped him win the German Grand Prix was still fresh, so his decision was heavily influenced by it.

He had experienced both ends—complete Sync Buff duration and incomplete Sync Buff duration—and Luca would choose the full duration every time. However, he also remembered the huge mess Sync Buff caused him last year and how close he had come to being blacklisted.

But that was in F2. This was F1, where the competition was fiercer and the margin for error razor-thin. The level of precision, strategy, and raw power here was on a whole different scale—every millisecond mattered, and every decision could make or break a race. Unlike F2, where talent could sometimes overcome shortcomings, F1 demanded flawless execution and cutting-edge technology. Five minutes of peak performance in F1 wasn't comparable to five minutes in F2. The possibilities here were limitless, and Luca knew he couldn't afford to stay ordinary while others were handed special engineering packages.

[(NO) selected!]