Same race, yet a different race.

The city walls of Baku never stopped flashing by. Behind a visor, two blue eyes were squinted and focused. They were Matteo's, scanning each apex and braking zone. The cockpit of the RbioL was louder than a thousand shrieks, but Matteo managed to remain focused in his helmet as the laps skipped.

The circuit demanded this. Tight walls, uneven curbs, and not-so-satisfying straights. For a driver to thrive here, he had to be in some kind of trance. Those were the exact words of Haddock's Team Principal in a certain interview pre-race week. Matteo thought it made a lot of sense.

For the time being, he was hunting. Not hunting for position exactly, but hunting for perfect laps in a row. Hunting for perfect laps is the only way to earn the right to stay where you are. It keeps your tires niche and also the car behind out of DRS range. So, if you don't hunt the lap time, the race eventually hunts you.

Also, getting green laps is the best bet to overtake a rival without getting rechallenged in just the next sector.

Into the next lap, Matteo entered T1 with enough speed to kiss the apex without scrubbing traction. The Red Bull responded like liquid, tires gripping the asphalt with insistence until downforce did its job. Matteo felt the rear stepping slightly, but that was only a reminder that the car had limits. Down the brief alley, the turbo screamed, delivering a surge of acceleration that made the city walls blur again.

**Temper the rear, Matteo. Don't push too hard in Sector 2, 3**

At T2, Matteo adjusted his brake bias with his left thumb for the quick left corner. Down the next alley to the third street turn, he modulated his black steering pad again, while his feet cooperated with the throttle below.

Turn 4 through the chicane was sublime: Lift, rotate, and feed the throttle. But for T5, one of the narrowest kinks known to man, Matteo's hands translated millimeters of steering input into full-body motion through the car. The challenge left him breathless, even Velocità's pit wall noticed it and worked him through a very quick session to help him catch his wind.

**All good?**

"Yeah. Yeah."

Honestly, it's kind of a secret that drivers don't talk about much, because the best drivers were good at hiding it more than rookies.

People spectating see cars zooming by and think, 'Oh, he's a pro, he could do this in his sleep.' But they don't get that every single lap sometimes feels like the first time for these professional drivers. The track is always changing, so even though they pass the same white lines and concrete barriers fifty or sixty times in an afternoon, the spot never actually becomes safe. This means that every time they approach a high-speed kink or a narrow chicane, there is a split-second of genuine doubt. They still have to wonder: Is this the lap where the luck runs out? Is this the one where the millimeters don't line up?

With the weight on his shoulders to perform and impress in this race, Matteo got hit with a five-star trauma there.

He recovered enough for the longer straight, rolled onto the throttle fully, and let the hybrid boost push the car forward. Turn 6, a tight right at the edge of the harbor, was approached with slightly lifted braking. Apexed late, the car rotated cleanly, rear stepping lightly, settled again for Turn 7—a sweeping left-right kink. Through Turn 8, a mid-speed left, Matteo fed throttle smoothly, the downforce keeping the RbioL glued even over the uneven curbing.

Matteo's racing style was "Baroque".

He wanted to be an ornate, precise driver, much like Luca.

Where some drivers wrestled the car, Matteo was training himself to guide it delicately while also being fast. Though Red Bulls aren't really the best build for that racing structure, he was determined.

Commendably for his level, Matteo was good at late apex, squaring off the tight 90-degree turns of the Baku mid-section to ensure the car could deploy its legendary traction as early as possible. Upon exit, the A-level Tempesta powers him through, making him a rookie with THE package indeed.

Back to his goal to maintain a consistent pace before looking to rise... Matteo had so far fleshed out two laps +2.014 extra seconds from the race leader, Rennick. That was impressive for P15, but it also spoke volumes about how tight the pack was.

Lap three mirrored the first two—entry, apex, exit—through Turns 1 to 16, each nuance repeated, but with micro-adjustments made, tires monitored, and ERS pulses timed for traction optimization. This time, he explored slight variations: braking a centimeter later at this turn, braking much earlier at that turn, a faster lift at Sector 2, and a later power feed at Turn 12 because the next corner after it was high-speed.

Where did that get him?

P15— Matteo Bianchi (+1.895)

~~~~~~

On the other hand...

Victor.

Just like Matteo, he wasn't chasing anyone. The grid ahead was too complex to thread through. These laps were about rhythm and control for him as well.

Victor sat upright, his neck muscles straining against the loads as the race danced on.

His racing style wasn't finesse. Victor was a tank.

He raced like Hank Rice in his rookie seasons before a famous Monaco Grand Prix humbled him.

Using aggressive steering inputs and a heavy right foot, it was as if Victor didn't have much patience for F1 machines. To think of the irony. Both he and Matteo might just be in the wrong chassis. Maybe with a Red Bull, Victor could become the next Jimmy Damgaard, and with a hyper-aerodynamic Ferrari, you could as well call him Matteo Rodnick.

But the world isn't a perfect story, so these two young drivers had to adapt to what had been given to them. And Victor was doing pretty fine.

Many Ferrari models are prototypes of top acceleration out of corners, better steering, and smoother control. The JYX-81 didn't fail to inherit all these traits and more.

However, this came at a cost: the car was heavy in the entry of slow-speed 90-degree turns. Victor had to be physical with it, throwing the weight of the car into the apex and using the sheer torque of the power unit to rotate the rear end just to hit a good exit. 𝘧𝘳𝘦ℯ𝓌𝘦𝒷𝘯𝑜𝑣𝘦𝓁.𝒸𝘰𝓂

**Check ERS on Sector 2, T6, T7. You're clipping early**

"I'm holding it for the straight," said Victor. "Don't talk to me in the Castle. Too tight."

He wasn't being rude; he was being efficient. In the narrowest sections of the track, where the walls of the track were closer to his helmet than the 81's wings, focus was non-negotiable.

After another cycle, the crowd cheering, Victor exhaled at the crest of T16's right hander that spun the entire city, the sun setting behind his machine.

**Awesome pace, Vic. The car's light and faster. Keep the tire's burning**

Down the home straight, the JYX-81's speed was put to use.

Victor couldn't believe it.

How come his car wasn't the fastest?

How in the world could there be anything faster than this?

What are Luigi, Jimmy Damgaard, and Ailbeart Moireach racing with??