Hot water poured from the showerhead in the pit building, washing away Alex Sun's fatigue and sweat.
He tilted his head back, letting the heat run through his hair, already summoning that familiar, cold mechanical voice in his mind.
"System, check current side quest."
[Side Quest: Bahrain Race Breakthrough (appears in Chapter 4)]
[Requirements:]
[1. Free Practice 1 (FP1): First flying lap ≤ 1:43.9, no errors; unlock exclusive setup (Completed: 1:43.872 on first lap, zero errors)]
[2. Qualifying: Advance to Q2, finish ≥ P15 (Completed: P11)]
[3. Two Sprint Races: Finish ≥ P10 in both (Completed: Sprint 1 – P8; Sprint 2 – P4)]
[4. Feature Race: Finish ≥ P12 (Completed: P4)]
[Rewards:]
[FP1 Target Met: Bahrain-specific optimized setup concept unlocked (Claimed)]
[Free Attribute Points ×6 (2 remaining)]
[Full Completion Bonus: Track Tactics +3, Emergency Reaction +3, Track Proficiency +10%]
Alex Sun happily claimed the rewards and invested the remaining 2 free attribute points into Resource Management.
His next race would be the Monaco Grand Prix two months later. On that circuit, reaching the podium depended equally on qualifying position and tire management during the race.
(In the 2021 F2 season, Monaco followed Bahrain on the calendar. F1 held several races in between, while F2 did not.)
He opened the attribute panel. Every allocation still gave him a satisfying sense of progress.
[Driver System – Ability Panel (0–100):
Launch Control: 40
Driving Technique: 70
Resource Management: 34
Track Tactics: 53
Physical Endurance: 65
Emergency Reaction: 38
Available Ability Points: 0
Available System Reward: Track Proficiency +10%]
A warm current flowed through his limbs. His stiff joints loosened instantly, and his sense of braking timing grew sharper.
Alex Sun turned off the water and dried himself. The system rewards left him feeling more confident about the next round.
After changing into his team uniform, he ran into Guanyu Zhou on the way to the meeting room.
Seeing that Guanyu Zhou hadn't noticed him, Alex Sun quietly circled around behind him, lined up his angle, and slapped him hard on the backside.
"Damn, A-Guanyu, P1 finish—beautiful driving."
Guanyu Zhou winced at the sting just as Alex Sun hooked an arm around his shoulders. He shot back irritably, "You're not bad yourself. Channeling Leclerc or what? Two P4s already, right?"
They chatted briefly, but with post-race meetings waiting for both of them, they hurried off in different directions, agreeing to catch up later.
Checking the time, Alex Sun realized he was nearly late and quickened his pace toward the team meeting room.
Luckily, it wasn't far. When he entered, Team Principal René Rosin, his race engineer Mark, along with teammate Piastri and Piastri's engineer, were already waiting.
After Alex Sun explained the delay, René Rosin waved him to his seat, and the meeting began.
René Rosin first addressed Piastri, who had retired due to an on-track incident. "It wasn't your fault. Reset your mindset—there's still a chance at Monaco." Piastri pressed his lips together and nodded.
Then René Rosin turned to Alex Sun, his tone clearly approving.
"From P11 to P4, twelve points in the bag. That puts you on 23 points total, currently second overall—two points ahead of Piastri, and eighteen behind Guanyu Zhou.
"Monaco is critical. It's the key round for closing the gap. Both of you need to give everything."
Alex Sun credited the result to the team, while Mark added that a mistake in qualifying had kept him out of Q3.
At the end of the meeting, René Rosin told Mark to finalize the Monaco plan as soon as possible and emphasized that Alex Sun should focus on low-speed corner lines and tire management.
As everyone was leaving, Alex Sun stopped René Rosin.
"Boss, could you help me apply for a Ferrari team VIP viewing pass? You know—no one turns down a red prancing horse. And I'd like to study their Bahrain race strategy from F1."
René Rosin agreed without hesitation. "No problem. I'll coordinate it right away."
When he received the VIP pass, a flicker of excitement passed through Alex Sun. Before his transmigration, he had been a devoted F1 fan. He had never imagined watching the pinnacle of motorsport up close.
Now, standing here as an F2 driver, that excitement was mixed with a far more practical motivation—learning from the very best.
Once the race began, he entered the VIP viewing area. Seeing an F1 car up close made the gap between F1 and F2 immediately, brutally clear.
The deep, restrained growl of the 1.6T hybrid engine at idle, the carbon-fiber monocoque sculpted into an extreme aerodynamic form, the tighter wheelbase, the wider rear wing—all of it stood in stark contrast to the standardized F2 machinery.
One was a bespoke precision weapon built to chase absolute speed. The other was a spec platform designed for fair competition. They simply didn't exist on the same performance plane.
Watching the F1 cars explode past 350 km/h on the straights and cling to the asphalt through corners, Alex Sun's desire to reach F1 burned even hotter.
He forced himself to calm down. Once the race settled in, he pulled out his notebook and focused on the Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc, along with Verstappen, Lewis Hamilton, and the other elite names.
He quickly noted Hamilton's precise racing lines, Verstappen's attack-and-defense adjustments, and paid special attention to the handling details through corners like T13, occasionally circling points he didn't fully understand.
These millisecond-level control nuances filled his pages at speed. His understanding of track rhythm deepened far beyond what he had expected.
After the Bahrain Grand Prix concluded, Alex Sun returned straight to his room. He organized his notes into structured analysis points, then washed up and rested, saving his energy for the trip back the next day.
Early the following morning, Alex Sun traveled back to the Prema base with the team. Upon arrival, he headed straight to his private room.
Once the door closed, he finally relaxed.
He had transmigrated into the body of himself from a parallel world. In this timeline, "Alex Sun" had chosen the racing path early and joined the Prema F2 team on raw talent alone. Since arriving, he had blended seamlessly into the role, fitting into the team without the slightest sense of dissonance.
He took out his ID card and, seeing the age listed as eighteen, murmured softly, "The perfect age to chase a racing dream."
Opening his mobile banking app, he was mildly surprised to see a balance of nearly one million.
After sorting through his situation, Alex Sun video-called his parents to report in.
"Mom, Dad, I'm back from Bahrain. Everything's fine. I finished fourth this race—picked up some points."
On the screen, his parents looked calm. His mother reminded him gently, "As long as you're safe. Don't push too hard in training." His father nodded. "Race well. We support you."
Alex Sun agreed, exchanged a few more words, and ended the call. That quiet, understated support—identical to what he remembered from his previous life—settled into him like a steady anchor, strengthening his resolve.
Only then did he truly understand: he wasn't a stranger borrowing this body. He was Alex Sun in two different worlds, making the same firm choice on the same path toward a racing dream.
With everything clear, Alex Sun immediately threw himself into preparations for the Monaco Grand Prix.
The days that followed were orderly and monotonous. Mornings were spent on specialized physical training—neck G-force resistance, core strength—tailored to the brutal demands of street circuits. From afternoon until late at night, he lived in the simulator room, refining every detail of the Monaco circuit.
The Monaco track was narrow and twisting, packed with low-speed corners and almost no margin for error. Every racing line demanded absolute precision.
Alex Sun patiently ran lap after lap, optimizing each segment in sequence—from the launch, to corner entry and exit, to straight-line rhythm.
As training progressed, the "Monaco Track Proficiency" on his system panel climbed steadily, eventually reaching elite-level 100%.
But when he began pushing toward front-row qualifying pace, the bottleneck arrived right on schedule.
For three straight days, no matter how he adjusted his lines or refined his rhythm, he couldn't break through. Key corners like T4 and T14 refused to yield an optimal solution. His progress stalled completely.
"Stuck again…"
Alex Sun yanked off his helmet. Sweat dripped from his temples onto the control console as frustration scorched his chest.
Track proficiency was maxed out. Every system bonus had been fully exploited. Yet he still couldn't cross that invisible barrier.
He knew it clearly—at this level, squeezing into the top five would already be a stretch. The podium was simply out of reach.
Just as his frustration peaked, teetering on the edge of self-doubt, the cold mechanical voice of the system echoed once more in his mind:
[Side Quest Triggered: Top Driver Track Logic Research]
...
(20 Chapters Ahead)
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