My Formula 1 System-Chapter 413: A Circuit Is Not A Grave
Because of this unforeseen dissonance, Luca was set to miss the Austrian GP... by voluntary decision. A part of this decision was made out of anger and unhappiness that Ferrari still refused to let him pull out of their grip of suspicion. He saw it as pure disrespect and a direct insult to his name if he dared to enter his 97 and race for Jackson at the RBR Circuit in Spielberg while he was still accused of data breach.
Moreover, Luca also wanted to extinguish his emotions before piloting a single-seater. Competing with such aggravation and indignation could easily lead to an unsafe race for himself, so he chose to avoid it altogether. Furthermore, he didn't even attend any drills or team preparations leading up to the 13th race of the season, leaving him completely out of sync with whatever strategy or technical setup had been drafted for the race.
How unfortunate though. Luca Rennick would not race at the RBR Circuit—the Austrian GP—the very same race where his father, Aldo Rennick, had once mushroomed into a ball of flame down the home straight. It could have been a perfect atmosphere for reporters to bombard him with endless questions about his emotions and expectations for the weekend. But Rennick had made it clear that he wouldn't even be present at the circuit, his actions incontrovertibly a symbol that he disfavored what was currently galvanizing within both Ferrari and Jackson Racing.
And throughout all this, Luca never even put much thought into the fact that Austria was technically his father's deathground. It was just a circuit after all, almost like getting livid over a chair where a family member had gotten hit with a stroke.
Jackson Racing, on the other hand, were NOT happy with Luca's decision to withdraw from the Austrian competition. They went on to issue a Team Order, demanding that Luca race in Austria, clearly indicating that if he officially turned down this order, he would be breaching his contract.
But Luca was smart. In his refusal, he firmly indicated that he had a valid cause, and it was a Legal Issue, which he had with the team itself. And so, Jackson were left powerless, unable to push any further, but still decided to showcase dominance by casually replacing him with Di Renzo, who thanked the heavens for answered prayers.
Reflecting on all of this, it wasn't hard to see the friction building between driver and team, all because of a problem that originally arose from a third party. Everything managed to remain cool between Luca and the team crew; the tension wasn't with them. It was the management, and Ferrari as a whole, that he had an issue with as they continued to delve deeper, trying to determine once and for all if Luca was truly working to make Trampos great in Formula 1.
The complete theory was that, since Trampos had a simple 2-year customer contract with Ferrari, this whole thing was the perfect setup for them and Luca. The idea was that Trampos would eventually leave Ferrari armed with confidential data on their ongoing projects and critical aspects of Ferrari engineering, and then go on to collaborate with a rival—possibly Mercedes. From there, Mercedes would view this as a priceless token and would, in return, provide Trampos with all the resources and technical support they needed to dominate the championship.
It was a crazy imagination, but these businessmen were known for wild thoughts. Mercedes even had to chime in, stating firmly that they had nothing to do with this and would prefer if they were left out of what was clearly an internal strife.
The funny thing was that the breach was entirely Ferrari's own technical problem. But before they uncovered the root of it—and while they were still trying to sort things out—they began fishing for other possibilities, just to make Jackson Racing believe they were actively making progress in figuring out how data funded by them and meant exclusively for them ended up in the hands of Trampos instead.
And this was when Luca couldn't believe any of his five senses. Calmly seated in a suit for what felt like the fifteenth time now, with Isabella by his side, a man began to reveal photos of him engaging and communicating with Trampos crew and management—Mr. Grant, Ms. Vallotton, Mr. Lemaître, Ansel.
His lunch with Mr. Lemaître in Belgium had somehow been captured on camera. His lunch with Ms. Vallotton in London was as clear as day, right there in Covington Green. His conversation with Mr. Grant before the British Grand Prix. Luca was completely flushed when even photos of him golfing with Ansel were shown.
Luca stared at the photos with a dreadful frown tightening across his face, reliving all those memories at once. Isabella gently held onto his right shoulder, almost as if she suspected he might throw a punch at the man who had just shown him all this. But Luca was only pondering. He couldn't believe that this was what they wanted to use to back up their theory of him scouting and directing Isabella to breach Ferrari's confidential data for Trampos.
Luca looked up at the man, who stood there confidently, like he had caught Luca red-handed. Luca could barely hold back the urge to ask him: "Are you guys this foolish?"
Marcellus Rodnick, 2x F1 World Champion, but with an injured wrist, had missed two vital races. Rodnick was cleared for competition, but that wrist was still bad, meaning Rodnick was actually permanently impaired for Formula 1 racing.
But it's alright now, because Rodnick had begun to secretly use corticosteroids—performance-enhancing drugs that help reduce inflammation and pain—making his injured wrist practically nonexistent.
Since that problem was taken care of, he had moved on to the next, which was Luca. And telling Ferrari that Miss Schafer was Luca's girlfriend was all he needed to shake the tables really hard and let controversy unravel itself.
He was the happiest soul when Luca announced his withdrawal from the Austrian Grand Prix, meaning zero points for Luca in the 13th round and a sure drop from the top of the standings.
During qualifiers, Rodnick arrived at RBR with a fresh dosage moving through his bloodstream, life never feeling better. He saw Di Renzo gearing up in his racing suit, and he ran over to him, playfully grabbing and shaking his clavicle.
