Chapter 5

Twenty-One Years Ago

"I think you designed a real winner this year." Taiyang said. He looked over his car.

"I may have outdone myself." Qrow said with a grin. "It'd be great if you and your teammate could keep the two cars apart. Straightening out the metal is a lot of work."

"Yeah, hopefully the new guy will be more...agreeable." Taiyang sighed. "Hopefully he won't punch as hard at least." He rubbed his jaw. "Know anything about him?"

"Nope." Qrow replied. "Some sports car driver. Good thing we had this test scheduled. It would be rough for a newbie to take a car out for the first time at a race weekend."

"Who are you calling a newbie?" Summer asked with a smile.

Beside her was Ozpin, holding Taiyang's sleeping baby daughter Yang in his arms. "Allow me to introduce you all." Ozpin said. "Summer, meet your teammate Taiyang Xiao-Long and our chief mechanic Qrow Branwen. Taiyang and Qrow, meet Summer Rose, our new driver."

"It's nice to meet you both." Summer said cheerfully. "I look forward to working with you."

"If this guy pisses you off, don't hit him." Qrow said. "He looks tough but he's got a glass jaw."

"I don't think that's going to be a problem." Summer said. "The cars look quite good Qrow."

"Thanks, I'm pretty happy with them myself." Qrow laughed. "I promise they're even faster than they look."

Summer turned to Taiyang. "Your daughter's very cute." She said.

"You're pretty cure yourself." Taiyang said with a wink.

Qrow sighed heavily. "You never stop, do you?" He asked.

"I'm flattered, but I don't think your wife would like to hear you tell me that." Summer said, blushing subtly.

"Good news, I'm single." Taiyang said. "Her mom wanted me to quit racing. I said no. She filed for divorce the next day. Then she took off. Haven't talked to her since. Yang was...four days old."

"That's awful." Summer said.

"Yeah, I don't know what my sister was thinking." Qrow said. "If she seriously thought Taiyang was going to quit just because he had a kid, she was deluding herself."

"Your sister...you were...what did I get myself into?" Summer stammered.

"Don't worry about it." Qrow said. "I know my sister was wrong. I'm not going to hold it against Taiyang. We've been friends for years. Besides, you should have seen him after the breakup. He probably didn't stop crying for a week. He cried more than the baby."

"Aww." Summer said. She found it very cute.

"You didn't have to tell her that." Taiyang groaned. "I have a reputation to uphold."

"I'm sorry, which reputation?" Qrow asked with a devious smile. "The macho man or the notorious womanizer? From the way you take a punch and as often as you get shot down, I wouldn't call them reputations so much as lies."

"I think I'm going to like it here." Summer laughed.

"I'm going to like having you here." Taiyang said. It was like he had flipped the switch back to casanova.

"Well, it appears you're getting along." Ozpin said. "I'll take Yang somewhere quiet and you can get down to business."

"She's a Xiao-Long, a little noise isn't going to bother her." Taiyang laughed. "She had a blast when we were practicing at South Vacuo. Stick around, watch for a while."

"I'll grab some earplugs for her." Qrow said. "Can risk damaging my niece's hearing."

"Well alright." Ozpin agreed. "I suppose it would be good for her to get used to it. One day she'll grow up to be a racer just like her father."

Taiyang smiled, positively beaming. "Damn right."

Present Day

Two weeks after the Orange Beach 500 Ruby and Yang flew to southeastern Mistral for their test at the Sanctum Circuit. It was the end of February but the track's location on an arid plain meant the weather was ideal. It was a popular testing spot and the owners of the circuit liked to make it something of an event, opening the track up for a week and encouraging the teams to come by not charging them to use it. Most of the teams had private tests at various tracks, but almost everyone showed up for the big test at Sanctum so they could get some idea of how they stacked up against the competition.

News in the racing world was still focused on the 500 and Brawnz's crash. Several fans had been injured by debris, a few seriously. All would recover, but it had become clear to the people in charge of the National Stock Car Series that something had to be done. Racing at Orange Beach and Tall Oaks at speeds in excess of 210 mph was just too dangerous. Before the next race at one of the tracks, something would be done to slow the cars down. No one was quite sure what that would be, but the era of unchecked speed was over.

The big F1 test would steal some of the spotlight from the incident, but not as much as it might have. The defending champions, Schnee Automotive, had decided not to show up. They would focus on private tests instead, keeping the design of their car secret as long as possible. The other teams using their engines, Ironwood Racing Technology, Coffee Inc. and Fall Enterprises were also absent. Schnee Automotive was unwilling to allow even its engines to be seen at public testing, and in a compromise with their client teams agreed to admit them to their own private tests.

Ruby got her first look at her car. For now the cars lacked sponsor logos, painted silver with just the numbers 7 and 8 along with the drivers' names and national flags. The nose narrowed to a flattened and stubby point with two large wings on either side just ahead of the front wheels. Just behind the driver the bodywork rose up to cover the engine with the roll-hoop sticking up a few inches above that. The square-ish sidepods, each with a big air intake in front and an outlet vent on the side, started just behind the driver, ran back straight back and curved in just before the rear tires to taper to a point with the rest of the bodywork. Behind that was a large, multi-element rear wing bolted to the transmission and held aloft by big, flat, rectangular endplates. Ruby's car was number 8. Pyrrha had the honor of the odd number, 7. Ruby was not offended or disappointed. Ozpin had made it clear that both would be treated equally regardless, and Pyrrha was the more accomplished driver.

Yang's car was also mostly blank, save for the numbers 5 and 6, names and flags. It was painted yellow with black stripes and wings. It's shape was very similar to Ruby's, but rather than being held up by the endplates the rear wing was attached to a single mid-mounted support. As such the endplates, much more triangular in shape, were free-floating. The nose was also a bit more rounded. The car was not too different from the previous year's design. The new aspect of Yang's experience would be her teammate. Her teammate from the year before had washed out of F1 and was replaced by a driver from another F1 team. Blake Belladonna had driven for WFR the previous year and had been just as fast as her more experienced teammate Adam Taurus. At the end of the season she had abruptly left the team, only to be picked up by Goodwitch Grand Prix Engineering a few weeks later. They had both been rookies the year before but Yang had not had much interaction with her.

Beacon GP and Goodwitch GPE would be running Nevermore engines for the first time. They had powered Coffee Inc.'s cars the year before with some success and were known to be second only to Schnee Automotive's in terms of power. Beacon GP and Goodwitch GPE had used Merlot engines the year before with no success. They were weak and not particularly reliable either. They were cheap and plentiful though, and most teams still used them. With the engine upgrade, Beacon GP and Goodwitch GPE were hoping to return to form.

A third team was running Nevermore Engines. Team Juniper, also powered by Merlot engines the year before, was coming off a terrible season. Both their drivers had quit after a year spent in cars that were rarely good enough to place in the top half. Though the team owner had poured money into the new year's effort, hiring engineers and securing Nevermore engines, the team had had great difficulty in finding drivers willing to take the risk. In the end they were forced to settle on a pair of drivers from a touring car series in Vale. Nora Valkyrie and Lie Ren had almost no open-wheel experience, but the teammates had won their touring car series' championship. Even more remarkable, they had started the team themselves for that season, only to show up and defeat the established and better-funded competition. Driving blue cars with the numbers 20 and 21, they hoped to turn Team Juniper around. Their car was fairly similar to Beacon GP's entry, but with significantly smaller sidepods and a more rounded nose like Goodwitch GPE.

Two teams were not running Merlot, Nevermore or Schnee engines. The first was Bronze Car Company who brought their own design. Their unsurprisingly bronze colored cars were numbered 14 and 15 and driven by rookie May Zedong and veteran Nolan Porfirio. Auburn Racing Team used Bronze engines too. Their brown and gold cars were numbered 9 and 10 and driven by veterans Arslan Atlan - a former champion - and Reese Chloris. Reese's claim to fame was that she was the only driver who could match Yang as a partier.

The top Merlot-powered team was expected to be Team Haven. Its yellow cars numbered 11 and 12 were piloted by veterans Sun Wukong and Neptune Vasilias. Also using Merlot engines was Indigo Motorsports. Its purple cars numbered 16 and 17 were driven by veteran Dew Gayl and rookie Gwen Darcy. Cardinal Motors was another Merlot team. Their red cars numbered 24 and 25 were driven by veterans Cardin Winchester and Russel Thrush. The final Merlot engined team was WFR. The black, white and red cars numbered 26 and 27 were piloted by veteran Adam Taurus and rooked Francois Banesaw.

That just left the absent teams powered Schnee Automotive engines. Chief among them was Schnee Automotive. Its white cars numbered 1 and 2 were driven by two-time defending champion Winter Schnee and rookie Weiss Schnee, Winter's sister. Both were the daughters of the team owner, but they were not just there because of nepotism. They were incredibly talented drivers and would be hard to beat when driving in top equipment. Coffee Inc. was starting its first season with Schnee engines. The brown cars numbered 3 and 4 were driven by veterans Coco Adel - a former champion - and Velvet Scarletina. Fall Enterprises was also entering its first season with Schnee engines. Their green cars numbered 22 and 23 were driven by veterans Mercury Black and Emerald Sustrai. The final team was Ironwood Racing Technology. It had white cars similar to Schnee Automotive's, and the two teams had a close, long-term technical partnership. Its number 18 would be driven by veteran Ciel Soleil - a solid but unspectacular driver - and is number 19 by unknown rookie Penny Polendina. Previously a test driver at the Schnee Automotive factory who specialized in putting sports cars through their paces, Penny had never driven a race before, though she had run some preliminary tests in Schnee Automotive race cars at the team's private test track.

When Ruby arrived at the Beacon GP garage Pyrrha was already there. She was chatting with one of the engineers as the rest put the finishing touches on the cars. When Ruby arrived Pyrrha broke off from the conversation. "Hello again!" Pyrrha said cheerfully.

"Hey Pyrrha." Ruby said. "How's it going?"

"Pretty good." Pyrrha replied. "I hear you had a fun time in Orange Beach after I left."

"Fun might not be the word but it was an experience." Ruby shrugged. "I'm just glad I didn't embarrass myself. I think I'm making that my goal for this year."

"You'll do fine." Pyrrha said. "You won your qualifying race and finished second! You should be more confident in yourself."

"I probably should." Ruby said. "I just hope I can keep it up."

"I'm sure you will." Pyrrha encouraged. "The car looks very promising. I was talking to the technical director about the wind tunnel numbers. The downforce should be astonishing. And the engine should be able to make 1250 horsepower in qualifying trim and 900 in the race."

"That sounds difficult to control." Ruby said.

"It is." Pyrrha admitted. "But the way the electronics are set up, it doesn't all kick in at once. It's a fascinating system really."

Ruby was tremendously impressed by Pyrrha's technical knowledge. Ruby knew her stuff but she was more of a nuts and bolts mechanic. Electronics were beyond her and aerodynamics were not her strong suit either. "You're really smart." Ruby said.

"I don't know about that." Pyrrha said. "I just can't help but learn everything I can about the cars I drive. If you asked me to do math or something I probably wouldn't be that good."

"What's 343 times 77?" Ruby challenged.

"26,411." Pyrrha said with almost no hesitation.

"Yep!" One of the mechanics shouted to confirm the answer after tapping away at a calculator.

"I rest my case." Ruby said. "You really don't need to be modest. We're competitors. Aren't you supposed to try to intimidate me?"

"Like I said back in Vacuo, I just want my friends to succeed." Pyrrha said. "Besides, receiving special treatment can be...trying. I don't want to be treated like Pyrrha the genius or Pyrrha the ace driver. I just want to be Pyrrha."

"I'm not going to treat you any differently." Ruby assured her. "And most people are going to see you as something special no matter how you act. You're an F1 driver."

"You make a good point." Pyrrha sighed. Her mood darkened. "I guess there's no getting around it."

"Ms. Nikos, your car is ready." One of the engineers interrupted.

"Oh, okay." Pyrrha said. She took a deep breath and suddenly looked as cheerful as ever. "Let's see what it can do."

"Good luck!" Ruby said.

Pyrrha slipped on her balaclava and helmet then stepped into the car. One of the engineers helped her belt up while the others let the car down off the jackstands. Pyrrha put the steering wheel on the end of the steering column and the engine was fired. Another mechanic stepped out of the garage and onto pit lane. He looked right to check for traffic, and seeing none, waved Pyrrha out. Pyrrha slipped the car into gear and idled out of the garage before accelerating away.

"Your car should be ready any minute." The technical director informed Ruby. "There were a few delays in getting the electronics ready but it should be sorted shortly."

"Okay, thanks." Ruby said. "I'm going to watch from the pit wall until then." After checking for traffic Ruby walked across pit lane and up to the pit wall. She leaned against the fence and waited for Pyrrha to return. It was a short wait, and her car soon screamed past with the high-pitched whine of a high-revving turbo engine. Her lap time was a little longer than a minute. As the laps ticked past Pyrrha only got faster.

Ruby was summoned to her now ready car. She went through the same process as Pyrrha and was soon waved out onto the track. By now there were a few cars running. Ruby accelerated out of the pits and the power slammed her back into her seat. She braked for the first turn, way too hard, and was slammed forward against her belts. She recovered her composure and rolled through the right-hand hairpin of turn 1. She hit the throttle on exit, way too hard, and immediately spun the car. She did a complete 360 before coming to a halt. She had the presence of mind to pop the clutch and so avoided the indignity of stalling and was able to drive away, much more gently this time.

Ruby took it easy for a few laps. She got on the brakes extra-lightly and early, then eased into the throttle on corner exit, short-shifting just to be safe. Her initial confidence had been shattered, and it took a few slow laps to get it back. Then Ruby got on it. As much as anything she was tired of seeing other cars fly past her. Her slow laps had given her a feel for the car. She began to push the limits, and though she had a few minor offs, she was able to keep the car under control and put in some decent times.

The pit board called Ruby back into the garage. She complied, pulling into the pits on the following lap and stopping in front of the team's garage. The mechanics jacked up the car and slipped a pair of dollies under it to roll it into the garage. Ruby took off her helmet and balaclava and got out. Pyrrha was already out of her car, leaning against the garage wall while sipping an energy drink. She looked fresh, like she had not exerted herself at all. Ruby was exhausted both physically and mentally. She joined Pyrrha and one of the mechanics brought over a sheet with their lap times, along with a few selected times from the competition. Pyrrha was faster than anyone else. Ruby was fifth, almost a second adrift. It was disheartening but not at all surprising. Further runs saw some changes in the order, but Ruby only got as high as fourth before falling back to sixth, still significantly slower than her teammate.

"Alright, let's try qualifying trim." The technical director suggested. The day was nearing its end and every team wanted to put in a time to impress the watching sponsors. Without saying anything else he walked away to direct the mechanics in preparing the cars.

Ruby sighed heavily. "I feel like I'm out of my depth." Ruby admitted. "I'm so slow and it's so hard."

"You're a rookie." Pyrrha encouraged. "You'll get used to it."

"You're a rookie too." Ruby countered.

"Technically, but I've done a lot more racing than you." Pyrrha said. "I've driven powerful cars before. You really haven't. It'll come. I'm sure it will."

"Well...any tips?" Ruby asked. She had no real concept of how to drive a car in qualifying trim. It would have the engine turned all the way up and be fitted with extra-grippy tires. Ruby had nothing to compare it to in any of her previous driving.

"Take it easy on the out lap." Pyrrha said. "The tires won't last long and you don't want to waste them before your fast lap. The engine has more power but you have more grip too, so you can really give it everything. When your fast lap is over, slow up and take it easy. The tires will be shot and the engine will be on the edge of endurance at that level of power. You don't want to break it on your way back."

"Ms. Nikos." One of the mechanics called.

"Good luck!" Pyrrha said before getting into her car.

"Ms. Rose." Another mechanic called.

The pair got into the cars and were waved out onto the track one after the other. Ruby dropped back and allowed Pyrrha to pull away a bit so she would have clean track. Ruby went extra slowly into the penultimate corner and lined up for a fast exit. She flew off the corner and was shocked both by the power and the tires' ability to transmit it to the road. She sliced through the final flat-out right and flashed across the line to start her lap. The car was so fast! Things were happening so quickly Ruby hardly had time to think about it. She wound through the corners, operating on instinct. She was in the zone. It was as if the car was driving itself. Before she knew it she had cut through the final corner and crossed the line to complete the lap.

Ruby slowed after crossing the line and only then realized she had been holding her breath. She turned the dial to reduce the engine's boost pressure as instructed and caught up on her breathing as she slowly rounded the track. The lap had certainly felt fast. She could see that Pyrrha had gone faster, but Ruby hoped it would be close. As far as she was concerned, she did not have anything else to give.

Pyrrha and Ruby arrived back at the garage together. Their cars were rolled inside and they climbed out to compare times. Pyrrha was faster again, but it was a little closer. Ruby had jumped to the second spot overall. She would fall to fourth when other teams did their qualifying trim runs. Ruby was encouraged that she was getting faster but still disappointed. It seemed increasingly clear that Pyrrha was simply a better driver and one Ruby had no hope of beating. If she could not at least keep up, and that was a stretch too, her stint in F1 would be a short one.

Testing was over for the day so Ruby went and changed into street clothes. When she returned to the garage Pyrrha was having a rather heated discussion with one of the mechanics. "Why did you do that?!" Pyrrha shouted. Ruby could not hear the reply. "That's not fair to her! She can take it!" The mechanic said something else but Ruby was afraid to get close enough to hear, lest she get drawn into the argument. "No, that ends now. Unless she says something different of course." The mechanic nodded and walked away.

"Wha...what was that about?" Ruby asked, still a bit afraid to incur Pyrrha's wrath.

"Oh, nothing too important." Pyrrha said. "He was just being a little stubborn."

"Stubborn about what?" Ruby asked.

"Your car." Pyrrha replied.

"Why were you talking about my car?" Ruby asked.

"I wanted to know why you weren't as fast as me." Pyrrha explained. "It turns out they gave you a different setup. It's more stable but slower. They didn't think you were ready for my setup. I said you should be the judge of that. It's only fair that you get identical equipment if you want it."

"So that's why I wasn't as fast." Ruby said. She was relieved.

"That was part of it." Pyrrha said. "You need to work on a few of the corners too. With a little practice and the right setup you can be just as fast as I am. Tomorrow you'll get to show what you've really got."

Pyrrha topped the timesheets at the end of every day of testing except one. That day she had been sidelined with mechanical issues and Yang had taken to top spot. Ruby was consistently in the top 5 and closer to Pyrrha than she had been. The setup Pyrrha preferred was a real handful and Ruby needed the edge taken off a bit to make her comfortable, and that surely held her back a little. In all it was an encouraging test. Even with almost no experience Ruby had been pretty quick and had managed to keep the car out of the armco. Things were looking good for Beacon GP overall as well. But testing was testing. No one would know for sure just how fast anyone would be until the first race. Worryingly, no one knew just how quick the Schnee-powered cars could be.

Inspirations

- Teammate rivalries have been endemic in F1. They're usually fairly one-sided though. Alain Prost hated Ayrton Senna, but Senna respected Prost as his toughest competition. Fernando Alonso couldn't handle being beaten by rookie Lewis Hamilton. Friendly rivalries existed too. Juan Manuel Fangio and Sterling Moss were great friends.

- Sanctum Circuit is based on Jarama in Spain.

- Beacon GP's car is based on the McLaren MP4/3.

- Goodwitch GPE's car is based on the Lotus 99T.

- Team Juniper's car is based on the Arrows A10.

- Nevermore still stands in for Porsche, in this case their TAG branded engines.

- The Merlot engine represents the aging and obsolete Cosworth DFZ, a naturally aspirated engine in an era when turbo power dominated.

Inaccuracies and Anachronisms

- I've never known F1 teammates to come to blows.

- Jarama was not a big test location in the late 1980's.

- The team-by-team engine allocation is inaccurate.

- Penny's lack of racing experience is beyond anything seen in F1, though some drivers have raced with shockingly little prior experience.

- In 1987 engine power was limited indirectly by various regulations. The power figures in this story would be more typical of 1985-86.