Chapter 6

One Year Ago

Yang was about to make her F1 debut. It was always going to be a challenge, but it was going to be so much harder because of the location. Yang had never been to Menagerie before. Even when her parents were racing they had never brought her along. It was probably its reputation as a party destination that convinced them to leave her at home, or perhaps it was the occasional political unrest. Whatever the reason, in some ways she was glad. If they had brought her she would have had to witness Summer's death. Even though the track was different, just visiting the island was painful.

Summer may not have been Yang's natural mother but Summer always treated Yang like her natural daughter. Yang had never met her birth mother so Summer had been the only mother she had ever known. Along with Ruby and Taiyang, they formed a happy family. Then came that terrible day all those years ago. Ruby had been a bit on the young side, only barely able to comprehend the magnitude of what had happened. Even so it had crushed her, and for a long time, maybe even years, Ruby had been submerged in a deep despair. Yang handled it a bit better, but only by taking the unhealthy step of bottling up her emotions. She never talked about it with anyone, not even family.

The media tore that wound wide open in Yang's first interview after arriving at the track. She made it very clear that she did not want to discuss it, that she would rather focus on the present, focus on her own racing, but they were relentless. Eventually she abruptly left as Goodwitch GPE's PR manager kept the media placated. Yang locked herself in a bathroom and cried for a while. She needed to get it out somehow. Then she washed her face, returned to the media center, and gave a very angry and one-sided speech to the assembled press. It ended with some shouting as Yang lost her cool, but she got her point across. There were no more questions.

Yang was glad Ruby had not been there. Some jerk would surely have sought her out and asked the same questions, and she would not have been able to handle it as well. Ruby dreamed of being an F1 driver and Yang was sure one day she would succeed, but then she would have to face those same painful questions. Yang was determined to make sure that Ruby never had to go through that. Just racing in Menagerie would be tough enough for her. Yang's outburst was designed in part to prevent that. If she could make the media fear her, they would not mess with Ruby. At least that was the hope.

Present Day

Ruby was about to make her F1 debut. It was always going to be a challenge, but it was going to be so much harder because of the location. Ruby had never been to Menagerie before. Even when her parents were racing they had never brought her along. It was probably its reputation as a party destination that convinced them to leave her at home, or perhaps it was the occasional political unrest. Whatever the reason, in some ways she was glad. If they had brought her she would have had to witness Summer's death. Even though the track was different, just visiting the island was painful.

Ruby had never really recovered from her mother's death. She would still occasionally think about it and start crying. Her wandering mind could leave her depressed for hours, even days. When Ruby was little, all she ever wanted was to be a race car driver like her mother. She had hoped they might race against one another. Now the best Ruby could do was honor Summer's memory. Just being in Menagerie brought her emotions to the fore, and she had a great deal of difficulty keeping them under control so she could do her job.

Ruby had hoped to race against her father too, but though Taiyang still lived he would not even be watching. He too had never recovered from Summer's death. He could not imagine experiencing that kind of loss again and so had forbidden his daughters from racing. Of course they did anyway. Yang was first and when Taiyang found out he kicked her out of the house. She was only 15 at the time, and it had only been a kart race. Qrow took her in and as a result Taiyang had not spoken to his long-time friend since. Two years later Ruby moved out and went to live with Yang - who now had her own apartment - knowing she would be kicked out anyway once she started her own racing career. Ruby and Yang had tried to reconcile with their father, but he told them he did not even want to speak to them unless they stopped driving. That was never going to be an option.

Ruby had expected the media to add to her woes. They had never been considerate before. They liked to ask about Summer and Ruby's rift with her father, even if she never gave them satisfying answers. And that was just the local press on Patch. She had managed to avoid most of the issues while racing in Vacuo because the media there did not know much about her or her family as F1 was not that big a deal there. Now she expected to face their full fury as Yang had a year ago. To her surprise, they treated her with a great deal of respect. Their nervous glances at Yang - who always lurked in the back of the room while Ruby was interviewed - told Ruby why. Aside from her outburst the year before, Yang had punched a local reporter on Patch once when he pestered Ruby about Summer. The reporter walked away with a broken nose. None of the assembled press wanted to experience Yang's wrath. Ruby was grateful. She may not have agreed with Yang's methods, but there was no questioning the effectiveness.

Ruby and Yang were not the only ones to have a difficult time in Menagerie. The Schnee team came with armed guards picked from the Atlesian military that protected their garage and followed the drivers wherever they went. Schnee Automotive and its parent company Schnee Dust Company had a difficult history with Menagerie. It was an island populated almost exclusively by Faunus, and the Faunus and Schnee did not get along. Most of the company's employees were Faunus, and the working conditions were scandalous. With low pay and downright dangerous working conditions, critics compared it to slave labor. Protests followed the Schnee team just about wherever it went but in Menagerie they had a tendency to turn violent.

The drivers were not at fault. Winter and Weiss had nothing to do with how the company was run. They certainly did not agree with the way their father did things, and Weiss in particular had been rather outspoken about her opposition. Part of the contract that put her in the team's car required her to stop speaking about the topic. Otherwise Mr. Schnee would probably have preferred to have a more experienced driver in the car while Weiss got more track time with another team. In the end their personal opinions did not matter. As drivers Weiss and Winter were highly visible representatives of the organization and bound to be the targets of backlash against it.

The issue had not stopped Schnee Automotive from dominating in Menagerie though. Winter had won the previous two races, a retired driver who had run for the team the year before that, and Winter again the year before that. As a consequence of the string of unpopular results, attendance was down at the race. The locals were not interested in showing up just to boo a winner they hated. Three years previous when Winter had not won the race, she had been leading when she dropped out with an engine failure. She had never before heard such ecstatic cheering. That turned to groans and boos when a mechanical failure took out the driver who had inherited the lead and handed it to the other Schnee driver.

The team arrived early in the week along with the other teams, but Weiss and Winter stayed at home in Atlas. They only flew to the track the morning of the first practice. They intended to spend as little time in Menagerie as physically possible. Not only did they have to deal with being hated, there was always the threat of violence. They were better protected than most politicians, but it would only take one lunatic slipping through the net to do irreparable damage. They knew that all too well.

A few teams were popular in Menagerie. WFR was an all-Faunus team based in Menagerie, and though they were slow the team had many local fans. As Faunus Blake and Sun were popular even though they were not from Menagerie itself. Velvet, another Faunus, was popular but the situation was complicated by her team's use of Schnee engines. Yang, Neptune and Coco got popularity boosts from their teammates too. Menagerie was renowned as a party hub. Its warm climate and the track's proximity to the beach added to the fun. Whether they were loved by the fans or not, most drivers did enjoy visiting.

For the first race of the season, the cars had the full suite of sponsor logos. Beacon GP's car featured large Pumpkin Pete's Cereal logos on the sidepods and Milo and Akouo Financial Services logos on the engine cover to go with the Nevermore decals. Choco Chippies rounded out the sponsors with small logos here and there. The Goodwitch GPE cars had logos for Ember Celica cigarettes and Gambol Shroud clothing, and shared the Nevermore signage with Beacon GP. There were a few splashes of purple with small People Like Grapes Soda logos. Team Juniper represented Magnhild Metalworking and Storm Flower liquor to go with the Nevermore signage, along with a few logos for Dr. Piper soda.

The core Schnee teams took a different approach. Schnee Automotive had almost no sponsorship on their white cars. There was only an SDC with snowflake logo on the sidepods for the parent company Schnee Dust Company and a few Schnee Automotive decals. The Ironwood Racing Technology cars were almost identical. The client team of Coffee Inc. added logos for, you guessed it, Coffee Inc. Fall Enterprises too only advertised the team's title sponsor along with its Schnee Automotive powerplants. The rest of the field was a mix of brightly colored vulgarity.

Ruby had three practice sessions to get past her concerns and learn the track. If she did not have it figured out by qualifying she would not get it figured out. Her first few laps were quite slow. She did not like the car's handling and requested major changes. With them she was still slow but at least she was comfortable in the car. She could work from there, but not before the second practice. Yang topped the timesheets after the first practice, followed by Pyrrha, Winter, Blake, Penny, Weiss, Nora, Ruby, Coco and Emerald. Timing and scoring showed the Schnee powered cars did have incredible horsepower, but Menagerie was not a horsepower track. It only had one or two quick sections and the rest was tight and twisting. More power could even be a detriment on exit of a few of the very sharp corners.

The second practice was much like the first. The difference was that Ruby was quite a lot faster. Winter was quicker too. She had been able to make up for any deficiencies in her chassis with her elite skill. Coco made a big jump too. Winter led from Yang, Blake, Pyrrha, Coco, Ruby, Weiss, Penny, Arslan and Ren. The third and final practice session saw Winter top the charts again, followed by Pyrrha, Weiss, Ruby, Blake, Yang, Coco, Arslan, Penny - whose practice was shortened with a mechanical issue - and Emerald. Ruby was happy with her progress. If she could keep it up she would be in with a shot at the points, maybe even a podium.

Tracks get faster when rubber is laid down, and the constant running on very soft and therefore high-wear tires in qualifying meant that tracks got quite a lot faster over the course of a session. To best take advantage of this, most drivers left their main efforts for the waning moments. They would put in a few laps early, just in case a later lap became impossible or unfavorable, but generally not show everything until the very end. Ruby was an exception. She wanted track time and she put in extra laps early. A few of the other rookies joined her. Heading into the final minutes Ruby was preposterously at the top of the chart. Weiss, Penny, Yang, Pyrrha, Blake, Winter, Arslan, Coco and Nora followed.

There was enough time for one last run and Ruby was determined to make it her best. The mechanics fitted a fresh set of qualifying tires, put the thinnest oil they dared use in the engine, and turned up the boost pressure beyond what Ruby could do from the cockpit. All the teams did the same. Now was not the time to hold anything back. Ruby rounded the track slowly, speeding up a bit only in the final few corners to ensure that her tires and brakes were up to temperature. The last few corners of the circuit were taken flat-out, so Ruby lined up in the last that required her to slow, Junction, and got as good a launch as possible onto the stretch that would take her to the line to start her lap.

Ruby rocketed through the series of flat-out left-hand kinks called Stands before shooting steeply uphill and across the line to start her lap. Her car reached the limits of its speed as the engine screamed, then Ruby was hard on the brakes for the first corner, a tight left-right called the Esses. Careful to control her wheelspin she accelerated out into the flat-out sweeping left - Curve of the Sun - and out onto the backstraight. She was near top speed again when she arrived at the tight pair of left-handers called Lake. The second of the pair dropped away downhill and the rear of her car started to slide but Ruby held the it in check. She raced down through the bottom of the valley then steeply back up the other side, slowing slightly through the sweeping right-hand Horseshoe before braking hard for the tight right-hander that followed, Hairpin. Ruby wanted to accelerate out hard but the following corner, a sweeping left-hander, required patience. Ruby spotted her exit and accelerated out hard, soon braking through the following right-hand kink for the tight right - Duckbill - that immediately followed. She pushed too hard on exit and spun her rear tires briefly before correcting the error, then swept left through the sweeping downhill Dive. Then after a short uphill straight she was hard on the brakes again for Junction. She swept through the corner, clipping the kerb on the inside, and accelerated out onto the frontstretch. She slid through Stands, raced uphill again and flashed across the line to complete her lap.

Ruby was to be disappointed. She had improved her time, but a few small mistakes meant it was not fast enough. It did not help that the Schnee Automotive team had managed to squeeze 1400 horsepower out of their engine for time trials. At that level of power they would only survive for a few laps, but one lap was all that was needed. Much to the chagrin of the locals Winter put her car on pole with Weiss a close second. Penny lined up third followed by Yang, Pyrrha, Coco, Blake, Ruby, Mercury and Arslan. Though not what she had hoped for, Ruby was not discouraged. She had been quite close to Pyrrha's time and if she had not had those few slip-ups she might have even beaten her.

Ruby found that she was much more nervous than expected when it was time to race. In touring cars she had never had any issues with nerves, and in F3 her nervousness had to do with the weather conditions and the generally unpredictable quality of the competition. As usual race day in Menagerie was sunny and warm. The drivers were the best in the world. Still, Ruby felt a bit ill. She was a bit concerned about her safety. The cars were very fast. But that was not the root of it. It had more to do with the expectations. Ruby may have been a rookie but she came from a famous family and was driving for an historic team. That may have made her a sentimental favorite among some fans, but on the business side it meant nothing. She would be fast or she would be gone.

Eighth was not the starting position Ruby had envisioned, but truth be told, it was better than expected. She had hoped to take a real run at pole, but knew in her heart she should be satisfied with being in the top half. She decided to take a positive view. Starting a little bit back in the field would just give her a chance to show off her overtaking skills. While waiting on the grid the press ignored her. The local press was much more interested in the Faunus drivers, and the international press was focused on the Schnee powered cars and their incredible power. Ruby was just lost in the shuffle. It was just as well. She did not want to talk. She wanted to focus.

The cars rolled around on their parade lap before lining up on the grid for the start. The drivers focused on the lights that hung from the gantry spanning the track at the start line. The medical car parked at the back of the grid and a flag was waved at the rear to indicate that the drivers were all in position. The lights started. One red, two red, three red, four red, all five red, the drivers revved their engines. The lights went out and the cars took off to the whine of turbos and the screech of spinning tires.

Well, most of the cars took off. To Weiss' shock her car moved not an inch. The engine revved all the way to the redline so it was not a stall. She had done everything right. She was sure of it. Unbeknownst to her, the clutch had failed and no gears could be engaged to transmit the engine's power to the wheels. On the left side of the front row as she was, there were going to be a lot of cars that had to avoid her stricken machine. As the second row flashed past Weiss gave up on trying to fix the problem and made herself as small as she could in the cockpit, awaiting the inevitable impact.

Winter leapt away and into a clear lead in the short run to the first turn. She was followed by Penny and Pyrrha. Yang was next after having slowed to avoid Weiss, then Blake. Unsighted by the topography and Yang's car, Coco only managed to dart right to avoid Weiss at the last moment. Just behind her Ruby had even less time to react. She jerked the wheel right as soon as she spotted the stopped car, but it was already too late. She plowed into the right-rear of Weiss' car, turning it hard left and into the wall that separated the pits from the track. Ruby's car looped around and slammed into the same wall just a little further on. Fortunately the motion of the cars effectively cleared the track. Unfortunately, they were both full of fuel, all the fuel the cars would need for the entire race distance.

Leaking oil from a sheared line on Weiss car caught fire just as the car slid to a stop. Weiss leapt out and backed away from the burning car. Right in front of the pits, safety crews arrived immediately to douse the blaze. Ruby's car was less damaged and not on fire. She took a few deep breaths before undoing her belts, detaching the steering wheel and stepping out. She put the wheel back on the steering column and looked back up to see Weiss standing inches away.

"You idiot!" Weiss screamed. "What the hell is wrong with you?! Were you not paying attention?!"

"You stalled on the grid!" Ruby shouted back after overcoming the initial shock.

"I didn't stall!" Weiss protested. "Everyone else avoided me! Why the hell couldn't you?! Maniac!"

"I didn't see you until it was too late!" Ruby defended herself. "This isn't my fault. It's yours! You're the one who stalled!"

"I didn't stall!" Weiss screamed, leaning in and pressing the front of her helmet to Ruby's.

With the fire out the safety crews turned their attention to the arguing drivers. The pair were separated. After what Ruby would have classified as incoherent ranting, Weiss stormed off for her team's garage. Ruby took one more look at her shattered car. So much for making a good first impression. She had not even gotten past the grid before wrecking the thing. She had a hard time imagining how things could have gone worse. She sighed and walked back to Beacon GP's garage, hanging her head.

"Are you alright?" Ozpin asked just after the field flashed past the pits to complete their first lap. "That was a hard hit."

"Yeah I'm just...disappointed." Ruby sighed. "I guess I really screwed it up."

"I wouldn't worry about it too much." Ozpin encouraged. "You're in good company. You know Yang is the only member of your family who didn't crash on debut?"

"Is that right?" Ruby asked. Yang's first F1 race had ended early due to a mechanical failure.

"That's right." Ozpin confirmed. "Your father crashed into his teammate in the first turn of his first lap. And your mother somehow managed to end up in the harbour at Vale in her first race. And this one wasn't even your fault. That Schnee stalled after all."

"She insists she didn't stall." Ruby said.

"No matter." Ozpin said. "The important thing is that you're not hurt. Fixing a broken car is much easier than fixing a broken driver. These things happen. You'll get them next race." It was just the encouragement Ruby needed in that moment. She could have very easily gotten into her own head and let it eat at her. Now she was just looking forward to her next chance.

Winter continued to open up her lead, but all was not well. Her rear tires were wearing too heavily. Schnee Automotive, like most of the other teams, planned to make a single pit stop. At the rate her tires were deteriorating Winter was going to need a second. They were just not handling the engine's power well. The other Schnee powered cars were suffering from similar issues, but that was not all. Just eleven laps into the race Penny's engine failed. She pulled off the track after the Curve of the Sun with smoke pouring from the exhaust. When she returned to the garage she reported a turbo failure.

Word of Penny's engine issue spread quickly. First the Schnee powered teams reacted. The drivers were instructed over the radio to turn down their turbo boost so as not to put additional strain on their engines. Then the other teams heard and told their drivers to push the pace. They would either pass the Schnee cars or break them. Winter's lead began to evaporate. Coco started dropping back. Then both Mercury and Emerald dropped out with engine failures, though both were different from Penny's. It seemed the Schnee engines had the power but not the reliability.

Just as Pyrrha caught her, Winter ducked into the pits to make her first stop. It was much earlier than planned, with just 18 of 71 laps complete. Tire wear would ease as the fuel burned off, but she would surely need a second stop. With Winter out of the way Pyrrha started to open up a lead. Yang and Blake tried to stay close but Pyrrha was quicker. Arslan was up to fourth ahead of a falling Coco, and when Winter exited the pits she came out sixth. Pyrrha made her stop on lap 30, along with Yang. Blake, Arslan and Coco stopped on the following lap.

Winter retook the lead as a result of the stops, but Pyrrha was back on her in just a few laps. On lap 35 Pyrrha got a good run off the Curve of the Sun. She cut left but Winter blocked and Pyrrha moved right, driving up alongside her as they entered Lake. They ran through the corner side-by-side but Winter forced her into the grass on exit. Pyrrha tried to rejoin the track but spun. She avoided a stall and managed to get going again, but not before Yang and Blake passed her. She slotted in just ahead of Arslan.

When Winter made her second stop fifteen laps later, Yang took over the lead. Pyrrha had managed to pass Blake to retake second place. Winter came out of the pits in fifth but had the freshest tires on track. She charged past Arslan in just four laps and caught Blake seven laps later. As the cars ran down the frontstretch with twelve laps remaining, Winter moved left and got alongside Blake. Blake pinched Winter to the inside of the first corner, forcing her over the kerb and into the grass, but Winter did not give up and did the same to Blake as the track cut back to the right. Blake had no chance of keeping Winter behind any longer and conceded the position before the battle took them both out.

Winter kept charging but ran out of time before catching Pyrrha. Yang won by a wide margin as Pyrrha dropped back with worn tires at the end. Blake held onto fourth, followed by Arslan and Nora to round out the points-paying positions. Seventh was Coco, followed by Ren, Ciel and Reese to round out the top 10. It seemed the Schnee engines were not quite all they were cracked up to be, and the Nevermore power plants were looking great.

It was Yang's first win and she made the most of it, playing to the crowd from the podium and probably celebrating a little too hard. Ruby could not have been happier for her. Pyrrha was happy to have a podium on debut, though she would have preferred the top step. She showed no animosity toward Winter, though Winter had surely cost her the win with aggressive driving. Winter just smiled and waved as she was booed by the unfriendly crowd. Though they would have preferred to see Blake on the podium, the locals had been treated to a race in which a Schnee had crashed out on the start and another had lost a winnable race. They were positively ecstatic.

The next race, a little under a month away, would be the Vale Kingdom Grand Prix. It would be run at the Beacon Circuit, a fast track not far from Vale City. It was named after the team, located as it was just a few miles from Beacon GP's headquarters. The Nevermore powered teams hoped their success would continue while the Schnee powered teams hoped to have their issues sorted in time for the race.

Standings After One Race:

1st - Yang Xiao-Long - 9

2nd - Pyrrha Nikos - 6

3rd - Winter Schnee - 4

4th - Blake Belladonna - 3

5th - Arslan Atlan - 2

6th - Nora Valkyrie - 1

Inspirations

- In RWBY GP and Formula RWBY, as in the flashback that started this story, Menagerie was the Netherlands, Zandvoort in particular. For the purposes of this bit of the story, it is now Brazil. The track here is based on Interlagos.

- James Hunt once did cocaine on the way to the track in Brazil for a test session. Bernie Ecclestone, then team owner at Brabham, was there but refused to partake. Nowadays races in Brazil are less about drugs and parties and more about hoping to not get shot at on the way to and from the track. Jenson Button's limo was fired on with an automatic weapon, and the Sauber team van was once robbed at gunpoint. Many other such incidents have occurred over the years in Rio. This year's Olympics should be interesting.

Inaccuracies and Anachronisms

- The 1987 Brazilian GP was at Jacarepagua, not Interlagos, but I am unfamiliar with that circuit.

- As I've said before, the weekend format is anachronistic, depicting schedules closer to what is used now.

- Due to the regulations, the horsepower levels described here would have been impossible in 1987. They would have been possible in 1986 and earlier though, and the BMW/Megatron engine was estimated to produce 1400 HP in qualifying trim.

- Pit strategy was much more varied that described her or in any other part of this story.

- The mechanical reliability described her is inaccurate. In most races the majority of cars failed to finish with mechanical issues.