Anya leaned over the pit wall, watching the black-and-blue car scream past. It looked like it was on rails. There was no correction, no hesitation. It looked like a machine driving a machine.
"He's not driving like a newbie at all," Sarah muttered, her hands shaking slightly as she watched the telemetry. "His steering inputs are too clean. Look at the brake trace. It's a perfect square. No one brakes like that."
"Well... He does," Anya said. She felt a chill run down her spine. She had known Leo was good, but this was something else. This was the "Hidden Monster" finally showing its teeth.
The shakedown lasted two hours. By the end, Leo was exhausted. His suit was soaked in sweat, and his neck felt like it had been through a car crash. The physical reality of tire degradation was also a new factor.
In the sim, tires dropped off in a linear way. In the real world, they "grained", the rubber peeling off in strips, making the car feel like it was driving on marbles.
