Formula Lego: Season 09
The Season 9 regulation changes brought a season that was full of action, surprise, and tragedy, like the sport had never seen before.
Technical Changes
The aerodynamic and aesthetic changes were, once again, somewhat minor; Octan and Osborne changed their side-pod design slightly, National dropped their nose slightly, and added a new aerodynamic device behind the wheels that improved airflow around the wheels and cockpit. Octan also attempted to clean the airflow around their own wheels, through a very strange-looking bubble-like extrusion that covered the space between their wheels and chassis. The new team, Fire F1, was the biggest aesthetic change in the sport’s history, with a much lower, flatter car, a much more rounded underside, and a very unique front wing design, which would be adopted in later years by other teams, too. They, too had plans to avoid aerodynamic problems around their wheels, which was done with a double-purpose small winglet above the wheels, which directed air upwards, creating downforce and fixing the problems they expected to see with the air over the wheels.
Despite all those changes, the biggest change was internal. Firstly, fuel was standardised for all of the teams, taking away one advantage that Osborne had utilised to win 5 consecutive Constructors’ Titles (Osborne Space engineers had adapted some of their incredible rocket fuel to work in Osborne F1’s jet-turbo-hybrid combo engine) The specifications for what could be allowed internally in the engine also changed, requiring engine internal size to be proportional to certain dimensions of their car, which hurt Osborne again, as their engine had been quite large as compared to the rest of their car, while Octan, whose Wankel Engine was a smaller size but provided the same amount of power, was not as badly hurt. Other components and practices that had been previously banned, such as using a split-turbo, were also re-introduced.
Although Fire F1’s car showed promise, their team strategy was still in heavy development, and their drivers didn’t have as much training or resources as the other teams, however, they only had 2 bottom 3 finishes, and balanced that with Camilla Cyne’s magnificent drive through the tragic race 6. Ending up in dead last, with a total of 0 points, was better than Bryne Ellys’ expectations for her team’s first season. Expecting her team's debut season to be poor, she had risked quite a bit of money, time, and vehicles on four rookies (making up more than half the Fire team). This proved to be the weakest link the otherwise unexpectedly strong team. Their car itself was a much flatter, lower car than any previous Formula Lego car, with several interesting features. First of all, its flatter design created a much different, but still effective aerodynamic body, that, combined with very large front and rear wings, created almost all the downforce that they needed, and made the rest of the car much simpler. Fire’s new car featured winglets above the rear end of the front tires to try and combat the aerodynamic troubles between the wheels and sidepods, as was expected to show up under Season 9 regulations. The regulations delivered, and their winglets proved an ingenious design. Internally, the Fire Engine was a much simpler system than their rivals, but not lacking for performance. Fire F1 was mainly meant to be an advertisement for Ellys’ Company, Fire Wheels, they started the season on a modified version of an engine they already produced – The Fire Wheels FW1. The FW1 was the peak of their road car design, and the team of engineers who had produced it were already well versed in how it worked, and easily adapted it to be Formula Lego-ready. The regulations favoured a certain design of engine; however, Fire made the regulations work with their street car engine. The FW1-F1 had a lot of pace, and while they had different problems than the other teams faced, their engineers were almost entirely recruited from their own parent company, they knew the engine inside and out, and that led to them being able to coax out far more performance than others might have been able to. The team performed quite well in testing, and often performed admirably throughout the races, until they had to pit for tires. The team’s strategy was highly underdeveloped as compared to their rivals, and ended up losing them many points that they could’ve scored otherwise.
Osborne F1 finally suffered for the first time since Season 3, and broke their Five-Season Constructor’s win streak, which coincided with two 2-Season Driver’s win streaks, which were bisected by Evangeline Sayll’s shock title win in Season 6. Osborne was hit especially hard by the new regulations, as they had to severely downsize their engine, and hadn’t expected the Formula Lego Authorities changing the regulations to un-ban the components and practices that they did. Their Season 9 car also had very little aerodynamic upgrades, since most of their development time was taken up with the new engine. Despite other teams beginning to catch up technically in Season 8, Osborne had devoted an enormous amount of resources to their season 8 car, which kept them far, far in the lead. However, this worked to their disadvantage, as while they focused really heavily on making sure their Season 8 Car won with an even higher margin that it otherwise might, the other teams allocated more resources to having a better season 9 car, which left Osborne behind both Octan and National for the first time since Season 3. The only piece of good news that Osborne got was that their car would be significantly lighter thanks to the engine size reductions they had to make.
Octan had never been uncompetitive, but the introduction of the URX1 in Season 7 marked the beginning of their experimental stage. For the next few seasons, they consistently pulled second place, but with incredibly unorthodox setups, like the URX-series Rotary Engines. With the Season 9 regulation changes, they got off relatively easy, since their much more compact Rotary Engine didn’t need any shrinking to fit within new regulations. The made relatively few aerodynamic changes to the car, too, adding a slightly different shape on the front of the side-pods to try and create better airflow, and two bubble-like extrusions above the wheels to try and fix some of the aerodynamic problems they had faced in that area before, and knew they would face, as Fire had done with two winglets. The bubbles helped decrease the aerodynamic problems there, but decreased overall downforce, and caused the front of the car to feel much less stable than it had in previous years. Overall, while solving the problem they were intended to, the Bubbles created further problems, and were additionally very heavy, and were removed before the start of Season 10. Apart from that, they continued to face many of the problems that had plagued them in previous years, such as an over weighted rear end of the car, insufficient ground effect utilisation, and faulty front wings. To further their troubles, the National team had severed their ties with Octan, and copyrighted their own designs, so their superior front wing design was no longer available to Octan engineers. Through Season 9, Octan engineers worked to fix those problems, and were prepared for Season 10, until the unplanned regulation changes came into play. However, focusing back on Season 9, Octan did well with the new regulation changes, since the new regulations still allowed them to improve their engine, without taking any performance hit. Powered by the URX3, they came a close second in the Constructors standings, scoring the same as the eventual champions, but losing out on the Podiums Tie Breaker.
With three wins (Two from Sanchez, one from Vikalkin), Osborne won more races than any other team, but they also never had more than two Constructor-Point scoring drivers in any race, and in several only had one. To make matters worse, they only had a single race where they didn’t lose points from the bottom end of the grid. Despite decent performance from their fastest drivers, the poor performance of their slowest really dragged them down. In previous years, Osborne had always been able to compensate for this with good performance, keeping more drivers in the top end. But, now that their car was no longer leaps and bounds ahead of the competition, they found that their own back-markers were, frustratingly, negating the progress they made with Sanchez or Vikalkin’s points. Through the season, the OsbA30K – powered cars only ended up with a net of 13 points, which was, like so many of their statistics this season, their lowest since Season 3, when they only scraped out 12 points.
National was the strongest that it had ever been during Season 9. After coming 2nd in the Constructors title fight only 3 times in their history, coming last every other of the five seasons. However, Season 9 changed everything for them. After severing their ties with Octan before the start of Season 8, their engineers turned almost all of their resources towards developing their Season 9. Then, from the first race of Season 9, they devoted as many resources as needed in order to keep on top. It worked splendidly. Their season 9 car featured a dropped nose, and a very slightly modified front wing, as well as a small system to try and fix aerodynamic problems that cropped up from Season 9 Regulations. It consisted of a winglet that rand parallel to the nose of the car, capped by another small set of wings just above the wheels. It did it’s job incredibly, and, while not as simple or visually appealing as Fire F1’s winglets, far outperformed either Octan or Fire’s systems (Osborne had no system to try and fix these problems during Season 9). Like every other team, though, National’s biggest changes came under the hood. After they intentionally threw away their chances in Season 8, their engineers had a dilemma. Should they try to start a new engine from scratch, or should they continue modifying and improving the UX9Z9 that they already had (which was a second-generation modification of the UX9, which Octan had deceptively sold them, resulting in a huge scandal). Eventually, they concluded that modifying the UX9Z9 was their best route forwards, with the added bonus that, if they beat Octan, they could flaunt that they had won with a smaller engineering team working on an engine Octan had deemed “not good enough.” The bragging rights alone motivated the Engineers to work incredibly quickly and effectively. They spent ages and ages poring over the rule book, and built an engine that, unlike Osborne or Octan’s more hastily built engines, fully utilised everything they could get from the regulations. Furthermore, they also discovered a small loophole in the rules regarding gear ratios. The rules had been rewritten in order to include the unique Octan Rotary Engine, but had left a loophole open to anyone who read close enough, which the National Engineers and Lawyers had. Although gear ratios were specifically regulated, the handbook had not clarified where gears could be placed, to allow for flexibility with different kinds of engines. To utilise that, National implemented a system that, before the initial crankshaft reached the Gear Box, either stepped up the gear ratio by an allowed margin, or down by an allowed margin, depending on the needs of the car. The system was entirely mechanical, and would switch modes safely at different rev rates for the maximum amount of power and speed. At lower revs, it would step up the gear ratio to increase speed, while at higher revs, it would automatically increase torque, as a driver prepared to shift, to keep drivers from losing speed as they shifted, which could also be used to achieve a lightning-fast start. At higher speeds, though, even if the rev rates were very high, the spin rates of the wheels would disengage the system’s torque setting, to avoid sudden decreases in speed when the driver hit the top end of a gear. The system was entirely legal (as they had been especially careful to keep the gear ratios within legal limits), and the EotLP GP Authorities didn't even notice the system when they validated the car's legality, since their investigators (who were later fired) assumed that the gearbox had just been spread out for other reasons. The system worked effectively, especially with gaining an unbelievable advantage during race starts. On average, over the whole season, each National Driver overtook an average of 3.45 cars within the first 10 seconds of the race. And, when only looking at the drivers who got a “good” start (letting off the brakes within 0.25 seconds of lights out), and who didn’t start on pole, they overtook an average of 4.69 cars within the first 10 seconds. The drivers also privately reported to their technicians that they could feel the performance boost from the purely mechanical system at lower revs in every gear. Overall, it led to a minimal or negligible power loss from gear changes, which gave them yet another advantage. After seeing the results from initial, private testing, the National Engineers spitefully named their miracle engine the UX-10, keeping with Octan’s previous naming style. And, it worked.
Team Rosters
| League # | Team # | Name | Experience |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | Josep Vikalkin | 8 Seasons Osborne, S7 Champion |
| 14 | 23 | Sira Bowler | 2 Season Osborne, 5 Seasons National |
| 3 | 3 | Jacob Norris | 8 Seasons Osborne |
| 46 | 17 | Kira Sanchez | 5 Season Osborne, S4, S5 & S6 Champion |
| 81 | 28 | Ahmed Donici | Rookie |
| 71 | 25 | Ryelly Payne | 1 Season Osborne |
| 7 | 7 | Avayah Osborne | 8 Seasons Osborne |
| League # | Team # | Name | Experience |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11 | 1 | Vance Lewison | 8 Seasons National, S2 Champion |
| 24 | 36 | Thomas Collet | 2 Seasons National, 5 Seasons Octan |
| 82 | 46 | Reem Tcaci | Rookie |
| 83 | 47 | Anette Rata | Rookie |
| 27 | 27 | Eva Sayll | 4 Seasons National, 4 Seasons Octan, S6 Champion |
| 44 | 39 | Anna Aster | 2 Seasons National, 3 Seasons Octan |
| 77 | 45 | Elizabeth Collet | 1 Season National |
| League # | Team # | Name | Experience |
|---|---|---|---|
| 21 | 1 | Salem Hoods | 8 Seasons Octan, S1 Champion |
| 23 | 14 | Lily Gasly | 7 Seasons Octan, 1 Season Osborne |
| 78 | 22 | Walter Faber | 1 Season Octan |
| 64 | 19 | Julia Young | 3 Seasons Octan |
| 58 | 23 | Ella Fader | 1 Season Octan, 3 Seasons National |
| 58 | 17 | Lily Octan | 4 Seasons Octan |
| 79 | 24 | Max Feser | 1 Season Octan |
| League # | Team # | Name | Experience |
|---|---|---|---|
| 80 | 1 | Camilla Cyne | Team Rookie, 1 Season Octan |
| 76 | 2 | Sarah Martins | Team Rookie, 1 Season National |
| 62 | 3 | Russel Perez | Team Rookie, 2 Seasons National |
| 84 | 4 | Ariadne Stryke | Rookie |
| 85 | 5 | Aurora Kryze | Rookie |
| 86 | 6 | Eva Renita | Rookie |
| 87 | 7 | Nhadi Yousuf | Rookie |
Season Progression
The UX-10 powered National brilliantly along to their first Constructor’s Title, and their third Driver’s Title, with Anna Aster. Both of their other Driver’s Title holders (Vance Lewison and Evangeline Sayll) finished in the top 10, and only one of their drivers failed to score points. It was, without any doubt, National’s best season to date. Anna Aster, younger sister of the famous Aethernauts Buzz & Neil, proved her skill, for sure, pulling a win over Sanchez and Gasly in race 4, and 3 other podium finishes throughout the season. National ended the season with a comfortable 4-point lead over Octan, scoring the highest they ever had, with 28 Constructor’s points. Aster finished with 385 points, 20 points ahead of the second-place Gasly.
The Technical Regulations were far from the only thing that changed during Season 9, though. The Schedule, when it was released at the end of Season 8, for the first time ever had a 7th race, and it wasn’t scheduled to be held on Cagne Island. It wasn’t until halfway through the season (after race 4) that they announced that it would be held in Rennia, at Formula Lego’s first new track, and first street circuit. Both of these things caused a lot of hubbub among the fans of Formula Lego, as it opened the chance for future races in new and interesting places.
The reshuffling of the teams with the new regulations wasn’t immediately obvious. Kira Sanchez fought hard in an underpowered Osborne to take pole, and then win race 1. Anna Aster came a surprise second, surpassing her previous best result by 3 places. The second race saw Gasly come in ahead of Sanchez and Vikalkin, who both raced absolutely incredible seasons, despite the problems that their car provided them. Michael Osborne went on to say that he didn’t expect a single win after he saw the testing results on his car, and it was purely Vikalkin & Sanchez’ outstanding skill that brought the team 3 wins.
Gasly won Octan’s first race of the Season during race 4, closely followed by Anna Aster, who scored her second podium, and her second 2nd place. Julia Young came in 3rd, her first podium of her career. Race 4 was the first win of Anna Aster’s Career, as she powered to a 15 second lead at the chequered flag, after a brilliantly timed pitstop, as well as a wholly incredible drive. Sanchez finished 2nd, with Gasly hot on her tail in the more powerful, better overall Octan car. Meanwhile, Fire’s top driver, Camilla Cyne, had comfortably contested for points in every race so far, coming as high as 8th place in Race 3.
Race 5 was the most exciting race in a long time, as Kira Sanchez drove an absolutely incredible race, scoring her second win of the season solely based on her superior skills, gaining back all 28 places after she suffered an engine failure during the qualifying session, and had to start from the very back of the grid. In such an uncompetitive car, this really spoke to her absolutely unmatched skill as a driver. Lewison came in 2nd, just three tenths of a second behind her. He, too, drove an incredible race, gaining back 5 spots in the last 4 laps, after a late pitstop from a puncture. His newer tires ended up helping him quite a bit. Vikalkin, who had held onto second the entire race, pulled into first with 6 laps to go, then was overtaken by Lewison right before his puncture, then by Sanchez, who was determined to win at all costs. Then, he was once again overtaken by Lewison just 2 laps before the chequered flag. With such uncompetitive machinery, he had no chance to fight against Lewison, whose tires were nearly 20 laps newer than his own. However, his 3rd place was hard fought for, and applauded by drivers and staff on all 4 teams. Despite the incredible excitement this race brought to the table, it has been remembered somewhat bittersweetly, especially with regards to Sanchez’ beaming face on the top step of the podium. For, unbeknownst by any of the people celebrating the race, it was to be her last win.
Race 6 Crash, Tragedy and fallout
Race 6 started somewhat unusually, with Sanchez actually overtaking Lewison and Gasly before turn one, where her inferior vehicle should’ve lost her time, not gained two places. Vikalkin and Avayah Osborne were also very close into turn one, followed by Anna Aster, Lily Octan and Sira Bowler. Four Osborne’s in the top 10 was unusual to see at any point that season, but on the first straight, it was unheard of. They maintained the formation for three laps, with Sanchez underbraking extremely confidently to keep ahead of Gasly and Lewison, relying on Osborne’s tires to provide her the turning power she needed to keep from driving straight off the side of the track. Then, on the 11th turn of the 4th lap, as she underbraked once again, coming into the tightest corner of the track, which she had raced on now for 36 races, the sidewalls of her tires, which had been stressed beyond anything ever seen before thanks to her 58 previous hard, fast, turns. 3 of her tires lost their right walls, and her car immediately fell into a roll. Due to the close proximity of the next 6 cars, her suddenly slow, rolling car was struck by Gasly, who was braking as hard as she could, then by Lewison, who had been accelerating around the outside of Gasly at the turn, looking for the overtake to 2nd place. Vikalkin skidded, and his front end swung to the inside of the track, and knocked Gasly’s car suddenly forwards. As his back end swung around as well, striking the debris of Vance Lewison’s engine, and starting a fire. Avayah Osborne had more time to brake, but was struck in the rear herself by Lily Octan, punting her forwards, where her car tripped on its own front wing, and jumped several meters into the air, coming down atop the flaming rear end of Vance Lewison’s car. Meanwhile, Anna Aster skidded off onto the grass, and managed to avoid the crash, and get back on the track, while calling for red flags. Sira Bowler, who had been nearly 10 seconds behind Octan, had not let up at all, until she rounded the corner, since she could not see the crash site. She struck Lily Octan’s car, which was relatively perpendicular to the track, and her own car got stuck up and under Lily Octan’s car.
Anna Aster slammed her brakes as soon as her race technician told her there was fire, jumped out of her car, and ran back to the crash. Emergency Personnel had already been deployed, but were still quite a way off. Aster reached the 7-car pileup as Josep Vikalkin was pulling himself out of his own car. Aster later recounted that he “didn’t really look great, even though I couldn’t see him under his gear.” With help from Emergency Personnel, along with Julia Young, Camilla Cyne, Salem Hoods, and Evangeline Sayll (who were the next racers to arrive there, under a minute later, and who had already been informed of the red flags) managed to pull Sira Bowler out from where the collapsed front end of her car had pinned her in her cockpit, Lily Octan out from the narrow gap between the back of her own cockpit and the side of Osborne’s car. Osborne’s car was raised quite high in the air, but she didn’t appear to be in much direct danger, although she wasn’t responding either to her race technician, or to the calls of her fellow racers. As emergency personnel arrived, the racers helped to get an unconscious Vance Lewison out of his car, as well as Lily Gasly, who appeared just to be disoriented from the whiplash from being hit by Josep Vikalkin. An important note is that the exact order of which racers were pulled from their vehicles vary from account to account. This is just a guess as to the actual sequence of events, since overhead cameras did not have an extremely good view of Turn 11. Eventually, other Emergency Personnel arrived, and took control of the situation, removing an unconscious Avayah Osborne and Kira Sanchez from their vehicles, while also attending to the other five racers in the crash. They were all evacuated to Cagne Island Hospital to receive treatment, except for Sanchez, who was airlifted to Rennia for intensive care.
All of the others involved in the crash sustained only minor injuries: Sira Bowler was discharged by the end of the day, as she merely received bruises to her entire body, especially her legs where her car was crushed down onto her as she wedged under Lily Octan’s. Octan was treated for shock, and checked for any damage relating to whiplash, but she was also released by the end of the day. Osborne suffered a mild concussion from the whiplash of the crash, as she hadn’t attached her neck brace correctly before that morning’s race. She remained in the hospital for just two nights, though. Lewison had a few burns at the openings and seams of his racing suit and helmet, but was also released after just a few nights in the hospital. Lily Gasly received an extremely mild concussion from banging her head several places all over her cockpit, as well as being repeatedly whipped back and forth by the multiple impacts. Josep Vikalkin, despite being the first to climb out of his own cockpit, and appearing well enough to help others, actually suffered quite a bit, with a mildly fractured left leg, a bad sprain to both his wrists, and several cuts on his face from smashing his face against the inside of his helmet. He also had a few burns around his gloves from assisting in getting Lewison out of his car. However, even he was released with permission to race in Race 7.
The race itself got back underway within two hours, after the remaining drivers voted to keep it going. Anna Aster was visibly shaken, and Julia Young performed a quick pass on her after the restart of the 4th lap, but the points leader quickly got her head back into the game, and maintained her second place throughout the rest of the race. Camilla Cyne managed to pass several cars to finish with Fire’s first Podium, and her personal best finish. Julia Young brought Octan’s second win of the season home, but the celebrations over Fire’s first podium and Young’s first victory were overcast by the tragedy that had happened just a few minutes into the race.
Kira Sanchez had been airlifted to Rennia immediately, after first responders had seen how badly she looked. Her helmet was cut off to avoid putting any pressure on her neck. She was unconscious, and losing a lot of blood, so she was put into an induced coma and intubated. Doctors operated on her all night, but by the morning, it became clear she would never race again, and would likely suffer permanent brain damage. As her car rolled, her head had been smashed directly into the ground at high speeds, multiple times. Just two days after the initial crash, her situation improved slightly, but suddenly worsened just a few hours later. Josep Vikalkin was airlifted from Cagne Island Hospital a day after the crash to be with his teammate & girlfriend in Rennia. He brought their 2 year old daughter, too. Just a day after he arrived, and 53 hours after the initial crash, Kira Sanchez, the best racer the world had ever seen, passed away, having never regained consciousness.
Kira Sanchez Memorial Race and Response
The Emperor called for a day of memorial of their national hero, and Race 7 of Season 9 was postponed by 2 weeks, and renamed to the “Kira Sanchez Memorial Race”. When it came around, it was not clear whether or not Vikalkin would race or not. But he showed up, wearing a modified version of his late girlfriend's helmet design, with the words "We miss you Kira" added onto the back, alongside the signatures of hundreds of her friends, family, rivals, and teammates. He drove like no-one had ever seen before, and taking pole by a huge margin: while the gap from P2 to P15 was 3.482 seconds, Vikalkin threw his inferior Osborne onto pole by 4.091 seconds. His drive was just as furious, and cheered on by every fan of every team, and every driver. However, in the inferior Osborne, just 6 laps before the end of the race, Lily Gasly was in a position to pass him, but had issues shifting up above 5th gear, giving Vikalkin enough time to blaze away, and gain enough time on every other car to win by a just over 6 seconds. It is still debated whether or not Gasly actually had issues, or just gave Vikalkin the win since she knew that he definitely needed it more than her in many ways.. She maintains to this day that she had technical issues, that resolved themselves within a lap, but a very moving video was seen by many, of Vikalkin hugging Gasly on the podium, and many have claimed that you can read his lips to be saying “Thank you.” Gasly’s own Race Engineer was also broadcast over the radio, saying
“Run strat 6. That should resolve the Issue. We don't believe that P1 will help title chances though, since Aster is on track to score 30 points. I'm sorry, and thank you.”
The race was an extremely emotional one, and everyone on the podium platform, where all 27 racers stood fort the ceremony (although only Vikalkin, Gasly, and Lewison stood on the actual podium) was in tears, remembering their friend, and fellow driver. Nearly two hours of ceremonies in remembrance of Sanchez were held after the podium celebration, as well as emotional announcements from several drivers, including Gasly announcing her retirement from the sport, largely due to her rival, and friend’s untimely death. Salem Hoods, the first Driver’s Title Champion, also announced that she was moving teams, to the new Legoian Team, Silva. Josep Vikalkin, in a very moving speech in remembrance of his girlfriend, brought many of the audience to tears, not only as he spoke with the couple's 2 year-old daughter, but also when he showed the ring he had bought with the intention to propose to her with at the end of that very race, before her life was tragically cut short. He reiterated that he didn’t blame any of the drivers involved in the crash, since he believed that there was nothing they could have done differently, and he thanked all of those who helped in trying to save Kira. Finally, he announced that he was going to leave the sport for the 10th season, to spend time with his daughter, and be there for her formative years, but would consider returning to the sport at a later date.
Kai Octan, Jenny Spalding (the National Team Manager), and Michael Osborne all also spoke of their fond memories of Sanchez, and how she would be missed from the sport. Osborne said he felt the blame of her death fall to him. He talked about how the car he had produced that year was simply not as good as the Octan or the National, but how Sanchez couldn’t allow herself to not win. Through sheer skill and willpower, she pushed the car further than it ever could’ve gone, or should’ve been able too. He said that, if he had given her a better car, she could’ve done the same things with it, but wouldn’t have pushed it further than it was supposed to go, and she could still be there, accepting a trophy for another win. This, too, was a very moving speech, and brought Vikalkin to tears again.
The final address given to the record-breaking crowds at the night race was from the Emperor of the EotLP, James Krennic, himself, who reiterated that the EotLP GP Commission, which was a branch of the government, would look into every realistic way that the death of Sanchez could have been prevented, and would create a better sport, where these tragedies never had to happen again. Both in remembrance of Sanchez, but also of Denise Perez, and Natasha Hughes, who had previously died during races.
Despite the horrible tragedy that Season 9 ended in, it was the most dramatic season to that point, and did end with a brand-new Drivers’ and Constructors’ Title Champions.
Vance Lewison, who was on a resurgence this season, ended 3rd overall, which was his best result since season 4. Gasly, for the second season in a row, ended in 2nd, which would be her final result in Formula Lego. Kira Sanchez, despite not scoring in the last two races, still finished 4th, which was her lowest ever final position, and her boyfriend tied for 5th with Julia Young. He had only ended outside the top 4 one other time, with his debut 7th overall position in Season 1. It was Young’s best score to that time.
Anna Aster took home the Driver's Title Trophy, after finishing P9 at the last race had solidified her victory over Gasly by 25 points, but her most victorious season would forever be tarnished by the memory of Kira Sanchez' final Victories.
Post-Season Work
Two new parties announced their intention to participate in Season 11 this season, and one wasn’t even from the EotLP. The largest street-car manufacturer in the EotLP (Silva Automotive Motors Inc.) had long expressed interest in entering cars in Formula Lego for at least Seasons 10 & 11, and they were approved easily, as they were an established company, and former Driver's Title Champion Salem Hoods was their majority shareholder. Less easy to approve was the Quantos team, who hailed from the EotLP’s neighbouring country of Cklserolva. While Formula Lego wanted to branch out internationally, and had so since around Season 7, their superiors in the EotLP Government took a while to allow negotiations to continue. Quantos guaranteed that they would remain in the sport for at least 3 seasons, but on the condition that Formula Lego began to run international races, including one in Cklserolva. After some diplomatic finagling, the EotLP GP Authorities agreed to these terms by the end of Season 8, and the announcement that there would now be 6 teams in Formula Lego was made several weeks after the Kira Sanchez Memorial Race, along with the announcement that the Race calendar for Season 10 had expanded to include three new countries, and four new tracks, with 3 out of the eight races to take place outside of the EotLP, only 3 to take place at Cagne Island's John Fel Osborne Circuit, the Rennia Street track to return to the calendar, and that they would hold the first ever race on the brand-new Karebyr Autodrome.
As per the Emperor’s decree, the EotLP GP Authorities began work to make cars safer. Firstly, they required that every car implement a “HALO” system, to protect the driver in the case of a roll, or a bad crash. The Authorities allowed teams to lengthen the car to compensate for the extra weight and other safety systems related to the HALO. Finally, in conjunction with Maralla, who became the sole tire supplier for Season 10 onwards, they also standardized tires, on a 1-5 scale, with 1 being the fastest, but least durable, and 5 being the most durable, but slowest. These new tires allowed for standardized systems to both level the playing field a bit for teams entering the sport, since they no longer had to source their own tires, as well as provide a greater level of safety, through clearly known statistics about the tires, and more effective quality control.
Technical Details
Through Season 8, National powered back to the top with the NC1 Chassis, and the UX10 Engine.
Fire F1 solidly debuted with the Valkyrie Chassis, and the FW1-F1 Engine.
Octan drove on the OE34P22 Chassis and the URX3 Engine.
Osborne was finally beaten, on their incredibly weak Osb28G Chassis and the OsbA30K Engine.