#Nathan Vasquez | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

racingliners · 1 year

Text

Life In The Fast Lane Chapter 5 - 2023 Race 1: Australia (Part 1)

Rating: Teen & Up

Warnings: None apply

Pairings: Original Female Character(s)/Original Male Character(s); OFCs & OMCs

Work Tags: Re-write of a previous work; Mentions of IRL current and past F1 figures; Eventual romance; friends to lovers; found family/work family; actual family; racing drivers and their various shenanigans; how to handle pressure (and how not to); with a sprinkling of the power of friendship; tags will be updated as work progresses

Chapter 5/57

Word count: 8.6k

Summary: Anticipation builds for the first race of the 2023 season

As this is an original work, I’ve made up an entire fictional grid of drivers which are listed below! (with the 2023 teams for the most part, Audi are there for eventual plot reasons)

2023 Teams & Drivers Red Bull - Benedikt Schmitz (SUI) & Alistair Mitchell (GBR) Ferrari - Giovanni Carotti (ITA) & Teo Martinez (ARG) McLaren - James Hewitt (GBR) & Sophie Knightsbridge (GBR) Mercedes - Nathan Watkins (CAN) & Marc Pavard (MON) Alpine - Cristóbal Vasquez (ESP) & Daniel Jakobsson (SWE) Aston Martin - Owen Nichols (NZL) & Aaron Jones (GBR) Alpha Tauri - Nico Dumont (FRA) & Antonio Lima (BRA) Audi - Erik Braun (GER) & Jan Martens (NED) Haas - Tadashi Sato (JPN) & Leon Bauer (AUT) Williams - Evan McKinley (AUS) & Aidan Glover (GBR)

Thursday 16th March – Melbourne

Much to Vanessa’s amusement, Sophie’s room was indeed a small suite. Though it was furnished in the exact same style as hers down to the soft grey curtains framing the windows. The living room area was compact, with a two-seater sofa opposite a flatscreen TV, and a glass coffee table with two armchairs next to a sleek black counter with a kettle, mugs, and baskets with complimentary biscuits and sachets of instant coffee and various kinds of tea.

“Charger, spare socks, notebook, ball point pens, marker pens, bottled water…” Sophie reeled off as she searched through her bag, triple checking to ensure she wasn’t leaving anything she needed behind. “Helmets are on the sofa” She pointed over her shoulder with her thumb and the two white Arai boxes. “Drinks bottle!” Sophie looked up with wide eyes and the smallest hint of panic in her voice.

“In my bag to be prepped when we get to the track”

“Okay…” Sophie sighed, first zipping up her bag, then double checking that her red paddock pass was still hanging around her neck. “Can you carry one of the boxes?”

“Sure” They took a box each from the grey sofa, and left once Sophie was happy she still had her phone, car keys and room key card in her pocket.

Richard was waiting for them in the lobby, dressed in his white collared team shirt, black shorts and trainers. As seemed to be the norm he was scrolling through his phone. Most likely checking emails or trying to juggle messages with various journalists.

“Morning Richard!” Sophie said brightly once they were a few metres away from him. He looked up, and greeted his colleagues with a smile as he pocketed his phone.

“Morning… ah you did get your nails done!” It was something that Vanessa and Sophie had been mulling over on the flight. And last night after dinner they had went over to the hotel’s spa, and had their nails painted papaya orange to celebrate Sophie’s first race weekend. “Are you both ready to go?”

Sophie and Vanessa briefly glanced at each other before nodding.

“Ready as we’ll ever be”

Richard led his colleagues out of the hotel lobby and towards the car park, where they stopped by a white Mercedes. One of the perks of McLaren using Mercedes engines was that their higher up personnel were granted the use of their road cars at some races. Sophie pulled the keys to the rental car out of her pocket and unlocked it, allowing the group to put their bags and boxes in the boot.

Sophie got in the driver’s seat, with Richard in the front in case there was any issues when they arrived at the circuit.

“I’m in!” Vanessa called from the back after being the last to fasten her seatbelt. Sophie started the car which hummed with the gentlest of purrs as she navigated her way through the car park and onto the road.

“Now you will want to follow the yellow arrows for F1 personnel, there should be signs once we’re over the bridge,” Richard explained. “I also put the car park stickers on the window last night when the car arrived, since you have more than enough to worry about this week”

Carefully, Sophie drove her way through the Thursday morning downtown Melbourne traffic, following the signs for Albert Park. After fifteen minutes the outer grandstands came into view, with marshals dressed in bright orange overalls topped with white and neon yellow bibs directing cars to the correct entrances. Sophie followed Richard’s instructions to head for Gate 1, where she stopped the car and rolled down the window as one marshal almost bounced over towards her.

“Good morning!” She looked to be in her late 30s or early 40s, with her hair hidden under a grey baseball cap. “How are we Richard?”

“Very well thanks Maggie!”

“Lovely to finally meet you!” She turned her attention towards Sophie, and nervously stuck out a hand, which Sophie happily shook. “Can I see everyone’s accreditation please? It’s procedure I’m afraid” Maggie asked as Sophie, Richard and Vanessa all showed their red F1 passes. “Right, everything looks in order” Maggie gave the stickers on the window one last look before taking a few steps back from the car. “You’re free to head on through, Richard will tell you where to go!”

“Thank you” Sophie gave Maggie a small wave as she drove down the narrow access road that briefly went under the circuit, where more marshals and volunteers stood waiting to give people directions. They were waved into the F1 personnel car park, and Sophie parked the car with a small sigh.

“Thanks for not letting me get lost” She said as the trio got out the car and collected their things from the boot. Richard shook his head with a small laugh, saying that it was all part of his job.

He led the way towards the paddock, with a few stops along the way as various marshals and volunteers asked Sophie for autographs and pictures. Each one she gave with a bright, wide smile, whishing everyone a nice day as they wished her luck for the race.

When the trio finally reached the paddock turnstiles, they scanned their red passes and walked on through. Some accredited photographers wearing similar bibs to the marshals snapped away as they headed down the narrow tarmac road, walking past parasol covered tables that sat in front of the temporary hospitality buildings until they saw the sign that sat outside McLaren’s assigned building, and quickly dived inside.

Richard directed Sophie and Vanessa down a narrow corridor, where Sophie’s small driver room sat at the end. In it was a massage table, a couple of chairs with a tiny coffee table in between, a clothes rail that Sophie’s race suits and fireproofs hung from, and a small mini fridge.

“Honey we’re home” Vanessa said quietly. Sophie chuckled as she set down the helmet box by the clothes rail, before looking around the small room.

“They only use the motorhome for the European races” She explained.

“Well I wouldn’t want to be the person responsible for shipping all that freight halfway across the world” Vanessa huffed. “So, how ridiculous is your schedule today?” Right on cue, Richard knocked on the door three times before stepping into the room carrying a few sheets of paper.

“Your schedule for the weekend, fresh from the printer” Richard pinned one sheet on the wall, and handed another to Vanessa. “Only makes sense to keep you in the loop. You’ve got about twenty minutes before your track walk, there’s pesto eggs going if you’re quick!” Richard left the room as quickly as he entered, and Sophie and Vanessa quickly followed him at the prospect of food.

Most circuits on the F1 calendar were either purpose built, or temporary street circuits. Albert Park was unique in that it was a combination of both. Though the pit buildings were the only permanent structure, every February the complex was transformed with the roads being painted and grandstands, the paddock, hospitality areas and fan zones all built in a matter of weeks.

It certainly made a beautiful sight as Sophie walked with Vanessa and Richard towards the pits, where she would be meeting her engineers for their track walk. They made a beeline for the entrance to the McLaren garage, with Richard trying to avoid as many rogue journalists as possible. Once in the safety of the garage, their walking pace slowed to a stroll as they meandered through the passage way that opened out into the McLaren team garage.

It was predominantly white, with the exception of Sophie and James’ names written on either side of the wall in orange, and an almost unbroken row of LED screens going from one side to the other. Most of them had the team’s name and logo on a papaya orange background, while others that would be tuned into the global TV feed come Friday showed coloured bars.

Sophie’s attention quickly turned to her mechanics, who she greeted in turn, thankfully having remembered all their names.

“All in one piece?” She asked Steve, gesturing to her car.

“Of course!” He replied with a broad smile. His dark skin almost seem to glow in the sun and his short braids were tied back into a ponytail. “A couple of us wanted to join you on the track walk”

“Oh” Her eyes widened. Stood a few metres away in the pitlane was Sophie’s Race Engineer Chris, the team’s Chief Strategist Amir, Junior Engineers Aaron and Gary, and McLaren Team Manager Leon Helmsley, all chatting away. “Is that allowed?” Sophie asked Steve, who chuckled and clapped Sophie’s shoulder with a firm hand.

“It is if you say so”

“Tommy even remembered to put deodorant on this morning” Luke jibed, throwing a greasy rag at his colleague who quietly swore at him. Sophie couldn’t help but smile. All though pre-season testing her mechanics had been nothing but normal around her, accepting her into the team almost immediately. Most mechanics were wary of working on a rookie’s car, but Sophie wasn’t exactly inexperienced, being the reigning Formula 2 champion.

“Well Tommy, if you went to all that effort…” Sophie teased, as Tommy and Luke made their way past their colleagues while Steve gave instructions to the remaining mechanics before the group went to join their colleagues.

“We’re not late are we?”

“No Rich you’re right on time” Leon replied, checking his watch. He stood a little shorter than Sophie’s press officer, with almost curly ginger hair and a very neatly trimmed beard. “Everyone ready to go?”

The track walk was scheduled to take just over an hour, given both the length of the circuit and that it was Sophie’s first time at Albert Park. With an okay from everyone, the group turned left and headed for the pitlane entrance to access the track. They walked across the small stretch of grass that separated the pitlane from the final corner and walked onto the circuit, and the sight of the start-finish straight bathing in the warm mid-Autumn sunshine was more than enough to take Sophie and Vanessa’s breath away.

“Yeah, it’s not a bad view” Chris remarked before looking at his notebook. “Now as I said at your last sim session, any questions, just ask. We want you up to speed as quickly as possible” The comment pulled Sophie out of her daze, and brought her attention to her own notebook. She already had a page set aside for her track walk notes that she started to scribble in as the group made their way down the main straight.

Sophie and her engineers spent almost the whole time chatting about breaking points, corner speeds, and the various points where Sophie wasn’t to breech track limits. Occasionally she would stop and crouch down, to get a closer idea of what her view would be when sat in the car. While she had run countless laps of the circuit in the team’s simulator, nothing was better than seeing the real thing. She was starting to feel comfortable with both her colleagues and the circuit even before they strolled down the long curve between turns 8 and 9 that straddled the Albert Park lake. When they reached the chicane at turns 9 and 10, Sophie tilted her head to the side and slightly narrowed her eyes.

“They still have sausage kerbs at the apex?” She asked aloud. All of Sophie’s engineers muttered in agreement, not sounding that pleased. It had been a talking point amongst the drivers as well for the last two Australian Grand Prix. Sophie wrote it down in her notebook with stars on either side, as a reminder to mention it in the Friday evening driver’s briefing.

“The FIA seem pretty stubborn about using them” Leon remarked, as Sophie pressed her foot against the kerb with a frown.

“Well, getting rid of those kerbs will be one way to make everyone like you” Tommy remarked. Sophie had been trying not to think about the drivers briefing too much. As much as she didn’t want to give a damn about what the drivers she hadn’t met thought about her, she couldn’t help but worry about what kind of response she was going to get from them. Would it be silent acceptance, or judgemental stares?

“You okay Soph?” Vanessa asked, having noticed Sophie’s more furrowed than usual brow.

“Yeah…” Sophie paused, looking across turn 11, and let out a small sigh. No matter what anyone thought, they would never be able to take this weekend away from her.

Sophie didn’t want to leave the circuit when they returned to the pitlane entry, but as she was due to be a participant in the driver’s press conference, she sadly didn’t have a choice.

“Thanks for letting us tag along Sophie” Steve said with a smile. “And don’t worry about the press, Richard will look after you”

“For my sake I hope so” Her mechanics all laughed, with Steve jokingly telling Richard to bring Sophie back to the team’s hospitality building in one piece. “You’re uh… welcome to join my other track walks, that goes for all of you” Sophie said to her mechanics once they had returned to the garage, before quickly handing her notebook and pen to Vanessa, swapping it for her drinks bottle. “See you all later” A chorus of byes rang out as Sophie left the garage with Richard, heading for the pit building’s main entrance.

They didn’t chat about much as they made their way inside and walked through various corridors until Richard stopped outside the correct room.

“Now as I said, this is going to be moderated, and everyone had to submit their questions beforehand. So you should have nothing to worry about,” Richard paused and opened the door to the press conference room. “This is where the driver’s briefing will be taking place as well” Richard said before lowering his voice, as Sophie was the first driver to arrive almost every eye was on her. “But we still have the signal we discussed, hopefully we won’t need it” Richard gave Sophie a reassuring smile as he handed over her team cap. “You also forgot this”

“Thanks” Sophie took the papaya orange cap off Richard’s hands and put it on her head as a tall man in an FIA shirt walked towards them.

“Morning Matteo”

“Good morning Richard, you must be Sophie” Matteo politely extended a tanned hand that Sophie happily accepted. “Nice to finally meet you”

“Lovely to meet you too”

“We just need to fit you with a microphone, then you can sit down. You’ll be in the middle”

Of course I’m front and centre. Sophie thought as she was fitted with a thin wire microphone that was fitted over her ears. Once the sound levels were checked, Sophie made her way to the long black table at the front of the room, emblazoned with the F1 logo in bright red.

As instructed Sophie sat down in the middle chair and looked over at Richard, who gave her a small thumbs up, mouthing ‘you’ll be fine!’ as someone approached the table from the rows of seated journalists.

“At least you can count two friendly faces in here” Sophie whipped her head round, and smiled at the sight of one of the few journalists she actually knew.

“Lee!”

“I’m the new host of the press conferences, and I’ll be doing some of the podium interviews. We both got promoted!” He joked with a wide smile. Lee Howard had been the official reporter for the Formula 3 and Formula 2 series for the past few years, and at every single one of Sophie’s podium finishes and wins, he never sneered or implied she got lucky. He treated her with the same respect as he showed every other driver. And over the past three years they had gotten to know each other fairly well. “No family this weekend?”

“No, um… we tried everything but Will’s swamped with uni assignments, and my parents both have a lot on so…”

“Ah… Edinburgh Airport would have fallen apart without your Mum I take it?”

“Something like that” Sophie said with a small laugh, suddenly feeling a pang in her chest. “They’re coming to other races though. Mum’s going to be at Monaco, everyone will be at Silverstone and Hungary, we’re still working out the second half of the season”

“Oh well that’s good, and I suppose you’ve got the team to rally around you?”

“Yeah…” Sophie trailed off “Everyone’s been… really great”

“Good, good” Lee nodded before looking down at his notebook. “I need to finish my notes, but don’t worry yeah? Me and Matteo will deal with anyone who steps out of line”

“Thanks Lee” Sophie took a quick glance around the room before taking a small sip from her drinks bottle as she heard the door to her right open. A bright laugh was followed by its owner as Benedikt Schmitz walked in with his press officer Annika, both dressed in Red Bull navy blue.

“Good morning” He smiled at Sophie, taking the seat immediately to her left once he had been fitted with a microphone.

“Morning Ben” She noted the strange irony that she felt more comfortable around a triple World Champion, and potentially one of her on-track rivals, as opposed to a room full of journalists.

“How was your track walk?” He asked, and saw the slightly confused look on Sophie’s face. “You must have started five or ten minutes before us, we ended up following you the whole way round!”

“Oh… it was fine, nice to see everything in person”

“It’s a nice track, I’m sure you’ll enjoy the first few laps” Ben paused to take a sip from his own drinks bottle that was styled like a Red Bull can. “Good luck by the way, for the season”

“Thanks…” Sophie paused, and gingerly extended her right hand towards him. “Same to you” Ben gladly shook Sophie’s hand firmly, and went to say something else when another driver joined them after being fitted with a microphone.

“Morning everyone” A North American accent said quietly, just loud enough for the two drivers to hear. Ben looked behind him and greeted the driver that Sophie recognised immediately. Canadian double World Champion, F1’s second ever Black driver, and her McLaren predecessor, Nathan Watkins. “Hi Sophie, so nice to finally meet you. I wanted to say hello at testing but I assumed you would be swamped” Nathan was stood above his seat, his dark curly hair hidden under his Mercedes team cap, and he also held out a hand for Sophie to shake.

“It’s great to meet you too” Once she’d happily shook his hand, he sat down in the chair to her right.

“The team looking after you?” Sophie nodded in reply, as Matteo crossed the room, frantically looking at his watch. “So it’s just us three then?” Nathan asked with a small laugh as he folded his arms across his chest.

“I’m pretty sure everyone only wants to speak to you anyway” Ben remarked in Sophie’s direction. She just leaned her head back and let out a quiet laugh.

“You’re probably right” Sophie huffed. After another couple of minutes, the two missing drivers arrived, and were very quickly shown to their seats. Almost immediately someone started counting down, and the camera man placed right behind where Lee was sat suddenly sprang into action.

“Good morning everyone, and welcome to the first FIA driver’s press conference of the 2023 season at the Australian Grand Prix…” Sophie found herself sitting up a little taller in her chair, suddenly realising that she was on live TV. She quickly adjusted her cap, her fingers brushing over the number 16 that had been embroidered into the peak in light blue thread, when Lee looked directly at Sophie.

“Starting off with you Sophie… we all know that for yourself and the sport this is going to be a massively historic weekend. But all of that aside briefly, what many people might not know about you is that that you do come from a racing background. Specifically your father Mark, worked as a mechanic for McLaren in the 90s. Does it feel almost full circle in a way, bringing the Knightsbridge name back to the team?” That was something Sophie had always liked about Lee, he took the time to think up genuinely interesting questions.

She drummed her fingers against the desk, and took in a deep breath before she answered.

“It’s certainly very surreal. Though the team has changed a lot since my Dad was there, there’s definitely a sense of familiarity in a way. Although I don’t think Martin and Andrew knew about my Dad until after I signed my contract,” She paused, after giving a slightly awkward laugh. “But yeah, to be making my F1 debut is one thing, but to be making it with the team that my father worked for is really, really special” Sophie tried her best to smile away the ache she felt in her chest. What she would have given to have at least one of them waiting for her in the team’s hospitality unit.

“You’re still a rookie finding their feet in the sport. How have you been finding your first few months as a Formula 1 driver?”

Sophie paused, pressing her lips together, and continued to look at Lee as she spoke. “I certainly can’t complain. McLaren have been incredibly welcoming, I actually had some of my mechanics join me on my track walk just now. I think the huge amount of travelling is something I’m going to have to get used to. We mainly race Formulas 2 and 3 in Europe as I’m sure everyone knows…”

“Lots of new circuits to race at this year”

“Yes! I’m so excited to race at all the new tracks this year… well new for me, starting off with Albert Park this week. So… yeah. Definitely lots to look forward to” Sophie added with a bright smile, feeling significantly less nervous than what she had done ten minutes ago. Each driver was asked an opening question by Lee, before the floor was opened up to the gathered journalists. Almost every single one of them raised their hand.

“Hi, Christopher West, BBC Sport. Question for Sophie,” As the journalist paused, Sophie took in a small breath, and turned slightly in her seat to look at him. “As I’m sure a lot of people have asked you already, of the almost 800 Grand Prix drivers, you’re going to be only the sixth woman to compete in a Formula 1 race, assuming you hopefully make it through qualifying. You’ve only recently turned 24 and had quite the rise through the feeder series… can you try and sum up how it all feels?”

Sophie nodded, and let out the breath she had been holding in, having absolutely no idea where to begin.

“Happy Birthday by the way, for last week” Nathan said quietly. Maybe it was to buy Sophie some time to think up an answer, maybe he genuinely meant it. But Sophie said a quiet and polite thank you, before looking back towards the journalist.

“Well…” She started, scratching at a small spot on the side of her neck. “…the plan certainly is to qualify for the race” Sophie used the quiet laugh that rippled through the room as another moment to think. “I have so many feelings going into this weekend, excitement, nerves… but I think the one that I feel the most is gratitude. As you mentioned I’m female F1 driver number six, but the five that have come before me… and every single woman that has ever driven an F1 car, has helped lay the road that’s got me where I am today,” Sophie paused to quickly swallow a small lump in her throat.

“You know, I’m used to being the only female driver in the room most days, but I do so knowing that I’m not the first woman to walk in the room. So… when I take to the track tomorrow, and hopefully the race on Sunday, yes I’ll be driving for myself, and driving for McLaren… but I’m also going to be driving for them”

“Considering the fact that you’re driving for one of the big teams, you could match or even beat Lella Lombardi’s points record this weekend. In once race. How does that feel?”

“I could… but,” Sophie paused, suddenly feeling overwhelmed at the thought. “I don’t want to think about that too much you know? I want to get settled in the team, and with driving the track first before I start thinking about any potential race result. Who knows what order the grid will be in come Sunday”

The press conference concluded after just over forty minutes, with Sophie answering the bulk of the journalist’s questions. So she took a long sip from her drinks bottle as she left the press conference room with Richard, feeling very grateful for the added minerals and electrolytes.

“You, handled yourself really well Sophie” He clapped her on the shoulder with a smile. Sophie didn’t know what to say, as well as a dry throat, her brain felt quite well fried.

“How far through the schedule are we?” She asked.

“Sadly, not very. Though you do have a twenty minute break before your first batch of group interviews,” Richard paused, and even briefly stopped walking as he scrolled through his phone. A small smile made its way onto his face. “But first we need to make a quick stop at the garage”

“We do? What for?”

“Uh… Leon just wants have a quick chat”

“Oh, okay” Sophie gladly followed her press officer as they exited the pit building, and headed back over towards the McLaren garage. The paddock seemed much busier than what it had done earlier on in the morning. Some TV crews were filming pieces to camera, more photographers were snapping away at anyone they deemed important, and there were a few individuals wearing VIP passes milling around.

“We shouldn’t be too long, I know you’ll want to have a small rest after the presser” For some reason, Richard appeared to be doing a terrible job at hiding a grin. Sophie went to ask what he was so happy for, when they arrived in the garage.

Leon wasn’t alone, he was showing Sophie’s car to a man in his late 50s. He wore glasses over his peridot green eyes and had small streaks of silver running through his dark brown hair, and a very familiar furrowed brow.

“Dad!” Sophie exclaimed, not caring who heard, and lunged towards her father as he turned round, embracing him in a bone-crushing hug. For a second, Sophie almost felt like bursting into tears.

“Hello love” Mark replied, sounding on the verge of crying himself, as he placed a gentle hand on the back of his daughter’s head. Eventually Mark let go of his daughter, and they both wiped their eyes, with Richard and Leon both looking quite pleased with themselves.

“I don’t… I thought you said the garage was going to be too busy?” After Mark had retired from being a Formula 1 mechanic, he worked at various repair garages before finally becoming co-owner of a local garage when the rest of the Knightsbridge family moved to Edinburgh a few years ago.

“Well… the lads said that I would regret it if I wasn’t here, so I got in touch with the team and they arranged everything”

“We weren’t going to let you be without some of your family for your first race, think of it as a belated birthday present” Leon added.

“Yeah, I’m here too you know…” A lanky dark haired figure walked into the garage from the pitlane, putting his phone in his pocket.

“Julian!” Sophie greeted her younger cousin with an equally strong hug. Julian was also a racing driver, and had taken her vacated Formula 2 seat. Sophie’s manager Becks was also going to start managing Julian too when the F2 season started in May. “I’m… so happy you’re both here” Sophie sniffled. “I’m glad I don’t have to do this without you”

“Us too” Sophie’s Dad beamed.

“We… should be getting back to the hospitality suite, I did promise Sophie a break before the rest of her interviews” Richard cautiously interjected from the back of the garage.

After checking his watch Leon politely shuffled the Knightsbridges out of the garage and back through the paddock. They caught more attention from journalists this time, noticing the extra members of Sophie’s entourage.

“Now, neither of you have to speak to any media if you don’t want to” Richard explained once they were back inside the McLaren building. “I’ll make sure you get properly shown around later, I know you’ll want to catch up, I’ll grab everyone some drinks” Richard headed over to the bar once he had everyone’s orders as Sophie, Mark and Julian sat down at a table Vanessa had claimed earlier.

“Oh good you made it!” Vanessa said with a relieved smile.

“Wait… you knew this whole time?!” Sophie gawked at her personal trainer.

“Yes of course, I helped arrange it” Vanessa replied, smugly. “Don’t say you’re mad at me, because I know you aren’t”

She certainly wasn’t wrong, as Sophie rested her chin on one of her hands, smiling at the sight of her family.

“Here we are…” Richard returned a few minutes later with a small tray of teas and coffees. “I’ll give you all some space, I’ll see if I can re-arrange things to give you a few extra minutes” He jogged off with his phone pressed to his ear as Vanessa passed around everyone’s drinks.

“So, here’s to Sophie’s first Grand Prix weekend” Vanessa raised her espresso cup with a grin.

“Well done sweetheart, you made it” Mark held out his mug to Sophie, who gently clinked it with hers. She had absolutely no idea what the rest of the weekend would entail, but at least she had her family.

James cut a cool figure as he walked through the paddock towards the media pen. He was dressed in his usual choice of white collared team shirt with black straight cut jeans and plimsole style trainers (purely for comfort, as Thursdays were the busiest in terms of footfall). He wore his orange team cap, the number 12 embroidered on the peak, and dark aviator sunglasses over his eyes. His press officer Katie briefly talked him though the journalists they were going to talk to before they entered the small media pen.

As they made their way round they had to jostle for position with other drivers and their press officers for about twenty minutes or so, before James was finally stood in front of the last journalist, who unfortunately worked for one of the UK tabloids.

“Do you think you can get your third win in a row at Albert Park this weekend”

“Uh… It’s hard to say. It’s always tricky trying to figure out the pecking order after pre-season testing, we’ll have a better idea tomorrow of where we sit in the field, but I’m always hopeful” James replied with a small smile.

“I know there’s been so much talk about your new team mate over the Winter. Are you particularly phased by all of the hype around her, as opposed to the focus being away from the team’s chances for the season?”

James was grateful that his dark sunglasses allowed him to briefly scowl at the journalist, as he contemplated his answer. He didn’t mind being asked about Sophie as much, he’d certainly been expecting it. Only one or two drivers on the grid had been born when Giovanna Amati competed in her last race.

“Sophie has every right to be here, as much as myself or anyone else on the grid. She’s the reigning F2 champion, she won in F3 a few of years ago… on paper she has the making of a really good racing driver. And you know, I’ve worked alongside women in almost every aspect for my Formula 1 career… so why should having a female team mate be any different?”

The journalist let out a sheepish thank you and Katie led James out of the media pen.

“The fuck was that about?” James asked under his breath.

“Oh we all know exactly what that was about…” Katie frowned, checking her phone. “Still, it’s going to mean a lot for people to hear you say what you did” James hummed, this was set to be his thirteenth season in Formula 1, and he’d seen the sport change an awful lot since his debut in 2011. But when it came to Sophie, he wondered if it had changed enough.

Friday 17th March – Albert Park Circuit

The atmosphere at the circuit was somewhat relaxed come Friday morning. Members of different teams smiled and said hello to each other in the paddock, photographers and camera crews milled around looking for good shots in what was another bright sunny day in Melbourne. All of the drivers had arrived early for meetings with their teams, and for Sophie it was a much needed sense of normality as opposed bouncing between interviews like a pinball.

The engineers briefing lasted just under an hour, as they had to plan for both first and second practice. Sophie had scribbled as much as she could into her notebook while listening to all of the engineers and James’ comments, and once the meeting was over she went to her room for a few minutes of peace and quiet before she got changed out of her team gear and into her fireproofs. Once changed, Sophie went through her pre-session stretches with Vanessa, before finally pulling one her race suit and boots. And with a final tug of her ponytail, they left for the garage.

Mark and Julian had decided to stay in the team hospitality suite for first practice, claiming that they didn’t want Sophie to be too distracted. She suspected the reality was that her Dad was simply too nervous to be in the garage. Sophie hugged her relatives as tightly as she could, saying she loved them both before walking with Vanessa towards the garage. Both women wore dark sunglasses over their eyes as they briskly walked through the paddock.

“It’s a normal day” Vanessa said, handing Sophie her drinks bottle as she carried Sophie’s helmet with her other hand. “Just a normal day…” Sophie wasn’t sure who Vanessa was trying to reassure as they entered the garage.

As she handed the bottle back to her personal trainer, mechanics on both sides of the garage were running final checks on the cars. Sophie did her best to squeeze by them as she approached Chris, who was stood by the end monitor on the island that separated the two sides of the McLaren garage.

“Hey” She smiled a little breathlessly. “I’d like to do that additional lap on my outrun, just to be sure” The agreed plan for first practice was to ensure Sophie got acclimatised to the circuit as quickly as possible, so they could turn their focus to fine tuning the car’s setup.

“Not a problem” Like almost everyone in the garage, he had his own orange headset that in this case was hanging around his neck as he wrote into his own notebook. “We also want you to be the first car on track, Martin’s call”

“Oh… really?” Sophie asked with genuine surprise. Chris just gave a small nod and a knowing smile, it didn’t sound like she had much of a choice on the matter. “Okay then”

“Great, session starts in five so you’ll want to get ready,” Chris looked at the back to the garage to give a signal to Vanessa to prep Sophie’s helmet, when a small smile crept onto his face. “Looks like there’s someone here to see you”

Sophie looked towards the back of the garage where her small assigned seating area was, and saw her Dad and Julian next to Vanessa. She smiled as she walked towards them, and held out a hand towards her still anxious looking father.

“It’s just first practice Dad”

“I know, I know… Julian was right, I would regret it if I didn’t see you drive out for the first time in person” Sophie said nothing, and enveloped her father in another tight hug. “I love you” His voice cracked slightly, as he kissed the top of Sophie’s head.

“Love you too Dad”

“Don’t crash” Sophie looked at Julian in mock disapproval as she brushed past him to collect her things.

“Thank you, dearest cousin” She quipped, putting in her radio in-ears. Next was her balaclava, then Sophie completely zipped up her race suit, making sure the radio cable didn’t get caught in the zip, before lastly, putting on her helmet and HANS device.

As she was making her F1 debut, Sophie had decided an upgrade of her helmet colours was in order. The British Racing Green base now had a soft metallic sheen to it, and the three alternating horizontal stripes had been changed to a matte white and chrome silver, the only new addition was the number 16 on the very top of her helmet, also in matte white, as well as the team’s sponsor logos.

Once the helmet was on her head, Sophie tightly fastened the chin strap, and took in one last look at her family before walking over towards the car. She stepped into the cockpit from the left hand side, and held onto the underside of the protective halo as she lowered herself down into her seat. Once comfortable, one of her mechanics fastened the harness as she plugged in the radio cable, and lastly, put on her gloves.

“And radio check Sophie, radio check” Chris’ voice drifted into her ears, as he must have taken his seat on the pitwall.

Sophie paused to let out a quick exhale.

“Radio loud and clear” She gave her steering wheel one final look over, mentally going over what every button and dial did, as well as checking the small screen in the middle. Thanks to the sheer number of laps she’d done in pre-season testing, it was all thankfully drummed into her memory.

“Session starts in two minutes”

“Copy” Sophie wriggled her shoulders as she looked at the two TV screens that was placed in front of the cockpit, almost entirely blocking her view in front. One screen showed a map of the circuit with a timing screen, the other was tuned into the global TV feed that switched from a panning shot of the circuit to a close up of one of the Aston Martin garages.

“Car 16 is ready to go” Steve’s voice came over the radio, as number one mechanic it was his job to give the all clear to the pit wall. And his confirmation brought a flurry of life to Sophie’s side of the garage. Vanessa moved the screens away with one hand, as the rest of Sophie’s mechanics whipped the heating blankets off the tyres, laying them back on top once the car had been lowered off its jacks to the ground. As Sophie flicked down her visor, Steve walked backwards into the pitlane. Looking once, then twice over each shoulder, before giving the okay signal to Sophie with one hand, and pointed down the pitlane with the other.

Sophie eased her car out of the garage, immediately pressing the pit limiter button as she turned right, and trundled to a stop at the end of the pitlane. As the team had wanted, she was the first car in front of the red stop light.

“Session starts in thirty seconds. We will be doing out lap plus one, then in lap. Try not to have too much fun out there”

“I’ll try” Sophie chuckled back to her race engineer, and slowly exhaled. After all the buzz and frenzied attention from the world’s media, this was where she wanted to be. In the quiet of her own F1 car, waiting to go out on track.

And when the pit exit light finally turned green, she pressed her foot down on the accelerator pedal, and drove onto the circuit.

Sophie meandered carefully through her out lap, not wanting to do the unthinkable and bin the car in the gravel, knowing full well the global TV feed cameras would be following her at every turn. So she took it easy as she accelerated out of the final corner and onto her timed lap. As it was purely for Sophie to have more time to get familiar with her breaking and turn in points, she deliberately wasn’t going terribly quick, but she wasn’t driving at a snail’s pace either.

She broke hard for turn 1. Turning sharply right, before gently veering left for turn 2. Then went down the second DRS straight before braking hard again for turn 3, and weaved through turns 4 to 8, as the track opened out to the long curve before the chicane at turns 9 and 10. Taking it easy around the kerbs, Sophie went through the final short straight that led to turn 11, and eased through the two right handed corners before the pitlane entry came into view. She ignored it, turning sharply for turn 13, and finally easing onto the accelerator as she went through turn 14, and down the main straight to finish the lap.

“Very nice Sophie, that is a 1:22.674, we are the only car out but that’s still P1. And box this lap”

“Copy” Sophie smiled as she replied to Chris’ message, she knew that being the fastest of one wasn’t a huge achievement, but she realised now why the team wanted her to be first out onto the track. It was McLaren’s way of making a statement not just to the entire sport, but to the rest of the world too.

The first and second practice sessions passed by in a fairly structured pattern. Out lap, return to the pits, look over data, drive more laps, quick debrief with the engineers, post-driving stretches, have lunch, get back in the car, repeat.

It had been a fairly smooth day. Sophie thankfully hadn’t crashed, but she hadn’t been blisteringly quick either. And neither had James. As everyone sat down for the post-session debrief, some of the engineers were visibly scratching their heads as they looked at the data screens. It seemed like McLaren were off the pace compared to Red Bull and Ferrari. Everyone had assumed that their days in the midfield were a very, very long way behind them. But maybe the shine was starting to wear off.

Despite picking up on his team’s flash of anxiety, Martin kept a cool head in the debrief. As well as the race team in Melbourne, there were more engineers back at the factory in Woking analysing the data from both practice sessions, trying to extract every tenth of a second from the car they could find.

“Good work today everyone, hopefully today was just a blip and we’ll be faster tomorrow. That’ll be all”

Sophie let out a small sigh as she slid her headset off her ears and down onto the desk. She collected her notebook as she stood up from her chair, and got in the queue to leave the room. Herself, James and Team Manager Leon were the last to leave, as they were headed for the Driver’s Briefing that was due to start in around twenty minutes. It was one of the last items on the day’s itinerary before Sophie was free to go back to the hotel.

“I wouldn’t worry about this too much” Leon sighed with a frown. “Everyone spends most of their time trying to drag each other under the bus”

“Ah, the same as Formula 2 then” Sophie chuckled. Racing drivers were competitive by nature, especially when it came to calling out the inconsistency of who did and didn’t get penalties for the same offence. “I’m going to ask about the kerbs at 9 and 10” James and Leon looked at each other with raised eyebrows.

“Good luck, we’ve been asking for the past two years for the FIA to remove them” James sighed.

“Well…” Sophie paused as they reached the door to the pit building. “There’s no harm in trying a third time” She huffed, following her colleagues inside. They made their way to the press conference room, which had been converted for the drivers briefing by adding two extra rows of chairs, and removing the TV camera that had been sat in the middle. About half of the drivers and their respective team managers had arrived already. And the volume of conversation in the room quietened somewhat when Sophie, James and Leon walked in.

Sophie followed her colleagues to seats in the second row as FIA race director Pat Robertson was sat at the long black table with two of his colleagues, closely reading various sheets of paper.

“Bonsoir ma amie!” A hand clapped Sophie’s shoulder as she sat down. She carefully turned round in her seat as she was rather snuggly sat in-between her McLaren colleagues, and saw Nico grinning at her. “How was your day?” He asked brightly.

“Fine, yours?”

“Not bad” He shrugged.

More drivers and team managers slowly filed in, and the briefing finally got underway five minutes late, with Pat giving a small reminder to all ten present team managers about punctuality. Once going over the lap count for the race, the tyre compounds that were to be used, and the various small tweaks to the sporting regulations for the year, Pat opened the floor to questions from the drivers. Sophie was the first to half raise her hand.

“Yes, Sophie” Pat and both his FIA colleagues all looked squarely at the McLaren driver.

“I’d like to ask about turns 9 and 10,” Sophie quickly flicked through the pages of her notebook until she found her track walk notes. “I just wanted some clarification about why the FIA is still choosing to use sausage kerbs at those corners, when you don’t use them anywhere else on the track. I know just about everyone com-”

“Hey, shut up. She’s speaking, let her finish” Sophie, and just about everyone else in the room heard Nico hiss at someone behind her. She tried her best to carry on, unphased.

“Just about every driver on the grid complained about them last year. For exam-” Sophie heard someone talking not so quietly behind her, and blocked it out as best as she could, only for James to turn round in his seat.

“It’s common curtesy to let every driver say what they have to Erik. I know you’d give everyone else in this room that same privilege. Do the same for Sophie would you?” He said extremely coolly.

Sophie bit down on her bottom lip as James turned back round. This wasn’t the first drivers briefing where she’d been disturbed or interrupted by someone trying to start up a conversation, but she’d certainly hoped that her new F1 colleagues would be as gracious as Nico, James or Benedikt had been.

She quickly cleared her throat, and swallowed the urge to summarise what she had planned on saying. Sophie was going to finish her sentence, and then some.

“As I was saying, when Nathan Watkins had his crash with one of the Ferrari’s last year, it wasn’t any fault of his own. He simply hit the kerb at turn 9 at the slightest wrong angle, and half his car flew up into the air meaning he couldn’t control where he was going when he landed. So he couldn’t stop himself from driving into the Ferrari. It’s dangerous. I get that it’s to help with policing track limits, but we all know you won’t hesitate to give us a penalty if you feel we’re too far out of line… surely it’s our fault as drivers if we don’t listen to our engineers”

Unlike some of Sophie’s fellow drivers, Pat listened to everything Sophie had to say.

“We’ll take that on-board, thank you Sophie”

Ben Schmitz, Cristóbal Vasquez from Alpine, Nico and James, all expressed their agreements with Sophie’s complaint, with Pat repeating that himself and the stewards would discuss it after the briefing.

Nothing much else was said, as it was only the start of the season, and the briefing was concluded after fifteen minutes. As Sophie stood up from her chair, she felt two hands on her shoulder, and nearly jumped out of her skin. James looked at her with an apologetic smile, while Nico looked almost seething with rage.

“I’ll deal with him” He squeezed Sophie’s shoulder before marching out of the room, following the Audi driver in question. Sophie felt rooted to the spot as half the drivers glanced at her as they walked past. It was hard to tell if they were staring out of curiosity, or glancing out of pity.

“Come on” James whispered into Sophie’s ear as he moved his hand to between her shoulder blades. “Best foot forward”

Half of Sophie wanted to run after Erik Braun and ask what the hell his problem was, but she feared that causing a scene and shouting at him wouldn’t give her the best public image. So she followed James’ advice, and walked in step with him and Leon all the way back to the team hospitality suite.

“What happened?” Mark asked when they were barely in the door. He was sat at a table with Julian, Vanessa and Richard, and they were the only ones in the room that could tell Sophie was trying to hide how stunned she was. “Soph?”

“It was nothing Dad” She said quickly, and took a step in the direction of her driver room, when Leon put a hand on her shoulder.

“One of the Audi drivers tried to start up a conversation with someone else while Sophie was talking in the drivers briefing, myself and Martin will handle it” Mark’s face almost turned red as he let out a restrained breath. “I’m going to find Martin, and we’re going over to Audi to deal with it. You do not have to put up with that kind of behaviour, okay?” Leon said firmly, turning his attention to Sophie.

As if on command, Martin emerged from his office, and headed straight for the group. Once the incident had been explained to him by Leon and James, the Team Principle and Team Manager left, making a beeline for the Audi building. Leaving their two drivers and Sophie’s entourage alone.

“Don’t Dad, you’ll say something you regret” Sophie looked her father square in the eyes, she could tell he was seconds away from jumping out of his seat and marching over to Audi. “Nico and James stood up for me, and the team are handling it” She hated how quiet her voice sounded as she spoke.

“I know Martin and Leon, Mr Knightsbridge, and some of the people at Audi. I can assure you it’ll get dealt with… not just because Sophie’s our driver, but because of your history with the team as well” James butted in. After a few moments Mark let out a sigh, and slowly sat back down. “Speaking of the team… we’ve got one more engineers meeting”

“It’ll be fine Dad… we don’t have to fight these things alone anymore, okay?” Sophie went over to the table, and squeezed her father’s hand tightly, remembering every single karting race where Mark had defended Sophie’s mere presence as well as her victories. Mark didn’t say anything, and just squeezed Sophie’s hand back, before letting her go with James to the engineers office.

#my writing #Life In The Fast Lane #LITFL Chapters

0 notes