In Love With Formula 1

Part 4

I woke up to loud banging on my front door and as a disheveled person in the mornings I didn't really want to answer it but I knew I had to. As soon as I opened the door Charles Leclerc was there - what was the time? I thought to myself - I stood there with a bewildered look on my face.

"Bonjour erm I mean hi it's nearly time for qualifying and I was wondering if you wanted a lift down to the garage."

"But you drive for Ferrari?"

"Yeh and I realised you live like 2 seconds away from me, so do you want a lift or not?"

"We'll drive my car and give me 10 minutes to get ready, help yourself to a drink." I said as I was frantically running back into my bedroom finding something to wear. I ended up choosing these leopard print flared trousers and a black crop top and I threw on my black slip on vans, grabbing my keys as I fumbled out of my front door.

"What car do you have, am I going to die, are you a good driver?" Charles was asking all these stupid questions so I said maybe a bit harshly,

"Do you want to get there on time or not?!"

He immediately went quiet, peace at last I thought.

As we made our way to my car I heard Charles audibly gasp and he was stammering

"That's your car? No way, that- that's like the coolest car ever"

It was a Nissan Sunny B11 from 1984. I guess you could say I had a thing for classic cars.

"Yes it's my car, now get in, I cant believe you are this irresponsible to be late to qualifying!"

"Sorry about that, I'll take the blame though" he said whilst I was reversing out of my parking spot and on to the roads of Monaco.

The drive there was silent, I was guessing he needed to 'get in the zone' for qualifying, it being his home race and all. We arrived at the harbour and I told him to get out and run to his garage whilst I found a parking spot, which was rather difficult, it being race weekend after all. I finally found a spot and started walking to the pit lane checking my phone to see what time it was.

10:15am, the little bugger, Charles Leclerc was going to get a beating from me after qualifying. I was here now so I might as well make the most of it, I walked into the Mclaren garage and helped myself to a decent sized breakfast with lots of fruit and a full English breakfast to balance it out.

By the time I had finished my breakfast it was nearly 11:15am so I knew the drivers would be preparing for quali, I quietly made my way over to the garage but I was stopped by someone with a big camera and I realised that it was Sky Sports F1 with Natalie Pinkham.

"I just wanted to say I absolutely love your trousers they scream bold and I absolutely love it" Natalie said,

I chuckled and responded with
" thank you, you look amazing as well"
she did, Natalie always looked like she was going for a fancy meal out and I adored it.

" Thank you lovely, anyway we caught a video of you walking into the paddock yesterday and we were wondering if we could use it for a part of the introduction to the pre-race show tomorrow"

"I will have to have a look at it but yeh I don't mind you using it, as long as I look good though"

Natalie showed me the clip and it was slo-mo of me walking and I looked so powerful, I had this amazing resting bitch face on and I exhumed power, I absolutely loved it.

"Yes yes you can use that it's perfect for the Monaco Grand-Prix"

"Thank you so much, I hope to see more of you around the paddock" Natalie said with a wink and then she started walking away. I thought to myself that that was better than an impromptu interview so I was relieved with that. But why does everyone want to talk to me, I honestly didn't understand it.

I walked into the garage and put on the papaya headset to listen to the commentary by Crofty and I saw that Daniel was currently in P1 after the chequered flag for Q1 and Lando was P4. Both of the drivers were quickly wheeled into their garages for Q2 and I thought about strategies for the race, would starting on a medium help with track position because track position was so important round here, or would a more racey start on the softs be more beneficial? Before I could decide which one was the best idea both the drivers were pulling out of their garages, Daniel and Lando were both using the soft tyres. They went on to finish Q2 with Lando in P3 and Daniel still in P1, he definitely liked this circuit. Q3 started and I saw that Daniel was on the medium tyres and Lando was on the softs, meaning they would start the race tomorrow on these tyres.

In a massive time battle to set the fastest lap the latest Hamilton went P2 first, unable to beat Daniels time, but then this bright red Ferrari of Charles Leclerc came storming past and went P1 by 2 tenths of a second. Lando managed to beat Lewis' time and go P3 meaning there was a high chance of a double podium for the Mclaren boys, definitely something to be excited for. P4 went to Pierre Gasly and I choked a small gasp when he went P4. It was going to be a very interesting race I could already tell.

Lando had media duties for a while so I was talking to his family and I noticed both of his sisters were here, his brother and both of his parents, it was very sweet and they were the loveliest family and really down to earth considering they were extremely rich and Lando invited me here knowing me as a waitress in a small cafe. They said they were going to visit the cafe after i gave the place a glowing review, totally not biased or anything.

"So why do you live in Monaco, are you extremely rich and evading tax?" Lando's younger sister Cisca asked.

Flo nudged Cisca giving her a stern look but as soon as she looked at me we all erupted in laughter and the rest of his family looked at us like we were maniacs.

"I wish I was as rich as everyone here! But no I moved here a few months ago to get away from dreary England."

"I want to live here when I'm older" Cisca said

"I prefer Switzerland as a tax haven compared to here" I jokingly said back,

"I do have a beautiful view for the sunsets from my balcony though so it isn't all bad here" I added.

"I will have to see it sometime" she said back very excitedly.

As soon as she said that Lando appeared and I suspected he wanted to spend some time with his family so after saying hi to each other I said we can catch up later, telling him to spend time with his family. He did as he was told and had dinner with his family in the hospitality area, I spent most of my time by the harbour, smoking a cigarette. Lando then texted me asking me where I was and he made his way down to where I was sat.