Eyes on the prize- Sebastian Vettel

1. First meetings

Hello all! This is a brand new story I have been meaning to get out for a while. The first chapter is only a brief introduction to the storyline and the character, so no Seb just yet! Hopefully you enjoy and like the new idea! Let me know what you think of it!
HB3112

The 2017 formula1 championship had just ended, and Mercedes and Lewis Hamilton had been crowned champions, grabbing both the constructors and driver's titles. Joey had travelled to Abu Dhabi that week, to meet up with FIA bosses regarding an offer they had decided to make her. She had participated in many rounds of interviews, behavioural and safety assessments and driving tests but she had finally reached the final stage of the "women for the FIA" program, which were going to give her the opportunity to sit next to Bernd Mayländer and be his co-driver for the following season, as Richard Darker took a year off. Joey had grown up loving racing and being quite good at it. As a young kid, she had competed in many karting events throughout the country and had ended up competing in many sports car series, even getting to the point of scoring podiums. However, that year, she had decided to take a break from competing to grab the opportunity of working at the pinnacle of motorsports. She was happy to be part of such a new program that was working on levelling the obvious inequity in the paddock.

Joey swiped her pass to access the paddock and directed herself to the FIA offices where she was meeting Bernd and Charles Whiting. The nerves finally hit her, as she introduced herself to a young lady that was standing next to the entrance, directing the guests to the right areas of the motorhome.

'Ah! Joey, welcome' Charles stated, walking over to her to shake her hand. 'I've heard so much about you. Please come in, come meet the team' he added.

Joey could barely speak, as the nerves had finally hit her for real, and followed him to a room. She recognised a couple of people she had met throughout the process and, of course, Bernd who gave her a warm, comforting smile, noticing how she was nervously playing with her necklace.

'Alright, quick boring introduction. I'm Charlie, this is Bernd.' The German gave her a little wave 'and you remember Edward and Keith from our London offices' Joey nodded, politely greeting the men in the room. 'Oh, and this is Becky. She will explain what she does in a minute... let's talk about you'

Joey started telling everyone in the room about her journey through the motorsport world, how she had grown up with only her dad and how he had juggled three or four jobs to be able to let her follow her dream and how she had promised she'd finally repay her debt to him by helping him out to retire early.

It felt weird to tell complete strangers about her, rather odd, family history but she somehow already felt at ease with the FIA team.

At the end of their meeting, Becky jumped in to eventually introduce herself and explain what she had planned with her.

Becky worked for the PR department and was in charge of the "women for the FIA" programme. She had organised for Joey to sit in the car with some of the drivers who had only been instructed to teach her about race cars and let her drive a short lap. The drivers in question were Daniel Ricciardo, Lewis Hamilton and Kimi Räikkönen. The laps would be recorded and shared at the upcoming end of year FIA event happening in France before the end of the year.

Joey hadn't loved the idea of lying about herself to three very talented formula1 drivers just for some PR entertainment, but she knew she couldn't really say no on her first day at the paddock.

Becky instructed her to wear a dark wig, to cover her bright ginger hair, and passed her two brown contact lenses, as she feared some of the drivers might recognise her from her racing career. She had also given her a whole new persona, with the name of Sarah Smith.

The first person Joey met was Daniel. She had seen so much about him, she was hoping he'd be as easy going as he seemed in his race persona.

'I've been told you want to learn all there is to know about race cars. I can help you with that' he started. 'Ever driven one?'

'Does a fiat punto count?' She joked.

'Possibly slightly different' he replied with a smirk.

For Joey, pretending not to know how to drive a race car had been harder than she expected, but she managed to keep the act up with the RedBull and Mercedes drivers.

Lewis seemed so different from the young kid she had met all those years before, when she was karting against him. The two had a decent relationship, growing up, being mostly the outcast and underdogs of the races they had entered together. She wondered if he remembered her or if the years gone had made him forgetful of those early calls in the wet UK karting scene.

At the end of the day, Kimi joined her in the car. He mumbled some words of greetings and started explaining to her what to do in the car. Joey pressed lightly on the accelerator, trying to look uneasy and scared of the horsepower.

'Are you not gonna help me with turn 1?' She asked, trying to sound panicked as she slowed down.

'No, I can see you know what you're doing. You haven't asked me one question about the track, even if I told you nothing about it. Your shifting is too on point too.' He stated. 'So you know what to do. I can just relax. Also, pick it up. I've got dinner with Minttu in an hour' he giggled.

'Wow.' She chuckled. 'Impressive. You're the first one who realised I actually know what I'm doing.'

'I've been around for a while... what's your real name... "Sarah"? Joey chuckled at his air commas.

'Joey. Joey O'Shea. You're good'

'Heard your name before, I'm sure.'he said, curiously. 'What are you doing here, then?'

'Guess you'll find out in due course' she said, pushing through the last straight flat out.

'Alright. Thanks for the lift, it's nice to be the passenger sometimes' he joked. 'See you soon... Sarah' he said and without waiting for her reply, he walked away with a lady in a Ferrari uniform.

Joey took her helmet off and joined Becky, a bright smile beaming from side to side. She couldn't believe that out of the three drivers, Kimi had actually been the funniest one. She had seemed to connect with the so-called Iceman and he looked completely different from who he chose to show the world. Joey left the paddock that day feeling ecstatic about the following year.

Sitting in her hotel room, Joey couldn't believe she had agreed for the camera crew to follow her around for the rest of the day. Becky had told her they wanted to get a little collection of moments to properly introduce her at the fia event.

Joey decided to call her brother, Matthew, straight away. Growing up without their mum, the siblings had always been extremely close, especially since their dad decided to move from Ireland to London for a fresh start. With all their school companions mocking them for their Irish accents, Joey and Matt had developed a "secret code" that meant they would only speak in their real accents to each other and to their Irish family and friends.

'My darling brother!' She exclaimed once he had picked up her video call. 'I can't believe any of this is real!'

'Well, J. We all know you deserve it.' Matt replied. 'Mum would be really proud'

'Or she would be telling me off for going too fast like she did when I learnt to ride a bike.' She reminded him.

'Or she would scream out off the top of her lungs like the first time she saw you karting. Well, you go get them J'

'Mate, I'll be ahead of them most of the time'