Lando's Love (2021)

Chapter 18

A whole week with Astrid and Carlos is what I call a good week. Astrid didn't accompany me to the centre to spend some time with Carlos when she didn't have a class to attend. They cooked together; I was never so happy to come home for dinner as this week. Carlos and I went for a run while Astrid accompanied us on her bike. It was nice to enjoy my girlfriend, my best friend while preparing the next race: Imola. I was really looking forward to going back to this mythical circuit. I have to admit that I'm afraid of some of the corners but it's historic: it's an old circuit, difficult but great to drive.

My work on the simulator allowed me to correct some mistakes I made during the 2020 race. I wanted to correct those mistakes and improve my times. I was fast with the car this year; I knew that I just had to be as perfect as possible in every race to get the best results possible.

During this week with Carlos and Astrid, we went to a restaurant for dinner on Thursday evening. I had invited Charlotte, Tom, Zak, and Andreas to join us as a surprise for Carlos. We had dinner at a small Italian restaurant in Woking that Carlos and I loved to go to when he was still at McLaren. Carlos, Astrid, and I arrived at the restaurant and I informed them that we had to wait for someone outside. They both looked at me intrigued. I hadn't said anything to Astrid, maybe it was a mistake that she didn't know. When the others arrived, Carlos had a huge smile on his face. Making and seeing my best friend so happy, made me happy too. Astrid leaned towards me and whispered in my ear her opinion: "It's very nice of you Lan, you didn't have to. You are a good person my love! ". The dinner went on quietly, happily, and well. Everyone was happy to be there. When we left the restaurant, Carlos took me aside while Astrid talked with Charlotte and Zak.

"Lando, can I talk to you? "
"Sure Carlos, what's up? "
"I just want to thank you. "
"For ? "
"For organizing all this. "
"You're welcome! I know you miss them now that you're gone, but I know they miss you too. So as long as you're here, we might as well all get together like we used to, just with Astrid too. "
"Thank you so much Lan. You are the best! "
"I miss you Carlos, you know that. I loved talking to you, having our evenings..."
"I miss you too Muppet. But you know I get on well with Charles. "
"Are you trying to make me jealous?"
"No, not at all, you're still my best friend. What about you and Daniel? "
"It's not great... I can't talk to him as much as I used to talk to you. When something goes wrong, he doesn't want me to help. He also thinks he is the leader of the team, which he is not. I know that at McLaren there is no number one and number two driver, but I've been here longer than him, he should respect that. "
"I understand but don't forget that he is a seven-time GP winner, and he has already suffered a situation once where the other driver was considered more important than him. Be patient, he realises that you are an important member of McLaren and he has to respect that you have been there for almost 5 years now. "
"Thanks, Carlos, we should join the others, I think they are waiting for us. "

We joined the others, said goodbye to each other and went home. We went to sleep. It was a very pleasant week and, very quickly, I found myself travelling with Carlos and Astrid to Italy where we were going to stay with Carlos who lived half an hour away from the track. Carlos' flat was quite sober, and the decoration was simple. There was no real personal touch apart from a few trinkets here and there.

I knew that Ferrari didn't know what to do with him when he came to the factory to work with everyone because the people at the factory weren't used to a driver coming so much. He explained to me that rather than arriving on Monday morning and leaving on Friday afternoon, he arrived on Tuesday morning and left on Friday morning. So, his flat was only used half the week outside of race weeks. I understand that he doesn't necessarily set up his apartment to his liking, there's no real need for it. When he was at McLaren, it was different, he taught me to come almost every day, to arrive in the morning and to leave late in the evening to be able to discuss with the engineer's day and night. We liked to spend a lot of time together in the simulator when we didn't have meetings and training with Rupert for him or Jon for me. I really missed those times. It was great to share all that with him. I only hope for two things this year: to be able to make podiums again because McLaren deserves it, but I also hope that Carlos can make podiums. He was scared last year when he looked at Ferrari's season, he was scared that the car wasn't improved enough for him to be able to fight against us properly. On top of that, why not put the two of us on the podium together...