Sebastian Vettel: Revenge (PART 1)

Chapter 2: Test day

13 December 2021.

It was a crazy night in RedBull's garage. The team spent most of the night celebrating its first championship among drivers and teams after a gap of a dozen years. Years of research on the car and keeping Max Verstappen under their wing had paid off, the team hoped to keep the good run going in 2022, they were ready for the next generation of cars. They were the only team to celebrate their success so pompously, McLaren ended their celebrations after midnight because they had to be ready for the next day - new tyre tests awaited them. RedBull is taking part the day after McLaren. The British team will not be alone, Mercedes has also been appointed to the task. The German team bid farewell to Valterri Bottas with a final team photo and put out a cake in his honour with his number and flag right on top. Although the relationship between the team and Bottas has been quite difficult in recent races, they didn't show that to each other on their final day together. After a dignified farewell, the Finn headed to the airport to return to his home country. After the celebrations, as Lewis headed to his hotel room on foot, he wondered who could replace Valterri for next season. The list for the Mercedes seat is quite long and there are just as many candidates vying for the spot, but who knows who will become the new team-mate of the seven-time world champion. Hamilton was a little worried that it might be George Russell. He saw a lot of talent and determination in him that would push Russell to produce fantastic results. Lewis was already used to the fact that he usually got a driver who would help for him (Rosberg in 2016 being the exception). Instead of helping him, Russell would probably fight himself against Verstappen, who was in fantastic form in 2021. When Lewis reached his room and was ready to go to bed, Toto Wolff called him.
"Hi Toto, does anything happen?" asked Lewis in a now sleepy voice .
"No, everything is fine. I just wanted to remind you that tomorrow you are taking part in a test for new tyres, don't be late. Be at 10 a.m. in our box" the man communicated.
"Sure Toto, bye" replied Lewis then hung up. He put the phone on the dresser and went to bed to sleep.

A few hours later

At 9 a.m. sharp, the Mercedes car was ready for action. The team had prepared the car first thing in the morning to make sure it was in good working order and that nothing would stand in the way of doing at least 60 laps on the new tyres. The McLaren started early because by 9.30 a.m. Lando Norris had already left his garage and was completing his first laps. The track temperature was quite low, so Norris quite often locked up his tyres or had to countersteer. These were not classic Abu Dhabi conditions. Instead of hot-as-fire tarmac, the road was cold and not much grip like ice. At the same time, Lewis was heading to his box. In the meantime, he managed to hand out a few autographs and take some photos with the fans he met in the paddock. Even though the season was officially over, a few rich people decided to stay for the tests, sitting in the stands and exploring the paddock. When Lewis entered his garage he was immediately greeted by his race engineer, who gave him some recommendations on track behaviour and hinted at what they would like to check in these runs.
"The track temperature is low, we can see that Norris is struggling to stay on track. Don't charge, we need clean and clear data, run a minimum of about 60 laps. This will give us a good reading of the data and we can relax. RedBull and Ferrari are taking part in testing tomorrow." communicated the engineer giving notes for Lewis.
"We need to watch RedBull's times tomorrow," sighed Lewis looking over the engineer's notes.
"Indeed we do. Meanwhile, get in the car and do what you do best" said the man handing the helmet to the driver. After a few minutes Lewis was ready to drive. When he took to the track he could immediately feel the difference in handling compared to yesterday. The tarmac was cool and it was difficult to find much grip on it. Re-warming the tyres was also not the easiest thing to do, on cold asphalt it is hard to get the tyres warm enough and even harder to keep them at the right temperature. As time went on, however, Hamilton became more confident about the track conditions and improved lap by lap, gaining tenths of a second.
"Okay Lewis speed up a bit, your current best time is 1.36.9, Norris' is 1.36.4" resounded the voice of Lewis' race engineer on lap 15.
"Where am I losing the most?"
"Sector two is not the best with you. You are losing more than 0.3 seconds in it," replied the engineer. This did not satisfy Lewis, he tried his best, but his car kept getting understeer and pressing the accelerator earlier caused him to lose grip.
It was only on lap 34 that Lewis managed to get below the 1.36.5 mark, doing a time of 1.36.455, still not a satisfactory result for Mercedes, but at least they were able to catch up with McLaren, who could not improve. On Lap 39, Hamilton pinched the car at the headland giving too much throttle on the exit.
"Lewis, are you OK ?" asked the engineer seeing the incident.
"Yes...it's difficult to overheat the tyres in these conditions" replied Lewis as he cooled the tyres on the straight.
On lap 45 Lewis was pulled into the pits, smoke was noticed coming out from under the engine flap in his car.
"Ok Lewis , get in the pits, there's light smoke coming out from under the engine, we have to stop testing," he said.
"Really now? The tyres just got a good temperature!"
"We have to, something has happened to the engine or the cooling"
Despite his displeasure, Lewis pulled into the pits, switched on engine slow mode then drove into his garage. When he got out of the black car he walked around to the back of the car, indeed there was a slight grey smoke which signalled something was wrong. You couldn't see it in the mirrors, it was because of the strong light and reflections.
"Okay, you did 45 laps, the pace was average , but there were some good laps. We got some data, so we got what we wanted to have. See you the day after tomorrow." said the engineer as he said goodbye to his driver. As Lewis walked out of the pits in displeasure, he bumped into Lando Norris, who was in great spirits as always.
"Howdy Lewis," said Norris as he approached his country mate.
"I saw there was smoke in your car, did you want to catch me so badly that the engine couldn't take it?" laughed Norris derisively. This annoyed the champion slightly, but he smiled slightly to not let on that he was upset.
"No, some glitch, you know how it is "
"I know, I know...What do you think about the tyres ? Today there was no grip at all"
"Yes, it was hard to drive today. For Abu Dhabi the tarmac was quite cold. Just another Wednesday and then we'll have some time off."
"Slow, it's the end of the season and you still don't know who will be your teammate in 2022" pointed out Norris.
"It puzzles me too, believe me I'd like to know" replied Lewis shrugging his shoulders
"You know, I've heard some interesting rumours...or rather I've seen" said Norris.
"Hm?"
"There's a German hanging around the paddock, supposedly looking for a spot...maybe it's Hulk hoping for a podium" replied Norris with a laugh as he walked away from Lewis patting him on the back, who had already been approached by people asking for autographs.