Patience // Oscar Piastri

1

Willow adjusted her racing suit around her waist with the sleeves as she left the McLaren motorhome after meeting with Andreas and Zak.

She was a member of the McLaren young driver programme meaning she had regular interactions with the team principal and CEO along with both their Formula 1 drivers.

The American girl made her way through the busy F1 paddock and towards the support one where the F2 teams were located for this weekend.

This weekend's race was the British Grand Prix at Silverstone Circuit. It was the last Formula 2 race before the summer break, which was even longer for the F2 drivers in the sense that they didn't have another race until Monza in September and it was only July.

Qualifying was 45 minutes away meaning that Willow had to find her performance coach, Claire, and warm up. She liked the idea of having a female performance coach. When she first joined Formula 3, she had been presented with a male one who shortly after left on parental leave and on return saw how good the driver was getting along with his replacement and decided to make it permanent.

That was 2 years ago and they pair hadn't looked back since. They were close, like sisters would be, and that was exactly how they acted. Claire was there for her when it came to racing and her personal liked which was nice for Willow as it was easy to feel lonely when you spend nearly three quarters of the year away from home.

After finding Claire, the pair started to warm up. The blonde woman held two balls in her hands just above Willow's and took turns dropping each on and making the driver catch it.

Once they finished that, they worked on neck strengthening exercises using a resistance bang wrapped around Willow's head.

"All done." Claire spoke as she walked towards the driver and removed the bad from around her head and wrapped it up in her hands. "Let's go see Marco."

Marco was her race engineer. She had been working with him since she joined Prema back in 2019. He was also another reason for her on going success in the sport, including multiple wins, podiums and fastest laps.

"Ready to race?" Marco wondered as he noticed the brown haired girl walking towards him.

"Always." Willow smiled in reply. The pair went over their strategy for qualifying as they walked from the support paddock to the pit lane.

They arrived outside the Alpha Tauri garage where Oscar Piastri, Willow's teammate, was stood talking to his own race engineer.

"Predictions today Piastri?" Willow wondered as she walked up to the Australian while his engineer headed into the garage with Marco.

"Front row lockout?" Oscar questioned in reply looking at his American teammate.

"P1 and P2?" Willow said as she pointed to herself for the higher position then Oscar for the lower of the two.

"Nah, I was thinking the other way around." Oscar replied causing Willow to laugh.

"How about we aim for the lockout and then go from there?" Willow added in and Oscar nodded in agreement. The pair completed their usual pre-drive handshake before walking to their respective cars.

Claire stood holding Willow's helmet in her hand while handing the young girl her balaclava after Willow placed the radio in her ears and adjusted her plaits into the back of her race suit.

She placed her balaclava on before sipping her race suit fully shut and flipped over the zip cover at the top so it didn't irritate her neck when driving.

Claire handed over her helmet, it was a combination of orange, red, blue and yellow with the American flag and her name written on the side.

Willow pushed it down after sliding her Hans on and left the visor up before walking towards her car. Claire wished her good luck before leaving the girl alone.

Members of the team helped her into the car and made sure her belts were tight enough but not too tight either. Lastly, once everything else was complete, Willow watched as her steering wheel was fitted.

"Ready for this Willow?" Marco's voice echoed through her ears via the radio communication system which allowed the drivers in their cockpit to communicate with their engineers back at the garage and on the pit wall.

"Always. Let's drive." Willow replied and she flicked her visor down and drove out into the pit lane just behind Oscar who was the head of the pact.

She watched intently as the light switched from red to green allowing them to head out onto track and qualifying had begun.

—

Just a little introduction into things so far. Any thoughts?

-ky❤️