Lights Out

Team Media Duties

Tuesday 8th June.
Max and I touched down in Salzburg, having talked throughout the flight about various things. We were in Austria for a few days to film a video.
"So, remind me again what we're doing?"
"It's an activities video. We're competing against Alpha Tauri," I sighed, rubbing my temple. We stepped off the small aircraft, going into a sort of terminal building and meeting Yuki and Pierre about half an hour later. I rested my arm on Yuki's shoulder, making him the subject of more 'character building' that he was not a particular fan of.
"It's funny how he's so short," Max said as we stood outside, waiting to get onto what looked like a seaplane.
"He's so sweet though."
"He swears more than you do!"
"He really doesn't," I said. "Stop being mean to him."
"We're being filmed," Max said, tilting his head towards the camera. I looked in the direction and waved, smiling behind my mask. Max giggled at me.
"What?"
"You're such a child."
"Shut up." I rolled my eyes at him. We showed our tickets to the hostess who was standing there and clambered on. The Alpha Tauri boys sat up front, with Max and I on the second row.
"So we are going to start up," the pilot said. "It should be a nice ride hopefully for you."
He passed back an iPad and we watched the video of Helmut Marko that played.
"Hey, guys. I hope you're enjoying your flight. I'm happy to welcome you to a journey which you won't forget in a hurry."
"Normally when Helmut is sitting like that, you have a problem," Max laughed. I widened my eyes as if to say 'oh, don't we all know it'. The video carried on.
"Your job is to know Austria inside out before you're going on to the Austrian Grand Prix. The best way to do is to race across the country; team Red Bull Racing against Alpha Tauri. Please fasten your seatbelts and enjoy your flight."
The video ended and the cabin started with a hum of conversation.

"This should be fun." I grinned to Max as we started taxying.
"I don't think I'm looking forward to this," Yuki said as we took off.
"He's not very used to being high up," Pierre laughed, making Yuki protest and glare at him with a smirk on his face.
"Just enjoy the views," I said, peering out of the window at the vast green landscape that was decorated with blue lakes that seemed like they were out of a picture book and mountains that grabbed at the passing clouds.
"Okay," the pilot said over our headsets, "we're going up."
"Up?" Yuki cried. "What does he mean by 'up'? No, no, no, no!" He grabbed onto the top of the cabin. Even Pierre was looking concerned. I let out a splutter after failing to with-hold my laughter, making Max point and laugh at Yuki.
"What! No, thank you!" he said, making us snicker even more. "No, no, no, no, no, no, no!"
Max let out a laugh, looking over to me to find me also smiling.
"Go higher, come on," I said.
"I want to get out of this thing," Yuki said.
"Not long now," the pilot replied.
"You know, Yuki," I started, a smirk on my face, "this plane is going to land on water."
"WHAT! No, land on the ground."
"It's a seaplane, Yuki," Max said in between fits of giggles.
"No, no, no, no, no! Boats go in the water."
"And so does this," I laughed, shaking my head. "Where are we flying to?"
"Grundlsee," the pilot answered. "It's right down there if you look out the window. We'll be landing in that lake and getting a boat to shore."

A few minutes later, and with Yuki's swearing being accompanied by Max and I's laughter, we landed on the water. It was a pretty cool experience, and watching Yuki try and get onto the boat to take us to shore was so funny that Max and I were giggling about it until the small wooden float hit the jetty.
"Hello, hello," Tanja said as we stepped off. She was standing next to Helmut, and we greeted both of them in turn.
"There will be a serious competition," Helmut said. "It's a team competition, and team competition means you have to work together, not like in a race, you know. I'll hand you over to Tanja. She is your boss for the next 24 hours. Bye, bye." He walked off, leaving us with Tanja. Max asked the first question.
"What time to we wake up, first of all?"
"Five o'clock," she said, "we're gonna meet here in the morning."
"No, that's a joke, right?" Pierre said deadpan, neither of the Alpha Tauri boys looking very happy, which only aided Max's giggling.
"Of course not," Tanja answered. "That's a serious challenge."
"Ah, looks like I'm going to be running purely on energy drinks then boys," I said, slapping my hands together and causing a buzz of laughter.