The Grand Prix in Baku held a lot of memories for Fiona. She was there in 2017 watching Charles take the win, only days after his father passed away.
Until that day there had never been a race this emotional for her.
She always knew Charles had a special talent but on that weekend, she got to admire him even more than she already did. The strength he had shown was out of this world and she was so proud of him.
She still was. Things however had obviously changed between them. Between now and her last visit to the city four years ago. After that she never came here again. It just didn't fit her schedule.
Fiona was a little bit scared for the race today. She knew very well how dangerous the track was. How fast it was and what kind of concentration was needed from the drivers in order to not crash into one of the walls.
It had already happened to Charles once in 2019. She smiled, he would probably never forget this mistake. Even now the video of it and his radio message were all over the internet. She had to admit, it was a little bit hilarious.
Originally she hadn't planned to come to this race, but Pierre was very convincing. He had a point when he told her that this might be the last chance for her to come before the summer break. The next race she'd be able to attend then would be Monza. Which was months away.
He suggested that waiting this long won't do much good for her anxiety.
Fiona knew he mostly said it because he just wanted her company but deep down she also knew that what he was saying was mostly true.
The last two races she attended were alright, but it wasn't easy. And it wouldn't get easier if she stopped going for a long period.
It was also the first race weekend she would face solely on her own, since neither Elle nor Elena were there.
Was it scary? Definitely. Nevertheless she was bend on making it work. There was no way she would truly get over her fears if she always had to rely on other people to help her. She needed to do this for her own good.
And in the end she wouldn't be completely alone. Pierre was there, although really busy. His team was there as well and her and Pyry got along really well. It would be fine, she told herself.
And it was. So far everything went really smoothly and she was also able to avoid a certain Ferrari driver. Today was Sunday and up until last night she wasn't even sure if anybody had noticed that she was in Baku. Her plan was to spent the whole time in either the hospitality unit or Pierres side of the garage.
Her plan was working quite well until she got a text from Isa yesterday afternoon. Saying that she was in Baku as well and asking if they wanted to meet up.
Originally Isa wanted to meet up in the paddock but Fiona suggested going out for dinner together. She didn't want to risk running into Charles.
Hiding out was no use, as she learned later on that it was Charles who told Isa that she was in Baku. How he had managed to find out? She had no idea and with it being busy as hell on race days she hadn't had the chance to ask Pierre about it yet.
Right now he was comfortably sitting in fourth position and the race was just about to be restarted. There were some moments when Fiona felt like her heart was skipping some beats. Seeing Lance Stroll and Max both crash at high speed due to tyre failures was something she wished to unsee. She knew it was part of the sport but by the looks of it, those crashes shouldn't have happened. The frustrations Max felt when he kicked his blown tyre after he got out of the car was understandable.
When the race restarted and Hamilton went wide in the first corner, nobody could believe what they were seeing. Suddenly there were two Red Bull drivers in podium positions. Redemption for Max's DNF was in the grasp.
