Come Back...Be Here • Charles Leclerc

Chapter 4: The Austrian GP 2020*

🎶 Shut Up And Drive — Rihanna 🎶

The next morning, Christian, Val and I met at the hotel breakfast, where he informed us that his brother Daniel would be joining us shortly. He also told us about today's agenda: a free practice in the morning and the qualifying session in the afternoon. The qualifying one seemed more interesting to Val and me since it would determine the starting positions for the next day, but Christian insisted that the free practice one was just as important because the teams would run simulations and collect important data for the rest of the weekend.

Eventually, this Daniel guy arrived and introduced himself: he was four years older than us and had studied business administration at Cambridge. The proud Oxfordian I was, I instantly asked him if he had been on the rowing team, which he indeed confirmed. I got into a conversation with him since I had also rowed all of my four years at uniand the legendary rowing battle between Cambridge and Oxford was always a very delicate topic for students or alumni from these institutions.

After breakfast, we headed to the track with our car and after only a short drive, we arrived and I was already overwhelmed by how many people were attending. Thankfully, with those super fancy tickets Chris' brother had gotten us, our parking was pretty close to the entrance, but we still had to get a shuttle bus to get to the Paddock.

Val went ahead with Christian and got into a conversation about his favorite driver, which apparently was a guy called Louis Hambledon. I tried to follow them but this whole paddock was so crowded that I almost lost them shortly before the entrance to the Paddock Club. When we got inside, I was stunned by the elegance, but mostly by the length of the buffet of this place. We met Daniel again who showed us to our table, apparently we were sitting next to some other random Austrian guys. Christian immediately started a conversation with them and Val asked me with strange facial expressions if there was one of them that I found attractive. I studied the three of them and they all seemed nice, but pretty average. I shook my head as secretly as possible before I also took a seat.

The guys turned out to be pretty funny though and we found out that they were students from the law school in Vienna. The morning flew by as we mostly talked about our different systems of law and the road to becoming a lawyer in our respective countries. I even completely forgot to look at the televisions to check the free practice results.

After lunch the Paddock entertainment offered to take us on a track tour aboard a small van, which we happily accepted. As soon as we got onto the platform behind the van I could see the masses of people on the grandstands and grass. I never would have thought that there were so many F1 fans to be honest. Our tour guide told us that there were around 300,000 people attending the whole weekend, which made my eyes almost pop out. By the time we got back, Qualifying was almost starting. I kept getting confused because there were lots of other races around the F1 events and I struggled at keeping up with the different categories.

When the first session, started one of the Austrian guys, Anton, tried to explain to me how it worked, and that there are three sessions with five drivers being disqualified after the first and second ones. I followed the racing a bit and had to admit that I was fascinated by the speed these men were driving in their cars. At the end of Qualifying, a guy named Bottas was the fastest, followed by Christian's favorite Hambledon and a Red Bull car, which was easily recognisable to me because of its fat logo on top.

The boys were happy with the results while Val and I were happy that the catering brought out the dessert now, although the happiness did not last very long. Apparently Hambledon was given a penalty because of some flags and would not be starting as second. Christian was furious and kept saying that some FKA was rigged which caused a heated discussion between the boys on the table.

As we were about to leave the racetrack for the day, the Austrian guys invited us to join them for dinner at restaurant at a village nearby and we all accepted the invitation. It was a fun evening, but when Val and I finally returned to our hotel room at 11PM, we threw ourselves onto the bed and fell asleep immediately because of the exhaustion.

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Race day. The breakfast hall of our hotel was buzzing because everyone staying here was obviously also attending the race. Bets were made about who was going to win, but also about who was going to crash (which I found a bit mean).

The three of us departed a bit earlier than yesterday because Daniel had warned us that today would be much more packed in terms of traffic. And he was right. We took the shuttle bus again which took us from our parking lot to the Paddock entrance. We scanned our passes like yesterday and I turned around to look at the masses of people taking their seats on the grandstands around the track.

As soon as I turned around to catch up with Val and Christian again, I had to realise that I lost them. Great, my worst nightmare had come true because the disoriented person I was, I couldn't remember the way to the Paddock Club. I looked around in search for someone looking competent but I managed to only find hectic photographers or small boys with their cameras out, ready to spot one of their heroes. I walked around a bit on my own but realised I was simply lost.

Behind a red container building, I found a guy dressed in a red shirt which looked like someone competent. I walked up to him and gathered all my courage.
"Hi... um... Sorry to disturb, but do you work here? I got lost looking for the Paddock Club" I mumbled shyly. The guy turned around and I froze when I saw a beautiful pair of green eyes meeting mine. Oh wow.
He seemed a bit confused at first, but quickly answered with a French accent: "Yes, yes, I work here, I can walk you to the entrance, it can get quite confusing when there are so many people." He also winked at me and I thought I was close to fainting.

"Great, yes, great, yes, thanks." I managed to stammer. He pulled a hoodie over his head and put on sunglasses as we made our way through the people.
I turned to him, managed to get all my politeness together and said: "By the way, I am Mary and you?"
He looked my way and said: "Charles, I am very happy to meet you."
Charles. French accent. He must be working for the French team, I thought. Peugeot, I think.

"What do you work as?" I asked. He had toned arms, maybe he was a mechanic?
He confirmed my suspicions and answered: "Ah, well, that is a bit complicated, but eh... I work on the car."
"Oh nice, that must be awesome to work in such an international field! I mean, you do get around a lot!" I replied. He was pleasant to talk to. His accent was sexy. He was sexy. Ok stop drooling Mary.
"Well it is, that is true. But there is very little time and space left for a private life when you get around so much." he said in a sad tone.

I nodded and said: "Right, I had not thought of that. Are you happy though in general?"
He looked at me with a shocked face. Maybe I had gone too far, I mean we didn't know each other at all.
He gave me a soft smile and answered "I will be."
I didn't know what to do with that information but a few seconds later we stood in front of an entrance with Paddock Club written on it.
"Here we are, I am always happy to help a lady in need." he said and winked.
I gave him a big smile as I thanked him. I debated on whether I should say something else or maybe even ask for his number but he just turned around and gave me a small wave.

I was smitten but reminded myself of the thoughts I had had on the train to Paris. My job would start in September and a European guy, whose job was traveling all over the world, just wouldn't fit my lifestyle. I was snapped out of my thoughts when I found my friends again and like yesterday, we sat down at our table with the three other Austrian guys. The club was much more packed than yesterday and it was basically  impossible to get some food at lunchtime before the race started.

I was excited, which I hadn't expected, but I found myself checking the French team's cars from time to time. The others at my table were very surprised to find me suddenly rooting for that team, whose name was Renault though, not Peugeot. Unfortunately, at the end they weren't that successful though and one car ended up retiring and the other one in eighth place. My friend Charles must have been gutted.

All of a sudden, the Paddock Club emptied as apparently everyone hurried downstairs to see the podium ceremony. My friends all went too and wanted me to tag along but I saw an opportunity of making my way to the buffet alone so I sent them away, insisting that I would be just fine. After they had disappeared, I loaded my plate with basically everything that was left and enjoyed chewing my delicious food. When everyone finally got back, me and my friends decided to bid our goodbyes to the Austrian guys and exchanged our Instagrams to stay in touch, before we returned to our hotel.