Under the Microscope (Book One of Three)

Chapter 2

The meetings with the R&D department go well, and after fiddling with some of their prototypes I feel like we have made some progress and I have a productive conversation with my PT during my lunch. Alex cut his Netflix interview short and even joined us at lunch, which was nice because I still didn't know him that well. My favourite part of the day was jumping on the simulator, to test out the settings of the car. Even in the simulator, I could feel the difference between the formula one car and my formula two-car...even a slow one. I put in some decent times and know that tomorrow is my big day in the sim, so I don't worry about extending it more than I need to. I meet JC in the lobby, and we walk together to the gym as I update her on my day.

That was the other condition of my contract, I wanted 75% of my personal team to be women. But this being a contractual obligation was to be kept super-secret, I didn't want people to know that I demanded it. I knew that if it came out, then I would be criticised for being discriminatory against men. It seems stupid because my personal team is so small anyways, it's four people total, I just wanted more women around me given how male-dominant the rest of the garage is going to be anyway. I want people to see women everywhere in F1, I want my seat to only be the beginning of getting women in the sport. Showing it, and making women seen is step one. So, I have Olivia, Jenifer Claremont e.g., JC and my race engineer Rachel. There are other women in the team, of course, it just means that the only position in my direct personal team that is a man is my manager. Toto. I'm still looking at expanding my team further, but right now it's not an option. As a rookie, and an underfunded one at that, the only truly personal member of my team is JC, the rest are technically employed by Williams, but I need them with me always so that I can have some sort of stability.

"How were the wheel meetings?" JC asks. She didn't understand at first why I insisted on the wheel part of my contract.

"Productive, I think. Alex is super understanding, which is helpful, but obviously, it can't be entirely geared to me...but they need to be the same. It's a tricky situation. If we can reduce the width by at least 2cm I'll be happy" I explain as we start with stretches on the mats. I'm out of my race suit but because I'm aware that there were still cameras on me, I switched into leggings and a baggy team shirt. I can't help but have my eyes flit over to the cameras, feeling uncomfortable filming my workout. JC notices my nervous eye movements and turns around to the camera guys.

"Do you have to film this? It's just a workout...is this going to happen a lot?" she asks one of the cameramen. They look surprised at what seems to them a very sudden outburst.

"We were just told to follow...I-I don't know if it is a regular thing," the guy carrying the portable lighting said.

"JC it's okay, they're just doing their jobs. I'll ask someone about it another time, I'm sure it's just a one-off. But I mean, we've both seen DTS before, this is part of the job." I say, putting a hand on her shoulder. She turns her face towards me, her brown eyes staring deeply into my own, trying to make sure that I was genuinely okay. I nod decisively and step away from her as I put my hair up into a ponytail and motion her to come back to the mats, shooting the crew an apologetic smile, which they return. We make our way through our workout; resistance training is at the very core of it to make sure I don't injure myself in the car and that I am strong enough to take the g-forces that are pushed through my body in the car. A big part of this is obviously neck strength, while I know this isn't the first time that the Netflix crew have filmed someone doing these exercises, it was particularly amusing for JC and me to watch their mouths fall open as I flexed and prepped these important muscles.

After 90 minutes I dramatically collapse on the floor in a sweaty mess, it makes everyone else in the room laugh and it's at that moment that Annie, the producer from earlier walks back into the room. I don't notice though as I'm laid with my eyes closed, breathing heavily. She coughs to get my attention and my rather sore neck snaps to the location of the noise. I give her a weak smile as I push myself back up off the floor. "What can I do you for?" I ask politely, crossing my legs in front of me.