Under the Microscope (Book One of Three)

Chapter 5

Olivia is across from me as I'm stood in front of Natalie Pinkham for my last interview of testing until the race next week. I must have looked exhausted because I saw Olivia motion for me to brighten up a bit, so I put my water on the ground, and turn towards Natalie, putting my shoulders back and getting my game face on.

The rest of the testing hadn't been much better. The car was still slow, and we couldn't seem to figure out how to solve the porpoising problem. The only benefit was that nobody else seemed to have much of an idea either. Mercedes was struggling, which was a worry for me, as I looked towards my future, but no one could decide if they were sandbagging or not. As I looked at George and Lewis, I could tell the struggle was real and I felt bad. Especially for George who thought he had finally escaped the life of driving a slow car and suddenly Mercedes just could not keep pace with Ferrari and Red Bull.

"So, it's been a big first weekend of the season, as we look at the new era of formula one cars being tested." Natalie says, looking directly into the camera. "I'm joined by one of our two rookies this year, Elodie Carter who is driving for Williams alongside Alex Albon. Hey Elodie." She says as she turns to face me, and I look at her smiling as I thank her for having me. "How was your first weekend in an F1 car?"

"Oh, it's been an experience for sure!" I laugh, "I'm ready to get back here in a few days' time to begin preparation for the race next week and yeah, I'm looking forward to going through the data to figure out how to get the most out of next weekend." My eyes flit to Olivia and she gives me a small smile.

"What do you think of the car this year, what do you think the main challenges you will experience will be?" Wow, she really doesn't hold back.

"The car is" I pause as I try to figure out the PR-friendly way to say shit. "It's a work in progress. Obviously, we had hoped we might have looked a bit more competitive, but it's looking similar to our expectations. But we're confident we will find a way to harness some more performance. But right now, that starts with eliminating the porpoising." I explain into the microphone that I'm holding, and Natalie is nodding along.

"Can you explain what porpoising is?" she asks laughing "because many of the drivers can't! They just say it's an issue!"

"Haha, yeah, it's basically where the air going under the car and the air going over the car that make it so streamlined are fighting, it results in these bursts of air that cause the rear to bounce. Not only is it uncomfortable but if say the rear of your car is bouncing as you're coming out the corner, you could lose the rear and end up in the wall. So, a lot of the drivers it seems are having to slow down through the corners, to stop this from happening." I explain to her, sort of forgetting that I'm in an interview, she nods engaged in what I'm saying. "However, on how you stop that from happening, I could not tell you, that's for the engineers to figure out, my job is to just drive fast and to keep the car out the wall." I joke and Natalie laughs. I smile feeling some degree of comfort developing.

"Now typically, your team has been plagued by bad results recently, including several seasons with 0 points, that only ended recently. Do you have an end of season goal?"

"I mean obviously points are what we want, but testing has shown that our car is the slowest, we can't hit the same top speeds of everyone else. But to be optimistic, I would like for us to not be last at the end of the season. That's what I want." As Natalie was about to ask her next question, I feel someone tap my shoulder, turning around I see George and I smile. "Hi there" I smile at him.

"Hello, thought I'd crash ladies time" he joked leaning down into the mic I was holding. We all let out a chuckle.

"You just missed her cracking explanation as to what porpoising actually is, she's the only driver that's been able to explain it today!" Natalie says, he looks at me eyebrows raised.