Red Silver

S1.C17 - Let's paint the sky silver (Monza)

"I phoned your parents" says Lewis while we are driving back home from work.
"You did what?"
"I send them 2 passes for the Italian GP"
"You did what?"
He laughs "They are your parents Isabelle, I'm sure they are proud of you, let them show a bit of support"
"Wait, they said they will be there?"
He nods.
"I didn't expect that, they never really cared about my job and after the 'scandal' they didn't..."
"They love you and" he stops and smiles "I want to know them"
"Shit" I didn't think about them meeting him
"Yeah, no pressure I know" he says sarcastically "just the old man their daughter is with"
I laugh "no pressure"
"I can start by saying how good you are" I look curiously at him "she does this thing with her tongue..."
"Lewis!"
"I'm joking" he says laughing "and although she doesn't go to the gym, she's really flexible"
"Don't you dare" I try to stay serious but I start laughing too.

I wake up at 6 am, Lewis is still sleeping, his hand on my waist, I move it gently trying not to wake him up. I might have an idea for the next race but I need one of the programs in the pc at work to see if it's a good idea or not. I dress up and walk to the Mercedes factory, it is so early that no one is around the streets, when I arrive there I pass my badge and enter the construction area where there are a few people who are already working. I sit down on a desk and start writing the code to simulate my idea, I write and write and doesn't even notice that George is behind me looking at my screen.
"Interesting"
I jumpscare "George William Russell!"
"Hello, early bird, what are you doing here?" He says laughing.
"Learning Chinese, what do you think?"
He smiles "Isabelle It is Chinese for me, I don't understand a thing I'm reading"
I smile "Just an idea"
"Is it working?"
"On paper, yes. Now I need your help for the second step"
"My help?"
"Ready for the sim?" I smile showing him the USB.

L- morning, where are you? Work? Have you had breakfast already?-
I-At the sim with George, I haven't eaten yet-
L-A macchiato and a croissant on the way-

"Hey" says Lewis entering the control room of the sim.
"Hey"
"Wow that looks good"
"I know" I say smiling.
"Your breakfast, little star" he says giving me a bag from the cafeteria, he opens the microphone "George got a coffee for you"
We sit all around the main computer and I start explaining the little things I've changed in the set up.
"... that's the engineering side, now Lewis I need you to do a few laps with this set up, George how was it?"
"Really good, the straights were like flying"
"That's the idea, we are in the temple of speed, aren't we?"
"Ok I'll get ready and jump into the sim" says Lewis eating the last piece of his avocado toast.

After 2 hours of waiting for Lewis data and fixing a couple of things, I go to Toto's office.
"Oh hey Isabelle, come in"
"Hi Toto, I wanted to talk to you about an idea"
"Idea?" He says closing his laptop.
"Yes, the car hasn't been good despite the new regulations so I've been thinking about something to update it. Monza track is perfect because is all speed, I've made a couple of simulations and here are the databases from  both the drivers on the sim with this set up"
He takes the papers and looks at it for a couple of minutes "I'm not the expert here but for the numbers I know these look really good. Bring them to Will and let them have the last word, if they say yes this will be our Italian set up for the weekend"
"Really? Thank you, I'll go to Will"
I close the door and speed to Will's office, I spend the rest of the day working with him and analysing every dataset.

When I arrive in Monza is a strange feeling, I feel like it is not a home race anymore.
"Are you ok?"
"Yes, yes" I say "It's weird, last race in Italy I was wearing a Ferrari shirt, is it still a home race?"
"Of course, look at that" he indicates a big sign with a photo of me and Lewis 'Italian queen to the British king'
I smile seeing it and he takes a pic of it, he opens the door "My queen"
"Look at that one" I say pointing to another sign 'let's paint Italy silver'
"We are working on that" he screams and the crowd goes mad.