Racing Heart [Formula 1 DR3]

Chapter 2

"Morning Lou, can I borrow you for 2 minutes please?" Lou looked up from her laptop as Cara was stood in the doorway of her office. "Hey, yeah sure what's up?" Cara, George's sister and personal assistant was planning on surprising him with something for his birthday and wanted Lou's help to get Toto's sign off on it being at the factory. "Yeah, of course, Toto and I are going to Brixworth this afternoon, so I'll speak to him in the car on the way there, I'm sure he won't mind though." Cara thanked her before leaving and Lou returned to her emails. It had been a week since she'd started and everything was so fast paced, but she loved it.

After a busy morning, the afternoon rolled around pretty quickly and Lou and Toto made their way to Brixworth, it was Lou's first time at Mercedes' other factory, and she was looking forward to seeing it. She spoke with Toto about George's birthday, and he was all for doing something special so she sent a quick text to Cara to let her know, George would be in the UK as the car launch was the day after his birthday and so they'd arranged to get him to the factory under the guise of needing more work doing on the simulators.

Brixworth was just as impressive as Brackley to Lou, while it didn't have the stunning glass walls and striking exterior, it was the place they develop the engines, and Lou's dad had always said that engines were the heart of the car. As she and Toto navigated the various areas of the factory, getting updates on different parts of the car, Lou quickly scribbled down any notes and any issues they needed to look into. Today was also busy due to the other teams being at the factory to discuss engines. Williams, McLaren and Aston Martin all utilise Mercedes engines and so these are supplied from Brixworth too. Lou occasionally caught glimpses of papaya, blue and green throughout the factory as they moved around.

It wasn't until they were leaving to go back to Brackley that Lou felt all of her emotions rise up. Sat in the car with Toto she tried to conceal her tears, but he noticed she was quiet. In the time he'd spent with her over the past week or so, Toto had already gotten to know Lou quite well, she wasn't much older than his own daughter and he recognised something in her he'd usually only seen in a couple of drivers before – the sense of needing a home. "I don't want to pry, but are you okay? You've gone very quiet." Lou could hear the concern in Toto's voice, it made her both even more emotional but also made her feel comfortable. "Yeah, sorry, it's just Brixworth made me think of my dad and it hit me more than I expected."

"You have a connection to Brixworth with your dad?" Toto hadn't asked much about her family, when they did bring it up she seemed to close off a bit. Lou felt herself tense; she didn't want to dump her trauma on her boss, but he seemed to genuinely care and so she let herself open up. She told him about her dad, he worked for Mercedes – well Ilmore as they were known when he started. He worked on engines and helped build the engine that saw the first win, World Driver's Champion and World Constructor's Champion for their engines. It was his work with Mercedes that made her want to work in motorsport. It was her dad's dream to see Mercedes in F1 in their own right, not just as engine suppliers. He never got to see that, but she was here living his dream.

Toto was silent the whole time Lou spoke, every fatherly instinct in his body was heightened, he could see why he'd sensed the feeling of loss. It was something he was familiar with after losing his own father. "Lou, when we get back just finish up what you were doing and have an early night." Lou smiled and nodded, wiping her tears from her cheek. "Thank you, I'm sorry I..." Toto interrupted, he never wanted her to feel ashamed or sorry for sharing these things.

Once Lou's day was done, she went back home and spent some time alone to contemplate her feelings. She was taken aback by Toto's reaction; he was so warm and made sure she could talk to him about anything. Thinking about her dad really hit home to her how much she missed him, and how long he'd been gone, he'd died just before her fourth birthday, but she had her earliest memories which all involved him. He took her to races from the age of 1, although she only remembered the last two they'd been to. Her mum couldn't bear to take her without her dad and so Lou hadn't been to a grand prix since she was 3 years old. She picked up the photo album she kept on her coffee table and flicked through the polaroids with her dad's handwriting scrawled across the bottom. She smiled to herself, she knew he'd be watching her and be so proud of how far she's come.

With the car launch getting closer, Lou's first couple of weeks with Mercedes were chaotic but she loved every minute of it. Between the meetings and emails, she teamed up with Cara to plan George's surprise and was running back and forth between Toto and Marketing to get everything ready for the launch. Toto had more meetings, emails, phone calls and interviews that Lou could have ever anticipated, a lot of her work revolved around preparing for and accompanying him to those arrangements. A lot of interviews and press queries focused on the drama of the last race of the year; Abu Dhabi 2021 was going to go down in history as another one of those controversial races. Lewis was brought up a lot, with theories still being spread of him not returning and what was going on with him. To the outside world he'd dropped off the face of the planet. Toto found it hard to deal with, putting his friendship with Lewis aside and remaining professional was getting tiring. He couldn't confirm or deny anything, in truth part of him was still worried Lewis was going to pull out and he'd been privately considering options for last-minute replacements if they were need.

Lou hadn't seen George or Lewis again since their first meeting, but she'd been speaking to them both quite often. They gave her their numbers so that she could reach out if needed when they first met. Like Toto, Lewis had sensed something in Lou, and he felt like she needed someone looking out for her. He text her pretty regularly just to see how she was doing. She also came in real handy to gauge Toto's mood before any big conversations went ahead. He'd text her and ask if Toto was still mad, he'd usually get a sassy response, but he appreciated their friendship and her ability to listen to him without worrying it'd get to anyone it shouldn't. Lou found it funny that he'd already become an annoying older brother figure before the season even started, but it made Mercedes feel more like home.