REMEMBER THE NAME

2019:1

"And now all you need to do is sign on the dotted line." The elder lawyer pointed to the bottom of the page, highlighting to Sophie where to write her name. She took a breath, looking up to see the proud smiles of her mother and grandparents as they supported her in finally achieving her dream. She spins the pen around her fingers a couple of times, pretending that she is rereading the contract for the seventh time, when in reality she's just being her dramatic self and creating suspense, but as soon as her pen hit the line it was as if it was over almost instantly.

Flashes went off from the media as she stood up to shake the hands of the people around her at the table, before she looked down at the piece of paper with her scribble upon it once again just to capture the moment for the rest of her life.

'I Sophie Stoddart agree to the terms and conditions and confirm my place as a driver for Rokit Williams Racing in Formula 1 for the period of 1 year.'

Sophie was now officially an F1 driver.

—

"I swear to god, if you don't let me change this song you won't need to worry about me leaving my dirty dishes in the sink, I'll be putting them on your bed." Sophie fumes, as she sits in the passenger seat of George's car, facing the newly signed Williams driver with her fingers plugged in to her ears, giving him the meanest glare she could conjure.

Her friend just continued to smirk, keeping his eyes on the road and occasionally checking his mirrors, leaning over and turning the music up much to Sophie's dismay, to block out her comments about his terrible music taste.

"I'm coming out of my cage
And I've been doing just fine!" George starts to sing horribly out of tune, but before Sophie could launch herself out of the car, deciding that she probably wouldn't be too injured with the speed he was going, she realised he had actually slowed down as they had reached the Williams factory.

"I can't believe you don't like Mr Brightside." George complained as he switched off the engine. "Are you even British if you don't like that song?" He looked over as she finally pulled her fingers out of her ears.

"It's over played constantly and I'm sick of it. It's nice to be heard every now and then but I can't go on a night out without it being played at least three times, followed by everybody singing out of tune and trying to start a mini mosh pit." She rolled her eyes, unbuckling her seat belt and collecting her bag from the back seat, at which point she remembered the camera man who was filming for Drive to Survive content - whoops.

Opening the door, her, George and the poor camera man who had to endure their bickering the entire time made their way inside the factory.

The first people that they met where George and Sophie's PR managers in the cafeteria, who would be supporting them throughout the day. Taking a seat next to them they went over the pairs itinerary for the day.

"Staring off, you have to take some professional photos for the Williams social media page, so you will be in hair, makeup and getting fitted from 10am until 11am, for all other aspects of the photo shoot they've scheduled that from 11 until 1. After that you've both got an hour for a lunch break, followed by a walk around the garage to get some footage for Netflix, then they're looking to see you both interacting with Claire, which they've scheduled at 3 o'clock. After that you're both free to do what you like but I would like to remind you both that you are expected to be here tomorrow morning at 9am for some sim work." Debbie, my PR manager informs us.

"So we've got a very busy day." I summarise, leaning back in my chair to look at the middle aged woman who had read everything off of her tablet.

"You have a very important day." She smiles. "This might be the first time people get to know you. We know after last years views were released that there will be a lot of new fans in to the sport, most of which consume it through Netflix, and after watching it ourselves we know that Netflix have a tendency to portray certain people in a different light just to get the views. So we need you both to look like the best team pairing there is."

"That'll be difficult." George smirks. "Their full footage of the car ride is Sophie arguing with me." Looking over at Sophie with a wink, clearly trying to get his friend in trouble with her PR manager.

"Sophie!" She exclaims, shocked that it's the first day with Netflix and she already will have a mess to deal with.

"George isn't a saint either, he blasted the music to drown me out. So if anything the quality they have will be terrible because they won't be able to hear me." She defends herself.

"George!" His PR manager exclaims, landing him in trouble as well.

"Oh would you look at the time." George tries to distract everyone. "It's almost 10, we've got to go." He jumps out of his chair and taps Sophie's shoulder to tell her to follow suit.

"But you don't know where to go for hair and makeup." Debbie argues, clearly not over the conversation.

"I'm sure we'll find it." Sophie giggles back as the run off down the corridor.

—

"Oh I am so going to beat you." Sophie game talks as she, George and Claire play a racing game to film some "bonding moments" for DTS. Her silver car quickly approaching George's yellow one.

"Just like you bet me in formula 2? Oh wait, sorry, you didn't." He replies sarcastically as he takes her moment of shock to speed away.

"Just like I'm about to beat your ass in formula 1." She bites back, as she manages to overtake.

Although the both of them were competitive with each other out of good spirit, they had both decided before it even started that they would allow Claire to win.

"And just like that I beat the both of you." Claire tries to diffuse the competitive tension. "I like the fire from you both." She puts the controller down and pats their backs with a smile on her face. "Let's just keep that energy for on the track, you might both be rookies but you've got the competitiveness that we need." She moves out of the room with the Netflix crew following closely behind her.

Sophie puts the controller down and takes a deep breath, moving to sit in one of the chairs at the side of the room. To most people today would seem like a normal day, but so many people and different conversations have made her social battery run dry, never mind having to take in to consideration every single word that she says or action that she does since the Netflix crew were around constantly.

"Are you okay?" George asks, taking a seat next to her with a look of concern on his face.

A sad smile came on her face. "Just done with people." She laughs lowly. "When are you wanting to head home? If you're staying for a bit I might just nip a taxi home."

The pair had car shared in today since they decided to rent out an apartment together whilst they were in Wantage. They were only planning on staying for maybe about a month - enough time for seat fittings, media work, sim work, etc, and with a contract for only one year Sophie didn't want to jinx it or jump the gun by investing in a home just to be let go, and because they had grown up karting together they had shared caravans and tents throughout the years together with some other friends so living near each other wasn't an issue.

She was always very superstitious, or maybe it was a fear of commitment. She had never properly bought a home before due to her hectic lifestyle and setting up roots or committing to a home never sat right with her, so she mainly stayed in her childhood home with her grandparents, sometimes with her mum, sometimes with her dad, and when it came to work it was mainly hotels or rented apartments - whatever suited the trip best.

"I'm ready to go I think, there's nothing else we need to do." He smiles before standing up and patting Sophie on the shoulder, giving her an encouraging smile to move.