REMEMBER THE NAME

2019:2

"Hi." Sophie couldn't help the large smile that appeared on her face.

"Hi honey." Her gran smiled back at her through the iPad.

Sophie was in Barcelona for pre season testing. It was all amazing. The sun was shining, the buzz of racing was there and some of her closest friends were there, but there was just one problem - Williams didn't have a car. Now how you can do the testing of the car without the actual car - Sophie didn't know, but it seems like her rookie season, which would be critical in her formula one career, clearly wasn't off to a great start. Whilst all of the other teams were getting used to their cars and it's boundaries, she was in her hotel room on FaceTime to her grandparents.

"How's it going?" Her papa also came in to view, sitting down with his cup of tea.

"I mean I don't have a car to drive but apart from that it's going great." She rolls her eyes, evidently annoyed at the situation.

"That's not the greatest." Her gran sadly smiled, her heart was pulling for her granddaughter who had finally reached her dream after chasing it for so long, only to be getting let down.

"Those idiots!" Her papa put his tea down. "How can they call themselves a formula one team if they can't even create a car. You know, in my day, Williams was the best, oh their cars were amazing and their drivers were the best. But it's not like that now." He shook his head.

"Thanks for the compliment papa." She huffs, waiting for him to realise that he said she wasn't the best driver - she knew she wasn't, but you don't exactly say that to someone who's driving career you pushed for.

"Not you honey, you know that I just meant in general that they're not where they were." He quickly apologises after earning a scowl from his wife.

"Is your mum with you?" Her gran asked, her eyes scanning over the screen to look for her own daughter.

"Not that I know of, she might've stayed at home to look after Jack." Sophie suggests. Her mum hadn't told her of her whereabouts, she didn't need to. They had a good relationship but Sophie wasn't dependant on her as they both had their own lives to live, but they would support each other with all of their endeavours.

"I just wanted to know if you had company, it can be scary being in another country yourself." Her gran worries.

Her grandparents had been her main caregivers growing up as her mum had Sophie when she was very young and not really mature enough to raise a child. Her maternal grandparents stepped in, offering to support her mother in raising her and allowing Sophie to stay with them to let her mother focus on her career that she had already been working very hard towards. At the beginning her father hadn't always been in the picture through no choice of his own. Her paternal grandparents didn't approve of Sophie's mum as a girlfriend due to her strong willed nature and inability to sit idly and let a man do all the work - they were very old fashioned - and they didn't like her even more when she fell pregnant, so they forbid their son from having anything to do with her or his child. Thankfully a couple of years later he came back in to the picture full of apologies and overwhelming emotions, and although he wasn't a proper father figure to Sophie, at least he was there when she needed him.

"I do have company, I have George who is in the exact same situation as me, Lando and Alex are also here and I get to see them when they're not at the track." She calms her gran.

"When are you going to the track?" Her papa asks, leaning forward.

"I'm thinking of going in like an hour just to get an update on the situation and watch the other teams. I'll probably go tomorrow morning and see if I can do a track walk before anyone else gets there just to let me get used to the track." She thinks out loud.