REMEMBER THE NAME

2019:6

"I have better pace, my tyres are in better condition, I have a clear chance to overtake. Just let me do it!" Sophie screams down the radio, not caring if she bursts Alexander's eardrums.

"No Sophie." He calmly speaks. "Team orders are to stay behind Russell and defend him when needed."

"There's not a fucking need to defend him when we're at the back of the race with no one else behind us." She shouts back as she takes the corner, still staying behind George. "F1 is supposed to be competitive."

"Sophie, refrain from using that language." Claire's voice comes over the radio, clearly not happy with Sophie's outburst, realising that the media has access to it.

Sophie completely disregards what the woman says and is instead concentrating on all of the cars lapping her. The whole situation was frustrating her. Every single race she was not allowed to finish in front of George due to team orders, and when she was in front of him the team would order her to give him the position. Now most drivers in that situation would simply defy the team orders but Sophie didn't have that luxury. As part of the fine print on her contract, if she were to defy team orders at any point, then Williams have the opportunity to remove her of her seat and break the contract. And as much as Sophie wants to be the best, you can't win the game if you aren't allowed to play.

"That's P18 Sophie." Alexander's annoying voice fills her ears.

Sophie tried her best to control her anger. "And I think we all know it could've been higher."

—

"What's the real plan." Sophie crosses her arms as the debrief was coming to an end.

"What do you mean?" Claire challenges her.

"I mean what's the real plan that you haven't told me about, because there's no way we're in formula one and you're restricting my ability to race and get the team further up in the standings without an ulterior motive. We're 5 races in and you've told me to stay at the back of the grid for each and every one of them. I'm all for being a team player but you're not telling me why decisions have been made and it's making me look stupid." She couldn't hold her tongue anymore. Not only was she beginning to have all of these self-doubts, but the media also weren't holding back on it.

"We believe George has the better chance and we're simply using strategy tactics." The head strategists states, giving a side eye towards Claire who had her head in her hands.

"Respectfully, I call bullshit." Debbie begins tugging Sophie's arm to get her to calm down but the Scot was way too riled up. "You've watched F2, you know how close it was between George and I, you know we both have the chance to score points. But if you really looked at it you would know that the reason we done so well was because we pushed each other - our competitiveness wouldn't let the other win - so why you wouldn't utilise that for us to push each other just now - well I don't know why you've not made that decision. But I can't help but feel as though I'm just a pawn in a bigger game." She leans back and crosses her arms, glad to have gotten it off of her chest. Her mind was running a million miles an hour, scared that she might have just messed everything up.

George sat awkwardly in the corner, he had noticed that they were suppressing his friends talent, but he didn't want to speak on her behalf. He sent a small nod over to her to show his support, which she noticed out of the corner of her eye. It settled her anxiety a bit, but the lack of response and awkward silence was beginning to make her really unsettled.

"I think you should take a walk and calm down." Alexander spoke up when he saw no one else was moving. A part of him felt sorry for the girl, he knew that she just wanted to show what she could really do, but bursting out in the middle of a debrief probably wasn't the best place to do it, especially with the cameras around them.

Sophie could only shake her head in disbelief at every one in the room, before angrily pushing away from the table and storming out the room, slamming the door on the way out to make sure they knew she was pissed off, accidentally catching the attention of anyone nearby.

To avoid everyone's stares she kept her head down and made her way outside, doing her best to avoid every media personnel. Once she had been walking for about 10 minutes, she found a nice quiet spot to sit against the back of the Williams hospitality.

"She's not stupid, she's going to put the pieces together soon enough." She heard Claire's voice as she was on the phone in the room with the window open. "I know we can't push the cars, they're probably the worst we've ever made. The drivers have been telling us all of the problems and we've tried to push them aside but it's clear. They're still willing to fight in them as long as you give me the green flag, we could actually do well." There was another brief pause. "The media plan seems to be going fine, they're not blaming the cars but they're blaming the two rookie drivers instead so at least we've covered our asses that way." Sophie's heart starts to break as she realised she was right all along. "Signing Sophie was a good idea, it takes some of the pressure off of George as they're more focussed on the fact that a girl is at the bottom of the leaderboard rather than the two rookies, and it seems our strategy is helping that."

Sophie took some deep breaths to try and control her breathing. This was all she had worked towards and with every word that Claire spilled was like the knife going deeper in to her back.

"Whoever put in her contract that she can't break team orders deserves a raise." Claire lightly laughs at Sophie misfortune. "On the note of contracts, do we know if the car will be better for next year? If not I'll need to see about getting a contract extension for Sophie so it covers us for another year. Find out and get back to me will you. Bye." Claire hangs up the phone call and takes a deep breath.

Sophie quickly puts a hand over her mouth to try and cover her cries, hoping that the woman wouldn't hear them, but as soon as hears Claire leave the room and close the door, she takes her hand away and allows the tears to fall.

"Are you okay?" Sophie jumps out of her skin in a panic of someone seeing her in floods of tears. She quickly uses the back of her hand to brush away the tears, and pulls her hair forward to hide her face.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm fine, why wouldn't I be." She tries to laugh to hide her voice cracks.

"I heard the whole thing." Sophie's heart deflates as the person puts their hand on her shoulder, the hand of Sebastian Vettel.

"Please don't tell anyone." She looks up beginning to panic, her heart racing through her chest.

The Ferrari driver bends down to sit on the ground next to her. "I won't." He smiles. "If it helps, I don't really like Williams." He sends her a cheeky smile which makes Sophie stop crying for a moment and burst out laughing.

"Well me neither now." She takes a deep breath looking straight ahead. "I had a feeling but I didn't want it to be true. I wanted to be picked for this for my talent, not just because of my family or as a cover up."

"It might be difficult to comprehend just now, but everything happens for a reason. If you want this to be the thing that knocks you down then I'm here to be a shoulder to cry on. Or you could look at it another way, and use it to make yourself stronger to throw it back in their faces." He suggests.

"When did you get so wise." She looks up at the older driver.

"When this world made me." He pats her shoulder before standing up. "You might want to go back and freshen up, because all those journalists out there won't let you get away that easy."

He puts a hand out to help her up.

"Don't I know it."