The Formula 1 grid didn't want another team but one appeared anyway. With a reputation to rival Ferrari, Lamborghini was ready to take their place on the grid. Wanting to showcase a level of stability, even if the first year didn't bring results, th...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Much like a couple of the other team principles, Lucia Romono was not just the F1 Principal.
She was the CEO of all Lamborghini Racing operations, something she held very close to her heart as an Italian. A lot of people associated Ferrari with the Italians but there were three other teams of the 2023 grid that were Italian: Alpha Tauri, Alfa Romeo and Lamborghini.
Lucia had a lot on her shoulders but she had confidence she could carry it all; she was used to it. She just wanted to make sure that her team felt secure, safe and well-looked after money-wise while she kept everything under the cost cap. However, Lucia was no fool and her team knew what would happen if they performed poorly multiple times with no reasonable excuse.
She would be lying if she said she wasn't slightly nervous but not in regards of running the team or the results; she was nervous about how the other team principles would take to her.
Unlike the drivers, having a female team principal was not unheard of but it was only Lucia in 2023 season. They still received backlash in the media but not that much more than the others, mainly bad comments come from trolls or sexist commenters, not professionals.
Luckily, Lucia was a strong personality and it was very hard to offend her. Something she found valuable in her line of work.
"Ciao!" Lucia greeted everyone as they stepped onto the plane. "Benvenuti a tutti."
Benvenuti a tutti was a simple phrase of 'welcome everyone' and it was something Lucia always said, even when she'd already said 'hello'.
It was the day they were flying to testing in Bahrain and Lucia had decided who to invite on the private jet. She'd have everyone if she could but sadly, they were limited in space. Instead, she chose the driver, Marissa as the assistant. The chief technical officer, The chief strategist, the chief mechanic, the logistics manager, the two race engineers and someone from the marketing team. Of course, Mick and Daniel, and Lucia's assistant Matthew.
Even though Lucia wasn't a huge fan of the whole social media side, she understood they needed it for sponsors and to keep their image clean. So, the team always had a marketing person with them for the classic "on way" race day pictures etc.
"I would like to say welcome to the team," Lucia began, Italian accent prominent. "I would speak in Italian but two very lovely people here cannot speak it quite yet."
Daniel gave a thumbs up, unashamed, while Mick smiled shyly.
"Let us begin with formal introductions rather than the loose ones you had at the factory," Lucia continued. "You both know your race engineers but for the purpose of this..."
