REMEMBER THE NAME

2019:30

As the car gets rolled back in to the garage Sophie tries to collect her emotions. She was angry - well angry was an understatement, she was raging. On lap 28 they announced over the radio to her that she was to retire the car despite there being no problems with it, taking away her opportunity to race since George's brakes had failed and he was also out of the race.

Once they had returned back from the summer break, Claire had pulled Sophie in for a meeting to discuss the consequences from her defying team orders. She had posed Sophie with two possible outcomes: she could give up her seat and be demoted to reserve driver, or continue to race only to support George. She had opted for the second option, deciding so because it still gave her the opportunity to get to know the tracks and the other drivers styles better, but the fine print was that if she defied a team order again she would be completely kicked off of the team with no option to be the reserve driver. It wasn't an ideal situation however there wasn't exactly much that she could do since it was her consequence for defying the contract.

Once the car was lowered to the ground she quickly undid the seatbelts before placing her forearms upon the halo and pulling herself upwards, jumping out of the car still with her visor down. A few of the mechanics patted her on the back with sad smiles as she passed. Besides the higher up leadership at Williams, she really enjoyed working with all of the team and would genuinely be sad to not work with them again. Within the garage the mechanics, engineers, and other team members weren't stupid - they knew of the situation surrounding Sophie and her unfair treatment, however they themselves were all provided with contracts and NDAs to not go to the media about it. The whole thing was nothing less than a shit show just so they could manipulate an eager young driver - and she realised that this is how it's going to be from here on out.

Thankfully the walk to her drivers room was short, and by the time she shut the door behind her she was ready to break. The first thing that went flying across the room was her gloves, hitting softly against the wall almost unnoticeably. Then she had kicked the massage table as she approached it, ramming the instep of her right foot in to the corner of the metal pole, which was painful due to the thin makeup of the driver shoes, however it wasn't as painful as the thoughts running through her mind. Next she picks up the cold water bottle that was waiting for her arrival, originally planned to help her cool off physically, but it instead provided somewhat of the same relief as she squeezed it so hard in her hand that the lid popped off, hitting the roof, before the water sprayed out and douses the front of her race suit. Throwing the now empty plastic bottle against the wall, she then moves on to her next item of destruction which she decides is her helmet. The head gear that was there to keep her safe had became overwhelmingly claustrophobic, and as she fiddled with undoing the straps she became more and more agitated. Just as she manages to pry her head from its clenching grasp, readying to launch it forcefully in to the wall, the door behind her opens and Debbie tentatively walks in, slightly frightened after hearing the bang and pop from outside of the room, and Cameron struts in after her, wasting no time in yanking the helmet out of her hands and placing a finger in front of her face as though she was a young child getting told off.

"Don't waste a helmet on this." He stares deep in to her soul with a straight face, and Sophie's shoulder deflates as she realises how right he is. She was pulled from one race - it's not the end of the world and it's certainly not a big enough deal to ruin a helmet over. "The situation is annoying and it's alright to be angry and express your emotions, however you pick your battles and ruining a $15,000 helmet over it is not a good battle to lose."

"Why are you always right." She huffs before going to the small couch and slumping down.

"Because someone has to be." He softly smiles sitting down next to her and placing a hand on her shoulder. "Now although today was an absolute shit show for team Stoddart, we're still going to make this worthwhile. Unfortunately you've got interviews to do which you should've been at about 10 minutes ago, but after that we'll head back and go over the fitness and nutrition plans for the week."