To fly you only need two wheels

I'd rather stick my neck out than let him go to the dogs

*Kariss*

Motorsport was in my blood.

In our family, everyone was crazy about motorsports. It had always been like that. I had actually spent my entire childhood on kart tracks, always alongside my brothers. My five brothers.

It hadn't always been easy growing up as the only girl between five boys, but it had definitely taught me something for my later life, because I knew exactly how to talk to boys. In a way, I had practiced my entire life.

Four of my brothers were older than me, only Pierre was younger, although he liked to pass over that fact. He acted out in many ways no less than our older half-brothers.

But I knew not only how to deal with men, but also how to keep a cool head in chaos.

I had grown up in a crowded, noisy house. Chaos had been virtually the order of the day and our mom had always stood above all that chaos and kept her cool.

It was this ability that had propelled me into the main team at Repsol Honda.

And that was without much experience.

I had earned my spurs, had worked in smaller motorcycle teams, but had jumped from MotoGP3 straight into MotoGP as a mechanic after just over a year. Into the top class. In one of the top teams.

I kept an overview when things got rough. That had been my advantage over many applicants.

Of course, I was also good at what I did, but my ability to stay absolutely calm when things got dicey had been a big plus.

After Marc Marquez's last chief mechanic quit after just one race, allegedly because he couldn't cope with the Spaniard's ego, people had high hopes for my calmness.

I had been with the team for a few weeks now, but had not met the Spaniard yet. He had recovered from an injury and had been replaced by substitute drivers. With them, the collaboration had worked pretty well and my ability to create set-ups had not gone unnoticed.

It was one of my special skills. I couldn't say exactly where this fascination came from or when I specialized in it, but I analyzed my riders down to the smallest detail, looked at their every move and then created a set-up to match the riding style, the bike and the track. In most cases, my predictions were exactly what the riders needed.

But I clearly lacked the experience.

And even if our chief engineer trusted me, he had preferred to create his own set-up for this weekend.

"I don't want to risk them throwing you out right after the first few days with Marc. You're too good for that," Leo had tapped me on the shoulder with these words and looked at me almost apologetically.

And of course I had subordinated myself to his instructions.

He was practically above all of us in the box, but also stood behind and in front of all of us. If something went wrong, it was mainly his fault. As the chief mechanic, I was also given a lot of responsibility.

But nowhere near as much as Leo. I could understand that he didn't trust my untested setups.

I stood together with Juan. Basically, everyone was just waiting for Free Practice to start now. Leo was in a meeting with Marc and the other engineers, which meant we were killing time.

The setup was set. Leo always presented it to Marc so that he could comment on it, but the fact that he approved it was really only a formality.

So we all waited for the meeting to end and for Marc to come into the pits. That would mean that the free practice would finally start.