To fly you only need two wheels

the best

*Marc*

I was sitting on the black sofa in my trailer, engrossed in some numbers, when there was a knock on the door. I let out a thoughtless hum. The door opened and the air and volume pushed into my trailer.

"Do you have time for us yet, or are you still busy?" asked Leo, I waved him in. I heard he wasn't alone, but still didn't look up. He had probably brought Kariss with him, after all, that's what I had asked him to do.

I had been impressed with how confident my new chief mechanic had been, that she had stuck her neck out for the set-up. Leo hadn't had to ask her to do it. She had just done it. She had put her head down and it had been a wise decision on her part. Of course, she could have lost her job, although that was relatively unlikely because we had already lost one chief mechanic this season and didn't have time to find another. The fact that she had joined the team had also been more of a coincidence than anything else.

I knew it was my fault that the first chief mechanic had quit this season. We just hadn't gotten along. He hadn't understood that my demands were high.

I wanted to get back to the top and for that I needed a good team. The best. Everything had to work hand in hand and maybe I was a little strict about that, but I didn't demand anything from them that I didn't demand from myself.

I had told him that, too. As a result, he had quit.

Maybe I had been a little very clear with my words, but sometimes the tone here was just rough.

"The numbers don't match Le Mans, though," my mechanic's voice snapped me out of my thoughts. She was half standing next to me and had glanced at my note.

"What do you mean?", I raised an eyebrow as I looked at her.

"These numbers here..." she pointed to a pad "This can't possibly be right."

"Why not?", I tilted my head and looked at her challengingly.

"I really don't want to question you or anything, but whoever is supposed to have set the times should have kind of flown the second sector. You just weren't even close to the times and your lap was pretty damn good. So either the numbers are wrong, or it's a different track.".

I liked that conviction in her voice. That confidence. She wasn't afraid to contradict me.

"What if I tell you it's Le Mans?", I leaned back a little.

"Then I want to see how you do the times. I'm sure it won't work with your bike. Maybe if you strap yourself on a rocket and hope you hit the corners appropriately, otherwise it's going to look bad.".

A laugh escaped me, while Leo's eyes almost widened in shock. Only when he saw me laughing did he relax a little.

"You're really brave," I smirked.

"Why? Don't you like being told the truth?", she raised her eyebrows.

Fuck, she was good. Leo, meanwhile, seemed to be about to have his heart leap out of his chest, because he was audibly gasping for air.

"Let's just say, I don't get told them that often, and when I do, it's usually packaged a little differently," my eyes scanned her face.

"Then we could be in trouble. I don't think much of sugarcoating things. If you drive like shit, I'll tell you. If I do crappy work, you tell me. Simple but effective," she shrugged.

"Do you tell that to all your riders?".

"Yes. We all have to do our job. So it's easier to be straightforward when something doesn't fit. I've often enough not been told what wasn't okay and then found out afterwards around back. I prefer to do that kind of thing directly."