The Limit (Sebastian Vettel)

87. An Emotional Goodbye

Lily had felt a bit distracted all week, and now it was qualifying day at Suzuka and she knew she had to snap out of it.   She had to get her head where it need to be, to concentrate on the race weekend and not worry about some sad lowlife prick that was trying to scare her with flowers and stupid notes.

She'd been way off of the pace in practice, and Mattia had made his displeasure known.   He'd chewed her out in front of all the engineers the previous evening and she'd been on the verge of telling him where to stick his seat, but she knew that she owed it to her crew and to the fans to finish the season, after all she was still in with a fighting chance of the championship.  Her podium in Singapore had moved her to within twenty two points of Max, and the team was only nineteen points behind Red Bull. 

In contrast. Seb had had a great weekend so far.  On the back of his win in Singapore he'd been classified in the top three of both Friday practice sessions, and Lily knew that he had a real good chance of putting his Aston Martin on one of the front two rows.  Question was, where would she put her Ferrari?  She wasn't feeling too confident heading into FP3.

As she climbed into her car and plugged her radio wires in, she heard Joel's voice in her ear.

"Want some good news Lils?"

"I'd never say no to some good news.   What is it?"

"Alfa just announced that Damon's contract won't be renewed for next season."  Lily felt the corners of her mouth twitching as she tried so hard not to laugh.  It looked like she'd finally see the back of her good for nothing brother.    There were no more seats available for 2023, McLaren's Carlos Sainz had just been announced as her replacement days earlier, and Fernando Alonso would be taking his spot at McLaren.  Pierre Gasly was moving to Alpine and Dutchman Nyck deVries had been signed to Alpha Tauri. 

There was a spot officially available at Williams, but that would be going to Logan Sargeant, providing the young American gained enough superlicence points.

The one seat that there was a bit of a question mark over was Mick's seat at Haas.  Haas were dragging their heels and were yet to offer him a new contract, but Lily didn't think Damon stood a chance of getting that seat.  If they dropped Mick, it certainly wouldn't be for Damon.

She sat waiting to be given the green light to head out on to the track. "Just relax Lily," she whispered to herself. Her front jack man, Alfonso, gave her the thumbs up. It was time to head out on track.

***

"Assolutamente patetico!" Mattia shouted at Lily as she walked into the debrief room after quali later that day.  "Ragazza inutile!   What on earth were you playing at?? P11?  You will never win the championship now."

Lily was trying so hard not to cry.   She felt she'd let the whole team down.  She'd tried, she really had, but something just wasn't clicking. 

"Hey come on Mattia, she can still do it," Charles said softly, putting his hand on her forearm reassuringly.  "We all have bad qualis."

Mattia looked like he was going to shout at Charles, but he turned and walked away, heading to his chair at the head of the table.

"Sit down," he barked.   The two drivers took their seats and put their headsets on. 

Lily couldn't wait for it to be over.  She just wanted to go back to the hotel and cuddle up in Seb's arms.  In fact, she couldn't wait for the whole damn weekend to be over.   It had been a disaster from the beginning.