I couldn't be nervous right now, I had a job to do. I had to help Lando, I had to make him champion.
He had a brilliant start, so he was still in the lead after lap 1. It was exactly as we planned, exactly as we hoped for.
It was like he didn't feel the nerves at all, he was driving fast, maybe too fast because his tires were pretty much done by lap 20.
"Tell him he needs to calm down or we will have to box sooner than planned" I said to Will. He had to pass that message to Lando, who wouldn't be happy to hear that.
"Lando, please think about the tires" Will said strategically. The other teams didn't need to hear that his tires were gone, especially not Red Bull.
He didn't answer but he also didn't slow down. It's not like he needed it because Max was a couple of seconds behind him, probably taking care of his tires.
"He's not listening" Will looked at me. I knew what he was trying to say, he wanted me to change the strategy but I wasn't gonna do that, not this time.
"And I'm not gonna change my strategy" I looked back at him. He just nodded.
"Tires are dead" Lando said on the radio only a couple of laps later. They all looked at me, trying to figure out what I wanted to do, but I shook my head.
I wasn't gonna change my strategy. I wasn't gonna do that. Will didn't reply to Lando which probably irritated Lando a lot.
"What was that?" I looked at the monitor, there was a car in the wall. "There is a Red Bull in the wall" Will explained.
It would change everything if Max was out of the race, but it wasn't Max. It was Checo who was jumping out of his car.
"Safety car is out" Will said to Lando, but also to the rest of our team. "So I guess we are gonna box?" Lando replied.
I looked at the damage to the wall, it was bad, just as the damage to Checo's car. Red Bull was great at choosing their strategy when there was a safety car and unfortunately the cards were in our hands.
They were gonna do the opposite of what we were gonna do.
I sighed, putting my head in my hands. "No" I said as I looked up. They all looked at me, probably not agreeing with my decision but we had to take the risk. We had to.
Red Bull called Max in and changed his tires. "Are we seriously not gonna pit?" Lando asked again, more frustrated right now.
And right in that moment, they red flagged the race.
We took a huge gamble and it worked.
As soon as Lando drove into the pit, I walked up to him. He immediately hugged me before taking off his helmet.
"Please Lando, you have to listen to us, don't do anything stupid, don't waste your tires." I said. He pulled me in the Mclaren garage and pressed his lips against mine, not once, but a couple of times. "We're gonna win this, we are gonna get this championship" he mumbled on my lips.
"Lando" I mumbled as I took a step back. "Don't start dreaming already, keep it together please" I put my hands on his cheek.
I wanted him to be confident, just not too confident, I didn't want him to make mistakes. Not so close to the end.
He looked at me, it was as if he wanted to say something but his engineer disturbed us. "Time to finish this Lando" he said as he patted Lando's back.
He nodded as he grabbed his helmet.
I quickly grabbed his arm which made him turn around and look at me. "The championship or nothing" I whispered.
He smiled before pressing his lips against mine. "I'll do this for you and Luna" he mumbled.
It was only a couple of laps until he would become world champion or until he would lose it all.
