Racing For Love

Chapter Fifty Three

Jono has send me two messages, which I receive as I wake up

Jono: Morning Ace.

Jono: I had probably the best evening of my life. See you trackside. x

My face pulls into a huge grin as I read the message before replying:

Annie: Ditto

Pretty sure such a basic reply will make Jono smile too, and I get out of bed to prepare for race day. I nervously do a quick scan online, but luckily, despite Jono and I walking through the city together, I can't see any mention of us - Jono did wear a cap as we walked through the Basilica, which I can only imagine, helped. The news outlets seem more focussed on reporting on the "rainbow shoe" incident anyway, along with Jono's quali disaster. I just hope Jono's not doing the same online review as I am and feeling disheartened before this afternoon. He's got a busy morning prepping before this afternoon's race, so I won't see him until later.

I'm meeting Matt for lunch at The Paddock, so I have a little time to enjoy the city alone until I'm due at the track. I nip into some touristy shops, trying to search for a gift for James. I am looking for the tackiest items possible, picking up a tea towel, fridge magnet and a t-shirt emblazoned with the eponymous "All I got was this lousy t-shirt" slogan. There's a snow globe of the Basilica, which I also pick up - I smile because when we're back home, I'll give it to Jono as a souvenir of our time in Budapest, and everything that has finally happened here.

***

I know why Jono didn't tell me about his "plan" with James, because it was risky, and I most definitely would have advised him to reconsider, to run it through the authorities first, and to get official sign off from the teams, rather than leaving everyone scrabbling around trying to work out the best response to give the media.

As the drivers appear in their race suits, they all have t-shirts over the top, emblazoned with "End Discrimination" across them. Every single driver is wearing one, except for Jono who has a different design. Instead of the plain black and white versions the rest of the grid are sporting, his is rainbow coloured with "Same Love" across the front.

Their message is clear and my heart fills with pride for Jono organising this, and trying to bring the issue to the forefront of people's minds. From a work perspective though, it's an absolute minefield because we had no warning and no time to get everyone up to speed with what was going on. In all the drivers pre-race interviews, they are asked about their attire - they all give the same answer, stating that they felt it important to bring these issues after a member of our racing family was brutality attacked.

James is messaging Matt and I on our group, and it's apparent Matt was in the dark about this too. We both tell James how proud we are that he pulled this together (he had the help of Max and Jono, but we know who would have been calling the shots on that) but it would have been good to get a heads up. His justification is that they didn't want it to become an official thing, which was then called off. I get that but it's left us and the rest of the marketing team scrabbling to make an official statement. Matt and I find ourselves waiting for that to come through in order to post it across our socials before we continue with the scheduled content for today. Though Jono's name hasn't been explicitly mentioned, it's pretty clear to everyone that he's the leader, especially choosing to differentiate himself with his choice of t-shirt, and I wonder if Bianchi's statement will go as far as saying this.

The statement comes through as the drivers line up across the grid. It has a general comment about how all drivers chose to wear the t-shirts as a statement of solidarity today. There's nothing more specific, and we see other teams posting similar things - I suspect Kate and the team have been working with the grid to coordinate their efforts and avoid singling anyone out to get into trouble about this.