Racing For Love

Chapter Sixty Four

Now that Jono's told everyone he's leaving at the end of the season, we have one more thing to do. Kate and Jono ask me to lead as we film Jono's announcement video. It's quiet, his eyes focussed on the camera as he tells the world that he'll be leaving Bianchi. I can sense the hurt and disappointment and I try hard not to allow myself to cry as he finishes speaking. Once the filming is finished, Jono's keen to get out of the Bianchi offices, which I can understand. He is meeting his manager in London later in the day, so we say our goodbyes to Kate and head out of the building.

I'm surprised when Jono suggests we go and have some lunch at a local restaurant - I would have thought he would want to just go home after the emotions of the day, but we drive the 20 minutes into town. As we pull up outside, Jono comes round and opens my door, immediately taking my hand. "I want it to be clear that we are together, Ace, and you know that there'll be photos." Jono tells me. I'm still struggling to understand his reasoning, given he's always been pretty private before.

"You don't need to do this JC, it's out there already...we can just go home?" I suggest, because I'm not sure how I feel about it being so properly public.

"I want to enjoy lunch with you before I head off to see Duncan this afternoon" Jono tells me as we walk towards the restaurant. "I don't know whether I'll even have any offers - today might be my last day as an official racing driver, before it's announced tomorrow..." I can hear the sad undertone in Jono's voice - as much as he might be done with racing for Bianchi, it's clear that he's still passionate about racing. We sit and order drinks before looking through the menus - it's a nice restaurant and the menu is full of local seasonal dishes. I order a delicious sounding salad, with Jono ordering the same - he's already back to a training plan before the race next weekend.

"So, I'm going to see the drivers this afternoon." I tell Jono, taking a sip of my drink.

"The ones Joe's been sponsoring? That's great news Annie." Jono says, smiling across at me.

Amongst the voicemails and messages I received when I turned my phone back on in Italy, Mr Bingham had called and messaged to ask if I had made a decision on what I wanted to do about Joe's proposal. Even after talking it through with Jono and Kate, I still wasn't sure what I wanted. Jono suggested meeting drivers Joe had been sponsoring and see how I felt - even if I decided not to build 'The Stephens Foundation' up, I would continue to sponsor the drivers, and today I was going to meet them to let them know that their future was secure either way.

Whilst Jono was going off to have a glamorous meeting in London, I was heading to Silverstone to meet with four drivers. In the time since Joe put together his initial list of drivers, and which ones he was sponsoring, Genevieve had moved into Formula 2 after coming second in Formula 3 the previous year, Chloe was in Formula 3 and Elena was in Formula 4. There were three other drivers which were on Joe's list, but two of them had already dropped out and I was keen to understand if Maria - the final driver - was still interested in racing and wanted to pursue it.

I met the women in one of the conference rooms on site - It felt like a cool thing to do to meet them at the track, and most of them were based in the UK, despite coming from four different countries. It also felt like there was a little bit of Joe here - this was where we shared our last day together, but instead of feeling upset, I channelled Joe's stoicism and strength.

I met Genevieve first - she was French, but spoke with only a hint of her original accent having been based in England for nearly six years. She had an air of confidence beyond her nineteen years and immediately introduced herself to me with a solid handshake. She was dressed head to toe in team clothing - since she was in Formula 2, she was currently racing with the Aerial Junior Programme and the green of her jumper contrasted her light blonde hair.