When the first female F1 driver is announced, no one expects her to get on so badly with Ferrari golden boy Charles Leclerc, but do they really hate each other as much as it seems?
I woke up with a pounding in my head. I groaned and closed my eyes again trying to remember the end of last night. After my encounter with Charles, I had had another few shots, before Rue had dragged me home as I started suggesting we should become barmen for the rest of the night and tried climbing over the bar. I counted myself lucky as I had done much more embarrassing things in the past, and considering the amount of alcohol I had drunk last night I wasn't feeling too bad.
I eventually got up, took some paracetemol, showered and picked out an outfit. It was my first day in the paddock, where there would be lots of media so I had to make this outfit count. Fashion was another of my interests and I intended to dethrone Hamilton from his title of most-fashionable on the grid. I went with a pink racing jacket and yellow wide fit jean bottoms. I put my hair up in a messy bun as I needed it up under my helmut.
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Rue and I were picked up by a driver hired by Mclaren to drive us to the track and in the car Rue gave me a needed pep talk. Once we got there we headed straight to the Mclaren garage. On the way we bumped in Daniel.
"Edom?!" He grinned when he saw us
"Hey Danny!" I smiled back.
"You look gorgeous!" He said "Get ready to get all sweaty out on track" I chuckled, then out of the corner of my eye I saw Charles standing 10 feet away, leaning against the ferrari garage. He was already in his racing gear, the fireproofs dangling round his waist, and he was looking right at me. Like normal, he offered up no smile so neither did I and returned back to my conversation with Daniel. Despite having taken his seat in Mclaren, there was no tension between me and him, and I was already glad to have a friend like Daniel. I introduced him to Rue and we spoke for a minute or so before we both carried on to our seperate garages.
"I like him" Rue said.
"Yeah, he's sweet" I agreed.
"And you know what they say," smirked Rue "Big nose, big...."
"Gross Rue, don't even" I shut her down with a chuckle.
By the time we got to the garage, media had already taken a bunch of photos of us and questions were being yelled at me left, right and centre. I decided to ignore them all as I knew being the first and only girl on the grid had already drawn a lot of attention to me and I didn't need any more currently.
As Lando was testing the car in the afternoon (the dude refused to get up early so I was stuck with the morning tests), he wasn't in the garage so I didn't really know anyone. My engineer brought me my racing suit and I went to my room to change.
I grabbed my helmut and made my way back to the main garage where engineers were busily working on my car. She (my car) was a beauty. Number 13 (my lucky number) was painted big in black across the orange livery and I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to treasure this feeling I had. I had made it to F1. I did it. All that work was worth it. All those teen parties I had missed when I was younger so I could race was worth it.
I climbed into the car and listened as the engineers told me what they wanted to test and what I should do. I pulled out the garage and onto the track.
Just under an hour later my session was done. The team had gathered a lot of info on the car and although in comparison to the other teams the car wasn't looking particularly strong, I was still proud of my efforts. As I got out the car, I was congratulated and thanked by members of the team, before I went to get changed back into my old outfit - luckily I wasn't too sweaty and my makeup had only smudged lightly; nothing I couldn't quickly fix. I met Rue outside the garage and we wandered over to the paddock cafeteria. We grabbed something to eat before sitting down at our own table.
As we were finishing, Lando plonked himself next to me. Despite it being 1pm, he looked like he had only just got up.
"Hows the car" He inquired
"It definitely needs some work in comparison to the other top teams" I slightly grimaced "I mean it's hard to tell with all the teams sandbagging, but hopefully we'll be getting lots of podiums this season".
"God" Lando sighed "Well, I'll see how it feels this afternoon I guess".
I suddenly noticed Charles walk in. His hair was disheveled and he was wearing wide-fit jeans with a compression shirt. I wasn't sure why but whenever Charles was near me, I was always noticing him, always drawn to him. After the events of last night, my mind was scrambled about what to think of him. I kept going back to the moment where our faces were inches apart, where his hands were on me...
"Edom! Earth to Edom!" It was Lando. I must've zoned out with that memory.
"Yeah, sorry. I zoned out" I smiled softly, bringing my eyes and head back to Lando.
"Don't worry. Driving is tiring and it's your first day. You should go back to your hotel and rest" Lando said soothingly.
"No, no" I replied "It's ok. I want to watch your practice and get more intel from the team". No way was I sitting out my first day in F1.
"Alright. Come on then, lets go". We made our way back to the Mclaren garage and Lando went out on track. I hung around the engineers, trying to make sense of all the data they had coming through, before I decided to watch from the paddock pass spectator seats as no one was allowed in during testing.
The view was gorgeous, and I couldn't help but snap a quick photo.
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"Your car looks shit" I looked up to see Charles standing next to me. I rolled my eyes.
"Ever heard of thing called sandbagging Leclerc?" I retorted "What gives me the pleasure of your presence" my voice dripping with sarcasm.
"Just scoping out the other teams. I can clearly count you out of being a competitor". His face remained straight, unreadable. I said nothing, just hummed slightly and smirked at him. I couldn't believe how blatantly rude he was being to me.
"I guess if you've made your conclusion, you can leave then" I said after a second. I felt a strong dislike for the man which was quickly turning to hate. I turned back to face the track and watched as an Aston Martin sped by.
"Always a pleasure Hakimi" he said gruffly before leaving. As soon as he was out of sight, I let out a breath I didn't realise I had been holding. I felt my posture deflate and I put my head into my hands. My mind was racing and it wasn't from seeing all the other cars speed past.
I hated him so much, so why couldn't I get him off my mind?
