Her || Charles Leclerc

4. F1 Giggles & Tea

"Another week, another episode of F1 Giggles & Tea," the girl with the blonde hair opened the podcast with her friend, her voice carrying a cheerful tone. "Today we are gonna talk about Matilde Jørgensen."

The girl with brunette hair, the co-host of the podcast, nodded and smiled widely. "The girl boss of the grid."

"The team principal of Ferrari."

"Not gonna lie, she is living the dream," the blonde girl said.

"Although she isn't the first female team principal in F1, she certainly is one of the youngest."

"Only 29 years old!" The girl with blonde wavy hair raised her eyebrow. "Did you know who she was before she joined Ferrari?"

The brunette slowly shook her head. "She wasn't on my radar until she debuted as team principal. The thing in F1 is that you will not be known until you do something special, or if you are a head of department or a principal."

"Yeah, it's a shame, actually. There are so many people working behind the scenes. But I looked Matilde up, because I feel like we need to give her a platform. She is a team principal, but I'm quite curious to know how she got there," the girl with the brown hair said and took a sip of her coffee. Even though the podcast was called F1 Giggles & Tea, the girl preferred iced coffees. But the name was nice. The co-host nodded. "Matilde Jørgensen is from Denmark. I found on her Instagram that she was born on October the 8th, and she is 29 years old-"

"I still cannot believe she is a team principal under 30. It's really impressive."

"I mean, it feels like Ferrari had no candidates but Matilde, like she was the only one who applied for the job, no offence to Matilde." They both laughed. "Anyway, she studied at the Technical University of Denmark: Engineering in IT and Economics, also doing a mathematical degree at the same time. She got a placement at Red Bull Racing in IT. After that, she got a job within Red Bull as a strategist, and worked her way up to Senior Strategist, working closely with Hannah Smitz. And now she is the team principal of Ferrari."

The brunette looked impressed. "It sounds so easy," she said. "And that while only being 29 years old."

"I'm 25 and I can't handle my job at the supermarket."

"I'm still crying myself to sleep over my studies." Laughter filled the podcast. "But to our comparison: how is she doing her job so far? Let's compare her to last year's season."

The girl with blonde hair nodded and grabbed her notes. "Bahrain, 2022: Charles p1 and Carlos p2 In 2023: Charles P5 and Carlos p4. Saudi Arabia, 2022: Charles p2 and Carlos p3. In 2023: Charles p4 and Carlos p5. Australia, 2022: Charles p1 and Carlos DNF. In 2023: Charles p2 and Carlos p4," she said. "Baku was after Monaco, but this year it is before Miami. So Baku, 2022: Charles DNF and Carlos DNF. In 2023: Charles p4 and Carlos p2."

"Hmm, it sounds like the start of 2022 was more promising than this year," the brunette mused.

"Yes, but let's be honest: the end of 2022 was a disaster for Ferrari. God knows what Mathilde had to deal with when she got there. I can imagine it was a mess," the blonde girl smirked. Let's compare the results so far after four races, shall we? Charles had 78 points in 2022 and currently has 53 points. Carlos had 33 points in 2022 and now has 46 points. In 2022 Ferrari had 96 points and they have 99 points in 2023. An overall difference of three points."

It was silent.

"It's... I hope they will stay consistent."

The blonde girl sighed. "I mean, Carlos has more points now. And the team has three more points. It's not a downward trend. Considering where Ferrari came from last season, it has improved already. I feel like the team is doing better, but we will find that out later this season."