𝐈𝐧𝐝𝐨𝐦𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐛𝐥𝐞, Formula 1

Chapter 6

The track at Jeddah was the fastest in formula 1. With a whopping 27 corners, it was easy to lose your focus and let your body take over. This was going to be a night race, so we had to take that into account in our sleep schedules.

I had to begin sleeping during the day and waking up in the evening. It was difficult to do and required a whole lot of coffee. The evening of qualifying, and I am sat in my bed watching reruns of Family Guy. It's shitty tv, but there's few channels that aren't speaking about formula 1 right now.

A chime on my phone. It's from Carlos, only he must've gotten into my phone and changed his name.

Smooth operator: your up?

I put my phone back down on the duvet. We're supposed to be at the track in half an hour. But it's very close, walking distance. I would rather walk and get some fresh air, PR wants the three of us to ride together, though. Something about looking like we like each other.

It's a funny comment. The media's seen photos of us talking in the paddock. Me and Lando's photo from under the podium watching Carlos was adored by news outlets. I see that photo of us looking up at the podium every time I open instagram. Even F1 instagram posted it! Their caption was "papaya family🧡🧡"

Papaya family? The media is convinced we are super close already, when I don't even know their favourite colour! I cannot believe the image formula 1 forces upon us. And our appearances have to go along with it.

But when I went to the comments there wasn't a lot of hate. Of course there was the odd comments saying I didn't deserve my seat, but it was drowned with a sea of orange support. It made me feel like maybe I could find a home at McLaren.

One year, it was all the time I got to make my home. I bit my lip in frustration. A lot of drivers got one year contracts, all the other rookies have one year contracts except Lando. So what's so special about him? What did the see in him that I didn't have? Why must I do to show them they should keep me?

I have an entire season to prove my worth. I have to, it's the only option.

This track shouldn't be overly difficult. It would be a great test to see which cars were fastest. I was confident I could put a McLaren up there. Carlos was a fast driver, he was experienced too. But I wasn't afraid to throw the car around the corners. I owned my lack of fear of putting the car a little over the limits, pushing them further with every lap.

It was something I did well in F3 and I expect to do it well again in F1.

I was already completely ready, I had been for the past hour. But I was majorly procrastinating. It wasn't that I didn't want to go to the track. Practice yesterday had gone well!

I had managed to lock in P9 in the first free practice, then P4 in the second. It was a great moment of realizing I had the room to improve significantly if I needed to. The track was fast, my favourite. I felt like myself and the car could never slow down, only speed up.

The procrastination had been brought on by the amount of interviews I was to do today. I got out of a lot of them in Bahrain, using the excuse that I had to celebrate. A lot would be expected of me this weekend.

I slowly leave the comfort of my bed, grabbing my smoothie and going to Carlos' room. It was strange looking outside and seeing the sun setting, I felt all screwed up on the inside.

I knocked on his door and less than twenty seconds later he was welcoming me inside.

"Buenos días!" He smiles as me, finishing buttoning up his white linen shirt. He wore a black McLaren hat with a chrome logo, and black pants. I had yet to see Carlos in an outfit he couldn't wear with swagger.