Her || Charles Leclerc

23. My Team

Matilde yawned and tapped her fingers on the steering wheel. She looked around; was it the Spa Grand Prix if it didn't rain at least one day? The car in front of her moved, driving for five metres, making Matilde join the queue. It was the first time in three weeks she had driven her car. It was the first time in three weeks she had set a foot outside of the UK. It was the first time in three weeks she went back to a race.

"Do you think I can pass them?" Matilde asked her dad and looked at him, he sat next to her.

Living three weeks with a parent after ten years, was odd, somewhat annoying, but also trusted and fun. Matilde and her father were best friends. However, Matilde was looking forward to living by herself again. The summer break was about to start and her entire family would celebrate it in Italy, and Matilde and her father were on their way to Italy now. With just an extra stop, they would pass Spa-Francorchamps, so it wasn't even a question to visit the track during the Grand Prix. Besides, Matilde's father hadn't visited Spa-Francorchamps before, or even visited a race with Matilde as Ferrari's team principal.

"Hmm," her father hummed. "You are Ferrari's team principal."

"Yeah," she sighed.

"But it doesn't mean you can break the rules."

"I know," she agreed. "But at this point, we will get there when the race has already begun." Perhaps, she exaggerated, it was still eight o'clock in the morning, but it was busy and they weren't even close to the track. "And technically, I'm not working, so I don't know if I can follow those rules."

Matilde didn't dare to act like she was the team principal now, so she waited and stayed in the queue.

Her father was looking at his phone. "Thomas can claim tickets for speed skating in Stavanger, Helen will join as well. Do you want to come too?"

"When is it?"

"First of December."

She blew up her cheeks. "It's the week after the last race," she mumbled. "Uhm..." She blinked a couple of times, trying to think of an event she possibly had that weekend. "It's the world cup, right?"

"Ja. We can claim a ticket for you and otherwise we can sell it, or someone else will come with us," he mentioned and said to his friend that he needed to claim a ticket for himself and Matilde. "It will be a standing ticket, though."

"Perfectly fine," Matilde replied. "That will be fun. I will ask Galileo tomorrow if there's something planned, but I don't believe so." When the words left her mouth, she realised something. "Gosh, I'm dependending on my assistant." A disgusted look washed over her face. "This is something I did not want."

A laugh rolled over her dad's lips. "Times are changing."

"Awful." Matilde ran her hand through her hair. She looked in the mirror and a car that was being escorted by some policemen on motorbikes passed them. "If you need help with looking for accommodation or other things, just let me know. Happy to help."

"We will probably go to the same B&B."

"Hmm-hmm, and 'accidentally' brunch in the same hotel as the speed skaters."

They both began to laugh. Last year, also during the speed skating world cup in Stavanger, they had a quick coffee break in a hotel when driving to the ice hall and they bumped into every delegation. It was by accident, they had no idea that it was the hotel that all the speed skaters were staying in, which made things more fun. Every time they went to a speed skating world cup, something ordinary would happen to them. And they visited the world cup almost every year.

"It was a success," her father added. "We're just gonna do it again. They don't know we're there for them. We are just random tourists, we don't know anything about speed skating, everyone is happy."