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THURSDAY was the first time the Lamborghini drivers had appeared publicly for the Formula One season. The two women were reviewing a few practice questions before their first interviews for media day before they went their separate ways for their interviews.
Angelina struggled the most when asked specific questions. "Are you interested in any F1 drivers at the moment?" Udiella, the team's head PR manager, asked the taller woman.
Aurora smiled as she watched Angel's face twist, trying to find the most excellent way to respond.
"That has nothing to do with me."
"Angel!"
"What? I will not be treated like Hazel, especially if I do badly on Sunday." Angelina defended herself from her coworker. "They will drag me to hell, and I'm not risking anything."
"You know what? I give up." Udiella sighed as she closed her laptop, "As long as I don't see any bad headlines later, you both can do whatever you want."
The two drivers watched silently as the ginger walked out of the garage before smiling at each other.
"You are a nightmare of a driver."
"Girl, please, I add personality to this team." Angelina sassily replied with a roll of her eyes.
"And I add the wins, huh?" Aurora questioned with a small smile, causing the ravenette to turn to the younger with a frown etched on her face.
"Don't do that."
"I will indeed do that"
"Charles Leclerc, Lewis Hamilton, Lando Norris, Maya Uchinaga, and Aurora Reine, welcome and good morning to you all." The female interviewer started with a warm smile.
"Good morning," the drivers responded in unison, each with varying degrees of enthusiasm.
Aurora took a deep breath, trying to steady her nerves. This was the first major press conference of the season, and the attention was exciting and overwhelming.
The interviewer continued, "We'll start with you first, Aurora. This is your debut season in Formula One. Hazel Kyluo had some negative things to say about you earlier this morning, she said, and I quote, 'Aurora is very overrated in my opinion.'"
Aurora furrowed her eyebrows, sharing a side glance with Maya, who shrugged, shaking her head, and mouthed, "I don't know."
"She lacks the charm and personality of an F1 driver that the rest of us have; she seems more suited for a different type of spotlight.' Do you have anything to say in response to that?" The interviewer asked as she finished the quote
Aurora pursed her lips before raising the mic. "I mean, if she means causing drama and being unable to drive as a 'charm,' then I'm glad I don't share that with her at all."
The room sat still in frozen silence as Aurora set her mic down. The camera panned to Maya's shocked face, her hand covering her mouth with wide eyes. The rest of the drivers either had shocked faces or were trying to hold in their laugh (it was only Lando)
"Well, thank you for that, erm another question for you: you now have the second fastest car on the grid, and the pressure for you to be the first female Formula One driver to ever get pole position or win a grand prix is very high as of right now. Do you believe that this will affect your performance on Saturday and Sunday?"
"Um, there has been a lot of pressure from our engineers and our team principal, Yaya, as well; it has affected me negatively during practice. The constant yelling on the radios and the miscommunication really commits to the down performance; it's a two way street, really." Aurora answered rawly.
"If there's no communication, I can't do my part as driver because I'm not getting the feedback that I need, and they're not understanding what I need from the car. It's something that can definitely be worked on before qualifying and if it's not then I don't know how the race is going to work out."
The interviewer nodded, appreciating Aurora's candidness. "Thank you for your honesty, Aurora. We hope things improve for you and the team. Now, moving on to Charles..."
As the focus shifted on to the monocoques driver, Aurora's mind drifted off, immediately realizing the weight of her words. But in all honesty, she couldn't care less.
If a driver wanted drama then Aurora would give her just that.
