Comfort [landoscar]

1) pre testing despair

MTC, England, 15th February

"Welcome to the McLaren Technological Centre, Oscar. This is your official welcome to the team as the pre-season testing will begin soon." Zak brown had spoken first to present his new driver to the team as they cheered. Oscar smiled shyly and greeted everyone. "Thank you everyone, I can't wait to start this season with all of you. I always dreamed of being in Formula one and now I'm here. And I can't wait to race alongside Lando." The new driver said calmly as the team applauded. He looked to the side where Lando was barely visible from where he was hiding. He had a small smile when Oscar looked at him. His new teammate clearly had no idea of the shit show McLaren was and how they would drive a tractor.

Lando was tired of the shitty car he got each year. He wanted to win, to always be on the podium. It was his fifth season goddamn it. Didn't he deserve the success of the champions? He wanted to break records and to be remembered as one of the bests. Everyone wanted that, to be on the podium, to win and to have championships. That poor kid didn't know what it was, even though Lando himself was still a kid.

Oscar's new team personally went to greet themselves as they would work together often. His new engineer, Tom, greeted him and told him they would have a meeting soon to talk about the car, the set ups and how they would work together while racing. The mechanics simply greeted him and left him with Lando. The young Brit had to show him the MTC in details and they would go on the sim after. Lando joined him and quietly told him to follow him. They walked up to the car exhibit and they walked between historical cars like the McLaren mp4/4 that Senna drove. He didn't say anything at first, as he had changed teammates once again. He was used to being the youngest and to always have someone to look up to. It was also weird since Daniel had been let go in such a rude and abrupt way, for Oscar to be signed mid season so suddenly. They started to small talk together and Lando talked to him about the team and the car, how it was like in formula one. Oscar told him about his history in feeder series and how it went at Alpine.

Lando simply nodded as he listened to how shitty Alpine treated Oscar. He was already wondering if the Aussie would be dropped or would leave after one year or two. Oscar looked nice and all but Lando missed his two friends he had made at McLaren and was already feeling like shit when thinking of the season that would start soon. He would probably get p17 by p15 and dnf's by dnf's. Obviously he would try his best, but that was complicated when you drove a tractor. He wanted so bad to be on top, to make up the expectations people had on him. He was expected to do well, as a young talent picked up from Formula 2 and going in a team with such a history. But the pressure was eating him alive. He wasn't succeeding like everyone predicted and was probably disappointing everyone too. His fans wanted him on the podium not at p17 with + one lap. His parents that had paid so much. Even himself that had sacrificed a part of his childhood. All of that to be lonely and not do anything good when he should. It was expected of him after all.

They arrived at the factory part of the MTC, Lando showed Oscar everyone that worked on the car that nobody ever saw. They built the car and designed it. They walked up to the PR office and made a stop there. Sophie, the PR officer, wanted to make a pic with the two of them and to make a post to show the new pair before the testing. She made them pose together in front of the car exhibit and she made them hop into the sim to pose them while racing. Since Lando was about to take the Aussie with him there she followed them through the end of the tour.

They started a race to test their new car and Sophie started filming. As the good PR trained driver he was, Lando started saying how much hope he had and said how good the car seemed to be. He said it was easy to drive and it was really fun to drive it in the sim. "Can't wait for you to see us on the racetrack with it, guys!" Lando had said fake smiling. Sophie left them there and Lando's true self came back. "Absolute shit is what it is. Undrivable, it doesn't turn and I can't wait for upgrades." Oscar looked at him incredulously. "Nah it's nice, and we're lucky to be able to drive with them. I'm sure we'll have good results." Oh poor naive child, even with Lando's experience he wouldn't be able to take it in the points. The Brit looked at him dead serious, the new guy was definitely way too optimistic. You could easily say he was new to Formula one or he would be immediately able to tell the car would take them to p13 on its best days.