Unchained Melody (Daniel Ricciardo)

Doing nothing is not an option

"You have no idea how much I missed you baby."
Daniel holds Ayla in his arms after being apart for two days.
It was only two days but it felt like much longer. Especially since he is so used to having her around and having her in his arms at night.

"I missed you too. A lot." Ayla says before turning her head and kissing her husband who she hasn't seen since Monday morning when she left for Austria with Christian and Daniel flew back to the UK for a day to do some work on the simulator.

He flew to Italy the next morning and Ayla arrived after dinner.
Ayla sighs when she thinks back on the last couple of days. Starting with the race weekend in Zandvoort of course.

*********

"Oh my god he did it! He made it into Q3!" Ayla jumps around in Max's garage, almost dropping her iPad.
"He always makes it into Q3." Calum jokes, acting as if he doesn't know she's not talking about Max.

"Shut up Calum." Ayla grins.
Daniel made it into Q3 only four tenths behind Max on P1....for now of course.
At least he isn't going to start from the back on Sunday, so if it all goes well, he might even score some good points.

If only she could be in the McLaren garage with him, or if he would still be with Red Bull she could at least give him a kiss for good luck. But McLaren isn't going to let her in, which she understands, but it still sucks not to be there for Daniel.

When Q3 starts Ayla can feel her heart pounding in her chest. She struggles to focus on her work when she sees Daniel hit the track and set his first time.
Unfortunately he has some traffic that interferes with his lap time so he can't get the most out of it. After his first flying lap he is on P10, but he soon comes in for fresh, soft tires and waits until the track evolves a bit more so he can try to get a better time on the board.

"Max is flying again. It seems the struggle he had on Friday has gone away."
Ayla hears somebody behind her say. It's one of the VIP's in the back of the garage.
Every race there's a lot of 'important' people who get invited to the paddock and garage.

Ayla knows it's part of the game, famous people may draw in other people to get interested in Formula 1, it's just unfortunate that a lot of those VIP's don't even care about the sport. Ayla is trying to make the team invite more fans to have a look behind the scenes, but so far her plans haven't really caught on. In the end money and status still seem to matter more.

It's not per se the actors and singers she is annoyed by. Her work might be social media, but she can't stand the influencers who only get invited because of their followers. They are the ones that rub it in the faces of the real fans.

Ayla is determined to get her idea through though. She wants the team to include fans even more than they do now. After all they are the ones that make the sport so great.

Ayla looks into the pit lane when she sees the papaya colored car with Daniel in it making its way back out on track.
Her hands are sweaty, she can feel her heart racing when he starts his warm up lap.

It only takes a minutes before every single car is out there, which could make it difficult to get a proper lap in again. If Daniel ends up in traffic and they aren't paying attention, his lap is ruined.

Ayla should be monitoring the Red Bull cars, but she can't focus on them. She can only look at Daniel who is driving his car through the final, very banked corner of the circuit, the Arie Luyendijk corner.

It's one of the coolest corners to drive through, full throttle and the banking makes it even more fun. Ayla has driven it herself a few times and also when she was sitting next to her father for something similar to a Hot Lap.