Connections (F1 story)

Chapter Seven: Arrival

"Well this is nice, isn't it?" Sam and I were looking around my hotel room and was the Wednesday morning before the race day in Melbourne.

"Yeah it's nice, better than my room." He threw off his sweatshirt and sat down on my bed. It was his fourth time of staying in this particular hotel and was staying ten floors below me.

"Who said you could sit there?" I joked.

"Me." Oh.

I gave in and flopped down beside him, I hadn't slept in over thirty hours and my final dose of caffeine was wearing off- my eyes longed to shut, maybe a quick nap wouldn't hurt.

"Sas, don't go to sleep on me." Sam jabbed me in the ribs, that suddenly made me alert.

"You little sod." I sat up with my hair in all directions. I was excited to be in Australia, I really was, just the overwhelming urge to sleep was overpowering every other emotion.

I groaned and walked over to the double doors that lead out onto a Juliet balcony - maybe the view would wake me up a bit.

"Wow, this is good." I exhaled a breath as I took in my surrounding. It was beautiful.

I heard Sam's footsteps and he came to join me.

"Wait until you see the views in China, Malaysia is pretty nice too."

"It gets better?" I didn't know how it could possibly get better than this.

"Hell yeah, this is just average."

I looked out across the skyline, already lit in the morning autumn sun . The buildings were glinting and the street below was starting to fill with people which I could only presume were beginning their commute to work.

"Come on you." Sam looked directly at me, there came those butterflies.

"I want to sleep!" I was so pleased I'd done all my work and preparation on the plane. Daniel was flying over from Perth today, he flew out three days earlier to visit his family.

"You can sleep after lunch, Callum and I are taking you to the beach."

"YA-y," I halfheartedly replied.

"You can sleep on the tram I guess."

"Now we're talking." I grabbed and jacket and away we went.

---

It was colder than expected as I drew up to the track on Thursday morning, I'd had an amazing sleep from when I got back with Sam and Callum until my alarm went off at 7am. I was wide awake and felt bright and fresh.

The Albert Park Circuit was already bustling, all the teams had arrived and work had already started.

I jumped off the Communications minibus that dropped us twenty yards from the crowded media centre. The six of us, aka the Red Bull management and communications team, strode into the modern building and signed in before making our way over to the garage. It was still just a tad too early for the drivers to be on site.

We said hello to everyone and with our folders and bags made our way to our area, upstairs. Britta was based next to me.

Daniel and Sebastian arrived at ten a.m., they went to a briefing and returned to proceed on a track walk. As quickly as they arrived, they disappeared again.

When Daniel got back, I got him ready for Thursday's FIA press conference, this was a brand new experience for me.

I gave Daniel a preparation talk and we got escorted to the media centre, there were so, so, so many people and cameras in there.