Lights Out • 1 • Formula One ✔️

Chapter 91

The feeling inside me was almost indescribable. It was a mixture of anger, confusion, annoyance, and bitter disappointment that caused an aching in my chest. A stupid mistake may have just ruined my race weekend, and for what?

They should've just listened to me. Another run on those mediums would've secured me a spot in Q2. I would much rather have to nurse tyres during the race than have to fight through the pack and wear the tyres down in the process. Starting from P15 is a dangerous spot because if anything happens to the cars ahead (and that's the majority) I'll be right there in the mix. It'll be a judgement call whether to be fierce off of the line, or hold back and attack later on. Let's just hope I don't completely ruin my race weekend.

"What the fuck happened, Paula?" My voice was indignant as I folded my arms across my chest. Emanuel, Otmar, Kudzai and I stood in front of the group of strategists who were responsible for giving me the wrong strategy.

"If her teammate could get pole, she sure as Hell should've been joining him on the front row, or even been at the front of the grid!" Emanuel fumed. Paula looked like she was at a loss for words as she held her mouth open slightly. "You knew the margins were slight and a team with our competence shouldn't have risked it."

"But, I-" Paula tried to speak but Otmar put his hand in front of him in a gesture to silence her.

"Today was a mistake and should not have happened. We can't risk it happening again." The team principle spoke with a stern tone.

"Honestly, Sir, we-" one of the other strategists, Dayna, tried to speak up but once again was silenced by the hand.

"No excuses. All of your positions will be under reconsideration," Otmar's gaze met every single strategist in the room, even the ones who didn't work on my side of the garage. "You'll sleep on your poor choices and hopefully we can pull this back." With that, he turned and left the room.

As soon as he was out of earshot, Kudzai broke the silence with a whisper. "Didn't that seem a little too harsh?"

I wanted to agree with the utmost confidence, but then again, my race was ruined. "I just want to understand how something like that even happened." I looked at Paula for answers. "But no excuses."

"Alyssa-"

"You know," Emanuel interrupted Paula, "we don't have time for this. They need to put in the overtime because right now they've made my job as your head engineer much harder."

"At least let her talk," I rolled my eyes at Emanuel. When he got annoyed, it was very obvious and reflected in his behaviour. He wouldn't have dared interrupt Paula in any other day however he was pissed.

Paula gave me a half-hearted smile before exhaling. "Thanks, Lys. What I was trying to say is that our strategy was to do a second run on those harder tyres before coming into the pits. There must've been some miscommunication somewhere because we definitely would've sent you out - at least when everyone else started to put in fast times towards the end."

"Mistakes like that don't just happen," I sceptically said.

"Well, I'm just as gutted as you are to say it did. Dave, could you grab the-" one of the junior strategists handed Paula a paper-clipped document before she had even explained what she wanted. It must've been right. "-perfect!" She flicked through a couple of pages, stopping her finger on a section that was highlighted. "Here shows you the strategy that we put forward as we made it as a record. There's a time stamp and everything."

Emanuel took the document from her hand and examined it. His face soon dropped and he looked at Paula in confusion. "So what the fuck happened, Paula?" He asked, reiterating my earlier question.