Chasing Nico || Nico Hülkenberg

Chapter 4: The Race

Is it just her or it’s quite hot here?

Olivia blows her fringe restlessly. She must have been in the garage for about half an hour now, and she’s still isn’t sure if this is a good idea. It started off fine actually; she went to the hospitality, asking for Natascha, who gave her a team pass (reluctantly, of course, but Olivia guessed that Nico had talked her round) and then took her to the garage, introducing her to a guy who speaks English with German accent and is called Karl (or was it Kai…? No, she was sure it was Karl). Then Karl ushered her to the back of the garage and let her sit on one of the chairs. He also gave her a pair of headphones before he left.

And here she is, feeling out of place and sort of bored. The engineers and mechanics are pretty much busy all the time, though she had caught some discreet glance when they thought she wasn’t looking. They must wonder what her relationship with Nico is.

Well, she would also love to know.

She wishes she turned the offer down and watched the race from the tribune instead. There she could eat, drink or play Bubble Witch Saga from her phone without anyone shooting her a weird look. Olivia sighs and tries to fix her gaze on one of the screens that hang on the ceiling. Nico had made up two positions and is currently ninth. But they don’t show him on TV quite often, and Olivia doesn’t really care about the other drivers apart from him and the British drivers, who don’t appear on the screen that often either.

The headphones suddenly give a beeping sound that never fails to make Olivia nearly slide off her chair. “Okay Nico, you’re losing one tenth of a second through turn 14 compared to Esteban. Try to brake a little bit later,” says the engineer whose voice has sounded very familiar by now.

“Okay.” She hears Nico’s muffled reply and then the radio go silent. Until next time, which won’t be long—two minutes she would guess.

0,1 bloody seconds is not much, is it? Why do they make such a big deal out of it?  

Anyway, she doesn’t despise the radio communication, it was kind of fun to hear the conversation between the drivers and engineers. But it always surprises her when they start talking, and she hates sudden sounds. That and her ears feel hot after a while. Besides she doesn’t understand almost ninety per cent of the conversations—although it’s in English. A few minutes ago Esteban was mentioning something about lack of harvesting. What the hell is that? It can’t mean what she thinks it means… Oh, whatever.

She doesn’t mean to sound ungrateful, really—she knows not many people can have this opportunity—it’s just that… well, she’s just not used to this.

Olivia decides to stand up and straighten her legs. A screen with something that looks like line graphs catches her eyes; it looks very complicated. Is that the famous telemetry? She walks towards the screen, trying to get a closer look. She peers at it, understanding absolutely nothing.

“Care to move a bit, love?” A voice behind her startles her. She turns, sliding the headphones off one ear.

“Sorry?”

“You’re blocking the way.” The guy gives her a small smile. Olivia mumbles an apology and walks back to her chair. That didn’t go so well. Her gaze flickers to the screen and… 28 laps to go. Oh, great. She needs to go out and get some fresh air. Right now.

Olivia takes her headphones off and places them on the table next to her. She wants to tell Karl that she’s going out for a bit but he’s nowhere to be found. Or… has she already forgotten how he’s like? Well, they all look similar with the same shirt and all that. Okay, she’ll just go quietly.