Golden ↠ Daniel Ricciardo (The Christmas Special)

🎄 four

Camille's eyes were plastered on the TV, and she was observing the F2 race. The ambience in the Red Bull garage was relaxed, but also a bit off; this was the last race of the season and the last race with Daniel as their driver. Camille chewed on the inside of her lip and took a deep breath, even though George Russell was already named as champion, it still was exciting.

"Cam," Mike said and stood next to her. "I saw you worked until late yesterday."

Camille raised her eyebrow; you do not have the rights to call me 'Cam' because you have not been upgraded to a position to call me 'Cam'. "Yes, I have," she said neutrally.

"Why, though? We had finished everything in the afternoon. Have you found any abnormalities in the data?" Mike took a sip from his coffee.

She looked away. "I had my doubts, and I wanted to double-check it. I have made some modifications, but those were small. Nothing to worry about," she explained. "No need to make adjustments on the car."

"Alright," Mike said and kept looking at her, a small smile grew on his face. "You didn't do your work after the qualifying right away, right?"

A guilty laugh rolled over Camille's lips.

"I see you, Cam," Mike laughed as well. "Second time in a row. I heard from Daniel you were still working on Friday till late."

"Yup," she replied. "And it's my own fault I do that, procrastination behaviour at it's finest."

"Well, yeah, but you have done your job, and hopefully it all went right."

Camille smirked. "Of course, I know what I do," she said and placed the headset back on her head. The mechanics were arriving, and everybody was asked to do a radio check. "Loud and clear for Camille," Camille said when she was asked to do it.

More people called in. The F2 race came to an end, and the garage doors opened. The covers for the car got removed, and mechanics started to work on the car right away. Camille walked over to her people and made some adjustments to Daniel's car in consultation with the rest of the team.

The start of the race was nearing, and guests started to come around at the garage. Everybody did his or her job and got prepared for the last race. The time went fast, faster than Camille wanted it to go.

Daniel entered the garage with Michael and his family. He was wearing his happy smile, but behind that smile was hiding an emotional man. He was upset he was leaving, but he knew it was the right choice. The team became his family, and it hurt him he had to leave them behind.

"Can I get everybody's attention, please?!" Christian Horner called and mentioned the same words on the radio to get everybody's attention.

Camille got up from the squat position. She removed the headset from her head and placed it on her shoulder. Her eyes fell on the people; everybody from the team gathered around, from both the sides. She looked at Daniel and gave him a soft smile. Daniel didn't hesitate and walked over to her.

"Howdy," he said.

"Hey," she replied and made a new ponytail in her hair.

The speech of Christian started, he was talking about this year, about Daniel leaving the team, about Max his performance and about this weekend. This was just a short version of his speech, just to give everybody extra motivation.

"I saw you worked till one this night as well," Daniel whispered to Camille.

Camille smirked and looked at him. "Why does everybody know what I'm doing till late?"

"Because you send us emails at one in the morning. You're making it easy for us."

"Touché." She crossed her arms in front of her chest. "How is it going with your speech? You know you have it in a few hours."

Daniel playfully smiled. "I have added the 'don't forget the hips, for not lying', but I don't know. Maybe I will do it, perhaps not. I think it's best to speak from my heart, giving real words and emotions." He crossed his arms in front of his chest as well. "And this will not be my real speech, the real one will be back at the factory."

"For the bottom of your heart, the best way to say thank you to everyone," Camille agreed. "It will be tough."

"Why is that?"

"You're leaving, mate. People will miss you. It's something big."

Daniel grinned. "So you will miss me?" Camille looked away. "I'm just one garage away, I'm not leaving."

A soft laugh rolled over Camille's lips, and she rested her eyes on Christian again. Mike was looking at Daniel and Camille, it looked suspicious between them. It wasn't only Mike who noticed it, a few other people started to notice that both Daniel and Camille were talking and giggling; that was odd. They were never seen together, or not in this casual setting.

🌟

Daniel started his last lap, he was currently driving as fourth, and he would finish as fourth - behind his teammate Max. The whole race was kind of routine, the usual for the team. But as soon the last lap started, Daniel's crew began to realise it was his last.

It was a perfect race, not too many mistakes. Camille's eyes were focused on the data, but she knew it was over, and it was unlikely to have errors. She chewed on her bottom lip and changed her view to the screen what projected the race.

When Daniel crossed the finish line, people started to clap in their hands. Camille looked around and began to clap in her hands as well. The voice of Christian filled everybody's ears, he was thanking Daniel. Daniel's engineer Mike started to talk after Christian, complimenting his driver.

"Thank you, everyone," Daniel began. "Thank you for the incredible years, wins, pole positions..." Everybody in the team listened to his words.

Camille's eyes became glazed with a glossy layer of tears, this was the last one. She refused to cry, she promised not to cry, but it happened; she got emotional. She looked down and pressed her lips into a thin line. When she looked up, her eyes locked with Mike's. Camille blinked the glossy layer away and let out an embarrassing giggle. "I'm sorry," she muttered and removed the left side of her headset from her ear.

"Don't be sorry," Mike said and put his hand on her shoulder. He softly squeezed in it. "It's the last race, he's leaving our family. You have been working with him since the beginning."

"I know, but it's bull crap," she said and shook her head. "Shouldn't get emotional."

"Come on, let's celebrate it. Be sad later today."