Lando's Love (2021)

Chapter 25

In Portimao, everybody was asking me where Astrid was. During the press conference, like the 3 previous ones, I was asked a question about my couple: "Question for Lando, when all the drivers start to bring back their partner, yours is not present this weekend and will not be next week in Spain, is there trouble in paradise ?". I rolled my eyes before answering. "For your information, my fans on Twitch have managed to be more perceptive than you. We start the month of May this weekend, so the exam period starts in many universities around the world. Astrid is in her first year of law school and has to take her exams which start on Monday morning and end on Monday 10th May. She couldn't come this weekend because she's studying with friends of hers, at her flat. She won't be here next weekend either, as she will be revising for her last exam which is, if I'm not mistaken, international relations. So please don't come and create or imagine problems in my relationship without knowing. Astrid once told me a sentence: 'Quand on ne sait pas, on se tait', which means 'when you don't know, you keep quiet'. I find this sentence rather true; I'm going to ask you to apply it in this case. I would also like to return to the subject we are here for today: the MCL35M and its performance and my expectations for the season. Thank you!"

Daniel, who was my partner for today, applauded my words. I knew Charlotte would not like my answer, but I had no choice but to retort.

The rest of the weekend went pretty well. We had a team dinner on Thursday evening, partly to celebrate my podium in Imola as we hadn't been able to do that after the race. Free practice went relatively well with P8 in FP1 and P12 in FP2 on Friday. The cancellation of the Canadian Grand Prix shocked everyone, but we were all happy that Turkey had appeared in its place. It was very windy being on the south coast of Portugal. During FP3 I had a laugh during one of my warmup laps when Will told me that there was a virtual safety car, when I asked him the reason, he said it was because a billboard had fallen down. I couldn't help but laugh. I told Will that I had to go back to the pit because of the laughter.

Before I left to get into the car for qualifying, I received a message from my sweetheart wishing me good luck. I sent her a heart before getting into the car to get ready. I made it through to Q2 easily but was shocked to hear that Daniel didn't make it through. The car was performing well so I didn't understand how that could be, I would see about looking at the data with him. George, on the other hand, was through to Q2, again. I'm so happy that he gets through to Q2 every time. The Williams was more or less efficient depending on the track, but George managed to get the most out of it every time to get through to Q2.

Qualified P7, I was quite happy with my result. When I got out of the car and went to my debriefing, I saw that I had a message from Astrid: 'Congratulations, you were perfect, I am proud of you'. I answered her my impressions and promised to call her this evening. I received the answer during the debriefing. Normally we are not allowed to use the phone, but I had hidden mine between my legs, only Will had seen it and only glanced at me but said nothing. When I saw the answer, I smiled. I heard someone clearing their throat next to me, I looked up to find Andreas holding out his hand. I begged him with my eyes, but he didn't give in. "You know the rule, Lan, unless it's an emergency, no phone calls during meetings.". He said. I sighed and handed him my phone. I felt like I was back in high school... I was trying to keep up with the end of the meeting, but it wasn't very interesting as we were mainly discussing Daniel's data. Then something caught my attention. I turned to Will and began to speak to him in a low voice.

"Lando! Could you focus, please? "Andreas called out to me. I didn't have to answer, Will did it for me: "No, actually, he just made a point I hadn't seen and neither had Tom. ". "In that case, share it with the group..." replied Andreas. "Well, if you put Lando's and Daniel's graphs together, you can see almost the same curves except for one turn: turn 15. There is a spike but it's not high: it should be much higher. I have a question for Daniel: how did you manage your turn 15? ". Daniel looked at us strangely before answering. "Well, I brake before, then I accelerate slowly. ". "That's the problem, he doesn't have enough confidence in the car to accelerate any faster. ". Everyone agreed with us then. The rest of the debriefing was boring for me. We went back to the hotel where I decided to call Astrid, I saw her face appearing shortly after.