Mechanic To Master (An F1 Fanfic) {Under Re-writing}

"Copy!"

The first Haas was easy to get past.

The second one, however is where my problems began.

Mick Schumacher was a very good defender, and he knew exactly how to keep me behind him.

So, I used some of grandad's thinking.

After almost 3 attempts to get past Schumacher, I stopped trying. I even put a little distance between us.

I just needed him to relax... And he did!

The Ferrari was obviously faster than the Haas. So, as soon as Schumacher relaxed, I gained another place.

I heard Kymara cheering over my radio, but I couldn't celebrate now. I still had 8 or more places to make up.

"The gap to Kimi Raikkonen, 1.359 seconds."

"Thanks! Anyone to watch out for behind me?"

"No, there's a 3 second gap, so no immediate threats. Focus on Raikkonen."

"Copy!"

I grinned stupidly at my use of radio language. I was such a kid sometimes.

"Gap to Raikkonen 1.005 seconds. How are the tyres holding up?"

"Tyres are fine. The softs are holding up very well."

"Okay. Gap to Raikkonen 0.932 seconds."

"Got it."

"Kim! DRS active."

I grinned. This just got a whole lot easier.

Gently, I pressed down on the accelarator, my gap to Raikkonen had definitely decreased, and now, I could over take him freely.

Three down, 7 or more to go.

Giovinazzi was fairly easy to take on after Raikkonen, and so was Latifi.

The difficulties started when I was a second behind Russell.

Overtaking him took a lot more effort from both, me and the tyres.

But eventually, my Ferrari won and I gained another position.

But now, my gap to Ocon was almost 4 seconds, which meant I had some catching up to do.

"Gap to Ocon, increasing. Is something wrong with the tyres? Or is this a strategy from you?"

"Tyres. Requesting box."

"Request accepted. Box the next lap."

I struggled through the rest of the lap, but finally made it to the pit lane.

To be honest, I was very nervous to 'box a lap'. I had never actually done it before, I guess Ferrari should've considered that when they threatened me.

Fortunately, I managed okay, and didn't kill anyone in the process. Yay me!

Now, it was time to hunt down Ocon!

My gap had gotten even larger, but now that I was on fresh tyres, it would be much much easier to get him.

And I did.

After Ocon, it was a breeze catching upto and taking on Stroll and Tsunoda.

I had one more fairly easy one after that (Daniel Ricciardo) and then it was on to the giants.

Vettel was up first, and man, did he defend.

It took so much out of me to overtake him, it wasn't even funny.

But eventually (4 laps later), I got past him.

Then, it was onto Alonso, who took another 5 laps of the 53 and finally Gasly and Charles, followed by Lando.

By then it was only 3 laps to go, and I still had Valterri Bottas just in front of me.

Who (however much I tried) I couldn't get past.

Then, 2 laps later, the checkered flag came out.

On my cool down lap, the radio was in absolute silence.

Worried, I had to know what was going on.

"Am I in trouble?"

No reply.

"Hey! Do you guys read me? Where did I finish?"

"Kim! No, we read you loud and clear. You have a P4 finish. I repeat, P4."

"Oh. Is that bad?"

There was a pause.

"You've started 20, and made up 16 places. It isn't bad, it's awesome! Oh my god! What a race!"

I smiled. I wasn't fully happy though. I knew I could have done much better.

P4.

But then again, it was the first race of the season. Maybe, I should have cut myself some slack.

~~~~~~

I was welcomed into the garage like a hero.

Everyone was so happy.

And Mattia seemed over the moon!

So much so, that he let all of us take the rest of the evening off, even though there was a ton of work to be done (not that anyone complained).

We could finish all of it on the flight tomorrow. When we packed up and headed for Portugal.

~~~~~~

That night, I threw all my stuff into my suitcase.

Grinning to myself, as I got ready for the flight tomorrow.

This year was going to one of the most interesting ones of my life.