Race Tracks and Coffee Cups

Chapter 1: Coffee spills and qualifying

SATURDAY: QUALIFYING

It was the first race weekend of the 2021 season and Kit was running late. "Shit, shit, shit." She muttered as she dodged through crowds of people, trying to make her way back to her team's garage which was set up at one of the ends of the pit lane. She had just gotten through a particularly large crowd of people and the coast seemed clear so she quickened her pace a little. Kit was almost back at the Williams garage when she ran smack bang into someone and dropped her cup of coffee.

"Shit." The person she ran into and Kit both muttered although the other person spoke a lot fancier. Kit looked up and met the eyes of someone she knew was familiar but couldn't place the name. "Uhm." The other person broke eye contact and pointed at her shirt so she looked down again, only to see her shirt was drenched and the stranger's shirt wasn't looking too good either, but at least his would dry.

"This was definitely not what I needed today." She sighed and pinched her nose.

"Do you have a spare shirt?" the man asked.

"Nah should be alright, we're racing in an hour anyways." She answered slightly confused why the man was asking that.

"That's still an hour to walk around in a wet shirt, so here." The man pulled a hoodie out of the backpack he was carrying and handed it to Kit.

"Oh thank you..." she started to thank the man but stopped as she didn't know his name.

"Pierre." He supplied.

"Well, thank you Pierre, but I have to go, I can see George looking for me." The other Williams driver had been looking around the pit lane until he saw Kit talking to Pierre.

"Okay, see you around..."

"Kit." She supplied this time.

With one final nod they both went their separate ways. Kit immediately walked over to George as she knew he had to be looking for her for a reason.

"Why were you talking with Pierre gasly?" George asked the Australian.

"Who?" Kit asked confused.

"You are a dumbass." George muttered, "He is one of the drivers for Alpha Tauri and he's in the group chat."

"Oh! That's why he seemed familiar but wait there's a group chat I'm not apart of!" Kit perked up.

"I keep forgetting you're new to the scene." George muttered again, "But yes there's a group chat which I will add you to later and maybe introduce you to some other people but first we have to get ready for qualifying."

"Okii dokie." Kit walked off to her drivers room to change into her race suit. She said hello to a few mechanics that she passed but tried not to bother them too much as she knew they needed to get the cars ready. Ten minutes later she walked out with her hair tied up and her race suit slung over her hips and the Alpha Tauri hoodie Pierre had given her on. She had rolled up the sleeves a couple times as his name and number was stitched into the sleeves and she didn't want people to get the wrong idea, especially not at the first race of the season.

"Hey Kit, why are you wearing an Alpha Tauri hoodie, where did you even get that?" Luke, her performance engineer and Radio man asked.

She was about to reply when George interrupted, "Her brother works for them." The next thing heard was a loud slap sound and George clutched the back of his head. The whole garage then burst into laughter.

"Idiot, I don't even have a brother, why would you use that as an excuse!" While she was getting changed Kit had texted George to come up with some kind of excuse of why she was wearing an Alpha Tauri hoodie.

"So why are you wearing another team's hoodie?" Lily her PR and best friend asked this time.

"First of all, I don't wanna talk about it and second of all Qualifying is in like fifteen minutes and I'm only half ready so lets hustle." Kit said changing the subject.

Fifteen minutes later Kit had her helmet on and was getting strapped in. They had sent George out a few minutes earlier and he was waiting in the pit lane to go out for his couple laps. She finished getting strapped in and sat in the bay patiently.

"Radio check." Luke called.

"Booms away!" Kit responded quoting one of her favourite youtubers.

"Okay, seems good, you can head out into pit lane and wait there." Luke gave the all clear and they pushed the car out.

She sat there for a minute at the end of the pit lane before being given the go to head onto the track.

"Okay just work on warming up the tyres and getting to know the track for a couple laps and then we will start your timed lap." Luke instructed. "Also, you currently have Mick Schumacher in front of you, he's not on a timed lap and Pierre Gasly behind you who is, so watch out for him."

Kit quickly agreed and moved over to the right, so she could let Pierre pass. When Pierre caught up to her, she expected him to just go through but he actually gave her a little wave as he passed.

"What was that?" Luke asked as she moved to the middle of the track again.

"He was just being nice, probably recognized I'm the newbie or something." Kit answered.

"Uh, okay?"

A couple laps later Kit was given the go ahead to start her timed lap. She quickly flew through turns 1 and 2 and down the almost straight bit of track before turning into the sharpish turns 3 and 4. She kept going at a consistent pace until her radio crackled to life at the end of turn 7 and she got scared slightly.

"Good job Kit that was a purple sector, keep going at that pace and you'll make it into the top ten." Luke praised.

"Got it."

Kit scored another purple sector along the back end of the track and was going for another one when she hit the wall slightly coming out of turn 13.

"Fuck." She swore, "How bad's the damage?"

"Not too bad, but you gained a couple milliseconds, so it looks like it will be a green sector."

A few more turns and one straight later Kit crossed the line and she heard her team cheer slightly.

"P8! Not too bad rookie, this puts us through to Q2." Luke told her, excitedly.

"Whoo! What was my time?" she asked.

"1.28.596. Just a couple seconds behind the leaders." Luke said.

"Okay, almost back to the garage now." Kit said pulling into the Pit Lane.

She drove the car back into the garage and unhooked herself. As soon as she was out of the car she was bombarded by people. "Good job rookie!" George said as he tackled her in a hug, "You did better than me."

"What ya get?" she asked when she was let go of.

"P14." George responded and Kit yawned.

"Am I boring you." George then teased.

"No, I'm just tired and hungry." she said taking off her helmet and balaclava.

"Lets head to hospitality then, we have a two hour break before the next qualifying." George said.

"Okay." Kit pulled her gloves off and sat them down next to her helmet.

"Go change and I'll meet you out the front, you stink." George said as he shoved Kit towards her drivers room.

Kit walked out later with her hair tied in a braid and her race suit slung around her hips.

"Okay dokie lets go." George said and the two set off to the shared pit hospitality area.