All the Way - an F1 story

15

Translations will be in the comments

17 June, 2021
📍Spielberg, Austria

Something was off. Calina couldn't quite put her finger on it, but she knew something was off. "Are you thinking what I am thinking?" she asked.

Beside her, Tobias nodded in agreement. "She's not–Mona, holy fuck, that's not even close to being centred!"

The mechanic whipped around, furious at the older man. "Sei un pezzo di merda–this is what happens when you ask the shortest person in the crew to do this, Tobias!" she exclaimed, followed by a string of curses Calina wouldn't dare repeat. Tobias rolled his eyes playfully while he guided her back to the back of the garage. He helped Mona with putting up the flag, and once they were done, they returned to stand beside Calina.

"Not bad, guys," Tobias sighed, admiring their work. The three of them were apparently elected by the other crew earlier that morning to decorate the garage for the weekend.

"I feel like we could do a bit more, no?" Calina asked, rearranging some of the smaller flags, one labelled with her name amongst them. "Do we have another flag? Maybe we put one on each side, no?"

"We don't," Mona frowned. "And who knows if we can get it in time. I think Marco is still slightly annoyed that we didn't get these until two days ago. And this is literally the bare minimum, and I think we're the only team doing this. So this is good enough."

"This is good. Now, I don't know about you guys, but I need food and coffee. Lots and lots of coffee" Tobias sighed, rubbing his eyes. Calina felt for him, because he and the rest of the crew had spent nearly all night at the track to set up for the next two weekends they would be in Austria, after an issue left them stranded somewhere on the side of a highway in northern Italy. From what she was told by Tobias, a group of the factory mechanics had to drive nearly four hours to get to them, and it took another two to fix the truck.

The Pagani hospitality was packed and very noisy, as it always seemingly was. Calina found an empty seat, and her breakfast, waiting for her, at a table occupied by May and Elara, the two Canadians deep in conversation.

"So it's either a cab triple 1440 or the two backside triple cork 1620's."

"Elara," May sighed, clearly confused. "Do you  think I know what any of that means?"

"What do you want to do?" Calina asked, taking that empty seat beside Elara. "For the 1620?"

Elara showed her a video. "Remember this?" As she watched, Calina was able to recall her memory from all those years ago, back when she had first met her younger friend and they had spent hours in their dorm watching snowboarding videos on YouTube.

"You want to do two of those? Back to back? Elara, are you fucking crazy!" May exclaimed.

"I can! I'm just having trouble with the second. I can't turn enough in time before I get to the ground."

"That bruise on the side of your fucking body says a lot," Calina huffed. "You are really lucky you didn't snap a rib, El."

"Okay, I will admit it was a disaster, but I think I can get it," Elara sighed, watching the video over and over. "Besides, I don't think Rich would let me even try if he didn't think I can't do it!"