Emily takes another sip of water and wipes her forehead, praying that her makeup is still intact. After a bit of rain in the last free practice session yesterday, the sun had now been shining brightly all day, turning the garage into an oven. If the fans are probably enjoying the high temperatures outside, she's ten seconds away from melting and hating it.
"You know you could just watch from the hospitality, right?"
She rolls her eyes at Andrea, Charles's trainer, who should really know her better than that after all these years.
"Are you kidding? He's on pole, I'm only setting foot out of this garage when he gets onto the podium."
There's nothing quite like being in the garage, surrounded by the mechanics and engineers, and hearing Charles's voice in her headphones as he talks to Xavi during the race. That's the true experience.
Both Ferraris have been incredible this weekend. All the hard work that Charles has put in the last few days seems to be working, with qualifying ending with a beautiful 1-2. Isa and her had cheered so loudly they'd almost gotten kicked out of the garage yesterday. There's something in the air this afternoon, a frenzy, bordering on euphoria that's making her skin buzz, although she doesn't dare to get her hopes up just yet. This isn't her first rodeo and she knows how unpredictable races can be. They need a good car, a driver leaving it all out on the track and, maybe most importantly, a fail-proof strategy. That's the part she's wary about, because she's seen some questionable decisions being made sometimes and even though they don't talk about it, she knows it was in Charles's mind this morning when they walked through the paddock. Starting on pole means there's a 30% chance of winning this race. Yes, she looked it up. So Ferrari can't fuck it up this weekend, not when both boys are working damn hard to stay close to Max in the championship battle.
"Have you talked to Gasly?" Andrea asks as she spots Charles on the screen, as he gets into his car on the starting line. "He moved up the grid by a few places with Checo and George' penalties."
She smiles, glad that the Austrian GP is being kind to her best friend as well. "Yeah, I went by AlphaTauri earlier, he's really pumped. P6 was kind of unexpected for him this weekend, but hopefully he'll manage to stay in the points."
It'll be tough, for both Pierre and Charles, since Max will be starting on P3, but she's optimistic. Obviously, there's a freaking orange army in the stands around the track and Verstappen is always a threat, but having both of her boys on the podium would be freaking fantastic.
She can't quite pinpoint why, but she has a good feeling about this race.
Yeah, it'll be awesome.
Carlos's pit stop is slightly long, due to the front-left tyre getting stuck, but they still manage to do it in 3.1. He drops down to 3rd but it's actually a pretty good thing一on her side, anyway一since he can now defend against Hamilton and Vettel, and allow Charles to deepen the gap up front. On lap 22, they finally call for car #16 to box, replacing the softs for mediums, and she pumps her fist in the air when they do it in only 2.3.
So far, so good.
Charles comes out of the pitlane in the 6th position since most drivers pitted a lap earlier but he climbs back up with an ease that blows her away. His overtakes are nothing short of beautiful, but then maybe she's a bit biased on the matter seeing as he's her favorite driver ever. Still, she can't wait to watch the highlights of the race again and again tonight when they're back in their hotel room, hopefully with a new trophy to add to the collection.
After getting past Ocon, both Mercedes drivers and his teammate, he's right behind Verstappen. Charles and Max battle it for a few laps, going back and forth on the leaderboard until finally, it takes a toll on the Redbull's tyres. Max is forced to back off a little, leaving Charles to lead the race for a dozen laps. The whole garage breathes out a sigh of relief, but there are still 15 laps to go.
