imola had been cancelled the week before, so the gap between races had been extended by a week, giving the papaya team more time to upgrade their car. they were going to destroy the competition in monaco.
somehow, ria had managed to stay out of scandals during the four week break, meaning she was quite bored in the press conference. don't get me wrong, she didn't enjoy the plethora of questions about her out of work behaviour, but she loved putting those men to shame.
it had become routine for ria to leave the press conference and make a beeline straight for the mclaren motorhome, only to be berated by dionne because she'd said something inappropriate or rude in the conference. there was none of that this week. it felt completely abnormal.
she sat down in the little mclaren studio area next to oscar, not breathing a word to him, not even reciprocating his slight nod of acknowledgement of her presence as she walked in. oh, she was mad mad.
"hey guys, i'm oscar, she's ria.". oscar started after they were both micced up. "this week, the team have decided to go for the baby driver test. not sure how this is gonna pan out, but basically, we're getting photos of each driver as a baby, and we have to guess which driver it is."
"and i'm gonna solo him so hard on this. watch out oscar. you're done, man."she joked, as she did at the start of all of these videos. "i can't wait for people to take that out of context and say i'm a stuck up bitch."
"language! ria!" dionne yelled from behind the camera.
oscar picked up the tablet they'd been given and swiped to the first photo, bursting out in laughter already. he showed to to ria who cackled at the bowl cut.
"that has to be valterri. he looks so . . . finnish. that's the best way I can describe it." she said, as oscar was still laughing.
"i'm sorry . . . it's just . . . the bowl cut!" he let out between fits of laughter.
"alright mate, calm down, deep breaths, you get me?" she told him, patting his back.
finally, oscar had calmed down, and he swiped to the next photo.
"that's daniel. the ferrari shirt threw me off a little, but that's definitely daniel. i can tell by the smile and the hair." oscar said, beating ria to it.
"he looks exactly the same now, what the hell?" ria added.
oscar swiped to he next photo, and this one was painfully obvious.
"it's lewis. his baby photos are so cute, he had little chubby cheeks i just wanna give him the biggest hug ever." ria rambled.
"alright, we get it, you love babies. next one." he swiped. "oh! that's me!"
"no it's not. you can't be cute. it's scientifically impossible. that little boy would definitely give me a high five when i'm sad." she joked.
"is that what you want? next time you cry, i give you a high five?" he mocked.
"maybe. depends on what i'm crying about."
oscar swiped to the next photo.
"thats charles and arthur! pascale showed me that photo earlier this week." she smiled as she remembered meeting the sweet older woman.
oscar swiped to the next photo, and both of them recognized it instantly.
"yuki!" they said at the same time.
"um, actually that photo's from last week. bro has not grown at all." she joked.
"neither have you. you're still the same height as when i first met you." he made fun of the girl sitting next to him.
