Love and Rivalry {Female F1 driver}

A big sensation

After the race in Monaco, where I had made my first p1, we had only a few days before we were heading to Barcelona for the next race. After celebrating a bit during the day, our Manager invited me and Isack to go to watch the F1 drivers drive their race in the afternoon. Apparently, he had been invited by Christian Horner, for us to be in the Redbull garage, and have a look behind the scenes of the race. 

We both accepted, and we arrived in our own Red Bull racing jackets, to show our support. When we arrived there, the preparations were still ongoing, and all the drivers were walking around calmly, just like we would have done before a race. It felt almost surreal to see all the F1 drivers up close, and no longer on TV. I would never miss a race, from when I was a little girl, even now I only do if they collide with my own races. 

After a while of looking around with Clive, we were left alone around the Paddock to explore, on the condition that we 'behaved properly'. Both Isack and I had chuckled a bit at the phrase, but we agreed, as we really wanted time to look around and take it all in.

As we were walking around the paddock, suddenly a voice shouted out from one of the garages. "Isack! YN! Hey!" We both turned in the direction and immediately recognised Arthur, who was running out of the Ferrari garage. "Hey A, I didn't know you were coming!" said Isack, as Arthur stood in front of us. He simply pointed to behind him, and said, "Supporting my brother, of course." A few meters behind, from where Arthur had just run, stood none other than Charles Leclerc, looking our way.

Charles waved at us, while seemingly rounding up his conversation with one of the engineers, and headed in our direction. "Are these some friends of yours?" He spoke with the exact same accent as Arthur had. Isack and I both nodded our heads as we shook his hand and introduced ourselves. 

"What are you guys doing here?" Arthur asked, seeming a bit confused. "Clive was invited by Redbull, so he brought us here to support them," I spoke up, causing a frown on both Arthur's and Charles' faces. 

"Redbull? You should be in the Ferrari garage!" Charles spoke up, pretending to be offended, which made us all laugh slightly. "Yeah, well you guys should invite us next time then!" Isack chimed in, to which I nodded in agreement. 

"Clive is the manager of Hitech, no?" Charles asked, looking to his little brother who nodded. "Yeah! These are the two drivers I was telling you about!" Arthur spoke up, gesturing to us, which for some reason made Charles widen his eyes. 

"These two? I thought they were both boys!" He spoke, making me feel a bit uneasy for some reason. "No! No, YN is a girl, obviously!" he tried to laugh it off. "Well I can see that, but you always said Isack and Carter, I thought Carter was a boy!" At this point, I couldn't help but chuckle a bit myself, as the two argued like siblings do best, and their accents just made it all ten times better.

Charles' reaction was sort of adorable as well, I could tell he felt a bit embarrassed by his assumptions. "Well, Carter is my last name, but that's what people tend to call me, so I get the confusion." I smiled, to which he smiled back in a sweet manner, nodding his head softly. "My apologies, YN."

"Charles, who's this?" A voice was heard from behind, and walking up to us was both Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz. We all smiled and greeted them as they made their way to where we were standing, and before anyone else could, Charles spoke up. "Well, these are my brother's friends from F2! Isack and Carter." 

They both widened their eyes too, seemingly having heard my name before as well, as they looked at me with confusion. 

"Carter is a girl?" Carlos started, making Arthur facepalm himself in disbelief, probably thinking that we were about to have this conversation all over again. "I'm sorry YN, I swear I'll start using your first name more often." I chuckled and shook my head, before reaching my hand out to greet the two other drivers properly. 

"Wasn't Carter the one you said was one of the best drivers in the F2?" Lando asked Charles, to which he nodded, pointing at Arthur, "Thats what Arthur said." I couldn't help but feel myself get a little shy at the sudden attention, so I just smiled and looked to the ground, feeling my face heat up slightly, as they continued to talk about the last races in F2. 

After some time, the drivers were told to leave the paddock to go and get ready, and Isack and I had to make our way back to the Red Bull garage. The place was now filled with cameras, ready to film it all for television, as Isack and I were given a pair of headphones each as well as a place to stand and watch the whole thing. 

Being behind the scenes and watching a Formula 1 race had always been my biggest dream, and doing it in the Red Bull garage just made it ten times better. Red Bull Racing had always been my favourite team, and my biggest dream was to drive for them at some point. One day, hopefully, I will. 

At one point, in the middle of the race, I suddenly felt Isack nutch me in the side with his elbow. I turned my attention to him and he pointed to a camera, that was apparently pointed our way. We both smiled and waved at it, as we laughed to ourselves. It all felt so surreal, and I think neither of us could really wrap our heads around it.

The race ended with Max in P1, and the whole crew went wild in the garage, cheering and running out to the paddock. Isack and I both high-fived as we joined them.

After the podium was done, everyone was celebrating and the drivers were wishing each other congratulations. Clive took Isack and me to meet Max for the first time and congratulated him on the win. He was obviously very happy with it, and he was so nice to talk to us for a while about our own races and my p1 earlier. During this time, Isack had left us alone, as he wanted to go and meet a few more drivers around.

"I actually watched a lot of the races in F2 this season, per request of the team, and you seem very talented. Have you joined a program yet?" Max spoke to me, catching me completely off guard. "Oh-.. Um, no, I haven't joined any program at all-" Before I could finish with my stuttered sentence, he interrupted. "You should join the Red Bull program, I'm sure you would approve even more!" My eyes widened a bit, as I didn't expect this at all.

Before I could mutter out any words, Clive and Horner both joined our conversation with wide smiles on their faces. "So, YN. I've heard a lot about you these past hours, and congratulations on your win today." Horner spoke up, to which I thanked him politely. "Let me ask you something, dear. If I were to offer you a spot on our talents program from next year on, what could we expect in results for the rest of the races this season?"

Results? He wanted me to predict how the rest of my races would turn out. That's a tough one. I looked to Clive, who seemed to be looking at me with a lot of expectations, so I decided to do what my father had always taught me to do - keep calm and play it cool. 

"Well, do you want a humble, a realistic, or an optimistic answer?" I asked, earning a chuckle from Max, who seemed to enjoy my cockiness. Horner smiled a bit and asked for all three. I nodded and spoke up again, "Well, if I were to be humble, I'd say I'd be happy with even just one podium more, as long as I see improvement... If I were to be realistic, then I'd say there are 8 more races, so 4 more podiums, 1 of them being a p1."

Horner looked to Clive, but it was hard to tell if he was impressed or not, his face had turned completely blank, making me question if I had made the right move here. "And if you were to give an optimistic answer?" asked Horner, and all eyes were once again on me. I had to keep going, there was no way back now. 

"If I had to be optimistic... Eight races left... Eight Podiums... Half of them being P1's." They all raised their eyebrows, clearly surprised at my answer. "I like this girl, man," Max said, smiling widely, which did make me feel a bit more at ease.

"I must admit, it is one hell of a girl you've got here, Clive." Clive looked at me with a reassuring expression, giving me peace of mind for just a second, before Horner spoke up again. "I'll tell you what, young lady. If you get eight podiums, out of which is four P1s, I'll give you a spot on our Formula 1 team next season, as my second driver! If you don't get that, you'll have to just join my talent program." 

I was more than ecstatic inside, wanting to jump around and yell at the top of my lungs, but I still had to pull this all off, so I kept my cool and reached out my hand for Horner to shake. "Is that a deal then?" He seemed slightly taken aback, but quickly shook my hand with a light-hearted smirk on his face. "That's a deal."