Swerve | 𝑷.𝑮.

Part 7

Underlined is Commentary
Bold is Radio Calls
Italics is French

"And welcome to the first race of 2023 Formula One Season." David Croft's voice says through the tv speakers back in England. "We're in Bahrain at the Bahrain International Circuit."

The camera, which had been panning around the length of the track, swapped to the drivers who were dispersing from the national anthem which had been played minutes before. All 20 drivers made their way down the grid towards their teams and cars, sipping from water bottles and adjusting their sunglasses on their noses.

Francesca Lewis was caught by many of the cameras as she turned away from George Russell who she had been stood next to during the national anthem. Francesca lifts her sunglasses from her face, a small breeze blowing back against her hair whilst she shielded her eyes briefly with her hand to spot her car and make her way towards it through the crowd. Lowering her sunglasses back onto the bridge of her nose as she made her way over to the Red Bull in pole position and very quickly beginning to braid her hair back out of her face.

In the Lewis household in England, Celine, Richard, Samuel and his fiancé, Angela, Oliver and many other members of the Lewis family were all watching the cameras pan away from Francesca when she began to walk towards her car. The woman had been getting a lot of screen time in the pre-race show, with Martin Brundle managing to catch her for an interview after he'd ran into Jeremy Clarkson and with cameras focussing in on her whenever she was glimpsed throughout the crowds.

The tv screen displayed the starting grid, ticking through each row of drivers and displaying their fastest lap time up on the screen.

"And its a front row lock out for Red Bull," Crofty says when the graphic pops up. "Reigning world champion, Max Verstappen, is in second with his teammate, Francesca Lewis in P1."

Francesca couldn't help but laugh as she abandoned putting on her helmet to meet Max in the space between their cars for their usual teammate handshake they always did. The rest of the grid was getting into position and after linking their pinky fingers together, Francesca and Max rushed back to their cars to pull their helmets on and climb into the cockpit of their beloved cars.

"30 seconds, Fran, 30 seconds."

Francesca watched as all of her mechanics and engineers around her dispersed from their positions, leaving the cars and their roaring engines alone on the grid, encasing their drivers in their carbon fibre shells to keep them as safe as possible.

From the P1 position on the grid, Francesca's eyes watched the red starting lights like their was no tomorrow - even though they were only indicating the start of the formation lap, the woman wanted to get as much temperature into her tyres as she could.

The 20 cars all moved off rather in sync when the lights went out, travelling around the length of the circuit at an increasingly slow pace with everyone swerving from left to right to build the temperature they needed in their tyres. Being at the front of the pack, Francesca managed to back the grid up coming up to the final corner, so that she didn't have to sit on the grid for ages and lose all of the temperature in her tyres that she had gained.

There was nothing but silence on the grid - well, the only thing close to silence you will ever get during a formula one race - as the drivers stopped in their grid boxes and waited for the lights again.

"And here we are, a new race in a new season of Formula One!"

"And its lights out and away we go!"

Francesca's start was milliseconds faster than Max's and the Red Bull darted ahead of her teammate before Max had the chance to react.

"Francesca Lewis with a monster start! She leads out of the first corner whilst her teammate is to busy trying to defend from the Ferrari of Charles Leclerc!"