LAST HURRAH // FORMULA ONE

ONE

ONE

"Uh, hi."

A quiet voice spoke as they stepped towards a tall figure, their hand rubbing awkwardly at the back of their neck, hands shaking ever so slightly from the nerves.

He knew who he was standing in front of, and he was slightly starstruck.

His blue eyes sparkled as he stared up at the person, his dirty blonde hair sticking to his forehead from the sweat that had formed on his skin, his mouth slightly dry as he was terrified of what they would say to him.

"You're my new team mate?"

Her voice sounded in slight confusion, her eyebrows furrowed together as her dark brown eyes fell upon a young boy dressed in a blue shirt and jeans.

He wasn't super young, she knew that, but she estimated him to be around the age of twenty one.

"Uh, yeah, hi Miss, I'm Logan."

Logan Sargent introduced himself politely to his new team mate at Williams Racing, a team in Formula One, seeing her slowly nodding her head up and down causing her dark hair to move too, her eyes glancing over him as if she was trying to read him and his body language.

"Florence."

Florence Peralta held her hand out towards the boy, offering a handshake which he rapidly accepted it, not wanting to seem like he was a rude person by not shaking her hand.

It was going to be very strange for her this season, it would take a lot of getting used to.

She was no longer driving at Ferrari, like she had been for the past four years, instead she had been kicked down in to a Williams whilst somebody else had taken her seat.

It wasn't like her results were bad either, because they weren't.

She had many race wins, she had an abundance of podiums and lots of points, but she hadn't won a championship and she was pretty sure that had been what had cost her the seat.

And it sucked.

"I know that you never really like rookies, but I'm going to do everything that I can to get good results both for you and for me." Logan spoke rather rushed, seeing her raise an eyebrow at him with a questioning look upon her tanned face.

"It's not that I don't like rookies. I just don't like it when they get better cars and results than me." Florence muttered, lightly patting her hand on his shoulder in an attempt to reassure the young American boy. "But, if you trust me and have my back, then I'll have yours."

"It's a deal."

The face of Logan Sargent lit up in to a bright smile, with the American boy happy that she didn't hate him.

He hoped that he would have the chance to get to know her more in the future.

"Where's the boss? I need to talk to him." Florence asked the young boy, seeing him pointing towards a room where a couple of men were standing, with her feet shuffling towards the room.

A man in his early forties was surrounded by multiple men who were clearly part of the team, obviously having some sort of debrief, though he instantly stopped the second that his eyes fell upon the figure of the tall Mexican woman standing at the door.

His hair was a shade of light brown, a white shirt on his body with its sleeves rolled up to his elbows, black smart trousers paired with it.

"Hello Florence, I'm James."

James Vowles spoke with a friendly smile upon his lips as the multitude of men left the room to allow the team boss to speak with his new driver, with the British man shaking her hand firmly.

"Hi, look as you know, I'm used to being at Ferrari and now I've been ousted, I'm not prepared to spend years in a low team where I'm seen as being washed because I don't have a competitive car. So, I wanted to let you know that this is most likely my last year in Formula One."

Florence spoke with a slight aggression in her tone, since she wasn't happy at how she was now going to be battling for fifteenth place instead of a race win.

"You're not even going to give the team a chance?" The British man furrowed his eyebrows together in a frown, with a slight feeling of hurt hitting him as he was a little bit offended by her words.

He understood, but she hadn't even raced the car.

"When was the last time that Williams was battling against Ferrari's and Red Bull's for race wins?" The Peralta woman raised her eyebrows challengingly.

"Look, we have made improvements for this season, and I would like you to commit to the team and not give up straight away. You're a very talented driver who always pushes the cars you drive to the limit, and I want you to do that here with us at Williams. If you really want to retire, then you can do it after you've tried. Do it after you've at least tried to battle against Ferrari, just don't give people the satisfaction by giving up straight away. You're better than that, Florence."

The Vowles man released a sigh as he watched her contemplate his words, her brows pinched together in a frown as she was debating what to do, worry within her from whether it would be a mistake to quit, or a mistake to carry on and spend years battling for low positions.

He did understand her concerns, of course he did.

She hadn't done anything wrong at Ferrari, she had great results and consistency, and yet she had been kicked down to his team whereas his driver had replaced her.

She had very few crashes and was always known for her ability to salvage the car and recover from the times that she had lost control or was hit or had spun out. She was known for somehow always being able to bring her cars back to the pits no matter how bad the damage was, if she lost power, or braking or steering, or had completely lost the front or the back of her car, she had always been able to bring it back in to the pits.

So, why had they dropped her when she had been so good?

She felt cheated out of her Ferrari seat and she was allowed to be furious at that, he knew that, but it didn't mean that she had to give up and retire now that she was at his team.

"You're lucky that you're not an asshole."

Her voice broke him out of his thoughts, the man staring up at her to see that she had shrugged her shoulders at him, the smallest of smiles upon her face.

"Well, thank you for the compliment. Does that mean that you'll stay?" James asked the woman with intrigue evident in his tone.

"Why not? Somebody has got to teach this new kid how to survive in Formula One, and clearly I'm the best to do that."

Florence and James smiled at one another as they shook hands, their grips equally firm, their eyes staring one another down.

"Welcome to the team, Florence Peralta."

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A/N

Short introduction chapter here but here we go

I've done the driver lineup too and created an extra character as I didn't want Christian Horner as team boss, so I can't wait to write all 5 of my ocs in this and for you to love them all,

What do you think of this?

Anyway, I hope that you all have enjoyed this introduction chapter and I'll see you all soon for the next one,

I'm so proud of all of you, my loves

Love you all,

-RUBY 🇵🇸🇨🇩