Max Verstappen is an 18 year old Formula 1 driver. He started his career at Toro Rosso and got the chance to drive with Red Bull Racing. His first race for Red Bull is in Barcelona, Spain.
Jasmin is a Formula 1 fan. Her dad takes her to Barcelona to...
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maxverstappen1 : Fastest way down #alwaysracing #BritishGP
The next day, we're walking onto the track and this time, they ask for passes. Max and I are wearing our staff passes and Rose her VIP one, so we're let through. I'm excited to be doing my job again. It's great to know that I'm not on trial or anything. Rose is excited as well. She's been talking about how much she's actually nervous for Max as well.
"I'll be alright" Max keeps saying.
"As long as your friend keeps giving me good information" he teases. I just push his arm.
"As long as you listen to me, we'll be fine" I say and Max sticks his tongue out. I roll my eyes and Rose laughs at us. We walk into Max's garage and Max moves to put his racing suit on, as the training is about to start as well. We were quite late, but no-one seems to mind.
"Well good luck, we need to get settled in" I tell Max and give him a quick kiss before taking Rose to the screens. Christian is already there and so is Emma. I greet her and sit down. In between Emma and me is another chair for Rose. She greets Christian and introduces herself to Emma. Christian just starts doing his job as he doesn't have to explain anything to me. I put on my headphones and hand Rose hers. She puts them on and I push a button to talk to her.
"Okay, so everytime someone is going to say something over the radio, you'll hear it too. You basically hear everything, but can only talk to me, as your headphone is linked to mine. You don't have to press anything to talk, it's always on. It's just blocked when I or someone else goes to say something, because I need to able to hear everything. So if it happens that you're mid sentence and you hear someone talking, I won't hear you anymore" Rose nods and I continue.
"I'll quickly explain some of the screens, so you know what some things mean. Here will come the lap times, the one that I'll be giving Max. When Max is going to be setting a time, I will get a timer right here, with sector times as well. If those times turn purple, he is the fastest, if they are yellow, he is slower than the number one. There are 3 sectors on a track, in case you didn't know. Now, I can also see Max's position, right here. If I press this, you can see where everyone is on the track and I can also see Daniel's times. I can only see the laptimes that are shown on TV of the other teams. Sometimes Max'll ask about Daniel and I can give him that information as well. If you have questions, don't be affraid to ask me" she nods and smiles at me.
"Thanks for explaining" she says and I nod this time. I look at the time and it's one minute before the practice starts. The timer starts and the first cars are on the track. I take a glance at Rose. Her eyes are light up and she is looking everywhere. She then tries to focus on my screen as I see what she saw. Max's car. I look at my screen now too.
"That was Max, right?" she asks.
"Yeah" I reply. Most of the cars are already on the track and Max starts with his first lap time. I look at the sector times and they are slower than Lewis' time. It's not like I expected him to be quicker than him, but these times aren't really good. I frown and focus on the lap time. 1.235 seconds slower than Lewis.
"Okay, Max, lap time is 1.33.258, More than a second slower than Lewis" I say, not wanting to push him yet.
"I know, I don't have good grip" he replies.
"Do you want to change tyres?" I ask while I look at the tyres. He's on soft right now.
"If I could"
"Sure, box, Max" I go to the team radio now.
"Max is boxing, his tyres don't have grip" I say.
"Copy, we'll give him medium" Marcel says.
"Okay, Max is boxing now" I say. I see the team running outside, just as Max comes into pitlane.
"What about Dan?" I hear Max. I look at his time.
"1.32.143" I say.
"On what compound is he?" I see Rose frowning.
"Soft, you're on Medium now" I say as he drives out of the pitlane. I don't hear anything from Max as he's doing another outlap.
"What is compound?" I hear Rose ask.
"Compound is the kind of tyre, like they have a soft compound, a medium compound and a hard compound for the week" I say. Rose nods, probably still not understanding, but that's okay. Max is setting a time, this time quicker, even on Medium tyres.
"Lap time is 1.32.765, Max"
"Should I do long runs first and then later qualifying laps?" he asks me.
"Yeah, start on long runs, we'll figure it out, I want you back on Softs at the end though"
"Copy" he says and starts on his long runs. After 20 minutes of long runs.
"Okay, Max, box for now"
"Okay" Max moves into the pitbox and he's being pulled into the garage.
"Marcel, put Max on soft when he goes out again" I say on the radio.
"Copy Jas" he says. I just lean back a bit and watch the other drivers. Most are in right now, but that won't stay long.
The practice will be over in 20 minutes and Max just went out on soft tyres. When he's doing his outlap, I talk to him.
"How's the grip now?" I ask him.
"Better, gonna try and set a time" he says and he crosses finish line and starts his lap. The sector times seem better than the last ones. When Max crossed finish line, he did another lap.
"1.31.895 Max" I say.
"Okay" I got back, he was concentrating. The following lap was slower, so I didn't bother telling him. The session was now over and Max made it to 4th.
"Okay Max, great session, you were second fastest on long runs and had an overall 4th position, just behind Dan" I tell him.
"Thanks Jas" he says and pulls into the pit lane. His car is boxed and I take of my headphones, as every driver is in. Rose pulls hers of and smiles.
