When it Rains | Daniel Ricciardo

Chapter 19 - Salty

It's just after Q2 and I've made my way down to see the boys in action. Cyril gave me a call and told me that I need to come and speak to Mr Prost today, apparently, he's been eager to meet me. Why? I have no cooking clue, but being the F1 fan I am, I can't say that I'm not super excited 51 Wins, 4 world championships - who wouldn't be!

I pulled on one of my plain black dresses I took the liberty of embroidering the Renault sport F1 Logo onto, when I realised that the team uniform just wasn't doing it for me I asked Cyril if it would be okay. He laughed and said that he had noticed I had a 'fashion for flare'. I didn't correct his Frenglish and he agreed to let me go ahead. It was, as I mentioned, plain black with four big cargo pants like pockets on the front and in the middle, it had a long zip that went from the top to the bottom. I paired it with a tan coloured Gucci handbag. I had this necklace from my ex that had a pendant in the shape of a 3D "R". 

R -is for Renault as far as I'm concerned.

I got into the motorhome and was warmly greeted by everyone in our lounge, had a few guests that wanted to know more about my role and 'the customer always comes first' so I saw to them before making my way down to the garage. There was 5 mins left of Q3 so I picked up my speed towards the end, glad I chose to go with seekers today.

I fumbled nervously behind the screens where Cyril and Alain were talking to Bob Bell. Half of the things they were saying sounded like a foreign language to me this was also probably due to the fact that two of the three are French.

"Bonjour messieurs" I decided to show off the little of their language I did know. They immediately turned around and I instantly regretted my choice of language.

"Ah Alexia! Je ne savais pas que tu connaissais notre langue. C'est Alain, Alain c'est Alexia Notre nouveau responsable des médias sociaux" Cyril said very quickly to Alain

"Oui Alexia, c'est bon de te rencontrer enfin!" Alain replied to me.

"Sorry gents do you mind if we switch back to English? In all honesty, it's been a while since I practised the language, " I laughed and they joined in.

"Alexia, it's wonderful to meet you mon chéri," Alain said with a big grin on his face.

"You too sir, I'm a huuuge fan! I hope this isn't a bad time," Hoping to steal a few minutes of his.

"No. No not at all. I was finish with this. So Cyril tells me you are doing great things for the company profile."

"I'm not too sure about that, but I am definitely working hard and enjoying the travel experience" We walked to the back of the garage to a table with chairs.

"That's good and all that matters in my opinion. It's also very important that a young person gets to travel. It builds character!" he laughed

"Indeed, so how are our boys doing?" I asked curious to figure out his motives behind this spontaneous meeting...

"No, that's not why I asked you here Alexia, I am very involved in the company as you should know and yours was a face I hadn't seen yet. It's important for this team to stay close and communicate as a team. I was told you suffered a great tragedy a couple of weeks ago and just wanted to share my empathy and let you know that this is a family and if there is anything myself or the team can do for you, please do not hesitate."

I was completely taken aback by this, "Thank you sir, so much! I really do appreciate that and the team - especially Cyril has been more than generous with extending my time off during the season. " What do you say in a situation like this?

"Alright, I'm glad. Now you are a Formula 1 fan, no?"

"Oui" I smiled excited about where the chat was heading. We talked for a good hour. The drivers got out of their cars and into the changing rooms. They both came out as mine and Alain's talk was ending.