Reviewing priorities - Sebastian Vettel

22. Hockenheim surprises

Valeria was standing in the garage with Pietro, excited for the next bit of that gloomy Saturday. The mechanics had just rolled in Michael Schumacher's 2004 car into the garage, ready for Mick to take over a lap for the adoring German crowd. Valeria felt a wave of emotions hit her right in the gut, as she looked from the car to Mick who was amicably chatting to Seb, reminding her of the many pictures of a young Seb with Michael she had seen around the house. The formula1 crew had just accessed the garage, to do a quick interview with the German. A lady approached her. 'Valeria, are we ready to go?'

'yeah, sure. I'll go get Mick.' She walked towards the two Germans who looked up to her. 'Mick, sorry to interrupt. F1 is here to speak to you.'

'Cool. See you in a bit, Seb' he told him, following Valeria to the cameras. She stood just behind him, as he spoke about his father, and what an honour it was for him to be in his last championship winning car. Valeria was trying hard not to get emotional in front of the cameras, as Mick finally got into the car and fired it up. The noise brought Valeria back to the early 2000's, watching F1 on TV with her dad, she felt a tear flow down her cheek and a presence behind her.

'All good, Kleine?' Seb asked her with a smile.

'man, this is emotional. Why is it hitting me so much?' she dried her tear, trying to smile. 'I guess Michael was every kid in a kart's hero in the late 90's. I remember him being at one of my early races once and I got way too excited' she laughed, as Seb dried another one of her tears with his thumb. She noticed a camera on them and tried to compose herself. Looking back to the screen, to follow the lap.

Once the car had been brought in again, Valeria had gone back to her full PR self, standing in the background for a piece Pietro had organised for their own socials. As the garage quieted down again, in preparation for qualifying, Valeria checked her phone. She had got a few twitter mentions and decided to check them out.

@proiettivale getting emotional at Mick in his dad's car is such a mood. Someone had tweeted, as a picture of her drying her tear had gone kind of viral.

Am I the only one curious about @proiettivale's karting career? She just mentioned Michael watched a race once, so she must have been alright. She read on.

She smiled at the remark, yeah she was alright. Nothing more, or she would have been the one in the car. Pietro joined her on the bench she was sitting on, looking over her shoulder as she scrolled through some more tweets.

'don't read too many tweets, you know people suck' he reminded her.

Don't know what Seb sees in her, she's definitely with him to fulfil the dream she was never good enough to do by herself. She read out loud 'ouch' she laughed.

'Who's the dick?' Seb had just appeared, preparing to get into the car.

'Some random internet stranger. It's all good' Valeria waved her hand. 'Good luck' she told him.

'thanks' he replied with a smile.

After three really promising free practices, hopes were flying quite high in the Ferrari garage, however a double mechanical disaster meant that Seb couldn't even set a time and Charles had to settle for a mere p10.

'Fuck' Pietro said. 'your mate Rosberg is on the way to see you'

'I reckoned.' Valeria got up and got out of the garage.

'Newbie! I heard you used to kart. I think I wanna see that. '

'are you challenging me, Rosberg? I already beat one German f1 driver in a kart' she smirked.