Repair (Sebastian Vettel)

Chapter 2: Unexpected Parting

Sebastian was welcomed by all fans who were standing outside the entrance of Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona. He signed some stuff that the fans brought. His press officer, Britta, was waiting patiently behind him. She sometimes looked at her watch in case he had to come to the garage soon.

Seb's trainer, Antti, was also there. It would be his 7th year working with the German. Considering that he had prepared a lot during the winter break, the Finn believed that he would be in a great form for that season.

2020 season would be Seb's sixth season with the Prancing Horse. After failing to win a title in his five seasons with Scuderia, he was determined to finally do it in that year.

Britta looked at her watch once again. She thought that it was time to go inside. "Seb, the time's up. We should go now," she whispered.

"Okay," Seb replied. Then, he talked to the fans there. "Guys, thank you very much. I'm sorry that my team has been waiting in the garage."

Some fans were a bit disappointed because their stuff hadn't got signed by Seb. But they could understand that he should prepare for the second day of Test 2 and they thought that they still had a chance during the lunch break.

As Seb started leaving the crowd, Britta and Antti were following behind him. They all scanned their respective passes before they could enter the circuit. An hour later, he had been in the garage, wearing his red race suit and white balaclava. His trainer was holding the helmet for him before he started wearing it.

"Enjoy the test today, Seb."

"Thanks, Antti. Yesterday, Charles took part in the afternoon session. But today, the 8 hours of test time is all mine," Seb chuckled.

Then, he walked to the mechanics as he was ready to enter the cockpit of his SF1000 car. The mechanics made sure that he was comfortable on his seat before they fastened the seat belt.

The night before, it rained in Barcelona. So, it meant that the track was still wet and all drivers needed to wait until the condition of the track improved. Seb had been connected to his race engineer, Riccardo, by team radio. He explained to him about the programs that he was going to do on that day while waiting until he could start hitting the track.

As the team felt that Seb could have a try, the mechanics took the tyre blankets off. He started driving his matte red car, leaving tyre marks on the garage floor. He was doing an installation lap with using intermediate tyres. On that lap, he was explaining how the track was like to Riccardo.

Seb did 48 laps in the morning and 97 laps in the afternoon. He was the quickest on that day, setting his best time of the day just before the lunch break.

When he got out of his car, he got congratulated by the mechanics inside the garage. "Seb, your lap was brilliant!" Fabrizio, one of the tyre mechanics, praised him.

"Thanks, Fabrizio. But I think that lap time isn't too important. The most important is that we could do all programs for today without a problem."

"I agree with you. Hopefully this season will be yours, Seb. We all still believe in you," Fabrizio said with a very thick Italian accent.

"Thanks again, mate."

Seb was more than grateful that the team still put trust on him. He knew that the winter testing couldn't give the full picture of his team's performance. But he believed that great results he and Charles got during the test would motivate them to be the title contender.

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Staying at Hotel Maranello Palace, Seb had looked so fresh after taking a bath. After the winter testing in Barcelona, he and the team flew to Italy as he would train on the simulator.