There hadn't been a woman in formula 1 for as long as most drivers could remember and it seemed that there was a lack of women in the virtual sport too. When McLaren Shadow, an F1 e-sports team took a chance on a young female streamer, no one knew t...
"You don't ignore Martin Brundle's track walk talk."
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Mira Atkinson adored multiple things about being in the McLaren garage and paddock during a Formula 1 weekend.
The first was the simple fact that she got to spend time with Lando and see him get excited over the job he did, along with the way his face lit up when he realised Mira was there for all of it. She noticed that most during qualifying.
The second was the fact Mira loved seeing everything going on in the garage with the car, trying to work out everything technical that she knew about along with Lando's constant commentary from her.
Finally, Mira loved Lando's engineers. They were all kind to her, and knew her name and relationship to Lando but never mentioned it. When one of them noticed Mira's interest, they were happy to explain things to her and even Zak Brown would come up to greet Mira.
The paddock was crazy as the opening race of the season was due to begin. For the most part, everyone seemed respectful but getting through the fan was no easier than any other race.
"Hey, Lando!" Lewis called, jogging up to Mira and Lando. "Mira, right?"
"Yeah, Hi," Mira smiled.
"I don't think I've ever introduced you to," Lando apologised,"Lewis, Mira. Mira, Lewis."
"My brother has told me so much about you," Lewis realised, shaking her hand.
"Your brother?"
"My brother, Nicolas, is super interested in what you're doing," Lewis explained as they walked through the paddock. "With your charity set up."
"I wasn't aware that many people knew about it yet," Mira smiled kindly.
"He's got cerebral palsy but he's racing so he's a big advocate," Lewis continued. "He watches your Twitch streams but don't tell him I told you that, he'd kill me."
"See Mira, I told you—"
"Shut up, Lando," Mira mumbled, blushing as Lewis laughed. "Well, that's very nice of your brother, Lewis. I've watched him race, he's really good."
"He'll be glad to hear it," Lewis grinned. "Hey, if you're looking for sponsors, get your media team to hit us up okay? And Seb is super into helping out so don't be surprised if he tags along."
"That's really thoughtful of you, thank you!" Mira beamed.
If Mira was honest, she didn't need the money to fund her charity because she was happy to pay for it all herself but if someone else was willing to help, she wouldn't say no. The more, the better, especially for everyone that would be using the system.
Mira was just desperate to get kids with disabilities, neurological and neurodivergent in particular, out of bad homes. She just wanted to do something with all the money and know exactly who it was going to and how it was helping. She wouldn't stop giving to other charities but she would still be sad about not knowing how it was directly helping.
