Crash and burn

Chapter 3

**two months later**
Charlotte Sefton: "so you two, I know your knee deep in training at the moment but given that lando is expected to be the biggest riser and yn is the first female driver in her rookie season, it's inevitable that you will be bombarded with interviews, press, all of which will be either good or bad."
LN: "what could they possibly write about me that's bad Charlotte." Lando put his hands to his face, trying to give himself the facade of an angel
CS: "remember when you told jarv to fuck off when your trying to race?"
I tried so hard to not laugh but couldn't help the smallest grin on my face.
CS: "you can laugh yn, the only person who he is hurting is his own idiotic self."
I let the laugh escape me and lando dropped his head
YN: "that's gotta sting man"
LN: "okay nobody's perfect, what did you want?"
CS: "I'm going to try and give you a crash course today on PR, I also wanna let you know this year we are gonna ramp up the media we output to limit the questions coming from reporters that go live."
YN: "makes sense. what do we need to do?"
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Charlotte first got us to do a practice interview with each other to point out anything that needed to be fixed. I would've preferred to shower first, my shirt stuck to me with sweat after the workout whilst lando sat there idly as if he just got out of bed. Prick. Making me run an extra km.
CS: "okay let's start. YN, as the first female driver I'm sure you feel a mountain of pressure to really perform well, show everyone what a girl can put down on the track?"
YN: shit, she really went for it. I ponder my response for a bit, I know I'm not gonna tell her that I have developed such anxiety over all this that I'm not sleeping or that I vomit when I think too hard. "No more pressure than any other rookie. Don't get me wrong I know how privileged I am to kick start females in mainstream F1 but I will work as hard as the other rookies will be, just trying to work on myself first." Such a bullshit answer.
CS: "perfect, we don't wanna go for the pity, we want drivers who are level headed, confident but humble."
LN: "are you really not that nervous?" His eyebrows furrowed. We had only really chatted lightly over the break, delving in to my anxiety wasn't really second time seeing you in person conversation.
CS: "lando. Being partnered with the first female driver, is it giving you a bit more of a push, scared to loose to a girl?"
I chocked on my water, huh. So that's why I'm here motivation? Obviously the shock and disgust was evident on my face cause Charlotte needed to remind me this was a mock interview.
LN: "it's an honor to have someone making history as my team mate. And I think your underestimating her abilities that girls fast as fuck." The emphasis on the last word brought a smile back on my face.
CS: "lando can't you be like yn and take this seriously?" He fixed his posture and crossed his legs signaling to her he was ready. "Has she been a distraction in training, I mean she's quite good looking right?"
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Lando and I went silent, I prayed my face wasn't as red as his was in my peripheral. I hadn't really thought about that yet, I knew it was of course inappropriate to have a relationship with him, he was basically my colleague. But there was no denying the satisfaction I got from lando being flustered at the question.
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CS: "no response? This is why me do the mock interviews. This actually would be the perfect time to turn the attention to yourself, something you manage to do any other time when your not supposed to. Say something like wow I'm insulted am I not good looking. Then quickly change the topic, any allusion of a relationship can create a shit ton of work for the PR team, not to mention it would ruin the credibility and respect you two have earnt."
She really sucked all the energy out of the room by this point, this wasn't really the topic of conversation I thought my first training session was going to include.