Away We Go • 2 • Formula One

Chapter 64

sorry for the delay! it's a long one to make up for it :)

pls pls comment throughout bc i need the attention rn

also important(ish) a/n at the end

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All thanks to Esteban Gutierrez, I didn't even get a chance to even sit in my Formula One car on Friday, let alone drive it. As predicted, the accident in FP1 required extensive repairs and they were only just being finished as the final checkered flag for the day was being shown. I spent a lot of the afternoon with the little fan Max had bought me just sitting on the pit wall. My headset was connected to Stof's radio so I could hear everything that was going on for him and use it to my advantage. It was hot, and a part of me was glad that I wasn't stuck in a stuffy cockpit. To kill time before I was needed, I moved to the ART pit wall to support my former F2 team during their qualifying run. I missed the simpler days of F2 where I didn't have all of these external pressures against me.

The day's debrief was relatively short compared to what I've experienced before; there was only one set of data since my car wasn't running. I was really feeling the effects from the heat during this time and spent the majority of the session with my head resting against my engineer's shoulder. Luckily Riki didn't mind. There wasn't much I could contribute to the driver's debrief, either, so spent most of the session leaning against my teammate and half-listening to what everyone had to say.

I was incredibly grateful for Marcus. My normal chemist that is linked with my GP surgery closed at five in the evening. My schedule meant that I would be finishing just after that, and so he was kind enough to take my prescription and collect it for me. The charge was less than ten pound for a few months worth, so I didn't feel too bad when he refused to accept my repayment. Instead, I offered to cook the only dinner I knew how for dinner.

Max wasn't mad that I decided to spend the night with Marcus instead of him and his family. I didn't feel ready to face Vic when I was already feeling so downhearted. It wouldn't be fair on her if I were to snap and say something I didn't really mean. My texts were just about enough to reassure her during my evening cuddles with Murray (it was so much easier talking without seeing her or her growing baby belly), however I wouldn't be able to avoid her at the lunch she insisted on before qualifying. Max reassured me that he would be at the lunch with me, and that the topic of conversation shouldn't drift towards Vic's pregnancy. She was aware I knew because Max told her so, but also respected that it's a difficult topic for me right now.

I barely slept that night. The heat made every position incredibly uncomfortable and my mind was overthinking every possible scenario for lunch with Victoria tomorrow. I knew that I should be worrying about the qualifying results with such little practice, but that wasn't at the forefront of my mind. This isn't how I should be feeling and it'll get better with the medication. I could only hope that, when I do eventually fall asleep, I'll wake up feeling better.