In the Spotlight (Max Verstappen - Book Two)

Chapter Eleven

Free practice went pretty well but my biggest fears were confirmed when we saw the Mercedes whizzing around the track, well and truly leaving the W13 in the distance, the W14 making an impact and topping both sessions. Then it was Max and I, with Charles and Carlos after that and the Alpine's, Alpha Tauri's and McLaren's all jumbled up. The day was finished with interviews where I tried to be enthusiastic although I was exhausted from all of the driving, causing me to get rushed back to the hotel before promptly collapsing on the bed and sleeping all the way through to the next day, to the grave concern of Liv and Nick. Saturday morning, the amount of sweat I woke up in confirmed their fears.

I was ill.

But, after a quick check-in with the team doctors, I was cleared to drive despite both of their disapproval. FP3 went and I existed but I slipped from fourth to eighth with the mind fog affecting my reaction time slightly. I was sat up on the side of one of the counters that ran along the garage, driver's suit unzipped with my new helmet next to me. It was matte navy, to match the car, and had red accents on it and flowers similar to my Silverstone helmet although now with a few extras to represent Cameron, Emilia, Nick and Liv. It had gone down quite well on social media as people liked the subtle femininity of the flowers on the navy helmet, and the flowers in the red and yellow of the Red Bull logo, tying the outfit as a whole together quite well.

Even with my suit unzipped and a cold vest on, I could feel the sweat dripping down my temples as I just sat staring into space as the engineers got my car all ready for qualifying. From where I'm sat I can see the concerned glances from everyone in the garage, I was quite clearly not well and I couldn't even pretend that it wasn't the case because I was so low on energy and just focused on qualifying as I sat on the side, my hair in plaits and then pulled into a low bun, earphones in as I played music to try and block out the sound of my heart beating too fast in my chest.

"Are you sure about this Elodie? We can get Yuki in?" Christian offers as he stands in front of me, Olivia and Nick right behind him and I rolled my eyes at the snitches. I'm also aware of the several broadcast service cameras that were on me after the news got leaked to the paddock that I was at the doctor's this morning.

"I got the doctor's note. I can drive." I tell him confidently, but I'm aware that my voice is weak. "I just want to get started," I say as I look at the clock on the back wall, the busy garage beginning to get more hectic as I saw it read that there were two minutes left. I took another sip of the water in my hand and placed it on the side, before hopping down onto the floor, almost falling due to my affected balance. "I'm fine." I insist to the three in front of me as I take off the cooling vest and put in my earphones before doing up my race suit. I take the moment to spare a glance to the other side of the room where I see Max looking at a monitor with his race engineer like I should be doing right now, but I couldn't think straight. It had been decided that I would just drive and leave all the decisions up to other people because of the brain fog. I tear my eyes away from Max and walk over to the car and somewhat clumsily climb into the seat before letting myself down, just falling slightly as I tried to ignore all the chatter of my team. I'm also acutely aware of the cameras trained on my side of the garage, the news of me not being well had spread pretty fast, I looked away and focused on my car.

I plugged in my transmissions and pulled on the balaclava that was placed in front of me as I let some mechanics strap me in. I then pulled on my helmet, seeing the screen in front of me with a thirty-second countdown in the corner before having the steering wheel plugged in and pulling my gloves on.

"Radio check?" I hear Dani's voice and sigh.

"All here, er can we keep the comms to a minimum? Just focus on the vital ones. One less thing to think about?" I ask as I see the session has started, but both Max and my cars remain where they are.