helmet love // 𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐝𝐨 𝐧𝐨𝐫𝐫𝐢𝐬

X

The interview with Lando was... short. Everything about it was a lot shorter than me and Brad expected. Whatever I asked him about, he gave a short reply, including in the nicer questions. If I tried to make a casual conversation with him off camera, it was another short reply. Everything Brad had collected together for Lando's part didn't come close to half of much time we had with Daniel, let alone the full lot. Then, when we had to go to the conference to interview them both at the same time, Lando let Daniel do all of the talking. Daniel was happy to comply, as we didn't want to make a scene out of the drivers, but he tried to encourage Lando from time to time. He wasn't having any of it though. P15 clearly hasn't settled with him well.

Now we're back at the food hall in the motor home; me and Brad sit on the end of a table together, looking through all of the footage from today. We haven't had a break since the start of the morning, and we've just managed to sit down now at 7pm. Everyone is still in high spirits, thankfully, but you can tell that we all can't wait until the end of Sunday.

"You can literally see your confidence growing from the first clips to the last ones." Brad states as we flip through the footage.

"What can I say, I'm just super talented." I pretend to be smug, grabbing my can of coke with a straw in and taking a sip.

"I'm sure that many of us behind McLaren will be miss you, if you do decide that you're leaving us."

"I'm not leaving F1, I will promise you that." Daniel chuckles, pointing at me, and then the camera. "You are not getting rid of-"

You can sense the change in atmosphere as Lando finishes Q2 in P15. The pit crew all put their gloved hands on their heads, clearly disappointed for Lando. The camera shifts as me and Brad react to the result, then swiftly angles to the floor as the recording is abruptly cut off. That'll be a lot of editing for Brad to do, bless him.

"This is a weird clip." Brad mutters, playing around with it already. "The emotions are super mixed, it flips between an interview and a casual conversation, and I've got to somehow tone down the background noise."

"I thought you wanted it in pits?" I ask, taking a sip of my drink again.

"I did, but I didn't think that it would be that loud." Brad nods, narrowing his eyes at the clip. "I've also got a few little adjustments to make to you, as well."

He turns the laptop towards me; he's paused the video where my hand has come up to brush some hair off of my face, or to readjust the huge headphones, I can't tell. To my misery, my sleeve has rolled down slightly, and part of my tattoo has been exposed. Luckily, it isn't too much, but it'll still be extra work for Brad when he gets to the final piece.

"Sorry, I tried to cover it." I apologise, brushing down my dress skirt. "I'll put some make up over it tomorrow so-"

I pause in my tracks, my head naturally looking up as Lando and Daniel walk in. They're both dead silent, not one of them talking to another. Everyone cheers as they arrive, and you'd think that would bring their mood up a little. Daniel smiles like he normally does, waving to everyone and mouthing the words 'thank you' to the room. Lando, however, doesn't give the cheesiest of smiles, and only puts a hand up to a few people without stopping in his tracks.

"Did you manage to go and see him after the interviews?" Brad whispers to me as we clap.

"No, we had more stuff to film, remember?" I remind him, leaning in closer so he can hear me.

"You didn't talk to him at all after the conference interviews?" Brad frowns almost judgmentally.

"That room moves too fast, I could hardly get a few words in before they were shuffled onto the next." I excuse, my eyebrows tugging together.