daylight , carlos sainz

ii. the bahrain grand prix

micaela stood in her garage, partially dressed in her bright blue racesuit, unzipped at the waist and hanging down below her hips, her upper body covered by the white fireproofs. a pair of blue headphones covered her ears, nodding intently along to her race engineer, a german man by the name of jakob waltz. it was the tail end of fp3, and the bugatti team was overlooking the driver's data as her partner was still currently on the track, completing more laps so he could get a really good feel for the car.

with a pointed finger, micaela directed jakob's attention to a particular point on the screen, displaying a replay of her car navigating turn thirteen. "i lost traction there; the car slid a bit as i was coming out," she explained.

jakob swiftly jotted down her feedback on a notepad, acknowledging her observation, "got it. let's look at some of your laps."

micaela nodded, her gaze locked onto the data displayed on the screen watching as jakob pulled up different maps, pieces of data, and graphs. as jakob delved into her performance, he referenced various data points, including lap times, tire pressures, and her throttle and brake inputs.

"your first few laps were solid, you've performed the adjustments we gave you perfectly," jakob began, "you were consistently hitting your marks and maintaining good pace. but then, it looks like you started experiencing some oversteer in turn thirteen, as you mentioned."

micky leaned closer to the screen, her focus unwavering. "yeah, that's where I felt it. the back end just wouldn't hold."

tom brought up a chart showing her braking zones. "your braking points were consistent, but i think we can fine-tune the brake balance to give you more confidence when you're attacking that corner."

micaela smiled and nodded, "perfect. will do. thanks jake."

"my pleasure mick," jakob smiled, watching the girl as she removed her headphones, "see you for quali."

the spanish woman bid farewell, leaving to find her friends and relax before the first qualifying session of the season began.

✭

two hours later, qualifying had begun. micaela stepped into her car, with the aid of her engineer and mechanic, settling herself into the familiar cockpit. she shuffled into her seat, making herself comfortable, laughing at some joke one of her mechanics had cracked. with her steering wheel in position, she looked up at jakob as he rapped on her helmet, signaling the crew to push her out into the pit lane as well as silently telling her good luck.

q1 went smoothly. micaela had already put in two flying laps, bumping her up to third place. the team were confident that she was safe, so micaela came back to the pits, eager to learn what she could do to improve her driving.

latifi, stroll, ricciardo, hulkenburg, tsunoda, albon.

q2 was a breeze. micaela was constantly improving her lap time, staying high up in the positioning, always asking what she could do better. after a few hot laps, micaela sat p3, once again, easily safe from elimination. the same couldn't be said about her teammate though, but she was proud of him for making q2 in the first place.

guanyu, norris, valerio, schumacher, ocon, bottas.

q3 was... difficult. q3 was where positioning actually mattered, micaela was determined to prove herself, to have her best season to date this year. and they were confident, jakob, guy, bugatti, but most importantly, micky herself was confident. she did three laps, none her best, but enough to keep her mid-range.