Race Engineer - Daniel Ricciardo

Chapter 4

"Nervous?" Simon asks me. I shake my head and grin.

"Are you?" Simon shakes his head as well, showing off his very white teeth.

"Mackenzie? Can I go out or do I need to wait a bit?" Max's voice sounds through my headset. I look at the monitor and see that Q1 has started. I quickly check how many cars are out on track.

"Sure, go ahead" I tell him and show Jason, the engineer that let's his car down, the thumbs up. He let's Max go out and I follow his car on the monitor.

"Everything looks good, Max. Remember, don't push too hard" I say once again over the radio.

"Copy" Max replies. Simple, but affective. A few people have set times, but those are the one I don't need to worry about, like Pascal Wehrlein, Rio Haryanto and Felipe Nasr.

Max starts his flying lap, speeding up. I can see him taking my advice on how to go into some corners. He is pretty quick, atleast quick enough to go through to Q2 without problems. I can see the two Mercedes' putting down a time before Max crosses the line.

"Great lap, Max. 1.23.578, P3" I say, seeing that Max is only 0.300 seconds slower than Hamilton, who is P2 and 0.500 seconds slower than Rosberg, who is P1 right now.

"Alright, thank you" I just wait until Max is back in the garage. He gets a monitor on his car with some data sheets.

"Alright, before I forget. Don't push to the limits in Q2, maybe a bit more than this run, but still not fully. If you improve just a little, it's good enough. Again, great lap"

"Okay, will do. Thanks Mackenzie" I nod to myself, looking at some data from Max's run in Q1 on the monitor. Everything is looking good, which makes me quite happy.

"What was Daniel's time?" Max asks me as Q1 is over.

"1.23.749, P4"

"Alright and who are out?"

"Haryanto, Wehrlein, Nasr, Ericsson, Massa and Palmer"

"Okay, thank you" I just patiently wait until Q2 starts. Max goes out for his run and does exactly what he needs to do. He improves slightly, but doesn't push too hard. He is P3 once again, this time with a 1.23.178. At th end of Q2, Gutierrez, Magnussen, Grosjean, Kvyat, Button and Hulkenberg are out.

"Okay, so top 5, Hamilton, Rosberg, you, Raikkonen and Ricciardo. P3 is the best position we're going to get so push to the limit to get that in Q3. We'll be doing 2 runs, so push in the first one, but give everything in the second"

"Will do!"

"Alright, Dan. Verstappen was quicker than you in Q1 and 2, push a bit harder this time" I hear Simon tell Daniel. I smirk at him and he just chuckles. I hope no matter how hard Max and Daniel will be fighting on track, that I get to keep my good relationship with Simon.

"Alright, let's do run 1" I tell Max as I nod at Jason. Max drives out of the garage and moves onto the track. When everything looks good, he starts his flying lap and puts down the third time, again. We just wait until the last 3 minutes, before I let Max go out again.

"Game time, Max" I just say as he starts the flying lap. The top 6 is close to each other and I expect it to get even closer after run 2. When Max finishes his lap, he's P3 and I smile. But only a little bit later, Daniel crosses the line, in P3. I gasp and Simon chuckles. I glare at him, which makes him laugh even more. I wait until everyone is done with their run.

"Alright, P4 is yours, Max. Top 10 is Hamilton, Rosberg, Ricciardo, you, Raikkonen, Vettel, Bottas, Sainz, Perez and Alonso. Good qualifying, Max"

"Alright. Thank you for your help!" Max sounds happy enough, which makes me happy as well. I turn to Simon and smile at him.

"Well, congrats. 1-0 for Daniel" Simon just grins widely.

"Thanks, love. Max did really well for his first qualifying session with the team and with you. I can imagine it only getting better from here" I smile at Simon.

"Yeah. But first, team dinner tonight" I say, making Simon smile. When all the cars are in the garage, I jump off my seat and walk towards Max's garage. He just jumps out of the car and smiles at me.

"I'll see you after the interviews for the briefing" I tell him. He nods and takes his cap from James, his PR. I just turn to the monitors in the garage and make sure to print all the data from the sessions.

While I'm studying the data, the team members are taking Max's car apart to go overnight. I'm taking the usual notes again, things I want to discuss with Max. It's not much, just some things he has to consider for the race.

"I'm ready!" Max says, all excited. I didn't even realize that it's been that long. I grab all the data sheets and walk a small office next to the garage.

"Alright, so first of all, good session. I'm very happy with your performance and your improvements. Secondly, there are some small things you should think about before starting the race. I can see that you really improved on the turns, some are just still a bit stiff. Try to just do them more smoothly" I start off. I go through my notes without boring Max too much.

"But all in all, you did great and it promises for a good race tomorrow"

"What do you think is our best position for the race?" Max asks, sounding a bit unsure himself.

"I think that if you drive like you've done all weekend, your qualifying position is a good goal, but I think a podium is possible as well" I tell him honestly. Max nods slowly, a small smile on his lips.

"Don't worry about it too much. I know you're going to do well. Just try to enjoy it as well" Max nods and smiles.

"I will. Thank you, Mackenzie" I let him go off and make my way back to the garage myself. I collect all my stuff and want to walk away.

"Fancy seeing you here" I hear someone say. I look up to see Daniel grinning at me. He is back into his normal clothes, his Red Bull bottle in his hand.

"Hey, Daniel. Great job today!" I tell him, while we start walking towards the exit of the circuit together.

"Thank you! Max did really well. I didn't know what to expect from him, but he impressed me" Daniel says while grinning widely.

"Well, he's working with me, off course he does well" I say while smiling widely. Daniel chuckles as he drinks some of his water.

"Are you looking forward to the dinner tonight?" Daniel asks me. I smile and nod.

"Yeah, are you?" Daniel nods as well.

"I love team dinners. Everyone is so relaxed and happy talking to each other, it's great" I smile widely, knowing the team dinner in Australia. It was such a nice evening to get to know everyone. It's good for Max as well.

"Let's hope this one is as good as Australia" Daniel nods and grins at me.

"I'll save you a seat" Daniel says and winks, making me giggle. We just walk towards the car and go to the hotel. I can't wait to get out of my Red Bull polo.

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Helloo :)

Hope you enjoyed this chapter! Let me know what you think :)

Next chapter will be up on Saturday!

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