Love Between Telemetry [Lance Stroll]

Chapter number one ✔

"Hey look ma, I made it
Everything's comin' up aces, aces
If it's a dream, don't wake me, don't wake me."
Hey Look Ma, I Made It; Panic! at the Disco

-

Circuit de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain, March 2017

"Well, that's not a bad start I would say," I said to Charles after he finished 9th on the last day of F2 pre-season testing in Spain. After years of hard work I managed to get a place in Prema as Charles Leclerc's race engineer. I'm starting my second year with the Italian team and my biggest achivement is definitely winning the GP3 championship with Charles. I'm not gonna lie, I was a bit naïve when I graduated. I thought that I'm gonna  work in Formula 1 straight away, that I'm capable of it. I had great study results, and I was helping my father from time to time in Indy where he started working right after we moved to Canada. I thought I will be the same, it will be veni, vidi, vici. But I forgot that my father is well-known with so much experience. And I was just a young teenager full of confidence and twisted vision. I thought being the daughter or David Deschamps would open me all the gates. Oh, how wrong I was.

"Yeah, looks like it's gonna be a good season for us, Riri," he grinned and helped me collect all the papers with data and telemetry. Charlie and I are have a great relationship, he's one of my best friends. Being a woman in the men's world is hard, really hard. My first day in Prema definitely wasn't how I expected it. No-one believed me that I'm the new race engineer. This pretty face can't be that smart, right? She should be a PR manager or work in the kitchen. But luckily, the Prema principal, René Rosini was very lovely and helpful. The same was Charles. I was actually pretty nervous, I was afraid that we won't get along. The driver and his race engineer work closely practically every day. And I didn't know Charles at that time, I had no idea what is he like. But like René, he was very understandable and kind to me. Thanks to them and also my great results, I gained respect among the team and found great friends there.

"Your phone is ringing," Charlie warned me when we arrived to his driver's room where I had my things. We are not allowed to have our phones during sessions so I always leave it in Charlie's room, hoping that I will never miss the call of my life. 

"Oh, don't say," I laughed and started looking for my phone in my backpack which was lying on Charlie's sofa.

"I don't know who always doesn't hear it and then doesn't understand, why has so much missed calls," Charlie mumbled and I just rolled my eyes, accepting the call from an unknown number.

"You are talking to Alexandrina Deschamps."

"Hello, my name is Claire Williams and I'm a deputy team principal of the Williams F1 Team. I'm calling you because one of our race engineers is leaving. And right now, I'm going through the applications from previous years. And I'm quite impressed by yours to be honest. You are now working with Prema, am I right?" 

"I...uhm...yeah, Charles Leclerc's race engineer," I confirmed, trying to calm myself down. I've been waiting for this my whole life, I've been imagining this moment so many times, hoping that one day it would come true. And here we are the deputy team principal of Williams, the team with an amazing history, is actually interested in me. Someone pinch me, please.