Photograph - F1

Chapter 3

2023

Testing was upon them and despite her often reserved and stoic behaviour Jenna couldn't hide her excitement.

"You excited?" Her new Public Relations officer Angela asked, noticing Jenna's bubbly fidgeting as she thought about jumping into an F1 car for the third time ever, but for the first time as a Formula One driver.

"Beyond excited, I can't wait to get into the car," Jenna admitted, dropping her cold exterior the excitement was so overwhelming. She almost felt like skipping the anticipation had built up so much in her body.

"And we're in Barcelona so after all this I can still go to a nightclub," she joked cheekily, side eyeing Angela to catch her rolling her eyes in jest.

"Just go get ready," Angela laughed, ushering Jenna towards the motorhome and to her drivers room.

Finally the moment came, she couldn't even stand still as engineers and mechanics crowded around the car, completing any finishing touches before she could get in.

"Alright time to get in the car then Jenna," one of her new mechanics Jason ordered.

She climbed over the tall halo and into the car, Jason leaning over to do up her seatbelt. Her stomach was doing flips as he buckled her in, she was moments away from getting onto the track and starting her first official laps as an F1 driver.

Suddenly her radio kicked in.

"Jenna this is John, your race engineer, is the radio working?" The British accent in her ear spoke.

"I can hear you loud and clear John," Jenna replied, giving him a thumbs up as he turned around as well.

The engine revved angrily as the car started, this is it.

"You ready for this?" John spoke up.

"I've never been more ready!" Jenna responded eagerly.

She pulled out of her pit box impatiently and started the slow descent down the pitlane.

Every minute of every lap was pure bliss. She was told to focus on quali laps for this stint, the team wanted to see how far they could push each tyre in a qualifying situation. They also wanted to see if their one lap pace could match other teams at this point in the season.

By the way the car felt Jenna was confident they were competitive. The new regulations from 2022 were beginning to benefit the team drastically.

"Everything feels really good!" She reported back to the team.

She pitted for mediums after wearing out a set of softs. However they weren't as favourable. She repeated the same mistake into the first corner three times.

"What the fuck is going on John?" She asked, the frustration beginning to get to her.

"Come in the next lap and we'll have a look."

They stopped for a lunch break shortly after that. Yuki Tsunoda, her teammate for the season would be doing the afternoon runs so Jenna was off the hook for the rest of the day.

The three days after that were quite similar. Liam Lawson took over on the third day, allowing Yuki and Jenna to review the data they collected and the new data Liam was producing.

However, now it was a Friday. Daniel, who was now a RedBull reserve driver and who had been driving the car that whole day asked her to go drinking with him and some of the other drivers.