The weather in Dallas is great, even early in the morning. The smell of the suncream on my warm skin and the feeling of the hot tarmac beneath my feet make me more excited than ever to go racing, and listening to the karts in the distance makes it feel even more like home. After five weeks of lying at the bottom of my bag, I finally have a reason to dig out my Fortress cap.
"Nico, do up your buttons. Daniel, your cap has to face forwards. Lando? Please sit still."
I cross my legs on the wooden chair and hold onto my ankles to try to stop them jiggling. Fernando is sitting next to me, leaning back to soak in the sunlight. I guess it reminds him of home too. It's so bright here, especially with the bus behind us, that I can hardly keep my eyes open. The yellow been looking brighter and brighter since it's been in the sun.
"Right, do you know what we're doing?"
"No," we chorus.
"It's a painting challenge," Erik explains. "We're going to film you going against each other in teams and use the footage to promote Fortress."
I look over to where Kimi is sitting like a statue and not even smiling. At least Yuki looks excited about painting.
"What are the teams?" I ask.
"Just as you're sitting. Nico and Daniel, Lando and Fernando, and Yuki and Kimi."
"The two Andos," Fernando grins.
"Can't I go and drive instead?" Kimi asks, sounding annoyed even though the game seems like a lot of fun.
"The track's too short this week for everyone to go out at once, that's why we've split you into smaller groups. Once we're done here it'll be your turn to go and do some testing and some of the others will come to film a video."
My legs jiggle excitedly. Fernando is also sitting up a little straighter now he knows we're doing painting, but everyone knows he's an artist. Not so many people know that it was my favourite subject at school too.
We're sure to win.
Erik sets up the cameras and places some microphones around us, then brings out three easels and a bunch of paints. He explains the rules to the camera then turns back to us, grinning.
"But there's a twist. Only one of you will be allowed to paint, and only one of you will be able to see."
"Blindfolds?" Daniel asks, then mutters something so Nico bursts into laughter. Erik nods as if he didn't notice.
"One of you must guide the other to draw the best possible portrait of our lovely team principal, Tom Jensen. The winner will be decided by a special judge, and you'll have fifteen minutes. Now it's up to you to decide who should paint and who should see."
"I'll guide," Nando says and I turn to look at him quickly.
"Are you sure? You're like a professional painter!"
"I think the most important thing is having a strong guide. I have a feeling you're better at following instructions than you are at giving them. Besides, I can use my artistic eye to tell you what to do."
The idea rolls around my head for a few seconds before I nod. He's right, I should be able to do this.
"Time's up! What have you decided?"
Erik points to each team in turn and we call out who the painter will be.
"Nico!"
"Lando!"
"Yuki!"
"Great, now it's time for the blindfolds. And just to make sure there's no cheating, the instructors will have their arms tied behind their backs. Daniel, you first, come up here..."
Nico is in stitches now but I still can't work out the joke. Fernando plonks down beside me, hands tightly behind him, and then Erik moves on to tying the blindfolds.
The sunny midday carpark goes completely black.
"Right, you have fifteen minutes. Ready, set, go!"
The challenge is surprisingly quiet. Fernando guides my hands to squeeze paints onto a palette, find a good paintbrush and then find the middle of the canvas. Even though I can't see anything, the actions feel natural. We mix some paint for Tom's brown hair, carefully place his eyes and mouth before colouring in his face, then blend some darker shades in the for the nose.
"Have you painted before, Lando?" Fernando asks me as I try to add some texture to the hair.
"Yeah, I love it! I painted the whole roof of the bus, didn't I?"
"Well it's not exactly the same, but..."
"I painted in school too. Mostly not portraits though."
"Well, I can tell. It actually looks pretty good."
Erik calls our two minute warning and the challenge certainly isn't quiet anymore. Daniel is screaming at Nico for squeezing out too much paint and splashing the canvas and even Kimi seems to be getting into it, it sounds like he's broken free of his restraints and Erik is fighting to get them back on.
"We need to sign it," Fernando says. "You go first, in the bottom corner... Down, no right, yeah there. Now bring the paintbrush towards me so I can use my mouth."
I follow the sound of his voice and extend the clean end of the paintbrush out towards him. I feel it hit his face and push a little harder so he can get a good grip.
Fernando wretches.
"Lan- Akh... Lando!" He chokes. I feel him headbutt my shoulder and almost push me off my chair.
"Ah!"
"Time's up!" Erik calls. "Painters take off your blindfolds and untie your partners."
I rip off my blindfold and immediately cover my eyes from the sun. It'll take a little longer to get used to this brightness again.
"Are you okay?" I frown as I ask Fernando. There tears in his eyes as he nods and clears his throat.
"Just untie me so I can get a drink."
"Now it's time to decide the winner. And the special judge is... Tom!"
"Wooo..." I clap. I thought it might be a Formula One star, but now I realise that might've been wishful thinking since they're all at winter testing this week.
Tom walks out from behind the bus, but his face looks confused instead of happy. He turns to the cameras and then looks at Erik.
"The bus," he says. "Does it look... A little green to you?"
We all turn to take a look. Fernando tilts his head. It's difficult to see in the bright sunshine but maybe Tom's right. It looks like the green bruises you might find on a lemon, and not at all the colour it was when we first saw it in Indianapolis.
Tom frowns, then shakes his head quickly. "Anyway. I have a competition to judge!"
"Great. Up first, let's take a look at Daniel and Nico's painting."
I splutter as Nico spins the canvas around, revealing a Tom made completely out of red paint, with a nose that isn't connected to his face and eyes whose pupils are pointing to the sky in a permanent eye roll. His cheeks are rosy pink from what I assume was an attempt to cover up the spilt red paint, and his mouth looks more like a worm sliding off the edge of his face.
The real Tom covers his eyes with his hands theatrically and I try to imagine if he really did look like that.
"That's a really valiant attempt," he laughs, then turns to us. "Shall we look at the Andos' painting now?"
"Sounds like we've got a new nickname," Nando grins as he holds up our canvas. I take in my work, and squint. Is that really what I just painted?
"That's... That's surprisingly good." Tom walks closer to take a better look and I glance between his face and our painting. The hair especially is perfect.
"Kimi and Yuki, let's see what you've come up with."
Their painting doesn't look too bad, but they haven't mixed any colours so every part of Tom's face is a bright intense primary. His hair and eyes are black, his face looks badly sunburned and his mouth is blue, for some reason.
"Good effort, but I think I know which team is the winner."
Tom gestures to our painting and I stand up and jump into the air. We did it! Erik walks over and hands us each a bouncy ball as a prize.
"It's not much, but we want to keep trophies for podiums."
"I love it!"
"Here, you can have mine too," Fernando places his in my hand and I compare the two. One half blue and half red, and one with a small plastic fish inside. Then I remember the cameras are still rolling, and look down the lens as I launch them both into the ground.