Lily sat on the balcony patio area of the Bennett F1 team hospitality building for this weekend's season opener in Bahrain.
Considering the season started in mid March, she was currently knee deep in end of year assignments which luckily she could do on the road when she went to races with her dad.
She was currently studying sports journalism in University of East London and this would be her second year there out of three. She enjoyed writing and naturally sports so the course gave her an opportunity to explore both.
She had her laptop sitting on the table with her assignment notes spread across the screen while she tapped a pen in her hand on the notebook in front of her trying to think of what to write in order to finish it off.
During her first year at university, Lily came up with a rule whenever she went to a race weekend with her father. She would spend Thursday and Friday working on her uni stuff and then she would be free for Saturday and Sunday to enjoy the race weekends.
Naturally if she got everything done on the Thursday or early Friday then she would attend some of the practice sessions but otherwise she would aim to see FP3 and Qualifying on the Saturday.
Today was Friday meaning both free practice one and two. FP1 had ended three hours ago and the drivers were currently in the middle of of the second practice of the new season.
Jack Harris, Bennett Racing's newest driver and one of three rookies on the formula one grid this year, had managed to finish P13 in his first practice season.
He had wildly impressed not just his new team but others in the paddock too along with the media during pre season testing two weeks ago at the same track they were racing at this weekend.
The more experienced of the two Bennett F1 drivers, Austrian born David Kaufmann, managed to place P5 during the first practice session.
This year would be David's 7th season with the team. He joined when he was just 25 after previously racing for Audi F1 during the first few years of his F1 career.
He was one of the longest serving drivers on the grid and was always a consistent driver. He gave good results every weekend and rarely has a weekend we're he failed to score points for the team even if it was in P9 or 10.
Coincidentally, David joined the team the same year that Lily's dad became the new team principal and bought the team. The two men became very close due to this fact and got on very well even considering their age gap.
Curiosity growing the better of her, Lily decided to pull the session up on her phone to see how things were going. She was nearly finished her assignment but there wasn't long left of the session so she decided against going to the garage.
Just as the session loaded on her phone she could see the familiar blue looking car in the barrier of what looked like turn 10.
She waited for a moment and then saw the name of Jack Harris flash up on the screen letting her and everyone else watching who it was that had crashed.
With just under 10 minutes left the session was red flagged and ended so the marshals could move the car and get it back to the garage for the team.
She watched as Jack got out of the car. He looked back in frustration before walking away shaking his head allowing the marshals to move the car.
Hopefully there wasn't much damage to the car and it wouldn't take the team long to fix. It wasn't exactly the start Jack nor Bennett Racing wanted for the weekend but at least it happened now and not in qualifying or the race itself.
Knowing the session had ended and Jack got out of the car unharmed, Lily turned off her phone and returned to finishing her work before the crowd of people would return to the motorhome.
"Hey sweetheart." A familiar voice spoke.
Lily turned around to see Louise standing behind her in her blue uniform. Louise was an older woman who worked in hospitality for the team. She got on well with Lily and always made sure she wasn't working too hard.
"Hi Louise." Lily smiled in reply.
"Can I get you anything before the rush comes?" Louise wondered referring to the fact the session had just ended and everyone would be back soon.
"Nah I'm good thanks." Lily shook her head in reply.
"You sure? You dad will probably hang around until they get that car fixed now." Louise spoke and Lily nodded in reply.
Her father was a very hands on team principal. As long as there was a member of his team still at the track then he never left. He always liked to be on hand to make sure everything gets sorted.
"Yeh you're right." The brown haired girl replied laughing slightly. "Maybe just coffee please."
"Coming right up." Louise said giving Lily's shoulder a squeeze before heading inside to make the coffee.
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Jack returned to the team's hospitality building finally taking off his helmet after reaching the steps. He returned to the garage after the crash and briefly spoke to his engineers and John apologising for his mistake.
He heard laughing as he walked up the steps, surprised that anyone would be back yet as the session wasn't long after ending and the mechanics were getting straight into fixing the car.
The rookie saw a brown haired girl taking to what looked like one of the hospitality workers. He was still getting used to all the people and trying to remember everyone's names.
He saw a laptop and notebook laid on the table in front of her which made him think she was probably something to do with the PR end of things within the team but she wasn't wearing Bennett F1 clothing.
He brushed it off and headed inside to get changed out of his race suit and get something to eat before heading back to the garage to see exactly what damage he had done to his car.
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After drinking her coffee, tidying up her stuff and leaving it in her father's office, Lily headed over to the garage to see how bad the damage to Jack's car was.
As she began the short walk, she wondered if the rookie was still in the garage or not. She hadn't met him yet as she always seems to be occupied whenever the opportunity arose.
She walked into the hall leading to the garage in the pit lane and passed by Ross Bradley, the team's sporting director.
"Hey Lily." The older man spoke as he noticed the girl.
"Hi Ross." Lily smiled in reply as she walked passed him and into the garage.
The partition was up across the door of the garage to stop anyone being able to see in from the pit lane while the mechanics were working on the car.
"Hey dad." Lily spoke as she walked towards her father.
"Hey Lils." He replied wrapping an arm around her shoulder and placing a kiss on the side of her head.
"How's it looking?" The brown haired girl wondered as she watched the mechanics work on the car before her very eyes.
"Better than we thought. The gear box isn't damaged thankfully just other smaller fixes." John explained.
"Are they gonna be much longer?" Lily asked as she looked at her watch to see it was now nearly 8pm.
"Maybe another hour or so." John shrugged his shoulders in reply. "You can head back to the hotel and get room service if you want, we can have dinner together tomorrow instead."
"Are you sure? I don't mind waiting." Lily assured her father.
"No honestly go. Just incase it ends up taking longer than we expect, I'll get dinner with some of the guys." The team principal said as he gave his daughter's shoulder another squeeze before kissing the side of her head again. "I'll see you in the morning."
"Bye dad." Lily smiled in reply. She slowly walked out of the garage watching the mechanics continued to fix the car.
She headed back to the hospitality building in order to gather her stuff from her father's office before heading back to her hotel room to get some food.
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Chapter one done✅
I always wanted to write an original book and making it an F1 makes it even more exciting.
Hope you guys enjoy.
-ky❤️