Emilia didn't get much sleep that night. She rolled over constantly not able to put her mind at rest. She had a big decision to make. One that would impact the rest of her life. It would be easier if Toto agreed with her but he didn't. It made Emilia doubt whether she was going to make the right decision. Though, Christine had changed her point of view. What if she found she didn't enjoy racing anywhere else? That would ruin her chances of getting back into F1. But what if going to Alfa ruined her love for racing to the point where she didn't want to race at all even when a better seat came up?
Emilia sat for a long time contemplating what she was going to do. Initially, she had been decisive and knew that she wasn't going to accept the offer but Emilia wasn't so sure anymore. The lack of time to think about it probably didn't help.
It wasn't a good offer. It was for one year and potentially a few more at Ferrari if she was good enough. Alfa were just as able to throw her away like Williams did. Emilia couldn't do that again. There was also the issue with changing academies. Well, that wasn't the issue, drivers did that all the time. It was the fact that Mercedes was a great academy and people understood her there. Toto knew how to deal with her media antics and was aware she wasn't as confident as other drivers. Emilia wasn't getting any special treatment, Toto did that with all the drivers. Most of all, Mercedes had helped her grow. She had joined after winning F3 and she definitely wasn't the same person then. They had helped her through a lot so she wanted to be loyal to them.
However, if she didn't take this Alfa offer, Emilia wouldn't be in Formula 1 anymore. Of course, she would be a reserve driver and her presence required at some races but she wouldn't go into the paddock as a driver. She would rarely actually be in the paddock at all. That was something she'd taken for granted. The long walks all the way to the bottom where Williams were wouldn't happen. There would be no little run between the motorhome and the garage. She would have to watch the races instead of participate in them. Emilia would have to watch people do what she wanted to do but wasn't good enough to. That would be hard.
Emilia came to a decision in the early hours in the morning after a lot of phone calls. She accumulated only a few hours of sleep so when it came to her alarm going off, she was even less willing to roll out of bed than normal. She groggily made her way to the circuit having a nap in the car while Christine drove.
Before going to Williams, Emilia stopped off at Mercedes to present her solution to Toto. They had an argument but eventually agreed on what they would be doing after the race. They'd met in the middle; it would only be a few hours before the meeting would occur and Emilia's future would be decided. After that, Emilia was stuck doing media duties until the drivers parade. Her warmup followed that then it was race time. There wasn't much time to dwell on her decision and rethink it.
The race was starting shortly and Emilia had the strategy memorised in her head. She had an ice bath beforehand as it was going to be a humid race. The circuit was difficult enough but adding the heat to it made it one of the hardest races of the year. Emilia was too tired to be excited about the challenge.
Unfortunately, the ice bath only worked for a short while. Driving out the pitlane then running around and getting to the national anthem on time meant Emilia was boiling already. Her face was red and sweaty when she arrived at the front of the grid.
Emilia didn't have far to go back to P5 so she had more time than most people to get to her car and ready for the race. Christine helped her get calm so she was able to think clearly having rushed around for the past hour. Emilia got in her car and waited for the green light.
Once the formation lap commenced, Emilia followed a Red Bull on the yellow striped tyres unlike herself. Whoever was at the front was taking it easy slowly working their way back round the grid. The pack was backed up which was good for the front runners as their tyres would be warmer. Maybe the pole sitter was aware Emilia was behind him on softs.
The lights begun to turn on and Emilia made her engine roar releasing the clutch when they went off. She pressed the throttle and slowly pushed it harder as she shifted up gears. Emilia moved left of Sergio getting the inside line of the corner. She broke late but was careful of shredding her front wing on someone else's car. Sergio was generous on the room he gave her and practically let her past. He attempted to go round the outside of her at turn three but he was unsuccessful. Emilia had a lot better traction out the corner.
Checo's tyres hadn't warmed up enough and neither had the other drivers around him so Emilia challenged Lewis into turn seven. Emilia had taken the inside line and knew she had very little room to squeeze through. Lewis had to concede the position and was now under threat from Checo. From then, there weren't any overtaking opportunities until turn fourteen. Emilia had the best traction out of turn thirteen with her tyres nearest the optimum. She needed this advantage as the other two cars were much faster than hers on the straights.
Emilia took the outside line which was the racing line trying to keep hold of her position. They were three wide into the corner and Emilia conceded a position to Lewis but stayed ahead of Checo who had squeezed Emilia into the wall though she still managed to get past. Behind Checo was no one. The five cars had split off already from the rest of the group. These tyres seemed to be paying off, so far.
Emilia was exhausted after that battle and felt very hot and needing a drink. She tried to take a sip from her drink tube but no water came. Emilia tried sucking a little harder but her mouth was still dry.
"John my drink tube is not working." Emilia stated.
"Having a look." John responded. Emilia waited for a fix to her problem. "Drink tube is not connected, Emilia you will not have the drink."
"Great thanks." Emilia huffed. This was the worst race for the team to have not connected her drink.
Of course, the tyres dropped off earlier than expected. Checo's had warmed up and he was mounting an attack against Emilia.
"Emilia how are the tyres feeling?" John asked.
"Not great at the moment."
"Plan A -2?" John suggested meaning Emilia would box at the end of this lap.
"Plan A -1." Emilia reasoned thinking she could make them last a bit longer. A lap could be the difference at the end of the race.
Emilia had practically no grip round turn thirteen and had to slow right down to avoid the wall as her tyres refused to turn her car. Checo had a brilliant exit as he still had grip. They sped down the straight side by side. Emilia was lacking trust in her tyres to make the corner so she broke earlier than normal hoping that Checo would make a mistake. Checo didn't and Emilia was right to brake earlier as she really struggled getting round the corner. Had she broke at the normal place, her car would be embedded in the wall at least this time she had only lost a proportion of her front wing.
"Box box." John decided.
"Copy." Emilia replied knowing her engineer was right. Though it was a debate whether she was going to make it to the pitlane. Driving without half a front wing and dead tyres was not easy. Emilia had to take it extra steady being surrounded by walls and ended up losing a lot of time. "Can you through an ice bucket or something over me when I pit because I'm really dehydrated. I need to cool down."
"We'll see what we can do." Emilia pitted for a tyre and front wing change staying still for longer than she wanted to before getting released. Her team listened to her wish and poured a bucket of ice into her cockpit and it felt amazing.
It was early to be pitting so Emilia came out in clean air able to put some laps in to jump the cars pitting later. However, she needed to save her tyres otherwise she would have no tyres towards the end.
Emilia's race began to get interesting again once everyone had pitted. Seb came out just behind her but Emilia was safe for a few laps while Seb's tyres warmed up. He was beginning to look for a move on her down the straight but a safety car was brought out. Emilia had just gone past the pitlane and would have thought about pitting potentially but she was on the main straight so couldn't. The Aston Martin and Williams stopped racing slowing their speed to match the delta time.
"George's gearbox failed. He's out of the race." John told his driver. That meant she was carrying the points for the whole team instead of the job being split between the two of them.
"That's not ideal. What position am I?" Emilia queried.
"P11. Still time for a good comeback." John encouraged. Emilia had lost a lot of positions because of her speed when she had damaged her front wing and then also the front wing change. That strategy had really not paid off.
After the safety car returned to the pits, the race restarted. Emilia got off the line well able to look forward instead of behind her. She was trying to make a move on Sainz in front of her but he had a slipstream and she didn't. Emilia was brave and broke into the first corner late but made sure she left the Spanish driver enough room.
Passing the Spanish driver, Emilia focused on the Alpine in front of her that contained the other Spanish driver on the grid. She didn't attempt to overtake him round turn three but was thinking about it into turn five. Alonso hogged the right side of the track forcing Emilia to go round the outside of him. Fernando kept P9 but Emilia had a slipstream down to turn seven. There was very little defending Fernando could do as Emilia was practically past him by the time the corner came round.
Emilia spent another few laps catching up to the cars in front. When she did, Emilia performed a few simple overtakes down into turn seven and managed to get up to P7. She created a gap to the other cars then preserved her tyres from then on. John was mostly quiet not having much to say until there were about ten laps to go.
"Emilia, Norris is catching. Also watch your engine, it is overheating." John advised.
"Do I preserve tyres or do I push?" Emilia enquired.
"He will catch you anyway if you push. Preserve if you can but go fast." John replied. That was a contradicting answer.
Emilia saw the McLaren in her mirrors with around five laps to go. It looked like he wasn't going to overtake her until Emilia's tyres hit a cliff. Lando gained a second on her in one lap. He was within DRS zone with three laps left but was able to make a move with two laps to go.
"Emilia engine needs cooling." John warned.
"I can't keep my engine cool, keep my tyres fine and keep Lando behind me!" Emilia yelled feeling stressed.
"Just try your best we need those Championship points."
Emilia huffed and concentrated on picking a line down the straight before turn fourteen. Lando gained on her with the help of DRS. Emilia made him take the outside line so Emilia could cut in front of him but that did rely on her tyres having enough grip. This time they did. Emilia stayed in front of Lando. Losing two points was annoying but losing two points to Lando especially after he brought another girl to Emilia's party, would be devastating.
Emilia's grip through the third sector decreased significantly especially under the bridge and the corners after that. The Williams driver held her breath several times trying to dodge a wall. Emilia would need a miracle to pull this off but Emilia seemed to have run out of miracles. Her grip out of turn three was incredibly poor and Lando steamed past her because he got out of the corner so much quicker. Lando was ahead after turn five but Emilia had DRS down to the seventh corner.
Tyre grip wasn't needed down a straight and Emilia used up all her overtake button which probably wasn't the greatest idea as she may need it to defend later on in the lap. Even with all that, it wasn't enough to let Emilia succeed in overtaking her ex or not her ex or whatever they were. Lando held onto P7.
The corners afterwards were horrible for Emilia. She was losing so much grip it was unbelievable. Turn thirteen was the worst and Emilia scraped the wall coming out of it. It was not a good ending to her race. She crossed the line and put her engine into cool down mode.
"Unlucky at the end there Emilia. You did your best. Very impressive race still, not being on the ideal strategy and the front damage." John assured.
"Yeah thanks to the team for the hard work." Emilia replied. She wanted to get round to the pits and have a drink because she really needed one.
Christine was there with multiple water bottles and Emilia sat for a minute taking on a lot of fluid. She undid her racing suit that was damp from sweat or possibly the ice poured on her at her pit stop. Changing her clothes before media duties would be a definite. She stood up still sipping water ready to go back to her driver's room when Lando approached her.
"Great battle today. Shame your tyres were ruined because that would have been a lot more fun." Lando grinned. His hair stuck to his sweaty forehead.
"You're so confusing." Emilia frowned and walked away. One minute this man was bringing a girl to her party then he was almost kissing her but he walked off here he's trying to have a conversation as if they're friends. Very puzzling.
Emilia sat down in her driver room changing while Christine sat on her phone. She was reading out funny tweets that Emilia couldn't really relate to because she didn't know what had happened elsewhere in the race.
"You look exhausted." Christine observed putting her phone down.
"Yeah I am. I know I couldn't have a drink but I could really do with just going to bed right now. But no, I have contract negotiations." Emilia sighed.
"Negotiations that sounds positive." Christine raised her eyebrows.
"Toto and I met in the middle."
"How do you meet in the middle either you race or you don't?" Christine questioned.
"Yeah I know but I'll tell you how and it goes then I'll answer that question." Emilia checked her phone and swiped all the messages away, they weren't important. They could be dealt with in the morning.
"Okay." Christine nodded. "Do you want a massage or something if you're tired?"
"Uh no it's not really my muscles aching." Emilia didn't elaborate. "Thank you though."
"It's my job." Christine smiled.
"I had a good race today. The last lap wasn't great but I did a good job with my tyres. I should be happy with my performance but I don't really feel anything other than fatigue."
"It's always a tough race here. Especially as you didn't get any water to drink during the race." Christine pointed out.
"Yeah that's probably it. I should probably get going to the media pen." Emilia decided.
"Okay I'll see you later and good luck if I don't see you before you go to Alfa." Christine hugged Emilia as she left.
Emilia got her media duties out of the way quickly and met Toto outside Mercedes. She aimlessly paced waiting for him unable to stand still. Toto joined her shortly giving her a smile as they walked to the other end of the paddock. Emilia was nervous, very nervous. More nervous than she had been for her first F1 race. This meeting was career deciding, literally.
Vasseur welcomed the pair of them in and Emilia hid her hands under the desk again so she could fiddle with her fingers. It wouldn't look very professional if she did it in front of them. She needed to seem confident and knowing what she wants.
"Great race today Emilia shame about the strategy." Vasseur greeted. "Did you bring a pen with you or do you need one?" The Alfa Romeo Team Principal was wasting no time.
"Yeah about that. I have a few conditions before I sign a contract." Emilia stated boldly.
"And what would those be?" Vasseur asked.
"I want a multi-year contract and that salary is slightly insulting." Emilia established. Her confidence caught the two Team Prinicpals in red off guard. Maybe the saying the salary was an insult was a bit of exaggeration but Emilia had to show she wasn't messing around. It was something Toto had told her to do that morning.
"Emilia you have to be confident." Toto insisted. "Otherwise they will think they can persuade you easily and that cannot be the case. You cannot settle for anything less than what we have decided."
"Okay yeah I can do that I think." Emilia nodded.
"You're not convincing me now."
"I'm saving all my persuasion for later." Emilia defended.
"Emilia we've said this before. We plan for you to go to Ferrari after a year." Vasseur repeated.
"And I'm saying that contract is not secure enough for me to accept. You give me a multi-year contract with the salary higher otherwise I'm out." Emilia folded her arms. The multi-year contract had been negotiated that morning by Emilia and her manager.
"Emilia you cannot say no to a Formula 1 contract." Toto argued.
"But I want one that's going to last. Alfa could decide they don't want me and do the same as Williams."
"They won't. Williams is an exception; teams don't usually do that." Toto assured.
"I have other options anyway." Emilia responded.
"And what would those be? Are they secure?" Toto enquired.
"No but they're multi-year contracts with the option to terminate after a year. Look I have offers from two Formula E teams, three WEC teams and an Indycar team." Emilia pulled out a scrunched piece of paper out her pocket with the names and numbers of teams she had called last night. "Susie helped me out quite a bit."
"Susie as in my wife?" Toto questioned and Emilia nodded.
"I did almost consider accepting one of the WEC teams on the phone." Emilia admitted. "I'm surprised how many teams were considering to accommodate me. Like I phoned them all and these ones said they're up for negotiations and the ones on the back said they would think about it."
"You really don't realise the impact you have made." Toto sighed. "You really are considering these options?"
"I might as well try to win Le Mans rather than staying at Alfa for only a year." Emilia stated.
"Is that how you really feel?" Toto asked.
"Yes, I see no gain in staying at Alfa unless they can promise me a Ferrari contract."
"Okay how about we compromise. We ask Vasseur for a multi-year contract or no contract and you go to WEC."
"We can agree on something?" Emilia smiled.
"Okay we will go and talk about this please wait here." Vasseur and Binotto left leaving Toto and Emilia in the room alone which was strange.
"I still cannot believe you called Susie."
"It was a reasonable time in Monaco." Emilia replied. "I couldn't exactly ask you."
"Why not?" Toto queried.
"I didn't think you'd support me looking at other options." Emilia confessed.
"Emilia I will always support your decision, unless that decision involves you crashing into one of my drivers." They both chuckled. "Seriously, I would have stayed up all night on the phone with you." The other Team Principals entered the room having made a decision and quite quickly. Emilia felt her knee bouncing and crossed her legs to make it stop.
"The salary is no problem. We can easily increase that." Vasseur clarified. Emilia was glad but that wasn't the main thing she needed. "However, we at Alfa Romeo are not prepared to offer a multi-year contract." Emilia nodded and let that sink in.
"Can I not sign one for Ferrari for 2023 now?" Emilia suggested. Mattia considered this for a moment.
"That is not possible. We don't know what the driver situation will be." Mattia responded. That was it then.
"So there's not contract then. Right well thanks for your time." Emilia started to stand up hoping they would sit her back down and give her what she wanted. They didn't so Emilia shook their hands thanking them again and Emilia and Toto left without signing a contract.
Emilia would not race in Formula 1 in 2022.
This chapter would have been up earlier but I slept in after staying up late to watch the superbowl which was definitely worth staying awake for. Also this chapter was a bit different in the sense that it had some flashbacks. The next one is very different and I think it was the most enjoyable to write in a sense but I'm not giving anything away. Very excited for you guys to see it next Monday - I don't have time for a midweek update sadly.
What's Emilia going to do now that she's won't be in F1? I want to hear your theories. I think what Emilia will actually do next season is definitely different but also similar to what she's doing now.