Thursday 6th July 2024
Lucia Quinn
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📍Zandvoort
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formula1news Lucia Quinn arriving at the track a little later than Max Verstappen this morning! 💙
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Leaving a 10 minutes later than Max as I couldn't find my anxiety attack medication, I told Max I wasn't ready and that I'll meet him there as I didn't want him to be late, or see me take the pills and stash the orange pill bottle in my bag.
Getting out the car, fans waved and I replied with a smile and a wave that matched theirs. Even though it was only media day, Verstappen fans swarmed the entrance and they were all wearing orange.
Passing the media pen, my eyes found Max as he was in an interview. Waving, I kept walking as I had an engineers meeting in 5 minutes.
Max Verstappen
Watching as my girlfriend walked past, she waved and kept walking. Smiling ear to ear, the interviewer, Natalie Pinkham, asked a question that I completely blanked. "Sorry Natalie can you repeat?" I asked and Natalie nodded "So Max. Now we have all the racing questions out the way, there's one more question everyone is dying to know the answer too" Natalie said "Ok, should I be scared?" I joked "Oh no, no. We've all seen the picture you posted on your story a couple days ago with a girl. Are you now in a relationship? Is the Max Verstappen off the market? Do we know her?" Natalie fired the questions every driver hates the most "Uh yes I have a girlfriend and no, you don't know her" I kept it brief "Ah gotcha, so she's miss mysterious. I bet your fans are going to have a fun time trying to find out who it is" Natalie smiled "Yep. But we both want to keep it away from the public eye, at least for now" I gave her a tight grin and was luckily instructed to move onto the next interview station by my PR manager.
"I hate those questions" I snarled to my PR manager "I know. But if you get asked again, answer how you just did it was perfect" She replied and I nodded before saying hello to the next interviewer.
👤 luciaquinn
📍Zandvoort
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luciaquinn Hey Zandvoort, ily :) 🧡
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#f1paddockstyle
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maryaspinall Yes!!! 😍
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Friday 7th July 2024
Lucia Quinn
Friday, free practice day. One of the most important days of the race weekend. The day where we can tweak the car to extract the most out the track to be able to achieve the pole positions.
Standing, analysing the data Max collected during FP1 & 2, the whole team of engineers were focusing on the screen comparing Checo's and Max's best runs.
"You see here, turn 8, Max is getting a better exit than Checo. So if we can take a look into that" Mason, head of both engineering teams pointed to the screen and got a nod from Checo's engineers "And for Max, we aren't getting enough out of the exit turn 11 and then into turn 12. Lucia can you look into that for me and then FP3 tomorrow I want to see changes" Mason turned to me and my team of engineers "Of course, I'll look into it now" I smiled and then headed over to Max's side of the garage.
"Louis, we need to look at Max's laps, specifically turn 11 and 12. We need to find when he exits and then enters them perfectly compared to when he doesn't and then see what he's doing differently" I explained as the engineer and I stood with headphones on and rated at the computer screen. "Ah-ha Lucia, see here" Louis found one of Max's runs in FP1, where he executed the turns perfectly "Well done Louis. Is this the only lap where this isn't a problem?" I asked "Yep" Louis replied with a nod "Ok, let's go watch the on boards then and compare" I took a mental note of the lap NO. and then logged off before Louis and I walked to a meeting room so we could compare the laps in peace.
After watching the on boards a couple times, it finally clicked. Max was over anticipating the turn causing him to over steer, even though minor, it still has an effect. "I've got it" I grinned "Really? Already?" Louis laughed as I beat him to it "You bet. Look Max is slightly over steering which messes up his exit of turn 11 and which causes his turn 12 entrance to also be messed up" I pointed at the screen with my pen "You're a genius Lucia. I hadn't even noticed" Louis smiled and I chuckled back.
"Hey Mason. I found the problem" I walked into the head engineers office as his door was open with my laptop tucked under my arm "Already? I set you off on the task just over an hour ago" He smiled, clearly impressed "What can I say, I work fast" I shrugged and then sat down in the chair on the other side of his desk to him.
Opening my laptop I pulled up the video and hit play. Showing the head racing engineer a side by side of both laps I pointed out where the problem was "And right there is where Max slightly over steered. Where he does it in almost every lap" I paused it "Well done Lucia. Once again you've smashed it" Mason leaned in closer to the screen "I trust you can tell Max?" He asked "Of course, I'll run it past him now before he leaves" I replied and shut my laptop before leaving to go find my boyfriend.
Walking back down into the garage, I asked around for where Max was and a couple of the guys said he was in his drivers room so that's where I went.
Knocking on the door, a freshly showered Max Verstappen opens the door, hair still slightly wet. "Hey Cia" Max planted a kiss on my cheeks as the door clicked shut "Hey Maxy" I smiled. "I have the feed back for turns 11 and 12" I stopped our kiss and placed my laptop down to show him the side by side comparison laps I had just shown Mason.
"Ah ok, I'll see what I can do in FP3 tomorrow" Max watched the video over and over again "Yeah, we have a couple solutions for it tomorrow and I was just going to run it past the other engineers before I leave" I shut the laptop "Tell them tomorrow sweetheart. Let's go back home" Max snaked his hands round my waist "Home?" I questioned and turned round to face him "Home is wherever you are Cia" Max grinned ear to ear and my heart burst "Fine, let's go home" I stood on my tiptoes and kissed his lips.
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Sorry this one's kinda short :,(
But I'll make it up to you with a double update :)
& v sorry for the wait :) I have A-Level mocks rn and they're lasting till January, so updates might be a bit slow from now till then! But I'll try my best ❤️
Are we liking it so far though? :)
-Grace xoxo