"DANIELLLLL RICCIARDOOOOOO!"
The overly energetic Aussie snapped his head round when he heard his name being shouted from the familiar British accent tinged with French. His smile, which was already huge from meeting so many fans on the Melbourne strip, only grew at the sight of his chaotic French counterpart and her blonde haired WAG.
"FRANNYYYYYY MARTINNNNNN!" He calls back.
"YOU MADE IT WORK!?" Francesca gasps.
"Of course I did!" Daniel says with a laugh. "Hi Lucy Loo."
"Danny Ric." Lucy greets.
The third driver threw his arms around the blonde woman before pulling away and putting an arm around Francesca's shoulders, sandwiching himself in between the two women.
"Well done on your win, Fran." He says with a happy smile.
"Thanks, Danny." Francesca replies with an equally as wide smile.
The three walked down the paddock, it was the Thursday morning of the Australian Grand Prix weekend and many of the drivers were only just getting over their jet lag. Francesca and Lucy were happily listening to their Aussie friend talk about his family and friends but he quickly stopped talking and held a wide grin when he saw the Alpine boys doing an interview.
"PIERREEEE GASLYYYYY!" Daniel calls out.
"DANIELLLLL RIIIIIICCIARDOOOOOOOO!" Pierre calls back, smiling as the Aussie bounded over.
Breaking away from Francesca and Lucy, Daniel rushed over to Pierre and Esteban and placed his arms around their shoulders, wide smile never fading from his lips.
Francesca and Lucy wandered over as well, greeting Natalie Pinkman who was supposed to be interviewing the two French drivers, before Francesca stood next to Pierre and stood on her toes to flick his forehead causing him to laugh and wrap his arm around her shoulders.
"I see you brought your WAG with you this weekend." Pierre raises his eyebrows.
"The one and only." Francesca grins.
"Good to see you, Luce." Pierre grins at the blonde.
"And you." Lucy waves back.
"Now, as much I would love to continue interrupting your interview, I have to go and find a certain Australian McLaren driver and his American counterpart." Francesca states.
"Of course you do." Pierre laughs, letting her slip out from under his arm.
"Love you!" Francesca shouts as she walks away.
"Love you too!" Pierre calls back.
As Francesca and Lucy departed down the paddock, Pierre turned around to face his teammate and Daniel who was still sandwiched between the Alpine drivers. When he did turn to face them, both Esteban and Daniel were smirking causing Pierre to sigh and give them a look.
"Shut it." He points at them both.
"Didn't say anything." Esteban remarks.
"Neither, mate." Daniel adds, putting his hands up in defence.
Francesca was practically dragging Lucy through the paddock.
After walking away from Daniel, Esteban and Pierre, Francesca had spotted the not so subtle bright orange t-shirt of Oscar Piastri and had taken off into a run to catch up with the Australian rookie driver she had come to love. Calling out his name, her voice was drowned out by the obnoxiously loud crowd of dans scattering the paddock at that very moment but as soon as she was within earshot of the Aussie driver, Oscar turned to look over his shoulder.
He couldn't help but laugh as Francesca stopped next to him, turning around and placing her hands on her hips as she waited for Lucy to catch up with them.
"Come on you slow poke!" Francesca shouts.
"Not all of us are professional athletes, Fran!" Lucy groans.
"Is that Lucy?" Oscar questions, seeing the blonde slow to a walk.
"Lando told you?" Francesca questions, a teasing smile on her lips.
"Her name comes up every now and then." Oscar shrugs.
"That's good information to know." Francesca grins. "Lucy! Come on!"
"I'm coming!" Lucy shouts back.
She eventually makes it to where the two Formula One drivers were waiting, doubling over with her hands on her knees before sending a smile to Oscar - knowing his face from the tv.
"You want me to keep you updated with information?" Oscar smirks.
"You bet." Francesca replies.
"What information?" Lucy asks, breathing heavily as she stood straight.
"Never you mind." Francesca says with a grin. "Now come on."
The brunette grabs the hands of both Oscar and Lucy and drags them further down the paddock, Lucy was grumbling the entire time about how her best friend walked too fast and Oscar couldn't hold in his laughter. Especially as Francesca located Logan and started running again, bringing her best friend and the rookie driver with her.
"You have way too much energy for 10 in the morning." Logan laughs.
"Good morning to you too, Logan." Francesca greets.
"Good morning." The American laughs.
Lucy could only double over again and give a small, half-hearted wave to the Williams driver when Francesca introduced them. Oscar stood next to Francesca with his elbow lent on her shoulder whilst Logan shook his head at the grin on the brunette woman's face.
"Alex is in the Williams motorhome if you want him." He sighs.
"Thank you!" Francesca grins. "Love you, I'll be back!"
"I'm not coming with you again!" Lucy shouts.
"I'll be back in like two seconds anyways!" Francesca calls out.
Logan, Oscar and Lucy could only laugh as they watched Francesca run off towards the Williams team motorhome, standing in the middle of the paddock to let Lucy catch her breath as they waited for Francesca to return with Alex Albon trailing behind her and true to her word, The French and Thai drivers appeared minutes later.
"LUCYYYYYYY!" Alex calls out. "COME HERE!"
"NO! ALEX! FUCK RIGHT OFF!" Lucy screams.
"OHHHHHH LUCYYYYYYY!"
"ALEXXXXXX!"
The blonde was lifted into the air by the fake blonde. Squealing as she was spun around by the Thai driver who could not stop laughing.
"PUT ME DOWN! ALEX I SWEAR TO FUCKING GOD!"
"STOP SQUIRMING!"
"YOUR GOING TO FUCKING DROP ME!"
Lucy broke away from the driver the second her feet hit the floor and began to run away from the man who gave chase.
"Is this normal?" Logan asks Francesca quietly.
"Pretty much." Francesca shrugs her shoulders. "They have a weird relationship."
"I can tell." The American mutters.
🏎️💨
"What on earth is happening right now?"
Francesca Lewis burst into laughter at the sight of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc wearing bright blue, stupid looking goggles on their faces.
Natalie Pinkman and David Croft were stood with the Sky Sports F1 camera along with many other people adorning the famous red shirt and the Scuderia Ferrari camera that was filming the behind the scenes of the weekend for the YouTube channel.
"Its goggle games!" Natalie grins.
"This is fucking hilarious." Francesca mutters.
She watched as Carlos and Charles tried to get used to the goggles on their faces and was unable to keep a straight face as Charles practically faceplanted on the ground trying to walk.
"Is that Fran?" Carlos' voice asks, looking straight at the ground to try and locate the driver.
Francesca could not stop laughing as Charles finally made his way over to her. He attempted to grip her by the shoulders but ended up grabbing the air down by her knees instead. The woman, in a fit of uncontrollable laughter, grabbed his arms and placed them on her shoulders before using her hands to pull the goggles from his eyes and let them sit on his forehead.
"This is so weird." Charles says, laughing.
"It looks funny as shit as well." Francesca replies.
"Just you wait until its your turn!" Carlos shouts, pointing up at the sky and not Francesca.
"Carlos, honey, your pointing to the sky." She smirks.
Charles absolutely lost it as well as Carlos attempted to locate Francesca but ended up pointing in the complete wrong direction and straight at the floor. Still with his hands on her shoulders, Charles moved to rest his forehead against her shoulder as he giggled, but stabbed her with the goggles in the process.
"I need to send this to the groupchat." Francesca mutters.
"NO!" Carlos shouts, having now removed the goggles and located her.
"Absolutely not!" Charles shouts.
But Francesca had already pulled out her phone and snapped a photo of Charles laughing so hard he had his head on her shoulder and she also had managed to catch a video of Carlos looking straight to the ground then to the sky, then pointing at the sky and then pointing in the wrong direction and at the ground trying to find out where she was.
Safe to say, she proceeded to run away from the Ferrari drivers when they had to start their goggle games and promised to make a return to take the absolute piss out of them.
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I think that goggle games were the best thing Sky Sports did this year😭