Bold is Radio Calls
Francesca Lewis grinned happily when she climbed out of the car after the final free practice session.
Everything once again seemed to be in her favour that weekend. And the first person to greet her after she got out of the car was none other than little Heidi Scott.
Heidi's random presence at the race weekend had sparked attention. She was known all over Australia for not only her lifeguarding and presence on Bondi rescue, her professional surfing and Worlds championship but also for being one of the biggest names in big wave surfing to date.
The question of how she knew many of the grid however, was still unanswered.
After giving Francesca a hug and congratulating her on scoring P1, she rushed back off to McLaren because Lando was shouting her name from down the pit lane.
"Good job, Fran." Lucy smiles, hugging her best mate.
"Thanks, Luce." Francesca smiles. "Now get me out of this suit."
The two woman exited the garage and headed for the motorhome so Francesca could change.
When they walked back out into the paddock, Charles and Lando were walking past with Heidi sandwiched between them.
"Don't kill the poor girl!" Francesca calls out. "She should be saving lives, not saving her own!"
Heidi Scott's laughter echoed down the paddock as she was pulled away by Lando. Shaking her head, Francesca linked her arm with Lucy's.
The blonde and brunette wandered around with no actual destination in mind, Francesca stopped every now and then to sign things and take photographs with fans until she decided to head into the communal motorhome.
Many of the drivers and their loved ones were inside. The ones who were currently single immediately a pit of jealous form in their stomach as they watched the loving interactions between couples such as Lily Muni and Alex Albon.
"Lily!" Francesca smiles, approaching the woman.
"Oh my god, Fran!" Lily smiles.
The two women hugged each other tightly.
"I'm stealing your girlfriend, Alex!" Francesca calls out. "She's mine now."
"Yeah sorry, Alex." Lily smiles. "I have a girlfriend now."
"What is it with you and forming fake relationships with everyone?" Pierre asks with a laugh.
"Its not my fault that your boring." Francesca shrugs.
"I'm not boring!" Pierre smirks.
"But you are French." Heidi's voice echoes.
Everyone's attention turned to the blonde whom Oscar was holding on his arm. How on earth she had managed to escape Lando, Francesca didn't know. But she did hold a small smirk as she watched the way Oscar looked at the blonde and when Heidi looked back up at Oscar, he quickly cleared his throat and looked away.
The Aussie was so in love with her it make Francesca's heart leap.
"Yeah, take it from the most interesting person here." Charles says from his position on the sofa with his girlfriend, Alexandra Saint Mleux.
"I'm most definitely not the most interesting person here." Heidi states.
"Don't let Lando hear you say that." Oscar smirks. "I've had enough of watching him try to 'shake some sense into you' as he says."
Heidi shrugs, pulling Oscar by the hand to the empty sofa in the room and sitting down.
"My Brother's Keeper?" Lance Stroll questions.
"She's in a gang." Lando says, suddenly appearing out of nowhere.
"Please stop telling people I'm in a gang." Heidi sighs.
"But you are!" Lando says.
"I'm really not." Heidi shakes her head.
One thing that Francesca adored about the younger blonde was that she didn't cared how she looked, even at a Formula One race weekend, Heidi wasn't dressed in all designer like most of the WAG's and friends who were present. Whilst she had made an effort, putting her hair in two half up half down ponytails and rocking a bit of make-up, her outfit was just classic Heidi.
A pair of light washed denim shorts, scruffy converse, Nike socks and a cropped t-shirt with the infamous My Brother's Keeper saying written across her collarbones.
"But what does my brothers keeper mean?" Lewis Hamilton found himself asking.
"Its her gang symbol." Lando states.
"For the last time!" Heidi laughs. "I'm not in a gang."
"If its not a gang then what is it?" He fires back.
"A tribe, Lando. You fucking idiot."
Oscar, who had placed his head in his hands, was red in the face from laughter.
"Its still a gang." Lando mutters.
"No its not!" Heidi says back.
All of the drivers and WAG's present in the room burst into laughter when Heidi threw a pillow in Lando's direction. Lando caught it before it could hit his face and threw it back at her.
Not many of the other Formula One drivers except those who had become close with Heidi really knew who she was. They had no idea why she was at the track that weekend and why Daniel Ricciardo was so happy that she was there. Many had seen her with the McLaren boys and thought that she was dating one of them but then they had seen her with Daniel and those thoughts became extremely confused.
And what didn't help was that a lot of them couldn't tell if she was sixteen or not.
"If I was go to Melbourne beach and drown right now, would you save me?" Lando asks.
"No." Heidi replies simply.
"Why not, you did the other day!?"
"You've just walked into a room full of multiple people who don't know who I am and told them I'm in a gang, Lando."
"You know," Francesca sighs. "I've witnessed you and Jesse bickering, you and Dean bickering but you and Lando bickering is the funniest thing I've ever seen."
"True!" Charles calls out.
"So your not in a gang?" Lance asks.
"No I'm not." Heidi states. "I would like to clear that up."
"She's a Bra Boy!" Daniel's voice echoes.
The Aussie entered the motorhome with Max behind him, Heidi thrust her hands towards the older Aussie who grinned triumphantly.
"The Bra Boy's are a gang!" Lando whines.
"No." Max states. "Their a tribe of surfers."
"Most of whom who have criminal records." Lando adds.
"Once again, its people like you that make us all seem like bad guys." Heidi says.
"Your brother nearly went to jail." Lando deadpans.
"Well my brother can be an idiot most of the time." Heidi sighs.
The poor others in the room were left very confused. Still unable to understand why this random girl was so close with the McLaren boys, Charles, the Red Bull drivers and Daniel.
Francesca and Lucy sat down nearby to Oscar and Heidi, with Max, Lando and Daniel joining them. Lewis realised he would not be getting an explanation and turned back to his conversation with Fernando and everyone else followed in his footsteps.
"Still struggling to understand what all the hype around F1 is?" Max asks with a smirk.
"Your all just driving fast cars around in a strangely shaped circle." Heidi shrugs.
"It does get boring sometimes." Lando sighs.
"Your saying that from the back of the pack." Francesca states.
"And your saying that from winning with twenty plus seconds on everyone." Oscar smirks.
"Not my fault my car is fast." Francesca shrugs. "Get a better car then talk to me."
"You're the one whose team stole all of the go faster juice!" Lando half-shouts.
"Oh my god!" Heidi groans. "Let it go would you?!"
🏎️💨
As the beginning of qualifying rolled around, the drivers made their way from the team motorhome's to the garage's.
Francesca smiled at Lucy who was stood in the box, getting a wink from her best friend, she winked back and saluted before pulling her helmet onto her head.
The crowd's around the track were completely insane. People covered in all sorts of different coloured merch with random signs and cardboard cut outs of either drivers or a drivers face. With Daniel present and Oscar racing, the Aussie pride was running wild almost everywhere.
Francesca pulled her helmet onto her head and climbed into the car.
She was late getting out to join the queue at the end of the pit lane and ended up parked behind the McLaren of Lando Norris. She subtly stuck her middle finger up at him and noticed him turn to look in the mirror, with his visor up, she could see his eyes crease as he laughed.
Hugh was radioing the time before the green light in her ear and with a simple response of okay, Francesca fell silent.
With ten seconds left, she flicked her visor down just as the light turned green.
The cars all roared out onto the track, building up gaps between themselves and swerving left and right to gain temperature in their tyres.
"And tyre temp is good, Fran." Hugh's voice comes through the radio.
"Copy." Francesca replies.
She crossed the start/finish straight and roared off towards the first corner.
Melbourne had to be one of her favourite circuits to drive on and she had always had a good run there ever since she'd joined Formula One back in 2019. It was a circuit where she just seemed to come alive and become one with the car with every lap she drove.
Her first time placed her in P3.
"P3 Fran, Russell and Hamilton are fastest right now."
"Not for much longer."
As fast laps mixed with out laps and cool down laps, it was like playing a game of trying not to impede and get a grid penalty.
With each lap that passed in the first session, the two Mercedes' were battling against the two Red Bull's for that P1 position.
By the end of Q3, Francesca was in P4. Her teammate was P1 and the two Mercedes were sandwiched in between in P2 and P3.
She knew that if she wanted that P1 spot, she would have to get a banger of a lap in.
Q2 when by the same, with the Aston Martin's both jumping around the top five as well, Francesca held P1 until it was snagged away by Lewis and she dropped down to P2 but even then, Max set a lap time that shuffled the grid down by another spot once again.
With time for one more fast lap, Francesca pushed her foot to the floor.
Crossing the line, she had hoped it would be enough for P1, despite there still being a whole other qualifying session.
"And that's P2, Fran, P2." Hugh sighs. "Hamilton was 0.6 seconds faster."
"Damnit!" Francesca groans.
"We've still got Q3, just watch out for track limits and fast laps on track."
As Q2 ended and Q3 began, Francesca was at the front of the pack.
Her first flying lap pushed her into P1, George followed closely behind but only managed to get P2 and that seemed to lift the drivers spirits when Hugh relayed her the information.
It was another game of avoiding penalties. Francesca was on it when it came to moving out of the way of a fast lap during one of her cool down ones.
After she finished her third cool down lap of the session, Francesca took off round the track.
Only to be impeded by her own fucking teammate.
She abandoned the lap with a scream of frustration, knowing that she could get round the track and manage one more lap.
By the time she had started that lap fast lap, the stewards had decided that Max Verstappen didn't need a penalty because he wasn't told of Francesca approaching on his radio.
She knew that was bullshit, but there was no point in fighting it.
Francesca flew back up to P1, with 1.2 seconds on Max who sat comfortably in P2.
As the clock hit 00:00, the last flying laps of the session countered with the last cool down laps.
And as Alex Albon approached, Francesca didn't get the information.
She saw the William's in her mirrors and cursed loudly down the radio. She knew what had happened the second the car behind her slowed down and when Hugh brought the information through that the stewards were investigating her for impeding, she got more pissed off.
Climbing out of the car once she'd parked it behind the P1 sign in Parc Ferme, Francesca did not celebrate. Instead, she removed her helmet and headed off to find Alex before her interview.
After she'd apologised to the Thai driver, who was not at all bothered after he'd heard her reasoning and discovered she had not been told of him approaching. She wandered back for her interview.
Max had gotten P2 and Lewis P3.
Francesca held no hard feelings towards her teammate as they hugged briefly, whilst Lewis was being interviewed by Jenson Button, Francesca told Max about the incident.
Her three-place grid penalty was announced to the world, herself and the team once media duties and team debriefs were conducted.
She fell from P1 to P4 and to say she was not happy about it was an understatement...