Valeria was standing in the garage with Pietro, excited for the next bit of that gloomy Saturday. The mechanics had just rolled in Michael Schumacher's 2004 car into the garage, ready for Mick to take over a lap for the adoring German crowd. Valeria felt a wave of emotions hit her right in the gut, as she looked from the car to Mick who was amicably chatting to Seb, reminding her of the many pictures of a young Seb with Michael she had seen around the house. The formula1 crew had just accessed the garage, to do a quick interview with the German. A lady approached her. 'Valeria, are we ready to go?'
'yeah, sure. I'll go get Mick.' She walked towards the two Germans who looked up to her. 'Mick, sorry to interrupt. F1 is here to speak to you.'
'Cool. See you in a bit, Seb' he told him, following Valeria to the cameras. She stood just behind him, as he spoke about his father, and what an honour it was for him to be in his last championship winning car. Valeria was trying hard not to get emotional in front of the cameras, as Mick finally got into the car and fired it up. The noise brought Valeria back to the early 2000's, watching F1 on TV with her dad, she felt a tear flow down her cheek and a presence behind her.
'All good, Kleine?' Seb asked her with a smile.
'man, this is emotional. Why is it hitting me so much?' she dried her tear, trying to smile. 'I guess Michael was every kid in a kart's hero in the late 90's. I remember him being at one of my early races once and I got way too excited' she laughed, as Seb dried another one of her tears with his thumb. She noticed a camera on them and tried to compose herself. Looking back to the screen, to follow the lap.
Once the car had been brought in again, Valeria had gone back to her full PR self, standing in the background for a piece Pietro had organised for their own socials. As the garage quieted down again, in preparation for qualifying, Valeria checked her phone. She had got a few twitter mentions and decided to check them out.
@proiettivale getting emotional at Mick in his dad's car is such a mood. Someone had tweeted, as a picture of her drying her tear had gone kind of viral.
Am I the only one curious about @proiettivale's karting career? She just mentioned Michael watched a race once, so she must have been alright. She read on.
She smiled at the remark, yeah she was alright. Nothing more, or she would have been the one in the car. Pietro joined her on the bench she was sitting on, looking over her shoulder as she scrolled through some more tweets.
'don't read too many tweets, you know people suck' he reminded her.
Don't know what Seb sees in her, she's definitely with him to fulfil the dream she was never good enough to do by herself. She read out loud 'ouch' she laughed.
'Who's the dick?' Seb had just appeared, preparing to get into the car.
'Some random internet stranger. It's all good' Valeria waved her hand. 'Good luck' she told him.
'thanks' he replied with a smile.
After three really promising free practices, hopes were flying quite high in the Ferrari garage, however a double mechanical disaster meant that Seb couldn't even set a time and Charles had to settle for a mere p10.
'Fuck' Pietro said. 'your mate Rosberg is on the way to see you'
'I reckoned.' Valeria got up and got out of the garage.
'Newbie! I heard you used to kart. I think I wanna see that. '
'are you challenging me, Rosberg? I already beat one German f1 driver in a kart' she smirked.
'have you?' he laughed, as Seb walked behind them, trying to contain a smile.
'I don't want to sleep with you, though' Nico whispered.
'Damn, we are like a married couple' Valeria laughed. 'shoot, are we live already? Hi , Martin and Crofty. Here for a comment from Ferrari' she started. 'Valeria! What can you say about this disastrous qualification?' she continued, interviewing herself, doing her best Nico Rosberg impression.
'Hey that's my job' Nico laughed. 'but yeah. What you said'
'that is a great question, thank you, Valeria. Well, the car has demonstrated good pace on this track but two separate mechanical failures have put us back. It's a wet race tomorrow and we know how unpredictable those are, so hopefully we'll put on a good show and get some points.'
'Extreme prediction for tomorrow?'
'red on the podium' she smiled, passing him the mic.
Valeria walked back into the garage, a smile on her face. She had learnt to embrace the bad days and keep smiling.
'Hey, I thought i was the only German in your life' Seb joked.
'you're my favourite... well that's a stretch, you're second after Michael.' She mocked him. 'Sorry about quali, by the way' she continued, starting to collect her stuff to walk back to the motorhome. 'both of you' she added as Charles joined them.
'It's OK, at least this time it wasn't my fault... or yours' Seb replied.
'it could still be. You know the media' Charles joked. 'thanks, Vale. We'll just kick everyone's ass tomorrow'he added with a smile. 'Seb, aren't you forgetting something?'
'Oh, damn. Yeah. Come with us' Seb told her. He and Charles wrapped their arms around her shoulders and directed her out.
'Charlie, what the fuck?' she asked the Monegasque. The stands had almost emptied as they walked her down the pit-lane. She could see people staring at them. 'you'll find out soon.' He smiled.
They walked to the starting grid where three Ferraris had just been parked. Seb pointed at Pietro who was giving her the most amused look, he was holding a racing suit and helmet in his hands.
'so, Pietro got involved and this is going on the YouTube channel... but, here. See if you can catch us'
'Damn, this must be an insurance nightmare. Does Mattia know about this?' Valeria asked.
'Yes, I do. I came to watch. Please be sensible. All of you.' He said.
'You said you never drove on a circuit' Seb shrugged.
'Yeah and the first time shouldn't be in front of cameras and fans' she laughed. 'can I do a lap with someone in the car to give me a hand with breaking zones?'
'sure, I'll jump in with you' Seb smirked.
'Cool, sure. No pressure uh?' she grabbed the racing suit and helmet off Pietro. 'you're dead to me'she told him.
'Sorry, babe. Tell it to the camera.'
'You are ALL dead to me' she turned around to the group.
She went to change and finally looked at the helmet properly. Seb had definitely designed it himself. The colours he had chosen were the ones of the Italian flag, on the side he had put the Ferrari prancing horse and at the back, Taz from looney tunes. All of them with a wonderful drawing of the coloseum in the background. She put her hair down in braids and walked out.
'Jesus, a jump back to the past' Daniel had joined the group too.
'what are you doing here?'
'Came to watch, this doesn't happen every day' he joked.
'true' Nico had appeared just behind him.
'damn' she huffed, walking back. Seb was already sitting in the car, waiting for her.
'Come on, we don't have all day' he teased her.
'Excuse me for being in shock, I was planning on having a chilled night in but apparently I'm now racing two formula 1 drivers' she pretended to be annoyed, as she got into the driver's seat. She looked at the gopro that had been mounted in the car. 'Is this a bad time to say I don't have a drivers licence?' she joked, turning the car on.
She started off pretty poorly, as she got used to the car, but then she gained some more confidence and had a pretty decent lap.
'Cool, ready enough?'
'if we really have to' she told Seb as he got out. She stayed inside, trying to stay in the zone. She watched the two drivers get in the car and watched the red lights turn off one by one.
She revved the engine enough, as she waited for the last light to turn off.
She had a pretty decent start, but by turn 1 she was already at the back of the pack.
'Valeria this is your race engineer' she heard Dan's voice through the radio. 'give them hell'
'I don't know if you noticed, Ricciardo but I'm already last'
'Yeah but not too far. Go, go, go! You have 3 laps.'
By the end of the first lap, Valeria had managed to get close to Charles who was giving Seb some aggro in p1.
'you should be able to overtake Leclerc down the straight'
Valeria pressed harder on the accelerator, managing to overtake the Monegasque, but by the hairpin she completely misjudged the breaking and he easily got p2 back.
'valeria sei un'idiota' she said out loud.
'copy that.' Daniel joked.
'Ricciardo can you shut up?'
'I'll shut up when you overtake Charles and keep the position'
By the end of lap 2 Valeria had managed to take the second position and was now trying to overtake Seb, who was probably enjoying his race too much.
'you can do it Taz' he told her as she had just gone through the last corner, she tried to catch Seb's slipstream, but he moved out of her way, keeping p1 until the end.
She stopped the car. 'can Ido donuts?' she asked.
'Mattia is shaking his head in disapproval, sorry Taz'
'That's alright' she got out of the car. Her knees weakened by the adrenaline.
'this... this was amazing.' She said, as she took her helmet off. 'thank you, Seb' she smiled.
'Anytime'
'I can't believe you overtook me' Charles interjected. 'I was going easy for you but I wasn't expecting you to overtake me!'
'sure' she mocked him. 'thanks for letting me go past you, then. Unlike Mr Vettel'' She told him.
They walked back to the garage, Valeria had a smile from ear to ear. She couldn't believe Seb had organised all of that and had managed to get Ferrari to agree. Surely, having marketing involved only meant that they thought they could get something out of it.
'Here goes my free evening. I'll have to get this ready tonight Pietro huffed. 'we'll have it live tomorrow morning'
'can't wait'
Sunday
Sunday started as the most miserable day possible. The rain was pouring hard at the Hockenheimring, but the video of Valeria, Charles and Seb racing had made the tifosi a bit happier. It was great for them to see the human side of racing and everyone had been impressed by the fact that Valeria could actually drive, as most fans put it.
Valeria walked to the grid for the national anthem, trying to shelter herself from the rain under Pietro's little umbrella.
'Where's your waterproofs?' he huffed, as the drivers started to walk back, trying to cover her from the pouring rain but also trying to keep himself dry.
'I never got one. I only have a bit coat, but it's too hot for that' she told him. Seb walked past them and stopped. 'here' he took his waterproof coat off and gave it to her 'i don't need it' he smiled.
'Thank you' she said, putting it on and loosing herself in his cologne.
They walked back to the garage and Pietro opened twitter to start his live feed of the race. He also had a quick look at what the tifosi were saying.
Seb giving Vale his coat. My heart is melting. #GermanGP he read out to her
'I know right?'she laughed.
The race had been hectic to say the least. Charles ended up changing to slicks too early and DNFing, but Seb managed to get p2. Valeria grabbed his coat again and walked to the podium. She watched Max, Seb and Daniil spray the champagne on the podium and turned around once she heard Nicos voice.
'This must be the first prediction you have got right. The most unexpected one, but here you have it. Red on the podium'
'as I said, wet races are unpredictable. Shame about Charles but the slicks were not the right tyres at that point. We've just been more unlucky as Lewis went off at the same corner but managed to pit'
'Thank you'
Valeria walked back to the garage, as the mechanics were hard at work to pack up quickly as the next GP and the last before the summer break was just the following week.
'I do hope Edo feels better soon, but we could do with a spare pair of hands or two...' Domenico huffed.
'mate, do you need a hand? I'm free' she offered.
'are you sure?' he asked her.
'yeah sure, i was going to just catch up with work emails but I can help'she took Seb's jacket off and put it by the side with her bag. 'what do you need me to do?'
Domenico pointed at a couple of crates that needed to be packed and palletised.
'can we have music or do we have to work in silence?'she joked.
'Here, put whatever you want' he passed her his phone.
'Baaad idea' she joked as she pressed play on Deutschland by Rammstein.
'Jesus, what have I done' he joked, as she helped him carry a big crate to the lorry.
'Vale, are you here?' Seb had appeares from the debrief. 'Dad and Fab told me to follow the angry German music' he joked.
'yeah, just giving the boys a hand. I'll see you at the hotel' she told him.
'No that's cool, I'll give you guys a hand. What do you need me to do?'
'Could you get those? Without hurting your back, please' she told him, pointing at a couple of crates.
'Deutschland, mein Herz in Flammen
Will dich lieben und verdammen
Deutschland, dein Atem kalt
So jung, und doch so alt
Deutschland!'
'Do you like this stuff or is it just her?' Domenico asked Seb, a raised eyebrow as the Italian sang along to the lyrics as she helped the logistics people who were loading up the lorry.
'just her.' Seb smirked. 'and then she goes from metal to this.' She had just skipped to Adriano Celentano.
'Fra le mie braccia dormirai
serenamente
ed è importante questo sai
per sentirci pienamente noi
un'altra vita mi darai
che io non conosco
la mia compagna tu sarai
fino a quando so che lo vorrai'
She sang along with Giorgio as she helped him pack the last few things. She looked up to see Pietro recording on his work phone.
'Please tell me that's not going anywhere on socials'
'Can't promise anything' he laughed.
'fuck my life.'she uttered. 'Giorgio, Domenico.. always a pleasure. You owe me one' she joked. 'I'll see you boys in Hungary?'
'And at the party later'
'of course'
'thanks guys, much appreciated' the mechanics told both her and Sebastian.
The German grabbed her hand as they walked out of the paddock.
'you can keep the jacket, by the way. Everything I own looks better on you anyways.' He bent over to her ear 'but expect me to work hard to get you out of it once we're back at the hotel.'
She blushed 'only because you've done so well today' she smirked.