Grand Prix Of Love - Max Verstappen

Chapter 20

Edited : 29-12-2016

Today is the day that we fly to Austria. Both Daniel and Max are excited, as Austria is the country Red Bull Racing is from, so it's kind of a home race for them. I called in sick at school, not really caring anymore.

Victoria flew back to England, where she's from, yesterday, needing to go back to work. If she can get some days off, she might fly in to see the race sunday.

Anway, Max, Daniel and I are at the airport right now. Daniel stayed in the Netherlands for a day longer, as he could just fly with us.

Max told me that today is just drivers briefing and then they are walking the track. After that it's just talking with their team and nothing more. Tomorrow are the first 2 free practices and that's when my time comes. Max also said that Christian is going to show me what to do tomorrow when the others are having a meeting about the weekend.

Right now, we're waiting to board the plane. Luckily it's only two hours, nothing more. I love flying, but not when I'm already nervous. Today is also the first time I'm meeting the team. Max said they're all really nice and stuff, but I'm still nervous. They might become my collueges.

An hour later, the plane is up in the air and the seat belt sign just turned off. Daniel is sitting next to the window, Max in the middle and I'm next to the isle. Max and I are both wearing an earplug and listening to some music, while Daniel is asleep with his head leaning against the window. Max is looking through some stuff from his last race, going over some tactics. I'm just watching him, it calms me down.

After those two hours, the plane touches down and arrives at the gate. Max, Daniel and  I get out the plane first as we sat on row 1.
We walk towards baggage claim and then towards the exit, where a driver is waiting for us. He brings us to the track. When we get there, someone is waiting for us as well, walking with us to the Red Bull garages. Max and Daniel both walk to a different side, but I follow Max. The first thing I see is his car. His last name is printed on the car and I smile. Max walks up to a man and he shakes his hand.

"Welcome back, Max" the man says and his eyes land on me. Max turns around and pulls me to him.

"This is Jasmin, Jas, this is Marcel, my head engineer" Max says. I shake Marcel's hand.

"Nice to meet you" I say with a smile. Marcel smiles in return.

"Same. I heard you're going to try and replace Jackson, right?" Marcel asks me.

"Yeah, I hope that goes well" I say and smile.

"I'm sure it works out if Christian explains everything. Maybe Max will finally listen to his team if you're telling him what to do" Marcel says and laughs. Max rolls his eyes and pulls me away from Marcel. He introduces me to a few more of his engineers, named Collin, Isaac, Tobias and Michael. I hope I remember every name.

"Max, good to see you again" I hear a voice from behind us. I turn around to see Max shaking Christian Horner's hand. Christian looks at me and smiles.

"You must be Jasmin" he simply says. I nod and walk over to him.

"I am, it's nice to meet you" I say and hold out my hand. Christian shakes it with a smile.

"It's nice to meet you too. Do you want to walk with me, so I can explain everything to you? It might take a while and if we start now, we'll be done when Max is done as well" Christian says. I nod and give Max a smile. He kisses my cheek and I walk away with Christian. He leads me to the place where the team always is, next to the track and the pitlane. There are computer screens, lots of them. He shows me to a seat that still holds the name 'Jackson'.

"Someone is coming with a name sign with your name on it, so you know exactly where to sit this weekend" Christian says. I nod and look at the seats next to mine. On my left, it says 'Emma' and on the right, it says 'Christian'. Christian takes a seat on his chair and I take a seat on the chair that's gonna be mine. He presses a few buttons on both the screens and I look closely at what he does.

"So normally, Max's lap times are shown here on the right. The other times, that  you normally see on TV, are on the left, so you can see on what position Max is. If you click on this button, it shows Daniel's lap times, you might need them sometimes. Also, when the qualifying happens, you can see the time he has left and with the race, you see the laps, just like on TV. The only thing different is that you can see every single lap time Max drives, not just his best one. The best time is always in green. Per lap, you can see the sector times. If they turn purple, he's quicker than the others and if they're yellow, he's slower. If you click this button, you can see how many laps he has driven with the same tyres. You're also supposed to tell him and his team when he has to box. So you need to check that every so often as well. Sometimes, Max will tell you when he wants to box, when he notices his tyres aren't good anymore, you only then have to tell the team. There are different buttons for the radio. The green one is only for Max to hear, the yellow one is for only his team and the blue one is for everyone. That way, when Max needs to know something about the race, his lap times, where Daniel is, where other people are or how close he's on the person in front and behind him, you can only tell Max. But when it's about boxing, you can tell it once and everyone will know. Now, with free practices, it's important that he practices long runs, for the race, but also quick times, for qualifying. You can decide which he does when. Everyone always starts with qualifying times, so after a few laps, doesn't matter how many, he has to do long runs. You can pick out whenever you want him to do those. Max normally listens when someone tells him to do long runs. He might want to try out a few fast laps, so he can ignore you, but just tell him what you want him to do and don't back down. Jackson sometimes let him do whatever, but I think it's good for Max to have someone push him. Also, about pushing. On this screen you can see exactly where every driver is. Their initials will be on the dots, moving over the track. You can also see how far away they are. Usually pit stop times are around the 20 seconds, so if you don't want him falling further than let's say 6th position, you can tell him to push. Max then knows he is going to box soon so the tyres don't matter. You can also do it the other way around. If you think he is pushing to much and his tyres won't hold, tell him to slow down. But always look closely at where other drivers are. We don't want to fall behind. And lastly, this screens shows exactly what people on television see. So, if you just want to watch the race, look at that screen" Christian finishes his explanation. It all makes sense. The buttons are easy to remember as they all have colours and names.

"And what if I do something wrong?" I ask.

"Not much can go wrong, you just need to make sure you tell people the right information. It's important the team knows when Max is going to box, just as it's important that Max knows he has to box" Christian says. I nod slowly. I think it'll be alright. I'm not to scared now I know everything.

"So, we'll see how everything goes tomorrow and I'm always next to you, so it should be fine" Christian says. I nod and smile, looking at the screens.

We walk back to Max's garage and he just got back from walking the track. He's talking to Marcel now, while staring at some screens. I just decide to not bother them and sit down, while listening to their conversation.