In Love With Formula 1

Part 61

"Don't be sad, you can make new memories at the new place"

"Yeh." I was actually really sad, I was never good at things like this, I put a lot of effort in to the place and it was my first place away from my family home.

Lando placed an arm over my shoulder and pulled me in for a hug as we closed the door, we just stood there for a while hugging.

"I'm driving" Lando said as he pulled me towards my car with our suitcases

"God don't kill me"

"I can drive idiot"

"You haven't driven my car though"

"Shut up I'm sure I can do it"

We drove to Italy, it wasn't too far and we listened to old cassettes and Lando was surprisingly good at driving my car. We got to Italy and my boss was there with his arms crossed and tapping his foot. What had I done now.

"It's Wednesday"

"Yes" I replied to my boss

"It's also late, you were meant to be here 2 hours ago"

"My car can't go very fast, look at her" 

"Okay, I'll let you off, race is tomorrow be at the track early"

"I'm always at the track early" I said as Lando walked over with our suitcases

"And you bought your boyfriend"

"Is that a problem?"

"Not at all it's good to see F1 drivers coming back to their roots"

"I'm not that old" Lando interjected

"Shut up Lando, I'll be in there in a second" I said to him, poking him in the ribs

"You got a keeper" My boss said

"I don't know, I will probably get scared at some point"

"You can always talk to me, I can give you good old fashioned Italian love advice"

"Thank you" I said as I jogged to catch up to Lando in the hotel reception.

The next thing I knew I was at the race track, in my suit getting a pep talk from Lando, I wasn't listening I was just looking at the people I would have to defend from for 23 laps. There were people walking past me talking about me with their friends, I didn't really have any friends in the karting world, I was friends with everyone in the Formula series.

I closed my eyes and inhaled deeply before breathing out and putting my visor down as Lando patted me on the shoulders and walked over to watch the race. I sat down in my kart and got ready to race, it had been a while since I had had a kart race.

I had an amazing start and pulled quite a distance between myself and the rest of the pack, I kept this distance and just kept extending my lead, it was a one horse race, no one got close to me and I came home to win the race, extending my lead in the championship. 

I celebrated my podium and went back to my garage to study my data for a few hours and help pack up the garage.

"You are a different breed honestly" Lando said to me as he stole the pen from my hand

"I don't feel like i'm much better than anyone, some days are better than others that's all"

"You are downplaying the fact that you have won every race since your return saying you aren't that good"

"Yeh that's exactly what I'm saying"

"Stop doing that"

"Why?"

"Because you have the attention of every team here and every team in F3"

"I doubt it"

"Stop. It."

"Let me do my work and then we'll go back"

"Fine, I'll just annoy you"

He did annoy me. For the whole 3 hours I spent trying to make notes on my race.

I got a phone call half way through from Helmut, it was not good.

"Why are people reposting you, saying you don't need controlling"

"That's what you said the other day"

"You need a manager"

"Why?" 

"You are off the rails"

"I think you'll find for a 19 year old I don't do half the stuff other 19 year olds do, I do not need a manager"

"Well Mercedes have got involved now and it's causing me a lot of pain"

"Shouldn't have said I need a manager then"

"You are the most irresponsible person I know"

"What a shame, I can drive F3 cars, can you?"

"No"

"Well then I won't be taking any criticism from you" I said and slammed the phone down.

Within a few minutes Christian Horner was calling me

"Yes"

"Helmut is fuming, but everyone here heard it and you really showed him, we are all really proud of you"

"Thanks, I don't have a choice though, I signed the contract"

"It wasn't in the contract Izzie, stick to the original contract and if he doesn't we will take it to the FIA"

"Thank you Christian"

"No problem, congrats on your win by the way"

"Was a boring one to be honest"

Christian laughed and put the phone down and I went back to my work for a while

"I hate Helmut" Lando blurted out

"Why"

"He is horrible to you"

"I'm a woman in motorsport, it's expected unfortunately"

"Why do you get so much more hate for minor things, I could go out and do A class drugs and would get barely any hate"

"Misogyny Lando, men hate to see women succeed"

I gave up on my work and packed it all up and we drove back to the hotel.

I was looking on my instagram to see that Dennis, Yuki, Daniil and even Max had now spoken about the Helmut situation. Redbull was in for a treat with me, I was excited to see how it would come in to fruition.