Those Who Wait (Formula 1 - Daniel Ricciardo)

10... Glitz, glamour and gridderati

I blinked as a million light bulbs flashed, taking my seat in front of more journalists than I'd ever seen in my life. I was sat in the middle of the back row, directly behind Lewis and with Valteri and Romain either side. Kimi and Jenson making up the rest of the front row.

I wasn't sure how I'd managed to avoid the drivers conferences before but now that we were in Monaco I was in even more demand, and the best way of tackling this was this press conference.

The interviewer started with Lewis, before moving onto the other male drivers in turn. And then he turned to me.

"Hello Noni, I'm glad to welcome you to your first drivers' conference. As the first female to race since 1997 and the first to gain points since Lella Lombardi 40 years ago, can you tell us all how you feel about driving in such a prestigious race?"

"Well of course its fantastic to have achieved so much in so few races, but I don't feel that being female holds that much against me. Monaco is a track I've always loved as a GP2 race and it's the one I think I dreamed about most growing up. It's a tough track and hopefully I can hold my own." Even more flashes seemed to fill the room as soon as I began to speak, reporters holding their recording devices at arms length to get a better recording of my answer.

"You just touched upon your thoughts about not being held back by being female, there's been talk about a women's championship and other females coming into this championship. What are your thoughts on this?"

"I think it would be great to have other girls driving in the championship. As I'm sure you know my view is that I at least didn't come into this sport to just race other girls, I did it because I wanted to drive at the highest level and I feel a female championship would detract from that." I felt a bit closed in as I answered, not wanting to sound against more female drivers, but also not wanting to make it sound like I would be happy to step out of the championship to race solely against females. I think I got my answer across quite well, but it still nagged at me that journalists liked pointing out my gender far more than was necessary. I was quite happy to know that I could drive a car just as well, if not better than the rest of the grid.

"Ok thankyou Noni, now we will take questions from the floor."

A few questions for the other drivers or directed to all of us about the proposed regulations flew around the room before I was singled out again, although this time it was a little more personal.

"James Allen, The Telegraph. I have a question for Noni. There has been speculation about your relationship with your fellow Red Bull driver, Daniel Ricciardo. Can you divulge what is going on between you both, and will this affect your driving?"

I was immediately taken aback by the question. Of course in the past week since we'd finally got our acts together and become as Daniel put it "a couple", we had spent a lot of time together, and I guess maybe our relationship had been picked up after we'd flown into Nice together on our return to Monaco prior to the race. Then again as my brain calculated an answer I remembered back to Christian's wedding, where we had more than likely been photographed arm in arm.

"Well obviously I'd rather not speak about my personal life but I'll answer just to clear this up," I began coolly, trying my best to keep up the high press standards the Red Bull team had drilled into me. "I assume this in reference to some pictures of us together, probably from our team principle's wedding, which we both attended. However, the dynamic between us as teammates seems to be working well and I can't see it hindering our performance on the track. "

"Ok another question?" The adjudicator announced.

"Hello, Amelie Jardin, Vogue. Noni you are walking in the fashion show and are often seen as quite the style icon of the grid, with your signature braided hair style. How much does fashion influence you against practicality for racing?"