🏁

AUSTRALIA

Seungwan sits on the cool, watered down grass of the Albert Park circuit, from where she sits she can see the exact corner that made her come to her senses. Albert Park was a place that used to be a special memory for her, she won her first race as a twenty year old in her third season in Formula One. She was ecstatic, the celebrations were the grandest she had ever seen. 'Such a dumb thing to think' She was too young, too naive and too emotional to realise that Mercedes had won with the wrong car that day. 

“Stay out! Stay out!”

Those words from last year's Australian Grand Prix still echo in her ears. She was begging the team to let her pit, Junmyeon was arguing with someone as she was trying her best to make those thirty-five laps old hard tires work. She was on pole and she thought that she had the race in the bag but she was so wrong, the moment she saw herself on used softs and the rest of the top ten on new mediums she knew something was wrong.

She was forced to pit on lap fourteen, it costed her the lead of the race but she couldn't complain those were six lap old softs and for them to work on a sunny afternoon for more than ten laps was a miracle in itself. Her teammate didn't pit until lap twenty-five but she was down in P4 racing against the Ferraris. Team prioritised the main driver when it came to major updates and she didn't have the track specific wings on like her teammate did. 

“I'm losing the rears! I'm losing the rears!”

She was screaming on the radio by lap fifty that her tires were gone and under the scorching heat, they could give up on her anytime. No one listened to her and two laps later she was out of the race with her car inside the wall. 

Losing a race that was supposed to be hers was hard, but it was the least of her worries because she still remembers the post race briefing, being blamed for not managing hard tires for forty-four laps was not on her cards. She went back to the hotel and upon watching the race highlights realised that she was the only driver on the track with a one stop strategy. The battle with Ferraris that took away life from her hard tires helped her teammate to do a free stop ensuring her fresh mediums for the end of the race.

“Reliving bad memories from last year,” lifting her head she meets Junmyeon's eyes, he doesn't dare to hold eye-contact with her. It's something he has been cowering to do since the last couple of years.

She stands up and brushes off the grass from her pants, the hands as always find themselves in the front pockets of her slacks, it's something that gives her the confidence to look those who did her wrong in their eyes and make them uncomfortable. “I don't need to relive them from time to time again—” she takes out one hand from the pocket and points to her head“—they are right here.”

“Right,” Junmyeon nods.

“I hope you'll treat her better,” she directs her gaze to the rookie Jimin, the young driver who is hanging out with Minjeong. Junmyeon gulps and swallows a lump that forms in before he merely nods. 

She walks past him with no fixed destination in her mind, there is a lot of time until free practice starts. She lets her feet lead her and before she knows she's crouching next to the wall she crashed into last year. Closing her eyes, the memories flicker right before her eyes, the smoke coming out of her car, the severe smell of rubber burning and her head spinning. If she were to rank the worst moments in her life, that crash would be definitely in the top three.

“You'll catch a cold. It's chilly out here.”

“That's a terrible excuse to talk to me.”

Her head snaps in the direction of Joohyun, the older girl stands a few steps away from her, from the shock on her former teammates face she can tell that she didn't mean to say that outloud. She stands up and tries her best to not stare but the older girl is shivering, it's subtle but it's noticeable, at least in her eyes.

Minutes pass by between them in utter silence, it's the same thick cloud of awkward silence enveloping them yet again. She isn't bothered by it but it's so obvious that it irks Joohyun. The sky goes from being completely blue to an orange hue adorning it, indicating that the chilly morning is nearing its end.

A breeze passes through them and it makes Joohyun shudder. She takes a few steps back and opts to turn out when Joohyun speaks up, “Have a nice race weekend,” another shudder and before she knows it she's taking off her Red Bull Racing jacket and walking toward Joohyun. 

There is a hint of shock on the older girl's face watching her make her way to her with an article of outerwear in her hand. “I don't need—” she doesn't get to complete here sentence because Seungwan goes past her and jogs towards Minjeong, who was rubbing herself with her hand to keep her body warm.

She can't help but smirk, witnessing the wave of embarrassment wash over Joohyun as the older girl wraps her arms around her body again to keep herself warm. Her time out on the track is done, she walks back to start her journey back to the paddock with Minjeong following her behind.

“No advice for this race weekend ehhh,” The rookie nudges her sides, zipping up her racing suit, she pays no attention to her quirks. She's a playful person, it reminds her of herself like a curious puppy just wanting to know about more and more things. She's supposed to be a ruthless person on the grid, she is and everyone knows that but the rookie may be the only person with whom she can't be mean.

“Nope,” she slaps the back of her helmet, almost sending her flying to the wall but she isn't that cruel to let the rookie bin herself to the wall without even being inside the car, so she grabs her by her suit and steadies her.

“That's mean,” Minjeong pouts, massaging her head.

“How about you achieve something on your own this weekend and then ask me for anything you want?”

“Anything?”

“As long as my twenty five million deal covers it.”

🏁

She isn't too sure about the characteristics of time, or maybe she's just not used to a race weekend flying by so quickly. Definitely the latter, they say that when your life is a living hell, time goes by slowly, forcing you to witness every moment of misery up close, so it stays in your head and messes that small little brain of yours. 

Qualifying was a fairly easy affair, the front row start is more than enough for her. She doesn't need a pole to have a chance at winning a race. Mercedes' one lap pace outclasses Red Bull, she isn't too stuck on that. The gap of one hundredths of a second doesn't bother her, the grid isn't going to move anywhere no matter how huge the gap in qualifying is.

'I don't really like Albert Park do I?' Laying under the covers of her hotel room mattress, she asks herself. There is an unwavering feeling bubbling in her chest, filling her mind with uncertainty that tomorrow is going to be a strange racing day. She pushes the bad thoughts to the back of her mind and closes her eyes, hoping to get some peaceful sleep.

The strategy is fairly straightforward, it'll be a two stopper because tire degradation in Albert Park can be tricky sometimes. She'll start on used mediums and then go to the pits for fresh softs before going back to fresh mediums. She had urged Sooyoung to alter Minjeong's strategy and let her start on fresh softs, this way the rookie can gain places from her P5 grid start before going for back to back mediums for the rest of the race.

The Aston Martin safety car comes out of the pits and leads the cars around the track for the formation lap. She can hear the roar of the fans, cheering on for their favourite team, seeing her car number on the Red Bull flags, she feels relieved, not happy but relieved that the Red Bull family had welcomed with such open arms and trusted her when no one else did. 

The Mercedes in front of her stops first and she follows after. The red lights on the starting grid all light up once before the screen goes black. 'No time to think about the past, move on Seungwan ah' she keeps chanting the same thing to herself with each light that turns on, there is no going back, it's only moving forward from now on.

“It's lights out and away we go! Joohyun gets a better start on the outside line, Seungwan tries to take the inside line but that reaction time allows the Mercedes to cover it up and leave the first corner with the race lead! Kang Seulgi is out of the race, the Ferrari has locked up at turn three and it goes straight into the gravel trap ending her race on the very first lap! It's Bae Joohyun then Son Seungwan behind them is Kim Minjeong and Im Nayeon then Yoo Jimin.”

The Mercedes is fast but she makes sure that the gap between them doesn't go over two seconds. She is in no hurry to catch up and the goal during the first stint is to manage her tires and keep the gap to where it is, she is doing that and she knows Joohyun is doing the same, she saw the real race pace during the second lap where their gap increased to three seconds before it went down to two in the next couple of laps.

The corners aren't as sharp compared to Jeddah, so there is no need to commit to the lines, there are certain corners where you can go straight through them if you have the precision and Joohyun is doing exactly that. She didn't understand the apex's during the initial laps so let her former teammate draw out the lines for her and after that it was a matter of a cat and mouse chase.

There is a huge screen on the grandstand, it shows her that they are currently at lap eighteen. The pit window for both softs and mediums have opened, she can see her teammate enter the pits through the screen and subconsciously a sign of relief escapes from , she can trust the team to take good care of Minjeong. She turns her steering wheel to the right, her feet presses the brake pedal, ensuring a clean entrance to turn four and five before she picks up the pace through turn six.

The replay of last year's race keeps flashing right before her eyes, everytime she comes across turn three, a feeling of dread washes over her and she tries so hard to get rid of that feeling and push the trauma that crash caused to the back of her mind but somehow every lap it's there. 

“Change of plans, Seungwan,” Sana says through the radio and for a moment just for a moment it takes her back to last year. “Your mediums are looking really good, if you can manage them for another five laps we can make your race a once stopper and P1 is on the cards,” she hears nothing but the mention of hard tires and her stomach drops, she feels like she's going to throw up.

Her screams, pleas and the shouts of begging to her crew echo in her mind while she approaches turn three, a pain rises from her chest and it hurts her, for a moment she wonders if she's about to bin her car to the wall at a speed of two hundred and fifty kilometres per hour at turn four but it never happens and she manages to keep her emotions in check.

“You want me to manage these mediums until lap twenty five?” She breathes out and nears the end of turn thirteen where she sees the Mercedes ahead of her pitting. A firm yes follows her and she counts in her head when she does the DRS detection zone before she asks, “What tires did they put on her?”

“Fresh softs,” the answer is brief and that's how she figures out that they are taking a gamble with the strategy here. Joohyun can get away from her reach with those softs but later when she pits for used mediums for the end of the race, it's her hard tires that'll have a better grip, a whole pit stop will be separating them.

“Let's do that,” 'it's only moving forward from now on.'

She can see the gap between them decreasing by the time they get to lap twenty four she can see Mercedes charging at her through the mirrors, that's the power of those soft tires, the grip they provide is unmatchable.

She's pitting by the end of this lap but Joohyun doesn't need to know that, the gap goes down to less than a second and she knows for a fact that Joohyun is going to open those DRS flaps through turn eight and nine to overtake her, not the best time to showcase her defending but atleast toying with Joohyun will give her some sense of relief.

“That Mercedes is surely looking for an overtake down the DRS detection zone, the question is if she's going through the inside or outside, you can see the Red Bull snaking a little, trying to confuse that Mercedes. Here we go! The DRS flap is open, Joohyun gains up on Seungwan and takes the inside line but the Red Bull has already moved up to the outside line. They go wheel to wheel through the entrance of turn ten although the Mercedes has the inside line the Red Bull is ahead, they almost collide! Son Seungwan is putting up a fight with those twenty-five laps old mediums and in the end the battle goes her way as Bae Joohyun backs off. These former teammates always make sure that they have the crowd up on their feet. Just listen to their cheers, they are loving this!”

“Box and pit confirmed, Seungwan.”

Driving with fresh hards on a track that has rubber on it is like trying to drive on an ice rink, there is no temperature on those tires and there is no grip. She keeps slipping through the sharp turns, it doesn't help that she's now P4 and has to overtake McLaren and her own teammate ahead of her. 

“Minjeong will let you through once your tires get the grip, the tow will help you down the slipstream to overtake the McLaren,” she's informed through the radio and she looks up to the Red Bull of Minjeong which was two corners ahead of her now within her DRS range.

It happens way too often in Formula One, some time ago she was on the opposite side of the radio too but she knows the team is prioritising her because she's on a race winning strategy but it doesn't mean it's right, “Tell her to pick up the pace, the other Mercedes is three seconds behind me, Minjeong can't lose pace with these softs it'll cost her big time. I'll manage.”

She knows Minjeong has to pit soon, giving away her position is not ideal for the race. She can overtake her on her own, there is no need for them to limit the rookie driver for her sake. It's just not a battle for the driver's championship, the constructors championship holds a lot of significance too.

“Wait…the Red Bull of Son Seungwan is stopping on the side of the track and she has turned off the engine. There is smoke coming out of it as she jumps out of the car and urges the marshals to bring in the extinguishers. It seems like a power unit failure for that Red Bull car and once again the question arises regarding its reliability. That's an end to Son Seungwan's race who was certainly aiming for that top podium step for a second race in a row.”

“ing unbelievable! This is frustrating guys! Unacceptable, I'm trying my best here to give you guys the best results…no words.”

“That was her radio message to the team as she was turning off the engine of that Red Bull. In the heat of the moment and the position she was in I think her rage is justified, a driver can only do much if they car keeps giving up on them. Red Bull need to sort out their issues or else Mercedes will once again walk away with the glory in their hands.”

The marshals lead her behind the barriers as she watches her car getting pushed behind the barriers by them. There is a huge concrete slab behind the barbed barrier where she rests her hands and buries her head against the concrete. She kicks the side of the wall in frustration before she starts to walk back to the pits, shaking her head in misery.

Instead of heading back to the garage she makes her way to the Red Bull hospitality to watch the remainder of the race to see her teammate's performance. She prays each lap that a repeat of Bahrain doesn't happen here, her rookie teammate is currently holding onto her P3 spot on that podium with five laps to go. 

Seeing her teammate take the chequered flag for a P3 finish eases her pain a little. She gets up and goes down to the garage wondering how come she likes that rookie so much, her plan was to disappear from the surface of the earth and let her rage take over her but that has to wait for the time being because she has to be there for that rookie.

She reaches the podium alongside her mechanic and watches as Minjeong climbs out of her car and jumps in the air celebrating her first podium finish in Formula One. She comes her way first before anyone else and throws herself over her.

“Anything I want!”

“Anything you want!”

🏁

Paying the hotel staff extra she makes sure that gym area belongs to her and only her for the rest of the Sunday night before they take an evening flight to Austria where the Red Bull factory is located to do some simulation work before they take a plane from there on tuesday to reach Azerbaijan for the Baku Grand Prix.

She reached the gym a little later than she planned too because her teammate got drunk and she had to carry her back to her hotel room. Leaving a drunk nineteen year old rookie in her own hotel room seemed a little dangerous, so she dropped her at her suite and made sure to lock the doors before heading to the gym.

Taking