The perfect match

Kimi asked Andrea for a team meeting after the second training, letting them meet in the same meeting room as the day before.
Lando and Daniel entered the room, seeing half of the conference table covered in papers and circuit drawings in different colours.
“Okay, that’s a prep I’ve never seen.” Lando exclaimed.
“I’m still trying to get used to using tablets. I found it.”
“I noticed, the car was great, what did you find?” Lando asked.
“Let’s wait for the others.” Kimi said and they waited for Andrea, Zak, the race engineers, as well as the head of the mechanics team and opened the conference line to the aerodynamics team back in Woking via webcam. “So, first I thought they changed the turns, but they didn’t. What changed is the level off the track, that changes the specifics for the downforce, tire degradation, and g force.”
“What do you mean, the level of the track?” Andrea asked.
“For some reason, maybe … eruption moving the earth together, lifting the track in some places, maybe paved unevenly, they did something to the track last year, spread some kind of concrete on top or something, I don’t remember, who knows, it’s different than it was before, the data is not working now. The track is much more like an uneven street circuit, lots of little ups and downs, interrupting the downforce, slowing you down. With the adjustments now, you will be better tomorrow. They didn’t fully push each sector or each lap. If we change the wing in the garage, other teams can see it, I didn’t want them to know what we were doing and how good it works. We should be a third of a second faster than today when completely adjusted for qualifying.”
“You mean this isn’t best yet?” Zak asked.
“It’s not. If we do this, we will get a win.” Kimi said and there was silence in the room. “Andrea, you are team principal.”
“Let’s do it.” Andrea said.
“I would like to talk to Lando alone for a minute and then together with Andrea.”
“Okay.” Zak said and made everyone leave the room.
“You can go home.” Kimi said to Daniel, making him nod a little shocked. After everyone left and the door was closed, Kimi sat down next to Lando, turning his chair towards him. “I want to do something dangerous, if you are okay with it.”
“How dangerous?”
“I don’t think it’s ever been done before and we don’t have a lot of time to try it.”
“What do you want to do?”
“I want to unlevel the car.”
“What?!” Lando yelled.
“The track is uneven, the left side is lower than the right, the hairpins are turned to the right and the long straight past turn thirteen, which is also right, you need to gain as much speed as possible already in the turn to get on the straight fast. If we unlevel the car itself, you are getting more grip on the right, letting you turn sharper and level out the uneven track. But, between turn 6 and 7, as well as 10 and 11, the track is almost levelled, you might lose a little bit of time there.” Kimi explained.
“Why me? Why not Daniel?” Lando asked after some contemplating.
“You’re hungry, more driven, you’re more likely to take this risk. We don’t have the time to run simulations, it’s not guaranteed this works and if it doesn’t, I’m not sure if we have enough time to turn everything back and level the car between practice and qualifying.” Kimi warned him.
“Let’s do it.” Lando said. “If it doesn’t work out, we’ll know for next time, knowing if something like this works or not helps driving other circuits as well.”
“Alright, now let’s sell this madness to Andrea.” Kimi took a breath and opened the door, letting Andrea back in.
“I don’t like being shut out like this.” Andrea said, sitting down.
“I had to ask him if he really is open to this idea, things like that shouldn’t be asked in a group.” Kimi said, digging around in his backpack and pulling out a little bottle.
“Asking what?” Andrea asked while Kimi set a glass in front of him, pouring in liquid. “What’s that?”
“Whiskey.” Kimi said, sitting down next to Lando. “We want to unlevel the car.”
“What?!” Andrea screeched and listened to Kimi’s explanation. After Kimi finished, Andrea stared at them with an open mouth. “And you want to do that?” he then asked Lando.
“Yes, I think it’s worth a try.” Lando said and Andrea downed the whiskey in one gulp.
“If something happens to him, you know Zak will have both of our heads, right?” Andrea asked Kimi.
“Yes.”
“Alright, I’ll call the mechanics, they need to start earlier tomorrow.” Andrea said, getting up. “You need to get to bed.” He then said to Lando. “Fucking crazy.” He mumbled while leaving the room.
“He’s right, go to sleep.” Kimi said and Lando made his way out.
“Hey, you’re late, is everything okay?” Oscar asked when Lando entered their suite.
“Yes, we had another meeting for qualifying tomorrow. Could you be there for training as well, tomorrow?”
“Of course.”
“Thank you.”
“Dinner? I made chicken.”
“Happily.” Lando said and Oscar got them some food.

Oscar got to the grid the next day and the McLaren garage looked like a beehive. Everybody running everywhere, yelling and changing stuff, Zak looking close to a nervous breakdown.
“Are you okay?” Oscar asked him.
“Yeah, yeah, sure, I trust them.” Zak said, his voice higher than usual and went over to the engineer stand, rubbing his face.
Third practice went well, Oscar would say, their times were great and the nervousness now had a little happiness to it. After practice, Kimi, Andrea, Zak and Lando stood together, arguing about something, Zak’s normally sleeked back hair all over the place from rubbing it all the time. At the end he seemed to lose the argument, giving a stern word to Kimi and then stomping away. Oscar went to the hospitality to get something to drink, Charles passing him in the paddock.
“You guys seem tense over there, what’s going on?”
“I have no idea, nobody even greeted me yet, they are so busy with themselves and whatever they are doing.” Oscar said and entered the hospitality.
He went back into the garage fifteen minutes before qualifying, hearing someone say they had done it to the max now.
“Hey, there you are. I’m sorry, I saw you before, but everything was just crazy here.” Lando said, hugging Oscar.
“It’s okay, it looked crazy in here. Are you guys good now?”
“Yes, we are. We adjusted a couple of things, that’s what we discussed so late yesterday.” Lando told him.
“Lando, it’s time!” someone yelled from the back.
“I’m sorry. I have to go.” Lando said, kissing Oscar quickly.
“Stay safe.” Oscar said but Lando only smiled.
They went well into Q3.
“Any last words?” Lando asked through the intercom when he waited to leave the garage.
“Don’t fuck it up.” Kimi said simply, nodding at him from where he stood next to Andrea.
Lando was pointed out of the garage shortly after, making his way through the warm-up lap, keeping some distance to Carlos in front of him. He sped up right after the last corner, going full speed past the start line, his head playing the plan he made with Kimi. Barely slowing down into the first, wide, turns, staying a little off of the ideal line, using all the speed. Slower in 3, keeping the car in control, not overbreaking. Speeding up in turn 4, swinging with turn 5, keeping the flow before breaking for the first hairpin, taking it tight, but not too tight, he would lose speed. Keeping on the right side of the track, turning wide in 7 and 8, taking off the speed, using the speed left to go around 9, tighter again. Wide 10, against what statistics say, gaining speed for the little straight. Breaking for 11, sharp left, followed by a wide right, 12 and 13 in one flow, full throttle going wide, gaining speed for the long straight. 1,2 km clear straight track, pushing the paddle as hard as he can. 150, 100, 50, break, second hairpin, directly followed by a slight right, little bit of straight to gain speed again, last turn left, back full speed over the finish line. His intercom stayed silent.
“What’s the time?” he asked, breathing heavily.
“1:29.833, that’s POLE!” Andrea yelled and Lando heard the team yelling in the background. “You are beating Verstappen by more than half a second!”
“YES! WOOOOOOOOHOOO!” Lando yelled, thanking the team and Kimi. He drove back into the garage, seeing the people from the other garages staring at him. They are not known for being the best at the moment. They had good results, and Lando already had pole positions, but not by half a second.

Lando drove to the starting line the next day, seeing Max beside him. Charles was behind on 3rd, followed by Alex, George, Logan, Nico, Yuki, Checo, Daniel, then Esteban and Pierre next to each other, giving Alpine their best grid spots this season. Lewis was 14th and Carlos 20th, getting beaten by Kevin with more than half a second. It would have been a bigger gap, but Kevin’s faster lap was deleted due to track limits.
Before he knew it, the lights were out and they sped away. He lost Max from his line of sight, hearing some metal breaking and tire screeching further behind. He slowed a little before turn 1, staying on the outside, seeing some red catching up at the inner corner, which was almost immediately covered by dark blue, the red falling back. He came just out of turn 3 when the intercom went off.
“Red flag, red flag, box, box, box, back to box, red flag, slow down.”
“Oh shit, what happened? Everyone okay?” he asked, slowing down the car.
“Multiple cars collided during the start, we are waiting for updates.”
“Is everyone okay, how is Daniel?”
“Daniel is fine, Tsunoda, Bottas, Gasly, Perez and Magnussen involved, Magnussen still in the race.”
“But are they all okay?”
“We don’t have any news yet, stay in the car when you come in.”
“Understood” Lando said, driving the car down the pit lane and stopped at the light. The people on the grand stand were silent, the emergency cars from the pit lane gone. Never a good sign. “Do you have any news?”
“Tsunoda and Bottas are fine, waiting for the others.” He heard through the intercom while his car was lifted up and the heating blankets were wrapped around his tires. “This will take a while, please get out of the car and back to the garage.”
“Alright.” Lando said, taking off his seatbelt and steering wheel, getting up and starting to step out of the car when he saw a huge fireball go up not far from the pit lane, letting people scream in horror.
He made his way to the garage quickly, eager to get some news from his team. Daniel was just wheeled back into the garage, his rear wing almost ripped off. “What happened, is everyone okay?” he yelled while taking off his helmet, giving a little nervous smile to Oscar before looking at the screen, seeing an Alpine and a Redbull engulfed in flames. “Oh god.”