Welcome to Red Bull
“Alright, let’s start. Where are your things?” Christian asked.
“The office over there.” Logan said, showing Christian. They shared the bags between them and Christian handed him a lanyard, the access card to the compound and building.
They went up with the elevator and down a little hallway, stopping in front of a door, right opposite the door stating ‘Checo’. “This is your room, it has some general furniture, of course you are free to bring your own furniture, hang pictures, paint the walls, things like that.” Christian said, making Logan open the door with his card. The room had white walls and the wall straight ahead was completely glass. The furniture was a dark brown, as was the wooden floor. There was a big couch, a desk at the window, a wardrobe, a sideboard with a tv and a mini fridge. “There is a cleaning lady coming in to clean the bathroom and like, vacuum and dust, but she’s not a maid. No laundry, no overly dirty stuff, behave, or she will tell me.”
“Understood.”
“Make a list what you want in your fridge and just leave it on top, it’ll be stocked for you, no alcohol though. Let’s go further.” Christian showed him the canteen, gym and the development department, they visited the travel office to get his travelling in order, him also forwarding the tickets he already purchased for Miami so they could get them refunded or adjusted. “You had to organize your travel yourself?” Christian asked when they left the office towards the simulator room.
“Yeah, we had a budget and got our tickets refunded by our office. If the budget was exceeded, the rest would have to be paid by us. They organized the hotels and travel from the hotel to the track.” Logan explained quickly.
“This is the simulator and this is Ben. He is the master of the simulator.” Christian introduced him to a young man.
“Master of simulator, that’s a new one.” Ben exclaimed, shaking Logan’s hand.
“Well, I don’t think we’ll ever run out of nicknames for you.” Christian smiled and left them alone.
“How many nicknames do you have?” Logan asked.
“I don’t even know anymore, we tried to make a list, but we lost track.”
“Okay, what do you want to be called?”
“For now, Ben. You’ll make up your own nickname soon. As Christian already said, this is one of our simulators. We have four in total, not all for F1. We will train the Miami circuit back and forth, up and down, wind, no wind, rain, no rain, collision, no collision, whatever.”
“How much time do we have?”
“Until we’re done.” Ben shrugged.
“You mean … we could use it all day if we want to?”
“Yeah.” Ben said and saw Logan in awe. “Welcome to Redbull.”
“Where do we start?” Logan asked with a wide smile.
“Well, you drove a Williams before, our car works differently. Ours takes sharper turns and reacts easier, it’s way more sensitive than the Williams. We will start with perfect track conditions and no weather influence. There is no timing running at the moment, we are just letting you get used to the car and the track.”
“Okay, still feels like a lot of pressure.”
“That’s the Redbull effect, don’t worry, it is way better to make mistakes here than on the track. Mistakes here can be corrected, are free and teach you stuff. Mistakes out on the track can’t be corrected, cost a lot of money and could injure you. So, get the helmet on, take a breath, buckle up and tell me when you’re ready to go.”
Logan sat down in the simulator, asking Ben questions about the car while the simulation was running, commenting on the circuit and asking questions about the track, as he had never driven it before. Sitting with the back to the control room, he didn’t even see people coming and going. Max watched for a bit, so did Adrian, Hanna and GP. Logan had just started again after a little drink break when Christian came in, sitting down next to Ben.
“Did you dirty the visual?” Logan just asked.
“No”
“Could you do that, please?”
“Sure, I’ll do a thirty lap rip off, medium dirt.” Ben said, changing the setting.
“How is it going?” Christian asked.
“Pretty good, I think. He started slow, getting used to the car, got his gloves from his room to make the experience more real, asks for rain, debris, rubber, we have other drivers on track, I’m doing reaction tests randomly in between, we have the pressure and wind resistance going higher for the past hour, he says he feels that I ‘didn’t turn it fully on because it’s too easy to turn’, though.”
“How high is the resistance?”
“165%, the simulator doesn’t go higher. Just as a reference, races are definitely cancelled for too much storm at our 130.” Ben said and Christian was shocked.
“They really need a new aerodynamics team.” Christian mumbled.
“WOAH! Ooooh! Okay, got it!” Logan yelled, getting the car back under control and resuming his lap. “I think I touched the wall. Did I touch the wall? Is Godzilla alright?” he asked and Christian laughed, together with Ben.
“Logan, you didn’t touch the wall, great save and just for reference, that was a child, not a little alligator.” Ben told Logan.
“Oh, sorry. Can we turn the wind resistance on real life situation now, please? I really don’t want to piss off Christian.” Logan asked and Christian chuckled silently.
“Alright, I’m turning the resistance to 100 at the finish line, brace yourself.” Ben said, pushing some buttons. “This is going to be gold.” He said to Christian, who pulled out his phone and filmed Logan.
Logan sat up straighter when he drove to the finish line, preparing for even more resistance. He reached the first corner, going right. Logan ripped around the steering wheel, letting the car spin around, go airborne on the curb, turn over multiple times and finally stopped, his car laying sideways on the grass. Logan was silent until he let out a little “Ohoh”. That was the moment Christian lost it and doubled over laughing, his laugh heard by Logan. “Since when have you been here?” he asked Christian, getting out of the car simulator.
“Since the rip-off was added.” Christian said, waving Logan into the control room. “The resistance has been on 165%, that’s why you flew off the track there. Our car is way more sensitive and aerodynamically smooth. It’s … like a cat whisking through, the Williams seemed more … like a baby elephant, forcing it’s way through the wind. That needs to get used to, that’s why we are training you on the simulator excessively the next days. On Sunday and Monday, we have some time on track, that’s when you will be able to sit in the car for real. Come on, let’s have some lunch.” He said and they left towards the canteen.
“Where do you live normally, Logan?” Max asked during lunch.
“A team owned appartement in Grove, not far from the Williams HQ.”
“Means you’re also paying taxes here?”
“Yes, why?”
“Maybe not the best idea. Did you ever think about moving to Monaco?” Max asked.
“I did, but my salary isn’t the best and the banks … let’s just say they don’t trust me getting a steady income.”
“There are a couple of apartments for sale in my area, I could get some info for you and we can ask my finance guy about the bank stuff if you want.” Max offered.
“You’d do that?”
“I wouldn’t offer if I wouldn’t want to do that. Put in your number.” Max said, sliding his phone to Logan. Max sent him a couple of flyers for apartments later, just as Logan’s measurements were taken for his new racing suit. The apartments looked great and the view was exceptional, but the price was not. He wrote Max a thank you and that he would think about it.
After getting to his new apartment, a one bedroom about fifteen minutes from HQ, the doorbell rang.
“Oh good, you’re here.” Max said. “Can I come in?”
“Sure” Logan said, stepping aside.
“I bought some things for you.” Max said, setting two plastic bags on the little kitchen counter, opening one of them and stuffing some yoghurts, eggs and juices into the fridge, followed by some frozen fruit and veggies. “Just a couple of things to survive the first days, lunch will always be at HQ, you don’t need to get anything, but it’s always good to have some things at home.” was his comment while dumping some pasta, rice, lentils and oats onto the counter, sorting it roughly.
“Thank you.” Logan said, a little bit overwhelmed. “I would offer you something, but I only have what you brought.”
“Don’t worry” Max said, pulling two Snickers bars from his jacket pocket, handing one to Logan. “I won’t tell if you don’t. To celebrate your seat in Redbull, the pay bump and to cope with the thunderstorm that is about to hit … now.”
“What thunderstorm?”
“The post about you replacing Checo is going online in a minute.” Max said, dropping down on the little couch. “Did you look at the apartments?”
“Yeah, I did.” Logan said, sitting down next to him.
“What do you think?”
“Well, they all look really nice.”
“But?”
“The price is kind of … high.” Logan admitted.
“Yes, that’s true. Apartments in Monaco are definitely not cheap, but they only let non-Monegasque citizens in if you spend a certain amount on an apartment. Which one do you like most?”
“Well, I really like this one.” Logan said, opening a flyer on his phone. Two bedrooms, two bath, open plan living and kitchen area, a balcony with a sideway view to the marina. 950k.
“Alright. How much money do you have? I mean, what would you be able to put down at the moment?”
“About 300, maybe 350? I’m getting my second payment in a month.”
“When do you get your bonus payments?”
“What bonus?”
“Your bonus per achieved point during your season.”
“At the end of the year.”
“Okay, so … I talked to my finance guy and he said that yes, most banks don’t trust athletes, especially not in their first year and without a long-term contract. I didn’t really know that, because Lando and I had our parents helping with the payment. What we could do, is that I give you a private loan, without interest to buy the apartment and you can pay it off without the pressure of a minimum monthly payment or stuff like that.”
“You would just … lend me half a million bucks?”
“Well, we would draw up some papers with an official time at which you would have to pay it back, let’s say … four years maximum. I’m sure you will earn more than enough to pay off the loan until then. I would just suggest that we do this whole thing really quickly, your first payment from Redbull will come after Miami and we want to save some taxes, won’t we?”
“Of course, yes, we’ll do that.”
“Okay, I’ll call my guy tomorrow and we’ll get everything going.” Max said just as their phones went wild, pinging the life out of themselves. “I guess it’s online.”
Max was right. The post went online and it seemed like everyone had an opinion about it. At the same time, their driver’s chat group went wild, all of them congratulating, but at the same time asking about info about Checo, where Max gave a quick update. Logan calmed them down by telling them he only found out this morning.
The next days were filled with more simulator work, work outs, meetings with strategy and the engineers, meeting the pit crew and marketing, doing some photo shoots. Max and his finance guy sent stuff back and forth via urgent mail, getting the loan and the apartment purchase done for Logan. The most panicked Logan was on Sunday, sitting in the real Redbull car for the first time.
Hugh Bird, who was also Checo’s race engineer, would stay in his role, now working with Logan. It was a little weird at first, but they got along quickly, Hugh being able to take away some of Logan’s nervousness. “Just do what you did in the simulator, start slow, speed up later. This is not a race, it is for you to get a feeling for the car.” And that’s what Logan did. He lost the back of the car the first couple of laps, steering too sharp, not yet fully used to the quick and fluid movement of the car.