Austria silly weekend
“Ah – uhm, really?” Ollie asked, sitting in the little office in the RB hospitality in the late afternoon.
“Yes.”
“But, why? I mean, did I do something wrong, did I underperform?” he asked, trying to keep himself together.
“No, you performed very well and we are sure you will perform just as good for the rest of the season.” The lady from HR said.
“Then why? There must be a reason.” Ollie said, starting to feel lightheaded.
“There arose an opportunity we chose to take. A more experienced driver, he’s good with the team, was part of us for a really long time and now he wants to come back.”
“But … you paid my penalty at Ferrari, you did so much to … what, have me drive for you for twenty races and then kick me to the curb?”
“Mr. Bearman, I understand this is a lot to take in right now, we just wanted you to have enough time to look to other teams.” The lady said, got up and opened the door, pretty much kicking him out. He walked like in trance and it seemed to him like the walls would come closer, so he made his way out of the hospitality, stumbling around behind the trailers.
“Hey, are you okay? Ollie? Do you need help?” he heard someone asking and he saw someone stood in front of him.
“They … they … they just.” He tried to say but almost fell over. His breathing got quicker and quicker, panic rising.
“Okay, please come with me, you can’t stay here, if you fall over, I can’t catch you and it’s dangerous out here, please come.” He heard them say and he was guided around a little. It got really loud for a moment, they entered some room, then they went somewhere else, it was more silent, it was good. It got a little dark around him and he started breathing harder, pulling on his shirt.
“No, no, no, just leave it, come on, lay down.” Someone else said and he was softly pushed onto something soft, a bed maybe. He didn’t think about it for long, passing out almost immediately.
He felt comfortable. He heard a little beeping, maybe the neighbours alarm is going off. He hates hotels and their thin walls. He felt something on his forehead. He opened his eyes slowly, pulling the wet cloth off his forehead, looking at it quizzically.
“Hey, welcome back.” Oscar said softly, sitting next to him on the floor. He stared at him for a second and then tried to get up, making Oscar hush and keep him laying down.
“You should stay put for a bit longer.” Lando said. He was sat on the couch, Ollie’s calves in his lap, keeping his feet elevated. He also saw a woman sitting on a chair at his feet, she was smiling softly. He laid in a driver’s trailer, the blinds mostly drawn, that’s the only thing he knew.
“Where am I?” he asked hoarsely, letting Oscar push him down, sliding a pillow under his head.
“We’re in Lando’s trailer. I found you stumbling around and brought you here. Linda there is from our medic team, Lando got her after you passed out.” Oscar started and Ollie saw the plastic clamp around his index finger. “We are just monitoring your heart beat. We didn’t give you any medication or something. Zak just went outside, he had to take care of some stuff. We didn’t tell anybody that you’re here.” Oscar said and held a bottle of water to Ollie’s lips. Ollie took a couple of sips and the door opened, Zak squeezing in.
“Oh, you’re awake, good, I started getting worried.” Zak said “The people at RB had already left, is everything alright with you?” he asked Ollie.
“Yeah, I guess so.” He said slowly.
“Oliver” Linda said carefully “You had a full-blown panic attack. That is nothing to joke about. Do you have them often?”
“No, I never had one.”
“Did something really stressful or traumatizing happen today?” she asked while taking the clamp off his finger.
“Yes”
“Okay. You will feel pretty weak, you’re going to need a lot of sleep tonight and avoid heavy foods, please. Take care to stay hydrated.” She said softly, then made her way out.
“Can we help with anything?” Zak asked after a little silence.
“I don’t think so.” Ollie said.
“What happened that made you panic like this?” Lando asked and Ollie took a shaky breath. “You don’t have to tell us if you don’t want to. You have no obligations toward us.”
“They are not going to keep me.” Ollie said, closing his eyes.
“What? Who?” Zak asked.
“RB. They will keep me to the end of the season, but they won’t renew my contract.”
“But why? You’re really good.” Lando said.
“Apparently, they found someone else. Someone more experienced. I just thought … you know … they made such efforts to get me …. paid my contract penalty, I left Ferrari from one day to another, leaving them on the dry … no F2 driver, a reserve driver gone … now it’s just … over.”
“They just 'found someone'?” Zak asked.
“No, she actually said that an opportunity arose because a past driver asked if he could drive for them again or something.”
“Carlos?” Lando asked.
“No, they don’t like him. Max told them about the affair proposal and the whole punch thing.” Ollie said, slowly sitting up. “Thank you for everything, I’m sorry for occupying all of you like this.”
“Don’t be. At the end of the day, we’re there for one another. Do you want a ride to the hotel?” Zak asked.
“That would be great.” Ollie said, taking the bottle of water Oscar held towards him. They made their way back to the hotel, parting ways with Ollie getting off a couple floors earlier.
Zak waited until the door of Lando and Oscar’s suite closed, then he made his way down the hallway, knocking on Daniel’s door.
“Hey, what’s up?” Daniel asked after opening.
“Do you have a minute?” Zak asked.
“Sure, you want to drink something?” Daniel asked, stepping aside.
“No, this won’t take long.” Zak said, turning around to Daniel “Simple question. Did you go to RB and ask for a seat?”
“Uuuhm, yes.” Daniel said.
“Why?” Zak asked him.
“You’re not going to lengthen my contract! Of course I’m looking into other teams then!”
“Who said I won’t lengthen your contract? Yes, I was hesitant, I admit that, but don’t you think I’d tell you if I would have made that decision? When did you even go there? If it’s all drawn up, it’s going to be some time.”
“I asked in Canada.”
“Three weeks.”
“Yes.”
“But why go to RB?”
“Don’t kid yourself, Zak. I’m getting old, I know I do. Mercedes wouldn’t have taken me, neither would have Redbull or Ferrari. I’m not ready to ask at Haas. I was just lucky they barely hesitated, I know they are going to switch to Ford, but I thought they’d at least think it over before booting Yuki.”
“They’re not booting Yuki. They’re booting Oliver. They already did, actually.” Zak said and Daniel stared at him “I understand that you just wanted the best and you want to stay in F1, but this was cold, rash and unnecessary. You could have asked. I wouldn’t have lied to you.” Zak said and made his way back to the door.
“They’re kicking Ollie?” Daniel asked from behind him.
“Yeah. Congrats, next year you’ll be right where you started your F1 journey.” Zak said, leaving the suite.
He met Ollie in the hallway, making his way towards him. “Are you okay?” he asked worried.
“Yes, Oscar and Lando invited me over to nest a little. Oscar thinks it will be really helpful restoring some energy.” Ollie said.
“Well then, happy nesting, although, could you send over Lando for a quick chat?”
“Of course.” Ollie said, making his way to Lando and Oscar’s suite, knocking quickly and Oscar opened.
“Hey Ollie, come in.”
“Thank you for this, oh by the way, Zak wants to talk to you.” He said, seeing Lando.
“I’ll be back, you guys get comfortable.” Lando said, leaving the suite.
“I’m sorry, that sentence sounds a little wrong to me.” Ollie said.
“Don’t think about it too much. I know it’s not normal to openly talk about nesting and all of that, but don’t worry, he didn’t mean anything dirty with it. He is very blunt regarding that.” Oscar said, walking to the bedroom.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” Ollie asked.
“If he wants to fuck you, he will tell you that he wants to fuck you.” Oscar said, sliding off his slippers and climbing into the nest, holding a hand towards Ollie, letting him climb in behind him.
“This feels kind of awkward. Being in bed with another man’s husband.” Ollie said, laying under the covers. Oscar, who laid in the middle of the bed, turned towards him, draping one arm over his chest and the other in Ollie’s hair, cuddling him close. Ollie was asleep in seconds.
“Hey, you wanted to talk?” Lando asked when Zak opened the door.
“Yeah, come in. My god, this day is killing me. The morning starting with all these announcements, ending in absolute chaos.” Zak babbled while Lando followed him into the suite. “Okay, long story short” Zak sat down on the couch, as did Lando “Daniel is the one that took the seat at RB.”
“Uuhm, okay, why?” Lando asked.
“That’s what I asked as well. Apparently, he was sure we wouldn’t extend his contract, panicked and asked them for a seat. He also thought they would kick Yuki, not Ollie. Doesn’t make this any better of course.”
“I kind of get it, though. A lot of contracts are up at the end of the year, he is 34 already, he doesn’t have the same opportunities I would have had. We could sign him, you know. Ollie, I mean. He is young, he is fast, he is out of contract and we are a way better prospect than Alpine.” Lando shrugged.
“True. I’ll talk to management about that. Now go nesting, you need your sleep, this is a high-speed circuit.” Zak said and Lando left the suite. He made his way to his suite again, cuddling behind Oscar. Oscar woke up for a moment, giving Lando a little kiss before all three of them fell asleep.
After breakfast the next morning he went to his own room again, getting the promise from Oscar that he is always welcome with them.
The weekend kept what the exciting and news filled Thursday promised. First practice was filled with all kinds of oversteer, understeer, flying grass and gravel, driver’s killing their breaks and sliding off the track continuously. There was no rain or excessive wind that could reason for this. Second practice was a little bit better, the fans and tv reporters joking that the drivers just needed to get their heads back into racing after all the media turbulence the day before.
Third practice was alright, but it started raining heavier and heavier, up to qualifying. It was postponed a little, starting an hour later than planned.
Lando got another pole, followed by Max, Logan, Charles, Carlos, Fernando, Ollie, Esteban, Daniel and George for the top ten.
Oscar was nervous, way more than normally before the race started. He couldn’t say why. Maybe it was the rain.
Lando stood in his spot, taking a breath. The rain was pouring down. Some people had voiced their concerns, wanted the race to get postponed, but race control let it go. He saw the front wing of Max’s car stopping a little bit back and took a look in the mirrors. It always feels like an eternity and the split of a second at the same time until everyone was lined up. The lights started going on, then the lights were off. He sped away immediately, seeing Max’s front wing disappear from the corner of his eye. Shortly after, he saw another Redbull front wing appear on the other side, trying to catch up. He went through the first corner, taking the inner line, but the front wing stayed in his view. He kept the pace. In his mirrors he could see the other cars more or less sorting themselves. They sped up the hill, due to the rain not the full possible speed, 200, 220, 240, the had to slow back down quickly, the corner approaching fast. He turned late, his right rear tire almost stopping in the turn. He wanted to get the car straight as soon as possible. He was just releasing the brake and started speeding up when he felt a thump from his left rear, followed by the back of his car being lifted up, another car forcing it’s way underneath him. His car got lifted, almost standing up on his front wing before starting to sink sideways, just before his sidepod and part of the floorboard received another massive hit, turning his car over his side. The car turned over, slamming on the track halo first, before being lifted by the crashes force. This part of the track went down the hill again, not doing anything to stop his car from turning again. He felt and saw debris flying around, bits and pieces of his car. He saw the suspension breaking, wheels ripping off the car, the front wing being long gone. He lost count on how many times his car flipped over, but at some point, it stopped turning, sliding further on the halo until he finally came to a stop on the grass. It was finally silent. The violent sounds of metal bending, carbon breaking and the terribly high screeching noise of his car on the track had stopped.
“Lando, are you okay?” a voice asked “Lando, do you hear me?” the voice then said “Lando, do you copy?” he should probably say something.
“What the fuck happened?” he let out “I’m hanging upside down! Is everyone okay?”
“Lando, everyone else is okay, Medical will be with you any moment, so will the Marshalls, just stay put.”
“I can’t get out of here anyway. Is Oscar okay?”
“Not really.” His race engineer said after some silence. The marshalls were with him shortly after, turning the car – or what was left of it – back around and helped him out. He took a couple steps through the rain, but had to stop then, falling on his knees before his butt. He ended up on the right side of the track. Looking back on the track, he saw another car stranded on the other side of the track, about a hundred meters back up the hill. White, blue, some red. An RB car. The others had already passed. The driver was running towards him, not caring about the Marshalls following him, trying to get him to stop. He was tall. Ollie. He knelt down next to him, pulling up his visor.
“If I would have known you wanted to touch my butt this badly, I would have let you do it the other day in our nest.” Lando said, still out of breath.
“Are you sure you’re okay?” Ollie asked, letting out only a little chuckle.
“I’m a little … woozy … I guess is a good word.”
“Okay you guys, ambulance is here.” One of the marshalls said.
“I don’t need an ambulance.” Lando complained.
“You flipped over, it’s protocol.” The doctor said, helping him up together with Ollie, who kept stabilizing him, keeping his arm on his shoulders. Ollie got into the ambulance with him, taking a seat while Lando was ordered onto the stretcher and the belts were closed around him. Lando’s helmet was taken off and a neck brace got put on. Just in case, better safe than sorry. He was annoyed by all the mothering, but at the same time he was really happy that he was laying down right now, feeling really dizzy now.
“Does anything hurt, Mr. Norris?” the EMT asked.
“A little bit everywhere, kind of.” Lando let out “I think something slammed my arm. I feel wet.”
“Which arm?” the EMT asked while the ambulance started driving.
“Left” Lando said “I’m tired.” He added, feeling the EMT open his suit. He looked over to Ollie, who looked really shocked at his chest. He wanted to look at his chest, too, but the brace kept him from doing so.
“Please keep still Mr. Norris, I will give you some medication now.” The EMT said, attaching a line to his arm and then yelling to the driver to go faster. Lando felt himself passing out somewhere on the way, Ollie saying something about help.