The Mexican Grand Prix
The lights started. And then they were out and they sped down the long straight, into the first corner. The were all crammed close together, barely stretching out the field on the straights. Esteban had the inner line on turn 12, Bottas in front, next to Tsunoda, Magnussen directly behind him. He slowed down, seeing turn 13, almost a hairpin, coming up. 80 kilometres per hour recommended maximum speed. He got a massive hit from behind, his body thrown forwards, then something went over him. He heard metal scraping and bending, the high screeching noise of the cars getting destroyed, together with squealing tires. It got dark around him, then something ripped his head forwards again. He thought he saw a wooden plank above, but that couldn’t be. His car turned sideways and got stopped by something further down on the track. It was silent for a splint of a second, then another massive hit came from the other side again, squeezing everything together. He could hear people yelling and shouting.
“Esteban? Esteban do you hear me?” he heard his engineer in the dark.
“Yes, what happened?” he asked.
“Esteban, do you copy?”
“I’m okay, what’s going on?” he asked.
“Esteban, please reply in any way you can if you can hear me.” He heard his engineer ask. His hand felt around the steering wheel and clicked the gearshift up a couple of times. “Okay, Esteban, did you pull the gearshift? If yes, pull twice.” He pulled twice “Okay, so you can hear us?” He pulled twice again “Esteban can you talk?” He pulled twice again “Okay, it seems like your radio got some damage, we can’t hear you. Pull twice if you are okay.” He pulled twice again “Very good” he heard the relief in the voice “Quick summary. The race is red flagged for now. There is a big pile up at turn 13 and you are kind of at the bottom of it. There are cars next and on top of you. We don’t know how long it will take to get to you, but we will keep you updated. Are you still okay in there?” He pulled twice. “Great. If you need help or something changes, pull the gearshift to communicate. We are trying to find out how things are progressing, I need to go on other channels for a bit.” And his engineer was gone.
He sat there and waited and waited and waited. It felt like hours. “Esteban, are you still there?” he pulled the gearshift twice. Where was he supposed to go, anyway?
“Little update, Magnussen has a medical emergency, that’s how the collision happened. They are still working on him for now. Everybody else is out of their cars. You are buried under another car, there are two cars between you and the marshalls and there is also a lot of tec-pro and other debris and stuff in the way. This is going to take time, they currently have someone trying to climb towards you to get real confirmation that you are okay.” He pulled the gearshift twice to show that he is okay. He leaned back, he wasn’t able to do anything else than wait anyway.
Some time later he heard something move and rubble around and a little hole opened, letting in some light. He saw a face looking in and he gave a wave and a thumbs up. They blended in a pocket light and then yelled something to the back before saying to him they will lift off the car from the top. He turned away again and then heard the thundering sounds of people clapping and cheering.
It took some more time and he heard a lot of rumbling around and then some motors running and people yelling before he felt airflow. He had lifted his visor a little bit. He saw more sun peaking in and then heard some metal break before the cover on top of him was lifted off. A car, as he now saw when he was able to look up and see through the blaring sun again. The car was still hovering above him, so he didn’t dare to get up yet, but he was able to look around. His right side was pressed against the barrier, a high cement wall, covered by tec-pro, which was now crushed together and thrown around, four cars were squeezed into his sides, cornering him against the wall, plus the car that was currently lifted off of him. He really was buried in his car. The other car, a Stake, was turned away now and he got a sign from the marshalls that he was good to get out, but his belt wouldn’t open. He signed back to them and after a minute someone ran over with some bolt cutters, climbing towards him and handing him the cutters to cut himself free. He handed the cutters back, threw off the shoulder rest and got up, giving a quick wave to the people on the stands, hearing them cheer. He took the hand of the marshall, letting him help him out and away from the mess, looking back while shaking his head. He took off his helmet and balaclava, taking a deep breath. They handed him a bottle of water and he firstly used some on his face before drinking the rest.
He was guided to the safety car and they drove towards the pits.
“Jesus Christ!” he let out after the doors closed.
“Man, you can say that! Good to see you’re alright.” Bernd Mailänder, their regular safety car driver, said.
“How long was I in there? It felt like hours.” Esteban asked him.
“Well, it’s been almost two hours, so you’re not wrong.” The man said and they reached the pit lane, where everyone looked at them driving in.
“Thanks for the ride!” he said to Bernd and got out in front of the Alpine garage. Pierre stood right outside, next to his engineers. They all hugged while the crowds went wild.
“Good to have you back, man!” Pierre said and hugged him close again “Logan is in the back of the garage.” He then said lowly into his ear.
Esteban got a couple more hugs and gave a wave to the crowd, then he went into the back of the garage. Logan stood there. Esteban walked up to him quickly, hugging and kissing him.
“Thank god you’re okay.” Logan said, pulling back a little before kissing him again.
“You didn’t get anything from the crash? You weren’t in it?” Esteban asked.
“No, I wasn’t I was just in front of it.”
“Ok, good.” Esteban said and looked at Logan, who now looked a little more serious.
“They think Kevin had a heart attack and that’s what started the accident.”
“Fucking hell. I hope he’ll be okay.” Esteban said and hugged Logan, kissing his hair. “You probably have to go back soon.”
“Yeah, but I don’t want to leave you.”
“Yeah, but it won’t be long, okay. You’ve got me all night.” Esteban smirked and kissed him once more.
It took another 45 minutes until the restart, now six cars short. Esteban, Kevin, Valtteri, Yuki, Daniel and Carlos were out. Kevin was the only one who needed medical attention.
The restart and then race was mostly uneventful, there were a couple close calls during overtakes, but other than that, it was fluent.
Lando managed to win after a fight with George, Logan being the third on the podium. The other points went to Charles, Lance, Max, Pierre, Lewis, Liam and Nico.
They got news from the hospital an hour after the race. Kevin really did have a heart attack and had undergone surgery. He is currently stable and is expected to recover soon.
What sounded good for the media and fans, also sounded a little sad to the drivers. After a heart attack you won’t be able to get back to F1. You can try in endurance or other smaller race series, but an F1 team never took a driver back after a heart attack. They all had their trouble and on grid fights with Kevin, but a goodbye like this is nothing anybody wished for him.
There was a prayer room at the hotel. George knew that Mexico was a mainly catholic country and that they had many churches for their members, but he didn’t think they would have a neutral prayer room. He had never been in a hotel prayer room. Today, one of the men on the grid had his last day there. There was a crash with six of the people closest to him were involved in. He’s friends with Yuki, Daniel and Esteban. He was good with Valtteri and Kevin. Carlos and him had drifted after he found out what happened with Lando, but they were still working together. He needed something to center himself.
The monks had given him one of their carpets to keep when he left, together with a robe. Until now he had only used it at home or in his hotel suite. This hotel’s rooms were smaller. The carpet wasn’t big, but there was not enough space to unroll it and stand up before meditation. He put on his orange robe, took his prayer beads and his script and made his way to the prayer room. He hadn’t officially stated that he changed religions, but for himself, he already did.
'Silence please' Said the sign on the door. He carefully opened it and stepped inside. He saw Checo sitting on one of the benches, his rosary in his hands while silently muttering his prayers. He went past him and to the front, spreading his carpet before taking off his shoes and washing his hands. He stood at the end of the carpet for a bit, bowing, before settling down on the carpet, starting his own prayers. He heard the door going some time later, someone else walking around and then settling somewhere. Later, the door went again.
“George, what the hell are you doing?” he exclaimed loudly. George knew it was Alex, but he didn’t turn around.
“Ssshht. This is a prayer room, please pay respect to others and pray in silence as well.” Lance said, surprising George for a moment, but he didn’t know a lot about Lance’s connection to religion, except that he was Jewish.
George’s prayer was over 20 minutes later and he got up slowly, bowing again and rolling up his carpet before taking his script and beads, slipping into his shoes. He saw Alex sitting in one of the benches on his way out and Lance stood a bit further back, wearing a kippah and praying. Checo was already gone. George stopped outside of the door, properly putting on his shoes and sat down on a chair that stood there. Five minutes later, Lance came out of the prayer room.
“Hey” Lance smiled at him.
“Hi. I wanted to thank you.” George said and got up.
“For what?” Lance asked confused.
“Stopping Alex.”
“You didn’t see Checo. If Alex would have tried something he would have beaten his ass to the moon.”
“I can kind of see that happening.” George said. “You’re going up as well?”
“Yeah, eighth.” Lance said and George pushed the fifth and the eighth. They travelled up in silence and George said goodbye on the fifth floor, having the room directly opposite to the elevator. He took a quick shower and just put on some short sweatpants and a t-shirt when someone knocked on the door.
“Hi” Lance said a little nervous after George opened.
“Hi” George said back.
“I know this is a little weird. We are not friends or stuff.”
“I know, what’s going on? You want to come in?” George asked, opening the door further.
“Well, my dad is calling with Pascal and it’s just … ewww. Maybe I shouldn’t have kept him from twenty-year-olds. I stole his churros, though, as a thank you for you.” Lance held up the bag.
“Don’t tell Oscar about those, he’s been inhaling them since we arrived. Is it really that bad to listen to?” George asked, grabbing two waters from the fridge and then went to the balcony.
“It’s just so extremely cheesy and 'missing you' and 'how is Arti doing' and 'he’s so great' and 'I miss you so much' and I 'have to stay away for another week', yadda, yadda, yadda. I told him he doesn’t have to come to Brazil, that he could just go to Monaco now, but no, apparently, he NEEDS to stay here. An unsolvable dilemma.” Lance said, exaggerating and waving his arms around, making George laugh.
“So, you converted to Buddhism? If it is okay for me to ask.” Lance asked when they sat down on the balcony.
“It is okay and yes, I did. I never really … connected with Christianity and then I spent most of my summer break in a convent, now after Singapore again and it just … it feels right for me.”
“That’s good. It helps me find myself sometimes.”
“Your religion, you mean?”
“Yeah. I’m not praying a lot, but it gives me comfort in situations like these, on days like these. Or when I feel like the world is against me. I only eat kosher meat, that’s why I’m taking the vegetarian option in restaurants most of the time.”
“Yeah, I’m still in a little adjusting time. After the summer break I turned more … aware? Maybe is a good word? Now I’m vegetarian and don’t eat eggs. I discovered a lot of different other legumes, nuts, vegetables and fruit combinations I didn’t even know existed. Lewis knows a lot about that, so that’s really good, he has some more insight into some things, you know. Which products are the worst.”
“Yeah, I get that.” Lance said and there was some silence “I really thought Este was dead.”
“Yeah, me too.” George agreed.
“Those were the worst two hours of my life.” Logan said to Esteban, laying on their bed cuddling.
“I’m here now, Cherie.”
“I know, I know, it’s still so fresh in my mind.”
“Yeah, it happened today, that’s normal.” He kissed Logan’s hair. Logan looked at him, then crawled all the way on top of him, his arms next to Esteban’s head.
“I can’t imagine what it would be like to lose you, Estie.” Logan said and Esteban lifted his hands, holding Logan’s cheeks, stroking softly.
“You won’t lose me.” Esteban said softly “You’re stuck with me from now on.” And he kissed Logan, pulling him down and cuddled him against his chest “For a moment I thought I’d never get out of there. I heard the engineers over the intercom, but they didn’t hear me. We communicated by me pulling the gearshift, that would get displayed on their screen.” Esteban swallowed “It was completely dark, I didn’t know how much time went by, there was no other noise. Then they said Kevin had a medical emergency and it would take a while to get me out of there.”
“You’re out now.” Logan said and hugged him tightly “And you’re not going to get back in there.”
“Hey” Christian said surprised.
“Hi, can I come in?” Mick Schumacher asked.
“Depends. Are you here to solicit me?” Christian asked with a smirk.
“Well, kind of.” Mick admitted.
“But only if I can watch!” Geri said from the balcony, waving at Mick.
“Jesus Christ” Christian said with a laugh, letting Mick in “What’s up?”
“There is an open seat at RB. What do I need to do to get it?” Mick asked.
“That was … bold. You do know that I’m not the principal of RB, right?” Christian asked and Mick raised an eyebrow.
“Please, you’re Christian Horner. You have your fingers in everything that’s going on there. You were able to convince Williams to give you Logan.”
“Okay” Christian said and looked at Mick for a moment “You’re racing the six hours of Glen in two weeks, right?”
“Yes”
“I can’t promise anything, but get your stint into the top ten, then we can talk.”
“Okay, that’s fair, thank you. I’ll give anything I have.” Mick said with a smile and turned around “Bye Geri!”
“Bye!”
Result of the Mexican GP with total points in the championship
NOR392
RUS93
SAR228
LEC228
STR84
VER299
GAS9
HAM36
LAW6
HUL6
ALB43
ZHO2
BEA56
LAT0
TSU80
SAI225
BOT12
RIC128
OCO45
MAG6