The Epitomy of Racing
“Welcome to the final day of pre-season testing here at Albert Park! In two weeks, we will see the cars on track for one final time before the practice session. Let’s discuss what we’ve witnessed so far,” Lara announced to the camera with a bright smile. With a microphone in her hand and in a brightly coloured dress, she stood next to John in the paddock to talk before the last sessions started.
“The Marauder looks strong these last few days, so they’re definitely going to be in the title fight again this year. The Quidditch Falcon isn’t as competitive, it seems, but they may be sandbagging these sessions so we’ll have to wait until the race weekend to see their true potential,” John explained. Behind them, the paddock was buzzing with the teams trying to get everything done before the session started and multiple media personnel running around like headless chickens.
“Exactly, and what has surprised me the most is the Phoenix car. The team has decided to do an entirely new side-pod set-up and it seems to be doing great for them, they’re even topping the Marauder’s time! I’m excited to see how the car is going to hold up in the race.”
“Yes, the new side-pod looks great, but we still have to wait to see whether the team has corrected their relatively slow pace during the high-speed corners. We know it has been their weakness for years, but they might’ve been able to finally fix it. Let’s listen to Tom’s analysis on the new side pod!”
***
James looked at the TV broadcasting the tech analysis of the new Phoenix car. He had to admit, they looked pretty competitive. But he knew just as much as everyone here that pre-season testing doesn’t show true potential.
He drank from his water bottle, glancing at his engineer as he talked about the data from the previous sessions that Sirius drove. Today they would lay the focus on the front wing, using flow-vis and driving with low and high fuel to see how the car works. James looked at the charts displaying the data from their flow-vis run on the side pod, but his attention wasn’t really there.
Regulus had completely ignored him when he arrived last night. Sure, it was late in the evening, and he didn’t expect the Monegasque to start excessively talking to him, but the complete silence was nerve-wracking. He had tried some small talk; asked how the previous sessions were, whether he was excited for his first season in F1. But Regulus just looked at him weirdly before getting up from the couch and retreating to his room for the night.
“We’ll go out in about half an hour, so I expect you here before 12:45,” His engineer finished, snapping him out of his thoughts. He nodded, looking at the clock and seeing 12:30 on there. So he had about 15 minutes to get ready. He walked to his driver’s room, quickly disposing of his regular outfit and putting his race suit on.
While walking back to the garage, he encountered Frank, who had just finished talking to the media. Frank Longbottom was among the oldest on the grid, having already spent five years in the sport. He grinned at the older British boy.
“Glad to finally see a friendly face around here,” he joked as he approached Frank. The Brit chuckled.
“Yeah, I heard you’re rooming with younger Black now because of the Netflix bullshit. Must suck to be you,” he replied playfully, softly nudging his shoulder. James gave him a forced smile, not really wanting to get into that right now.
“What’s the whole deal with Netflix, anyway? Minnie is not giving anything away.”
Frank grimaced. “Max has given us some info and mate, I hate it.” James paused, frowning slightly as he raked his mind for someone named Max. Noticing, Frank added. “He’s my new team principal, remember? The old one got fired, so we’ll see how this one does.” He glanced around before stepping closer, speaking to James in a low voice. “They’re making us a media spectacle. They’ll want to know everything about your private life; your childhood, friends, relationships, everything. It’s like we’ve become a reality show instead of a sport.”
James grimaced as well. “Lovely,” he replied drily. He sighed, checking his phone to see it was already past 12:45. Well, that’s going to be a long lecture. He turned back to Frank. “You know anything about the interview, by the way? I got an invite to do an interview for Netflix next week.”
“Yeah, they’re going to interview all of us. I don’t know what exactly they’re gonna ask, but we’ll see. At least it isn’t during the testing like they originally planned. Hogwarts was luckily able to convince them to let us focus on the car for now, so we can do the interviews in the break before the new season.”
“Fuck, man, I’m already not looking forward to this season if Netflix is going to be breathing down my shoulder.”
They said their goodbyes before going to their respective garages. James sprinted, although he knew his engineer would be pissed all the same. And indeed he was right. His engineer stood there with a scowl on his face and his arms crossed. “I told you before 12:45, not after,” he seethed. “It’s already 12:55 and we still need to get you in the car.”
James rolled his eyes. “It’s fineeee,” he said, drawing the word out. “We still have the entire afternoon to test, and I was having a conversation with Frank about the whole Netflix thing.”
“You don’t have to worry about that now,” his engineer immediately replied. “You need to focus on driving the car and giving feedback. You’ve already messed up our schedule as it is, so don’t mess it up even more.”
***
Mary Macdonald walked into the room, glancing around at the black background and the chair which said “The Epitomy of Racing”. She raised her eyebrows at it. Was that the name Netflix decided on?
Pre-season testing had ended a few days ago, and she was one of the first drivers to do their interview for the new docu-series. She shook hands with the producers as they explained the procedure to her. She just nodded and smiled, barely registering anything. Being in front of a camera was nerve-wracking for her; it was the one thing she hated about this job. And now she wasn’t just in front of any camera, she was in front of fucking Netflix.
With shaky hands she sat down on the chair, crossing her legs and resting her arms loosely on her lap to try and hide her nerves.
“Hi, I’m Mary Macdonald and I drive for Valkyries Motor.” She announced brightly to the camera. “I am currently in my 4th year in the sport. I drove for Phoenix Rising in my rookie year before signing with Valkyries Motor, for which I am a shareholder.”
“How did that come to be?” The interviewer asked her.
A grin automatically came to her face. “As some of you may know, I was the first female to drive in Formula One in this century. My first year was very tough and I received a lot of backlash from the media. In collaboration with Hogwarts, I made an association for female drivers to create a safe space for them and to fight for their rights. Elizabeth approached me one day, asking me whether I wanted to take it a step further and make an all-female F1 team, to which I obviously said yes, and the rest is history.”
“You mentioned Miss Court approaching you, how do you know her and who is she to you now?”
“I actually went to school with Elizabeth. We were inseparable back when I was in the European karting league, and she helped me catch up on missed schoolwork. When I was starting high school, or well… in American terms, middle school— seriously though, why do you have to make the school system so complicated? Anyway, so, after elementary school, we moved from Flanders to Brussels because it was easier for my karting. Elizabeth was born and raised in Brussels, so we went to the same school together.
“Obviously, after I started with world championships, we saw each other less and our friendship died out a bit as she went to university and didn’t have a lot of free time. But now, she’s my team principal and I love working together with her. Our friendship has caused problems though, because we kind of assume the other one will be on our side during a discussion about, like the car or whatever, and when we’re not, it kinda feels like a personal attack. But we’ve always worked through those issues and are still great friends.”
The interviewer smiled at her, scribbling down some things.
“You mentioned moving across the country,” Mary made a face but didn’t correct him. From Flanders to Brussels wasn’t exactly across the country, but she doubted the interviewer knew anything about Belgian geography. “How has that move, and just your racing career in general, affected your friendships?”
She hummed, squirming a bit in her seat. She understood why the interviewer wanted to know these things— why the public wanted to— but that didn’t mean she was comfortable talking about her private life.
“Well, obviously I didn’t have the greatest time growing up. I mean, can you name one Belgian driver who has made it? … exactly. Most other kids thought I was absolutely insane. A black, Belgian girl trying to make it into F1? When so many other white British boys couldn’t, it was madness. If you find that comment offensive, by the way, look at how many minorities have joined the sport, and how many were white British men. But yeah, the other kids didn’t really like me and even the few friends I had were very superficial, because I was away so much. I am glad I was able to forge good friendships over time and I cherish them with all my heart.”
The interviewer nodded, motioning to someone behind the camera. “Alright, that was it. Thank you so much for your co-operation, Macdonald. We’ll give you a call when we want another interview for the show.”