BY EVERY BREATH… AND LAP (LAP 3)
Masterlist
“LANDO WINS THE SILVERSTONE GRAND PRIX!”
Peculiar race, that's how she described it. She notices a few issues that could be fixed in time and maybe could make the race more tight between the two McLaren, either way, there isn't a way to discover it.
“Jesus! Isn't it too early for you to be here?” Liam enters her office in the factory of Cadillac in England.
It's 4 in the morning.
Yesterday as they planned, Y/N and Liam only were there for the qualy day, recollecting data from working in the factory.
Summer break begins in one week, which means no one will be allowed to work in the factory, making every minute so precious.
“I was working when the race caught my eye.” She closed her computer the moment drivers came out of his cars.
“Are you excited?” Liam turns on the lights, as she blinks, getting used to the light.
Y/N chuckles, turning around in her chair, showing her clothes, different from the black and white tones; now she added the red and blue. “I’m in a fancy mood, you tell me.”
Today the drivers will be announced; Lowdon and Towriss decided to do it in the factory with a little toast as a way of celebration.
“I bet one of them is Checo.” Liam clicks his tongue and lays back on the wall. “Besides the fuss, I bet he will bring more than experience and that’s exactly what we need.”
Y/N nods. She’s been keeping an eye on Checo since was a rookie, he was in his last year with Racing Point, and seeing him winning his first grand prix was a moment that had her with tears rolling down her face.
Last year it was clear that RB had him to the border of the explosion but he managed to get through.
Working along with him? Yeah, it will be a dream come true.
°
“What are you watching?" Hattie made Oscar jump from his seat in the living room.
“Sh… You scared me, Jesus!” Oscar searches for his phone that fell from his hands due the little jump he made.
Hattie laughs, sitting next to him. “I thought you said you’ll have the first weekend off after the season restarts again.”
“I have.” Oscar searches under the couch, totally folded as his hand slides on the floor until bumping into his phone.
“Then why are you so lost in your phone?” Hattie asks, narrowing his eyes.
“Keeping on the day with the news.” Oscar finally sits back.
“Oh!” Hattie softly hit his leg. “Do you see the news about the drivers of Cadillac?! The announcement is nuts!”
Oscar nods, next week will be a press conference full of Cadillac opinions.
“Yeah cool.”
Hatti smirks; she isn’t blind, she has noticed that lately a girl in black shirts is calling for his attention. The first time she thought it was a coincidence he was watching a photo of a Cadillac social account where a few people are talking in the paddock; by the fourth time the same girl appeared in the picture, she knew it, that girl is important.
A quick research and she found it, Y/N Rochan, simulator engineer of Cadillac F1 Team.
With his guard down, she drops an innocent comment.
“I wanted to see Y/N in the video they posted about the reaction of the drivers but I couldn’t find her.”
“Yeah, I think she was backstage.” Oscar widened his eyes, when he realized the little tramp his sister put for him.
“HA!”
Oscar covers his face, thinking in a way to fool her.
“Tell me, who she is that made you reach this point.” Hattie sits comfortably facing him, ready for hearing a new love story.
“What point?” Oscar couldn’t even look at his sister, embarrassed enough.
“To the point a photo makes you sigh that sweetly.”
“Hattie.” Oscar complains, knowing he won’t get mercy.
“Come on Oscar, I really want to know..” The big puppy eyes, the one he could see between his fingers, isn't helping at all.”
He sighs, trying to relax. “Ok…”
°
“Yeah, still I want to have a close look at that before using it.” Y/N points to the tablet in her hands.
In two weeks they will have the first of the three tests and want to make sure all goes perfectly, and don’t turn into a wasted opportunity. Until the main engineers join them, a big responsibility falls over her head.
“Ok, then let's use a couple of races before requested.” Liam nods, noticing her head switch softly.
Instead of being completely lens into the tablet, is a slight raised taking quick looks at her surroundings, specially where a few orange shirts started to appear.
He tilted his head but omitted any comment.
“Well, I have a few things to check, see you in the building, ok?” Liam takes the papers, making her movement rush, faking she was focused on the IPad.
“Yeah, sure, I’ll reach you in a couple of minutes.” Y/N put her best show smile, faking calm.
Liam nods with lips pressed leaving her alone in the paddock, suspectfully slowly walking back to the track?
It began like a mere curiosity of what went wrong in the races where Oscar had all the things he needed for winning but somehow ended up in his losing time, and places ended in a terrible position.
By the time she realized a small notebook has multiple notes of his times, the consistency of his and the race and comments of what and why things could go wrong.
The breaking point came one day late at night in her apartment watching the end of the last race where the cameras focused on him walking with his helmet on his hands, messy hair, lines over his face and a cute smile on his face.
By the moment she realized an unusual smile was in her face and her heart raced faster than normal.
It’s been two Grand Prix and somehow she obeys her hidden tickle of seeing him, just a few seconds of the day.
If the McLaren team is barely walking from the garage that means they are making the last adjustment before the big race.
A quick look is harmless.
Her goal, not knowing, was a few seconds of distance and 5 steps away… before Lowdon got in her way.
“Y/N! Thank God we found you.” He raised the tone of his voice. “We want to show you a few things that we…”
The sunglasses help her to hide the way her eyes close in frustration as is a guide walking from where she just came, not getting what she wants.
~
“This, if you keep pushing to the last…” Tom's words fade away when he realizes his driver stopped next to him, instead he is seeing from the front wing of the car, in the door of the garage.
Oscar hears her name, he couldn't avoid it, he just wants a quick and closer glimpse of her. Since he talked with Hattie, he realized something, he’s into her, more than he dares to admit.
“Oscar?”
He is leaning back taking quick glimpses of her walking away with the Cadillac crew, IPad down as she nods every time Lowdon shows her something with his hand.
“OSCAR!”He goes back to earth.
“Sorry, just something pops up in my mind.” Oscar apologized with his classic silly smile.
°
The qualy came out with a surprise; McLaren didn't get 1-2, Ferrari in an unexpected strategy got the pole with Leclerc, giving a bittersweet hit of reality to them.
The last laps were crucial for Ferrari to secure that position forcing McLaren both of their drivers to pass a tricky time keeping that 2-3.
"Ferrari, Ferrari, Ferrari." Liam shakes his head as clicks his tongue. "You could never know; it can give you a masterpiece or one of the worst headaches of your life."
Y/N scoff, seeing the replay from Oscar's pit stop, 3.28, as the last laps were for some reason every time he took a turns lost time.
"Weird." She whispers, sliding with her chair to the next computer.
This time they decided to watch the race from their little cave, where they had a few pieces of equipment that FIA allowed them to use.
"Right!" Liam wrote another note. "Still I believe the papaya boys will take that first place."
Y/N sees the sequence, frame by frame, finding the little detail.
"Yeah, but who?"
~
A mess. Oscar knows the qualy has been a mess, and he's being nice with his own words. Whether it hides or not, he’s more serious than normal and his team can notice for the way he analyzes every frame of the race, the telemetry and makes a double check of the way the car behaves under certain circumstances.
That morning, once the ceremony ended, he decided to take one more walk around the garages, with his gloves on one hand and his balcala in the other; answered automatically to greetings, but didn't pay attention properly.
He doesn't see it but Y/N has been observing him, for a while, with attention. With intention.
The moment their paths finally cross, she pretends to check something in her IPad.
“Tough decision.” She commented in a casual way.
The moment Oscar recognized her voice a quick glance in front was enough to put a grin in his face, taking a deep breath.
“We can say that.” He replies to a comment that isn't sure is for him, politely without a complaint.
With elegance she turns around, taking a few steps and walking along with him, as they just met by coincidence.
“Maybe…” She takes a deep breath looking around, lowering his voice. “The car isn’t wrong in the fast turns. But in the exit of the three, it seems you lose more than normal.”
Oscar stops, stunned as blinks over and over again.
“I’m sorry?” He knows how to cover expressions but this is out of an uncomfortable or aggressive question from a reporter.
Y/N locks the IPad, raising her sight, serious and perfectly professional.
“I’m not saying, nothing important. Just a feeling.” She shrugs. “Maybe the traffic, maybe the wind.”
Finally Oscar looks at her, one long and breathless second.
“My team said it is the front axis.”
Y/N makes a little twist in the right corner of her lips.
“Could be.” She agreed. “Even if it is that, you don't win more than 4, maybe 5.”
Even with the noise of teams moving around cars and tools, they submerge in silence.
In the distance, someone coughs, causing something clinking in Y/N’s mind, making her walk again.
“You shouldn’t say that to me.” Oscar said following her at a proper distance of… 3 steps.
Y/N smiles, cutely at the distance. “I didn’t tell you anything.”
She answered to no one. “I just comment on what I saw.”
Without noticing they back to McLaren garage; in that moment she turns around, finally looking through her dark sunglasses, looking at him.
“Besides…” In that moment Oscar knows what it feels to be the reason for that tender smile. “It would be a shame, you drive so well that the car doesn’t let you show it.”
Oscar smiles widely, with a red tint in his cheeks. Pure and genuinely.
“Thanks.”
She leans her head, that was enough for turning distant again.
“Good luck, Piastri.” Walking again.
~
In the car, looking for one last time the telemetry, Oscar mentions it, without thinking it twice just repeating her words, making his engineers look at him then to each other.
Make the adjustments.
Works out.
P2, isn’t the position he wished but clearly he put in an uncomfortable position to Lando, both of them taking the car to the maximum.
As he comes out of the car and waits in the line for the weight check up, his mind allow to drift in his own place, maybe she's starting to notice other things more than cars and numbers...doing it with so much attention and care.
°
Y/N taps softly the handrail in the VIP boxes, as the drivers cross the line with their numbers appear on the screen, she does a double check up on the numbers she wrote with a pen in her palm.
And yeah, Oscar was 3.4 seconds faster than the qualy.
“I told you.” She mumbles as Oscar highlights appear on the screen.
Their stay will be short, once the race ends and recollecting the information they need the full Cadillac crew will take a flight to the factory where an important meeting around the car will be taking place tomorrow morning.
“I want to run a pre pre test.” Y/N said, going down status with her bag over her shoulder and her phone in her hand.
Towriss grinds, he knew she was stubborn but seeing the competitive side of her was a pleasant surprise.
“I want you fresh for tomorrow's meeting.” He said del holding Cassidy hand as they waited for her.
“I will, once I run out the test I’ll go to sleep and by the morning I’ll be like new.” Y/N sees them with those puppy eyes, the ones she used when she’s determined to get what she wants.
Towriss clicks his tongue, before taking a deep breath, pondering his decision.
“I’ll prepare a car to wait for you and make sure you sleep.”
Y/N smiles widely, putting the backpack properly. “That means…”
The couple laughs, as they keep walking. “We better hurry up, maybe you can earn a couple of minutes.”
Y/N nods walking next to them, rambling with a smile on her face, feeling she’s in her in a lucky row.
Late that night, while she keeps running tests with her mind working as fast as it can, as the interview post race keeps her motivated; a familiar voice starts to speak, a soft smile appears and disappears in a second.
“Oscar, what changed? Yesterday it seems you couldn’t find what was wrong, today, well you make everyone think twice every moment."
Oscar hums, grabbing the fence. “Well, we had a double check up, and a… fantastic comment… of the team, put it all together and well, nice things came out.”
Y/N close her eyes trying to fake the comment that doesn't affect her, still a smile begins to appear, she can easily hear her heart beating forcing her to close her eyes shaking her head and cover her face.
“My god.”