“You know what I think this win deserves?” I chuckled, a little hint of mischief playing on my face, which I could tell Nora noticed by the slight arch of her brow.
“You still have to do media duties. Don’t even ask.”
Worth a try.
Win or lose, there was never a reprieve from the Lion’s Den—my affectionate name for our contractually obligated press conferences. After every race, the top three drivers were forced into a special dog and pony show full of ruthless questions, lest we be fined thousands of pounds by the FIA, Formula 1’s governing body.
I glanced at Isabelle, the Valkyrie team principal, who flashed me a small smile as shecasuallywaved, like we hadn’t just made history as the first women-run team to win a Formula 1 Grand Prix. And yet in all my time of knowing her, Isabelle had smiled maybe three times, so I was honored that my race win was one of them.
“Alright, time to go show the media that you are thestarwe all know you to be!” Nora gave my shoulders a squeeze as she gently pushed me toward the garage’s exit, like she wasn’t convinced that I would attend the press conference without some coercion. To be fair to her, if I could’ve gotten away with feigning an illness to get out of media duties, I would have.
Still, today I’d made history.We’dmade history.
And for the first time, these journalists were going to have to acknowledge Valkyrie as a winning team. As championship contenders.
Or so we hoped.
Chapter Two
Luca
“Fuck!” I slammed my racing helmet down on the sofa in my driver’s room before letting my hands sift through my hair in frustration. Another terrible race where Henri had almost sailed away with a victory, while I struggled to keep my points scoring position.
“Knock, knock, can I come in?” My father opened the door, taking a seat on the plush couch before I could object.
“No point in knocking if you’re going to barge in anyway.”
His clenched jaw told me he didn’t appreciate my sarcasm, but quite frankly, I didn’t appreciate his intrusion. I didn’t care if my father was a former three-time World Champion for Hermes; my private driver’s room was my sanctuary, and he didn’t have a right to barge in whenever he wanted to, even if the rest of the team allowed it.
“Luca, we need to talk.”
“Oh yeah, about what?” After finishing sixth place out of twenty earlier today, I knew exactly what my father wanted to discuss. Four grid places between me and my golden-boy teammate, Henri. To my father, any place that wasn’t directly above or below Henri was a failure. It didn’t matter that sixth place brought points to the team; it simply wasn’t good enough.
“Luca.” His stern voice snapped me out of my thoughts, and I turned to face him as I plopped onto my other sofa. His disapproval was so overbearing I could practically taste it, like soured milk in my coffee. “Luca, I need you to get serious here. What happened today?”
“I just couldn’t get the tire temperature right.”Not a total lie.
“We worked on this earlier, had a strategy around the race start—”
“Well, sometimes strategies don’t play out during a race.”
His piercing gaze felt like a knife to my heart. “Luca, you’re fifth in the championship while Henri is leading! And Georgia, if she keeps driving like she did today, she’s going to quickly catch up to him, leaving you further behind.”
“Well, it would help if the stewards actually did something about Georgia’s aggressive driving,” I muttered.
“Enough!” The sound of my father slamming his hand on the coffee table echoed throughout the room. “Enough of the whining, Luca. Georgia takes risks, and those risks have turned into rewards. Those were championship-winning moves, something you could learn a thing or two about if you watched her race instead of complaining to the media.”
I bit back the retort that threatened to spill from me, instead opting to stare out of the small window. Pointless was an understatement when it came to arguing with my father. Considering he was famously known forhisaggressive overtaking tactics, I knew he lauded Georgia’s driving style.
To him, that’s how a driver became a champion.
My father sighed in frustration, his eyes fixed on mine. “Luca, your existing contract with Hermes is up after this year, and we don’t have a renewal signed. They could easily swap you for another driver. We need to fix your driving, and quickly, or you’re going to get replaced by the team.”
“Don’t you meanwemight get replaced?” It was always a team effort with my father until I was losing.
“Luca—”
“What are Hermes going to do, replace me with our reserve driver, Anthony? He’s barely capable of finishing an F2 race, never mind an F1 race.”
