Minefield of Mirrors

-23-

Tension was well feelable through the garage as the qualifying session was only an hour away. It was the first one of the whole season and this would be the grant moment where every team would show what they had truly been working on during the break. Would their expectations be exceeded? Or won't their car be able to put up to the progress the other teams had made?

Iris' colleague Fred had just told her that the qualifying session and the actual race itself were the only moments the financial team had a bit more breathing space. Everyone was focused on something else and the financial team couldn't really do something relevant as long as the numbers of the qualifying session weren't present.

With a notebook, Iris took her place somewhere in the back of the garage to observe everything that was happening at the moment. Although she had seen one single qualifying session one time before on television, she had no idea there were so many things going on in the garage at the same time. Engineers who were scrolling through the data, people who were screening the weather forecasts, the pitstop crew who were already warming up by doing some practice pitstops and of course the marketing team who were trying to get some great shots to put online on the social media accounts. Iris knew she didn't even see the people who were working back at the factory in Milton Keynes. Not to mention all the other members of the team that were working somewhere in the back office. So many people were putting in their efforts to create the best first qualifying session of the season. It was utterly fascinating to see.

Within these first two days, she had met so many different people. Already all her life, she had been bad at names, so let alone all these hundreds of names. Inside her head, she tried to repeat the most important names over and over, but it all went together into one big blur.

Iris looked up when she felt someone standing behind her who was watching her notes over her shoulder.

'If you're only doodling something, you better go sit somewhere in the motorhome.'

The certain tones of the voice made some shivers pass across her body. Iris closed her notebook and got off the bar stool to turn around. 'Well, now you're here, I definitely want to leave.'

Max crossed his arms contently. 'Hate me that much, huh?'

'You have no idea.' Iris took her jacket and knotted it around her waist. 'For the sake of the team, good luck with qualifying.'

He simply nodded. Iris took a step sideways, ready to leave, when Max spoke up again.

'And if it wasn't for the sake of the team?'

She looked him in the eyes. 'Then I hope you crash.'

He smiled brightly and a certain sound left his mouth. Did he just... Chuckle? Iris couldn't believe what she was hearing or seeing. This was truly the first time she had heard him chuckling.

'You want to make a bet?'

'You're ready to make a bet that you'll crash? Damn, you have some low confidence in yourself.'

He rolled his eyes. 'That snappy mouth of yours. No. If I get pole position, you'll meet up with me to play a ten-minute game of truth tonight. You'll answer every single question of mine.'

'Hmmm.' She tapped with her index finger a few seconds against her lips as she started thinking. A lot of team members had been talking about the possibility of Ferrari being very strong this year. There was a chance Max wasn't going to get pole position. 'And if you don't get pole, you'll happily volunteer to participate in one of Emma's videos tomorrow.'

Iris held up her hand in front of Max, hoping he would accept the bet. The little game with the girls was still on and according to Iris, it wouldn't hurt Max to participate a bit more in the marketing department. It would even boost his image to the broad world. The fact that Emma would finally get a video with the star driver of the team, would be the best of all.