Drive to Survive

Chapter Fifty-Nine

Chapter Fifty-Nine

Hunter Andino considered himself to be an optimistic guy.

Most of the time, he could find the silver lining in a bad situation or he could persevere through with the belief that something good would always come as a reward. His mama, who had been raised in the deep South as a pastor's daughter and had spent more time in church than school, told him that God rewarded goodness, and that if he looked hard enough, there was always a little of God's goodness to be found in each day.

Isolated on his idyllic farm, surrounded by all manner of wondrous creatures, it had been fairly easy to find the good in each day. His dad had loved his mama and he'd been happy as one of three siblings, even if it was sometimes hard being the only boy. But that was what had made him such a success with girls; he'd watched his older sisters get their hearts broken and learnt through their ice cream-fuelled rants exactly how not to treat women.

There had definitely been some good in that.

When he'd finally ventured outside of his local town, all the way to a big college in Texas, he'd found the world alarmingly large. It had knocked the wind out of his sails for a brief moment until he'd found his community in college football and everything fell into place.

He'd found the good.

Facing rejection from all the football sports marketing internships in final year had been another blow to his confidence until he'd seen the opportunity to work with Netflix on F1. His dad had helped him prep for hours, explaining the history and the intricacies of the sport albeit from a very biased Hamilton-fan perspective. When he'd secured the job, it felt like the whole town gathered to cheer him off to Bahrain and it was a feeling unlike no other to see his dad choked up with pride.

He'd found the good once more.

Then, lost in a huge world he didn't fully understand, those first days in Bahrain had felt like the start of college all over again. He had his brief history and some pre-rehearsed facts but he knew nobody and it was clear that the F1 world moved fast and you had to move fast with it or you'd be swallowed up. Everyone was quick, sharp, and efficient and the cutthroat nature of the sport seemed to bleed into the every-day undertone around the paddock.

And then in had walked this tiny girl with a beaming smile on her face and a bucket full of pleasantries for everyone she interacted with. She seemed to know everyone and it was as if she was completely at home in the paddock.

He'd liked her on sight, and across the months, she'd made it easy to see the good in every day because she was the good.

Now, as Hunter tapped his card against the entry barriers and started his walk towards the garage, he felt that pit of emptiness that had been unmissable since Dylan's departure. And it wasn't just him; the whole garage was suffering for it and that goodness was a little harder to find right now.

The paddock was busier since the first Free Practice session was due to start in a couple of hours. Hunter weaved through the growing crowds and finally reached the garage, nodding at some of the engineers who were hard at work in front of the computers.

A bit further ahead were some of the guys from Max's pit crew, hanging around behind the car and enjoying some time to chat before the pressure ramped up.

"Hey, man." He greeted as he caught up to where they were.

"Alright, Hunter?" Mike grinned, although it didn't quite meet his eyes. They were all running a little low on energy and it was palpable across the team.

Tom and Jacob bumped fists with him and said their hellos.

"Yeah, not bad. Hoping for a calm day."

Jacob raised his eyebrows, knowing they were all on the same wavelength, "You can say that again."