If he doesn’t want advice, then he won’t receive it.
When Julien returns to his hotel room, he has too much pent-up energy to fall asleep. He logs onto the stream late and destroys everyone. Even with far fewer laps, his Ferraro crosses the finish line an entire minute ahead of anyone else.
The other three don’t even complain about him picking the red car. They tread lightly as Julien rambles on about how much a set-up can change a car each weekend and his favorite approaches to every single turn in Monaco.
After keeping his identity a secret for so long, it feels good to vent about everything he does as a reserve. It’s cathartic to finally release all of that frustration and maybe even show off a little.
If Rafael doesn’t want to hear about it, Julien’s thousands of followers will. They’ll know exactly what to look for while the Brazilian struggles for the rest of the weekend.
Once he finally shuts his laptop for the night, Julien checks his texts.
Hugo
Good insight tonight
You should do a breakdown about each car
McLean next
Shit. His fuckingcompetitorswatch the stream. Julien just babbled on and on about Ferraro’s set-ups and weaknesses when?—
Julien freezes, his thumb hovering over the panicked message he typed out.
So what? So what if a McLean driver heard his analysis? Ferraro’s set-up doesn’t affect Hugo.
If he’s the only person who respects Julien enough to listen, maybe heshouldhave an advantage. Maybe Matt should too.
Julien deletes the long-winded message and sends a winking emoji.
The Canadian driver can interpret it however he wants.
“Who are you texting?”
Julien pockets his phone quickly. Texting a driver from another team isn’t illegal or anything, but it doesn’t exactly look good to nosey family members. “No one.”
“Hmm.” Thomas sets his tray down next to him and sits.
Strange. They’re not exactly eat-together close or anything. “Don’t you usually eat with your engineers?”
Thomas shrugs. “I can eat anywhere.”
“Right before Qualifying?” Qualifying inMonaco?If there was ever a moment to look over all of the data from the entire weekend, this is it.
“I saw you with Rafael yesterday.”
“Oh, great. Glad you caught that.” Julien spears his meatball a little rough, loudly clanging his prongs against the plate on the other side.
“I thought you were brave to approach him at all. Rafael does not do well with poor results.”
“Yeah, and you’re just the king of losing gracefully.”
Thomas huffs a half-hearted laugh as he cuts into his chicken with a plastic knife. “It comes with being a Formation 1 driver.”
“If one more person suggests that I amlessof a driver?—”
Thomas pulls back, his eyes wide with confusion. “When did I say that?”
“Just now!”
