Page 32 of Overtake
“This statement needs your approval. Also Esteban’s waiting for you in the dining room. He wants to review your revised schedule. Says, and I quote, ‘Moral stands bring morning workouts.’”
Nico sighs.Right.Because choosing principles over politics means dealing with the consequences.
“Send me the statement. And tell Esteban?—”
“That you’ll see him in ten minutes? Already done.” She leaves, smile in place. The woman is heartless, which is why he respects her.
Nico sends his reply to Nia.
Someone had to do something.
Always has to be you or Viejo, doesn’t it?
Sí.
He heads for the dining room where he gets coffee and sits opposite Esteban. There’s almost no one in the room.
“Te lo hiciste a ti mismo, ¿sabes?”Nico’s trainer forwards a revised schedule and tells him he did this to himself.
Nico pulls it up on his phone. Red marks indicate the adjustments needed to accommodate tomorrow’s community service.
“Though I appreciate why you did,” Esteban adds.
“Yo sé.”Nico knows. He studies the compression of his usual race preparation. The karting sessions from sixteen hundred to eighteen hundred Thursday and Friday afternoons means restructuring his routine. Worse, though, it impacts the entire team because they’ll lose time to refine their race strategy with him. Still he meets his trainer’s gaze. “But you know I’d do it again.”
“Of course you would.” Esteban taps the schedule. “But now we need to work around it. Your physical prep can’t suffer, especially with this weekend’s sprint format.”
Nico runs a hand through his hair, considering the compromises. There’s a lot of red on the schedule.
“We’ll do physio at six hundred,” Esteban says. “Simulator from eight hundred to nine hundred. Heinrich moved the engineering debrief to twelve hundred, and strategy to?—”
“Joder.”
“That’s what happens when you choose principles over convenience.” But there’s approval in Esteban’s tone. “A compressed debrief after sprint qualies, then straight to karting kids at sixteen hundred hours.”
Heinrich enters the dining room, looking irritated. “Meeting in five. Though I suppose we’ll have to cover everything in half the usual time, since someone’s playing driving instructor during prime analysis hours.”
Nico lowers his coffee cup. “I’m sorry.”
“No, you’re not.” Heinrich goes to the coffee station. “But you should be. The sprint format already compresses everything, and now we’re losing crucial strategy hours—” He stops, then shrugs. “Though sometimes walls invite trouble.”
Nico snorts. Heinrich’s been in F1 long enough to know which battles matter.
“We’ll make it work.” Esteban’s already adjusting the schedule in their shared app. “Your stretching routine will have to shift to evening?—”
“After the karting? That’s not optimal.”
Heinrich scoffs. “Nothing about this is optimal. Welcome to the consequences of taking a moral stand.” He leans on the table. “And remember, the sprint quali requirements changed last week. We need to review the new tire allocations, but now we’ve got...” He checks his watch. “Half our usual time becausesomeonehad to witness a wall hit his teammate.”
“The wall was justified,” Nico mutters.
Heinrich and Esteban laugh.
“Vale.”Esteban stands. “Early physio all week. No arguments. And I’ll work up a revised menu so you have more portable meals.”
Heinrich straightens. “If you’re going to take an ethical stand, Nico, don’t do it before a sprint weekend.”
They leave and Nico savors his coffee. This may be the only quiet he has all week and he intends to relish it. He pulls out his phone and scrolls through some photos Nia sent him of a barbecue she attended with her boyfriend Sebastian’s family. He drops a heart emoji on the picture of his sister making silly faces with Ripley. She’s five years old, one of Nia’s students, and Seb’s niece. It’s nice to see them having fun, especially since both sport large scars on their faces that were made by other people.
