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Zandvoort Circuit, 2024.
Let's embrace the day with an amazing position to start a race with, well, for Karina's standard to say the least. In HAAS, making it to Q3 is already a miracle, so she will take whatever position the car will allow her as long as the top 10 is within her reach.
A whole crew of journalists, cameramen, reporters, you name it, surrounds her like hungry lions, demanding her vision regarding the future race. Fake it till you make it is what she had in mind, of course, she didn't say it out loud, it would destroy her already not-so-good PR.
Antonio's instinct as her mentor told him to take some of the burden, responding to the basic questions, he himself wasn't sure about the answer. In the end, Anton is no longer part of Formula 1, let alone part of the HAAS family; he never was one to begin with. Tons of information are classified, even to a veteran like him.
How about Jonathan? He's the unfortunate one, barely able to scrap any luck, finishing 3 positions behind his teammate, but again, we'll take that. It's HAAS we are talking about. The pre-race brief they attended earlier concluded with the team deciding to put arguably a riskier strategy on Jon, not that both were surprised by the decision, if any, expectations on Jonathan's car were already as low as a bar in the underworld, might as well just risk it all.
"Don't celebrate until you can see the checkered flag." Anton is free at last from the demanding spirit of the journalists, squeezing his mentee's shoulder gently, making sure it didn't startle her occupied yet foggy brain.
"I know." The girl gave no intention to even look at her mentor—well, manager, but mentor works well too. Not that it mattered anyway, as the balaclava did its job perfectly, masking her anxious frown.
"I'm a bit scared, actually, sir..."
This is not the best starting position in her career, but the last time it happened, Lady Luck left her as she beached on the gravel, desperate over the race they ruined. Recollection of events flooded her head as clear as a day, when she desperately negotiated with her engineer over the near-zero possibility of continuing the race, but alas, there's nothing she can do, even if given chances.
"Take a deep breath, Karina. Looking at the state of the car, I would advise you to play it safe for now. Especially since everyone in front of you is the fastest car."
"Appreciate the suggestion, I already planned to do that to begin with."
"The team also advises you to do that?" To be fair, looking at their qualifying result yesterday, the strategy is pretty straightforward.
"Yeah, Jonathan is the one with the riskier strategy. They told him to overtake as aggressively as he and the car could. Wish I could be the one to do that, but you know—"
"I see, good luck, kiddo."
One last embrace they shared, but the time is ticking out, the car is waiting, the team that cheers her name as she wrote that lap record now is concentrating on how to make sure she survives the race, hell, surviving the turn one would be their main priority now.
May the lady luck be on her side this time, not abandoning her just like the way her father—forget about it.
Guess whose cars are in front of Karina on the starting grid? If you guessed all the top teams, then it would be right. Mercedes, RBR, Ferrari, and for some reason, an Alpine and Williams. Karina did not question that, I mean, she's here in HAAS, arguably worse car than any midlaner team in front of her, ok maybe a bit faster than Alpine.
Presumably everyone is on intermediate tyres looking at the trickle spreading across the track with no chance of ceasing no less than the next few laps, whether will they change for the dry tyre is not for them to think about as we speak, those plans inscribed on their mindpalace won’t do shit if the beast they’re taming refuse to even make it in one piece after the first lap.
Now that every single team member is nowhere to be seen at the track, one more formation lap passed without anything worth remembering, she's left looking at the glaring shine of the red light, one and only thing she should be caring about at this very moment.
Focus, Karina. Take a deep breath, don't let the cloud inside your brain creep into your attention, the first turn would be the most dangerous part of the first lap.
1..2..3...
Remember, play it safe. Something you hate to hear but must be done, at our current state of the car, fighting for a win is practically impossible, not with the top teams fighting for the same goal with a much better chance in the first place.
4....
Breathe again, take a deep breath, and—
5.
Lights out and away we go!
Not a single dull moment as an F1 driver. No matter how many times Karina forced her feet to push the throttle, it would always make her heart skip a beat, tensing her whole body stiff as if she's one second away from crashing to the wall.
But she will endure.
Amazing start, according to her head, everyone seems to be very coordinated going through the starting line, almost non-existent space between her and the other cars is currently her main priority to manage, and then one of the most crucial parts of the race aka the first turn on the first lap. It will become her turning point for better or worse.
And her nightmare scenario was proven to be a reality.
One car behind her pressed the brake a little bit too late, resulting it to dive bomb right into the black car in front of her, a massive domino effect she witnessed, but her instinct controlled her body to concentrate on stabilising the car, making sure she wouldn't be the next victim.
She was oblivious regarding which car became the collateral damage in that incident; nevertheless, for now, the top 3 position is right there within her reach to take, just as long as her arm could extend; however, everyone is aware this will only last for this lap. Such an unfortunate event of a short-lived bliss, standing inside a pack of the victorious worthiness of a podium.
“That’s most likely a safety car, yeah?” The lass confirmed her suspicion as her engineer told her to prepare for a yellow flag and possible safety car.
The incident was too severe to continue the race as usual; even a yellow flag was insufficient, debris was everywhere, and a barrier was broken from the multi-car collision back then. Disappointed, yes, but not surprised as she leads her beloved car back to the pit lane.
To the best of her knowledge, no change in strategy has been made nor would it change during the race, lest she hoped. Oh yeah—Jonathan is fine, fortunately, he's far enough to not become part of the collision, much to his relief. Indeed, his position would automatically be promoted after the restart, but the gap between the drivers is still significant; the more offensive strategy they put on Jon would not be changed.
In the end, it all boils down to another race waiting for her, for the second time of this day, after the guidance of the safety car.
Not even one lap she finished after the pitlane had been closed, the weather is now playing with her more than she would ever have wanted. No plan was changed during the red flag, still, this is not the right call, unless she wants to take a risk that might not be worth it. It’s better to lose several positions in this lap than having to lose everything at the end while knowing it’s all avoidable.
“I’ll get back to you, Karina. I suggest a change for medium since the track has started to dry. Box this lap? Your call, we might get bit disadvantaged on restart if that’s your decision.”
“Let’s do that.”
And with a Medium tyre away she goes, along with other cars, she doesn’t even bother to count behind her, pushing the throttle to slide across the pit-lane exit, hoping another unnecessary drama won’t happen for the second time, at least they hoped.
It was to be expected that half or even most of the grid decided synchronized their mind, a dry tyre is a much better option for this causing the traffic inside the pitlane to be too cramped to anyone liking, what she didn’t expect, however, was all of the cars in-front of her would be those from the midlaner team, except for one of the prancing horse.
While it’s true that almost half of the top team was eliminated during that first turn shenanigan, there’s still more to fight with, or to be precise, more to defend herself from. Lucky or not it depends on how you see it.
“Let’s get on it. Just keep pushing.”
“We should claim this podium.”
One thing Karina could say about this entire few laps of mayhaps the best race of her career so far would be the lack of battle that she has to prepare, still the worst is yet to come, before the checkered flag is in her vision, everything could happen for better or worse. Nothing noteworthy happened for around 8 laps after they decided to change for fresher dry tyre, no battle, no drs overtake, nothing.
Nothing significantly changes between her and the cars around her, least not the one that she’s aware of. Every time the gap between her and the cars behind her became smaller and smaller, it only took her a lap or two to regain that gap once more, giving her enemies no chance to use the DRS at the slightest.
Thanks to her engineer reassuring them that this is not the battles she needs to think of for now, nor the ones that are invisible to the eyes of her, let the others behind her keep the track busy and focus on what her eyes can see.
The two cars in front on him are a piece of cake to race alongside with, one a Ferrari and one a Williams, not saying it’s easy to overtake, it’s just that as long as she keep her head straight and not playing too much with the risk present, one more podium for her record would be an easy reach, maybe even the second position aka her (hopefully) best finish position will be on her legacy as the day end, but again, the checkered flag is nowhere to be seen, everything could happen even when there’s only one lap left for her to finish.
Let’s recap once more, the Ferrari is now the leader of the pack, followed by one Williams (somehow) with almost 5 seconds gap between them basically giving him no chance to overtake at least until they decided to pit the horse, then it’s Karina on the P3 with 1.4 gap at least according to her engineer, then an Aston, then her teammate, Jonathan driving comfortably in P5.
Suppose the gap between Jonathan and cars behind him are wide enough for him to not bang his head against the steering wheel, as long as he doesn’t make any mistake, of course.
One thing is for sure however; this Williams is a beast, no, it’s not about the machinery surrounding it. We all know how comically bad this car is this season, but it was whoever was behind the wheel.
“Gap between you and Hakkarainen is 1.2 second, 1.2 second.”
“Jukka— you fucker.” A whisper escaped the grin of her, realising what kind of battle she might have together with their admittedly horrendously unreliable cars; at last, it was a battle between her and her friend.
Raw pace-wise, advantage is on his side for now, both haven't pitted for the second time but Jukka pitted a few laps later after the red flag, giving him a few laps younger tyre compared to Karina.
In spite of everything, with the small gap between the two beasts, the opportunity to attack was always there to begin wit,h only waiting for the right moment to pursue, even without the DRS activated; nevertheless, the chance was nowhere to be seen. The red car of Ferrari only leisurely leading in front of both drivers with ease, as if they never existed to begin with. Deeply inside her heart, and maybe, Jukka’s too, whatever fuckery happened with Ferrari in the past would happen to that car once more this race.
“How’s Jon?” Not always did Karina worry about her teammate; she never had any reason to, but for this race, maybe Jon staying not far behind her would give her a huge advantage over the other top team chasing after both Haas. Selfish reason she must admit, still, Jon would do the same thing to her, just like any other drivers with the burning hunger of winning.
“He’s in P5, four seconds gap between you. Two seconds behind the Aston.”
Perfect, just what she wanted to hear, big enough gap between not to worry about battling each other, not like it ever happened to begin with, but let’s move on.
Supposed she is lucky all of the drama happened behind her instead, one less thing to worry about but another thing added if she actually secures this podium, that people will see all of this achievement as nothing but mere luck. Well, who cares? Luck is always part of this sport, whether they like it or not, deal with it.
“Box this lap, Karina, Box box.”
“Copy that, let’s just go with the plan.”
After all the luck she accepted today, one fear lingers around her mind about this next crucial part of the race, the pit-stop; this one will be almost out of her control. Just pray and hope her trusted crew knew exactly what they were doing, changing the older tyre to a fresh new hopefully faster tyre.
And they did, amazing stop she got, 2.5 second stop giving her more than enough time to keep up with the others. There’s no news regarding her teammate’s pitstop, and she eventually found out anyway as she witnessed a red paint of HAAS flying in front of her, hey there, Jonathan.
It’s nothing to worry about; no need to fight, he will need to do the same in the next few laps. It’s P5 now for Karina, but the future seems bright with this fresh new set of tyres. One Ferrari, has pitted for the second time, giving her more than enough chance to reach the podium. Aston, Williams, and her own teammate in Haas, as far as the information goes, none of them pitted again.
Jukka Hakkarainen and his Williams car were no longer there to be seen, however, she knew she will meet him once more eventually if they were lucky. Determination fueled her heart, the red paint of her teammate's car acted like a red silk in the eye of a bull, the need to chase and attack immediately, but racing is not just about winning against your enemies, but also against the voices within your head.
Do not take unnecessary risks.
25 laps remaining, keep calm.
Pace advantage was there thanks to her fresher tyre, hers even if Jonathan’s tyre was in theory supposed to be the faster one, he’s in Medium anyway. It’s really easy to slowly catch up with the Aussie in the next couple of laps before he needs to change the tyre for himself; that’s not needed, however. Right before the lap where Jon was called for a pit, a simple overtake was taken. Few laps later than the Finnish driver, now it's just her and Jukka.
She cannot believe it, even if it’s just for one lap or two, Karina finally understands the feeling of becoming the leader of a pack. She’s in P1 at the Grand Prix for the first time in her career as a Formula 1 driver.
Another note from her engineer, one of the Williams was 1.5 seconds behind her, it was Hakkarainen’s. Jon was around 3.6 seconds behind him, that’s add around 5 seconds between the two HAAS, but one more thing to take note is, the Ferrari with fresher new tyre is only 2 seconds behind Jon in which means the world's going to witness the defence masterclass coming from the Aussie.
What happened to the Red team? Aren’t they supposed Well, apparently her wish came true, and the disastrous pit-stop was the one the red car suffered right after they pitted for fresher hard tyres, it was a 4-second pit-stop.
Supposed she can hold against both Williams and her teammate with no problem, but against the fucking Italian? Not a chance, she only hoped that at least the feeling of leading the race would stay a little bit longer for her to embrace, forget about the stat, it was the little pride of her wanting this to not end too soon.
8 laps remaining.
“Oh, Fuck off, Jukka!”
The Finn tried to do an aggressive manoeuvre against her. Here on turn one, the Williams was trying to go around the outside, followed by a late brake on turn two, yet, not late enough for the Finn to stay ahead of his rival, Karina succeeded in defending her position. Neither has pace advantage over the other, even if there is it would be too little to notice, it would be who makes the smallest mistake on their end who would end up becoming the loser.
Who would’ve thought the fight for the first position in this grand prix would be between two midlaner cars that can barely scrape points on a usual day? It was a pleasant battle between both of them, regardless of the curse words thrown mindlessly around the track. Mayhaps the audience would love to witness it too.
Oh, this Finn really loves fighting from the outside, yes, another aggressive manoeuvre he gave her. This time it was much tighter than she expected, both wheels almost made contact yet she held up her position as strong as she could, giving him no chance to attack or else they would both end the race prematurely, to no one hope to see, certainly not to Jukka in his best position this season, She trusted Jukka to not make a stupid move in which he complies.
Lady luck was not on his side as he unfortunately had to suffer a disastrous lock-up thanks to the aggressive braking, resulting in the gap between Karina and the Finn to be even bigger. At this point, both knew only Karina’s mistake could cost her a maiden win.
“Hakkarainen 1.6 behind, no DRS, last 2 laps.” The sound of her engine not only felt like a breeze of fresh air, it felt like she’s now driving in heaven.
It’s like a dream coming true, she could not hold the excitement filling her heart up like a flooded plain, but two laps is all it takes for everything to go awry, do not let your own ego consume you and your chance to win.
Take it easy, Karina, the maiden win is in your hands only a stone's throw away to reach, you are now undefeatable; no one can ruin these last two laps of this race except yourself, so let’s make sure it won’t happen to you.
“One last lap, Karina, keep your head up.”
And here it is, for the first time in her Formula 1 carrer, she would be the first driver who takes the checkered flag.
Karina Wijaya will now take the checkered flag, Karina Wijaya will become the Grand Prix winner of Formula 1, Karina Wijaya wins the Dutch Grand Prix!
The commentators know their duty and succeed in delivering it; her last name is not the name they called her with.
It’s not just Wijaya, the daughter of a local racing legend, but it’s Karina Wijaya, the Spanish Formula 4 champion, Formula 3 runner-up, and, now, a Grand Prix winner with a car that everyone doubted could even be brought to the podium, but at last, here she is.
“Oh my god? Oh my god!”
While she could not hear all the hype around the grandstand and the commentators cheering before her, a maniacal laugh is present for the broadcast to share; happy would be a massive understatement towards whatever is filling up inside her heart, not a single breath is wasted on this radio message.
“You’re joking….you’re joking! FUCK YES! Hahaha! Great— no, wonderful job everyone, I could- oh my fucking god no way It’s actually happening, guys…guys!”
Feels like a kid one more, but this time she will be rewarded by standing at the top of the podium, bringing home one of the most prestigious awards in Motorsport history, as a Formula 1 Grand Prix winner.
“Amazing job, Kiddo, oh my goodness, you made it! You are a Grand Prix winner, fantastic job, fantastic drive, Karina! You deserve it! I will see you at the podium.” A familiar voice can be heard across the radio, not her engineer, no, it’s her mentor.
"Yessir! I'll see you there. How was Jon?" For once, after the whole ordeal, she finally remembered about her teammate.
Sure, the incident on the first lap should give him more than enough position to claim his well-deserved points, but at last, her mind was too occupied to even think about anything else but defending her position.
Once again, it's her engineer who took control of her radio, "He's in P5, was P3 for the last few laps, but he got overtaken after a while. He did amazing defending his position on P3; however, he was fighting against a Ferrari after all, and a Mercedes."
"Give my thanks for him, I'm sure his defending against Ferrari helps me in a way."
"Sure do, but not now, he’s not in a good mood right not since he lost his podium chance on the last few laps, his radio was….not nice."
It was unfortunate that destiny wouldn't allow them to celebrate the champagne on the podium together, but this is racing, it does happen sometimes, and we should improve for the future.
At last, the car went into a stop in its designated place, just one huge block-shaped space prepared for the podium winner, yet it felt like Karina finally owned the world. In this place, history was made not only for her and her family, but for the whole nation to celebrate. Deep sigh escaped her mouth as she let her burning head cool down a little. That was supposed to be for the cooldown room, like the name suggests, but just half a minute letting her body rest won't harm anyone.
Those little legs of her forcing themselves to bring the winner out from the burning car once now belong to her, a bit wobbly she must say but still strong enough to walk and run to the embrace of her beloved team screaming her name over and over in a burning passion celebrating the first win for their driver, and hopefully, more to come for the future.
Though the helmet obstructed Karina’s view a little, a glimpse of her teammate’s shadow walks across her gaze, not even trying to look at her at all, running away from the commotion that is their team and the media. When they said Jonathan was not in a good mood, they actually meant it.
Shall I say that feeling of uneasiness started to linger around her mind, knowing they cannot celebrate fully as a team, bearing in mind that her teammate just lost once in a blue moon chance of podium for something that is not even his fault?
As much as she wants to include him in the celebration, at the end of the day it’s his decision to congratulate her or not, and no one can tell him to do otherwise. In which Karina must respect that decision, she would react the same way, given the situation.
She however, would react to an unanticipated tap on her shoulder only to find the Finn offering a smile at her, a thumbs up for the fierce battle happening several minutes earlier that almost caused both to become the laughing stock of their legacy to hold. It doesn’t happen, fortunately, but imagine.
“Nice fight, dude, let’s do it again later, eh?” Fist bump she gave to the Finn as appreciation for the thrill they seek and enjoy through those exciting moments.
“You too, almost got both of us killed. Alright then, meet you in the cooldown room.” A small chuckle left the Finn’s lips as he walked away to visit his team for another celebration to witness.
As the Finnish man left her to celebrate with his team, another tap on her shoulder prompted her to look back over her shoulder, only to be greeted by no other than Antonio. Smile painted all across his face, accompanied by eyes that look like he’s one second away from drowning in tears, the older man hugged his mentee tight that Karina doesn’t even bother to budge him away, not that she wants to anyway.
A warm embrace after the best day of her life is a cherry on top. Anton gently brushes his hand on his mentee’s hair, despite not being the one who drove the car, this man's breathing seems more erratic than that of his winning driver.
“My god, Karina, I’m so…so proud of you. You finally made it, kid.” Whisper escaped his lips as he still tightly hugged his protege.
“All thanks to you, sir, what am I without your guidance?”
“You are now a grand prix winner, just like your father, he must be very proud of you up there.”
Oh, yeah. Karina forgot about her father, well, more like, he never crossed her mind around this race, or even throughout this weekend. She forgot how prevalent his father’s legacy was to Anton. It reached a point where everything she did would always be seen through his mentor’s eyes.
Karina let silence conquer her, she didn’t want to pretend that she was happy with what Anton just said, but there’s also no point in retaliating, after all, it’s supposed to be her happiest day of her life. Forget about it for now.
Almost a full minute hug Anton hugged her, and they finally let go of it, letting Karina smile and wave towards the grandstand, cheering for her. She started and ended her race with a warm embrace from her mentor.
“I’ll see you again, from the top of the podium.”
One last smile she offered to her teacher before going ahead for a proper celebration on the top step of the podium, Karina looked at Anton for the last time that moment, reassuring him that this won’t be the last win for her to hold, at least, that’s what she hoped.