ALICE Ch 110

Bright lights shine on the simple chair.

Most of the time, you can tell that Will Buxton takes a fiendish delight in the misfortune of the people of Formula One because that means more drama for him to speculate about. Today, he looks truly pained. He gestures with both hands.

“This is a potent setback,” he says, gazing soulfully at the producer. “Forget about Red Bull. That’s out of reach. But look how even the point distribution is this year. Aston Martin, Freedom, Mercedes, Ferrari, and FUTA all so close together. FUTA, now, not so close. McLaren’s closing in. This outcome in Azerbaijan shows that dream getting farther away. And that’s just the beginning. Alice Wilde is clearly upset. Understandably. The FUTA engineering team was seeing faulty readings from her car; she knew that she had a problem and they did not. Had they listened to her, her intent had been to sacrifice herself to run interference for Faye Darcy. This would have resulted in more points for FUTA and less of a gap with Ferrari. Another podium was probably out of the question in Baku, but Alice Wilde feels robbed of those points. Furthermore, she’s sitting at a 50% race completion rate at the moment. Twice, she has been unable to finish. Both times, through no fault of her own. This is Formula One, and the drivers respect the complexity of the sport, but there are just layers of problems here. Alice Wilde is a new driver, hardly debuted in Formula One and she’s already on her first podium. She’s good. How could anyone be in her shoes right now and not feel as though FUTA is holding her back? First they can’t change tires, and now her engine’s no good. That’s a Honda engine in those FUTA cars. The same engine that Red Bull and Freedom are using. It’s not a bad engine. The problem is on FUTA’s end.”

Buxton pauses and leans back, letting out a long sigh.

“And now we’re four races in. FUTA’s driver contracts are not public. It’s common for new teams with new drivers to keep those contracts very short and flexible. And Alice Wilde must be simply itching to drive for a team that knows what it’s doing. There will be interest in Alice Wilde. And while it’s clear that Faye Darcy is no Lance Stroll, it is equally clear that Alice Wilde is the lead driver for this racing team. Pit crews.” Buxton counts on his fingers. “Engines. Tactical decisions. FUTA is not building a case that’s going to attract talent. How are they going to recover from this? How are they going to keep Alice Wilde? It’s a new team. Some issues are to be expected, but this is a flashpoint moment. And Formula One drivers are not known for their patience.”