Second week of testing; I arrived in the paddock for my first day on Tuesday around 2pm. My biggest mission? meeting Lewis. I waited outside the Mercedes motorhome for around 4 hours before he finally came out. Roscoe was with him so he was already quite energetic, running with his dog. I called his name, asked him to sign my cap. I usually don't like people running after drivers but I had a 'now or never' feeling. I got to him and asked for a picture, after the picture I thanked him and I got the most sweetest smile I've ever seen. I met my hero, finally.
On Wednesday I didn't really have time as I was doing Red Bull hospitality.
On Thursday I arrived at the track early, I brought a card and a gift for Lewis and since no one is really around that early I thought I could give it to him around that time. When he came out of his trailer I asked if he had a minute, but he was busy, that was okay though. I continued to wait outside the garage, hoping to catch him but no luck again. Everyone around me left to go to other stuff so I was standing there on my own. Dan (the guy that handles all the social media for Mercedes) came up to me, he said 'the team has seen you stand outside, do you want to go in the garage?' and I just couldn't believe it. I was in there for around two hours, got a whole tour, got to stand around a metre away from the most beautiful car on the grid and had such an amazing time. At one point when Lewis came out of the car he looked at me and gave me a thumbs up.
After that I had a bit of a wander around before I came back to maybe try and get another picture, I still hadn't been able to give my gift yet. I didn't catch him when he was done driving for the morning. A while later I caught Angela and asked her when the best time to catch him was and she told me he would actually be coming out in a bit so I hurried over to the back to stand in front of the garage again, I caught him there. I got another picture with him and he told me he loved the top I was wearing before asking me if it wasn't hot in the sweater. A little while later I got him to sign another cap for me and he told me he liked my hair.
I had already asked Angela that if I wasn't able to give him my gift I could give it to her so she could give it to him, she said 'yes ofcoure I'll give it, he's seen you in the garage so he knows who you are'. A little while after he signed my cap I did get the chance to give him the card and the little gift which were vegan stroopwafels (stroopwafels are a typical Dutch biscuit). When I told them they were vegan he responded with 'oh my god they're vegan?!' and it was just the cutest thing. He thanked me and called me sweetie.
So overall, it was such a good week.
