Chaos on the F1 Grid

After the chaos of the 2023 season, including some of the most insane social media faux pas it wasn't surprising to anyone when F1 announced a new Team Liaison PR manager position. From the truly disastrous Ferrari C2 challenge videos to the mania caused by Checo and Max in their red bull videos, and the never-ending drama that Lando caused on twitch with Max Fewtrell many asked why this role didn't exist before. As always Will Buxton provided the not so needed obvious observation: once a problem is known it can be fixed. Ever the dropper of pearls of wisdom that one.

So F1 announced the position and had to sift through thousands of applications – again not a surprise to anyone – the chance to work in F1 is incredible, to travel to the races and be guaranteed to be working with the teams and drivers is not something you can pass up. What was surprising to Eleanore was receiving the call telling her she was the successful candidate and would be needed in Bahrain before testing started. Eleanore Leclercq currently lived in Montreal, her parents from Belgium and she had grown up watching and loving formula one – despite having a similar name to two of the drivers, she was no relation. For as long as she could remember she had dreamt of working in F1. When she interviewed for the role F1 was particularly eager for her language skills. Being fluent in English, French, and Dutch – with conversational Spanish and Italian seemed to tick every team box.

Eleanore followed all of the drivers on every platform already and had watched with great amusement and also shock at the drama from last season. As she sat on the plane to Bahrain, she was rewatching some of the twitch streams that stood out the most. Particularly Lando and the Lewis 8th world championship drama. She had to stop herself from slapping her palm into her face- of. Of course, people knew what Lando had meant, but with Charles having previously called Lewis an 8time champion and even Christian Horner had in an interview – Lando's comment added fuel to the fire. Especially because Lando is just chaos personified. He speaks without thinking and it's truly endearing - but also problematic from a PR viewpoint. She just laughed and shook her head, then moved on to the twitch streams of max and Penelope- she enjoyed these as they were so wholesome. They provided a bit of a break from the chaos – but her job is about the chaos. After a few minutes of the wholesome she went to the Ferrari C2 challenges – and oh boy. What Ferrari lacked in race wins they made up for in chaos! Charlos as the internet called them were one of the most hilarious and chaotic pairings on the grid last season. Everyone knew the competition between them was tough, the articles pitting them against each other didn't help, but through it all they remained upbeat and funny. If only the hilarity had been intentional. Eleanore was on the Jenga challenge, and she knew what was coming, so far, they had both played by the rules and teased each other a little, but Carlos is about to move the brick Charles wanted in a way Charles viewed as cheating, and Charles is going to start shouting in Italian.

Charles: NON! Tutto questo è così frustrante (this is so frustrating)

Carlos: jejeje you're turn!!

Carlos stood back looking mighty pleased with himself while Charles continued to mutter in Italian while gesticulating wildly - one could be forgiven for thinking he is Italian. Eleanore continued watching until Charles jumped around victorious and Carlos began shouting in Spanish – which only

led to Charles deliberately getting Spanish wrong to annoy him further.

Charles: how about some jamon iconico?!

Carlos: IBERICO!!!! ¿Cuántas veces tengo que decírtelo? (How many times do I have to tell you?)

Charles: uno mas!!

Eleanore couldn't help the laugh that escaped her at the two, and even the small moment of sadness she felt at the reality that last season was Charlos last together. Though she is excited for Mick to be Charles new teammate and also see the dynamic between Carlos and Fernando at Aston Martin. In truth she was excited for all of the changes to the teams. Max Fewtrell joining red bull, Arthur Leclerc coming up from F2 to join Lando at McLaren, and Danny Ric returning with Seb to Alfa Romeo. If only Kimi Raikkonen would make a comeback, then the chaos would be truly complete. As it stands the grid is set for maximum chaos as it is and the challenge ahead of her was not lost on Eleanore. She began to create a dossier on her laptop – one for each of the teams with a section on each of the drivers. Their strengths, weaknesses, what the best PR strategy for each would be, and things they must absolutely avoid doing. This helped her to feel more organised for her first day, but the butterflies she felt in her stomach were making it hard to think of eating or even sleeping – two things she had barely done since finding out she got the job, and the two things she needed to do now if she were going to be remotely effective on her first day. So, she settled for some red-bull chaos videos. Yes. Distraction at its finest in the guise of work. Eleanore made some notes about the red bull content, particularly what Max V responded well to and what he didn't. She continued watching content and making notes before she was finally so exhausted that she drifted off to sleep.