After Valencia Gp disturbing news reached my office on a rainy afternoon. I had just found a mouldy piece of bread under the desk which left me wondering when I had been so busy I couldn’t finish my meal. One phone call ,whispering voice and the determination at the backround convinced me , I have no time to waist. In short: I had to investigate whats happening in Lotus and find the Tree lady. The Tree lady? Lotus? Kimi was on podium in Valencia,whats there to investigate? And who is the Tree lady? “The answer will reach you while you work at it. Then you know.” The whispering voice said into my ear. Well, that was clear, no questions then, I thought and immediately started to recall the rumours I had been hearing around the streets . I put down the phone and wrinkled my forehead. On the table there was a leaf of apple tree. For some reason I smelled it. The pictures of summer, wind and grass filled my head and I heard a sound of woman ,she sang to the tree. I felt I should remember the tune. And then the leaf turned into ashes in my hands. Weird.
I thought I should start with Lotus, because its easier and something you can put your hand on. The Tree lady was somewhat mystery and just the word, and song, in my head, nothing concrete. But I , Applelock Hopeless Holmes was going to stand against the world of weirdness and the secret society of F1, hurry thru the world and find the mysterious Tree lady, in time.
Investor Applelock Hopeless Holmes understood very quickly, the main problem with Lotus was money. They got French sponsor , French driver which is paid by sponsor so its natural to give him a change. But its oil company whose products are needed anyway around the world , with or without French driver. I would imagine the TEAMS success gives more visibility than óne drivers. So, their priority would definitely be the constructors championships ,not drivers..or it would be secondary goal …and add to the picture the other driver has been promised a big bonus for a win.. As it seemed drivers championship appeared to be on sight too..so, well, lets put them on the same line, wait till the half way of the season and then deside what to do. The other one was quick, the other one a bit rusty but consistent. Coming to the half way the consistent one was ahead. But why? The mechanic Applelock Hopeless Holmes saw the quick one has ground to build on. He worked hard, had visibility on teams site and he consistently talked how he is going to learn , everything from his consistent team mate. And he surprised his team and got respect and attention. But coming to the half way, we noticed , his team works hard,..but as he is learning, he tries to copy his team mates set ups, tries whats suits him but he forgets, it’s the matter of mastering the whole picture. To this picture belongs the mechanics have time to ensure the genereal reability of the car , time to do the basic work. I noticed on his side of the garace, mechanis are much more busy as on the other side, everything happens calmly. Manager Applelock Hopeless Holmes made his move exactly just before the half way the season. Time to have conversations about continuity. Time to hassle a bit. Time to the chair play.Put a little pressure on managing side and things start to have different direction. Suddenly its not the quick one who is most talked on the team site. Suddenly the consistent one starts to say, the car suits him better. Suddenly we hear , the consistent one has been on the factory in secret meetings regarding next years car. At the same time the quick one has been advertising his precense at the factory openly. The consistent one hasn’t said a word. What can I say? Lotus has surprised itself, their drivers have surprised them and the season has surprised everybody. But the reality is, the one who is now ahead, has natural spot as the teams priority. What is the teams priority? Will see.
And then the Tree lady invited me to dance. I travelled thru the world, following the whispered rumours about the lady ..I had sunburns, nasty insect bites, ,wet clothes, dry and dusty mouth , worn shoes and tired eyes..All the time I heard the tune in my head . Then it catched me. The tune became more louder more closer I came to the European continent. Where is she..? The natural goal was to head to the Ardennes, to Spa. There, at the mountains, almost unable to see her in a misty night . But I could hear her. “your looking for a soul?” She said. “ Looking for you.” “My soul is here. “ And then she told me a story about her soul she had lost. Someone had taken it . Snatched it. Torn it to pieces and stamped to the ground. She said all the souls rise to the mountains, doesn’t matter which mountains, it ´doesn’t have to be high, like Mount Everest. All they need is they have to be above the tree line. Souls need light, hard winds, pure rain and clean air. Her soul was ready to come back . She told me another story. A story about another soul that had flown thru the Spa paddock , but never saw its owner .It was one year ago..and now the time has come. The owner of that soul is coming. Soul of the racer.
Ok, a bit late but well, its harvesting time " title="oi" />
Harvesting
The three had found me, but I suspect it would had found me anyway. The tree is in contact with the whole world. It feels what the world feels , so it knows what I feel. I think it just knew I had to do this. Sometimes life offers you the possibilities to grow , you just have to have courage to take the offer. I almost lost my soul while doing it. Now I understand Kimi a little better. “sigh” ..even tho the summer had been wet and cold, it had been a summer. And now it was turning to the fall, wet and cold fall so nothing new there. “I know..summer is over but I know you like autumn, colours, crispy mornings and clear air” Tree pushed me a bit to my shoulder. “yes, I do, if there were some. Now the weather is like a wet rag on my face..this is annoying, to wait for something to happen. “ “ You have entertained yourself with that Applelock hopeless something by giving him tasks which have been ridiculous. Find the “priest killer” which turned out to be a bug.” “I thought he knows we have bugs with that name.” I tried to defend myself. Succeeded very poorly. “Anyway, you have noticed the humans are on their fields , its harvesting time. I think its about time in Spa..you already saw Kimis soul, didn’t you. “ “Its ready to harvest..I will stop by in there..and Monza. “ “I know you will.”
Harvesting time..yeah..had to raise my eye brows a bit , as I saw Grosjean on the paddock wearing a T-shirt with “ My brains are still on vacation.” How convenient. Romain was definitely harvesting, he succeeded to harvest the whole front row of the championship contenders. Gallian rooster flied but forgot the roosters cannot fly. And now he had to figure it out while sitting on Monza pit wall. Kimis soul was furious, it sat in the car that sat like a snail in tarmac. You could feel how he had to hold back..but he had taken the offers life had given to him.Wonder what was there behind the scenes.. Hamilton on the other hand had offers to every finger in his hands, just hoped it wouldn’t stand in the way of his harvesting season..Alonso had clearly made a five year plan, wonder how many failure of crops he would see? Young Perez desided to harvest especially in Monza, as he likes it hot and spicy. Webber and Button desided to call it a day and just saw how their chances fade away like a F1 rockets sounds to the Italian sky. Especially Button had to dig a voice detector to catch the sound..even a hint of it. One young champion somewhat puzzled me. He is unprejudiced..but impatient..he is eating his own crop before its ready. I could see as the season prolongs, the old foxes are getting there..and with the season like this, the sheer experience takes you far. God of luck likes more than anything to surprise.And it had desided its time to have a season of surprises.