Now I understand why he hates the media so much.
I also understand why it was such a huge thing for him to trust me.
I reach for my phone and pull up his contact info. My fingers fly across the keyboard as I type:
I’m in for Italy.
And with zero hesitation, I hit send.
Chapter Eight
This isspectacular.
I almost lose my ability to breathe as I take in the view before me. The lush, sweeping greenery. The stunning historic resort nestled in the hills outside of Bologna, Italy. It’s like something out of a movie, it’s so beautiful! As the car pulls up to the entrance, I continue to drink in every drop of the scenery before me. The splashing fountains. The landscape filled with vineyards and olive trees.
It’s breathtaking.
This is where I will be staying for the week for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.
Tomorrow, this is where Caleb Collings will sit down for his first one-on-one interview since becoming a Formula One driver.
And that interview will be with me.
I still can’t believe how this is my life. Everything changed when Caleb decided to give me that tour of the motorhome. It led to me not only getting to do another assignment for The Downforce Network, but the opportunity to interview him about his car.
And that piece of content I created for my channels?
On my Connectivity Story Share, I had more than one hundred thousand views.
In twenty-four hours.
It’s already past one million views now.
I’ve received several promotional sponsorship opportunities, but I will only do those if they align with the brand I’m building and I like the product. Thank God my agent is wading through those, and my dad is an attorney, so I’ve asked for his thoughts, too.
But now comes the biggest opportunity of all. I get to interview Caleb Collings.
My mind is spinning as the car comes to a stop in front of the main building. Everything seems to be happening so fast. As soon as I told The Downforce Network about the chance I had to interview Caleb, to say they were interested would be an understatement.
They weresalivating.
But I didn’t just hand over my interview. I gave them my ground rules. It’s going to be upbeat and fun. I will not dive into his personal life—or that of his family. They balked a bit about that—and I know they wish they could have one of their star F1 reporters conduct the interview instead—but I held firm. The interview will be conducted my way on behalf of the network, or I’ll just do it myself and put it up as content on my platform.
They agreed—and gave me a hefty sum to do it, along with plush accommodations, like flying me out first class to Italy, arranging a driver for me, getting me a suite at a sold-out resort.
As I step out of the car and breathe in the magnificent country air, I know my mission is two-fold: I want to use this to get a freelance position producing content for The Downforce Network. This will also create a lot of traffic to my social media channels, and I plan to leverage it.
This could be the start of my professional life in Formula 1.
As the resort staff rush up to greet me, placing my bags on a cart and ushering me through the doors to the check-in counter, I know there’s a third part to my mission.
I want to help Caleb get over his distrust of the media.
I’m not saying it isn’t warranted after what happened to his family, and the glare on F1 drivers is massive. But he can still share parts of himself to show the world what a good guy he is. The hits on the pieces I did with him in Miami were HUGE. So many views and shares, and The Downforce Network said it was some of their most popular non-race content EVER.
Caleb doesn’t have to share all of himself—he fiercely guards what is his—but it would mean the world to his fans if he can find some parts to reveal to them.
This is what I hope to pull out of him tomorrow. To get him to open up. Have some fun. Enjoy the conversation we’ll have.