"Well, here we go then, following a fitting tribute to Dietrich Mateschitz, the founder of Red Bull, we're here in a place where it's all about the horsepower. We're here in Austin and the 2022 United States Grand Prix. It is the 10th time we've raced at the Circuit of the Americas, and its Round 19 of the 2022 World Championship.
"The Constructors Championship could be settled here today, so the Texas Longhorn and the Dallas Cowboy cheerleaders could be cheering Red Bull, if Ferrari don't outscore them by 19 points. And its 53 laps today before the chequered flag today on this 3.42 mile circuit. There are 20 corners, 11 to the left, 9 to the right with 6 breaking events, 3 of which could be described as heavy."
"Three minutes to go." Al Potter called out to his brother over the radio. "You can do this."
Jimmy was in a good mood. He had been in a meeting the previous day with his managing agent, and his Team Principal, Frédéric Vasseur, and it had been agreed that the team keep to the contract that he had, to have him as part of the Alfa Romeo team for the next season.
The meeting, which lasted over an hour, had followed one that the team had had with his former ART teammate, Théo Pourchaire, who was confirmed as the reserve driver for the Alfa Romeo team.
Ever since a talk with his manager, his uncle David, and the meeting this morning, Jimmy felt like his load had been lightened.
"And here is the starting grid then, with lots of drivers out of position because of penalties, Esteban Ocon starting from the pitlane, with Yuki Tsunoda taking a late penalty for a gearbox. Jimmy Potter almost made it into Q3, but with a deleted lap, a grid penalty to boot, he starts alongside Nicholas Latifi in 17th."
"2 minutes to go." The call came over the radio.
Jimmy looked to the side of him to see the dark blue Williams of Nicholas Latifi, the Williams crew doing their final preparations on that car. His own team were doing their final preparations on his car, with the Ferrari powered Haas of Mick Schumacher in front of him.
"And Max Verstappen on the front row, right next to Carlos Sainz on pole, the two Red Bulls along with the two AlphaTauri's both wearing special liveries for this race, but Martin Brundle, what do you think will be the result for the Constructors Championship?"
"1 minute to go" Al called out over the radio.
"Cheers" Jimmy said, getting himself ready for the clock to go to the top of the hour, and the formation lap.
"And Carlos Sainz, very sluggish as they start off onto the Formation Lap, we say thank you to Dietrich Mateschitz for his love, his passion for motorsports and all things Formula One, the man who invested in Sauber, and then went on to buy not one, but two Formula One teams, Red Bull and AlphaTauri, sadly passed away. We go live to the AlphaTauri pit wall, and the man who had the idea for the special liveries on both the AlphaTauri and Red Bull cars, next season's Team Principal, Harry Potter. Harry, thank you for joining us."
"Thank you Crofty, yes, it's a sad time for us here at AlphaTauri, and I'm sure Christian over on the Red Bull Pit Wall would agree. As a former Red Bull driver myself, I can honestly say it was an honour to race for him, and I know he had watched every race, not just of mine, but of every member of the Red Bull and Torro Rosso teams."
"Harry, we see that both AlphaTauri cars wear an adaptation of what was the first Torro Rosso livery, back in 2006, tell me, what gave you the idea to have it adorn the cars?"
"Well Marty, I knew Dietrich loved motorsports, and I thought, what better way to honour the man than by having the cars wrapped in the original liveries. That's why the AlphaTauri is in the same livery as the STR1, and the Red Bull in the same as the RB1, the first Red Bull."
"Thank you, Harry, one more question, with Nyck de Vries joining AlphaTauri next season replacing Pierre Gasly, is Yuki Tsunoda going to be staying with the team, or will he be replaced?"
"Yes, Yuki is 100% staying with AlphaTauri, Franz, Yuki and I have agreed a contract to last into next year. We want to give him the extra experience, but I have faith in him to perform well."
"Thank you Harry, now several of the drivers on the grid owe their role, their profession, to Deitrich Mateschitz, and of course many of the drivers who are not on the grid today, such as Harry Potter on the AlphaTauri pit wall, David Coulthard, Mark Webber, Sébastien Buemi, the list goes on and on, but meanwhile, it is all eyes on what is predicted to be an amazing race."
Jimmy Potter made his way through the 20 turns on the circuit, ensuring he was within the prescribed 10 cars length of Nicholas Latifi, knowing that Yuki Tsunoda in the special liveried AlphaTauri was behind of him.
Going through turn 15, Jimmy knew that his tyres needed warming up a bit more, so started driving up to the back of the Williams, then slowing down, and then restarting the procedure.
As he rolled up to the back of the grid, ready for the start procedure, he knew that to gain a place or two, he would have to be quick off the mark, especially with the Williams next to him.
Seeing the 5 lights start up, having his hand on the throttle, they extinguished and off he went.
"With a tailwind in the high-speed section, it could be a rollercoaster ride, riding a bucking bronco over the 53 laps, we're all set for the 10th United States Grand Prix here at the Circuit of the Americas, we're in the Lone Star State, and its lights out, and away we go. Verstappen getting away better, and has that inside line going into turn 1, and he's ahead of Carlos Sainz, and there's a lock up, George Russell, Lewis Hamilton, and Sainz, he's spun round."
Jimmy had just started his way round the first turn, not managing to have the better launch over the Williams of Nicholas Latifi, when the Ferrari had spun, causing Sainz to end up behind him, only just avoiding hitting him.
Heading to turn 11, Jimmy managed to overtake Kevin Magnussen, the Hass driver slowly losing a bit of pace, and was now lining up a move on the AlphaTauri that was in front of him, when Latifi in the Williams got overtook on turn 13.
Passing through the final turn on to the home straight, Jimmy knew he would have 1 more lap until the DRS, the drag reduction system, was enabled, and he hoped that he could keep within the 1 second gap required to overtake the Williams.
Heading into lap 2, Jimmy had only got as far as the 2nd turn, before the Williams overtook the Haas of Mick Schumacher, so he aimed to place his car close to the German driver, ready to overtake on the corner of turn 11, which would lead to the back straight.
Heading into that turn, he found that his move had been countered, meaning that he was unable to overtake his friend, but halfway down the straight, due to the superior speed of the Ferrari engine Alfa Romeo, he was able to get past the Haas, with Latifi being in his sights again.
Approaching the start/finish lines, Jimmy heard the news that would make him happy, had he not been in a train of cars.
"DRS has been enabled."
As he headed round the circuit, he knew that the first DRS detection point was coming up, and as he headed into the turn that led to the back straight, he got himself ready to press the DRS button on his steering controls, that extra boost being as useful as a safety car in green flag conditions as he was in the middle of a DRS train.
Coming into the breaking zone, he knew that the DRS would end, so he followed the group of cars, hoping that he could catch Latifi on one of the corners.
"It's a real test for tyre management this afternoon, to get speed and keep the grip alive on those tyres, and some drivers seem to be struggling on them."
As lap 9 came along, he was stuck behind the AlphaTauri of Yuki Tsunoda.
"Tsunoda's off track all the time." Jimmy called out over the radio.
"We're checking."
He thought about bringing the car up in front of Tsunoda, but didn't want to risk an accident, even though it would mean he could overtake. As he was in DRS range, tried to use it to get closer, but the AlphaTauri was still close to breaching the track limits.
"He's all over the place!" Jimmy said on the team radio.
"Understood. Box, box."
He knew that pitting from 13th place would mean that he would lose position, but he needed fresh tyres as well, especially as the tyres he had on were starting to blister, starting to soften and break away in chunks from the body of the tire.
As he pulled into his pit box, the mechanics quickly worked on the car, all of them racing to their respective tasks, trying to get his car ready as quickly as possible to return to the race.
Getting back onto the track as he was released, he was behind Alexander Albon in the Williams, down in 18th place. Unfortunately, being 4 seconds behind the Williams meant that he would have to hunt him down.
Meaning that he would not be able to use DRS.
Being his out lap, he would lose some time because of the pit stop, but as he came round back to the start line, he could see that Daniel Riccardo coming out of the pit lane. Applying the power, he managed to overtake the McLaren into turn 1.
The next car that he would come across would be the AlphaTauri of Yuki Tsunoda.
"I've got some oversteer" Jimmy called over the team radio.
"Understood. We'll check the data."
Lap 11 was completed, and he was still holding his spot in 17th place, but Jimmy knew that it was only a matter of time before he might fall further back.