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2020
I start my fifth season as the team principal at Predator under heavy scrutiny, as our team didn't meet expectations last year and my job is officially at risk.
The late season hire of 21 year old Pascal Becker turned things around somewhat, as he finished 2nd and 1st in his two races to give us some positives heading into this year.
Rookie Michela Pizzolato was the shocking winner of the Driver of the Year last year, with three podium finishes in her first season and she will be our number two driver this year. Bao Tang returns as our reserve and will run practices for Pizzolato, as he's a "pay driver".
Becker and Pizzolato are both signed for two more years but due to my tenuous situation, I think we really need to make a run for the ERS Constructors championship in order to save my job.
It was apparent very early on that we had a strong team and a car that was good enough to get us over the hump. Becker came out in race one and dominated, winning by over 30 seconds to get us off to a wonderful start.
As the season went on, it seemed that crashes were the only thing that could hold Becker back and even then, he still had the ability to come from way back in the pack and make the podium.
I think I was MUCH smarter about my design and part improvement progression over the course of the year, putting much more emphasis on the part reliability of BOTH DRIVERS CARS as opposed to just concentrating on the top driver's car.
Essentially, if I was to win the constructors, I'd need to make sure that Michela Pizzolato was a force as well as Becker.
In the middle of the year, in Becker's home race in Munich, we showed what we were truly capable of, with Becker taking the win and Pizzolato finishing second. It was a brilliant race, with heavy rains coming and going throughout the race, requiring multiple tyre changes and we timed all of our pit stops brilliantly.
By the time we reached the final race of the season in Japan, we had a 9 point lead in the constructors and Becker was the leader in the driver's standings as well. We'd need our best race of the season to ensure promotion and once again, in the rain, we pulled off the rare 1-2 finish for the third time in the season, locking up the team championship.
We are heading to the Asia Pacific Super Cup!!!
Pascal Becker came completely as advertised, winning 6 of the 11 races and finishing on the podium an incredible nine times! The other two times? He finished 6th and 20th (after an early race wreck). His 220 points is the second best total in ERS history.
Michela Pizzolato followed up her impressive rookie campaign with an even better one, finishing on the podium 5 times in 11 races and winning her first ever race in Milan, a race where Becker was the runner up.
Simply superb!!
I'm obviously back in the good graces of our chairman and I'm REALLY looking forward to competing in the higher series next year, even though it's unlikely that we'll be competitive in year one.
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