Firing Up

I drop my keys and curse before crouching down to pick them up and slide my house key in.

"You know, you don't normally struggle to get it in," she teases me, and I snort.

Arisa Amano {Race Engineer for #13}

With the new 2026 regulations, it's been a challenge for Tsuki Industries to design the perfect Formula 1 car with a hybrid engine.

Not to mention, it's taken a lot to get to the position I'm in. I just want to make my father proud. He used to be an F1 race engineer, and I strive to be as good as he was. So, I really need this new driver from France, Zach Allard, to like me and mesh well with me. However, he's been off the grid since he was deemed a 'miracle' in a horrific crash two years ago that rocked the internet for a whole year when a fuel line broke.

Now, he's agreed to sign with Tsuki Industries F1 Team and is going to be my driver.

Zacharie Allard #13

I haven't raced in F1 for two years since my crash made my anxiety spike, but they say all of us drivers have to be a little crazy.

I've been driving since I was eight years old, and I miss the rush of adrenaline in my veins and the feeling of winning. My parents are worried as all hell about me racing again, but I'm thirty now and they have no say.

I've won eight Grand Prix World Championships in my lifetime of racing, and I'm determined to win another this year.

However, the lack of traction on the wheels and the lighter weight and smaller size of the cars with the new 2026 regulations are making me fucking nervous.

What if I crash again?

Although, what I don't expect is to instantly fall for my damn race engineer from Japan. And I'll admit her love for cars and her knowledge in engineering and aerodynamics is what really is drawing me into her.

Plus, Kaito Takahashi, Tsuki Industries F1 Team's principle, calling her one of the best race engineers on the paddock is enough to draw my attention further. But dating and fucking your race engineer is something I'm nervous about touching, and I imagine she feels the same with how the press likes to talk. But what if we can't stay away from one another? It's not like I can escape her when I'm around her all the time and have her in my ears, while I'm trapped in a car.

Firing Up is a standalone F1 Rom-Com between a French F1 Driver and his Japanese Race Engineer. It's focused on all parts of Formula 1 and what makes it all happen as a team from the concept design phase of the cars to moving freight and Sunday races. Minette Enfers tried to encapsulate all of Formula 1 in 2026 into a romance book with interviews, 2026 FiA regulations, aerodynamics, engineering, wind tunnel tests, driving sims, driver assessments/training, testing, practices, qualifiers, Drivers' Parades, Sunday races, driver's diets, traveling,  freight movement, Drivers' Dinner,  crashes, silly memes, dance trends, challenges, dirty jokes, pranks, sneaking sweets, video games, spice, serious moments with mental health rep., and more.