Isabel Mendoza, the 29-year-old CEO of the tallest car tower in Madrid, was about to lose everything.
Car dealership
The €500 million deal with SEAT was about to fall through because the company’s new hybrid engine just wouldn’t work.
For months, twelve of the best engineers in Europe had tried and failed.
A janitor came in and broke up the arguments in the boardroom.
Carlos Ruiz, 32, was a disgraced former Formula 1 mechanic who now cleans offices to make ends meet.
He looked at the engine and said calmly, “Ma’am, I know what the problem is,” ignoring the shocked executives.
Isabel laughed at him in front of everyone, making fun of him. In a moment of pride, she made a foolish promise: “I’ll marry you if you fixed it when twelve engineers couldn’t.”
Carlos looked at her in the eye and said right away, “I accept.”
What happened next would change both of their lives and the future of the company forever.
People laughed when Carlos said he knew what was going on.
How could a janitor fix something that a dozen experts couldn’t?
Then he told us about his past: he used to be the chief mechanic for the famous Rojo Fuego Formula 1 team and made its famous fuel injection system.
But when the team fell apart in a scandal, he was branded and never charged, but he was blacklisted for life.
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