The Bull Prince | Max Verstappen

Chapter 17

Jenson had watched as Joanna stood up from her seat and offered it to Romain Grosjean, who took it with excitement but also restraint by the weird atmosphere in the room. It was odd and the Brit could feel the threat in the air. Seeing the Frenchman sitting in the seat which belonged to Joanna Lauda for the last six years was alienating. However, considering the current driver standing, Romain was the best option Joanna could offer, apart from herself, of course. 

The Austrian looked at Daniel Ricciardo with a raised eyebrow, before she turned around to Alex, asking him if there was something else he wished to talk about, to which he answered that she was free to leave. Nodding shortly, Joanna walked over to the door, opened it, and stepped out into the corridor. Observed all the time from the other drivers. 

"You really let her do that?" Jenson asked bewildered and as neither Alex nor Sebastian made a more to get up and run after the Austrian Ferrari driver, Jenson did exactly that. 

"Joanna, wait." He called out, before he disappeared through the door as well, closing it behind him with a loud bang. 

Sebastian exhaled slowly, directly looking at Daniel. "Are you happy now?" He questioned which caused Daniel to give him a hard look. 

"It was her decision." Daniel defended himself, which caused Nico Rosberg to snort, before laughing. Daniel turned to him, about to asked what the German thought so funny. 

"I don't know about you guys but retirement doesn't sound so bad any longer. If Joanna gets back to her old form now because she doesn't play babysitter anymore, we can go home anyways." Nico said, still laughing about how hopeless his last attempt on a title win now would be. 

"Nico," Lewis warned, but Fernando stopped him. 

"Why? It's the truth. He just woke a sleeping dragon, no? Thanks for that by the way. Two years of her absolutely dominating everything wasn't bad enough." 

"Nothing will change." Sebastian tried to insist.

"Please. You were there at the time. The only thing that stopped her from sweeping across the track like a hurricane was Mark and Michael, but both of them are unfortunately no longer here." Fernando told him before he got up and left the meeting. 

Daniel was still sulking in his seat, as the rest of the drivers filled out of the room. Max looked at him shortly, before he left as well, not saying a word. 

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"Joanna, wait," Jenson called again, but the Austrian simply ignored him until he was close enough to grasp her arm and pull her to a stop in the middle of the paddock. Joanna wasn't happy about being stopped, but her face softened a little bit as she saw Jenson's worried expression. 

"Let's talk back there. Fewer people." She said before pulling Jenson with her, so they were standing between the Ferrari and Red Bull facility. 

"I can't believe you let Daniel win," Jenson mumbled into his hands while leaning against the wall of the Ferrari facility. 

"You know he won't stop. Dan is like a child. If you give in to him once, he will never stop asking for more." Jenson added as Joanna still made no move to say anything. He grew frustrated until he removed his hands from his face to give Joanna a pointed look, but she was She was like tranquillity itself.

"I know." She admitted before a little smile crept onto her porcelain face. Causing Jenson to realize that she was still playing games. This was somehow part of one of her games. 

"You're fucking insane," Jenson muttered, which caused Joanna to smile again. Giving up her position as GPDA director just so Daniel would learn a lesson as one too much for Jenson but Joanna always liked a many-faced game. Nobody would expect her to go that far, but Joanna was called the Red Queen for a reason and Daniel didn't even know what was coming for him.