F1 One shots

PT1 - Max Verstappen

You're staring at the screen hopelessly after making a decision for a tyre change that didn't work out in the way you thought it would. Max ends up behind Hamilton due to the pitstop and he is not pleased. "What the fuck? How am I behind him? Fuck!" he says through the radio. You breath in slowly while you hear his race engineer trying to talk sense into Max. There are a few laps to go and with fresh tyres he could still have a shot at the win.

Max didn't win, he was distracted and annoyed, and couldn't bring it home. It was disappointing to see, and you were not looking forward to the meeting after this race. There were certain days where Max could not have a sensible conversation with the team after a loss, and you had a feeling that today would be one of those days. Your eyes find his race engineer's, Lambiase, eyes and he nods. This will be a hell of a meeting.

You're talking with your colleague strategists, figuring out what to do different for the next race while Max is on the podium. It's usually exciting to you to look at all the data and figure out what went wrong and what could go better, but the tension in the team is making it hard to enjoy it now. If you're being honest, you're worried about Max too. He has a lot of pressure on him, which must be hard to deal with. You shake your head at your thoughts, that's for another time. Full focus on the team now.

"I feel like we waited a tad too long with the last pit, if we had pitted two laps earlier it would've worked out. I told Lambiase to do that, but we all heard Max say that it wasn't needed. I feel like we all lost a bit of our team sense today, which is upsetting but not the worst. We still got P2 and there are more opportunities to come this season. Let's learn from this and go into the meeting with a clear head. Take a walk if you need to blow off some steam, don't do it in the meeting. See you all in a bit" you tell your team, grabbing your phone to take a quick walk to get your mind straight yourself.

You're sitting in your usual seat at the meeting table, Max' seat on your right is still empty and you sigh when you look at the clock. The team has seated you next to Max for the last few seasons because he seems to be calmer when he's sitting next to you, but you've never had Max sitting next to you when the reason that he lost was partly your fault. You look up when you see Lambiase walk into the room with Max behind him. He looks pissed off when he sits next to you, and you swallow while looking at the papers in front of you.

The meeting was going well for the circumstances the team was in, you tried to ignore the digs that Max did at you. He probably should've gone for a run around the track 5 times before coming in here, because he was still way too angry. "It would've been nice if you had told me about the idea for an earlier pitstop on time" you look to your right, straight into Max' blazing eyes. "I did, and you didn't listen to Lambiase, Max." he huffs, crossing his arms while looking at you challenging. "Well, I don't remember him saying anything to me" you nod, "alright, let's listen to the radio messages then."

You sign to one of the team members who pulls up the radio sheet on his screen and looks for the specific audio. "Max, we want you to box in two laps, I will tell you when" you hear Lambiase's voice through the meeting room. "No, that's too early, I'm not doing that" you hear Max next. "Thank you, you can turn it off" you tell your colleague before turning to Max. "So, like I said before, I made Lambiase tell you. I know it's a disappointing result, but there's not one person only that's at fault here." Max just looks at you, clearly annoyed that you put him in his place while you look around the table before you continue.

"I feel like we failed as a team today, too many people working in an island way of working. It's not one on one work here, we should know that by now. I'm not sure why this happened today, but let's take a moment to progress and relax the upcoming two days before we get ready for the next race. Not all is lost yet, so please stay positive." You look at Christian, who nods at you. "Exactly, couldn't have said it better, thank you. Meeting dismissed, have a good night, everyone." You're about to stand up when Max yanks you back into the chair. "Come to my driver's room within 10 minutes" he whispers angrily before walking out of the room.

You're walking towards Max' driver's room after grabbing your bag and making sure you have everything to work in your hotel room. You need some food and no people around you to look at the data in peace. You knock on Max' door, and he opens it before dragging you into it. "What did you want to talk about? I want to go back to the hotel to work" you tell him, looking at his face. 'He looks hot when he's mad' you think to yourself before quickly dismissing your thoughts.

"Why did you call me out like that in the meeting?" he asks, furrowing his brows when you look at him. "Because I got tired of your digs at me the whole time. I know I made a mistake, but you also didn't listen. I already took my part of the blame" you tell him, trying to remain calm. He shakes his head, "you should've told me earlier. Why did you wait so long with it? You had to tell Lambiase to fucking explain it to me! You're just acting like it's my own fault!" he raises his voice with every breath he takes, and you're starting to get really annoyed with him.

"I am not acting like it's your own fault only Max! I just said that it's a team effort that went wrong and that I should've communicated better with Lambiase. What else do you want me to say?!" you try to keep your voice low, since someone might hear you guys if they walk past the driver's room, but it's hard when Max keeps on acting like this. You stare at each other in silence, the only thing you can hear is the ragged breaths both of you let out. "If you have nothing else to say I will leave" you say harshly. You turn around when Max doesn't respond, walking out of his driver's room, throwing the door closed with a slam.

You're still tensed up when you get back to your hotel room, throwing your bag on one of the couches before grabbing fresh underwear and a pair of shorts. You take a cold shower, hoping that will calm you down, but it doesn't. You hated Max being mad at you, but what you hated even more was that he didn't even try to have a reasonable conversation with you. You get out of the shower, putting on a bralette, underwear and shorts before you make your way to your bag to get your laptop out to look over the data again. It's still hot outside, and inside the hotel room it feels like a sauna, hence your outfit.