Home. (L.N.)

45. Discoballs

"Are you excited?" "Very much so" "Good morning bitches" I smirk as Daniel climbs in the van and drops on the passanger seat while myself and Lando are in the back. "Good Morning Mister Avocado. Did you slept well?" He stratches his thumb up in the air which let's me smirk even more. "Are you nervous?" he turns around after buckling up. "Very much so, yeah" I answer while taking Landos bagpack on my lap so he can retie his shoes. "You don't need to tho", he mumbles. "I am afraid I come across rude or so. I don't know" Daniel in the front chuckles. "Don't be stupid, you will be great." The driver sits down and the Van starts rolling towards the venue of the Abu Dhabi track. Weird being back not gonna lie. This city holds great memories. Coming back here after all these years is surreal. The last week's had been an exciting time full of adventures and beautiful memories. Ever since Brazil we basically traveled around together to the races. With spending all this time in the hospitality of McLaren and creating content all day long the hype around my person took off even more. So the request from a F1 Podcast for an interview was just a matter of time. And that time is now. Dressed Smartly today I will directly speak about my relations to the drivers and my person. My consistency had been key. There was not a day I didn't post about anything and shared my life. Sue back in Monaco actually has all hands full to manage the requests of collabs, ads and apparently there are quite some packages waiting for me to unbox. But for now I don't bother coming back home. It's the last Raceweek of the year and so I have to produce a little more so I can bridge the winterbreak with exclusive insights. Like all the weeks before I start recording on my face. I grin in the camera and then turn to Lando who stretches down his tongue before waving like crazy in the camera. It's different then when the teams themself shoot footage. On my channels they can be unfiltered. So did a clip go viral where I tested a couple of coffee types with Valteri and basically hated all of them. The disappointment on his face amused the fanbase. But don't forget the time Charles and myself tried to learned a tiktok dance which ended in a shit show and the loud laughter of Pierre and Carlos. There had been so many precious moments along the way in private I didn't share. Lots of them with Lando. Besides the growth of many friendships with the boys our relationship grew the furthest. Late night talks and an open communication made life so much more easy. We don't pressure on us anymore and just go with the flow. I am happy with that as long as we are comfortable, all is good. We finally realized, we are not the kids we were in 2018. Three years later we are adults with high and lows. His career is going strong and so are my studies. It seems to go all well for once. "Have you got my sandwich?" I mumble and lay my head in his shoulder. He stops scrolling through his Instagram feed to get the sandwich out of the bag. "Can you now eat?" This morning I just felt sick in nervousness so the hotel prepared a little snack when my nerves cool down, which is now. "Yeah" I snatch away the food from him. "Do you mind?" Dani holds up his phone. "No go ahead, but we should be there quite soon" I speak with my mouth full. A disgusted look from Lando let's me grin. This annoys him real bad. And I love to just tease him. "Great" the Aussie starts pressing all kinds of buttons from the car untill. "Yo, I'll tell you what I want, what I really, really want
So tell me what you want, what you really, really want" Daniel immediately pulls up the volume and starts screaming to the top of his lungs. The poor driver. While finishing my food we sing and dance along just to wave at the fans waiting on the streets to the track. I just hope they can't hear what's going on but I might get disappointed. Daniel wasn't shy with he volume. "zig-a-zig ah", we finish when I widely grinning greet Charlotte who opens the backdoor. We arrived. "Well I see, the mood is great today." "Very good" Daniel gives her a pat on the shoulder as he joins her in the heat. With getting our stuff sorted myself and Lando get out as well. I great her with a little hug. It's my first time this week so she hands me the paddock ticket. On the mediaday I stayed behind to handle a big bunch of unistuff so I am as free as possible for this huge weekend. I can't even start how nervous I am. The podcast today, then later I will met the rest of Quadrant. Max has been kind but the whole crew is something else as an outsider. Than tomorrow I will meat Landos family and last but not least the championship. With the same amount of points this will get decided on Sunday. Thank good my name is not Max Verstappen or Lewis Hamilton at the moment. But I can't deny I root for my dutch brother all the way. It's an honor to call him one of my closest mates. Besides Kelly and his father I've been the person he trusts the most around here. A powerful duo we are. The double dutch trouble, and we earned that nickname. His zero fucks attitude really inspires me and I wish I could adapt but I just take everything too seriously. To remember my heritage I even got a tattoo in its honor just below the one for my mother. Max was the one keeping me company when I got it.