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prologue

ABU DHABI GRAND PRIX 2022

"I'm sure you all remember my daughter, Presley," Guenther Steiner announced to the Haas garage as he nudged the shoulders of his brunette daughter, "She finally took time out of her hectic schedule; to come and support her dad." He smirked as the engineers laughed at the remark from their team principal.

The brunette smiled at her dad, who gripped her shoulders. The Austrian team principal was incredibly proud of his twenty-five-year-old daughter. Along with her best friend, Juno Antsey, the two had founded their own fashion house, which they established at the ages of nineteen.

"And this is her boyfriend, Jaspar Korasic," He added and pointed to the tall, dark-haired man standing to his daughter's righthand side. "They will be joining us for the entire weekend, so let's make sure it's a good one." Guenther laughed with a nervous undertone.

It had been no secret that the Haas F1 team had struggled in recent years, and they didn't expect the last race of the 2022 season to be any different. The championship had already been wrapped up with Lewis Hamilton winning his record 9th Title. With Red Bull F1 points voided from the entire season, at least Haas would not be finishing P10 in the constructor's championship this year.

However, Presley's father liked to ensure that every small success was celebrated, which is why his next shoutout was to none other than Mick Schumacher, who had scored their first and only points of the season at the previous race. He had finished in P9, the highest finish of his F1 career. This win was also one of the only reasons that Presley had flown to Abu Dhabi for this race.

Once the initial team talks were over, Presley and Jaspar decided to wander out of the garage and towards the hospitality pen where they would be meeting Juno.

As it was the closing race of the season, the paddock was crawling with media personnel, all trying to capture the best coverage of the weekend. In the near distance, Presley spotted her blonde haired best friend talking with her boyfriend, Milo Crusoe.

The blonde stopped so that Presley could catch up, her boyfriend, Jaspar's arm, flung around her shoulder as the paddock photographer's cameras clicked away. Presley knew that it was likely that they had received a tip that her boyfriend would be in attendance rather than herself. Whilst Presley was quite well known to the media outside of F1, her presence in the paddock was more 'Steiner's daughter rather than famous fashion designer', but she didn't mind.

Whenever she was in the paddock, the lower profile she could keep, the better; plus, she only ever came to support her father or her best friend, Mick. It had been a friendship that formed at the beginning of last year in his debut F1 season. Her father had been adamant that they would be fast friends due to their mutual love for him; both the blonde German boy and the brunette half Austrian, half English girl, thought his reasoning was a joke. However, he was not.

Guenther was very right about how quickly they became close, and before Presley dated Jaspar, her father was half hoping that she and Mick would romantically hit it off. That part of his motive failed, but she always made sure to visit the German whenever she could.

"Here you are, Pres." Juno smiled as she embraced her best friend, "I didn't realise the Haas garage was so far from Mercedes." She chuckled with a mischievous smile on her face.

Together they made a very chaotic couple, although Juno was adamant that it wasn't so serious. At times it caused incredible stress for her best friend, but Presley very much loved that she and Jaspar now had a double date partner that would survive more than two dates.

"Hey, I thought I said no Haas slander from you," Presley smirked as the two girls walked ahead of their boyfriends, who were catching up behind. "Plus, if you continue, I won't take you back to meet Sebastian Vettel, and I know how much you love that man."