The Undercut | Max Verstappen

chapter 1

Micah's POV.
Spa, Belgium.

This is it, I told myself. This is the moment of truth. The last race before the summer break, and also the day when my new job begins. Red Bull had flown us out to Belgium, private, might I add, and we were being welcomed to SPA like we were part of the royal family. 5 star hotel, all expenses paid. They were clearly desperate for us to be on board with the project, they weren't willing to spare a single penny if it meant we saved this guy's ass. And while the treatment was certainly nice, in my head it could only mean one thing: he was probably way worse than what the media said about him, and they were simply making sure the business deal was just too good for us to refuse to do the documentary.

Either way, for me there was no other option. I wanted to keep my job, and even more than that I wanted to prove myself to be worthy of all the trust my boss had in me. If I screwed this up, I may never get another opportunity like this again. And after all, this was all I'd ever wanted. From the moment I was fifteen years old and fell in love with various kinds of motorsport (mainly MotoGP and Formula 1), I'd been fascinated with the idea of working around the paddocks, traveling the world and interviewing the athletes I admired so much. Once I entered college and made my way through a Journalism bachelors degree, and a Sports Communication masters, I found a new appreciation for documentary work. When I was first hired by Fireproof Sports Media, I knew that in order to enter that specific field of work I would need to make my way through the ranks. So I did race recaps for low tier websites, I did fan events at different locations during race weekends, I did paddock interviews for F3, F2 and most notably Formula E and the 24 hours of Le Mans. And now, right when I least expected it, my dream job was falling into my lap. A year long documentary project about the life of Max Verstappen, two time Formula 1 World Champion, notorious hermit, rude to the press, amongst many other not-so-notable qualities.

And here I was, only minutes away from finally standing in his presence so we could start working right away. Of course, even after the initial debrief with my boss, I'd done my fair share of research about Max, about his family, his friends, relationships, and most of all his professional career. For the most part, I always tried not to go into an interview with any definitive preconceived notions about the subject, but it was very hard to remain neutral about one of the sport's most polarizing characters. It was hard not to have an opinion. But I tried my best to erase any of the times Max complained about being asked "stupid questions" from my mind, if anything to ease my own mind as I made my way into the paddock, followed by the camera crew that was going to accompany me for the entirety of the project.

Nick was a 42 year old, large and tall, kind-looking man, a father of two who would not stop talking about his family at any chance he got. He was one of those people whose loud laughter was so infectious it lightened up the mood in any room he walked into. Despite his long beard and deep-set blue eyes, he was as non-threatening as it gets. But he was one of the best directors I'd ever met, in fact he'd worked with Red Bull several times before and he was probably a big part of why we were hired to do this. He brought the expertise to the team, which was a good thing considering my confidence wasn't at an all time high the longer I spent thinking about all the ways in which I could mess this whole thing up.

Thankfully, there was also Winnie and Oliver. They were twins, only a year older than me, and incredibly talented behind a camera. They brought the fun to the team, for sure. Despite being extremely professional, the poster children for punctuality, and hard working as all hell, they knew how to have a good time. I'd been working with them since I joined the company almost three years ago, and they'd quickly become two of my closest friends in the world. It had been nothing extremely gracious of our boss, Aiden Brooks, to put them in my team for this. I assumed he was trying to make me feel at least a little bit more comfortable in such a different environment, especially considering the twins had a little bit of experience shooting documentary style vlogs for a few football teams.