Battle of The Gods

Ventiquattro

Alessandra was comprehending all that happened during the Singapore race weekend, and how from one announcement made by Redbull Racing and Mercedes, her team got dragged into their silly season, and the funny thing is that neither Redbull or Mercedes, or anyone else for the matter, knew about the changes that were about to be made in her driver line up. It was all she thought about when she arrived in Japan, and personally, she wished that she was dealing with this situation on another weekend, because she wanted to focus on the agenda she was aiming to pushing forward during the meeting she had with the rest of the team principals regarding the race, and following up on their previous meeting back in Imola. But now that everything else fell on her lap, she had no other choice but work on it too.

After letting herself, and her drivers, rest during their first night in Suzuka, Alessandra texted Charles, asking him if he was free to have a chat with her sometime during the day on the Tuesday of the Japanese grand prix, and when he said that he could come over to her room in a few minutes, she changed from her oversized t-shirt and shorts into a pair of navy blue pants and white t-shirt tucked in. It was a work meeting, and even though it was going to happen in her hotel room, she needed to be professional, and looking professional helped too.

"Hey," Charles greeted her when she opened the door, moving to the side to let him in after exchanging a hug. Charles took in her appearance, quickly realising that their chat wasn't going to be a casual one like they had when they weren't on track, but this was about work, "how are you feeling, you know, being here for the race and all?"

"As much as I want to be excited for the race because I love this track so much," she started as the two walked deeper into her room, "after everything that happened last year, I feel a bit anxious. What about you?"

"I feel the same," he sighed, "you've got another meeting with the team principals and Stefano about the race, right?"

"Yeah, on Thursday," she answered, "hopefully, my message came across strong enough that things will change for this weekend. I'm not happy that Netflix are going to be there to film it, though."

"Are they filming us this weekend?" He asked, "because out of all race weekends, they better not be anywhere near my garage, especially if the FIA fuck it up again."

"Unfortunately, they are. They're filming me tomorrow at the gym, wanting to get some shots of me preparing for a race weekend," she sighed as she sat down on the edge of her bed, "I'll talk with Mia and make sure that they won't ask you anything related to Jules's crash. You need to be fully focused on the race and it's not fair to get bombarded by questions regarding that terrifying day. Being at the track reminds us of it enough."

"I appreciate that Ale, thank you," he replied, giving her a gentle smile as he grabbed a chair and sat across from her, "so, what did you want to talk to me about?"

"Lewis called me after the race, expressing his interests to sign with us for next season," Charles nodded, chuckling slightly to himself at how Alessandra never wastes time to go straight to the point, a quality he loved and respected about her, "but before I meet with him, I wanted to run it by you. Because I did promise you that 2024, you were going to be the main driver which the project will be revolved around. So, I wanted to know what you thought about the possibility of Lewis also driving with us, you know, being a 7 time world champion and all."

"I appreciate you asking my opinion about who our other driver could be," Charles responded, giving her a soft smile, "you're the boss, you didn't have to come to me regarding this, but I appreciate it truly nonetheless."

"Of course I had to come to you before I made a decision," she said, "I don't want you to think or feel in any way that you'd be pushed aside or not keep my promise because we could be signing a world champion. I will be making it clear to him regarding our plans, so he'll know what he'd be getting into if he decides to join us."