The Undercut | Max Verstappen

Chapter 9

August 10th
Monte Carlo, Monaco.
Max's POV.

I sit in front of the camera and shift in my seat, squirming uncomfortably. I think I've already established well enough the fact that no matter how many times I've done this before, I'll probably never get used to it. I'll never stop seeing it as nothing more than a chore. An unnecessary one at that. But then again, that might just be the pessimist in me.

Micah's voice takes me out of my own thoughts for a second. "Are you ready to start recording?" she asks, and I have to blink a few times to regain awareness of my body.

"Yeah, It's okay." I reply, fixing my eyes and straightening out my posture on the chair placed in the middle of my living room, our newly chosen background for the interview segments of the documentary, at least during the summer break. Maybe, if my posture is stable enough, my answers will be good enough to get this over with.

Nick stands behind the camera and smiles at me reassuringly, showing me a thumbs up that boosts my confidence as he fixes the settings of the device. All I have to do is focus on that and not on Micah's fierce eyes burning holes into me. The effect she has on me is the opposite of Nick's. It's like I can never relax when she's around, I'm always on my toes, watching my every step. It's not good for my ego, that's for sure. "Action!" he says and I manage to focus on the task ahead quite easily this time.

"You've had quite the start to the season, haven't you? Six wins out of twelve races. How do you think you've managed to achieve that?"

An episode of self reflection, Micah had called it at the beginning of the day, before we started filming. I'm still not quite sure what she meant about that, but at this point I was still on a high from last night, it seemed as if her attitude towards me had begun to shift, which could only make both of our jobs easier. So, rubbing my chin with the palm of my hand, I replied in the best way I could muster up.

"Of course it's not just something I did. The team gave me a great car, and from that moment on we have been focused enough to make the best possible calls at the right time strategy wise, and maximize every opportunity we've had. So, of course it's a team effort but it obviously feels good to be the guy that's winning. That's always the goal."

Micah nodded along with my words. "How do you maintain a winner's mentality throughout the course of a season as long as this? Does your confidence never falter?"

I thought about my words for a moment, knowing that they'd be able to edit out any points of hesitation. I find podcasts terribly boring, but this seemed oddly alike to being interviewed for one. "I don't really think it's about a winner's mentality or being overly confident. I don't think there's any like, mythical thing about me. I'm just a driver. I enjoy what I do. And winning is my job so I do whenever I can to do that, because I like to be good at my job. I think that even if I did end up becoming a bus driver like my dad used to joke about, I'd still be trying my best to be good at it. There's nothing more to it. And having a great team behind you obviously helps you be more confident because you know you have certain freedoms that others don't have, in the sense that you can experiment and bend your driving style a bit more because you know the car will respond to it."

For the first time, Micah seemed truly interested in what I was saying, and not in a journalist-interviewee sort of way, she seemed to be genuinely invested in the conversation. Her shoulders slumped a little as she found a more comfortable position in the single seater sofa where she was sitting, she crossed one leg over the other, her hands weren't trembling like they did the first few times, and she wasn't triple checking the notes in her lap. She seemed more at ease with me sharing all of this. And I realized that in turn, it made me feel more at ease, so much so that here I was fully expressing my thoughts. Nick's phone began to ring and he had to excuse himself, leaving us alone to continue with the interview.