TRAILBLAZER | M.VERSTAPPEN

02

We walked into the warehouse which was very nice inside despite its cold and plain appearance on the outside. AlphaTauri team principal Franz Tost was waiting for us at the front desk. Franz was a kind man who believed in me and my dream, I owe a lot to him. Stationed beside him was none other than Christian Horner, team principal of Red Bull, and to his right was Sergio Perez.

Shit was becoming real very very quickly.

"Nice to see you, Max and Daniel," Horner said before shaking both of their hands.

Danny and Max quickly moved to the side to shake Franz's and Sergio's hand, as I stood there a little awkwardly.

"And you must be none other than Maeve Drucker" He continued sticking out his hand once again.

I shook his hand, making sure I gave him a nice firm handshake like my Dad always taught me to do. However, I think Horner could feel my nerves through the exchange.

"Well if you can drive half as good as you can give a handshake you'll do just fine in F1 love,"  He said trying to make me feel better.

Christians's phone began buzzing and he quickly excused himself to take it. I walked over to the others who had migrated further down the hall towards the entrance to the main part of the warehouse. I didn't understand why we needed to be in a warehouse for a game of Pictionary, but I suppose the major leagues were different. I quickly joined the group of boys, making eye contact with Sergio and quickly extended my hand.

"It's nice to meet you, Mr. Checo...I mean um Mr. Perez" I stutter out, I'm a fucking idiot.

The boys chuckle.

"Checo is fine Maeve, it's also a pleasure to meet you" he replies, taking my hand and shaking it.

I was on a nickname basis with Sergio Perez, holy shit. A whistle interrupts my internal celebration,

"Hey Checo need you real quick buddy," Horner asks from down the front end of the hallway.Checo walks off and they disappear behind a wall.

"Mr. Checo? Maeve what?!" Daniel laughs out.

"What I wanted to be professional, plus he's like older and I thought it was polite"

"Maeve you know I'm older than him right"

"Yeah but you're just...you know... Danny"

"Nah I should have you call me Mr. Honey Badger or Mr. Riccardo from now on, how about you Max how would you like to be referred to," Danny says shit stirring.

" Sir Verstappen has a ring to it" Max continues.

"You know you can both go suck a fat one" I reply

I felt my phone buzz in my pocket.

I quickly excuse myself. I looked down at my phone, it was from my PR manager Jessica. Attached was an article that had just been published titled: Female rookie Maeve Drucker seen lying on the ground before media day, is the stress already getting to her?

I started to flick through some of the comments that followed the article, some of them made me sick. Comments like: "She already annoying me, just make her leave" or "She doesn't even deserve to be in the same area as drivers like Max Verstappen" but the most commonly occurring comment was things along the lines of "Maeve is gonna find she's will have to spend a lot of her time lying horizontally if she wants to get anywhere in F1, looks like she's already using Max"

I felt my eyes welling up with water, I had received a lot of hate before but never in this quantity and this cruelly. I quickly rub away my tears, my emotions would just make me appear more weak. From now on I had to be careful with what I did and who I was with.

"Now who's ready to play some Pictionary!" The media manager of Red Bull said.

I wasn't gonna let them get to me, I'll be taking things one step at a time, the first step, Pictionary.