#chill max emilian no one’s taking him from you

[33-16]

this is the most royal couple coded photo.

[eclairfromleclerc]

Hello everyone, this is the second part of the "All's Fair" fic. It actually took me a long time to write but the result is a connecting chapter between what happened in part 1 and what is about to happen next. Please note that English is not my native language so there are probably some mistakes. I hope that you will enjoy this "setting the scene part". Your comments are always appreciated. Stay tuned for more xx.

All's Fair (Chapter 2)

Part 1

The rest of the Barcelona testing went by pretty much the same way as the first day. The car met the expectations of the simulation allowing you to be more chilled than at the beginning of the testing. Spain was the same as you remember it to be since the last time you visited, even though you didn't have much of a chance to be a tourist with all of your duties consuming most of your time. On your ride to the airport you tried to get your last view of Spain until later this season, when you would race in Barcelona. Running casually late you get in your family jet where Christian is sitting, waiting for you.

" You know you'll have to stop being late at some point right ?" He tells you strictly 

"Yes I will, I was just trying to get a glimpse of Barcelona before we go back to Oxford. Anyways, are you okay?" You answer 

"Yes I am good, but now we have work to do. We have to read all those papers and articles about our performance till we arrive in the UK, so I am counting on you to help me".

"Okay, give me those." You say as you reach for the engineering articles, since you loved the field. 

"No, no, take this first. It's all the TP statements about the car performances. I had my PR manager get all of them together. I want you to just check on them and just see how diplomatic and strategic all of them are" he says as he starts reading the articles in front of him. You reach for the papers in front of you and start reading. 

"Zak Brown: 'We are really happy to see the car where we wanted it to be, we are hoping that we will be able to fight for podiums and wins during the season. The state of Ferrari, Mercedes and Red Bull is looking good however, it is a shared secret that their car performance does not match their actual one. We are all waiting to see how it really plays out in the first race of the season but we are optimistic.'" you go through other statements from the other teams, until you reach Mercedes. "We are not completely happy with our results concerning the performance of the car and we will try to sort this out until the Bahrain testing and then the season opener in Melbourne. The regulation change resulted in a much different car and we are trying to understand how each and every car operates, to get our best results possible." Toto's statement does not end there since the interviewer asked "what about your opponents? Christian Horner said that you were almost surely sandbagging and you are much quicker in reality. He also joked telling us that he will give you a hard time during the season."

Toto's answer made you roll your eyes. This guy was really annoying. " Our opponents are not our main interest right now, but I guess Christian has plenty of time and is happy with their result since they might be the ones sandbagging. I got to keep up with those guys. They are two now have you seen? Two Horners, this paddock is going to have a hard time." Yeah he definitely has to catch up because you are really going to give him a hard time. That idiot. You keep reading all the team statements and you order a gin tonic to relax a bit and then you see a notification from your iMessage

Max Emilian Verstappen 🦁 22:35

'Just arrived in Monaco. Home sweet home'

'Where r u?'

Me 22:37

'I am on the plane Max, going back to Oxford. Glad to see you're home buddy' you send him a photo of the Team Principals statements and your gin next to it 

Max Emilian Verstappen 🦁 22:38

'Ooh having fun I see'

'Also did you read Toto's statement? He literally said there's two Horners  so I guess you are already blacklisted?'

Me 22:39

'Oh Maxy, I read it, the guy is soooo annoying and I also don't care if he blacklisted me because I have already done the same.'

Max Emilian Verstappen 🦁 22:39

'Fierce girlboss, we love to see it to be honest'

You continue reading all of the statements and you take another look at the lap times when your father's voice interrupts your flow.

"Did you read Toto's statement?" 

"Yes I did. He is scared he won't be able to handle us" you laugh

"Adrian says they are probably hiding a lot of lap time and pace, that they will be showing in Melbourne"

"I know dad, but I also know that our car is quick as well. Max said he can extract more and I trust him. We are going to do well."

"Well you are not wrong. Both Adrian and GP seemed really happy with the performance and don't forget, we are the ones hiding the pace as well."He says taking a breath 

"Now you seem more relaxed. We will see how this goes" you tell him.

"You are right. Now let's just chill out for the rest of the flight. We will see them at home."

You leave the papers in front of you and put them in your bag. You spend the rest of your flight on your socials chatting with your best friends about your day. Later you arrive in England. 

In the next two weeks you would come and go from your home to the factory and back again doing all sorts of the required work, looking at car data and minor improvements you made for the next set of testing sessions in Bahrain. Your work tasks consumed much of your time so you barely realized that you have to leave for Bahrain tomorrow. Many days in your work you would think about what Toto said about you and your dad, and how everyone would need extra energy to keep you chilled and you felt somewhat annoyed but determined to give him the hardest time possible.

Waking up early in the morning you take a shower to start your day and you get ready for your trip to Bahrain, placing your suitcase and bags in the trunk of your Aston Martin. You drive yourself to the airport where Max is waiting for you with his jet, to catch the flight to the country where you will be testing for the rest of the week.  

"Hey Maxy" you say when you see your bestfriend 

"Hi girl, how's it going?" 

“I'm good Max thank you. How about you?”

“Now that we are able to leave, I am much more relaxed. I am really looking forward to the testing because GP told me they changed some things that were wrong on the car and it should feel much more comfortable.”

“Adrian and dad are very positive too, let’s see what we got”

You and Max have great fun in the flight discussing your testing plans until you hear your phone vibrating. It is another email from Liberty Media, the F1 management, about the press conferences later during testing. On the very top of the list you read

“ Team Representatives press conferences (Day 1)”

Group 1 

Jost Capito

Franz Tost

Mattia Binotto 

Group 2

Red Bull Racing Representative  

Toto Wolff

Zak Brown

Group 3 

Gunther Steiner 

Fred Vasseur

Marcin Budkowski 

Otmar Szafnauer 

As soon as you see the “Red Bull Racing Representative” on the list you hope that your father will take over for the press conference. You look at your friend and show him the list.

“Seems like you got yourself a problem Miss Horner.” Max laughs 

“I am really hoping that dad will take this over, i really can’t deal with the guy for those 3 days” you say

“Oh trust me you will have to do it eventually.” he says 

“I don’t even want to think about it, let’s dive back to the schedule for the next days” 

“Your wish is my command” he jokes 

You concentrate on your testing programme and suddenly you hear another ping from your phone 

Christian “Dad” Horner 20:35

“Press conference duties for tomorrow. Good luck with the Wolff.”

You groan as you realize what awaits you tomorrow.