"HE CAN'T BE FUCKING SERIOUS, FERNANDO?"

WU YIXING wasn't the type to lose her temper, far from it actually. Even if she was the butt of all the jokes at Alpine, even if she was forced to endure so many humiliating things at the expense of keeping her job. God the job reeked of misogyny but she handled it because she refused to let the men see her as a weak person. Now, she had completely lost it. All the rage, the frustration, the pent up anger... it just spilled when she had started to rant to Fernando, the only man that had enough respect for her and all the other women who worked within Alpine.

"I'm sure we can figure something out, okay?" Fernando says softly. He had offered to escort the girl out, fearing that she would lash out violently towards her former boss and have more trouble on her hands. Esteban promised to figure out what could have happened in the loss of translation, which Yixing could care less about. In a way, she was elated to be fired from Alpine.

She hated them anyway.

"What am I going to do, Fernando? no one will take me in!" she said in a heartbroken tone. She had accepted Alpine's offer straight out of college, being the only place willing to offer her a job in such a competitive field. albeit they refused to put her in the job she applied for, it was something that put food on the table. god she hated that stupid pink and purple team. Fernando sensed it too, and sighed loudly.

"If it makes you feel better, I'm leaving. I hate it here too." he shrugs. she's taken aback, almost surprised. What did he even mean by that? Was he retiring? Was he finding a different career path that wasn't Formula One? He noticed that questions swirled in her head, and he laughed softly towards the girl.

"I'm not retiring, god no. Someone has to keep the kids in check around here." he says, a playful tone in his voice. She sighed in almost relief as those words left his lips. She couldn't imagine how terrible it'd be if he laid the news on her that way. He tilted his head as he hummed.

"Aston Martin offered me a spot. Lawrence says that Lance needs a good support driver right now. Sebastian's leaving, and it affected the poor kid more than they thought." Fernando says this in a hushed tone, and Yixing frowns at his words.

Contrary to popular belief, Lance Stroll wasn't as big of a brat as people made him out to be. Yixing had met him before, and he was awfully nice. A bit of a dork for someone on his dad's payroll. He was almost shy and reserved outside of the whole business that was Formula One. She didn't blame him, it was always a horrible time at the paddock. Some of the drivers believed a bit too much into their own hype, and seemed pretty grounded for the most part. She turned to the Spanish driver, who sighed in annoyance.

"Alpine doesn't know either. i plan to keep it that way until they start negotiating." he says with a shrug. She nodded, not completely surprised at his admission. He didn't seem to like how the pink team was run, so she was happy that Fernado decided to leave.

"At least Aston Martin offered you something... I'm going to have to log back into my fucking Indeed account that i totally forgot the login for!" she whined childishly. he laughed a bit, soon apologizing seeing the girl's pout. He soon lights up, grinning mischievously.

"Almost every single team owes me a favor. i'll see what team is a good fit for you." He winks with the same grin. Yixing gave him a confused look, as Fernando shrugged.

"Come on, you think every team could screw me over without consequence?"

ᯓ★

"GOD, THIS PLACE STINKS."

Ilse mutters this quietly as she wrinkles her nose in disgust. Oscar couldn't help but agree as they arrived at the McLaren Technology Center. He just didn't like McLaren, while she just hated their tacky orange. He had already been here to sign his contract, but now Ilse had to meet everyone in McLaren. While Mark Webber controlled the business and contract aspect of his career, Ilse was more on the side of making him look good... and dear god did she think he needed it. He always had a deadpan tone when he spoke, pretty quiet for the most part. She knew he was going to claw his eyes out at the idea of being a part of the "papaya family" as former driver Daniel Ricciardo would put it as.

Oscar hummed as he scanned his keycard, being able to access the office area with a sigh. He turns to Ilse, frowning. He didn't like being annoying or emotional at all, but something ate at him. It was stupid to complain about in the career path he was in, but it was kind of the reason he was here now. Daniel was supposed to still be here. Oscar didn't really have a second thought when he negotiated with an anonymous team. He didn't know what his agency did, but they kicked Daniel out of McLaren just for him to secure a spot. He always felt a sense of guilt for taking his spot, even if he had no control of how it happened. It was his agency being selfish and McLaren bending to their demands with money.

"Do you think i'd ever be in a top team without the politicking that got me here?"

"I'd like to think so, Osc."

He hummed at her answer, a twinge of a smile appearing on his usual stone cold face. He soon opened a door to the conference room, being met with the staff. He soon used his ridiculously practiced PR smile, nothing like the shy and genuine smile Ilse coaxed out of him. The greetings started, and he groaned internally as Zak Brown finally paired him with his future teammate as a 'bonding' exercise. In reality, he wanted to talk to Ilse to try and negotiate what type of PR Oscar was willing to do.

Lando looked at Oscar with a bit of a dimpled grin, Oscar smiling as well to not be rude. god, Lando Norris looked even more like a secondary school student in the aussie's eyes. However, there was something else in Norris' eyes that he couldn't quite decipher. something he didn't like. He ignored it, maybe the nerves of being in a big team getting to him.

"So you're Oscar, huh? Welcome to McLaren!" Lando says his tone more genuine than Oscar would like to admit. Maybe the nerves really got to him, and he sighed in embarrassment. Lando seemed to actually be nice for the most part, while he had assumed something else. While he usually wasn't wrong in his observations, maybe it was all a little too much for him. He soon apologized to the older driver.

"Sorry mate... I'm just a bit nervous." he says softly. Lando frowns, a little worried. Oscar didn't like the worried look in his eyes, feeling even worse for assuming the worst about the British driver in front of him. Lando patted his back, nodding.

"I get it, I really do. The team has a lot of history, we have a lot to prove." he says sympathetically. The Aussie could honestly care less about the drivers that came before him, he was just scared of what he represented at this point. Everything that brought him to this point. He usually didn't feel this nervous on other missions. he sighed and smiled awkwardly

"I'm probably just overthinking it." he says sheepishly. the british driver hummed, throwing his arm over the aussie's shoulder with a grin.

"Let's see what we can do to fix that."

🧷 ✧ ˚. ᵎᵎ ⠀⠀ ⠀⠀❛ HOUSEKEEPING. ❜
- i don't got shit to say gang i js hope u enjoyed

★ thank u for reading!
- love, piastrified

- EDITED CHAPTER