STANDING IN BETWEEN PIERRE and charles at turn four of spa-francorchamps was tough.

her yellow bouquet of flowers was surrounded by charles and pierre's bundles against the barrier. none of them spoke, instead just eyeing the spot as if the tragedy from years ago was still replaying on loop.

isabel remembered it too vividly. she had been staring out at the race while being interviewed when it had happened, and everything pretty much went blank after that. all she remembered was sebastian holding her back from the barrier and the rest was tragic history.

"i love you always," isabel whispered, kissing her fingertips before pressing against the barrier just above the flowers. she then looked at pierre and charles. "i'm going back," she hugged them both before picking up her bike to cycle back to the pitlane.

spa was somber. every year, isabel walked the track either by herself or with charles and pierre in the memory of anthoine. but with every lap, it just reminded her as to why she hated the track so much.

it was complex, she liked that, but changes needed to be made. it wasn't as safe as it should be, especially for drivers in the rest of the formula series that don't have as much experience in the car.

she'd already been talking with the media for most of the morning. they either talked about her late friend or the fact that she's leaving the team at the end of the year, but at least the latter was better than them asking her about anything unrelated to her.

"HEY," MAX'S VOICE STARTLED her as she glanced at the doorway to her driver room.

isabel blinked a few times to snap herself out of her thoughts before giving him a tight-lipped smile. "how did you get in here?" she asked him.

max shut and locked the door behind him before crossing the room to sit down beside her on the couch. "noah snuck me in," he held up his phone. "he said she'd call if i had to escape out the window or something."

isabel chuckled in amusement. she couldn't even be in shock that noah had figured out some of what was going on between her and max because he knew everything.  "i see," she turned on her side a little to face him better. "why are you here?"

"because you look sick and tired of the media's bullshit," max shrugged like it was nothing. "and i know you don't wanna be here right now."

"hm," isabel hummed in agreement. "well, it's not like i can just leave."

"sure you can," max stood up and held his hand out to her. "come on, i'll take you somewhere."

she glanced between his hand and his face before taking it and letting him pull her up. "i forgot you grew up here," she mentioned as he let go of her hand.

"you knew that?" max's eyebrows furrowed for a moment as he unlocked the door.

isabel shrugged it off, "you were talking about it last year when we raced here."

"oh."

thankfully, the garage was basically empty because of it only being thursday, so they got out through the back entrance fairly easily. the only person they'd run into was harry, but he just winked at isabel and held his index finger against his lips as a token of his silence before moving on.

IT WAS NO SECRET that isabel was impatient.

she would take food out of the oven with it having a minute left on the timer. she hated surprises because she couldn't wait an amount of time to see what it was. and she also couldn't sit still while she waited.

max had picked up on it a lot by now, especially while she sat in the passenger seat of the black ferrari that he had picked up from his storage unit within belgium.

"isabel, you need to relax," max lazily steered the car with one hand on the wheel. "impatient much?" his free hand came into contact with her thigh and he pressed his hand down just enough so that she'd stop bouncing around.

isabel huffed and ceased moving. "sorry," she looked at him, taking notice once again of how calculative he always looked when he was driving, even if he wasn't meaning to. "i can't help it."

max could understand to an extent. you spend your life driving fast cars with no time to be slow fuels how impatient one can be when things aren't at the speed of choice. hence why isabel could not sit still for the life of her in the passenger seat.

"i figured," max said. he didn't remove his hand from her thigh and it left isabel feeling like a handprint was burning into her skin, melting and staining into her flesh. "two minutes."

true to his word, max pulled into a carpark two minutes later. isabel stared at the sign above on the building and she laughed in shock when she remembered the place he had taken her to.

"max," she unbuckled her seatbelt as he parked. "wasn't this where we first—"

"yeah," max's eyes sparkled as he looked at her. "our first fight," he laughed. "what was that? ten or so years ago?"

"something like that," isabel looked away from him and instead looked at the karting track in front of them. "i don't even remember what it was about."

max opened his door to get out of the car and isabel did the same. "you probably crashed into me," there was an undertone of teasing to his voice.

isabel scoffed, "bullshit. i was an angel."

"bullshit," he countered, mocking her in the process. "you ran me into the wall, remember?"

"i did that a few times, you have to be more
specific."

max rolled his eyes as he locked the car and walked around near her. "start walking," he pushed her shoulder blade with his hand.

when they got inside and were standing out on the track, isabel noticed that two karts were already there with helmets and gloves. max had called a friend of his that owned the place to get it sorted for them, and it was even better because no one else would be there. just them.

isabel walked straight past the karts, her eyes tracing the track and a faint smile glueing itself to her lips. she hadn't been to this track in belgium since she had left her karting days behind. everywhere she looked, a memory surfaced.

there's the start/finish line where she watched jules win, with lorenzo clutching her and charles' hands so that they didn't get lost.

it's also the start/finish line when she had stolen the win from lando by barely a second.

and there was the side of the track near the line where max and isabel had had their first fight. neither could remember what it was about now, but it was no doubt something stupid; something stupid that had led them to the point they're currently at now.

"come on, we'll race," isabel turned back to him. max was putting on his second glove. "it's been a while."

now that he thought about it, he hadn't raced against her in a go-kart in at least a decade, maybe longer. "yeah," isabel agreed as she put on the helmet. "and same karts, no advantage," she grinned, "i'm winning."

"yeah, yeah, whatever you say."

THE RACE BETWEEN THEM had been close, but max had come out victorious after out-braking her on the final turn.

isabel slowed to a stop beside him in the middle of the track. "okay, you won," she admitted as she flipped up her visor, "but i was leading for 12 laps. that is over half."

max flipped up his visor, a laugh bubbling in his throat. "but i still won."

"okay," isabel rolled her eyes, leaning her forearms against the the steering wheel. "does that mean you'll let me win on sunday?"

"not a chance," he said immediately. "you gotta work for that."

"let me take out your rear wing and then our cars are even," she then laughed, "revenge for australia, when you broke mine."

max didn't think that what he had done in australia was humourous like she currently did because it had been poor judgement from his side, but isabel seemed to have moved past that now. and she did. she believed that her shoving max was absolutely necessary still because he was being a dick, but she didn't have that grudge much anymore.

"i kind of need the rear wing to drive, you know," he stated as he unclipped his helmet and pulled it off. it fluffed up his hair in the process, and isabel couldn't help but look.

"and i need you to not have it to win," she replied.

"nah," max disagreed as he stood up from the kart. "you've beat me a few too many times this year, did alicia ruin your confidence?"

isabel couldn't think of anything to say as she looked up at max, her fingers frozen and no longer trying to unclip her helmet. she hadn't thought about that, but if max had noticed a clear difference, that must have meant that alicia did more damage than isabel realised.

she didn't need to answer, max already knew that answer for himself. and he also knew that he had successfully distracted her from the dreaded media day because he had seen her smile a few too many times to deny it.

x

ALL THREE FREE PRACTICE sessions were more consistent for noah than they were for isabel. he held his usual position of p6 throughout, and isabel bounced from p3 to p7 to p4. a little inconsistent, but she couldn't find it in herself to care. all that mattered to her was winning the grand prix at the race that she knew was cursed.

"GOOD LUCK, KID," HARRY tapped isabel's helmet twice. "remember, you race for you. and anthoine," he added, eyes flickering down to the 'ah19 ❤️' sticker on her helmet. "not the team."

"you're my favourite for a reason, harry," isabel bumped her fist against her engineer's before flipping her visor down.

Q1. isabel made it into q1 easily, not bothering to push constantly since she knew she wasn't getting knocked out of the top fifteen. she rolled back into the pitlane and got wheeled into the garage to remain with warm tyres until q2.

"who's out?" isabel asked through the radio.

"stroll, schumacher, vettel, latifi, magnussen, tsunoda, bottas."

isabel nodded to herself. "and noah?"

"p7. you are p5."

Q2. "can someone tell checo to back off on my corners," isabel said to harry. "it's freaking me out."

for the past three turns now, checo had been getting far too close and almost impeding her hot laps. she knew her mindset in the car was supposed to be one of pure trust in your own capabilities because otherwise there was no point in even getting in the car, but she did not want to be involved in a crash at this circuit.

"i'll sort it out," harry responded. "ditch the lap if you're uncomfortable."

"fucking red bull," she grumbled and aborted the lap. "it was my fucking corner."

"yep, no worries," harry said. "stewards are looking into it after the session."

having to ditch that lap with only two minutes to go, isabel waited until she crossed the line again. the lap was flawless and brought a smile to her face. "that felt good, tell me it was."

"p2, belle! order is leclerc, you, verstappen, perez, sainz, hamilton, russell, ocon, alonso, noah. nicely through!"

"woo!" isabel drummed her hands against the steering wheel. "harry, tell me you brought the vodka or something to celebrate before q3," she joked as she begun to circle the track once more.

"for legal reasons, domenicali," harry spoke aloud through the radio, "that was a joke."

"i wasn't joking," isabel grinned wider, trying to make her voice sound serious but failing. "party time!"

"get through q3 first," harry chuckled. "i'll take you out with zavier afterwards."

MAX hit the button to his radio after he completed his final lap of the session. "someone tell checo to back off on isabel," he noted out loud. "there is going to be worse penalties if he keeps it up." it wasn't the only reason max had brought it up.

"we've got it sorted, max," gp responded. "focus on your times."

"i am," max said, "but a red or yellow because there's been a crash over this will fuck up those times. no more impeding, please."

"noted."

Q3. isabel was one of the first out to set a lap time before she went back to the pits. the plan her and harry were going with worked a lot better in her favour than the ones the strategists came up with.

the goal was to set a time and then head back to the garage until it was closer to the end of the session. it was risky potentially, but it saved the tyres and meant she could push other drivers done some grid spots.

once there were two minutes left, isabel left the garage and eventually got through to completing a flying lap.

"p4, p4!"  harry's smile couldn't get wider. "grid as of currently is verstappen, sainz, perez, you, leclerc, noah, ocon, alonso, hamilton, russell. i do believe it will change soon with the perez situation."

"thank you!" isabel happily swerved her car from side to side as if she was beating her tyres. "harry, we can go get drunk now, right?"

"we can do whatever you want, you've earned it."

"zavier's not invited though," she teased, and moments later, she heard him through the radio. "i work on your car, belle. watch it."

x

CHECO ENDED UP WITH a three-place grid penalty. this meant that isabel was now starting on the second row with charles beside her and max in front of her.

it would definitely be a battle in between the ferraris, but isabel had high hopes going into the first turn. turn one was a notoriously quick corner, one that she could manoeuvre easily.

the lights began to glow to life above her. she took a deep breath on the first light, and held it until all the lights were alive.

"it's lights out and away we go!"

lap one. isabel only exhaled once she slammed her foot down on the accelerator at lights out.

the beginning of the race was smooth until a few turns in when fernando and lewis made contact, running them both into the gravel temporarily. and then lance went into the gravel in the turn after that,

"jesus christ," isabel mumbled as she watched the carnage behind her through her mirrors. she was holding her p3 position well, advancing on carlos as charles focused on trying to not get caught up in the midfield drama behind.

lap three. "yellow flag, sector three," harry mentioned.

nicholas latifi went wide and spun his tyres out into the gravel. as he tried to keep on the track, he made contact with valtteri bottas and therefore sent the finn spinning.

lap thirteen. isabel couldn't take p1 from max after gaining carlos' p2 so she instead pushed on closing the gap with max, using his slipstream so that she could create a larger gap to who was behind her but keeping a smaller gap with the red bull in front.

"don't fight him yet," harry said. "verstappen's still on softs, wait him out."

lap seventeen. isabel could tell that her close gap to max was irritating him because he had a twenty second lead over everyone else. however, he couldn't continue on the softs, so he had to accept losing the position to her as he went into the pitlane.

this meant that carlos moved up into p3 and checo into p4. isabel continued to maintain the seventeen second gap she had to carlos behind.

lap eighteen. isabel traded places with max when she went into the pitlane for the hard compounds. this did mean that when she left the pitlane, it left her in p4, but she was happy to work with that because she didn't plan on putting again for the rest of the race.

lap twenty-nine. "mine, mine, mine," isabel sung to herself as she passed checo to get back into p2.

lap thirty-five. in the drs zone, isabel was able to finally retake her position as race leader, breezing past max before the turn and immediately tightening up her defences when he tried to attack.

"absolutely perfect, belle!" harry commented. "keep it up and the race is yours!"

lap forty-four. final lap. she kept it up like harry wanted, blocking every single one of max's attacks until she crossed the finish line first.

"oh my," isabel let her car swerve from left to right to showcase her happiness at the fact that she had won the grand prix. "tell me i just—"

"isabel," harry said slowly. "you just won the fucking belgian grand prix!"

she realised then that she hadn't won since the miami grand prix, where she had outsmarted max then, too. "let's go! we did it!" she cheered, slowing down and glancing to her right when she noticed max's red bull pull up beside her.

"all you, kid! all you! there's our tinkerbelle."

max flipped up his visor as he held out his hand. he gave her the thumbs down, but she could see that he was laughing from the way his eyes were squinted. she copied him, and he could tell that she found it humourous by the way her shoulders were shaking. it was then that isabel noticed a shift. the shift.

IN THE COOL-DOWN ROOM, isabel sat in the middle chair and waited for the two red bull drivers to come in. "it's my podcast room now, bitch," she said as max stopped in front of her.

"shut the fuck up," he shook her hand before sitting in the chair beside her. he smiled, nonetheless.

"congrats, checo," isabel politely shook his hand and he congratulated her back before they focused in on the screen in front of them.

before max could start pointing things out in minor details, isabel stood up. "wait, can we show quali really quick?" she asked one of the people off to the side, who pulled up the video.

"checo," isabel pointed at the screen as she walked over to it. "we're gonna have a discussion about quali really quick."

they'd talked about it briefly after qualifying yesterday when he had apologised. isabel wasn't mad and didn't hold a grudge, but this was easier for her to point out now.

"this," she purposefully talked slower, as if she was talking to a child. "this is what we call the apex. do you know what the apex is, checo?"

"i do," he nodded, finding the humour in her actions. this was nothing but entertaining for the three drivers.

"that means that when i take the apex, it's my corner," isabel continued, pointing at the screen. "you and your illegal cars—"

"they aren't illegal," checo interrupted even though he knew that isabel was joking.

"mate," max rubbed his face with his hands. "don't disagree unless you wanna hear her drone on for a million years about it." isabel rolled her eyes at him.

"i do not," she defended even though he was kind of right. "anyway," she gestured for the person to switch the video back to the race highlights. "anyway," she cleared her throat. "but i don't think you understand what the apex is if you did the same to george," she pointed to the video, where checo did what he had done to isabel in qualifying to george mid-race. "what are they teaching you in red bull?"

"to win," max answered with a smirk.

isabel giggled. "and that's why you lost today?"

max had to turn his head to pretend to look interested in something else so that he didn't crack a smile.

"anyway," isabel walked back over to sit in her chair again. "rant over. good race."

x

ISABEL OPENED THE DOOR to her hotel room when she heard a knock. it was not who she had been expecting at the door. "emi— oh."

max was wearing a white dress shirt with black pants and his hair was still damp. "oh," he mocked. "you're not ready?"

"i was trying to get ready when you got here," isabel left the door open as she walked back through the room to get to the bathroom. she was wrapped in a white dressing gown that she had just untied. "speaking of, why are you?"

max leaned against the doorframe of the bathroom. "daniel and lando refused to drive me because i apparently complain too much when they drive."

isabel snorted, "you do," she said. "remember when i drove in baku?"

max still averted his gaze when he noticed her reach for her dress. "okay . . . true."

he noticed that her dress was blue before he looked away. "it's not a black dress," he said, "that's a first."

"i wear other colours," she said, "you're just not around for it."

it was silent as isabel pulled up the straps of her dress until they were over her shoulders. it was a simple blue dress, different than the short, tight-fitting black dresses she normally wore, but it added that spark of colour that was normal non-existent. max hadn't seen her wear something this colourful since the paddock in monaco.

he only looked up again when isabel was in front of him. "god," she sighed as she reached up to fluff up his hair, "you do not know how to make yourself look good, do you?" she asked rhetorically, ruffling his hair up until it sat nicer, much like it did post-race.

"so i look good, hm?" he tried to hold back a smirk. isabel just rolled her eyes at him, moving her hands down to the collar of his shirt.

"seriously," she sighed, "how do you have all this money for nice clothes and not know how to dress yourself?"

she barely jolted when max's hands sat on her hips, glancing down at her as she unbuttoned the first few buttons of his shirt. "that's better . . . wait no," she turned in his hold and reached for her jewellery box that sat on the bathroom counter. she plucked a silver chain out of it and held it up to his neck. "better . . ." she nodded to herself, clasping the chain around his neck and fixing it to sit where his shirt was unbuttoned.

when she looked up at him, she was aware of the shift again. it latched onto her and forced her to lock eye contact, refusing to break it. she was now also aware of the fact that her dress was a similar shade to his eyes, a terrible coincidence that was going to serve to bother her.

"isabel," he couldn't figure out which one of her eyes were more mesmerising. they were like deep pools of melted dark chocolate, swirling over the boil and glazing over his own, similar to how you'd glaze cookies in the melted chocolate. her eyes weren't as cold anymore, no, they resembled a mug of hot chocolate on a freezing winter's day.

she already knew what he was going to say. "later," she murmured, now hyperaware of his thumbs rubbing circles on her sides. "we can talk—"

"i wasn't going to say that," max interrupted her. "i was going to say that you look good."

she broke eye contact with him at that, suddenly more interested in the floor. "thanks," she said, voice a lot quieter this time. "you don't look so bad."

the doorbell rang before he could say anything else. isabel stepped back from him and left the bathroom.

"em, hi," isabel greeted emilia with a hug.

"hi! sorry i'm la— oh, hi, max," emilia paused mid-sentence to awkwardly wave at max. she hadn't really spoken to him properly before, and it didn't help that she was a little starstruck by the world champion, even if he did scare her a little when he's on-track.

"hi," he waved back with a smile.

"danny and lando stranded him and he needs a ride," isabel explained.

"ah," emilia nodded, holding up her keys with the mercedes symbol on them. "yeah, i'm happy to drive you, too," in reality, emilia was nervous about driving around isabel and max. they were two of the most talented young drivers in f1 and that put a lot of pressure on her, even if she had raced in other motorsports competitively prior to this.

"relax," isabel wrapped her arm around emilia's shoulders when she noticed the look on her face. "max drives like shit," she whispered loudly so that he could hear, and emilia cracked a smile at that.

"if i drive like shit, then you must be the worst," max shot back, a smile pulling at his lips as he headed to the door.

"jesus christ," emilia muttered as isabel let go to slide on her black platforms. "what have i gotten myself into?"

x

i love them

i have a plan for next chapter and if it turns out the way i'm thinking of,, i'm kinda excited

belle winning after quitting the team is an iconic move im ngl