TWITTER —

isabel leclerc | isabel.leclerc

kevinmagnussen hey kmag can you teach me how to smash a door ?? thanks <3

replies . . .

one | user1
belle does your pr team hate you yet 💀
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belle 💗 | isabel.leclerc
can confirm theyve given up on me
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tori hayes | torihayes
can confirm

F1 NEWS! | formula1news
👀

two | user2
kmag would 100% reply if he didnt have a pr team
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three | user3
he liked your reply pls 💀

arthur leclerc | arthur_leclerc7
i have a joke i will message you it

four | user4
why is max just lurking in all her likes hes turning into pierre
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five | user5
NO FR ITS SO FUCKING WEIRD WHAT THE FUCK CHANGED BETWEEN THEM

x

NOTIFICATION CENTRE —

(2m ago) IMESSAGE — ARTHUR 👽

pretend this is my tweet

"omg no belle stop youre gonna get fired-
oh wait"

lorenzo thought i was funny anyway
i love and miss you !

x

THINGS FELT WEIRDLY DIFFERENT.

isabel had taken the yacht back later that night. with max borderline drunk, she had to try figure out a way to get him back to the car, which had been interesting. she also had to make sure that lando got in the taxi and didn't fall off the jetty on the way back. being the only sober one sucked in that regard but she at least managed to have a good day out to break away from the stress of things.

she'd also given up on following lamborghini's pr rules, too. obviously she listened to tori's still, but the team's? they got the pleasure of watching isabel not give a shit anymore.

for isabel and max? the silence was weird now. it wasn't good and it wasn't bad, it was just . . . normal? but even normal didn't feel like a good enough word for it.

maybe it was just because they weren't amidst a fight out on track with the week off, but they weren't walking on eggshells to stop the other from exploding. a good portion of the time was spent in silence though, relaxing after the race weekend and spending a lot of time training.

they decided to fly to baku on sunday. it meant that they'd get there before their teams did, and it also meant no will and tori.

with two blankets wrapped around her to combat the cold chill of being up so high in the sky, isabel shut off her phone and slid off her headphones. "max," she said. he looked up from his phone. "we still have to do all that shit for tori."

max groaned, "i just wanna sleep."

"it's a five and a half hour flight," isabel deadpanned. "and i'm bored."

"and i'm tired."

"it doesn't look like you're sleeping to me."

"oh my god, you are insufferable," max groaned louder this time, sinking further down into his seat. "last time we did this it was go fish and you hated it."

"because that game fucking sucked," she agreed, standing up with her blankets and crossing the aisle to sit in the seat across from max so that there was a table between them. "we're gonna drive around the circuit before the teams get there, i spoke to tori about it, so it's your turn to pick something."

max's eyes went wide. "there's no way you are driving me around." he hadn't voiced his opinions in monaco because she already looked so paranoid when she was driving around, but he hated it. not because she was a terrible driver or anything, but because he couldn't sit in the passenger seat and remain calm. it wasn't possible. "especially not a circuit."

"i hate it as much as you do," isabel rolled her eyes. "i have to sit passenger while you drive, too. tori and will think it's going to be some great bonding shit. i swear they must think they are therapists," she mumbled the last part.

max accidentally let a tiny smile break through on his face. "they'd be terrible therapists."

"definitely," she pulled the blankets tighter around her. "so, which activity are we going with?"

"you make it sound like kindergarten," max mumbled as he picked up the bag that tori had left them. "uh," he sifted through the bag, "what's this?" he pulled out a book.

isabel's eyebrows furrowed, "that's— that's a crossword book, max."

"i gathered that from reading the title," he held back the urge to roll his eyes, sinking back into his chair. he began to flip through it, staring at the heaps of squares on the pages. "but what is it."

"uh," it was a known fact that isabel's skills lacked when it came to english word-puzzle games. like the time in minnesota, for example. "there's numbers in the boxes, those numbers relate to the question down below. but it depends on if it's down or across."

"uh huh . . ." max trailed off, flipping open to one of the random pages. "we're doing some of this then. and then i'm sleeping."

"yeah, uh . . . my english kind of sucks," isabel grimaced as max slid her a pen.

"your english is fine, you sound fluent," max shrugged off. "i want to learn how to do a crossword puzzle."

aren't you demanding, she internally rolled her eyes. "i can speak it alright, but spelling . . . no, i need autocorrect or something. i can't spell english words." the sounds get all muddled up in her head and then letters don't look right and then suddenly english becomes a nightmare.

max still looked set on doing the crossword. "i'll spell for you, you just help me figure it out."

"this is so stupid," she mumbled under her breath before leaning forward against the table so that she could see the puzzle better. "okay, fine."

"okay, good," max spun the book sideways so that they could both see. "so . . . i match the number with the question?"

she nodded, "and then you answer it." she pointed to a section. "see, one," she pointed to the number. "and it can either go across or down, so pick which one you want."

max hummed as he scanned the question section at the bottom, stopping at one across. "oh, 'the capital city of latvia.'"

"riga," isabel handed the pen back to max. "you spell."

"r—i—g—a," he spelled out as he filled in the box. "what do i do now?"

"try build off it. so, try one down."

ISABEL HAD NO CONCEPT of how long her and max were doing the crossword puzzle for. they worked out the words together and he spelt out every single word that he filled into the boxes.

by the time the crossword had been completed, isabel fell asleep half-slumped over the table. 

"isabel?" max said as he shut the puzzle book. when she didn't move, he hesitantly poked the top of her head with the back of the pen. she didn't move much, but her head shifted away from the pen. "jesus christ," he muttered before looking under the table. he picked up one of the pillows from the floor and then just sat there, staring at it and trying to figure out what the fuck he was doing.

"if i don't do this, she's gonna wake up grumpy, and i don't need that right now," he muttered as he leaned over the table, pillow in his hand. carefully, with a slight wince, he managed to slide his palm under her head and lift it slightly, placing the pillow directly under before placing her head back down. "that saves a headache, mine and yours," he slumped back in his chair and pulled his own blanket over himself.

x

ISABEL WOKE UP WHEN she felt the plane land.

max was already awake and deep in thought as he filled in a different crossword than the one they did earlier on.

however, waking up in baku meant one thing: the end of the ultimatum. in less than seven days, will and tori's plan was over. it had began on the twenty-second of march and was going to end at midnight of june twelve.

because of all the worrying she had been doing, her birthday on june thirteen was pushed to the very back of her mind, almost forgotten about.

she hadn't even heard from charles or carlos about it like she normally did every year when it was two weeks before. it had been because they could tell she was at her breaking point and didn't want to say anything that could make her crumble, and the mention of her birthday was definitely something that would've made her flip out just a week ago. now though? her birthday laid almost forgotten in a pit in the back of her mind, something that wasn't worth worrying about because azerbaijan had been stressing her out for months.

however, now that she couldn't give a shit about alicia and her million problems, the stress had lifted. there was no chance max or her were getting fired and so therefore there was nothing really to worry about. the thought of not getting a seat for next year sucked, but even that was something she didn't care about anymore.

she had a deal with sebastian, and that deal was to have a damn good rest of the season.

x

INSTAGRAM — ISABEL.LECLERC

isabel.leclerc: tired as fuck but im here in baku !!! (also stop sending me mazepin memes what happened in monaco was an accident)

comments . . .

user1: HOW ARE YOU SLEEP DEPRIVED AND STILL SO PRETTY WTF
↳ user2: thats what ive been sayin

user2: belle the memes 💀 this is why youre my favourite driver PLS

charles_leclerc: belle
↳ isabel.leclerc: charlie
↳ carlossainz55: fight fight fight
↳ charles_leclerc: carlos you idiot shes slandering us
↳ carlossainz55: oh oops

pierregasly: very pretty belle! 💙
↳ isabel.leclerc: love you 💙
↳ user3: isabel snatching up the whole grid
↳ user4: theyre basically siblings 💀 user3 ew

landonorris: are you attacking every team now
↳ isabel.leclerc: i would never

user5: unhinged isabel is best isabel

user6: isabel stop my ferrari heart is fragile

user7: belle for ferrari 2024
↳ isabel.leclerc: never in a million years
↳ user8: lamborghini cant even treat her right itd be worse if she went to ferrari
↳ user9: SHE LIKED YOUR COMMENT user8 LMAO

user10: max is just lurking now we see you
↳ user11: somethings happened between them bc what happened to the toxic shit
↳ user10: im not complaining it just means less fights now
↳ user12: not to insinuate but i reckon they-
↳ user10: dont be shy, finish your sentence user12

user11: mazepin slander >>>

user13: belle is the loml

user14: ew i hate your driving
↳ isabel.leclerc: ew i hate your face
↳ user15: someone needs to stop her toriihayes do your job PLEASE 😭😭

user15: lamborghiniracing never give belle a pr team again i love this version of her
↳ user11: why would you tag them 😭

x

"GET IN THE CAR, max."

"why are you so mean," max rolled his eyes as he got into the passenger side of the ferrari.

that was another thing. max had expected it to be a lamborghini, but apparently not. she did come from a ferrari family though, so it wasn't too surprising.

"you're the mean one," isabel waited until he had his seatbelt on before starting the car. as soon as it roared to life, max immediately looked awkward. "you need to relax though. i won't drive us through a wall."

"you almost went through a wall in monaco," max grumbled as he tried to get comfortable in the seat. he was curious about her driving style though since he had never seen it before, so that was one positive.

the baku city circuit was already set up with it being a few days out from the race weekend. with tori able to pull a few strings, the two drivers got the whole track to themselves.

which would've been better in a formula one car but that wasn't an option.

out of spite, isabel shifted her gears and slammed her foot down on the accelerator. fuck going slow, dick, she cursed him silently, a laugh escaping her as he immediately went to hold onto the handle inside the door. "i didn't think driving around a world champion would be this fun," she giggled.

baku was full of ninety degree corners and a handful of more complex turns on top of it. she was going to enjoy every second of torturing max.

"holy fuck," max breathed as she turned the first corner, hardly slowing down. "you do know there's a brake."

"uh huh," isabel hummed absentmindedly as she turned the ninety degree of turn two. she only shifted down one gear lower to do so, and max couldn't work out how she took the apex perfectly in the process.

"okay, stop," max said and isabel complied. when she slowed to a stop before turn three, he turned to face her. "do you normally drive like that?"

"how else do you think i beat you to taking the apex?" she questioned as if it were obvious. she caught the shocked look on his face, "aw, have i shocked a world champion?"

"you've stunned him," max admitted. "this is what you did in monaco to beat checo out of the pitlane, lap twelve," he realised. "i thought i was going to have to dodge your crash."

"it is," she nodded, "just a little trick i've managed to mostly perfect because it throws everyone off. it is risky, sure, but it pays off."

"it was wet weather in monaco, though," max couldn't wrap his head around it because it was so fucking stupid. who takes a corner that sharp at such a high speed? if that goes wrong with that much g-force . . .

"max," she fully turned in her seat to face him now. "i think you need to realise that your seat in red bull is so consolidated, probably more than anyone's seat in this whole sport. you don't have to take risks," a soft laugh escaped her humourlessly, "you have the fastest cars, too. i have shit to prove, a lot more than most, and if i don't take risks just because it's wet weather, then i'm not worth my seat."

max fell silent for a moment. "that is a terrible mindset to have," he said, facing back out the windshield. "but i understand what you're saying. you can start driving again, if you want."

he couldn't argue with anything she said because it was all the truth. red bull was a dominating team, especially as of recently. they had the fastest cars, the top tier strategies, a world driver's championship last year . . . they had it all.

instead, for the rest of the drive around the track, he focused on her driving style. he took notice of the way she took the corners, whether she braked earlier or later depending. the way she shifted gears expertly, looking like how one would play the piano; rhythmically and always had a pattern to it.

it was different to how he drove out on track. they both shared the same calculative and aggressive driving styles, but hers managed to look so rhythmic and gentle at the same time, very much unlike his own. he'd be thoroughly surprised if she didn't win a world championship title in the next three years.

after enduring the chaos that was sector two and the the decently calm sector three, isabel stopped just before where the chequered flag would be. "your turn."

"you have no clue how insecure of my driving you've made me," max noted as he unbuckled his seatbelt.

isabel pulled a face, "you literally won last year."

"still," he shrugged as he got out of the car, her doing the same so that they could swap sides. "okay," he said, getting into the driver's seat and buckling the seatbelt. "ready?"

"ready," she confirmed as soon as she had her seatbelt on.

isabel, much like max, feared for her life in the passenger seat. however, she took notice of how smooth his driving was, something that matched some of the most experienced drivers she knew. being this smooth of a driver at twenty-four? that was insane. but it was also max verstappen, so she really wasn't at all that surprised. he was still young, still the future of f1.

and yeah, it hurt a little to realise that he had so much going for him, but that was reality. and reality sucked. but she knew he deserved it, deserved all the good that had come from years upon years of hard work. he deserved every single accomplishment, every single win, every single ounce of love from red bull because he was the future. and his future was brighter than most.

it still didn't make it hurt any less, though.

x

this is more of a filler chapter just cause

guys this is why i love what ive accidentally done:

so basically AGES ago in an earlier chapter,, i wrote that isabel's birthday is june 13 as a random date. and then when i was looking through the 2022 race calendar,, i realised that june 13 is the day after the race day for the azerbaijan gp. it weirdly worked out so well and it was all by accident