WHEN ISABEL WOKE UP and realised she wasn't in monaco, a thousand thoughts crossed her mind. but one in particular: how on earth had she managed to fall asleep?

waking up in the middle of the night for the past few weeks when she wasn't back home had become the new normal. she'd wake up, respond to the chess imessage game she was playing with lorenzo, play subway surfers, and then listen to old press conferences for white noise until she fell back asleep. and the cycle repeated.

so when she made it through the entire night without waking up, of course she was confused. it didn't help that there was a weight over her side that definitely wasn't the blanket.

and then she remembered. the realisation crashed over her and left her drowning, the currents catching her ankle and pulling her down under.

with an inaudible sigh, isabel slowly rolled over to face the ultimate problem. past him, she could see that it was almost nine in the morning from the digital clock on the nightstand. the fuck . . .? she questioned herself, rubbing her eyes tiredly.

carefully, she slipped out from under a sleeping max's arm and trudged into the bathroom, flicking the light switch on her way in.

the bright light blinded her for a moment until she could see again. her appearance was not one she was enjoying.

her hair was messy and had mostly fallen out of the bun she had tied it up in at some point last night. the wavy strands fell into her eyes and she haphazardly pushed them back behind her ears to try contain the mess. it was safe to say that isabel was not enjoying staring back at herself one bit. and then she caught sight of something else.

just as she reached her hand up to her neck, max appeared in the reflection, startling her for just a moment as he leaned his elbows against the counter next to the sink. "morning," he yawned.

"i swear to god," isabel muttered as she trailed her fingers over the dark spots on her neck. "i know that you know that i am in that conference on thursday," she looked at him through the reflective surface. "bastard," she said under her breath.

max's eyes flickered up to her neck before a chuckle escaped him. "yeah, good luck with that one."

isabel did what she did best and shoved his shoulder before turning around and walking out of the bathroom.

"okay, okay," max's voice got closer as he followed her back out into the main room. "but don't act innocent when you did the same thing."

isabel stopped and only looked at him once she sat back down on her bed. some random old race from a couple of years ago was paused on tv with the words 'continue watching?' displayed in the centre. she didn't even want to know how many races had played until youtube figured out that it was idle and autoplay cancelled itself.

looking at max, she noticed the matching marks against his collarbones and she groaned. "jesus, put a fucking shirt back on."

and he had the audacity to smirk. "that's a bit of a problem," he pointed out before gesturing to her lazily.

"fucking hell," isabel withheld her groan as she looked down and noticed that she was wearing his shirt. his red bull shirt. "just—" she huffed, standing up and picking up her shirt from the floor. "just give me a second."

max couldn't help but make a comment as she walked past him to get back to the bathroom. "you do know that i've seen you without—"

"max!" she warned, her voice echoing around the bathroom as she slammed the door shut behind her. his laughter faded out when she glanced back at the mirror again. how didn't i notice it before? she thought, quickly pulling the shirt off and swapping it for her own one. the material of hers was cool against her skin, removing the warmth and drenching her in ice. it wasn't welcoming.

"i am a fucking mess," she pulled the hair tie out of her hair and tried to smooth down some of the frizz. walking back out of the bathroom, she held the shirt out to him.

when max reached for it, she pulled it away from him. "isabel," he rolled his eyes and reached for it again. she moved it away once more.

"are you going to stop talking shit about me to the media?" she questioned even though she already knew his overall answer.

"probably not, no," max said bluntly as he held out his hand. "c'mon, don't act like you're fucking perfect."

a smile tugged at her lips but she held it back. "no," she agreed with him, "but at least i have reasoning behind mine." she held the shirt back towards him. he went to pull it from her grasp and this time she didn't let go, a silent challenge sparkling in her dark eyes.

max twisted his hand around the shirt and tugged harder this time, his other hand meeting her waist and pulling her flush against him.

"you're not winning this weekend, max," isabel stated calmly, not once looking away from him.

"uh huh, we'll see," he responded, managing to fully take the shirt from her grasp before he got pushed backwards.

"dickhead," she coughed and he rolled his eyes as he walked towards the front door.

"goodbye, isabel," max drawled as he opened her door and stepped out into the hallway.

"good fucking riddance," she gave him a sarcastic wave before the door shut and he was gone from sight.

x

ISABEL LIKED RED BULL ring. she however did not have good experiences with austrian f1 fans.  and that meant she didn't like a good portion of the fans who showed up to the austrian grand prix.

last year in general, she had a terrible experience with the fans at the austrian grand prix. the homophobia, sexism and racism was insane with lot of abusive fans hanging around, and although most comments weren't directed at her, she still spoke up about it post-race. when the pitlane was open to the public, she'd heard abuse thrown out between fans for absolutely no reason, so she'd stepped in as she walked past. sure, she then ended up copping a lot of the insults in the process, but she could live with that. at this point, it hardly bothered her anymore.

she was hoping that it wouldn't be the same for this year. a change needed to be made because the sport was already toxic enough online, but in person? that was entirely different. fights got physical.

"okay, belle," tori stopped just off to the side of the conference area to fix isabel's hair. "you ready?"

"no," isabel said honestly, not enjoying the fact that she had to listen to pointless questions for the next forty-five minutes or so. she let tori smooth down her hair before saying, "who is in it?"

"you, lando, max, alex and lance," tori said as she stepped back and pulled out her phone. "please don't make my life too difficult."

"i would never," isabel grinned at her friend before walking into the room to sit down on the couch. so far, it was only her and lando.

lando stood up to greet isabel with a hug when she get close enough. "are you excited that—"

"one word, lando," she whispered with the air of a threat, "and i swear to god—"

lando giggled as he pulled away from her to sit back down. "alright, alright," he conceded. "you're no fun." when she sat down beside him and he looked at her, he caught sight of her neck and his eyes widened. thank god the microphones weren't on yet. "oh my— belle!" he said a little too loudly so she shushed him. "your neck—"

isabel groaned as she fixed her collar so that it was pressed closer to her skin. the dark marks had faded a little over the past two days, but they hadn't disappeared entirely, so she resorted to a collared lamborghini shirt that she normally wore in the colder countries. "yeah, burnt myself on a fucking hair straightener," she commented dryly.

"that lie stopped working on me," lando said. "who was it? was it m—"

"mon dieu," she whispered in irritation. "no. some austrian guy, i don't know," isabel shrugged off, lying as if it were a language she was fluent in. and at this point it really was.

"right," lando nodded, believing her lie. "you are very strange, belle," he lowered his voice to a whisper, "one second, you're kissing max and the next it's some random guy. no one is safe."

all isabel did was nudge him in the ribs with her elbow before alex and lance filtered out to join them. max was the last, sitting at the opposite end of the couch from isabel. their eyes didn't meet once.

QUESTIONS DRONED ON FOR far too long. most revolved around the iconic silverstone race, but one in particular was addressed to isabel. a question that was much unlike the others that she normally got.

"isabel," a man asked addressed her. "the video that alicia published a while ago—"

"oh god," isabel whispered, inaudible to those who weren't beside her.

"—has been talked about a lot recently with the upcoming 'silly season'. have you negotiated any deals or anything? we haven't heard much about you, surprisingly."

oh yeah. silly season was soon to kick up since the summer break was in a few weeks. isabel was still yet to hear from alicia on anything to do with the subject, but she didn't care enough to do so. she wasn't going to announce her plans to leave the team and probable exit from the sport until a bit later on in the season, especially since emilia had just been signed as a reserve and that was enough news for now.

"i don't know," isabel shrugged, bringing the microphone up to her lips. "i haven't spoken to anyone yet. i still have a contract for next year, and i think it is being left at that." another lie. yes, she had the contract that listed 2023 as her last year with the team before she was originally going to negotiate with them, but for now she was happy to ride it out until maybe after the break. that gave her time to go home to monaco, spend time with family and friends, and overall, collect her thoughts.

the man ran out of time and it moved onto the next person. the question was pointed at lance, so isabel zoned out like she normally did for however long it would take until her name was called upon again.

and then her eyes finally caught max's. he subtly brought his hands up to his neck and mimed out fixing an imaginary shirt collar when he noticed he had her attention.

dickhead, isabel thought with a quiet huff. it summed up that he had done it to her on purpose, leaving her to suffer through the press conference. instinctively, she brought her hands up to her neck to make sure that nothing was visible, and she caught max's smirk.

without making it too obvious, she covered the side of her mouth with her hand to stop the journalists from looking and mouthed 'fuck you' at him. max had to cough to cover up his laugh.

"i actually have a follow up question from before," a woman in the crowd of journalists mentioned, glancing to the man that asked isabel the question before. isabel forced her full attention on the woman. "isabel," she said, "considering it's austria and last year you spoke about the whole red bull thing . . ."

oh, isabel tried not to roll her eyes. last year, she had mentioned her distaste for red bull — both the drink and the team, despite the fact that she had never tasted it and never driven for them — during a thursday interview. and she knew exactly what the woman was going to ask, so she kept her eyes forward and stopped herself from glancing over at max.

"you posted a photo in monaco," she read off her notepad, "and there was a red bull can there. is there a possible future move to red bull?"

it was max's, she stopped herself from saying aloud. "you guys really are detectives," she laughed awkwardly. "no, there's definitely no move to red bull. lando was actually drinking it in my car," please play along, she thought hopefully. lando wasn't the best with social cues, usually speaking before thinking.

luckily, he got the memo. "yeah," lando agreed with a laugh. "i got in trouble for almost spilling it in her car."

isabel turned slightly to face him. "you did spill it in my car." she was glad he was a brilliant actor all of a sudden.

lando looked sheepish, "yeah, my bad."

x

"I HOPE YOU DON'T think this is weird because we haven't known each other very long, but there's something clearly up with you," emilia mentioned as she stood with isabel towards the back of the garage. isabel was in the process of showing emilia a little more to do with the data and everything else in case there was ever a reason for emilia to step up in fill in. it was better for her to know beforehand rather than figuring it out during the weekend.

"oh, no," isabel brushed off, "everything is fine." she slipped on her gloves. sitting on the counter beside her helmet among other things, she glanced back over at emilia. it's not that she didn't trust emilia, it was more so that she didn't want to dump any of her issues on someone she'd just properly met. emilia had been really open and honest, leaving noah, isabel and her to get along really well so far in the short amount of time, but some things were left better unsaid. at least in isabel's opinion.

plus, people finding out about whatever the hell isabel and max had gotten up to was not something isabel wanted to deal with. especially not if charles found out. she didn't want to deal with that anytime soon either.

"if you're sure," emilia offered her a warm smile. it was as contagious as daniel's. emilia placed her hand on isabel's shoulder comfortingly before dropping it. "i'm always around if you want some well-earned girl-talk." she lowered her voice, "'cause i feel like you've been around way too many guys."

isabel let out a laugh. "you're absolutely right," she agreed, thankful for the offer. it was refreshing to have another girl around. the sad truth was that isabel hadn't grown up with many friends in general throughout school, but even in the racing world since she was a kid, there weren't as many girls around. it had been that way all the way up until this point in time. she'd only ever had tori because she hardly had time to hang out with the wags throughout the years because she was always the one racing, and usually after spending hours in a car, she was exhausted. it was unfortunate, but emilia had come in and was slowly changing that. "summer break's soon, we could get to know each other properly then, if you would like."

emilia brightened. "awesome! i have plans to move to monaco soon anyway, so," she mentioned.

isabel slipped her balaclava on and made sure that her hair was completely tucked into it. "i'd be happy to show you around and help you set up your place and everything," she found herself saying, shocking herself with how open she was being straight away with emilia. that's new, she thought to herself. she hopped off the counter and picked up her helmet.

emilia's smile was so contagious that isabel couldn't help but match it. "you are a lifesaver," she clapped her hands together excitedly. "talk later though, yeah? have a good free prac!"

"grazie!"

FP1, FP2 AND FP3 went swimmingly for lamborghini. isabel bounced between p2 and p4 and noah held p6. now it was qualifying.

"you're gonna do great," isabel assured noah as she stood beside his car. he was already in it, helmet on and getting ready to be one of the first out of the track. "the track looks like a useless whale anyway. it's kinda boring."

noah let a quiet laugh slip. "thanks, belle," he gave her the thumbs up before picking up his steering wheel to slide it into the slot. "good luck to you, too!"

isabel shot him one last smile before flipping down his visor and heading back to her garage.

Q1 wasn't too interesting. isabel remained in her p2 spot, wedged between the ferrari boys that were back in the pits.

"still in p2?" she asked harry through the radio.

"yep," he responded cheerfully. "first ten is leclerc, you, sainz, verstappen, alonso, hamilton, perez, noah, russell, norris."

isabel silently counted the names. "noah's p8? in front of george?" you could hear the smile in her voice. "let him know i am happy for him, please."

"will do, belle. and congrats to you, also!"

Q2. "you can catch verstappen in q3," harry mentioned. "ditch the lap and roll back in, don't burn out anything now."

"okay," isabel pulled over to the side of the track at a slower pace as she headed back into the pitlane. "where am i?"

"p3. leclerc, verstappen, you, hamilton, sainz. noah's p9 behind alonso."

"but i can catch max?" she said again as she rolled into the pitlane. "i want p2 or pole. nothing else."

"i reckon you've got it easily. we'll talk when you get back here."

Q3. the session was red flagged because lewis crashed at turn seven.

"is he okay?" isabel asked as she slowed. she was currently sitting p4 since she had only gotten one lap in.

"he hit the wall pretty hard, but he's one hundred percent okay," harry answered. "nothing to worry about, isabel."

almost as soon as the green flag cleared the race to start up again, the red flag was waved once more. isabel was halfway out of her garage when it was waved. curiously, she looked over at harry, who she could just see around the corner.

"george," and isabel winced because that meant both mercedes were out. "overshot the corner. he's okay."

"good," isabel mumbled, the surrounding mechanics pushing the car back into the garage so that she didn't have to reverse. "that leaves me a few minutes for pole, yes?"

"it does," harry confirmed. "i know you want a top two, but we are fine with anything. you can make up those positions later."

isabel shook her head. sitting in the car left her in a different headspace. a headspace full of pushing herself to her limits and wanting more. some may consider it greedy, but she knew it was where she was most confident. she wasn't labelled one of the most talented younger drivers for nothing.

there were twenty seconds to the end of q3, which meant that she had to pull off faster sectors during her current hot lap because she wouldn't have time to go again.

one after another, the cars of charles, carlos, max and then isabel crossed the line.

"harry?" isabel said immediately after she crossed the line.

"that's four cars within a tenth, belle!" harry said. "you just snatched pole from verstappen. order for tomorrow is you, verstappen, leclerc, sainz, perez, russell, hamilton, noah, alonso, schumacher."

"thank you!" isabel smiled as she slowed to drive around the track once more. "merci!"

once she was out of the car in parc fermé, parked behind the p1 sign, she was immediately embraced by charles. "wait," she laughed as she tried to pull away from him. "my helmet—"

"sorry," charles laughed back before pulling away so that she could unclip her helmet and take that and the balaclava off. the second she did so, she embraced charles with the same greeting she had given arthur earlier on in the day: kissing both of his cheeks before hugging him tightly. "you did it!"

"of course!" isabel smiled up at her brother brightly. they had both been worried earlier on before their qualifying session because arthur was also racing this weekend with f3 and he had been on the track beforehand. as older siblings and two that had lost friends to motorsport, worry coursed through them whenever arthur got into the car. even though arthur complained every time they fussed over him. "is arthur here?"

charles nodded, "yes. over with ferrari," he gestured behind him.

"give me a second," isabel told him before turning around to head in the direction of her team. as charles headed over to where the ferrari team were, max walked near isabel on her way to lamborghini.

"hey," he said quietly despite the fact that there was basically a camera in their face. "congrats on pole."

"thank you," isabel held her hand out to him reluctantly. "thanks for letting me have it," she winked at him.

max shook his head as he briefly shook her hand anyway. "yeah, okay," he dismissed.

"but nice p2," she mentioned before her hand fell back to her side. they split directions after that, with isabel going over to her mechanics and harry and max doing the same with his team.

"that's pole, kid!" harry cheered as he wrapped isabel up into a hug from the other side of the barrier. she laughed as the mechanics from either side of him all managed to turn it into a group hug.

"congratulations!" she could just hear zander say from beside harry.

"thank you," she said as they let her go. emilia managed to squeeze through the group of men until she was at the front of the barrier.

"that was awesome!" emilia grinned as her and isabel hugged over the barrier. "congrats, isabel!"

"merci!" isabel pulled away from her. "come onto this side," she motioned emilia over.

emilia looked confused. "i'm not allowed on that side."

isabel shrugged and looked at zavier. "can you lift her over?"

emilia let out a high-pitched noise when zavier placed his hands on either side of her and lifted her over the barrier as if she weighed nothing. "oh my god!" she exclaimed.

"come on," isabel looped her arm through emilia's and led her through parc fermé. "noah should be here now."

"if i get fined, you are paying it," emilia decided with a laugh as isabel pulled her through the space.

"the fia love me," isabel joked as they finally reached noah's car.

"that's a lie," noah interrupted when he heard her statement. "hey, em! did belle drag you here?"

"yeah! but nice quali, man," emilia congratulated him.

"thanks," noah smiled as they high-fived. "we'll have to get you in the car soon."

"mhm!" emilia hummed, remembering something. "i think they want me in the car after summer break. i can't remember when, though."

"this is so exciting!" the genuine look of happiness on isabel's face was something that made noah smile immediately. he hadn't seen her this happy in a while. "i'll teach you what i taught noah last year."

x

AFTER A ROUGH NIGHT of sleep, it was finally race day. instead of showing up early to the track like she was supposed to, isabel got there just after midday. something that definitely wasn't allowed because the race starts at three.

before that, however, arthur had his feature race, and the chequered flag had just been waved.

"charles," isabel latched onto her brothers arm, "ollie just— arthur just—"

"they did," charles was equally as shocked as she was, but it was slowly turning to excitement. "they did it."

when arthur finally crossed the line barely a second after ollie did, a large smile broke out onto isabel's face. all the worry melted away as her and charles embraced each other. "they fucking did it!"

ollie finished in p3 and arthur finished in p4, which were both excellent results for prema. "come on," charles pulled his sister away from the barriers and towards another set so that they could go see their brother and his teammate once they were out of their cars.

the first thing arthur did once he and ollie congratulated each other was rush over to his older siblings to hug them over the barrier. "félicitations!" isabel and charles chorused.

"yes, belle, he is definitely going to break your records," charles laughed as isabel nudged his side with her elbow.

over arthur's shoulder, isabel waved for ollie to come over and join them. since he had his helmet off, she could see him smile before walking over to join their group hug. "congratulations, ollie," she said warmly to the british teenager.

"thank you, belle!" he grinned.

"no, no," arthur said once he moved away. "ollie will be breaking belle's records soon," he stated.

charles snorted. "he already has."

isabel rolled her eyes. "it was one record by .1," she of course was glad that ollie had been the one to break her f3 lap record in bahrain earlier on in the year. ollie was a strong driver despite only just turning seventeen, and so she wouldn't be surprised at all if he ended up in f1 in the next two or so years.

"arthur and i have a list of your records we're trying to break," ollie told the older leclerc siblings.

arthur nodded in agreement. "we have a whiteboard list."

isabel glanced at charles. "they are crazy," she whispered loudly on purpose.

charles agreed, "very."

x

LINED UP ON THE grid, isabel waited for the rest of the drivers to settle into their spots.

it would be a race to turn one, that was for sure. with max starting next to her on the front row and charles behind her, she needed to hold p1 because if she lost it to max, then she would surely lose p2 to charles immediately after. especially because there was no way that carlos would attack his own teammate on the first lap and would be more focused on defending against george.

when the lights disappeared, isabel immediately accelerated to force max behind her into the first turn.

"so, we wait for the five lights here in spielberg . . . and it's lights out and away we go!"

with carlos distracted by trying not to lose his position to george during turn one, charles instead tried to pull max in different directions by feigning attacks. this allowed isabel to produce a gap between her and max.

lap eight. with george serving a five second time penalty in the pitlane for taking out checo in the first lap, it allowed both ferrari drivers to comfortably sit without being attacked.

isabel had lost p1 to max in lap seven, but she remained in p2 in front of charles. he was throwing attack after attack at her ruthlessly, so as soon as he hit the drs zone, he managed to slip around her after faking attacks in another direction. carlos was a couple of seconds behind, so she didn't need to worry about being attacked as of currently.

lap twelve. for the past few laps, isabel had witnessed charles doing what he had down to her to max. he feigned attacks and kept max on edge for the past three laps, and so when max thought that he was in the clear and didn't need to worry about charles anymore, the ferrari driver managed to slip through on the inside of max, catching the red bull driver entirely off guard.

isabel almost laughed in disbelief, and she would have if she wasn't defending carlos from overtaking her with drs.

lap fourteen. "okay, belle, verstappen's pitting. he'll probably come out in p7 or so, so you're in the clear to fight leclerc for p1 soon."

"thanks," isabel thanked harry for the information as she bumped up from p3 to p2 with max heading into the pitlane.

after she cleared the first turn, harry spoke again. "hamilton's cleared both haas drivers. he is p4 and will start pushing on ocon and sainz soon."

that meant that isabel could focus on charles for now since esteban was a whole thirteen seconds behind carlos.

lap nineteen. by out-braking charles after using drs on turn four, isabel was able to takeover as race leader.

"build a gap from leclerc, verstappen is starting to climb the gap."

the gap between carlos and lewis was sixteen seconds, but isabel and harry both knew that it wouldn't take a red bull car long to close the gap,

lap thirty. after leading for eight laps, charles eventually took over as race leader when isabel had to go into the pits to change her medium tyres out for a set of hard compounds.

she just managed to miss beating carlos by a few tenths, so she pulled out of the pitlane in p5. esteban was twenty-two seconds behind her and therefore not something she had to currently worry about.

lap fifty-seven. isabel comfortably sat behind carlos in p4 ever since she had left the pitlane. however, what she wasn't expecting was for smoke to start obstructing her vision. "harry," she pressed her radio. "keep me updated on carlos, please."

"copy that."

with carlos pulling off to the side, isabel had to wipe her visor to clear her vision as she moved up into p3. it was no doubt an engine problem, and she was hoping that it was just smoke and not anything worse as he waited to get out of the car.

one turn later, she managed to catch sight of one of the big screens as she drove past. carlos' car was lit up in flames and he was still in it. "i swear to god, if he is not out of that car, i'm turning around," isabel warned through her radio.

"stay in the car," harry said as he watched carlos through the screen. "he's out now and he's okay."

still, isabel couldn't get the mental image of her best friend being stuck inside of a burning car out of her mind. sure, she was used to seeing things like that by now, but it never was something that made her feel okay. she'd watched too many people lose their lives in a formula series car, and so not thinking the absolute worst was incredibly hard.

lap seventy-one. final lap. isabel couldn't get around max, so she finished the grand prix in p3. she wanted better obviously like any other driver would, but she was incredibly happy with a podium.

"that's a podium, belle! p3!"

"ah!" isabel responded happily. "thank you!"

"order is leclerc, verstappen, you, hamilton, russell, esteban, schumacher, norris, noah, magnussen."

charles won! she thought ecstatically as she slowed for a cool-down lap. arthur with a p4, charles with a win, and her in p3? it sounded almost too good to be true.

"it's a good day for you leclercs, huh?" harry said. "super proud of you, kid."

once she pulled into her designated p3 spot, isabel first went over to max since charles was cheering with his team and the prema boys.

"i told you that you wouldn't win," isabel said, her visor up so that she could meet his gaze. the was a sparkle in her eyes that meant trouble; pure tease and trying to get on his nerves.

"i still finished a few seconds before you," max shrugged off, trying to remain unbothered.

"eh," isabel shrugged as she slipped off her helmet and balaclava. "thought you could use the extra points after silverstone.

and that was something that got under his skin, and she noticed immediately. "you're a bitch," he rolled his eyes.

isabel only winked at him. "and you're a dick," she chuckled before walking over to go congratulate her brother by ferrari.

x

max and isabel are so die for you by the weeknd coded idc

updates might be a little strange for a while bc im coming up to my end of term exams and its slowly killing me

anyway free prac so far in canada has been so cursed pls 😭

any thoughts or anything? i hope you're all well !