Against all odds

Chapter 5

Looking up whilst taking my headphones off I recognized Mick Schumacher who I raced against in the last two years.

"Mick! Hi! How are you man?!" I asked excitedly.

"Oh man, I thought that I recognized you yesterday! Its nice to see you again! What are you doing in that racing suit?" he asked smiling at me.

"Kicking your asses! What do you think?"

"No for real what are you doing here?"

"You seriously didn't hear?" I asked surprised.

"What? I don't get it?" he looked at me with what seemed to be huge question marks in his eyes.

"Perez isn't here and Im here to replace him. It was all over the news and the paddock I can't believe you haven't heard yet." I explained.

"Wait! YOU'RE the Duman everyone is talking about? Holy shit! Congrats man!"

"Thanks! Who did you think it would be?" I laughed at him walking towards the garages next to him.

"I don't know. I just thought some new guy that wants to make a name for himself. to get a seat next year."

The chat between us lasted till we met Will Buxton who stopped us to do a quick interview.

"And here we have red bull reserve driver Alexandra Duman and Haas driver Mick Schumacher on their way to the garages. What do you think Alexandra where you will end up today?" he asked as the camera turned to us and the microphone found its way to my mouth.

"Well, I think it's best if we just, you know step on the throttle and see what it brings us. Seeing that the first time I drove the car was yesterday and it was great I hope I will end up somewhere in the points, but we'll see."

"Mick! You have experienced formula one races in the last few weeks. Do you have some advice for your new rival?

"We've been racing against each other for almost our whole lives, and I think she has the potential and talent to kick some asses today as she likes to put it. I would just say enjoy it and wave when you lap me." The German answered.

"Aww! Du bist ja heute nett zu mir! Was ist dir den in dem Kopf gekrochen?" (You are nice to me today! What got into your head?)

"Ach komm schon. Ich bin doch immer nett zu dir!" (Oh, come on. Im always nice to you!)

"Okay, now theyre speaking some other language. Good luck for the race today and thanks for the interview!" Will butted in.

"Thanks!" Mick and I said in unison and walked away laughing our butts off.

Parting ways with Mick I went into the Red Bull garage. Greeting Christian Horner who waved me towards his desk. The Team principal greeted me and said: "I know we haven't talked to each other yet, but I just wanted to thank you before you go out there and tell you that wherever you finish today is okay and it doesn't matter whether you get any points today or not, I am glad that we got ahold of you to drive the second car."

"I will do my best I promise." I smiled at him before he wished me good luck and I went to get a cap before I joined the other drivers for the driver's parade.

Getting onto the back of the truck I saw a few of the drivers were still missing so I just leaned onto the railing and looked around. After taking a good look at the crowd I turned around trying to find a familiar face, but I was unlucky till I saw someone looking at me from afar. I just smiled and waved at the tall man who promptly came up to me.

"Hello, I just saw you and you seem like a quiet one, so I came here instead of to the screaming lot over there." the blonde said and pointed to Charles, Pierre, Lando, and Daniel who were currently laughing their asses off, "I'm Kimi." he followed up. "Alex. Nice to meet you," I said and got silence in return.