Red Hot! (Sebastian Vettel)

26. After Dark

Everyone sat in the Aston Martin motorhome looking at each other, eyes widened as they tried to process what they had just witnessed. It wasn't often they saw Seb in a bad mood but describing his current mood as bad was a bit like describing the iceberg that sank the Titanic as an ice cube.

Libby had been sat drinking a cup of tea, chatting away to Georgia, when the front door had flung open with so much force that she was surprised it hadn't been  ripped off of its hinges. Seb had stormed through, which had surprised her as he was supposed to be in the drivers' briefing.

Antti got up from where he'd been sat and chased Seb up the stairs. Libby wondered what had happened to put him in that mood. Sure, he'd been in a foul mood after a bad quali session but he'd still had some hope of making up places in the sprint quali the following day.

Libby shook her head and resumed her conversation with Georgia. There wasn't a lot she could do, maybe Antti would be able to calm him down.

But upstairs Seb was raging and Antti was getting nowhere.

"I'm so pissed off Antti!" he yelled, pacing up and down his room.

"I gathered that," the Finn replied sarcastically. "Come on Sebastian, you need to try and calm down. This is doing you no good."

"I've just had fifteen years of listening to the same old shit. I'm sick of it. If everyone paid as much attention to their driving as they did their whining things would be a lot better!"

"That would be too easy."

"You're not kidding. I sat there waiting to talk about important things, things that need to be discussed and all I hear is Fernando still complaining about a penalty he got a couple of races ago. What does he think the FIA are going to do? Say sorry? We'll take the penalty away because you complain so fucking much!" He stopped on the spot and sighed. "I get why he's annoyed but there are far more important thing to be
discussed."

He began pacing up and down again. He ran a hand through his hair. He knew he was going to be in trouble for walking out of the drivers' briefing, but he didn't care. Let them punish him. He wasn't going to sit there listening to this shit. He'd left before he'd lost his head.

"Look boss, what's done is done. You need to calm down."

"I'm just so tired of it Antti. I try my best to try and make a difference but I feel like it's falling on deaf ears."

"It's natural to feel that way, and it may not feel like it at the moment but you do make a difference."

Seb sank down onto the sofa. "I just don't know any more. I've begun to wonder if this is what I really want."

"This?"

"Formula 1. There's so much more out there. Would I miss it? Would it miss me?"

"Seb, you love it. You know you would miss it. You're just angry. Look, why don't we get out of here? You've finished with the engineers, yeah?"

"Yeah."

"Go back to your motorhome. Have an early night. Come back refreshed tomorrow."  Seb sighed.  He knew Antti was right but he was feeling so frustrated.  He stood up again and grabbed his backpack.

"Yeah, I guess you're right."

"I know I am."

He had a quick look around the room to make sure he hadn't forgotten anything and then he headed back out. 

As he reached the bottom of the stairs he noticed that the room was virtually empty.  He hadn't noticed how many people had been there earlier to witness his tantrum.