Dances with Wolff - Max Verstappen

51.

We arrived at the Qatar Grand Prix. The quali was done and I was sitting with Lewis in the engineers room. He ended up on pole and Max was right behind him. Lewis was looking at the computer screen. "Do you see that?" He looked at me and pointed at the screen. "What am I looking at here?" He was rewatching Max's qualifying lap. "That a double waved yellow right?" I looked at it again, yes it was but I didn't want to get involved between them. I shrugged my shoulders. "It's hard to see Lewis." Obviously he didn't care if it was hard to see or not.
They were gonna protest it either way.

I decided not to tell Max about the protest from Mercedes. I didn't want to get involved.
I sat down with Charlotte. I was scrolling through my mails, I still didn't receive a response to any of my emails. I sighed.
Charlotte was also scrolling on her phone. "Oh my God have you seen it?" I looked at her confused. "Seen what?" She showed me her phone. I squeezed my eyes to look at it, it was an announcement from the FIA. I quickly scanned over it but Charlotte already explained it. "Max got a 5 place grid penalty. He will start in 7th place." She took her phone back, shaking her head. I kinda expected it as Mercedes protested it but I didn't expect a 5 place grid penalty.
"Damn, that's harsh.." that's all I could say. I wish I could go to him right now, he must be furious and I wanted to calm him down.

I saw Max walking out of his hospitality, a few cameras were following him. Every race he was surrounded by more and more cameras. I actually looked up to him, he was so young but he already handled the pressure so well. I knew he must be nervous but he would never show it. I saw right through him though. His voice cracks, his cold hands, when he was standing in his garage just staring ahead. It were all signs that he was nervous.
He looked at me while walking to his garage, he smiled quickly. I nodded smiling. He knew it was my way of wishing him good luck.

It was busy in the pitlane. Everyone was getting for the race. Still 3 races left in the season.
Red Bull's music was blasting through the pitlane again. I loved their attitude but unfortunately I had to walk in their neighbor's garage.

I was standing next to Toto, everyone probably knew who I was by now so I didn't really care anymore. The drivers were doing their formation lap, Lewis was on pole and Max was in 7th place. I was hoping he would end on the podium otherwise his chance to win the championship was pretty much gone.

———————

There were cheers all over the Mercedes garage. Lewis won again, luckily Max ended in P2. He did a great job.
Toto got up, pulling me into a hug, I hugged him back but the smile on my face wasn't genuinely at all.
"We will get them!" He smiled, patting my back and walked off to the engineers.
I certainly hoped they wouldn't get them.

———————

It was hard to keep our relationship a secret. We decided to stay one more night and fly to Jeddah tomorrow. I told Toto I would fly with Charlotte, I pretty much always used that excuse.

Max was laying in bed, looking at his phone. I crawled next to him and he put his arm around me. He kissed my head softly. "What are you doing?" I looked up at him smiling. He has been on his phone for a while. "I asked Google how to beat Lewis but even Google doesn't know." He laughed, locking his phone and putting it away. "Yes then I guess you're fucked" we both laughed.

I waited until he fell asleep. I actually wanted to make sure he would get some sleep. He looked so peacefully, I was happy I could give him at least one night of peace. The circus would start again tomorrow and I wanted to make sure he was ready for it.